The Street Seen: Circle Bar - Postscript
The Street Seen: Circle Bar - Postscript
2926 Main Street @ Kinney
Long-time Main Street restaurateur and entrepreneur, Joe Pipersky suggests including some additional history about the Circle Bar from the Jack Garner years.
Long time bartender “Gypsy” Spheeris
Jack Garner on the Holy Guacamole mural
Juanita Ilene "Gypsy" Gary (1920–2008). Born in Breezy Hill, Graham, Kansas, in 1940 Juanita joins the traveling “Magic Empire” circus as a ticket taker. She begins a relationship with circus owner, Greek immigrant strongman Andrew Apostole "Curly" Spheeris (1900–1951). They have two daughters (motion picture director Penelope Spheeris and art director Linda Spheeris) and two sons (musician Jimmie Spheeris (1949 -1984) and (unknown)). In 1951, Andrew Spheeris is shot and killed in Alabama. Juanita moves to California and supports her family by working in factories and bars. During the Circle Bar’s Jack Garner years (1975 to 1991), Juanita, known to one and all as “Gypsy,” tends bar and nurses egos. Still working in her 70s, she is invariably described as the busty, raunchy soul of Circle Bar. Lived at 1204 Bay St. Died in Santa Monica (aged 88).
We couldn’t find a photo of Jack Garner. Joe says the mural on the ceiling of Holy Guacamole (“God Hands Adam the Taco of Life”) uses Jack Garner's visage as the face of God. It is painted from memory, as Jack had already passed five years before the painting is made. The beard is not his - it just goes with the Michelangelo version.
.jpg){kind=link}