San Francisco Club Scenes ~ 1960s to 2000!

One other bar on the water front was named 'On the Levy' and the first time I went there on Easter Sunday their in-house entertainer, David Kelsey, was on the stage performing while people had brunch!  He always had a piano on one side and an organ on the other side of his stool.  He would play both of them at the same time, one hand on the organ and the other on the piano.  To celebrate Easter, his hat was a bird cage tied to his head with a real live canary flying around in it!  I knew I wasn't in Kansas any more!  He used to laugh as he was asked to entertain in Honolulu and he always dictated that they had to ship his 'organ' to Hawaii or no performance.  He must have been good to have a heavy organ or piano shipped to Hawaii for his performances.   Later he performed at the Polk Gulch on Polk Street of course.   The bar tender from the Trap in the Tenderloin eventually bought the bar so we always wondered where he got the money to buy such a big place - or rent at least. 

The Trap was downtown and was something.  So popular, we would go in on Friday night after work and there would be 100 so so patrons and we would  drink and dance until two a.m. and then hit the after hours clubs, have a meal, crash someplace and do it all over again on Saturday and Sunday - the bar opened at six a.m. and by nine a.m. it was almost one third full.  As my doctors said after I quit drinking so much, why was my liver and kidneys were still in great shape.  They said genetic for one thing.  The crowd always had a good laugh, I could be in the back of the bar carrying on and someone would come into the front of the bar and say, Chuck must be here as we can hear him over the crowd!  He should be on stage (I thought I was!)  One time they had a big party celebrating one of the bartenders who was from Hawaii.  A friend and I were invited and we stood around and acted like we needed something special for the party.  Well the bartender had relatives in Hawaii and he called them and had special leis made up and flown to San Francisco for us to wear at the party!  Wow!   My friend had the traditional floral leis but I had a special one composed of leaves that supposedly they had to go inland to find a special plant to get the leaves, he said it was a warrior type leis! 

We used to go to a bar on Sunday in Marin, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge.  A Russian woman owned that bar and she used to regale us with stories about Russia and her life as a 'princess', aren't they all.  She wore long dresses and tons of beaded necklaces, so Russian.

Another bar was the Two till Two bar.  It was owned by a woman in her 60s and she always dressed up and looked great.  We became friends and she had a Cadillac and we would drive around to visit other bars and I always had the best as I was a friend of hers!

In the 1960s and 1970s there were many bars and also great shops on Polk Street. At that point in time the area was a high toned place to live and shop.  Years later it became run down and was a mess.  It has come back to a degree and there are lots of clubs and restaurants on the street now.  There was a bar called the Web and we used to go in there.  The bartender was around 50 or so.  I of course was around 30 so 50 was getting older!   He was a mess, had a pimply face and a bad attitude behind the bar.  I heard he liked to dress up as a show girl in the Vegas lineup.   I thought, excuse me, this mess.  Well one night he came in all dressed up in very high heels and the most fantastic show girl outfit and a big blond wig, great makeup and looked like a million dollars.  I thought to myself, how can this be!  Live and learn they say!

Then of course, Sally Stanford and her bar in Sausalito.  During and after World War 11 she ran a house of ill repute in Pacific Heights.  It was visited by all the politicians and the diplomats working to create the UN which was founded in San Francisco.  So it pays to know the right people and she was always with the 'in' crowd.  She eventually closed her house in the City and moved to Sausalito where she opened a bar and we used to go there and have more fun.  But then she decided to run for Mayor of Sausalito even though she was a madam!  Well of course, she won and was mayor of Sausalito!  Only in the Bay Area.  The bartenders said she was a terror to work for.  She would sneak in after the bar would close and mark the bottles of booze.  Then the next night would calculate now many drinks were sold and if the level of the booze in the bottle matched the number of shots.  If she thought the bartender was miss pouring, he was fired.  No wonder she ended up having a lot of money!   

Another local, Wyneda, was a friend of Sally Stanford but they had a falling out after many years.  She had a bar restaurant in Sausalito on an old river boat but one night we went to have dinner there and the place was burned to the ground.  Of course since most of her places of business burned down, it wasn't too surprising!  So she next moved to Sonoma and the wine country.  There she had a bar restaurant in the woods with cabins to rent.  It was a wild place where you could get a full steak dinner for $10.  I mean a steak as big as a dinner plate! The Hells Angels used to come up on their motorcycles, whirling around the courtyard while everyone else sat there eating their steaks and having drinks galore!   But after a few years, we went there for dinner and guess what, burned to the ground!  She then moved to a house in the East Bay and we went there many years later.  Well she recognized us even after many years!  She then had to take us on a tour of the house, into her bedroom.  It was scary.  Clothes all over, lace, dust, boxes, and so on.  And on her shoulder was a Bantam Rooster.  She said she liked to have a c..k on her shoulder!  Well I have to admit, after the tour I found it hard to eat lunch there but it was popular and even the conservative East Bay people liked to come just for the atmosphere!  She passed away years ago but was one of the last of many personalities that are now missing from the local scene. 

I also knew another bar, the Blue Swallow on Polk Street owned by a woman named Linda.  She was great and we became good friends.  One day in 1968 she asked me if I wanted to go to Hawaii!  Well of course, I said "Yes!"  So off to Honolulu for two weeks of fun.  It was rather strange and now I cannot remember why she asked me to go along as she had her young piano player go with us.  I did have my own room so not sure what was up but I did have two weeks in Hawaii, one week in Honolulu and one on Maui!   The beach in the day time and dinner cruises in the evening watching the sun set over the mountains!  I haven't seen her in over 30 years now but was told she just sold another bar on Mission Street named the Phone Booth.  She must be over 80 now but still looks good.  Her secret she told me over 30 years ago, "I use Preparation H on my face, around my eyes, it tightens up everything!"  Well someone told me the other day, Linda is still using Preparation H to this day!  The only problem is if it gets in your eyes, lots of tears!  But then, anything to look young!

We also went to an after hours cabaret in the tenderloin named the Glided Cage, downtown San Francisco, where all the actors from the Broadway plays would stop by for a drink and be entertained by the locals on stage between two and six AM.  This way one never had to stop having fun!  We saw many famous people there.  Charles Pierce, the famous impersonator worked there doing his rendition of Bette Davis!  He eventually even had a show in Las Vegas!  

Then another impersonator was so funny, looked like an old English man in a sports coat when at a bar but, put a dress on him and high heels and he looked like a million.  They put a swing on the stage and he would dress up like Scarlet O'Hara in Gone With the Wind and he would sing and swing out over the crowd to cat calls and jeers.  He/she and the crowd loved it!  I heard later, he had one of the first breast implants, big ones!  Talk about scary.   This took place in the 181 Club downtown and I, of course, coming from the mid-west, was slightly naive!  The first time friends took me there, the waitress asked if I wanted a tea or a coffee.  I very loudly announced I wanted a Cutty Sark!  I was told to shut up and order the correct way!  Tea was vodka and coffee was whiskey!  So goes life in the fast lane!

I have many other stories about the 60s and 70s and into the 80s and will add more of them as I remember the 'good' old days!