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Historic building was built around 1900

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Saturday, Aug. 11, 2012 12:20 AM
SHANNON LIVICK/STAR
RENEE SIMS, an owner of the Hollywood Bar and Grill, puts out flowers Wednesday in front of the bar, which authorities believe was burned by an arsonist.
THE HOLLYWOOD BAR when it was known as the Idle Hour, around 1927. Behind the counter, from left, are George Moore, Earl Wilber, Tim Lynch, Georgia Lynch and Della Moore.

Over 100 years ago, around the year 1900, the building that housed the Hollywood Bar and Grill went up.

The rocks were hauled down from Taylor Mesa and the beginning of an era started, along with a string of memories recalled over the last week.

Businesses have come and gone over the years, but the Hollywood Bar is what most people remember.

Patty Joe Brumley was a bartender there 32 years ago.

“The Hollywood was always filled with archaeologists,” she said. “And the Sawmill was filled with dam workers.”

Vivian Short owned the bar then, Brumley recalled.

“All the old people had their own stools,” she smiled.

She recalled the painting of the naked lady on the couch was painted by Randy Jones, who is now deceased.

Brumley also remembers meeting her husband Dennis.

“He left me a dollar tip,” I will never forget it,” she said.

They were together for 31 years. Dennis Brumley passed away earlier this year.

There are also the stories that shouldn’t go in a family paper.

Brumley remembers the time a worker stood a top a pool table after work. He took off his clothes, put on some clean ones, he was ready to party.

Vic Sundquist, 92, of Dolores remembers going into the Hollywood when it was known as the Idle Hour.

“My dad took me in there when I was 8 or 9 and I had my first soda there,” he smiled. “Oh it was good. My dad had a hard time getting me out of there.”

Sundquist said he would go into the bar off and on over the years and was there a few weeks ago.

The first recorded business was in 1913, was the Smith-McCord-Townsend Dry Goods Co.

It was also known as the Green Frog at some point in history and cattlemen and sheep men would gather at the bar.

There were bullet holes in the ceiling and the story of Billy Brumley, who was allegedly behind the bar and shot the finger off of a friend who kept complaining about a sore or infected hangnail. He shot the finger off and said, “There, now you have something to complain about.”

The history ran deep in that building, the building that was gutted and destroyed by fire last week, a fire that was started intentionally, putting an end to an era.

“It’s like losing part of the family,” said Bob “Bell Bottom” Antelli. “It’s terrible. It was an unusual place where you met a lot of friends, shot a lot of pool and had fun together.”

Kathy Gafford remembered the Hollywood.

“It’s just a building, but it meant a lot more than that,” she said.

People from outside the area even remember the Hollywood.

Patricia Jurasich, of Monticello, said her dad, J. P. Gonzalez would visit Dr. Merritt and then would go to the Hollywood to smoke and drink a glass of wine. He lived to be 107.

“I met my husband George in 1957 in San Diego, when I brought him home my dad told him to get in the car,” she smiled. “They drove all the way to the Hollywood. My dad had wine, George had a beer.”

Jurasich said she would drive from the Hollywood every Saturday for dinner.

“The cooks were fabulous, the bartenders were jovial and the drinks were great,” she said.

Fires have burned near this weekend’s fire before. The Taylor Hardware Store burned in the early 1980s, claiming the Taylor Hardware Store and a grocery store.

Earl Moore remembers a fire claiming the building next to the Hollywood (were Fusion Studios was located.) He then helped rebuild it in the 1930s.

“I was in the seventh-grade and I helped mix and haul all the cement by hand,” he said. “There was a lot of history there.”

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