Golden Oldie: ‘Geator With the Heater’ Has Had Our Ears For 50 Years
It was 50 years ago, the summer of 1972. Obviously much has changed over that time here in Sea Isle City. Hurricane Agnes struck the East Coast in mid-June that summer; gasoline shot all the way up to 55 cents a gallon, which was pretty expensive after paying $2,078 for a new Ford Pinto. Over at Creighton’s, the new Frisbee by Wham-O had arrived and was selling for just under a dollar, available in nine colors!
Meanwhile, across the Townsends Inlet Bridge, Phil and Tony Matalucci were busy constructing what would become popular night spots in the Princeton and Avalon hotels. The headliner at the Princeton on weekends for the summer of 1972 was none other than “The Geator with the Heater,” Jerry Blavat.
Amazing when you realize that today, a half-century later, Blavat is still packing them in five or six nights a week year-round throughout the
Delaware Valley. This summer, he spends Wednesday happy hour at Oar House Pub in Sea Isle City, and every Friday and Saturday you’ll find him at Memories in Margate, where he has hosted the original live radio dance party since 1972. (You can catch the show live on KOOL 98.3.)
Blavat had wrapped up his popular television program about a year earlier when Phil Matalucci, who often caught The Geator’s show at the Elbow Room (the previous name of Memories in Margate), approached him during a break at his appearance. The partners who were leasing the Elbow Room on Amherst Avenue at that time had apparently run into some financial difficulties. Although they made sure that Blavat was current, he worried about the reputation they were developing.
“I told them they needed to make things right, with everyone,” Blavat says. That didn’t happen. “That’s when Phil Matalucci approached me –
timing! He said, I want you to work for me. We’ve got great opportunities down in Cape May County.”
The Geator at a dance hop circa 1970.
It didn’t take much to convince Blavat about moving slightly south. Already renowned throughout the Delaware Valley with a growing national reputation, he knew Cape May County well. A fixture at dances in Ocean City and at the Starlight Ballroom in Wildwood, he spent several summers operating dances for Bob Horn, the creator of “American Bandstand,” at the Avalon Pier on the Avalon Boardwalk. Blavat also appeared with his band at the Old Ocean Drive right here in Sea Isle City.
As he tells it now, some 60 years later, Horn, who preceded Dick Clark as the “American Bandstand” host, would drop him off on what was then Third Avenue in Avalon on his way to Wildwood.
“I’d walk up the sandy, unpaved street to the Avalon Pier on the boardwalk,” he says. “The place was always packed. The Marine Ballroom was over top of the movie theater. After the show I’d pack up and walk back down the street and wait for Bob to pick me up.”
Then, Blavat and Horn would head back down south on Third Avenue into Stone Harbor. “Bob had a boat docked in Stone Harbor, with a cabin – right at the foot of the bridge coming over from Wildwood. That’s where I’d sleep.”
His accommodations were a bit more stable in the summer of 1972. “I stayed at the century-old Avalon Hotel,” he says. “Rooms with big windows facing the ocean but the only bathroom was at the end of a long hallway. I’d walk down there with my towel around me to take a shower. Phil would come chasing me saying, ‘Jerry! You can’t walk down the hall with just a towel on! You’ll get us in trouble.’
“Phil was always nervous,” he remembers with a laugh and a smile after all of these years.
“On Friday nights I’d play the lounge at the Avalon Hotel. We had lots of folks come over from Sea Isle City,” he pointed out. “Then, on Saturday, Phil had me appear at what then was the beginning of the Rock Room in the Princeton Hotel. We had great crowds at both places. We kept that schedule for the entire summer. I’d spin the hits that everyone wanted to dance to from 9 until last call around 1 – they had to be closed by 2.
“Phil was a great guy to work for,” Blavat says. “He watched everything very closely and he cared about making memorable experiences for people who visited his establishments. And Phil loved me.
“We continued weekends into September. That’s when the owners of the Elbow Room approached me. They wanted me to buy the club. We settled on a price and the deal was that I’d pay them cash up front and pay off the remainder as the seasons went along. I had it paid off after two summers – and, of course, I renamed the club Memories in Margate.”
Jerry and Sammy Davis Jr. pause during a televison show taping circa 1969.
He goes on to explain his choice for the club’s name: “At the time there weren’t a lot of venues booking the great older groups. But people loved to dance to live music, so we booked them. That’s where the name Memories came from. This was the place for memories!”
Before his current year-round Wednesday happy hour engagement at Oar House Pub, Blavat spent 21 years hosting Sunday afternoons at La Costa. “I love Sea Isle City – the people there are the best!” he says with a big smile.
And with so much having changed since the summer of 1972, one thing that has remained a constant is “The Geator with the Heater,” “The Boss with the Hot Sauce,” “The Man with the Plan” – however you know him. He’s still rockin’ – and as strong as ever.
Jerry Blavat in 2022 during an Oar House appearance.
A newspaper advertisement from May 1972.
Jerry Blavat circa 1972.