Just seven years after New Yorkers rose up at Stonewall, three years after homosexuality stopped being classified as a mental disorder and a year before Harvey Milk was elected in California, the Anderson family opened a bar in Clearwater. It was 1976.
They didn’t do it to make history. There was enough of that going on; the U.S. was celebrating 200 years, Democrat Jimmy Carter bested the Republican incumbent in the presidential race and two men named Steve founded Apple Computer Company.
Like so many others — Clearwater’s population grew by over 30,000 in the 1970s — the Andersons had moved to Florida for change. That eventually led the late Gail Anderson and son Mike, natives of Michigan, to purchase what would become Pro Shop Pub.
Gail also enlisted her daughter Patti for support. Now Patti Lux, she owns the bar to this day.
“I was in Tallahassee going to college, attending Florida State University,” she recalls. “I had just entered into getting my master’s degree when my mother called me up and asked me to leave school and come down to help them open the business… It was supposed to be a sports bar.”
Named for Mike’s affinity for golf, the venue featured a small TV to watch sports and was set to include a golf club repair shop. Formerly Wings Restaurant in the 50s, Confucius Tea Garden in the 60s and Kountry Kitchen just before becoming Pro Shop Pub, it also offered food.
Cheeseburgers, steak hoagies and ham and cheese sandwiches were $1.75, hamburgers, stacked ham sandwiches and hot dogs were $1.65 and all were served with coleslaw, available a la carte for 35 cents. Fries were 30 cents more.
Still, patrons didn’t bite — at least until after the first year. That’s when the Andersons hired Nancy O’Neill, a bartender who happened to be a lesbian. She changed everything.
“That’s when all the gay clientele started to come,” Lux says warmly. “After that it just bloomed. It blew up and blossomed.”
Tom Bruckman was among the clientele. Now 89, the Clearwater resident has been going to Pro Shop Pub since 1978, when he was closeted and 42.
He says he spends around two hours there nearly every day. Bruckman proudly calls himself “the oldest person who goes to the Pro” and “the Pro’s oldest customer.”
“Mike called it Pro Shop because he wanted to get golfers in,” Bruckman says. “He was going to sell golf clubs and stuff and that didn’t work out — business was terrible. So he was about to close when [O’Neill], who used to come for lunch, said ‘let me give it a shot.’
“She was a lesbian and business really picked up,” he continues. “He said, ‘what are you doing?’ and she said, ‘I’m bringing all my friends.’ Suddenly the family had a gay bar.”
That change positioned Pro Shop Pub for the future, Bruckman says. He calls the venue “a survivor,” advising it has “outlasted all of the bars that opened and closed in the area.”
GayBarchives agrees. Founded by Tampa Bay’s Art Smith, the project works to “build the world’s largest archive of logos and stories of gay bars past and present, preserving the memories of the places that were so significant to the growth and development of the LGBTQ+ community.”
It chronicles spaces across the nation to that end. GayBarchives’ Facebook group alone has over 40,000 members to support its efforts.
“I know of no other gay bar in Florida that has continuously served our community longer,” Smith says. “Pro Shop has withstood the test of time.”
While other venues may have served the community longer, he notes, they’ve not done so without periodic closures or name changes.
This impressive feat is despite Pro Shop Pub’s location — a challenge Lux recognizes as well. She calls downtown Clearwater a “dead town.”
“It’s not located in a ‘gayborhood’ or thriving queer mecca,” Smith explains. “The city is best known for tourists and scientologists. Nonetheless they have proudly served the local community since America’s bicentennial.
“Only about 1% of bars of any type survive the half-century mark,” he adds. “That places the Pro Shop Pub firmly in the top 1% of all bars for its incredible lifespan.”
Cost has played a part in its longevity. By the early 80s, “sparkling Clearwater’s finest liquor bar” offered happy hour well drinks for 80 cents, Bloody Mary specials for $1.05 and other deals.
While prices have certainly increased, happy hour wells are $3.25, top shelf liquor is $6 and beers range from $4-5, Lux says the Pro Shop has never been “all about money.” Especially once it started serving a greater purpose.
“It wasn’t about getting rich. It was about being there for people that needed a place to go,” she says. “When we first opened my mom’s car got vandalized a couple of times, but it was a safe haven where people knew they could come and enjoy themselves.
“It was just such a warm feeling … the community embraced my mother, embraced me and made the business very successful,” Lux continues. “It was phenomenal, the love that they gave back to us. It felt good to give people a place to come be themselves.”
Pro Shop Pub didn’t just do that for patrons. It also did it for employees.
“It was the first gay bar I ever went into,” says Jeff M., who also bartended from 1987-1989. “I enjoyed the neighborhood feel of the bar. The people were great and it was a fun place to work.”
He remembers drag shows to raise funds for those in need, particularly those impacted by HIV/AIDS — which as it did to the era’s LGBTQ+ community at large, greatly impacted Pro Shop Pub’s clientele — and playing with the bar’s softball team.
“I would dress in campy drag and be our cheerleader,” Jeff recalls. “We would play straight teams like the team from the owner, Mike, and another straight bar on St. Pete Beach. Their team was much better than ours and I would flirt and try to get them to miss a hit by distracting them.
“We would go the straight bar after when we played in St. Pete Beach and party or they would come to the Pro Shop Pub after coming to Clearwater to party,” he continues. “We are talking macho men who were firefighters, cops, etcetera. We had a great sense of respect for each other … and we all had a laugh.”
Timothy LeHew-Jewel found Pro Shop Pub in 1989. He and his late partner, another bartender, ran “a little sex/novelty shop” called The Leather Rooster in the early 90s. It “didn’t last too long.”
The duo “hung out there a lot,” LeHew-Jewel says. “While we loved going to the clubs, the Pro Shop had more of a local bar feel and a lot of our friends were there often enough… I remember watching the OJ Simpson chase there. I’m so glad it’s still open. I feel like it’s a part of me and my history.”
Few may understand that better than Steven Pearson. He started bartending at Pro Shop Pub in 1995 and retired from the venue last year.
Lux, who lovingly wishes he would return, says she doesn’t know if the bar would’ve made it to 50 years without him.
“Steve came to work there before our 25th anniversary,” she remembers. Her mother passed away not long after.
“I don’t know what I would have done without him — he was there holding me up, helping me through my grief,” Lux explains. “He was bound and determined that Pro Shop was going to stay the way it was. He was my rock.”
“Everyone called her Miss Gail,” Pearson remembers the bar’s matriarch. “I was a pallbearer for her funeral — she was the kindest, most beautiful person and I loved her a lot. Gail was and Patti is so loyal to the community.”
Now 68, Pearson started bartending at 18 in New Orleans. He found Pro Shop Pub after relocating to Florida in 1988.
“I just wanted to be in the community and that was how you could do it,” he says of becoming a bartender. “It used to be nearly impossible to get a job in the gay community—everybody wanted to work in a bar just to meet people.”
Helping others connect was a key part of his job, something Pearson remembers fondly.
“About five years ago I went to Office Depot to get some things printed and a guy asked me if I worked at Pro Shop,” he says. “I said I did and he told me I introduced him to his lover. He showed me a picture he had in his wallet and said, ‘He passed away, I can’t thank you enough. It was the happiest time of my life.’
“That happened a lot, being there so long. I was 38 when I started working there, the oldest person working there — and I was the oldest person working there when I retired,” he laughs. “It’s something I cherish. I was fortunate enough to work in the gay community all of my life. A lot of people weren’t able to be themselves all their lives and they would come to the Pro Shop where they could, no matter what.”
Jamayal Douglas, another patron-turned-bartender, agrees. He worked at the venue in the mid 2000s and says he’s thrilled to see it reach this year’s milestone.
Both he and Pearson say Pro Shop Pub has lasted 50 years because of its roots — Lux and her family have always owned the property — and its willingness to evolve.
For the first time in over five decades, it will become a non-smoking facility in May. After going cash only for a time, Pro Shop Pub will also start taking credit cards again next month.
Before those changes, the venue will officially celebrate 50 years April 18. Supporters are invited to “travel back in time” to 1976 by dressing in 70s attire.
The Double M Band will play from 6-8 p.m. and DJ Hoof will provide music from 9 p.m.-1 a.m. A food truck will be available.
Adam Hollobaugh, Pro Shop Pub’s current manager, says attendees can also expect special giveaways and a best-dressed contest. He’s eager to celebrate 50 years, calling the venue “a very tightknit part of the community.”
“We all still need a safe space where we can go, feel comfortable and have fun,” Hollobaugh notes. “I love Patti, I love the staff and the customers. It’s a really cool bar to work in.”
“We’re Clearwater’s answers to ‘Cheers,’” Lux adds. “We’re small and family owned. We’re not anything corporate. Everybody knows your name and whether you’re straight, gay, it doesn’t matter. When you go in, you’re going to make a friend.”
Now 74, the owner says she would love to have her son or daughter-in-law take over Pro Shop Pub one day, noting that her dream for its future is simple. To stay open.
“When the community came into the business it became a blessed piece of property,” Lux says. “My mother always used to say it’s special earth that the bar sits on because of the way it developed and took off.
“It’s not a fancy place by any means, but it’s just filled with love,” she continues. “When you walk into the building you can just feel it.”
Pro Shop Pub is located at 840 Cleveland St. in Clearwater. The 21+ bar will celebrate 50 years of serving the region’s LGBTQ+ community April 18.
For more information about the venue, visit ProShopPub.us. Learn more about GayBarchives at GayBarchives.com.
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