![]() ![]() Hugos incorporated JTAMS, their production company, and, in 2011, managed to obtain a long-term lease from the Mauch Chunk Historical Society, the building’s owner, to host regular concerts at the venue.Īs the opera house concerts expanded, Hugos continued to travel from NYC on weekends while managing the business. A year later, over 200 people attended the same Simon & Garfunkel show, as the venue’s reputation started to grow. They quickly organized a concert, a Simon & Garfunkel tribute featuring Bethlehem singer-songwriters, AJ Swearingen and Jonathan Beedle. ![]() “Wouldn’t it be great if we could bring regular music back into the opera house?” they wondered. Late at night, after one of his gallery exhibition receptions, Dan and his neighbor, Vince, whom he hired to play music during the event, sat on the front house steps and pondered why the building was so neglected. Back then, Jim Thorpe’s downtown night life scene was pretty quiet.” ![]() There wasn’t much happening there, except the occasional play. I watched PVC downspouts dumping water back onto the sides of the building when it rained. “I spent hours staring at the neglected opera house with its leaky roof and peeling paint. I opened a photography gallery, Dakota Ridge, in the bottom floor of the house, with big windows overlooking the opera house.” I was a database programmer during the week in New York, but was coming here on the weekends to ride my bike and do my photography. In 2002, I bought a house on opera house square. Hugos continued, “I discovered Jim Thorpe in 1998 on a weekend trip and bought a house on Race Street. It’s been bittersweet, for sure,” he said.Īnd what a great run it’s been. “I’ve recently been diagnosed with a neurological disease, so maintaining my health has been the number one priority for me. After 19 years, he sold his shares of the company to DeGiosio, and has retired. Today, the revitalized Mauch Chunk Opera House has grown into one of the region’s top music venues and one of Jim Thorpe’s biggest attractions, drawing hundreds of fans into town every weekend.īut for Dan Hugos, the founder of JTAMS with business partner Vincent DeGiosio, the company that produces shows at the opera house, it’s the final curtain. I t started as a wistful late-night idea nearly 20 years ago while sitting on a front porch stoop. ![]()
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