We're pulling out all THE OLD DUTCH ARCHIVES for a new project so we'd sho' 'preciate any images or reminiscences you may want to share. You may contact me @ robertoreg@gmail.com

"Those rednecks from Alabama come down to the beach with one pair of underwear and a $5 bill and they don't change either one!" Cliff Stiles, owner of the Old Dutch
 
Please check out my 2013 PANAMA CITY LIVING article about the 30 year history of THE OLD DUTCH http://panamacityliving.com/roadhouse-blues-at-the-old-dutch/

 








 

THE OLD DUTCH IN THE EARLY '50s WHEN IT WAS MANAGED BY B'HAM'S JOSEPH BROTHERS (image courtesy of Dennis Joseph)
 
 Cliff Stiles on the left. Alabama Governor "Big Jim" Folsom in the middle. "Big Jim" spent his honeymoon at the Old Dutch.




 

 

 
 



 

 

from the Bay County Centennial website:http://www.baycounty100.com/Moments-Bay-County-Archive.aspx

OLD DUTCH TAVERN COMES TO THE BEACH EARLY TO MID 1930S

Frank Burghduff built the Old Dutch Tavern in the 1930s approximately 10 miles west of Panama City. Built entirely of Cyprus logs and all handmade roof shingles, this 2 ½ story building boasted a huge fireplace that took 113 tons of stone to complete. This was the beach’s first bar and one of the few man made attractions at the beach until further development began in the late 1930s. Although it also had a restaurant, by the 1960s it was known more as a nightclub that featured such acts as The Swinging Medallions, Bobby Goldsboro and the James Gang. Located near this site today is the Days Inn Panama City Beach.

 Stiles Vs. Lambert 1954 http://www.allcourtdata.com/law/case/stiles-v-lambert/czbx4k8L

 Old Dutch ringing the dinner bell in front of the club. The Old Dutch catered to the construction workers on the the beach during the late 1940s.
 
 

"My brother and sister and I used to get up early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to go clean 'the tavern'.  There was so much money on the floors that we finally gave up on picking it up, and would stack the chairs on the tables first, so we could SWEEP it up.  You know, a $20 bill was a lot of money back then, and several times we found 20’s on the floor.

Between the hotel and the tavern, we saw a lot of stuff.  My Dad would work as bouncer at the tavern.  He and Mom met a woman who would become one of their closest visitor friends over the years – Ruby Folsom Austin (yes, Cornelia’s mother).  She was down staying with us about 1971 or 72, when she let Mom and Dad be the first to know that Cornelia and George Wallace were engaged.  Lord, Ruby loved my Dad!

You can imagine it was an unusual childhood, and the Old Dutch figured heavily into it." ~ M.
" ~ M.


from Tommy Mann of the K-Otics:
We (K-OTICS) were playing at the Old Dutch in Panama City, This was the last week of May or the first week of June 1965. I finished college and left for PC that day, as I said in my interview with Garage Bands of the Sixties, my father was about to skin me alive because I was not going to work in one of the many College Grads training programs, Sears, John Deere, etc. He was at my graduation at Troy and I said bye and we were performing that night! After we had played a couple of nights we heard there was a band playing at the Old Hickory just down the road. We went to hear them and the place was a restaurant. There were only three guys there; John McElrath, Joe Morris and the lead guitar player. So you had Keyboards, Drums and guitar. They sounded really good and John was playing the Organ and an electric piano. I had not heard one before so I said then, that I had to have one in our band. John said they were waiting on the rest of the band to show up. There were only six people in the place other than us. He told us they were called the Medallions. The rest of the band showed up over the next couple of days and I wasn`t sure when they were going to stop! They ended up with eight members. The more players they added, the better they got and the bigger the crowds became. I told John that I thought they had a potential gold mine , he said why and I said I`m from the central part of Alabama and every summer there are thousands of kids from Al. etc. that come to the beach and have nowhere to go because they aren`t 21 and can`t get the clubs, like the Old Dutch, so they will love the Old Hickory Restaurant. They didn`t serve alcohol and there was no age limit. I believe it may have been the first Teen Club anywhere. During the week they played a song that they introduced as Double Shot and said they were in the process of putting it out on a record.

 John told me that it was supposed to be on DOT RECORDS within six months. We finished up at the Old Dutch and wished them luck and went on our way. About four months later we saw them again somewhere in south Georgia. I asked about their record release and John said DOT RECORDS wasn`t working out and he was looking elsewhere. I said:" good luck, I think the song is a hit". We saw them again a month or so later and they had not been able to find a way to get the record out. At that time I believe Kim and I said we were looking at recording it and I believe they may have been frustrated and said something like; go ahead somebody needs to. I still didn`t feel comfortable about it so I asked a lawyer friend to check the legality of it and he let me know about the Dick Hollerday version and said that any song that has been played on the airways was available for anybody to record and release as long as the writers were paid. Only then did I agree to proceed with Sam Phillips in Memphis. There, you have it Roberto!!


from Cliff Stiles' grandson :

" I enjoyed your article on the Old Dutch in Panama City Beach very much.  Cliff Stiles, the owner of the Old Dutch from 1944 until it was destroyed by a hurricane in 1975, was my grandfather.  I forwarded this article to my aunt, Richie Stiles Whitaker and I believe she was going to call you. 

You definitely captured the feel and vibe of the Old Dutch as a classic Southern roadhouse.  I had not reached drinking age by the time it was destroyed but I visited the tavern many times while growing up.  As a matter of fact, I saw my first strip tease act at the Old Dutch when I was in third grade.  My oldest brother, who was in college at that time took me.  The bouncer at the door looked at me and shook his head no.  He looked across the room at the manager Betty Koehler, and Betty nodded us in.  We were shown to a front row table and mostly what I remember from her act were tassles and a live boa constrictor.  I do remember my stories about this 'floor show' to friends back in elementary school were met with blank stares.

Your article said there are additional photos on your blog but I was unable to find them.  Can you tell me where to look?

Again, thank you for a great read.  I've forwarded your article to my siblings and a few others who remember the place.  Wonderful memories."

 Tuscaloosa's FRED DELOACH tells Jerry Henry about his summer at THE RED ROOSTER:
http://www.theplanetweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=837&Itemid=48

Steve Caldwell’s father, Earl Caldwell owned the building that the Old Hickory leased on Panama City Beach, not the Old Dutch which was up the beach. That’s where Bobby Goldsboro and the Webbs played. Bobby went out on his own and the Webbs became the Classics IV and they did "Spooky".....We played in bands because of our love of music, the music came from our hearts and it was a very good way to meet women.....I was in a band called the O-Men. I had become a good friends with John McElrath, the guy that put the Swingin Medallions together, and through him the O-Men got booked for a summer gig at the Beach Club which was right next to the Hang Out in Longbeach. Before we went down there we thought it was going to be wall to wall with beautiful girls in bikinis. We envisioned this as a 3 month vacation. When we got down there the real world hit us in the face. We played the matinee jam session at 3:00 every afternoon at the Beach Club. Then we came back and played from 8:00 till 9:00. Then the Pieces Of Eight (comprised mostly from the members of the original Swingin Medallions) which had the hit "The Lonely Drifter" came on from 9:00 till 10:00. Then we did 10:00 till 11:00. At 12:00 we went to the Cork and Bottle club at the Red Rooster (located in the old Beach Bank building) and gigged until 4:00 in the morning. We did this 7 days a week. I think we got paid $150 each a week and they paid the rent on the house where we stayed. It wasn’t all bad we did have some fun times but by the time summer was over we hated each other. That band was Bruce Hopper, Hatchet was the drummer because Ronnie Quarles couldn’t come, Tommy Stewart, I can’t remember who else. I do remember we had a Chevy Corvair van and like I told you by this time we hated each other. I told them to take me to the airport that I was flying back to Tuscaloosa. I got off the plane, walked in the airport and signed up for flying lessons. I went on to get a commerical license and instrument ticket. I did that for 6 years. Then I crashed an airplane. Chuck Leavell was living over in Idlewild South, most think it is a airport in New York but it is a cabin on a lake in Georgia. I stayed there while I got healed up. I slept in Scott Boyer’s bed because he was out on the road with Cowboy.....I played with TopTens for awhile with Denny Green and Tommy Stewart who had been in the Rubber Band that had started out as Johnny and the Monkeys and they played down in PC at the Old Hickory. That was Johnny Townsend, Tippy Armstrong, Johnny Wyker, and that bunch. Remember the vault was the bands break room in the Red Rooster. Tommy is playing with us and he had a Mark VI just like I did. The Mark VI had a molded case lined with red velvet. The case is sitting there open. Remember the men’s room was on the other side of the wall. This drunk stumbles in there and pees in Tommy’s case. (laughter) He threw that case away. (laughter)....

"The picture of the back of the tavern, pointing out the room for the bands, especially.  There were actually two rooms – the one directly on the back, and one more around to the right (looking from the rear).  Kasandra always got the nice room around on the side.  I remember for a time a skinny girl with bad teeth staying in the one on the back – she was a hippie, and a hooker.  She had a really hippie boyfriend who did odd jobs there, though my dad eventually ran him off for pot dealing.  Us kids found him asleep in the sand below the tavern a few weeks later, and he begged us not to tell our dad that we’d seen him.  He looked bad, and was all covered with sand.  We had more important things to do than squeal on him." ~ M.



 


The K-OTICS were playing gigs at THE OLD DUTCH the first time they ever heard the Swingin' Medallions play DOUBLE SHOT. They heard THE MEDALLIONS playing it at THE OLD HICKORY. http://hotlantamusic.blogspot.com/

from Tommy "The Swamp Mann" Mann:
I first heard “Double Shot (Of My baby’s Love)” played by a local band in Troy. They had heard a band called The (Swingin’) Medallions play it somewhere. We played at a club in Panama City, Florida, at the Old Dutch Inn and went to another club where we head The Medallions. They played “Double Shot” and said they were going to record it. We started playing the song like most bands and figured they would release the record. We saw them months later and they said Dot Records refused to do the record. I, we well as my drummer, told them we were thinking of recording it and they said, “Go ahead.” I knew that there had been a version years before so I had a contact research the history and found the Dick Holler & The Holidays (original) version. Since the song had already been recorded it was perfectly okay for us – or anyone – to record. 

Both the K-OTICS and THE MEDALLIONS had hits with DOUBLE SHOT.

 


 

 

"You probably don’t have a picture of C. F. Stiles in his classic “old rich guy” state, from the 70’s – he looked just like the Monopoly game Rich Guy!  He always dressed in a business suit, and was very rotund with a mostly bald head and BIG white moustache!  That time we traveled with him to Birmingham, he told us stories all the way up 231 and 31, about every little town and hamlet along the way – he WAS the epitome of old-school Alabamian.  He pointed out Prattmont, the north side of Prattville, where I’d actually come to live for twenty years as an adult.  I remember seeing a political cartoon of him (I think from the Birmingham newspaper), hanging in the Old Dutch Motel office.  It was a “Believe-it-or-Not” kind of illustrated collage, of him and his accomplishments.

Another old PC Beach pioneer, Ira Jenkins, had a barbecue joint across the street from the Motel, and I remember him and Mr. Stiles cussing one another (jokingly, of course) while I was painting the two harpoon guns at the Motel entrance door.  You can imagine what sport it was to see this fine old codger yelling across the street at another old codger, “Ira Jenkins, you’re a g-d sonofabitch!”, and then Mr. Jenkins yelling back, “Cliff Stiles, you’re TWO g-d sonofabitches!”  When he came to town, we were in heaven, like all small dogs are when they’re in the shadow of the big dog!

I learned a lot about the wealthy from Mr. Stiles." ~ M.

 

 

"

"My parents hired on at the Old Dutch in the summer of 1970 as maintenance man and housekeeper.  My brother and sister and I (13, 12, and 11) were paid a little bit to keep the yards clean at the motel and tavern.  I was lucky enough to be Cliff Stiles’ house maintenance boy, and went to his spacious cottage on the other side of the Holiday Inn, to cut the grass, paint, etc.  He once took me and my brother and Dad to Birmingham to bring a truck back, putting us up in his Redmont Hotel – boy, we thought we were UPTOWN!

Many stories.  That summer, 1970, he brought the beautiful Venezuelan stripper, Diosa Kasandra, to the Old Dutch.  She (real name Michelle Bruno) fell in love with my family, and visited us every year after.  She’s still one of our closest family friends, retired now from ABC, where she was Peter Jennings’ makeup woman.  I have recent pictures, and she’s still pretty hot, if you can believe it’s possible to say that about a 71-year-old woman (think Raquel Welch)!  I was the only 12-year-old around who had autographed naked pictures of a woman he knew personally.  The famous singer Joe South (“Games People Play”) came to play there that summer, and he absolutely fell in love with Kasandra – he chased her around like a puppy, and she just wasn’t interested – she had been a world traveler, and was not easily impressed."~ M.
 

"You had asked about EDGY – man, in 1970 we saw it all!  Braless was in “full swing” you might say.  Hippies were really beginning to be a part of the beach scene.   And bar fights, sometimes there were wonderful brawls in the Tavern.  Bobby Bolton, a retired policeman on Panama City Beach, can fill you in on LOTS of stories of that sort.  He’s also a pretty good friend of Betty Kohler’s, I believe.  He’s one of my favorite people on earth, though he probably doesn’t know it – just a good man.  He may still be a city commissioner on PCB, I know that he was, around 2007.  Another of the policemen at the time, Mike Odom, my dad really liked.  Odom was not a big man, but he could surely DRAG ‘EM out, as my dad used to say.  And my dad liked nothing better than draggin’ ‘em out of the tavern!

The Old Dutch WAS the La Vela and Spinnaker of the 70’s.  Anybody in Alabama and Georgia that had not been there, pretty much had not been to PCB.  I remember on several occasions people seeing others from their hometowns in “compromising” situations!  Folks came here to have a good time, and not worry about pretenses.  I remember the dance, the “Funky Chicken”, and the effect that had on the crowds – it was just too much to describe.  One of the plump maids put on a demonstration one night that brought down the house!

I sat in my first Corvette in 1970, listened to my first 8-track player, learned how to clean motel rooms, and do laundry in HUGE machines.  We had an Israeli couple hire on to help, and the wife ran the laundry while the husband helped Dad with repairs and maintenance.  One day the guy cooked fish for us – it was a pan full of CHOFERS, the little trash fish that everybody uses for bait.

Later on, we had a black man, J. D. Sandlin, to haul the garbage.  He was a wise old sage type, and taught us many songs and other things.  He was with us in the winter still.  One night he had killed a raccoon in the dumpster, and gathered him up and headed into town.  A day or two later, Dad had to go get him out of jail, he’d had too much of a drunk good time with that ‘coon.  He was old then, I hope he had a good rest of his life.

Another helper was a tiny short man named Eddie Yeomans.  He was from up around B’ham, and I believe he had worked for Stiles up there.  Eddie also became a long-time friend, and I last saw him visiting my parents about 1981, very old and in poor health.  I think I remember my Mom saying he’d died a few months later.  A lot of the people that came and went at the OD during that summer and winter were part of our lives around Panama City for many years." ~ M.

 

 

OLD DUTCH LAWSUIT

1956 lawsuit brought by Cliff Stiles against the tenant of the Old Dutch, H.H. Lambert of Auburn. The defendent, Lambert, claimed Stiles refused to fix the roof around the chimney after a September, 1953
storm.
http://174.123.24.242/leagle/xmlResult.aspx?page=4&xmldoc=195687894So2d784_1840.xml&docbase=CSLWAR1-1950-1985&SizeDisp=7

Subject:
Re C.F. Stiles or Betty Koehler
To:
robertoreg2003@yahoo.com

When I played there in the summer of '64, "Old Man" Stiles was the owner of the Old Dutch and lived in B'ham. He would come down once in a while but I never got to know him very well. Betty supervised the bartenders and barmaids and was pretty much "all business"; but, a really nice lady once you got to know her. I seem to recall that her husband was an avid scuba diver, perhaps he even did this for a living?[THE NAVY LAB WHICH HAS ALWAYS EMPLOYED DIVERS IS LOCATED JUST WEST OF HATHAWAY BRIDGE WHEN YOU COME INTO PCB: ed]

In 64, the club was actually run by a man with the last name of Trammel(sp). Trammel was okay, but had a bad habit of playing some pretty harsh practical jokes. For example, the butt of one of his jokes was a drummer from Dothan named Bruce White. I got to know Bruce through Wilbur Walton, Jr. when the two of them would come down to our gigs at the Dutch.

At that time at the Old Dutch, we were playing seven nights a week from 9 to 2, and two jam sessions on weekends. Trust me when I say that with this many hours on the stage we would welcome anyone to sit in. But, of course it was always a real treat to hear Wilbur sing, and Bruce was really an excellent drummer - very showey and had an strong, quick left hand.

Anyway, for those of you who remember Bruce, may recall that he was always after the young ladies. And, he also never seem to check I.D.'s although it may have been prudent to do so with the case of some of them?

Well, Trammel apparently had heard of this rumor during the time Wilbur and Bruce were playing the Dutch the year before us. Deviously, he arranged for a pal of his who was with state police or the sheriff's dept to show up at the band's door below the Old Dutch (Note - there was an apartment which was always provided for the bands since the pay was never that great).

The cop handed Bruce a fake warrant for his arrest, supposedly taken out by some girl's father, and put him in the backseat of the police car. Then, he actually drove Bruce from the Dutch all the way to the Hathaway bridge going into PC. There he turned around, came back to the Old Dutch, and dropped him off in the parking lot where Trammel had the whole place waiting outside and laughing. Did anyone really deserve a joke like this? Well, probably Bruce did.
But, did it teach him a lesson?
Now asking that question -- That's a real joke.






From:
"Ben Burford"
To:
"robert register" 
Subject:
Cliff Stiles

Cliff Stiles.
He used to own the Old Dutch, of course, and several other properties
down in P.C.
My father, Frank Burford, used to do architecture work for him, and had
done a renovation to the Old Dutch at one time, and to a buffet diner
he
owned (can't remember the name).
He had a big black mynah bird that stayed in the foyer of the
restaurant, and he would entertain the customers when they came in. His
famous line was "Birds can't talk."
Har har!
BENJI [alleged brother of the Brenda Burford] http://chevy6.com/

 


REMEMBERING EDDIE HINTON & THE SPOOKS by John Curry
reprinted with permission from Old Tuscaloosa Magazine #31 [1997]

In the Spring of ' 65 an opportunity developed for the band that changed us and Eddie forever. There was a club down on Panama City Beach called the Old Dutch Inn. It was the college hangout. All the hot local bands and a lot of regional and national bands wound up being featured there from time-to-time. We were rehearsing one day when Eddie showed up, all excited. He said,"Aw, man, this is it! They want us to be the house band for the summer. They're going to pay us one hundred dollars each per week and give us free food and lodging! This is our break, guys! We're fixin' to bust out of here!"

Well, Chiz had just graduated and was also married and had a son. He had to do a tour in the army and was to report to Ft. Jackson as a second Lieutenant in August, having been in the ROTC. Viet Nam was also heating up. As for me, I had graduated in ' 63, gotten married, became a father, and we had just opened Curry furniture store that spring. We couldn't take the job no matter what.

Eddie was real disappointed and he said, "Well you just can't do this to me. I'm going to go down there and figure out something. I'll be back in the Fall." Fall was our "season". We played fraternity parties and clubs and we had booked a great number of jobs already for the coming season.

Well, Eddie went down to Panama City Beach and put together a band and took the job at The Old Dutch Inn. He called the group the Five Minutes. He never came back to the Spooks. Our band went through it biggest transition. David Reynolds moved to lead guitar, Mike Spiller was added as singer-keyboard player and Gene Haynes played bass. Later we added Jimmy Butts as vocalist and horn player Fred DeLoach.

FROM THE WEBSITE OF ZANE RECORDS WHICH SELLS EDDIE'S MUSIC:'The Spooks' band existed in Tuscaloosa around 1961, and according to member and fellow AU student John Curry was " A simple little group that played a few old John Hooker tunes,The Ventures, Buddy Holly and others. We went through several evolutionary changes as most bands do, but we really needed a vocalist."

'The Spooks' had got word that Eddie Hinton was pretty good, Eddie told 'The Spooks' they were all crazy, he didn't sing and they didn't need him. Somehow they persuaded Eddie that they didn't mind if he learned on the job, which the shy seventeen year old did, and eventually taking up guitar and harp to make 'The Spooks' one of the most sought after fraternity bands of the area. During the Spring of '65 Eddie informed the band that the 'The Old Dutch Inn' a club and college hang out on Panama City Beach wanted the Spooks to be the house band for the summer season. Some of the members had other commitments that summer and could not go, so Eddie went alone and joined the band the 5 Men-its, which went through several line ups, but after one member left became 'The Minutes'. Members of the 'Minutes' included Johnny Sandlin - Drums, Mabron McKinny - Base and Paul Hornsby on keyboard.
http://www.zanerecords.com/artists/hinton/biog2.html

Now Pensacola's Papa Don Tells How THE 5 MEN-ITS & The Old Dutch fit into THE STORY OF HOW JAMES & BOBBY PURIFY[formerly known asTHE DOTHAN SEXTET] CAME TO RECORD wwwwwwwwwwwyker's "Let Love Come Between Us":

CLICK ON THE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST TO READ MORE FROM PAPA DON

How did you find "Let Love Come Between Us"?

A guy named Fred Stiles played in a band called the Five Minutes. The Five Minutes, out of Muscle Shoals. They were a great little band. And I had Papa Don Surf Stomps every weekend. I had them on Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday afternoon. I rented this big huge place, a casino, right on the Pensacola beach. And I had Papa Don Surf Stomps. I mean, everybody from the Allman Joys (later know as the Allman Brothers) to the Five Minutes, Dan Penn & the Pallbearers, they all came down and played for me. And Fred Stiles and I got to be good friendsnice guy.
Fred Stiles brought me this song. He said, Man, I found you a hit! I think a friend of his wrote it, and Al Gallico published it.
I always wanted to cut a song for Al Gallicos publishing company. I just loved him. He was a great publisher out of New York. And Gallico did his little number as a publisher, and really helped promote it too.
I was cutting a beach song. I was cutting a Papa Don Surf Stomp song. A real good beach hit. Its one of my favorite records that I cut on the Purifys.http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:7OyFcOvFH4wJ:www.sundazed.com/scene/exclusives/papa_don_exclusive.html+casino+pensacola+beach+papa+don&hl=en

& ONE LAST TALE FROM THE OLD DUTCH WHERE THE ROCKIN' GIBRALTARS' RUSTY CRUMPTON TELLS US HOW HE MET THE LATE RANDY LEWIS, THE LEGENDARY BASS PLAYER FOR MOSE JONES:

Haven't been to PC in a while, but the Summer of '65, I just graduated Lee HS in Mungumry & woke up the next day on the beech behind the Old Dutch. I heard some music, I think it was mid-day...& I peeped in (didn't have my fake ID) & saw a one-armed guy playing bass. A year or so later, I was playing with the Gibraltars in a sunday jam & the one armed guy came in & started jamming with us. He was good. I wish I could remember his name.

THE OLD DUTCH RULES!

 

 

New Yorker Frank Burghduff first came to Panama City in 1935 and fell in love with the place. The next year he returned and began construction of THE OLD DUTCH TAVERN. It took two years to build out of cypress logs and handmade shingles. 113 tons of stone were used in the construction of the fireplace. The OLD DUTCH operated every tourist season until 1976.

 
 
 
 


 

Photographs of the interior and exterior of THE OLD DUTCH are desired for this research project. 
 
Burghduff advertised that over $10,000 dollars worth of curios were on display inside the tavern.
 
 From a 1942 ad,"Don't fail to bring your friends to see the $10,000 exhibit of curios from all over the world, free of charge."
 


 


The western portion of Panama City Beach was so isolated that planes could land on the beach.

The Old Dutch was the original bar on Panama City Beach. Many musicians got their start in show business playing gigs at this tavern seven days and seven nights a week. Burghduff's wife Etta died in Dothan in September of 1939. By 1942, there was a new Mrs. Burghduff.

Burghduff was accused of being a Nazi spy during World War II. This may have been a ploy to force government confiscation of his valuable property.

By the early Fifties, Birmingham's C.F. "Cliff" Stiles owned the Old Dutch. He built an adjoining motel and eventually owned many other properties in the Panama City area including two Holiday Inns, the Dixie-Sherman Hotel and various cottages. Stiles routinely hosted conventions of the Alabama Hotel Owners Association in Panama City.
In 1963, Stiles announced that he was building the first Holiday Inn on the beach on property just west of THE OLD DUTCH. When the Holiday Inn opened for the 1964 tourist season, it was advertised as the tallest building on the Gulf of Mexico (four stories and 100 rooms).

PHOTO COURTESY OF BILL ELROD~ This single un-air conditioned room was the free accommodations Stiles provided for bands that included five or more members. In 1970, rooms at THE OLD DUTCH ranged from $6 to $15 a night but this was far too expensive for musicians.
Cliff Stiles died in Las Vegas in June of 1975 and in September of the same year, Hurricane Eloise hit Panama City. This spelled the end of the 40 year run of THE OLD DUTCH.

An OLD DUTCH story from THE TITANS, a rock band out of Auburn: " We once did a two-week engagement at 'The Old Dutch', a well-known rock club at Panama City Beach, Florida. After the first show we went running on the beach for an hour, and all of us woke up two days later with really bad bronchitis. It was the funniest thing, seeing bottles of Chloraseptic all around the stage, with us spraying our throats 2 or 3 times an hour just to keep going. We packed the place, though. Mondays off, but 2 shows on Saturdays and Sundays, for a total of 8 shows a week. I'm surprised we survived it." http://www.loudandclean.com/titans/

 "When we had the Old Dutch, of course the regular restaurant had long closed, but there was a snack/lunch counter in the front of the tavern, by the big fireplace with the Tarpon anchor on it.  The main bar was on your left as you went in, and the snack counter on the right.  The laundry/storage under the tavern had long shelves filled with the former dinnerware of the Old Dutch, and you now own two pieces.

If I remember correctly, you might get grits or some portion of your breakfast short order served in just such a cup as you have.  Definitely the saucer would have been under your coffee cup.  Occasionally, Cliff Stiles would take my mother into town to the vegetable markets so she could load up for an all-you-can-eat private home-cooking banquet, cooked at the counter, and served on big tables in the front.  Nearly everyone who had businesses on Panama City Beach was from Alabama, or at least some other rural/southern place, and the desire for real home cooking approached religious fervor.  Of course it was one of the most difficult things to come by for the permanent beach folks, so they’d beg to be invited.  Having nine children, Mom was amply qualified to pull off a large feed, and Mr. Stiles would actually cry when we’d all sit down and dig in.  Chicken, fried okra, my Mom’s more-than-famous cream peas and crispy flat corn-bread, the whole works.  Going to the market with an unlimited budget was certainly a wonderfully new experience for her, and of course she enjoyed the adoration heaped on her by the who’s-who of Panama City Beach.  This included Dick Arnold (Holiday Inns), Ira Jenkins (the café owner across the street usually engaged in cursing matches with a laughing Cliff Stiles), Ruby Folsom Austin (Big Jim’s sister and George Wallace’s future mother-in-law), and numerous others.  Both Mr. Stiles and Mama Creel were in their element.  As I believe I’ve told you, Big Ruby loved my Dad completely.

I can remember fetching these items from the laundry whenever we were going to put on a big buffet. So, when we left the Old Dutch, a number of these were in our family’s eclectic collection of dishware.  They were still in use by Mom up to her death in 2011.  I had three cups, and one saucer, and am only too happy to share with you.  I’m sure there are more of these scattered all over Bay County, but I’ll bet that not one of the current possessor’s has any idea what they have.  I usually don’t forget things like that, and am a rabid collector of nostalgia, especially my own.

I’ll be trying to get stories from my brother and his wife when I have time.  I’d really like to see Michelle (Kasandra) in NYC and write down some specific celebrity stories, but have no idea when I might ever do that.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy having these items – maybe not so rare in existence, but extremely rare in documentation.  It gave me great pleasure to send them, and I hope that you will, indeed, have a drink from the cup.

Best to you, Robert!

Myron


"Happy to be at The Old Dutch", but do WHAT......"Teen Angel", 12 noon till 2 AM. Whew. Paying 'dem dues. I almost had to sing a song. Almost...thank GOD.
Sonny coughed all night and 'on that fateful night the car was stalled upon the railroad track..........'. The RGs were cramed in a moldy, roachy basement and they were never invited back...or something like that. HELP! I'm dying up here." Rusty Crumpton, guitarist for THE ROCKIN' GIBRALTARS

"My throat was ate up." Sonny Grier, lead vocalist for THE ROCKIN' GIBRALTARS