The Meadowbrook Cedar Grove

(Click here for a slide show of Meadowbrook Pictures)

The Cedar Grove Centennial Celebration (2008) was the inspiration for this website. It is a collection of pages created by Cedar Grove students about the people who made The Meadowbrook famous. Originally known as Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook it was the place for big bands to play their own particular kind of sweet, swing, dance or jazz music. Some of the famous big bands to play there were led by Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sammy Kaye, Glen Gray, Gene Krupa and Ralph Flanagan. Some famous singers who performed there early in their careers were Frank Sinatra, Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney. The first nationally broadcast live radio program took place here in 1936. Young people all over the country listened to big band music from Frank Dailey's Meadowbrook every day. Eventually the big band era gave way to the popularity of "be-bop." The Meadowbrook was closed except for summer theater and catered parties for a long period of time. Then in 1959 it reopened as one of the country's first dinner theaters.

(The Meadowbrook Dinner Theater, with seating around the stage.
Picture courtesy of Annie Hughes)

Up until about 1980 patrons could enjoy an evening of quality entertainment that included dinner, a show and dancing. Actors and actresses from Broadway such as, Van Johnson, Orson Bean, Dorothy Lamour, Eve Arden and Ann Sothern acted in plays like Gypsy, The Odd Couple, Guys and Dolls and Company. When the dinner theater closed the Meadowbrook was used for a short time as a disco and later on even had some Rock'n'Roll bands play there. It closed as an entertainment venue in 1987. The building is now owned by the Sts. Kiril and Metodij Macedonian Orthodox Church and serves as its social hall. In 2003 the hall was used for a benefit gala that was headlined by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. A Centennial Ball took place at this location on April 12, 2008 to celebrate Cedar Grove's 100th anniversary. So...the bands play on!