Gary'sGlimpses

I had a friend Beau Chorney who I met through Ratch Wallace. We were social friends for a few years and he came to my club a few times. He had 3 gold seats at Maple leaf Gardens which he let me have 4 or 5 times a year. Just after I closed my first after-hours club Beau Chorney phoned and asked if I was interested in managing  a bar for him. He invited me to meet him and his lawyer for lunch. We were to meet at a Greek restaurant just off the esplanade on Market St in Toronto. The big feature of the place was that they had a belly dancer. And Beau raved about the octopus. Beau had reserved  a special table almost in the middle of the dance floor. It was a hot summer day and no air conditioning just fans, I ordered a moussaka and salad. Our meal was no sooner on the table when the music started and  the belly dancer appeared. It was not a great place for a business lunch with the music blaring and the Belly Dancer swirling around our table. Through the din Beau was insisti...

  MacLean and MacLean The MacLean’s came to my club one night and we immediately became fast friends. I joined them in performing sing the second oldest recorded song in the English language. It is an old Scottish Ballad called the ‘Lobster’ and I was known as the Lobsterman. I couldn’t sing that well but mostly got through it. To begin with I took it very much in stride. But eventually I begin to care about how I did. That is when I ran into trouble and got stage fright and I actually used to sweat before I did my bit. Then one night I did it, I forgot the words. They waited through a chorus and then Gary Looked at me. “Did you forget the words?” I nodded my mind racing trying to find the words. “You Arsehole!” says the ever-helpful Gary. Somehow I found the words and finished the song and never really had much trouble again. One of my favorite memories of the boys is with Murray McLaughlin. Murray was a good friend and I used to drag him along when I sang. He didn’t like to go, n...