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johnny dollar's vault

retro pop culture and various local observations and ramblings.

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Location: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
johnny dollar's vault resides in the basement of stately dollar maisonTM, amongst the wine cellar, tiki bar, and finicky electrical panel. from time to time i will unearth various artifacts from either there or from the random crevices of my mind.

please visit the new and improved pig cookin' post!

NOTE: this blog will NOT deal with any recent pop culture (i.e. since about 1990) or topical issues, so if you're looking for discussion about britney baracko jacko flacco, look elsewhere, lol

Friday, March 30, 2007

the beachcomber bar, at liberty and fayette, circa 1945

my southern brutha swanky asked me last week if i knew anything about this bar that operated in b-more in the 1940's. check out this swell menu that was on ebay ~ the graphics and the drink selections are particularly great.


based on the location it was probably a nice little stumble for the sailors that it looked like it was marketing to.


the illustrated drinks kill me: virgin's delight... bali buster... siesta... the panama hattie... sailor's delight... cannibal cocktail...


i interwebbed around but found nothing about it. did any of all ya'lls' grandpas drink there? maybe he met your grandma there. i found the above photo [probably not at the beachcomber, but of the era and in this city] at the maryland historical society online photos. hey sailor!
addendum:
double dogged contributed this:
"Baltimore City Directories. It appears in the 1942 directory as being located on 110 N. Liberty St. Home of the Zombie, Native Drinks, Rhumba Music, Bigger Stars, 3 shows 7 and 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. No Cover Charge Frank Hollander Mgr. " very cool!

12 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yous gots to love a menu with all topless, and one bottomless female on it!

11:30 AM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

indeed.

there's a block of establishments here that are dedicated to that condition :D

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=the%20block%20baltimore&w=all

12:20 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Man that is the best blog posting I've seen all week. Baltimore needs a tiki bar! That menu is awesome.

12:26 PM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

if you like that, you'll love the info we have about the hawaiian room that was in the emerson hotel in baltimore until the 70's. i'll try and post that soon. and yeah, we do need one today ~ if i had the $$$ i'd open one myself.

12:33 PM  
Blogger tfg said...

You should open a Tiki bar here.

1:27 PM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

i'm gonna check out the site today.

8:30 AM  
Blogger Malnurtured Snay said...

Alright, sex on the menus! WOOHOO!

12:10 AM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

well, if your audience is sailors... :D

3:21 AM  
Blogger Summer said...

Interesting that it says "if you appear to be under 21..." about serving age. I thought the 21 thing came much later than this time period. In Texas, it was 18 until the mid-80s. What's the history of drinking age in Maryland?

11:47 AM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

yeah summer, i saw that too ~ very interesting, i am curious if that has to do with the enlistment age of sailors since it seems this was a sailorcentric bar.

maybe any of our more senior readers may comment... i'll ask my father -in-law on sunday as well - he grew up in baltimore and would keep track of such things.

9:30 AM  
Blogger Double Dogged said...

Better then never, I looked up the Beachcomber up in one of my Baltimore City Directories. I appears in the 1942 directory as being located on 110 N. Liberty St. Home of the Zombie, Native Drinks, Rhumba Music, Bigger Stars, 3 shows 7 and 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. No Cover Charge Frank Hollander Mgr.

It did not appear in the 1940 Directory or in the 1956 Directory that I have. Nice looking menu!

9:18 PM  
Blogger johnny dollar said...

thanks double dogged! very cool that you have that resource!

summer: apparently the drinking age in maryland has ALWAYS been 21. who knew!

9:14 AM  

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