“Complacency has killed The Pen”
Date: November 9, 1968
Credit: The Gazette newspaper
This article in The Gazette announces the closing of “The Pen”, a nickname given to The New Penelope.
Transcription (partial):
David Bist
Complacency has killed The Pen
The New Penelope is dead—killed by complacency. The coffeehouse that for four years gave the young people of Montreal a chance to see the top names in blues, folk and pop, closed last weekend. The immediate reason is financial—the debts kept piling up—but the long-term reason is much harder to cure.
The Pen was founded as a non-profit thing, and it certainly succeeded at that. What it didn’t succeed at was in-stilling pride in the young people—the pride of being a part of something and caring about it.
The Society for the Preservation of the New Penelope put on three benefits that were successful, but the club during that same period was full of empty seats.
Gary Eisenkraft, who created the Pen, has had three solid offers in the same line—two from New York and one from Toronto.
The only thing that can save the Pen now is a huge financial transfusion within the next six weeks. If that doesn’t happen Montreal will be without something important—and you can be sure the Pen will be appreciated then.