DC -- Ben's Chili Bowl 50th anniversary block party -- Notes:

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• Description of Pictures: Ben's Celebrates Chili Power
  Big Stars and Just Plain Folks Mark Eatery's 50-Year Run on U Street
  
  By Keith L. Alexander
  Washington Post Staff Writer
  Thursday, August 21, 2008; B01
  
  It was 1996, and Nizam Ali had just gotten his law degree. Instead of heading to the courtroom, he had another idea: He wanted to help run the family business.
  
  Ali told his father, Ben, that if he couldn't double the revenue at Ben's Chili Bowl within a year, he'd fall back on that legal career. To meet his goal, he went well beyond the walls of the landmark restaurant on U Street NW. He became a promoter, visiting radio stations with free hot dogs, hamburgers and half-smokes -- all covered in Ben's trademark spicy chili. Radio personalities talked up the food, and the legend of the Chili Bowl grew.
  
  Sales surged during that year as Nizam and his older brother, Kamal, oversaw the restaurant's operations -- so much so that Ben and his wife, Virginia, decided to step back and leave the restaurant they had founded in the hands of their sons.
  
  This week, the District's most famous neighborhood diner turns 50. The family is hosting a free gala tonight at the Lincoln Theatre, with celebrities including Bill Cosby and Roberta Flack. That will be followed by a street festival tomorrow in front of the restaurant, at 1213 U St. NW, and a musical tribute Sunday down the street at the 9:30 club.
  
  When they aren't behind the counter flipping burgers or scooping chili, the Ali brothers are figuring out ways to capitalize on the Ben's brand. They launched a line of souvenir baseball caps, key chains and tote bags. The Alis also helped with a book on the place's history and set up a Web site, http://benschilibowl.com. And they struck a deal to sell Ben's fare at the Washington Nationals' new ballpark.
  
  In October, the brothers will take over the building next door and turn it into a full bar, so patrons can enjoy Ben's chili and dogs with a beer or mixed drink, big screen TVs and possi ...More...
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• Description of Subject Matter: It was the summer of 1958. Eisenhower was president. Federal troops were ordered into Little Rock, Arkansas to aid in the integration of public schools. Explorer I was launched, as was NASA. The first-ever Grammy Awards were given, and Ella Fitzgerald won two of them. That same year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. published his first book, Stride Toward Freedom. Griffith Stadium was home to the Washington Senators, and 30% of D.C.'s black population owned homes. Nelson Mandela wed Winnie. And, in 1958, newlyweds Ben and Virginia Ali gave birth to a new enterprise.
  
  Despite a national business failure rate of 55.9%, the Ali's used $5,000 to begin renovating a building at 1213 U Street. It had high-arched ceilings, character, and plenty of history. Built in 1910, it first housed a silent movie house called the Minnehaha Theater. Later, Harry Beckley, one of D.C.’s first Black police detectives, converted it into a pool hall. On Aug. 22, 1958, Ben’s Chili Bowl was born.
  
  It was an exciting time on the U Street corridor, which was then known as "Black Broadway." Top performers could be found playing sets in clubs along the corridor, as well as eating and just "hanging out" at Ben’s. It was not uncommon to see such luminaries as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, Bessie Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Nat King Cole, Redd Foxx, Dick Gregory, Martin Luther King Jr., or Bill Cosby at "The Bowl."
  
  In 1968, the assassination of Dr. King lit a fuse of rage. Riots ensued. Most of the city closed down; Ben’s remained open. Stokely Carmichael of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which was located across the street, obtained special police permission to allow Ben’s to stay open after curfew to provide food and shelter for activists, firefighters and public servants desperately trying to restore order.
  
  After the riots, the area was in shambles. Businesses shut down. But there was some glimmer of hope in the neighborhood as the concept of "Black is Beautif ...More...
• Various Signs: African American Heritage Trail, Washington DC:
  Ben's Chili Bowl/Minnehaha Theater:
  1213 U Street, NW
  Ben's Chili Bowl, founded in 1858 by Ben and Virginia Ali, is one of the oldest continuous businesses on U Street. It is also one of the few to survive both the riots that followed the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the years of disruptive Metro construction in the late 1980s. Thanks in part to the patronage of entertainer Bill Cosby, Ben's has become a national landmark. The restaurant occupies the former Minnehaha Theater, a 1910 movie house that was owned and operated form 1913 to 1920 by Sherman H. Dudley, once a leading vaudeville performer and entrepreneur.
• Wikipedia Description: Ben's Chili Bowl
  From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  
  Ben's Chili Bowl is a landmark restaurant in Washington, D.C., located at 1213 U Street, next to Lincoln Theatre, in the Shaw neighborhood of northwest D.C. It is known locally for its chili dogs, half-smokes, and milkshakes, and has been an integral part of the neighborhood's history since its founding in 1958. It was frequented by both police and protesters during the 1968 Washington, D.C. riots, and is regularly visited by celebrities such as Bill Cosby and Chris Tucker. The restaurant's founders have been inducted into the D.C. Hall of Fame.
  
  History:
  
  Ben's Chili Bowl was founded in 1958 by husband and wife team Ben and Virginia Ali. The building they chose was that of Washington's first silent movie house, the Minnehaha, which was established in 1911. Most of the furniture in the restaurant is original to the 1950s. At the time, Washington was officially segregated, and U Street was known as "Black Broadway." Many jazz greats of the day, such as Duke Ellington, Miles Davis, and Nat King Cole, would stop by the restaurant when they performed at U Street clubs.
  
  The U Street corridor was devastated by the 1968 riots that followed the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. During the riots black activist Stokely Carmichael, leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, asked Ben to keep his restaurant open and the Alis obtained permission to stay open past curfew. The restaurant fed both the police officers and firemen working to impose order on the neighborhood, as well as the black activists. The violence and arson reached such an extent that Ben wrote "Soul Brother" in soap on the front window in the hopes that it would stop the angry mobs. The destruction of so many businesses led to the flight of residents towards the suburbs and the economic decline of the neighborhood through the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. As the area became known for its drug addicts, Ben's Chili Bowl reduced its s ...More...
• Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
  8. BENS50_080822_079.JPG: Mayor Adrian Fenty reads a certificate of recognition to the restaurant.
  31. BENS50_080822_186.JPG: AARP, recognizing that Ben's Chili Bowl is 50 years old, gives it an honorary membership in AARP.
  53. BENS50_080822_314.JPG: Eleanor Holmes Norton.
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• 2008 photos: Equipment this year: I was using three cameras -- the Fuji S9000 and the Canon Rebel Xti from last year, and a new camera, the Fuji S100fs. The first two cameras had their pluses and minuses and I really didn't have a single camera that I thought I could use for just about everything. But I loved the S100fs and used it almost exclusively this year. Trips this year: (1) Civil War Preservation Trust annual conference in Springfield, Missouri , (2) a week in New York, (3) a week in San Diego for the Comic-Con, (4) a driving trip to St. Louis, and (5) a visit to dad and Dixie's in Asheville, North Carolina. Ego strokes: A picture I'd taken last year during a Friends of the Homeless event was published in USA Today with a photo credit and everything! Photos taken this year: 330,000. User page views this year: 22,700.
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