Music Making History: Moonshiner's Dance Pt. 1

As guests of the Victoria Cafe celebrated the opening of this new cafe, they were unaware of the history that would unfold at the Cafe in just a few short years, and how that history would one day help save the building from imminent destruction.

Originally built as one of three silent movie theaters on University Avenue, the Victoria Theater was part of the boom of motion picture theaters built around the cities in the early 1900’s. When the Victoria Theater opened in 1915, St. Paul already had about thirty motion picture theaters. The Victoria was only in operation for five years before shutting its doors in 1921.

After the theater closed, 825 University Ave. was remodeled and renovated “at a large cost.” When the doors reopened as the Victoria Cafe in 1924, it was under the personal management of Moe Thompson and Harry Mendelsohn. Thompson was already well known to Twin Cities theater and cafe patrons because of his “delightful singing and orchestra direction.”

In May 1927, an ad appeared featuring a new name at the Victoria Cafe. The music was by Wally Erickson’s Orchestra and Cloutier’s Victorians.

Similarly to Thompson, Frank Cloutier, the director of Cloutier’s Victorians, had done stints as the musical entertainment at various clubs around town.

1927 was also the year that Gennett Records, a record label founded in Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, went on the road to record with their new Electrobeam recording apparatus. Temporary studios and portable sound equipment were set-up in Chicago, Birmingham, and St. Paul. 

Gennett recorded two sessions at the New Lowry Hotel, in downtown St. Paul, and secured a “number of ‘hits’ by new and locally famous talent.” During the fall session, one of these locally famous talents was none other than Frank Cloutier and the Victoria Cafe Orchestra. 

Moonshiner’s got little praise at the time of its release. It does not appear to make any of the “Latest Record Bulletins” from Gennett’s Electrobeam Records, while other tracks from the sessions, like those recorded by the New Hotel Lowry Ensemble, are mentioned.

While Cloutier and his Moonshiner’s Dance didn’t seem to make headlines, the same could not be said for the Victoria Cafe itself. 

Since its opening, the Cafe had struggled with prohibition raids. Just a week after opening, the Victoria made headlines after former middleweight champion Mike O’Dowd was jailed for starting a fight with Prohibition agents, striking one of them with a bottle.

This wouldn’t be the last time the Victoria made headlines for a Prohibition raid fight.

In early 1928, the Victoria Cafe, along with a handful of other clubs was forced to close for 6-months after permanent injunctions were granted for selling “set-ups.” A “set-up” was the practice of serving a soft drink, like ginger ale, over ice to customers. Customers would then slip their own alcoholic ingredients into these drinks, which of course, was against the law.

The Victoria Cafe reopened in August of 1928.

Just four months after reopening, and four years after their first New Year’s Eve raid, the Victoria Cafe once again made headlines for a Prohibition raid, turned violent. 

After the headlines died down, so too did the Victoria Cafe. It disappeared from phonebook listings later in the year and does not seem to reappear in any media until 1934. The location where bands had played, girls had danced, and prominent people like Walter J. Hill (son of James J. Hill) had patronized was listed “For Sale at a Bargain” in October of 1936.

Shortly after the Victoria Cafe closed, 825 University Ave. found a new life as the Edison Lighting Studio, "the store of a thousand lights", and would remain a store for the next 50 years.

In 1952, Harry Smith and Folkways Records, released the Anthology of American Folk Music. The Anthology “is one of the most influential releases in the history of recorded sound.” The tracks, set across six-LP’s, were recorded between 1927 and 1932 and told the stories of distinct regional musical traditions. 

Moonshiner's inclusion in the anthology is an anomaly in more ways than one. Not only is it not rooted in the American South, it is the only cut to feature jazz or immigrant ethnic musical forms. This “jazz-inflected polka instrumental with vocal interjections” may seem out of place in an Anthology full of folk music with heavy use of guitar, banjos, and fiddles. However, Moonshiner’s tells the story of St. Paul, it’s political sentiments, and allows a peek into the cultural ethos of a community, which firmly plants it in the folk music category.

Listening to Track 41, Cloutier compiled six tunes to fill the two and half minutes on side one. Many of these tunes would have been considered “oldies” to the crowds at the Victoria and highlighted the age-old tension between older generations and and the younger ones. Beyond the medley, Moonshiner’s also features spoken words and conversations between Cloutier and his supposed audience. 

These conversations introduce another commentary, the urban/rural divide that existed between St. Paul and those outside of the city. The Moonshiner’s recording session took place shortly after the close of the 1927 State Fair, an event that drew crowds from all over the state. This medley could have been the set Cloutier and his Orchestra had been performing for weeks prior. 

Beyond the contrast of old tunes for a young audience and the divide between rural and urban settings, the name “Moonshiner’s Dance” itself speaks to the culture of St. Paul in the height of the Prohibition era. In 1926, St. Paul’s Chief of Police estimated that 75 percent of St. Paul households were brewing beer or winemaking. Despite the trouble that would surround the Victoria Cafe around alcohol, St. Paul itself was known for its lax enforcement of Prohibition law. It was a politically “wet” city and many seemed to wear this as a badge of honor.

Understanding the many nuances and stories woven into Moonshiner’s highlights why this track is an important piece of Minnesota history. “It commemorates a typical night at Frogtown’s Victoria Cafe, summoning its ambiance, entertainment, clientele, and locale.”

In 1997,  the Smithsonian re-released The Anthology of American Folk Music as a six-CD collector’s boxed set.  Included in this release as a 96-page book featuring both Smith’s original liner notes, as well as essays and thoughts by other noted writers, musicians, and scholars. Guitarist and folk historian, John Fahey, wrote that Moonshiner’s “is the best piece on the Anthology. [...] Feel like I’m being tugged into the past.”

In 1982, the Minnesota Historical Society’s State Preservation Office conducted a statewide inventory of historic structures. This was the first time the Victoria Theater was evaluated for any historical significance and was deemed an “additional site of major significance” due to its architectural detail. 

The 1980s also saw the close of the Edison Lighting Studio. Its tenancy of around fifty years made the studio the longest running tenant of 825 University Ave. This closure would also mark the gradual decline of the property, as it would sit empty for years to come.

• The Victoria Theater operated only a few years as a theater, and consequently is deemed not important in the history of the theater industry in St. Paul.  The theater is recommended as not significant under Criterion A.
• The Victoria Theater is not known to be associated with any persons important in history and is recommended not significant under Criterion B. 
• The theater is not an outstanding example of a theater building, does not have high artistic merit, and is not a significant example of the work of Franklin Ellerbe.  It is recommended as not significant under Criterion C.
• The property has not yielded, nor is it likely to yield, information important in prehistory or history, and therefore is recommended as not significant under Criterion D.

A few years later, the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Committee requested further review and analysis of the property, still under the CCLRT Project.  This report revisited the previous findings  and confirmed the original recommendation of not recommended for historic preservation.

• We concur with the previous assessment of the Victoria Theater, despite the interesting history of the building and its exterior architectural character. We do not recommend it as eligible for National Register listing.

After these reports, the situation seemed dire for the former Victoria Theater and Cafe. In 2009, the site was facing possible demolition to make room for a new parking lot along University to accommodate for the loss of spaces created by the light rail. 

In 2009, the  Frogtown District Council submitted one final attempt to the Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Committee  in an attempt to gain Historic Preservation status that would help save the building. After being denied twice, why would this time be any different? 

Enter Moonshiners Dance Part One. 

“The Victoria Theater is significant due to its unique and prominent role in The Anthology of American Folk Music,” says the significance statement written by researcher and author, Kurt Gegenhuber. The Victoria Theater “vividly exemplifies consequential developments in the heritage and the culture of Saint Paul. These associations were unrecognized during all previous evaluations of the building.”

This additional piece of history, tied to a much larger cultural history, along with an outpouring of community support and backing led to the unanimous decision in 2011 by the Saint Paul Historic Preservation Committee to designate 825 University Avenue as a historic preservation site. 

In August of 2024, nearly 15 years after the initial movement to save the Victoria Theater started on Facebook and almost 100 years after the Victoria Cafe opened, the doors were once again reopened to the public.  This time with the name 825 Arts.  

If Moonshiners Dance was a reflection of the culture and community at the time, the renaming of 825 Arts follows in its footsteps. While the building was located next to Victoria Street, the word has a history that the new initiative did not want attached to the building. The word “theater” also seemed to be problematic as artists who were not thespians did not relate to the space. The word was “putting up a barrier for people to see themselves in the building.” A word that everyone related to though, was art. 

Today 825 Art’s hosts a variety of community events, festivals, children and family programming, and more. It may be a far cry from show girls and Prohibition set-ups, but the joy, art, and entertainment that the Victoria Cafe provided 100 years ago, is still ever present in the new 825 Arts space.