Mickie Finn's

Last updated
Mickie Finn's nightclub in 1968 Mickie Finn's San Diego in 1968.jpg
Mickie Finn's nightclub in 1968

Mickie Finn's (also known as Mickey Finn's) was a nightclub in San Diego, California, established in 1960 by piano player Fred E. Finn (Fred Soetje) and his wife Barbara, who used the stage name "Mickie Finn". Finn later extended the brand to a second club in Beverly Hills, a television show on NBC in 1966, a series of compilation record albums issued from 1966 on, and a stage show continuing into the 21st century.

Contents

Nightclub

Fred and Barbara Soetje opened Mickie Finn's on October 28, 1960. They converted an old warehouse on University Avenue in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego, into a "Gay '90s / Roaring '20s / Swinging '30s" nightclub. Finn was a piano player from San Francisco and had recently received a business administration degree from San Jose State College. [1] He considered Washington and Hawaii for his planned nightclub, but chose San Diego because of logistics—he could not afford to transport his collection of old nickelodeons, 1890s pictures, and various turn-of-the-century items, with which he planned to decorate the new club, to the more distant locations. [2]

Mickie Finn's had seating for 600 people, but often had larger crowds. It grossed over $250,000 in its first year. Over the next 14 years, four million customers consumed 250,000 gallons of beer. Banjo player Red Watson, Finn's musical partner in San Francisco, played at the club until 1965, when he moved on to play in Las Vegas. [1] Finn's wife then played banjo at the club until the couple divorced in 1973. [2]

Finn promoted the club with various publicity stunts. He raced a 1927 Seagraves fire engine at the El Cajon Speedway, and he fired an old cannon after every score by the San Diego Chargers football team at all home games. [2] In the early 1970s, the Finns opened a second Mickie Finn's nightclub in Beverly Hills on Restaurant Row, in the new Los Angeles Emporium. The San Diego location closed in 1974. [2] Finn's second wife, Cathy, took over the banjo duties from 1980 on. [2]

Summer TV show

In 1965, Finn was approached by television producer Bill Yagemann about doing a television series featuring the band and named after the club. [3] Mickie Finn's was a summer replacement series for the failed NBC sitcom Mona McCluskey , which had starred Juliette Prowse and Denny Miller on Thursday nights. The show's Nielsen ratings were better than its sitcom predecessor's, but were not competitive with ABC's hit Peyton Place in the time slot, [3] and NBC did not renew the show for the 1966–67 fall season.

Record albums and singles

Dunhill Records, run by Lou Adler, signed Fred E. and Mickie Finn in 1966 during the run of their television show. Through the late '70s, Dunhill issued their singles (sometimes in simultaneous batches of four or five), and several albums (Mickie Finn's Live, Mickie Finn's: America's #1 Speakeasy, The Now Sound of Mickie Finn's, and Saturday Night at Mickie Finn's). Neither the albums nor the singles ever "climbed the charts", but are sought today as collectors' items.

Stage show

After the television show ended, the Mickie Finn stage show began headlining at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas in October, 1966, and continued to play other Las Vegas clubs until 1988. [2] Fred Finn, with second wife Cathy on banjo, brought the show back to San Diego twice: first in 1988, for four performances at the Fiesta Dinner Theatre; and again in June 1990 for one month at the Hahn Cosmopolitan Theatre, produced in association with Scott Pedersen. [2] From 1990 on, Finn continued his stageshow presence throughout the US from a base in Florida, changing the show's name from Mickie Finn's' to Mickey Finn's. [4]

Related Research Articles

Redd Foxx American comedian and actor

John Elroy Sanford, better known by his stage name Redd Foxx, was an American stand-up comedian and actor. Foxx gained success with his raunchy nightclub acts during the civil rights movement. Known as the "King of the Party Records", he performed on more than 50 records in his lifetime. He portrayed Fred G. Sanford on the television show Sanford and Son and starred in The Redd Foxx Show and The Royal Family. His film projects included All the Fine Young Cannibals (1960), Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970), Norman... Is That You? (1976) and Harlem Nights (1989).

Alan Reed American actor

Alan Reed was an American actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series. He also appeared in many films, including Days of Glory, The Tarnished Angels, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Viva Zapata!, and Nob Hill, and various television and radio series.

Irene Ryan American actress (1902–1973)

Irene Ryan was an American actress and comedienne who found success in vaudeville, radio, film, television, and Broadway. She is most widely known for her portrayal of Daisy May "Granny" Moses, mother-in-law of Buddy Ebsen's character Jed Clampett on the long-running TV series The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971). She was nominated for Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1963 and 1964 for the role.

Bobby Van American actor and dancer (1928–1980)

Robert Jack Stein, better known by the stage name Bobby Van, was a musical actor and dancer, best known for his career on Broadway, in films and television from the 1950s through the 1970s. He was also a game show host and panelist.

Juliet Prowse Dancer, actress

Juliet Anne Prowse was a dancer and actress whose four-decade career included stage, television and film. She was raised in South Africa, where her family emigrated after World War II. Known for her attractive legs, she was described after her death as having "... arguably the best legs since Betty Grable."

Joseph Timothy Thomerson is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Jack Deth in the Trancers film series and for his work in numerous low-budget features and for his comedic television roles.

Ken Berry American actor, dancer and singer.

Kenneth Ronald Berry was an American actor, dancer, and singer. Berry starred on the television series F Troop, The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D. and Mama's Family. He also appeared on Broadway in The Billy Barnes Revue, headlined as George M. Cohan in the musical George M! and provided comic relief for the medical drama Dr. Kildare with Richard Chamberlain in the 1960s.

Mickey Jones American musician and actor

Mickey Jones was an American musician and actor. He played drums with acts such as Trini Lopez and Bob Dylan, with whom he played on his 1966 world tour. He became a founding member of The First Edition with singer Kenny Rogers, and played on all of their albums. Overall, Jones played on 17 gold records from his musical career of over two decades.

Jack Carter (comedian) American comedian and actor

Jack Chakrin, known by his stage name Jack Carter, was an American comedian, actor and television presenter. Brooklyn-born Carter had a long-running comedy act similar to fellow rapid-paced contemporaries Milton Berle and Morey Amsterdam.

Shecky Greene American comedian

Shecky Greene is an American comedian. He is known for his nightclub performances in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he became a headliner in the 1950s and '60s. He has appeared in several films, including Tony Rome; History of the World, Part I; and Splash. In television, he has guest-starred on such television shows as Love, American Style and Combat!, and later Laverne & Shirley and Mad About You.

Elizabeth Fearn "Finn" Carter is an American former actress. She is best known for her role in the 1990 film Tremors.

Cheetahs Gentlemans club in San Diego & Las Vegas

Cheetah's Topless Club is a "gentleman's club" or topless bar located in San Diego, and Las Vegas, best known for being featured in the 1995 movie Showgirls, and also for having been owned by Mike Galardi, a nightclub owner who was investigated by the FBI with a controversial invocation of the Patriot Act. The Cheetah's club in San Diego is a full nude club where no alcohol is served. It has achieved notoriety for having been frequented by some of the September 11 hijackers.

Don Grady American actor, composer, musician

Don Louis Agrati, better known as Don Grady, was an American actor, composer, and musician. He was known foremost as one of the Mickey Mouse Mouseketeers and as Robbie Douglas on the long-running ABC / CBS television series My Three Sons.

Ben Powers American actor (1950–2015)

Alton Adelbert Powers, known professionally as Ben Powers, was an American actor. Powers was best known for his role as Thelma Evans's husband, Keith Albert Anderson, during the sixth and final season of the CBS sitcom Good Times (1978–79). Powers was also a cast member on the NBC television comedy series Laugh-In (1977–78).

Joey Forman

Joseph Forman was an American comedian and comic actor.

Cathleen Scott is a Los Angeles Times bestselling American true-crime writer and investigative journalist best known for penning the biographies and true crime books The Killing of Tupac Shakur and The Murder of Biggie Smalls, both bestsellers in the United States and United Kingdom, and was the first to report Shakur's death. She grew up in La Mesa, California and later moved to Mission Beach, California, where she was a single parent to a son, Raymond Somers Jr. Her hip-hop books are based on the drive-by shootings that killed the rappers six months apart in the midst of what has been called the West Coast-East Coast war. Each book is dedicated to the rappers' mothers.

Mickey Manners American actor, singer, dancer and stand-up comedian

Mickey Manners was an American actor, singer, dancer, and stand-up comedian.

Maura Anne Soden is an American actress and producer.

<i>Mickie Finns</i> (TV series)

Mickie Finn's was a summer replacement variety series for the failed NBC sitcom Mona McCluskey, which had starred Juliet Prowse and Denny Miller on Thursday nights. The variety program was based on the San Diego nightclub of the same name.

The Four King Cousins are an American female harmonizing pop singing group.

References

  1. 1 2 Red Watson webpage from the Jazz Banjo website Archived 2010-08-30 at the Wayback Machine
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Churnin, Nancy "Recall Mickey Finn Show? It's Stomping Back to S. D." San Diego Spotlight: Stage section of the LOS ANGELES TIMES (June 8, 1990) available online at the online Los Angeles Times archive
  3. 1 2 Mickie Finn's webpage on the HARMONIZE.COM website
  4. Mickey Finn Stage Show website

Coordinates: 32°44′53.1″N117°9′14.6″W / 32.748083°N 117.154056°W / 32.748083; -117.154056