Friday, March 21, 2014

Zanzabar

Advertising for the Zanzabar, formerly located at 10601 East Colfax Avenue. Though it had been around since the '40s, it is best known as a location for the Clint Eastwood film Every Which Way But Loose.

Zanzabar - photo by Tom Noel (courtesy Denver Library Western History Collection)

12 comments:

  1. Had many a beer there back in the 50 - 60s. No matter what band was playing it always said WESTERN ALL STARS on the sign.

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  2. I lived in Denver and then Aurora during the 1970's. Zanzabar was always the place to get your Urban Cowboy on, Aurora had lots of Airmen from Lowry AFB and Buckley AFB, much farther east. Zanzibar was famous!!!

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    1. I was stationed at Lowry Air Force Base, and went to Zanzabar often.

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  3. I remember being stationed at Lowry in 1976. Went to the Zanzabar to see Ray Cobb and the High Country. When I saw it in the movie Every Which Way But Loose, I stood up and shouted.

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  4. I’m a real estate broker, met with a client today that was named after this place. I had to look it up. Very cool.

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  5. I was in Denver on a romantic fools errand in 1973, and she brought me there. As a guy from The Bronx, it was a hoot!

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  6. I used to work there and had a blast. During the stock show we had to work 9 straight nights from 8-2 and by the end of the night all I wanted to do was go home, shower and go to bed. Tips were decent especially if you knew what the cowboys were drinking. One night I ended with over $150. And for a beer at $1.50 and a drink would at $1.30 it was darn good money. Those were great times.

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  7. Is the Zanza bar still there?

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    1. Sadly no. It's been torn down and replaced with a Walgreens.

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  8. I recall a place a bit West of the Zanzibar on Colfax called the Aurora Lounge... does anybody recall??

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    1. Spent a lot of my mispent youth at the Aurora Lounge in the 1970's. Lots of pretty women. My best friend from third grade on played keyboards there back then. I think the band was called The What 5. My wife is his wife's sister. Guess that make us brothers in law for the last 40 years.

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  9. I was the drummer in a rock band called Original Sin that played a one night stand at that bar in the early 70s. The manager finally had to stop our string of encores, the crowd loved us. The band broke up afterwards, long enough to bring in a new drummer, the bassist and rhythm guitarists couldn't follow my syncopation on the ride cymbal. A very good friend of mine was sleeping with everyone else but me in the band. She told me a couple of months later that my replacement couldn't keep time with a metronome.

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