The Bradly Bunch Connection to Ybor City

HGTV has been featuring “A Very Brady Renovation”. In this series HGTV have been renovation the house used  for the outside photos. The inside is being renovated into what the set of the Bradys TV show actually looked like. https://www.hgtv.com/shows/a-very-brady-renovation  There is an Ybor Cty Connection to the Brady Bunch.  It is Mike Brady who was played by Robert Reed  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Reed Robert had a favorite bar in Ybor City.  “The TAMPA EAGLE” also known as The Eagle’s Nest, located at 2201 N 15^th Street. This was a 1980’s hard core gay leather club. The only one harder than this I have ever been in was Mother’s in Miami. The Eagle was previously known as The Yellow House a notorious Ybor City MAFI BAR. http://tampahistorical.org/items/show/86  That helps explains why this club was so WILD. Our first time at THE TAMPA EAGLE was in 1980. On closed party nights patrons would walk up the fire escape on the build next to it. Then walk across the roof and onto the front balcony to enter the club. It was in the mid 1980’s that Robert Reed frequent the Eagle. People said that he was in town working on Summer theatre at Don Sherwood SHOW BOAT Dinner Theater. (The same Don Sherwood that owned Village inn Restaurant. After his death the family sold the Show Boat and it was torn down.) Robert Reed had many friends in Ybor City. In 1992 he passed away from colon cancer and was HIV positive.

The TAMPA EAGLE became Impulse. On the 1^st floor was a restauran. November 16, 1988 there was a big fire. Today there is a shell of a building standing. Impulse moved downtown next to the flour plant. A couple years later Impulse was sold to THE TAMPA EAGLE. This was one of our all-time favorite clubs in Tampa. The owner with partners went on to open The SunCoast Resort in St. Petersburg.  Here opened the SunCoast Eagle. Later there was a TAMPA EAGLE opened in Sulphur Springs by the Tampa Dog Track. We had a MC Pride Store in this location for a very short time. After it’s closing there was a TAMPA EAGLE opened on Franklyn Street in the former London Victory Club.  Today Tampa Leather club is Cristoph’s located in the former 2606 Bar Location at 2606 N Armenia Ave.

Cheap People

Last week we were talking about a very cheap person who has passed away. Both of us could not remember his name. It finally came to me 2 days later. How sad…  We will call him John. One day John came into our store very upset and shared this story with us. John was in charge of a LGBT Group that meet once a month at a restaurant.  They had found a South Tampa restaurant that had a private room and was owned by a Gay person. The owner told him he would wave the rental fee but the group needed to be on one check.  No problem and the group had meet there 3 times. John went on to say that he could not believe how much the group over tipped. So after he collected the money. John took his meal out of the tip money and after he left a 5% tip there was even money left over for his cocktails later.  The restaurant owner couldn’t get staff to work the group and found out why. He then suggested they go to different restaurant because his private room was booked. The group did find a different restaurant and had separate checks here. John was very upset and mad that he now had to pay for his own meal and drinks. John went on to trash the restaurant and said he was never going back!!!! Hummm… and now 10+years later we remember the story, but couldn’t remember his name.

This week passed away, at the age of 90, a very strange and sad guy. We will call him Bob. We have known Bob since the 1990’s.  He was a major closet case and just a plane dirty old troll. Bob was from a famous Tampa family and also owner of a multimillion-dollar company. Bob didn’t think his wife or kids knew that he was gay. Years later after his wife passed away Bob told his kids who said “we have always known and Mom knew too.”  Because Bob was in the closet he would hook up with male prostitutes. Bob once told us he never carried more than $30 and never any credit cards. In all the years Bob came into our store he never spent one dollar. Bob would flip thru the magazines and cruise guys in our store, sometimes for hours.  He would talk and talk and we would listen and listen. One day Bob was bragging that he just had the best BJ ever. Went on to say it only cost him $18 dollars.  I asked him why 18 and not $20.  With a big creepy smile Bob said “Well I deducted the price of the beer I bought him before paying for services rendered.”  Today it makes me smile when I think of birds flying over his grave saying Cheap Cheap Cheap