There are places, some merely of the imagination, that have taken
hold in history and fiction as they represent an era, a time, or a
shared cultural experience that has since faded, but is certainly
mourned. These places are pockets of nostalgia for what once was or
could have been. Most of those to be featured, if they existed at all,
are no longer with us, replaced by parking lots, or “big box” stores, or
ugly houses. However, if you’re with the right people, or in the right
place, to evoke them is to evoke an era that may be long gone, but
permitted some creativity and joy.
The Elbo Room
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
This week's "place" is a prominent way-point in the appreciation of Florida in the 1960's.
Everything I knew about Fort Lauderdale, Florida I learned from the Travis McGee novels of John D. MacDonald and the 1960 movie, "Where the Boys Are". I can't recall if McGee ever hung out at the Elbo Room or a fictionalized counterpart, he was more of a steakhouse kind of guy, but it does make an appearance or two in that otherwise forgettable movie. I mostly know Fort Lauderdale as a place of boats, sun, beaches, and spring break, although not so much spring breaking since the locals began to realize they were losing money to the crowds rather than making it.
Everything I knew about Fort Lauderdale, Florida I learned from the Travis McGee novels of John D. MacDonald and the 1960 movie, "Where the Boys Are". I can't recall if McGee ever hung out at the Elbo Room or a fictionalized counterpart, he was more of a steakhouse kind of guy, but it does make an appearance or two in that otherwise forgettable movie. I mostly know Fort Lauderdale as a place of boats, sun, beaches, and spring break, although not so much spring breaking since the locals began to realize they were losing money to the crowds rather than making it.
The Elbo Room was established on the beach boulevard in 1938 [making it only twenty years younger than its city] as a dive bar serving the local fisherman and charter boat crews. It has since become...no, it's still a dive bar. I mean, let's not talk about the men's room. Yeesh.
There is no food served at the Elbo Room. There once was, as the main floor was a restaurant when it first opened, with the bar sequestered to the rooftop. It didn't take too long for the owners to discover from whence their profit was coming and they dropped the restaurant and made the ground floor into a bar, too.
As it's on a great corner just across from the beach, it is a sublime spot for people-watching, a fact not lost on the producers of "Where the Boys Are", who hired a mess of locals to serve as extras and filmed their stars crossing the street [with the traffic light, of course] numerous times in both the used and unused footage.
It may not have seemed like it would be at the time, but the movie was popular and made the spring break scene in Lauderdale wild and huge for decades to come. So, in addition to its primo location, The Elbo Room became a pop culture Mecca for all of the beach rats on the East Coast. For fans of that '60's cache, it can't be beat.
I finally made it there, much later than my college days, while working to find a vendor for some of my guitars. While it is not known for its surfing, a beach is always pleasant and a beach bar usually a good place to slouch and recall more halcyon days. It was so with The Elbo Room.
A couple of locals told me that, as spring breakers were once again becoming an issue, with behavior more loutish, common, and grotty than what is captured in that ancient film, and the bands in the area known for being, at best, gloriously mediocre, it was nice that the off-season could be a time of quiet reflection and appreciation of this venerable place to abide and take in a Bud Light Lime or two in the middle of the day. [Don't judge me on the beer, now. Most "craft beer" tastes like sewage and, after all, when in Rome....]
They certainly had a point and, in so joining in the conviviality, I came to understand this corner's importance in pop history.
If you want to check out the scene, or spy on your kids during spring break, The Elbo Room sports a collection of live cameras that can be accessed on their website.
It may not have seemed like it would be at the time, but the movie was popular and made the spring break scene in Lauderdale wild and huge for decades to come. So, in addition to its primo location, The Elbo Room became a pop culture Mecca for all of the beach rats on the East Coast. For fans of that '60's cache, it can't be beat.
I finally made it there, much later than my college days, while working to find a vendor for some of my guitars. While it is not known for its surfing, a beach is always pleasant and a beach bar usually a good place to slouch and recall more halcyon days. It was so with The Elbo Room.
A couple of locals told me that, as spring breakers were once again becoming an issue, with behavior more loutish, common, and grotty than what is captured in that ancient film, and the bands in the area known for being, at best, gloriously mediocre, it was nice that the off-season could be a time of quiet reflection and appreciation of this venerable place to abide and take in a Bud Light Lime or two in the middle of the day. [Don't judge me on the beer, now. Most "craft beer" tastes like sewage and, after all, when in Rome....]
They certainly had a point and, in so joining in the conviviality, I came to understand this corner's importance in pop history.
If you want to check out the scene, or spy on your kids during spring break, The Elbo Room sports a collection of live cameras that can be accessed on their website.
