Soon after it opened, he added a small kitchen and lounge. Monte Ferris recalls the site was just a sandlot when his dad, in the bowling business, decided to build a big venue there with 20 lanes in 1959. “We used to joke that they had a cardiologist on call,” said Andy, “so after you ate at the Venus you could immediately get your bypass.” How dare they mess with the region’s classic banquet buffet? One year, Andy recalled, management tried changing the menu with healthier options, but people rebelled. Of course there were roast beef stations and “Venus Soup.” And chowder that more than once came in first at the Boston and Newport chowder-fests. I can still picture that buffet of big tubs filled with lobster Newburgh and signature Venus mac-and-cheese. I know what Andy means about the classic food. That all became part of Venus de Milo lore. Bruce Sundlun, at times kidded for owning a fancy Virginia horse farm, emerged under the stage lights with jodhpurs and a riding crop. Sheldon Whitehouse came onstage one year in a kilt – or was it a dress?Īfter an embarrassing episode on a boat involving too many cocktails, then-Congressman Patrick Kennedy took the Venus stage in a sailor-boy outfit.Īnd Gov. So the main ballroom there remained host to Rhode Island’s key names and observers, 1,200 pouring in to see a legendary Venus night, with “surprise” guests doing surprising things. But Andy said the Venus was so perfect, the staff so accommodating, the food so classic, they decided to stick. He meant Follies nights, but he said the Venus itself was part of that joy.Īfter the Rhode Island Convention Center opened, the Guild talked of moving the follies to the city. “I spent some of the happiest days of my life at the Venus.” I called Andy Smith, former Journal feature writer and Follies director, to ask what the Venus had meant to him. One of the signature Venus events was the Providence Newspaper Guild Follies – a parody of state hijinks during the past year.įor over four decades, it was one of the biggest “Rhode Island” nights anywhere until ending in 2018. Now 69, he began working there with his dad, Monsour Ferris, at age 11.Īside from all those life events, he saw plenty of celebs come through: Frank Sinatra, Danny Thomas, a young Van Morrison, Steve Tyler of Aerosmith, and a dozen more like that. Without that, there was little hope of recovering from the shutdown. December often gave him a third of his revenues.
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