"In February 1966, we found ourselves booked in another club in Janesville, Wisconsin. One day, in the middle of our first week, the club went bankrupt. When we showed up for work that night, the doors were chained and padlocked."
...Excerpt from "Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells"
...Excerpt from "Me, the Mob, and the Music: One Helluva Ride with Tommy James & The Shondells"
Which club in Janesville went bankrupt?
The June 19, 2010 Janesville Gazette's "Asked & Answered" column by Catherine Idzerda asks if anybody knows what club James is referring to.
Hedberg Reference Librarians may have found the answer!
"Tedons A-Go-Go, the In Crowd Goes Where the Action Is", claims this ad found by searching the NewspaperArchive.org database, available under Research Tools on the library web site.
Tedons was located on Highway 51, between Janesville and Beloit.
The ad appeared on page 18 of The Janesville Daily Gazette on Friday, January 28, 1966.
Koachmen was the band's name *before* they were The Shondells, according to Tommy James' book.
We found no listing in the older city directories for Janesville and Beloit.
So...we checked our collection of older Janesville telephone books.
"Tedon's Night Club" is listed under 'Taverns' in the yellow pages of the 1965 Janesville Telephone directory:
A photograph of Tedon's has not been found.
Who was Gary Edwards, the other name in the Tedons ad?
Librarians found this article from the June 10, 1972 issue of Billboard Magazine on Googlebooks:
This article explains how Edwards was on the road for 12 years with the Koachmen and his act 'Gary Edwards & the Abominable Snowmen'. He produced records with Tommy James and Bob King. In 1972 Edwards lived in Niles, Michigan, home of the Koachmen before they became the Shondells.
If you have any information, let us know at 608-758-6581 or email us at referencedesk@hedbergpubliclibrary.org.
For more Janesville and Rock County history, visit our Local History page.
...and keep those questions coming! The more we learn from helping you, the more local history can be preserved for future generations!
posted by sb 8/15/2010
Great article! Thanks!
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