Poway resident Candace George Conradi spent 14 years piecing together the story of her grandmother's music venue, and she's bringing it home with a book launch on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Conradi's new book, "Thirteen Twenty-Four Sherman," chronicles the Rathskeller Inn, a 1960s-era pizza parlor and live music hall tucked inside a residential neighborhood in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. Her grandmother, Ann McIntyre, opened the venue in 1961 at age 61, alongside Conradi's mother and aunt, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Rathskeller grew fast. What started as a 1,000-square-foot beer garden with a jukebox became a 7,000-square-foot live music hall that drew weekend lines down the block, according to the Coeur d'Alene Press. Bands like The Cascades, Paul Revere & the Raiders, Liverpool Five and The Sandpipers all played there.
"There was nothing like it within hundreds of miles of Coeur d'Alene," Conradi told the Union-Tribune. "The town had 14,000 residents at the time."
Running the business was no small feat. In the 1960s, women couldn't write checks or enter into contracts without a man's signature, Conradi told the Union-Tribune. Neighbors on the quiet residential streets petitioned to shut the Rathskeller down, objecting to rock bands playing until 1 a.m.
The venue survived. McIntyre befriended the local Sheriff's Department, and the business generated jobs and tax revenue, Conradi said. In 1970, the three women expanded by opening a second Rathskeller near the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Moscow, Idaho. The original Rathskeller closed in 1972.
Conradi told the Coeur d'Alene Press she grew up amid stigma surrounding nightlife and women-owned businesses. Her teachers didn't respect the women running the inn, she said. She married Dave Wilson, drummer for The Cascades, in 1970 and left Coeur d'Alene.
Decades later, Conradi's son, actor David Wilson Barnes, encouraged her to tell the family's story. She dedicated the book to Barnes, who died last year, according to the Coeur d'Alene Press.
The title refers not to the inn's exact address but to where Conradi's family lived, across the alley from the Rathskeller on Sherman Avenue. Conradi told the Union-Tribune she spent 14 years sifting through Idaho library and museum records, county documents and local newspapers to assemble the book.
A boutique printer produced a limited run of 150 copies for the book's premiere in Coeur d'Alene in September. Conradi held four book signings in Idaho from Sept. 18 through 27 and placed copies in two bookstores, several museums and a library.
Conradi plans an invitation-only book launch on Saturday, Oct. 24, at a private home in Poway. Premier copies will cost $30 at the event. Paperback editions are available on Amazon and at candacegeorgeconradi.com for $19.95.
