Silver Lining of Bill's Gay 90s Renovation
Loath as we are to admit it, there is a slight silver lining to the old Bill's Gay 90s space's recent transformation into the fancier Bill's Food & Drink. As you may recall, when the former owner's lease was not renewed earlier this year, she took all the historical artifacts inside the bar with her—posters, pictures, even the joint's two old bars. All gone. The new owners had no choice but to recreate an oldish-looking interior. But, in restoring the anteroom outside the bar, they uncovered an old mural that had been hidden for decades. Apparently the mural was revealed when the original owners were taking down the pictures that hung there; not even they knew it was there. It's a collection of whimsical ads for liquor brands, painted as if they were posted on a brick wall somewhere. Based on the brands featured—Ballantines, Ambassadors—it probably dates from the 1930s and 1940s, when those whiskeys were more popular. The slogans ("A Sure Hangover") poke fun at the liquors.
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4 comments:
Hi Brooks,
I guess there IS a glimmer of silver lining in the black cloud that attended the demise of beloved Bill's. Looking at your photo and trying to get a line on when the signs might have been painted, the name Dan Topping on the sign for Ambassador Liqueur stuck out....as the Toppings were long associated with the Yankees. The first Dan Topping was born in 1912 and owned a pro football team in Brooklyn before buying into the Yankees in the mid-40's. His son, also Dan Topping, was later a Yankees prez, IIRC. The other name, Larry Lloyd, wasn't familiar to me but I felt they must somehow be linked. I eventually found a page from a 1938 edition of the Brooklyn Eagle containing a story about Dan Topping (the one born in 1912) winning a golf tournament on Long Island with a display of unusually accurate putting. The article doesn't quote Topping, but instead contains comments by his "friend, partner, and companion" Larry Lloyd to the effect that Topping's weakness had always been putting but that he somehow turned it all around in this tournament. Dan Topping would have been 26 years old then, so I'd estimate that the mural was probably painted near that time as the article gives the impression that DT was a sort of "man about town" who might have thought it a hoot to have his name on an ad in Bill's. As for the subject matter, Ambassador Liqueur....Ambassador was a brand of scotch, and is said to have produced a scotch liqueur intended for the New York market. I'm not sure when the liqueur was first marketed in NYC but that could also help date the murals.
Well, nice to know the mural is genuine, anyway! Have you heard any news of Barbara opening up in a new location?
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