Johnny Rex's super-8 movies from Minneapolis' skid row circa 1960

Mt. Holly Mayor Mike Haeg says:

Visitor's to Minneapolis often remark about how much drinking goes on here.

They point out the few remaining buildings with any character downtown (There are really only one half a blocks worth left) and remark, "What happens in there?" but seldom wander inside.

And I'm glad.

Because, I tend to tipple in these places, to get away from the suits, the college kids, the convention goers, and the suburban sports fans. I enjoy cheap, stiff drinks, earnest conversation, and little or no distraction from either. It's a slice of heaven.

If I had a time machine, I would go back to skid row. Perhaps I'd see my grandpa brawling outside The Sourdough. He worked for the railroad. And from what I hear, he liked to get into his cups.

Enjoy this little slice of permanent happy hour. I hope it makes you as thirsty as it makes me.

Down on Skid Row by Johnny Rex

• [Anonymous]

  Yeah, not a fan of Mogulus either, (good for small group video and simultaneous chat, but that’s about it)but this is the only way to see it unless you happen to luck out and live in MPLS and get to see it the one time a year it runs on the local PBS affiliate.

  Hang on a couple day and try again, it’s worth the watch.

• [Anonymous]

  This documentary is probably awesome, but the host’s rather crappy streaming technology (mogulus?) makes it darn near unwatchable.

• [karl_jones]

  I’m too young (48) to remember skid row proper.

  But my memories of Block E are many and vivid.

  Block E was very skid-row-like, lots of bars (“Moby Dick’s — a Whale of a Drink!”), porn theaters, strip joints, art galleries, Scientology storefronts, record shops and what-not, a natural gathering place for drunks and punks and prostitutes and other colorful characters.

  The city tore it down in 1988, “clean up the riff-raff,” etc.

  For a while it was a parking lot, now it’s built up with — you guessed it — bars, theaters, restaurants, record shops and what-not. All very nice and clean, compared to the bad old days, although I suppose it will, in time, deteriorate into the next skid row.

• [bradknapp.com]

  Down & Out: The Life and Death of Minneapolis’s Skid Row by Joseph Hart is a pretty good book on the same topic/area

  http://www.amazon.com/Down-Out-Death-Minneapoliss-Minnesota/dp/0816640548?tag=particculturf-20

• [Ugly Canuck]

  The skid rows of the sixties were populated more often than not by men whom the wars had ruined, and who had found that alcohol abuse eased their pain.
  I think that so long as there are wars, you shall find, years after, some survivors and veterans in such places: wars can kill some men, many years after the fact, by a slow poisoning of the spirit. A poisoning, that leads them to use other poisons, as attempted antidotes.

• [karl_jones]

  The skid rows of the sixties were populated more often than not by men whom the wars had ruined, and who had found that alcohol abuse eased their pain. (#8)

  Too true.

  The Veterans Affairs website states:

  “About one-third of the adult homeless population have served their country in the Armed Services. Current population estimates suggest that about 154,000 veterans (male and female) are homeless on any given night and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year. Many other veterans are considered near homeless or at risk because of their poverty, lack of support from family and friends, and dismal living conditions in cheap hotels or in overcrowded or substandard housing. Right now, the number of homeless male and female Vietnam era veterans is greater than the number of service persons who died during that war …”

  Link

• [ScruffyNerfHerder]

  The video player linked to could use a bit of refinement but low living has always been an interest of mine. Check out moderndrunkardmagazine.com for some similar attitudes about life.

• [Anonymous]

  “Sorry, the maximum number of viewers for this channel has been reached”

  Maximum number right now? Today? Forever? I need some specificity, Mogulus.

• [CVR]

  I took a tour of Los Angeles’s skid row recently via Google Street View and Youtube. Amazing what you can do on the Internets.

  I guess its voyeuristic, but at least I’m not spending that time being a celebrity voyeur. And I learned the origins of the Tom Waits song “On the Nickel” (I never saw the movie it was taken from, and never thought to research the lyrics).

• [Gilbert Wham]

  Now I want Jet Set cocktail wine…

• [kimert]

  Down on Skid Row is now available at this link:

  http://veehd.com/video/4601534_Down-on-Skid-Row

  This is a great documentary. Johnny Rex (John Basich) was known as the King of Skid Row – a drunkards best friend. This is a must watch.