Once Upon a Coffee House

Guy with a crush on a folk singer buys the coffee house she sings at the tries to fit in with her friends.

You're ability to enjoy this film will depend upon one of two things: 1. Curiosity about the coffee house folk music culture of the late 1950's and early 1960's 2. The ability to sit through lots of mostly mediocre folk music.

This is a just okay look at the now gone coffee house culture. I don't ever really remember a film thats such a snap shot of what I've read the coffee house scene was like. As a time capsule the film is probably invaluable. The problem is that this is first and foremost a musical comedy and as that the film is just okay. The problem is the comedy is only mildly amusing and the songs are mediocre at best. I could take the okay comedy (I did laugh at some of it) but for me the music was a tough slog, this style folk music never was really my cup of coffee. It doesn't help that the artists performing seem very stiff and very aware of the camera, something I doubt they'd be in a packed coffee house. If you can't take the music the rest of the music is lost.

Worth a look if you're curious, preferably as a freebie. Think of it as an alternative to the Beach movies of Frankie and Annette.

It may not be the worst movie ever made but you'll never know for sure unless you actually see it. My cat has a brain the size of pea and pays no attention to the TV but he was enthralled by this movie. The acting is way over the top and the attempts at humor will make you cringe. Much of the film consists of mediocre folk music, but at least you don't have to pay attention since it does nothing to advance the paper-thin plot. The ridiculous depiction of an early 1960's beatnik coffeehouse is particularly entertaining. The fact that it's been renamed "Hootenanny A Go-Go" for video release lends a special something to the "so bad it's funny" charm of this micro-budget embarrassment.

This movie is also known for being the first film appearance of Joan Rivers. You know how it is when you get to see a big star before they become famous and you can just tell from their talent, energy and focus that they were something special? This isn't one of those occasions.

Once upon a Coffeehouse released as Hootenanny A-Go-Go on DVD is about a wealthy conservative playboy from New York who buys a rundown Miami Coffee seeking the affections of a singer there and trying to fit in with her beatnik friends along with their passion for bongos,tight clothes and of course caffeine.The original intention of the movie was to showcase the uninterrupted mostly folksinging which was probably at it's peak in the early to mid 60's featuring a very young Joan Rivers who was part of the Greenwich Village folksinging comedy trio of Jim,Jake and Joan,this was her first movie appearance which shortly afterward she went solo and of course became very famous.Also there were superb performances by the late Curt Boettcher and the Goldebriars ,The Free Wheelers and Oscar Brand.This movie is a must see with a very 60's nostalgic look.

I was the bass player for The New Coachmen. The story for this film might not rank with The Ten Commandeents, but for a 19 year old, it was great fun to be part of the process of creating an independent film. I did the bass intro for Vince Martin on "Drop a Pebble".

The story and music were written by Carl Yale who, along with his brother Roger Yale, managed "The Coffeehouse" on Douglas Road and "The Hootenanny Coffeehouse" out on Bird Road in Miami. They were British comedians who made their fortunes in the Paladium in London or so the story went.

The New Coachmen consisted of Jeff Van de Mark on 12 string guitar (the tallest of us), Dick Caron on banjo (now a math PhD at the University of Central Florida, and Georg Wolf our lead singer who was born in Germany and added an international flavor to our play lists. Dick is still actively teaching and Jeff is somewhere in NC the last time I contacted him. Georg was killed in an auto accident in Sept 1964 (I think) after which our group broke up.

I went on to do a three week gig with Oz Bach at a hotel coffeehouse called "The Lion's Den" somewhere in Hallendale. Later I did a season at The Riverview Restaurant in Deerfield Beach FL before joining the U.S. Air Force for a 22 1/2 year career. Oz also went into the USAF, but I have been unable to track his career as yet, but I am not giving up.

I have been in contact with Fred and Ellen Berney, the producers, as well as Dottie Holmberg of The Goldebriars. It should be noted that there were many groups and singles performing in this film and all had their own paths and successes. The process of working with the filming crew and director has had a long lasting affect on me in my professional endeavors. Fred and his brother Warren Berney, who co-produced the film, gave us a magnificent opportunity to be part of it. I still have a few photos I took behind the scenes, including a very good one of Karen Thorsel as she was thinking to herself between shots one afternoon.

Carl and Roger Yale had a saying about entertainers - there are only two places to be, on top where you can enjoy the freely available incomes, or on the bottom where you can get conveniently out - there is no middle ground. I took that advise to heed and have enjoyed the best of both worlds.

The other commenters who talked about a taste of the coffeehouse culture of the late 1950s to the mid 1960s were right on target. It was a special world which went away for a while, but I have to say, the genre is still going strong all over the country. And with the advent of the Internet and especially the Web 2.0 growth, many of those people are given credit through various web sites for their life contributions no matter what they were.

Many thanks to Fred and Warren Berney and their father for making the film possible.

I was born in 1964. The world into which I was born was a fascinating place - Space Age optimism abounded, the War on Poverty was bravely being waged on several fronts, and rock music still had to contend with jazz and folk for the hearts and minds of the young.

However, before I could get to know this world, it changed beyond recognition. By the early '70's, only shadows remained of this world (for example, the folk-singing family who played at guitar Masses at my church).

This lost world inhabits the deepest recesses of my consciousness, and manifests itself in my fascination with movies from that period. Films like "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies" (to provide one example) provide a window into a time when bouffants, beehives, flips and cat's-eye glasses ruled the streets.

So when I ran across this movie, titled "Hootenany a-Go-Go", in the two-dollar bin of local video store, I salivated over another chance to live, even vicariously, in this lost time for an hour and a half or so. And on that score, it didn't disappoint. Sure, the canned folk music was mostly awful, the forced attempts at humor are irritating, and even the featured act of Jim, Jake and Joan (featuring a very young Joan Rivers) isn't all that interesting. Also, the tenuous plot surrounding a racy painting holds about as much water as a ten nanoliter-capacity sieve.

But who cares? For another chance to live in 1964, I'll put up with shortcomings like these.

P.S. - Hooray for Oscar Brand....