WAR STORIES   It is hard to describe the time , the era, that created the Mustache and what working at the mustache was like. The world was so much different then it is today. The way we thought and perceived life was a lifetime away from what it is now. I started in November of 1964, in New Orleans, I had never in my life seen pot, cocaine, or LSD. JFK had been killed a yr before but the great descent for the Viet Nam war had not started. There were no “hippies” or drug culture, . There was civil right protest and the beginning of change in our society from the fifties had started. The feeling and energy of that time was great. Kennedy had created a real can do attitude in the country.

ENERGY   Energy is forever and the energy levels of YFM were increadable. If the Mustache was anything it was energy....Spontaneous Enthusiasm was what we called it. The entire staff was involved in the creation of the energy levels. Not only were the waiters, doorman, and bartenders clapping their hands during the song and cheering at the end but they were encouraging to the point of demanding the audience do the same. Audience participation, was not left to chance it was created and developed, encouraged with a variety of ways. It is interesting to note that the reason the trombone was always used with the mustache bands was because it played in the same musical octaves as the human voice and of all the insermusnt it is the easiest to sing along with. On a location like Bourbon St. the energy, singing, hand clapping attracted crowds like a magnet.

KEITH YORSTON MEMORIAL AWARD Contest at Your Fathers Mustache,,,        At the  Mustache we loved to have contests.   The  beer chugging contest was one but there were a lot of contest for the employees.    On any give  night there was prizes for the waiter that sold the most garter, or albums, or peanuts.   Usually the prizes were  related to the contest,  sell the most champagne and get a free bottle of champagne,   sell  the most peanuts and get a free bottle of champagne (  we got free peanuts)   sell the most albums and get a free bottle of champagne (  I think our champagne cost us 97cents a bottle)  albums were too expensive to give a prizes.       Different contest winners at the other clubs often got a free trip to work at the New Orleans Club during Mardi Grus when  the  club ran three shifts and the staff more than rippled.   This was great to have this influx of not only trained  personal  but the  best that the other clubs had to offer.  Of course for the most part when MG came   (  February to  March 8th )  was a slow time for the other clubs.      Even though the Contests were great and I did my share of winning the contest that everyone wanted to   win most  was  the coveted  Keith  Yorston   Memorial Award. That  was give each year to the  Mustache Employee that got laid in the most unique spot in the club,  Mardi Grus Day, while the club was  open.       Keith  Yorston  was a waiter from Australia that was going to school at Tulane.    He was a good waiter with a out going personally and of course that Australian charm and daring.    In  1966 which would have been our  second MG  at the Mustache,   Keith took a young lady  from  Alabama  into the back store room of the Mustache and climbed on top of   2000 Mustache cups in cases and made love ( OK maybe they just had sex)    anyway  from that year forward the New Orleans Club gave the  award to  deserving employs.   I don't remember all the winners names,  the next year was won by using the peanut store room  which was pretty good because the bags of peanuts were like big bean bag chairs.   I suppose the most memorial  winners where  the year the did it  on the kegs in the walk in cooler,   the year they did it in the projection both which hung from the ceiling over the back tables and of course  the year they did it right at the employees table which was right next to the bar.   For the  most part there was no real prize given for this contest.   The winning of it alone, for the honor and the sport was enough.  In the latter years, in the 70's  a fifty dollar prizes was given.    I had by that time started Vince Vance so was not involved  but I would have never given a cash prize.  Fist it would affect my profit sharing program,   but mainly  for $50.00  in the 70's  you could get a girl to do anything.

WATCH BANJO HALL OF FAME VIDEO   The facts of the Mustache , the number of clubs and its popularity is shown on other parts of the web site especially the excellent video of the Banjo Hall of Fame.

What this video doesn't explain is the Brother Hood of the Mustache, the total insanity of the operation and the fundamental emotions, feeling and social significance of the Mustache experience..

TRUE STORIES Before I go further let me tell a couple of true stories about the Mustache. New Years eve 1970, I was managing The New Orleans Mustache ,426 Bourbon St. if you have every seen a New Years or Mardi Grus on Bourbon St. You know what a mad house it was. Both Roger and Joel came to New Orleans to help me because New Orleans was second only to New York in New Years income. There were always two big problems with places on Bourbon St. The crowds are always on the street , but the party is also on the street so you have to get the people in the door and then keep them there after we got them in. We got them in the door, the energy and singing, hand clapping, siren screaming, beer drinking , sing along insanity got them in the door and waiting in line. The door charge “floated” with how crowed we were. The larger the crowd the more the door charged. Keeping them however was always a problem on Bourbon St. Were as in many of the club people came the The Mustache and stayed all night in New Orleans on Bourbon St. the customers would get up and leave when the band took a break. A number of things were tried including constant music and old time movies between sets. With Joel, Roger and myself all there we were so organized we could have done anything so we ran two specials, a beer chugging contest and a nation wide radio show. The Mustache Beer Chugging Contest had been perfected over a number of years by having a Wednesday night contest. Normally there was not much of a prize for the winner it was just the free beer that you got as a contestant and the joy of willing. We usually gave the winners a free picture of beer but for New Years we had to offer some good prizes so we were going to give the winner of the mens contest a “FREE FISH DINNER FOR TWO, IN THE RESTAURANT OF YOU CHOICE.” and for the female winner a “ FREE CHICKEN DINNER FOE TWO IN THE RESTAURANT OF YOUR CHOICE” There were two contest one for the women and one for the man and then the winners would chug. The beer mug was 8 oz and was filled to handle top with the proper amount of foam. The contest was run by two mc's on the mikes that chose the contestants and kept the contest organized and fair. Roger and I would change from our Mustache Uniform into a twenty style one piece bathing suit. One of our main jobs was to declare who won and to disqualify anyone for excessive spillage ( just throwing the beer on their face rather than drinking it). We would have two, three, or four, drinkers at once depending on how many contestants we had and how long we wanted the contest to last. Then the winners against winners until the last two, so to win the contest you had to chug some times five or six beers. Sometime the contestants would be so close that we had to have a chug off and do it again with the audience helping to judge the winner. So for the chugging contest at New Years we started announcing it early plugging it with “ Free Beer For All Contestants!!” and we would run it about 10:30 / 11 so we had a lot of contestants. When we had two winners we brought out a very large dead fish and a live chicken and give them to the winners and tell them to take the chicken and fish into any restaurant they wanted to and ask them to fix it for them for dinner.

The goal of the National Radio Show was to get the place totally packed with a huge waiting line at twelve midnight so it seemed we ran the radio show at 12:15 and ran it for fifteen min. During the course of the night we would announce we were going to be nation wide on the radio and that we would be interviewing some people so be in YFM for midnight and then the radio show. A few min before show time Joel would tell every one that when the phone rang we would be on live radio and we needed to rehearse what to do.. When the phone rang and the bartender picked it up everyone was to shout “Happy New Years … Your Fathers Mustache” The band would play some songs and then a few people were interviewed and ask where they were from , a few more songs and the phone would ring again and we were off air. We all synchronized our watches and sent the assistant manager next door where they had the pay phone. Just before 12:15 we would get the entire room quiet. Right on time the phone rang and we were on “Happy New Years, Your Fathers Mustache” It was a great pro-mo and filled the house both at New Years and Mardi Grus and the cost was great, in those days a phone call in New Orleans was only 5 cents so it cost us a dime.... a phone call to start it and one to end . If I recall this was one of the bigger promotional budgets I had to work with. I have told these stories to give you some idea of he craziness, the insanity, the off the wall humor that constantly took place at the mustache.

NEED MORE STORIES   It is significance to me that not only was I able to grow up and experience the world while working at the Mustache, the people that were around me and the high standard the the Mustache demanded of the staff brought me into contact with a lot of excellent people. Oh sure there were the total losers that were involved sometimes but for the most part they couldn't make it or if they did, could last. As I look back I realize that all of the best and great friends I have had, the lasting friendship were with people that I met and worked with in the Mustache. This is my main motivation for doing this site. The meaning in life is in the experiences we have and these experiences are manifested with our reacting and relating with our friends and loved ones. I would like to see the site grow and I will spend more time in writing some more of my experiences I would like to encourage all of you to add to the War Stories Fred