Pat Kirkwood was a race car driver. His car
was called #13; Kirkwood was the first racer to drive a car with this number.
Kirkwood drove at Langhorne in 1949, finishing 29th. At Daytona Beach on 2-10-1952 he had
one pole position.
At the Grand National in 1956 he started in 3 races and finished 33rd in points but won no
races.Johnny Carroll was a
rock & roll singer and guitar player. In 1955 Johnny was one of the original five
"rockabilly" artists in the SUN RECORDS stable; the other four were Johnny Cash,
Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley. The others got the big breaks and Johnny
Carroll, promoting a couple of hit records, got a silver Airstream house-trailer and began
touring the venues available to rock & roll performers.
There weren't many venues in those days: teen clubs; skating rinks; DJ shows, theaters;
race tracks; county fairs and such.
Johnny Carroll and his band were performing
at one such racing event and, hearing that #13's driver was from Fort Worth, Johnny
wanted to meet the guy and see his car. He went to the pit area and found #13 but saw no
one around, so, being JC, he jumped in the car and sat behind the wheel. About that time a
mechanic showed up and started yelling at Johnny. "Get ya' ass out of that car, ya
little queer!" JC came out of the car, all right, leaping on the mechanic and taking
him down. "Nobody calls me that, you asshole" JC yelled as he commenced
banging the mechanic's head against the ground. Hands grabbed Johnny and pulled him off
the guy as Pat Kirkwood strode in, standing between the two men. "What's this
about?" Kirkwood demanded.
"Punk called me a queer and I kicked his ass for it" JC snapped.
"He was in the car" the mechanic snarled.
Kirkwood turned to Johnny and said "That true, were you in #13?"
"Yeah, I was," JC said, I wanted to meet the driver but no one was here, so I
got in to see how she felt. Sorry, I didn't mean any harm."
Turning to the mechanic, Kirkwood said
"that right Pete, you call him a queer?" "yeah, guess I did" the
mechanic replied. "Well, I guess the guy gave you what you deserved then, eh
Pete?" Kirkwood said. "Hell, I's just doin' my job..." Pete started
but Kirkwood cut him off. "You work for me and I never told you to call anybody that,
did I?" "No, sir" Pete answered.
"OK, then, you're lucky this man didn't put your head in your pocket! You got no
gripe!
Kirkwood turned to Johnny.
"That's my car; I drive #13", I'm Pat Kirkwood. Come on, get in,
we'll go for a little spin."
"Great," said JC. " I'm Johnny Carroll. How 'bout givin' me a ride to
the other end of the track where my band is set up? I got a show to do in 15
minutes."
As he fired up #13's engine, Kirkwood grinned and said "hope you make it" and
#13 roared out of the pit.
A half-hour later #13, with Johnny Carroll driving, pulled up in front of the
bandstand where a good crowd was getting tired of waiting. Gunning the engine so the
exhaust roared, JC jumped out, stepped up on the hood, waved to the crowd and jumped to
the bandstand. Band waiting, crowd cheering in delight, Johnny snatched up his guitar and
swung into his show. The audience went crazy and , though neither man ever said what
transpired in #13 between the pits and the bandstand, Pat Kirkwood and Johnny
Carroll became good friends that day and later, when Kirkwood won the Cellar in that
poker game, Johnny was at the table too, and saw his opportunity to get off the road and
score himself a permanent job in the nightclub business. Kirkwood was glad to have a place
where he and his racing buddies could party down but he had no interest in running a bar;
he was there to drink the whiskey himself, and give some to his friends, served
by a pretty girl and he certainly didn't want to be subject to alcohol and dance-license
regulations. The place was opened as a "coffeehouse"; a
"beatnik" hangout.
Kirkwood had whiskey by the case and Johnny Carroll had ideas that would apply to that
format.
Johnny's intent was to make the place
entertainment-oriented; all entertainment, all the time. One good idea was to let stag
girls come in free, give a girl free drinks, until a guy offered to buy her
one. Another was that musicians should get in free and get free drinks and be
encouraged to sit in and play. The key to this idea was the after-hours format, allowing
musicians playing locally an opportunity to come in and jam after their
"straight" gigs.
"The musicians will attract the girls and the girls will attract guys who will PAY to
get in and will BUY drinks for the girls and you can kick ass if any of them gets out of
line!" This sounded reasonable to Kirkwood so he gave Johnny Carroll carte blanche to
do as he liked with the place.
"I'll run the register and you run the bandstand and I'll back you up if anybody
gives you any shit!" Kirkwood told Johnny. "A deal s a deal!"
Both men were true to their word, and the result was unique; an entertainment venue like
no one had ever seen before and no one will ever see again. Johnny Carroll was the
keystone. Without Johnny Carroll, the Cellar would have been a sports club with canned
music.
I wonder if anyone who was there, other than myself, ever noticed that no matter which
Cellar, no matter what manager, Johnny Carroll did exactly as he pleased
and NOBODY, not even Kirkwood, EVER restrained him in any way! |