In 1958, Valli’s was on the left side at street level
June 16, 1958, fell on a Monday, a quiet night in the Theatre District’s quiet summer season. Music venues might remain open, but musicians and listeners alike headed for the shore if they could manage it. In two weeks, George Wein would open his new Summer Storyville on Cape Cod. But on this Monday, city-bound jazz fans happily gathered in the Public Garden for Jazz Night at the Boston Arts Festival. Herb Pomeroy’s Orchestra was featured, tuning up for its debut at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 3. Even better, Gerry Mulligan was on hand as guest soloist.
Not far from the Jazz Night concert, all was quiet at Valli’s Italian Restaurant, closed as usual on this Monday. Valli’s, at 76 Warrenton Street, had opened the previous fall, offering guests live entertainment along with the Italian fare. Valli’s booked popular jazz trios, including those of Al Vega, Ernie West, and Artie Barsamian. Valli’s also presented “exotic” dancers, like Zehra, the Greek Goddess of Dance, and Sheba, Queen of the Nile. (This was at the height of the “baklava bistro” era in downtown Boston.)
At 8:30, while Pomeroy’s band entertained a crowd of about 15,000 in the Public Garden, all hell broke loose on Warrenton Street. “Oh, yeah,” Vega told me. “That place blew up.”
According to the Globe, a “high powered explosion” blew out the club, cracked the wall on the building next door, and knocked people out of their chairs at the Hotel LaSalle. Police and firefighters raced to the scene. Then an anonymous caller warned the police that another bomb was planted next door, at the Jazz Box nightclub. That was the building with the cracked wall. The police evacuated it, and the Hotel LaSalle at 68 Warrenton as well. They did not find a bomb, but anxious people milled around on Warrenton Street for hours, unwilling to go back inside.
Police quickly established the bomber used dynamite, placed behind the bar, and ignited by a 25-foot fuse. That was long enough to allow the bomber to get halfway to Brookline before the blast. “The front doors were blown out into Warrenton st. and the place left a wreck. A piano was reduced to splinters,” reported the Globe the next day. The police surmised that since the bomb detonated when the club was empty, it meant somebody was sending a message. The recipient probably got it. Valli’s did not reopen, and the crime remained unsolved. The police later tied the blast to a gangland protection racket.
Oh, and the music at the Arts Festival? Both John McLellan and Fr. Norman O’Connor gave the concert high marks, and deemed the Pomeroy band ready for Newport.