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Irwin Held dies at 87; longtime owner of Barney's Beanery
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Matthew Kruk
Jun 19, 2013, 12:00:15 AM6/19/13
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http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-irwin-held-20130619,0,4482946.story
Irwin Held dies at 87; longtime owner of Barney's Beanery
Back in the day, the West Hollywood burger joint was popular with rockers, less
so with gay rights activists.
By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times
8:43 PM PDT, June 18, 2013
Irwin Held, whose license-plate-festooned West Hollywood beer-and-burger spot
drew praise from rock stars but protests from gay rights activists, has died. He
was 87.
Held died Monday in his Los Angeles home, family members said. He had a kidney
ailment.
From 1970 to 1999, Held owned Barney's Beanery, a Santa Monica Boulevard
restaurant where Janis Joplin is said to have eaten her last meal and the Doors'
Jim Morrison made himself at home.
But for many in a community with a large, politically active gay population, the
restaurant's freewheeling feel was tainted by an anti-gay sign that Held
inherited when he bought the place and for years refused to take down.
Situated not far from Hollywood's movie studios, Barney's opened in 1927 and
drew generations of stars, star wannabes and stars-to-be. William Holden, Lana
Turner, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and many others dived into Barney's trademark
beans before Held, an El Segundo beer distributor looking for another
opportunity, heard that the tumbledown roadhouse was up for sale.
"It was run into the ground," Held's daughter Linda Shabot told The Times on
Tuesday. "I was scared to walk into the place - it looked like a dungeon."
But Held poured himself into his new business, experimenting with the menu as
his wife, Sally, kept the books. For years, a sign over the bar - "Fagots Stay
Out" - drew little notice from customers. Barney's founder, World War I veteran
John "Barney" Anthony, was said to have put it up after police in the 1940s
raided his restrooms for then-illegal homosexual activity.
Urged to remove the sign after acquiring Barney's, Held dug in his heels,
despite prolonged picketing and other protests.
"He was just one of those guys who didn't like being told what to do with his
business," said David Houston, the Beanery's current co-owner. "He was very
old-school, and this was a freedom issue."
That wasn't quite how Troy Perry, a clergyman who founded the gay-friendly
Metropolitan Community Church, saw it.
In an interview Tuesday, he said he once asked Held what the sign meant.
"It doesn't mean anything," Held said.
"Take it down!" Perry said.
At one point, Held did - only to put up others.
When West Hollywood incorporated in November 1984, it passed an
anti-discrimination ordinance. Facing a fine of $500 a day, Held reluctantly
removed the sign in January 1985 - and also quit distributing matchbooks with
the same offensive slogan.
"For the first time in my life, I know how MacArthur must have felt at
Corregidor," he told The Times, alluding to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's 1942
retreat from Japanese troops in the Philippines.
Even as the sign controversy roiled, Barney's drew a legion of music-industry
names.
"It was a landmark that meant so much to people in the rock 'n' roll community,"
said Jim Ladd, a longtime Los Angeles deejay who now hosts a show on Sirius-XM.
"It was more than a watering hole - it was a gathering spot for the rebels, the
rockers, the raconteurs and the misfits we all love to hang out with."
In a 2008 interview, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, who died last month,
said he and Morrison used to get into profound talks at the Beanery about
politics, the war in Vietnam and topics as arcane as "the philosophy behind
Nietzche's existentialism and transcendence." Morrison, who died at 27 in 1971,
also would get quite drunk and, according to some accounts, once urinated on the
Beanery's bar.
Although Held didn't encourage outrageous behavior, he was willing to take
politically incorrect stands.
When California banned smoking in bars, he didn't ban smoking in his bar.
"You don't like this place because of the smoke? Hey, there's another streetcar
coming down the road any minute," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1998.
Until he sold when he was 73, he worked full shifts at the Beanery, which now
operates in five locations. He continued to drop by the original site about once
a week until his health started declining.
Born July 1, 1925, in the Bronx, N.Y., Held grew up in an apartment above a
neighborhood grocery store owned by his parents. He served in the Marines and
moved to Los Angeles in 1950. Sally Held, his wife of 56 years, died in 2006.
He is survived by his daughters Linda Shabot and Ellen Gordon, son Philip Held
and four grandchildren.
steve.c...@latimes.com
Copyright � 2013, Los Angeles Times
Irwin Held dies at 87; longtime owner of Barney's Beanery
Back in the day, the West Hollywood burger joint was popular with rockers, less
so with gay rights activists.
By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times
8:43 PM PDT, June 18, 2013
Irwin Held, whose license-plate-festooned West Hollywood beer-and-burger spot
drew praise from rock stars but protests from gay rights activists, has died. He
was 87.
Held died Monday in his Los Angeles home, family members said. He had a kidney
ailment.
From 1970 to 1999, Held owned Barney's Beanery, a Santa Monica Boulevard
restaurant where Janis Joplin is said to have eaten her last meal and the Doors'
Jim Morrison made himself at home.
But for many in a community with a large, politically active gay population, the
restaurant's freewheeling feel was tainted by an anti-gay sign that Held
inherited when he bought the place and for years refused to take down.
Situated not far from Hollywood's movie studios, Barney's opened in 1927 and
drew generations of stars, star wannabes and stars-to-be. William Holden, Lana
Turner, Clark Gable, Rita Hayworth and many others dived into Barney's trademark
beans before Held, an El Segundo beer distributor looking for another
opportunity, heard that the tumbledown roadhouse was up for sale.
"It was run into the ground," Held's daughter Linda Shabot told The Times on
Tuesday. "I was scared to walk into the place - it looked like a dungeon."
But Held poured himself into his new business, experimenting with the menu as
his wife, Sally, kept the books. For years, a sign over the bar - "Fagots Stay
Out" - drew little notice from customers. Barney's founder, World War I veteran
John "Barney" Anthony, was said to have put it up after police in the 1940s
raided his restrooms for then-illegal homosexual activity.
Urged to remove the sign after acquiring Barney's, Held dug in his heels,
despite prolonged picketing and other protests.
"He was just one of those guys who didn't like being told what to do with his
business," said David Houston, the Beanery's current co-owner. "He was very
old-school, and this was a freedom issue."
That wasn't quite how Troy Perry, a clergyman who founded the gay-friendly
Metropolitan Community Church, saw it.
In an interview Tuesday, he said he once asked Held what the sign meant.
"It doesn't mean anything," Held said.
"Take it down!" Perry said.
At one point, Held did - only to put up others.
When West Hollywood incorporated in November 1984, it passed an
anti-discrimination ordinance. Facing a fine of $500 a day, Held reluctantly
removed the sign in January 1985 - and also quit distributing matchbooks with
the same offensive slogan.
"For the first time in my life, I know how MacArthur must have felt at
Corregidor," he told The Times, alluding to Gen. Douglas MacArthur's 1942
retreat from Japanese troops in the Philippines.
Even as the sign controversy roiled, Barney's drew a legion of music-industry
names.
"It was a landmark that meant so much to people in the rock 'n' roll community,"
said Jim Ladd, a longtime Los Angeles deejay who now hosts a show on Sirius-XM.
"It was more than a watering hole - it was a gathering spot for the rebels, the
rockers, the raconteurs and the misfits we all love to hang out with."
In a 2008 interview, Doors keyboard player Ray Manzarek, who died last month,
said he and Morrison used to get into profound talks at the Beanery about
politics, the war in Vietnam and topics as arcane as "the philosophy behind
Nietzche's existentialism and transcendence." Morrison, who died at 27 in 1971,
also would get quite drunk and, according to some accounts, once urinated on the
Beanery's bar.
Although Held didn't encourage outrageous behavior, he was willing to take
politically incorrect stands.
When California banned smoking in bars, he didn't ban smoking in his bar.
"You don't like this place because of the smoke? Hey, there's another streetcar
coming down the road any minute," he told the Philadelphia Inquirer in 1998.
Until he sold when he was 73, he worked full shifts at the Beanery, which now
operates in five locations. He continued to drop by the original site about once
a week until his health started declining.
Born July 1, 1925, in the Bronx, N.Y., Held grew up in an apartment above a
neighborhood grocery store owned by his parents. He served in the Marines and
moved to Los Angeles in 1950. Sally Held, his wife of 56 years, died in 2006.
He is survived by his daughters Linda Shabot and Ellen Gordon, son Philip Held
and four grandchildren.
steve.c...@latimes.com
Copyright � 2013, Los Angeles Times
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