In Search of Frank Bowers... - General Tiki

C congawa Member Long Beach, CA Joined: Aug 11, 2008 Posts: 358	C congawa Posted posted on Tue, Nov 30, 2010 10:40 AM This is yet another thread that my haphazard Tiki Central browsing led me to miss the first time around! Great details on the Bowers paintings. The story I got a couple of years ago at the Buccaneer was that most of the Bowers bar paintings were done to square portions of his considerable bar tabs at said establishments (John-O said Square John... but better make it Square John Barleycorn). I didn't have the guts to go into the Foc'sle a few years ago when I was in the area taking "now" pictures (for my friend John Bengtson's book on Chaplin locations) from a 1914 Charlie Chaplin film (A BUSY DAY) that was shot on the same street (then Canal, now Avalon) during the dedication of LA Harbor's new wharf (Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt was among the honored guests). On that day (a Sunday afternoon), there was just enough street activity that vibed a little suspicious and unfriendly when I was taking pictures of the buildings up and down the street (people coming and going from the couple of pseudo flophouses, as well as the Foc'sle) that I didn't go in. By the way--and Sabu probably knows this well: if you go down just a little bit east to the Leeward Bay Marina, there's a place called the Chowder Barge which is quite literally as described--a barge serving chowder in the middle of a marina that's the yang to tony yacht marina yings such as Alamitos Bay in east Long Beach (where the Gilligan's Island opening was filmed), Marina del Rey, Newport Beach etc. This is a place where sketchy people live on sketchy boats, and the water is not something you'd want to swim in (I loved an article I read a while ago on the Chowder Barge that described observing one of the waitresses on her smoke break, running out of fluid in her lighter and loudly saying "it's fish food now" while chucking it into the bay). Since Terminal Island's Fish Harbor is no longer as it once was, this is one of the places that now mostly closely passes for "seedy waterfront dive" in the harbor. Caltiki Brent [ Edited by: congawa 2010-11-30 10:41 ] [ Edited by: congawa 2010-11-30 10:42 ]

This is yet another thread that my haphazard Tiki Central browsing led me to miss the first time around! Great details on the Bowers paintings. The story I got a couple of years ago at the Buccaneer was that most of the Bowers bar paintings were done to square portions of his considerable bar tabs at said establishments (John-O said Square John... but better make it Square John Barleycorn).

I didn't have the guts to go into the Foc'sle a few years ago when I was in the area taking "now" pictures (for my friend John Bengtson's book on Chaplin locations) from a 1914 Charlie Chaplin film (A BUSY DAY) that was shot on the same street (then Canal, now Avalon) during the dedication of LA Harbor's new wharf (Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt was among the honored guests). On that day (a Sunday afternoon), there was just enough street activity that vibed a little suspicious and unfriendly when I was taking pictures of the buildings up and down the street (people coming and going from the couple of pseudo flophouses, as well as the Foc'sle) that I didn't go in.

By the way--and Sabu probably knows this well: if you go down just a little bit east to the Leeward Bay Marina, there's a place called the Chowder Barge which is quite literally as described--a barge serving chowder in the middle of a marina that's the yang to tony yacht marina yings such as Alamitos Bay in east Long Beach (where the Gilligan's Island opening was filmed), Marina del Rey, Newport Beach etc. This is a place where sketchy people live on sketchy boats, and the water is not something you'd want to swim in (I loved an article I read a while ago on the Chowder Barge that described observing one of the waitresses on her smoke break, running out of fluid in her lighter and loudly saying "it's fish food now" while chucking it into the bay). Since Terminal Island's Fish Harbor is no longer as it once was, this is one of the places that now mostly closely passes for "seedy waterfront dive" in the harbor.

Caltiki Brent

[ Edited by: congawa 2010-11-30 10:41 ]

[ Edited by: congawa 2010-11-30 10:42 ]

Post #567090 by congawa on Tue, Nov 30, 2010 10:40 AM