The Real Bagdad Café

In the late nineteen eighties, Newberry Springs (a small town in the Mojave Desert in Southern California) was the scene for a meeting of the minds, between Hollywood and a German film crew. They met to discuss the filming of a rather eccentric movie, the Bagdad Café.

A must see film!

One problem though, there was no Bagdad Café in Newberry Springs.

No worries - we didn't either, at the time.

There once was a town of Bagdad, with a cafe, about fifty miles east of Newberry Springs. But when Interstate 40 made Route 66 seem like an afterthought, the town, like the desert sands, just blew away. Not enough business to maintain its lifeblood, it just stopped breathing.

There’s nothing left today to prove Bagdad once truly existed, but a beautiful tree with a plaque that reads - This tree is the last fragile remnant of the town of Bagdad. Please help us protect it by leaving it undisturbed. Thank You!

A beautiful reminder of once was - before progress came to town

Hollywood, with the German screenwriters and director, didn’t let those facts stop them. They just renamed the Sidewinder Café in Newberry Springs to, yes, wait for it – the Bagdad Café. And that is the magic of Hollywood.

We don’t need no stinking reality – we’ll just make up our own.

So, on a Sunday morning, we decided to take the short drive to Newberry Springs and check out the Bagdad Café. After the release of the film in 1987 in Europe, and in 1988 in the United States, the name of the Sidewinder Café was eventually changed to the Bagdad Café in 1995.

 A sound marketing tool, to incorporate the name of a film which used the restaurant for its focal point. The film, starring the likes of C.C.H Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kauffman, and German actress, Marianne Sagebrecht, won 6 foreign film awards, including Best Foreign Film at the 23rd Guldbagge Awards in 1988. In 1988, the film won an Oscar for Best Music, Original song by Bob Telson, Calling You.

Heck, even Hollywood came out with a television series, Bagdad Café in 1990, starring James Gammon, Whoopi Goldberg, Cleavon Little, and Jean Stapleton. After two seasons it went bust. A good film, not so good a series, perhaps – it happens.

Sorry, Ladies - a short but good try.

“This will be great,” I told Laureen, as we took the eastbound Newberry Springs exit from the 40 and drove onto Route 66.

“It’s an old café,” she replied.

“It’s historic. A place where two cultures, Germans and Americans met and created something special. I call it, where Hollywood and Berliwood shook hands.”

“Berliwood?”

“You know, Berlin.” I nodded. “Yeah, like Bollywood, but from a German perspective.”

“That makes sense,” Laureen mused. But, I don’t think she bought my conjecture on the topic.

We pulled in front of the red painted building with brown wood shingles on the roof. Laureen was right, it was old and bit worse for wear.

“Look at that,” I said, while pointing to a large black and white tour bus. There in front of us were dozens of people taking selfies by the entrance to the Bagdad Café and others just walking around looking this iconic building up and down.

“French,” I announced excitedly. “They’re French tourists.”

Laureen nodded in agreement. “Did you get that from the French they are all speaking?”

“Dead giveaway,” I returned.

The restaurant is open daily from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m., and according to the owner, Andrea Pruett (she goes by André), “We get so many tourists, and it is really crowded sometimes. You know, we are the most visited café in the world.”

I wasn’t sure that was accurate, but in deference to the owner, I remained mute on the topic. Though, this café must be the most visited in the area.

Entering through the single door of the café, we were taken aback by the hundreds, if not thousands of flags hanging from the ceiling. It seemed every country on earth was represented inside the Bagdad Café.

Can you count the flags - we couldn't

“See what I mean?” André stated. “Most tourists are French; they loved the movie. But there are flags from Germany, Spain, and pretty much everywhere.”

I asked André, how many tourist buses stop by. “Oh, I don’t know – probably five or six per week. Most of the time, they just stop, take photographs and leave. They don’t spend a lot of money here. But we do have good food.”

André has owned the small local tourist attraction for 23 years, moving from Canoga Park to Newberry Springs with her husband. “It was quite a culture shock,” stated the petite woman. “The people called me, Hollywood, because I came from the Los Angeles area. My husband told me to enjoy the quite of Newberry Springs where I could just write. He’d run the restaurant, and my job was simply to come in once per day to collect the money.”

Seemed reasonable. The problem was, according to André, “There never was much to collect each day. It’s gotten better though, with the tourists – still wish they’d spend more.”

We had lunch and visited with André, between her greeting the numerous tourists. She was correct on both counts – the food was tasty and there were a lot of people stopping by the historic site.

Laureen, waiting for our lunch at the Bagdad Cafe'

This place, this Bagdad Café, is a must to see for any film buff. Not just the history of the building, but the impact it made in the cinema world joining the realms of cult classics. A place most have never hear of, but which made it into the stratosphere of filmology (yes, it is real – the study of film making – taken from, filmologie – and of course, it’s French!). So take a short byway off the road most traveled and find yourself something of international intrigue, on Route 66.

In Search of Ernest Hemingway

One of John's most respected writers is Ernest Hemingway. The iconic writer led a larger than life existence. This sometimes raucous man seemingly had it all: fame and fortune. Hemingway experienced numerous lifetimes all wrapped up in one.

'Papa' Hemingway's framed photograph in his Key West home.

'Every man's life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguish one man from another.' Ernest Hemingway

The quotation above embodies the life of this writer - all lives end in death, but sometimes the way a person dies, does make them different from others. Hemingway proved that by choosing the manner of death, committing suicide on July 2nd, 1961 in Ketchum, Idaho.

Traveling the Florida Keys, allowed John and Laureen, to truly slow down and discover many things they had no idea existed. It's a laid back sort of lifestyle - the Keys. Beaches everywhere, bars and restaurants located alongside Highway 1, and the residents very friendly.

So, how does this driving end up with a blog on Ernest Hemingway? Well, it isn't really about him, but the influence he had in Key West, during the nine years he lived there full-time. Attention-getting was not something Hemingway had to work at, but attention was certainly something he got. As one of the world's best known writers, both short stories and novels, wherever he went, news soon followed.

As we drove through the city/key of Islamorada, we noticed a beautifully appointed Bass Pro Shop, located on the Overseas Highway (a fancy title for the 113 mile road, also known as Highway 1). Being fans of the chain (strange since neither of us have any interest in fishing), we stopped and ventured inside to have a look-see.

There, in the center of this huge outdoor sports supply mecca, stood a thirty-eight foot trawler with the name Pilar boldly emblazoned on it's hull. John instantly got goosebumps. It couldn't be...could it?

Looks like the Pilar!

Was this the Pilar, that Hemingway had built for his time in Key West? Turns out it wasn't, but a cleverly created duplicate (sister-ship), built at the same place and same boatyard as the true Pilar -  now located in a museum in Cuba. This boat is almost identical to the one Hemingway had owned - down to the same exact model typewriter the writer had used for most of his prose in the southern most city in the United States.

John at the keys of Hemingway's typewriter? In the Keys.

Not disappointed at all that this wasn't the exact boat, no, in fact, it only made John that more fired up to get to Key West and tour the house and haunts that Hemingway lived and visited.

Well, Laureen wasn't in that much of a hurry -
relax a bit on the veranda and then hit the road. Island Time.

Key West, is to Florida what New Orleans is to Louisiana, an eclectic group of stores, bars, restaurants, residences and residents. As mentioned in the previous blog, In Search of Jimmy Buffet, Key West is a must-see destination. It is crazy fun, with so much to see in the narrow streets bordered by the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.

Hemingway thought so too when he moved with his wife, Pauline, and their newborn son, Patrick. It was here in Key West that the author found his true success in writing, knocking out nearly 70% of all his combined works. A Farewell to Arms, Death in the Afternoon, and Green Hills of Africa to name just a few of the great works he tapped out during his Key West Days. In fact, Hemingway was probably, according to research, one of the first American novelists to have his work appear on the silver screen. At least eleven of his novels and short stories were turned into block bluster films.

His own life was an ongoing film. Married four times, wounded in World War I as an ambulance driver, he had traveled the world and even lived in Paris with the likes of James Joyce, Pablo Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and the Fitzgeralds. He embarked on lengthy deep sea fishing and explorations of the Caribbean aboard the Pilar, went on Safari into Africa, wrote about bull runs in Spain. He was a reporter during the Spanish Civil War, and during World War II, earned the Bronze Star for his  journalistic work. Rumors and myths are still alive today, that Hemingway informally led a small platoon of soldiers at the retaking of Paris from the Nazis. He wasn't supposed to do that, being simply a journalist, but that couldn't stop Papa Hemingway. Adventure was in his blood - a few German soldiers were not likely to scare this man.

He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1952 and the Noble Prize in 1954. He did it all.

The house which the Hemingway family called home, is located at 907 Whitehead Street, a quaint and beautifully quiet section of Key West, just blocks from the sea which the writer loved so much. The white and black, two story abode rests comfortably on nearly an acre of land - the largest privately owned residential property on the island.

John, standing at the entrance to the Hemingway house

The house is stately, but not overly flashy. A place where the writer and his family would be comfortable and afford Hemingway a hidden oasis to write. His fame, and his drinking in town, especially at Sloppy Joe's, caused Hemingway to choose to have a tall wall built around the home. People would often just walk up to the front door to see Hemingway at all hours of the day or night. He needed his privacy.

How Hemingway looked while living in Key West

Office where Hemingway wrote

One truly interesting item about the house is the number of cats roaming freely. You'd think Hemingway, being muy macho and all that, would have a love for large beastly dogs. Nope. He liked cats - and they are everywhere about the home. He had been given a six toed feline when they first moved to Key West from a ship's captain. This first polydactyl (six-toed) feline was named Snowball - and all of Snowball's descendants, nearly 50 of them, still reside around the property.  There's even a kitty cemetery on the grounds.

Cats own the house and the master bed

When Hemingway had returned home from covering the Spanish Civil War, he found that Pauline had torn down his beloved rear yard boxing ring. In its place was the largest privately owned pool south of Miami.

It seemed, Pauline had learned that her husband had taken up with her friend, Martha Gellhorn during the Spanish Civil War, where Martha was also working as a journalist. So, as payback, Pauline had Ernest's boxing ring torn down and a pool put in.

The largest pool in the Florida Keys - of course

Not to be outdone, Hemingway got drunk at Sloppy Joe's, which was being remodeled and dragged a urinal all the way home in the dead of night. When Pauline saw it in the back yard, she asked what it was. He told her, "You have your pool, and now I have my own."

The urinal pool - laying sideways

The couple didn't last long after that, which was truly the way Hemingway's marriages usually went. Get married and get divorced. Interesting, he tended to marry the women who were introduced to him by his current wife at the time.

His first spouse, Hadley introduced Pauline to Ernest - soon there was an affair and a divorce. Pauline, his second spouse, introduced Martha to Ernest, soon there was an affair and a divorce. Martha, his third spouse, introduced Mary to Ernest, soon there was an affair but this time no divorce. Mary made sure not to introduce any of her female friends to Ernest - safer that way.

"I don't mind Ernest falling in love," Pauline once wrote, "but why does he always have to marry the girl when he does?"

So, the search for Ernest Hemingway in Key West was complete. We learned a lot more about the author than what was available simply in material research. We walked where he walked. We had a drink or two at his favorite watering hole, and learned why he had moved to Key West in the first place.

Key West is an Ernest Hemingway mecca for millions of his fans. His influence can be seen and felt throughout the city. There's even an annual Hemingway Days each July - many white-bearded gentlemen (not Santa) arrive, trying to look like the writer himself.

He  moved from Key West to Cuba in 1939, when he married Martha. He'd spent only nine years in the keys, but left an indelible mark nearly a hundred years later.

Though Ernest Hemingway was larger than life, in many ways, he was still simply a man. At the end, he was suffering from severe depression, the inability to write, and overall tiredness from an excess of adventures. Severely wounded during World War I, continual pain from two plane crashes, liver issues (hmmm, wonder why), weight issues, and other maladies collected, over a lifetime of abuse - both mentally and physically.

He lived life on his own terms, and on that summer morning in Ketchum, Idaho - he decided to go out on his own terms, as well.

As a tour guide stated at the Hemingway house - "We can't judge him for committing suicide. It was his choice, as was his entire life. He decided how and when the whole adventure would be over."

We may not agree - but then again, it's okay to agree to disagree.

For further information:

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Hemingway

https://www.hemingwayhome.com/

https://fla-keys.com/hemingway-days/

In Search of Jimmy Buffet

We'll find you, Mr. Jimmy Buffet - in Key West

One of John's dreams has always been to explore the Florida Keys. In the United States, keys are  spelled and pronounced keys whereas in many other parts of the world, such as the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos, these areas of land are spelled cays. Still pronounced keys, they are sandy, low-elevation islands poised on top of a coral reef.

In other words, Paradise.

There was such adventure awaiting this dynamic duo, once the plane landed on the tarmac at Miami International Airport.

Laureen at the Southernmost point
 on the Continental USA

First stop, pick up the rental Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. What else could two explorers select as their means of transportation while driving south over a hundred sixty miles to the most southern tip of the United States?  It was the second week of September - yes, mid-hurricane season in this part of the world - so, having the correct vehicle seemed wise.

The trip may have been cancelled if it had been planned for just a week earlier. That was when the powerful Hurricane Dorian, tore through the Bahamas, leaving behind unspeakable devastation and death. Luckily for the people of Florida, Dorian had turned north-east and only skirted the outer shores of the United States.

With that said, the people of the Bahamas remained in our hearts and prayers as we drove south in search of Jimmy Buffet, the poet, song-writer (and extremely wealthy businessman).

Of course we knew that Jimmy would not be sitting down with a couple of margaritas on a sandy beach on the Gulf of Mexico with us - but in search we went anyway.

Buffet and Key West are synonymous for being unique and resilient. Walking down Duval Street, the main thoroughfare in old Key West, only enhances the wonderful strangeness of the place. There are bars and more bars, stores selling anything and everything, Tarot card readers, and even a brothel, about which the locals only smile and shrug when asked. This part of Key West is about as eclectic  as Jimmy Buffet's songs are.

Duval Street in the evening in Key West

Key West was once a lonely outpost, accessible only by boat. But through time, a railroad was built, only to be quickly destroyed (due to a hurricane - what else?). Finally a road was constructed which linked all the keys heading southwest from Miami to Key West. Soon, the likes of Hemingway, Capote, President Truman, President John F. Kennedy introduced the keys to the rest of the world.

Key West had made it.

Some strangely beautiful people in Key West...

As with Key West, Buffet had also seen times when he wasn't Jimmy Buffet, but simply Jimmy Buffet, a down-on-his-luck singer from Nashville. He had tried his musical talent in that famous, Tennessee city, but after awhile, and with no money in his pockets - plus a divorce - he headed south.

South, would be traveling with his friends Jerry Jeff Walker (of Mr. Bojangles, fame) and Teresa "Murphy" Clark. Jerry and Teresa allowed Jimmy to stay with them at their house in Coconut Grove in Miami.

But soon, restlessness moved Jimmy further south to Key West. He knew, that perhaps this strangely beautiful area, and it's equally strangely beautiful people would understand his music and lyrics.

Nashville hadn't - so what did he have to lose?

In the early 1970's he lived in a little apartment next to a place called, Louie's Backyard, a bar and restaurant.

We visited the place, had a beer or two while looking over the ocean and didn't realize where we were actually sitting. Then we heard the bartender - we like bartenders - telling a story when a certain song came out and people started visiting the bar and 'stealing' items. Anything, so they could tell their friends, they had some memorabilia linked to Jimmy Buffet.

In 1974, Jimmy's album, Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season, talked about Louie's Backyard.

'God, I slept way past noon, Stood up and tried to focus, I hoped I wouldn't have to look far, I knew I could use a Bloody Mary, So I stumbled next door to the bar.'

"I actually had to chase two guys down the beach who stole a full size lounge chair." she told us.

"Why not the whole bar?"

"It was too heavy and bolted to the floor, I guess," she replied.

First place Jimmy Buffet played in Key West - for beers only!

Soon after arriving in Key West, Jimmy found himself playing in a very small club called the Chart Room at the Pier House Motel.

He played for beers. Wow! For beers - the guy is worth over a half-a-billion dollars now. Gotta love the opportunities the good old United States offers a down and out singer from the 70's.

Along with Jim Croce, Vaughn Cochran, and others, Jimmy hit his stride and the rest is history for this musical icon.

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, his 6th album released in 1977, made it into mainstream audiences and his career took off.

But, unlike many up and coming musical artists - Jimmy was business savvy. He began marketing islander styled clothing, posters, and then opened his first Margaritaville in Key West.

Laureen, pointing out where Margaritville started in Key West

From there, the money kept pouring in - but he never forgot his roots.

In 1985, his album Last Mango in Paris, hit the charts and one song spoke (he's a poet and he knows it) about Captain Tony's Saloon on Green Street.

John in front of - hmmm, a bar - very strange

'I went down to Captain Tony's, To get out of the heat, Then I heard a voice call out to me, "Son come have a seat", I had to search my memory, As I looked into those eyes, Our lives change like the weather, But a legend never dies.'

Even though Jimmy moved to Palm Beach around 1992, he kept his house in Key West until 1998, when he sold it for over a million dollars. He was a smart guy with the bucks!

So, we found the early Jimmy Buffet in Key West - walking the streets and alleys of this town let us realize the draw it had on a young singer. It has the same appeal to these travelers. A place where a person can be who they are - challenge themselves - and prove they have the grit to succeed with their dreams no matter the setbacks.

Jimmy Buffet, along with many others, have made this key their home and not only found themselves, but their fortunes as well.

If it wasn't for the bloody hurricanes and humidity!

Our search was over - on to the next one.

Who's next on the list to search for in the Florida Keys?