Topic starter
07/04/2007 4:00 pm
The JULIUS C. WILKIE was a great attraction for the Winona riverfront. Makes you wonder what makes some folk tick. Captain Sandra Clark would have called the WILKIE cute, and I agree. Reminds me, too, of that "cute" steamboat facsimile that Kingfish Restaurants had on the Looieville waterfront. What happened to it? Destroyed, I'd guess.
Soon after that authentic-looking "steamboat" was built, and before the mess of concrete spaghetti obliterated the looks of the L'ville riverbank, the Kingfish, all lit up at night, looked like a real, live steamboat in the pool above the head of the Portland Canal. I forget who the pilot was, but one evening as we were northbound in the canal, and the Pilot seeing the brightly-lit restaurant for the first time, grabbed the radio and called and called the "boat" to make passing arrangements.
Nothing I could say could convince him that what he was seeing was actually the Kingfish Restaurant and not another steamboat at the head of the canal. Not until we got close enough to see that the KINGFISH was perched high-and-dry did he concede the truth, and even then he made no concession to his erroneous, but humorous misunderstanding.
08/04/2007 12:20 am
SAm,
The "Pic o'the Week" IS cute, but reminds me of a Capt. Wagner story: My first season on the DQ, as a deckhand, we were upbound coming into either Lock #6 or #8 shortly after dark on a nice warm summer's evening. I spied a great cloud of something. . . smoke? no, something else -- MAYFLIES! This Tennessee boy had never before seen a mayfly, and when we entered the lock, of course they were all over that big white steamboat. In the morning, the big job of the day, after making the landing in Winona, was to clean those bugs off the boat before they REALLY stank things up. I had told Capt. Wagner the day before that I had really wanted to go up and see that "old steamboat" in Winona. After about 3 hours of the drudgery of cleaning up those mayflies, Wagner happened on me on the Texas deck, slowing down in the cleaning process. "If you want to get up there to see that old steamboat, you'd better get those bugs cleaned up!" Oh, boy, I had thought my trip uptown was "out"! I did get up there and saw the boat.
After 32 years on the river, that first time dealing with mayflies is still the worst I have EVER seen them. They were literally about 8 to 10 inches thick on the deck. It took us about 3 days to get every last one of them. And who should have been on that trip, too, but the future Mrs. Reynolds, whom I met that morning for the first time?
08/04/2007 3:33 am
Mayflies . . .hmmm. . .this New Englander made a comment about snow upon my first encounter. I think I muttered something about not having to shovel the stuff any more now that I was on the boats and complaining that mayflies were worse than snow.
Same place on the river as you Bob only it was the AQ and it was not even May- it was July. I never saw them before that but they sure were a pain to clean up.
08/04/2007 4:56 am
Elaine, was that in July, '03? If so, I was probably a passenger on that AQ trip. I have the mayflies well documented on video. Hey, at least they don't bite!
08/04/2007 12:16 pm
July 01 on the AQ, July 02 on the MQ, and July 03 on the DQ. I wrote about them in my book project which I just put on hold. I agree that they don't bite but one no sooner gets rid of them and the love bugs start coming. Those are the beetle style that attach together like "lego's". I think those are called June bugs on the river or down south but not here in New England.
Personally, the only bugs I think are OK are fireflies at night. All other bugs and spiders are simply part of nature that I tolerate because of what I was taught as a child- but really can't stand them.
09/04/2007 2:12 am
Ah, the "Love Bugs". Down here we call 'em airline bugs because they always "fly united". As for lightening bugs, I still remember the night a friend of mine let two quart jars full of them loose in the Vogue Theatre in St. Matthews, a Louisville suburb. I could tell you a lot of stories about that theatre but I'd better not.
09/04/2007 12:09 pm
Sam: The Kingfish Restaurant on the Louisville riverfront fell to the wrecker's ball after the property was sold to Vencor, which planned to build a large office building on the site. Shortly thereafter, Vencor went bankrupt and the property was again sold. Today the new Muhammad Ali Museum Center occupies the site.
The Kingfish pseudo sidewheeler and the two "wharfboat" side additions to it (one contained the kitchen and the other the carry-out) opened in 1971 and was always a fun place to eat. The interior had fancy cabin arches and all sorts of steamboaty decor, including many old photoraphs, paintings and a large encased mural depicting the Louisville waterfront in steamboat days. An 7' pilotwheel adorned the pilothouse interior. The "boat" sat in a moat and you entered over a stage past a large anchor, etc. The restaurant was always a very popular eatery and often there was a long wait to get a table. At night the "riverboat" was ablaze in lights, looking like an excursion boat ready for a "Moonlight at 8:30".
Kingfish, which has been in business since 1948, had another restaurant (built in the 1960's) here on Bardstown Road that resembled a sidewheeler, but not quite as elaborate as the riverfront version. It, too, was recently sold and the "boat" wrecked for a new building and business. The Louisville waterfront Kingfish relocated to the Jeffersonville side of the river. Original plans called for it to be another steamboat style restaurant, but an overzealous city official put the quietus to the plans, saying it would be "gaudy" and the building needed to be more conservative. Much to the chagrin and terror of the then mayor of Jeffersonville and city council, Kingfish officials were not amused and nearly decided to return to the Kentucky side of the Ohio. But in the end they forged ahead with the new restaurant, which is nice but not at all steamboaty, somewhat like their location on upper River Road near the Louisville Water Company. A few boat paintings and photos decorate the interior, and the large mural from the old location is on display in the entrance. I had lunch there just yesterday with my parents and enjoyed the view, although things were quiet on the river and only one tow passed while we were there.
Long ago, Kingfish had a spokesman called "Captain Kingfish" who dressed in full, rather exaggerated captain's regalia and did the PR, television commercials, etc. He often was "on deck" at the Louisville waterfront restaurant to greet diners. They had a theme song, "Ramblin' Down the River", which I used to play on the Belle's calliope as we would round to in front of the Kingfish to head into our landing. I was told that "Captain Kingfish" always "went wild" with gleeful enthusiasm and danced a jig whenever I did that!
In the early 1970's, a neighbor took her little boy to eat lunch at Kingfish. After they left he was rather dejected and told his mother, "We went on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE and they didn't even blow the whistle!"
09/04/2007 1:16 pm
There was another Kingfish "steamboat" at Owensboro, visible from the river, and almost as fancy, if not AS fancy, as the one Keith describes. It, too, has been converted to something else, but if you know what you're looking at, you can definitely still make out the "steamboat".
09/04/2007 1:29 pm
I'd almost forgotten about the Owensboro Kingfish, which was a short lived venture. I had lunch there LONG ago and it was not as fancy as the Louisville waterfront "steamboat" which, apparently" was the queen of the "fleet"!
10/04/2007 4:16 pm
You might recall that we had a freaky infestation of mayflies HERE last summer at the time of Dave and Jonathan Tschiggfrie's presentation on the IDLEWILD/AVALON at the museum. Not only did those infernal bugs inhabit the BELLE (the pilothouse gingerbread was nearly BLACK with them!) but I spent quite a bit of time sweeping them off the porch and walls of the carriage house before the program. They are weird critters to be sure!