The Silent Era – JOE CINO AND HIS FRIENDS

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Despite such treasures as the photos on these pages, most of them gifts of BOB DAHDAH, the Cino’s most frequent director, this period of the Cino is the hardest to document. [More text below slideshow.]

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So many artists were in-and-out of the obscure little room on the quaint side-street. Few shows were advertised. Many hadn’t even a program. Most were unphotographed. Many people kept no souvenirs; there was no Off-Off Broadway then, and they regarded their shows at the Cino as just exercises, not genuine performances to commemorate or keep proof of. Joe told me that he started doing shows because Phoebe Mooney, an acting student, tired of performing only in class, asked if she could do her “class scenes” for his audience. That wasn’t true; shows had been done for at least three years before Phoebe did one, but her attitude may have been common, that the Cino was just an extension of study. Many people who did keep souvenirs died without heirs; whatever they had saved was discarded. Evictions and loss of property are also common. And there are numerous stories of a parent, a friend, a mate, a lover, a roommate, a caretaker just getting tired of boxes or albums and throwing them away. In addition, there are the people who tell me they’re definitely going to go look through those boxes and find me something…but die before they do.

JOE CINO in shorts with brothers Steve, Richard, and Gaspar, courtesy Richard and Steve Cino.

JOE CINO in his teens in Buffalo, courtesy Richard and Steve Cino.

JOE CINO at 19 in 1950 in Bobino at Henry Street Players, NYC, courtesy Richard and Steve Cino.

JOE CINO purportedly shot by Charles Lubier.

JJoe’s great friend and supporter CHARLES LUBIER may have posed for this pic the same day that he met teenaged Joe Cino. (This wonderful photo courtesy of Charles’ lover BILL MITCHELL). Read CHARLES’ memories of Joe’s life and death, last two entries on this PAGE.

BILL MITCHELL (above in the Cino, 1960) produced, directed, and/or played in a revue called What? and a memorable pirated The Boy Friend (both possibly 1963), and says it was he who convinced Joe Cino to do full stagings of plays, not just readings.

Aria da Capo and other 1960/1961 revivals were staged by GLENN DU BOSE, seen above in summer stock, 1961, with fellow early Cinoite KEITH CARSEY. (Show is Head and Shoulders, Kennebunkport Playhouse, libretto by Glenn’s life-partner James Arntz).

Young BOB DAHDAH

Young RICHARD SMITHIES

Young MARY BOYLAN

JOE DAVIES with Joe Cino, November, 1960.

Apparently same shoot as previous photo. Unidentified woman, JOE DAVIES, and BOB DAHDAH, seemingly in the Cino, November, 1960!

JOE DAVIES in the Cino dressing room.

JOE DAVIES as most of us remember him.

JOHNNY TORREY, Joe Cino’s lover, rigged the power lines so that the Cino got free phone and lights. The Cino’s theatrical lights were often “liberated” from dance troupes and operated brilliantly by…

…JOHN P. DODD, seen here in one of the big capes which CHARLES LOUBIER said JOHNNY TORREY made for everyone at the Cino.

RISSA’s poetry readings included some for the Cino.

Village Voice, March 11, 1959 This PHOTO may be of this reading.