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"When he was young, David Marienthal wanted nothing to do with the family business, even though his family&#039;s business was as hip and successful as a family business could be.His father, George, and uncle, Oscar, ran three of the most renowned nightclubs in the country. For almost the entire third quarter of the 20th century, Mister Kelly&#039;s, the London House and the Happy Medium hosted a parade of a musical and comedic talent that would define American entertainment at the time and influence coming generations.&amp;quot;I&#039;d been going to the clubs since I was a young boy, getting all dressed up,&amp;quot; says Marienthal, who was born in 1951. &amp;quot;And there was some talk of us (he and younger brothers Philip and James) of one day getting in the business. But as a teenager I had long hair, torn jeans and …. Well, that just wasn&#039;t going to happen.&amp;quot;MOST READ ENTERTAINMENT NEWS THIS HOURSo off he went to college here and there, eventually getting a degree and working as an architect and builder in Sante Fe, N.M.; coming back here to open and run for 17 years the successful Blue Mesa restaurant on Halsted Street with brother Philip; studying and getting a teacher certificate at the School of the Art Institute; moving to California to teach and paint. In 2010 he was back, doing arts consulting and managing some real estate.But three years ago, he did, in a fashion, return to the family business, devoting his time, energy and resources to researching, interviewing and gathering materials about his father and uncle&#039;s clubs for what he hopes will be a book or a documentary or both. Or more.There is already a Facebook page (www.facebook.com/misterkellyschicago) and websites (www.happymediumventures.com and www.misterkellyschicago.com) and, says Marienthal, &amp;quot;we are posting two or three things a day on other social media sites (such as Twitter and Instagram) and the response has been not only gratifying but amazing, mostly from the 18-35 year old crowd.&amp;quot;This is how he puts a possible TV series — already with a script being pitched to producers — on his website:David Marienthal is collecting the history of the famed Chicago clubs once owned by his father and uncle, among them Mister Kelly&amp;#8217;s, the London House and the Happy Medium.&amp;quot;In the shark pit of Chicago&#039;s 1960s Rush Street, two Jewish brothers struggle to build their dream of a glamorous, romantic nightclub that spotlights controversial young talent … but first they&#039;ll have to dance with critics, comedians, Irish cops, the IRS, Robert Kennedy, the color barrier, and the mobsters who run the street. The brothers embrace a ragtag group of waiters, hat-check girls, bartenders, valets, musicians, chanteuses and playboys, who tell a fascinating story.&amp;quot;My father and uncle were larger than life,&amp;quot; he says.But when he was a young man, a high school kid in the late 1960s, he was more likely to be found at the Auditorium Theatre for a Doors concert or at the Kinetic Playground listening to The Who than sitting at a table at Kelly&#039;s watching Shelley Berman, Sarah Vaughan, Woody Allen, Mort Sahl and Muddy Waters.Brothers George and Oscar Marienthal grew up in Hyde Park. They opened their first place, the Fort Dearborn Grill, in 1946, little more than a diner in the London Guaranty Building on the southwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive. In time they upgraded the place (&amp;quot;Make a Date with a Steak Tonight&amp;quot; was their slogan), changed its name to the London House and began featuring jazz seven nights a week in 1951.Two years later they opened Mister Kelly&#039;s (named after its first manager, Pat Kelly, with that Mister added for a touch of class) at the southwest corner of Rush Street and Bellevue Place streets (where Gibson&#039;s Steakhouse now resides). It also served food, good food, but its main attraction was a stream of stars and not-yet-stars, many appearing in Chicago for the first time, such as Allen, Barbra Streisand and Bette Midler. It is a long and glittering list.Finally there was the Happy Medium, which opened in 1960 a few blocks south of Kelly&#039;s, on the northeast corner of Rush and Delaware Place. This was a theater and discotheque, featuring musical production such as the long-running &amp;quot;Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris&amp;quot; and hosting such performers as Helen Reddy and Oscar Brown Jr.There were a couple of other, less notable ventures, but in 1963 Oscar died — heart attack at age 50 — and George carried on until 1969, selling the clubs to an outfit called Arts &amp; Leisure. He worked for that firm, but when he died three years later the clubs were sold again and closed for keeps in 1975.David Marienthal has a lot of memories and lots of stories. He says it has been &amp;quot;thrilling to meet people who performed there but also people who worked at the clubs, people in the neighborhood. We&#039;ve got interviews with more than 50 people so far.&amp;quot;He is especially happy with one he recently conducted with Bob Newhart. &amp;quot;When he appeared at Mister Kelly&#039;s it was his first big job,&amp;quot; says Marienthal. &amp;quot;He had just recorded his first album and wasn&#039;t sure if he might have to go back to being an accountant or advertising copywriter.&amp;quot;He did not. He was a hit at Kelly&#039;s and that album, &amp;quot;The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,&amp;quot; was No. 1 on the Billboard pop album chart.You know most of the rest in Newhart&#039;s acclaimed career. He told Marienthal that after that first engagement, he kept coming back to play Kelly&#039;s, saying, &amp;quot;I played San Francisco, I played LA, all the big cities, but to be a hit at Mister Kelly&#039;s, that&#039;s what it&#039;s all about.&amp;quot;Comic Tom Dreesen remembers too, telling me: &amp;quot;I remember walking or driving by that place and dreaming of having my name up on the marquee. When we (he and Tim Reid as the &amp;quot;Tim and Tom&amp;quot; comedy act) finally made it there, we knew we had hit the big time. We played there several times, and after we split up I was always eager to be booked at Kelly&#039;s. Luckily I was.&amp;quot;Marienthal is awash in the history of the area and its clubs, and he continues to seek out people of the era willing to share the memories and stories.Judy Roberts, the revered pianist/singer, not only played Mister Kelly&#039;s and the Happy Medium but her trio was the house band at the London House for a time, playing five nights a week.&amp;quot;The Marienthal brothers had such great taste for talent, in music and comedy. ... They had an eye and an ear for finding the next big thing,&amp;quot; Roberts says from her winter home in Arizona (she&#039;ll be back here in June). &amp;quot;And they were also so wonderful, such highly moral men. I loved them.&amp;quot;Marienthal is aided in his ongoing efforts by an enthusiastic young archivist named Adam Carston, a 28-year-old Loyola University graduate with a degree in and passion for history. &amp;quot;This has been one of those things that was interesting to begin with,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;But as I keep digging, it just gets more and more interesting. It is an endless and wildly entertaining well.&amp;quot;And that, ladies and gentlemen, is music to David Marienthal&#039;s ears.rkogan@chicagotribune.comMORE FROM RICK KOGAN:The man, legend and Playmates, summed up in &#039;American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story&#039;Chicago father and son pack drama, emotion into 12-minute filmMalcolm London is a Chicago poet with places to go and a person to be"
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