by Elka Worner
Critter’s, the Mermaid, the Poop Deck and the Lighthouse. If you lived in Hermosa Beach during the 1960s and 1970s, you probably patronized these iconic local bars.
“Cheers, Hermosa,” a new exhibit unveiled on Sunday, July 14, at the Hermosa Beach Museum celebrates these historic watering holes and the lasting impression they left on their patrons. The display features mementos and photos from some of the most popular places in town where locals went to grab a drink and socialize.
“Bars used to be gathering places for people, where they’d get together, and see friends,” Museum Director and Curator Jamie Erickson said. “That’s shifted a little bit now with the digital age, but that doesn’t change the history that was ingrained into the walls of these places.”
Musician Jonathan Coleman, who attended the opening, said his favorite local bar was the Lighthouse because of the incredible musicians who performed there.
“It’s steeped in jazz tradition,” he said. “They still have jazz on Monday. Other nights are more reggae and rock, but it’s still seminal for the whole music scene.”
Longtime Hermosa Beach resident Rick Koenig said he often frequented the Mermaid on The Strand. The exhibit featured a menu and photo of the bar and restaurant.
“It was punks, junkies and hunchbacks, just everyone was there, which is my way of saying it was as eclectic an establishment as you could possibly get,” Koenig said. “As long as you tried to behave yourself, you were okay.”
Koenig remembers when a Girl Scout made her way into the bar and approached the owner, Quentin “Boots” Thelen, who was sitting on his bar stool by the entrance so he could keep an eye on the cash register. “When she asked him sweetly, “Hey Mister, would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies? Boots responded, ‘Either buy a cocktail or get out.’”
Hermosa Beach resident Carol Tanner, who created the city logo with her artist friend Joanne Purpus, said she would go to the Mermaid after meetings of the city’s Improvement Commission, which founded Fiesta Hermosa.
“We’d sit in a booth in the back and drink,” she said.
Former Mayor Jim Rosenberger recalled being slightly inebriated on five-dollar pitcher night at the Poop Deck, which was next door to the Mermaid.
“A friend of mine said, ‘Look there goes the sun,’ and I said, ‘Let’s go say goodbye to it.” Someone snapped a picture of Rosenberger and his pal waving goodbye to the sun, which he still has today. That image was not included in the exhibit.
Pat McAuley checked out the artifacts from Critter’s which he opened with partner Mike Bringhurst in 1971.
“I was 24-years-old when I started the business,” he said. “I worked as a schoolteacher in Los Angeles and then as a bartender on the night shift.”
McAuley said his bar on the north end of town was “just like Cheers.”
“You walked in and everyone knew your name,” he said. “There were about 50 regulars within walking distance.”
He eventually sold the bar, and it became North End, a favorite hangout for several Los Angeles Kings players who lived nearby. They celebrated their Stanley Cup victory there.
Manhattan Beach Historical Society President Gary McAulay said the exhibit brought back memories of his time living in Hermosa Beach. He was a regular at the Pitcher House which was just three blocks from his home.
“It was a short walk there and a long walk home,” he said. “It was great there. It had a whole local vibe. And every time someone went to the can, they’d ring a bell.”
McAulay said bars now are “super modern” and not as homey as they used to be.
“They gut the old bars and then hang pictures of them in the new bars,” he said. “It’s sort of shocking.”
Erickson said the exhibit memorialized Hermosa’s strong culture around favorite gathering places, bars like the Poop Deck, the Mermaid and Critter’s, which no longer exist except in memories.
“It was an exhibit that sounded kind of fun and unexpected. Not a lot of museums have room for more off-beat topics, but Hermosa seems to be very supportive of that, especially when it’s something near and dear to their hearts.”
