The Long Bar pianist

[Nick]

I have been asked to post this message:

"I have been navigating through your Save Dreamland web-site and was wondering if any of your contributors might remember the guy who played the piano in the "Long Bar", one of the two bars that fronted the dreamland building.

That guy was my Father - Len Hurst - known as "Johnny", a name given to him by the American servicemen from RAF Manston who frequented (more like took it over) the bar during their tour of duty in the 1950s.
We, as a family of six, originated from Mile End London and had taken a rare day trip to Margate with its superb sandy beach and ice cream stalls.
My dad took a stroll along the prom - as you do - and drifted into the Long Bar. He offered to give the guy then playing the piano a break, which he readily accepted. Having seen a couple of American service men at the bar he struck up with a few American folk songs which immediately caught the guys' attention.

To cut a long story short the servicemen said to my dad if he can be here this evening the place will be blue with uniform.

So we, Mum and us kids packed of to the cinema (the Classic on the harbour-Flash Gordon and the Claymen) while dad strutted his stuff at the pub.

True to there word it was "shoulder dressing" with American Servicemen (we all know the old adage - "overhere over----etc.). So the Hurst family returned to Mile End a tad richer.

The bar manager had a word with my dad and said "the jobs yours if you want it". There then followed a traumatic six months for our mum while we all moved to Margate. There was a period over a xmas when we were accommodated in an empty hotel that Dreamland owned-next to the Nayland Rock. What a hoot for us kids!

So my dad played in the Long Bar for some 20 something years. As I grew up I would go in the pub and take dad's collection box round for him.
I can also remember during the winter months when some hardy regulars would attend musical evenings where many an operatic aria would be performed accompanied by my dad (self taught he could not read music but knew a wealth of tunes).

Apart from my dad's career advancement the move to Margate was the best thing that mum and dad ever did. WE all loved it growing up by the sea. I taught myself to swim in that rather ugly concrete pool in front of the now sadly missing SunDeck.

AS Colombo would say"one more thing" I/us kids discovered the Roller Skating Rink! I was smitten. It was roller skating (with proper "4x4" skates, not these silly in-line things one sees these days) for the next 10 plus years."

Does anybody remember the Long Bar pianist?

[Jim Douglas Jr.]

No wonder you care so much.
'nuff said.