FORMATION OF THE RIVERBOAT CLUB
By Jack Dean
The Lincoln Hotel - 9th Street Ocean City - Early Home of the Riverboat Club
Over the years, I have been asked on numerous
occasions to write a history of the Riverboat Club. As one of the surviving
founders and the last of the original Trustees, I feel that the time has come
for me to take pen in hand and record some of the things that probably only I
can remember – So here goes.
Back in the late nineteen fifties, a group of local
businessmen would meet every day, Monday through Friday, at Morrison’s
Restaurant on 8th Street for lunch. The exception as on Wednesday,
when 95% of the group went to Kiwanis luncheon. For the want of a group name,
we chose the name “Sunshine Club.” There could be many stories told as to why
we chose this name but the truth was because we met during the day when the sun
was out.
The “Spark Plugs” for getting the group together every
day were Bill Anderson, Bob Druck, Henry Roeser, Herm Selvagn and Jack Dean.
Most of the affairs, lunches, trips and etc. were put together by this group.
Much to our surprise and pleasure, Irma Morrison, the owner of the restaurant,
made chair back covers with our names on them and closed the side dining room
to other customers at the lunch hour. This made us feel very exclusive and
envied by many to the point that they wanted to join our lunch group.
As I stated, this group met Monday through Friday and
only two of the group Bob Druck and Jack Dean, had to work on Saturdays so we
went from restaurant to restaurant on Saturday by ourselves.
One day, Bob Druck said “You know Jack, both you and I
like to cook o why do’t we take truns cooking on Saturdays in the apartment
over my garage;” because we both considered ourselves “Gourmet Chefs”, we took
up the challenge. One by one the other guys found out about our Saturday feast
(we always blamed Herm Salvagn) and invited themselves. It got to the point
where we had 15 to 20 people every Saturday. Bob and I decided that we didn’t
not like cooking that much, so we started eating at different restaurants in
the city, at the Point and in Atlantic City.
One day when Bill, Bob and I were over at Ev Copes,
the conversation came up about forming a Saturday Social Club (that was in the
early nineteen sixties). Bob told us that his apartment was rented and that we
would have find other quarters. Ev Cope suggested that he had a couple of his
rooms that he was going to convert into a club room for his Lincoln Hotel guests but
that he decided against it and would make them available to us for a small
rental fee.
After inspecting the rooms and recognizing the
potential, we agreed to rent the rooms for our new venture.
Our next problem was a name for the new club and
believe me, there were many names suggested and all turned down because we had
to keep the name respectable for the tone of Ocean City – after all, we were
talking about a social club that would have booze on the premises.
Ev had many pictures of riverboats and statues that were conducive to the atmosphere of New Orleans and somebody, I believe it was Bill Anderson suggested the name Riverboat Club, certainly a name be-fitting a social club plus we could take advantage of Ev’s pictures for decorations of the rooms that we were going to rent. Again, we all agreed but now the work was to begin because we had just given birth to the “Riverboat Club”.
Ev had many pictures of riverboats and statues that were conducive to the atmosphere of New Orleans and somebody, I believe it was Bill Anderson suggested the name Riverboat Club, certainly a name be-fitting a social club plus we could take advantage of Ev’s pictures for decorations of the rooms that we were going to rent. Again, we all agreed but now the work was to begin because we had just given birth to the “Riverboat Club”.
Bill and Bob said that they would furnish the money,
Ev said he would furnish the rooms an I agreed to do all the work. Our next
task was to decide who we wanted as members. We wanted to keep this a clique of
men that like and enjoyed fun and fellowship. We decided on twenty five men,
including ourselves, and closed the membership.
The twenty five men elected Bill Anderson, Bob Druck
and Jack Dean as the Trustees to run the club. It became the responsibility of
Ev, Cope and Jack Dean to put together the By-Laws and get our attorney to
incorporate our new club. One night, over a bottle of Scotch, Ev and I copied
the By-Laws, with a few changes, from an old club corporation that Ev had
belonged to years ago.
The Trustees next assignment was to pick a Commodore,
Yoeman and Purser – that’s real nautical talk, but to you land-lubbers, that
means President, Secretary and Treasurer, after all, with a name like
Riverboat, we had to act the part. We decided Herm Selvagn as Commodore, mainly
because he was always talking when someone else was speaking so se decided that
he might as well do the talking. Scott Willis was picked as the Purser/Yoema,
after all, he sat around all day at the Housing Authority doing nothing, and he
had a secretary. I might add, both lived up to our expectations.
Finally, Jack Dean was named Steward and Chairman of
the House Committee. This meant I could officially do all the work.
Every Saturday for several years, we had 20 to 30
people for lunch. 5 did all the cooking (with the help of Marie) and the small
fee the members paid for lunch and refreshments, went into the treasury and
believe it or not after a few years we had $10,000 in the treasury.
This amount of money came in real handy a few years
later when we decided to buy a club house. I should mention, that once in
awhile some of the members wanted to try their hand at cooking and they did a
great job – food was good and the mess they left in the galley was equally a
great job. Also, we had some real fun parties several times throughout the year
– every holiday and particularly everyone’s birthday or any other excuse that
we could think of.
We finally, through persuasion of the members, raised
the membership to 50 then 75 then 100
and even higher, there were a lot of local residents that wanted to belong to a
social club; as a matter of fact, we had a large waiting list. This meant that
the club rooms were bursting at the seams so Ev Cope rented us two more rooms
that were adjoining and this extra space allowed for more fellowship. After a
couple of years, we tok into membership, a stately gentleman named Wilber
Hopkins; Wilber was a refined individual of impeccable reputation and we felt
that because we were a bottle club in “Dry Ocean City”, the constabularly would
never arresta a good old fellow like Wilber, so we made him the Commodore – a
position that he was returned to for many years – it earned him the distinction
of being named “Commodore Emeritus”. This turned out to be a good appointment
for the club because in his retirement status, he was at the club every day and
made sure that the premises were kept ship-shape.
About this same time, we felt that Scott had loused up
the records as much as possible (only kidding) “Col.” Herb Blizzard was
appointed Purser and this was a good decision. Her was a meticulous “Bird Colonel”
and in no time he had the records standing at attention and the rest of us on
KP duty. Truly, he was a great man and a very dear friend that I miss deeply.
The only position that did not change, was Steward and I kept the job for 15
years and proudly admit that I only missed on Saturday in all those years.
The cub continued to grow, prosper and enjoy the
fellowship for many years. Then in 1969 Ev. Cope informed us that he had sold
the Lincoln Hotel but the new owners wanted us to stay.
We knew that eventually things would change so we
formed a committee to look for new quarters. We inspected many buildings and
found only two that pleased us; one building was the Wheaton property on the
bay. Many of us felt that we could swing it, the Wheaton house would make an
ideal Riverboat Club, all the atmosphere we could ask for, so – we approached
Mr. Wheaton and struck a tentative deal – we returned to the club to discuss
how we could manage the purchase.
Unfortunately, at this time, my two colleagues and
Trustees decided that the club should not continue with this kind of obligation
so they resigned from the Board of Trustees. Frankly, I was crushed – all those
years or work and fellowship going down the drain. Some very active members,
El. Bretz, Clark Vernon and Herb Blizzard asked me to continue with the goals
that we had established for the Riverboat Club.
As the remaining Trustee, I appointed a new Board of Trustees and as Chairman, I appointed El. Bretz to continue the search for new quarters. Needless to say, he took the bull by the horns and found our present home at 8th and Wesley. Here again, a problem developed. Some of the board members were concerned about paying for our obligations and it came down to a tie breaking vote – I voted in favor and the birth of a new Riverboat Club.
As the remaining Trustee, I appointed a new Board of Trustees and as Chairman, I appointed El. Bretz to continue the search for new quarters. Needless to say, he took the bull by the horns and found our present home at 8th and Wesley. Here again, a problem developed. Some of the board members were concerned about paying for our obligations and it came down to a tie breaking vote – I voted in favor and the birth of a new Riverboat Club.
The unselfish time devoted by El Bretz and Herb
Blizzard can never be justly rewarded. El, almost single handed, arranged to
have the club refurbished and Herb set all kinds of records by selling Bonds to
the members to help pay for the new club.
Because I was on the road from Money to Friday, Gil Lundgren stepped forth and took over the house chores and if that was not enough, he became the club Yoeman, a very thankless job.
Because I was on the road from Money to Friday, Gil Lundgren stepped forth and took over the house chores and if that was not enough, he became the club Yoeman, a very thankless job.
The club certainly owe these men a debt of gratitude.
Fortunately, I could retain the Steward job (chief cook & bottle washer)
and all week while I was on the road I would plan menus and hten cook them on
Saturday. I am sure that many of you remember the good times that we had at my
home on Bay Avenue – the Bar-B-Ques and sail-a-ways.
As they use to say on that TV show – there are a
hundred stories that I could tell but there are a few – in 1976, I was
transferred to California so I am sure that somebody else can fill in from then
to now.
My original thought was to jot down a few memories but
it turned out to be an epistle and some what of an auto-biography so lets make
it one more thing – a Memorial dedicated to:
Bill Anderson, Bob Druck, Ev. Cope – without their
cooperation, there would not have been a Riverboat Club ---and to: El. Bretz,
Clark Vernon, Herb Blizzard, Gil Lundgren and Herb Godfrey because without
their help, there would not have been a New Rivertboat Club.
P.S. – I MISS ALL OF YOU – Jack Dean.
