The little-known history of War Eagle Supper Club, from brothel to bar
By Kelly Kazek | kkazek@al.com
Auburn, AL
Note: Information taken from Kelly Kazek's book "Hidden History of Auburn" from The History Press.
For more than 70 years, Auburn University students have trekked to a humble building located on what were once the outskirts of town. Home to numerous businesses over the years, the building has housed the War Eagle Supper Club since 1961, a place where college memories and music history were made.
On New Year's Eve, regular performers Telluride will play one last concert at the iconic club, which was unable to renew a lease with the landlord. Club owner John Brandt said he hopes to open the club at a new location, but that likely won't happen for a few months.
Click here to read more about the Club's future.
With its future uncertain, students and alumni who spent many hours inside the ramshackle building are recalling their time at the club. If you have photos of the Supper Club, or memories we can share on AL.com, send them to kkazek@al.com.
The War Eagle Supper Club is so named because, throughout much of its history, it has been a private club – at least by letter of the law. This gave the club's owners privileges owners of other college bars didn't have. The Supper Club could stay open and serve alcohol past 2 a.m. – often until 5 a.m. – and serve alcohol on Sundays.
John Brandt, who bought his interest in the club from previous owner Hank Gilmer in 1985, said the building dates to 1937. That's the date Brandt uses to celebrate the anniversary of the Supper Club, which he sets at 78 years old. However, Gilmer said the original building on the property burned in the 1940s and the current building took its place.
Here are some tidbits from the Club's history:
Its predecessor was a brothel
Hank Gilmer, who bought the club in 1977, said the original building on the site housed a brothel. When it burned in the early to mid-1940s, the existing club was built. He said the physical layout of the building supports the claims that a local law officer once played dice in a backroom with deputies while customers were "serviced" in a series of small, private rooms for a fee of $1.75.
The steakhouse years
In about 1953, the building was home to Stoker's Steak and Seafood Restaurant. A businessman named H.H. Lambert cosigned the note with Homer Stoker but Stoker ran the restaurant.
The restaurant was open for about three years but Homer eventually decided to move to Florida, leaving Lambert with a business to run. Lambert took over in 1957 and created a pizza-and-beer joint.
Only whites – and males – allowed
In 1961, H.H. Lambert purchased a private club license. At the time, the Alabama Beverage Control board allowed white business owners to circumvent the law by purchasing a private club license. The owner then issued memberships for a nominal fee, to whites only, of course.
The Supper Club charged $1. Black students weren't the only ones essentially banned from the club: At the time, female students were prohibited from frequenting establishments were alcohol was served.
Deciding factor for Taylor Hicks
After Taylor Hicks, winner of "American Idol" in 2006, graduated from high school, he decided to at least attempt to fulfill one of his father's dreams and get a college education.
"Inside the walls of War Eagle, I was a headliner." - Taylor Hicks
He chose Auburn, where he went from majoring in journalism, to psychology to business and marketing, unsure of what he would do with his future.
It was his relationship with the Supper Club that helped Taylor decide. Hicks was a regular performer at the War Eagle Supper Club while he was a student at Auburn.
In 2007, Taylor would write in his book "Heart Full of Soul: An Inspirational Memoir about Finding Your Voice and Finding Your Way," that the Supper Club is where he received his real education. "Inside the walls of War Eagle, I was a headliner," he wrote.
He played his last gig there in 1998, to an overflow crowd when he left college to seek a music career.
Secret pizza recipe
Mildred Williams, who acted as a sort of greeter and house mother at the Supper Club for more than 30 years beginning in the 1950s, is the one who passed along the secret pizza recipe, and the story behind it, to Hank Gilmer. She told Gilmer that a year or so after she arrived to work at the club, there was a knock on the door when the club was closed.
Then-owner H.H. Lambert opened the door to an unidentified young man, Gilmer said. "He said, 'Mister, I go to Tulane and I'm on my way home to see my family in New York,'" Gilmer said. The young man said he hadn't eaten and asked for scraps.
H.H. Lambert fed him and offered to give him a ride to the north side of Opelika where he could catch a bus. The student said he had no money but before getting out of Lambert's pickup truck, he scribbled down a recipe that his family used in a pizza restaurant.
"H.H. came back and gave the recipe to Mildred and said, 'Put it away.'"
At that time, H.H. had been serving food cooked on a grill set near the open back door so smoke could escape. When the fire department notified him he would have to have proper ventilation, he realized a pizza oven did not require a vent.
Mildred dug out the old recipe and tweaked it to create the club's famous pizza.
"It took two days to make the sauce," said Gilmer. "The dough was so thin you couldn't toss it."
When Gilmer bought the club, he learned to make the pizza. But in the 1980s, pizza delivery businesses would open and it was no longer profitable to make the difficult recipe. "The last time I made it was in 1985," he said.
Gilmer still has Mildred's hand-written recipe.
Live music added in late 1970s
Gilmer purchased the club in 1977 along with his father, although Gilmer was managing partner. Within a few years, Gilmer began providing live entertainment to draw more students.
Top college bar
In 1997, Playboy magazine named the club on its list of Top 50 College Bars. The plaque hangs on a wall of the club.
The Slush Bus – 'Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk'
At that time, before an onslaught of development, students would leave campus and drive several miles down the isolated portion of South College Street to arrive at the club. All bars of the time were off-campus.
"Prior to 1975, it was illegal to serve alcoholic beverages with one mile of an institution of higher learning," Gilmer recalled.
Because it stayed open so late, students chose it as the last stop of the night, often not forming a line outside it until after 11 p.m.
The problem was, students would also need to drive back to their apartments and dorms, a dangerous proposition after imbibing. Gilmer said he was alerted to the fact that law officers would be watching for drunken drivers.
"There was nothing between the Supper Club and town so the officers knew nine out of 10 people headed to town came from the Supper Club."
Gilmer had some friends in California who had developed the "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" campaign and came up with a way to encourage students to be safe.
He bought an old school bus to drive students home. Riding in the "slush bus" would become a rite of passage for thousands of Auburn students.
In 2007, the retired "slush bus" was attached to the back of the building and made into a shot bar, one of the businesses' four bars.
The club offers a more modern van as transportation home these days.
Celebrities at the Club
John Brandt recalled many of the musicians who passed through the club's doors, whose photos adorn the walls. Bands Velcro Pygmies and Telluride were among regular performers.
"We get a lot on the way up and a lot on the way down," he said.
Actors Lou Diamond Phillips and River Phoenix performed with their bands. Popular groups Widespread Panic, Drivin' and Cryin' and the Zach Brown Band played in their early days at the club.
Kenny Chesney once played a benefit concert there and David Allen Coe performed his famous song, "You Don't Have to Call Me Darlin, Darlin'."
Darius Rucker, former frontman for Hootie and the Blowfish, played on campus and stopped by the Supper Club afterward.
Famous athletes such as Charles Barkley and Bo Jackson also have frequented the bar, but usually after their careers at Auburn had ended.
M.A.S.H's Frank Burns takes the stage
One night, just as the band Telluride was packing up to leave because it was a slow night, Larry Linville, who played Frank Burns on M.A.S.H. arrived. Band members pulled out their instruments and played for Linville.
"They got him up onstage with a tambourine," Brandt recalls.
Kelly Kazek is following the trends and talking about Real Alabama. Call her at 256-701-0576, find her on Facebook, or use contacts at the top of this story. Follow her Odd Travels and Real Alabama boards on Pinterest.