Gate of Horn

About Gate of Horn

The Gate of Horn was a 100-seat folk music club, located in the basement of the Rice Hotel at 755 N. Dearborn St. at the corner of Chicago Avenue, on the near north side of Chicago, Illinois, in the 1950s and 1960s. It was opened by journalist Les Brown and Albert Grossman in 1956 and was where Odetta, Bob Gibson, Roger McGuinn and others made their name. Also appearing at the club were Theodore Bikel, Josh White (Sr. and Jr.), Oscar Brown, Jo Mapes, Brownie McGhee, Sonny Terry, Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the New Lost City Ramblers, Judy Collins, Hoyt Axton, Jim Croce and Bonnie Dobson. Bob Gibson was its frequent Master of Ceremonies (M. C.) and often introduced new talent at the Gate of Horn. He met a quiet, shy songstress with a great voice named Joan Baez at the Newport Folk Festival and persuaded her to perform at the Gate of Horn after the festival. Many of those who performed at the Gate of Horn were interviewed by Studs Terkel for his radio show "Studs Terkel's Wax Museum" which also helped build the folk music revival in Chicago. Bob Gibson was also one of the forces behind the influential Old Town School of Folk Music for several decades after the 1960s. more »