The Indianapolis Star from Indianapolis, Indiana • Page A10

10A 2015 E1 INDY STAR The party lasted five decades, fueled by inexpensive bottles of domestic beer and 50-cent Manhattan cocktails (Rob Roys were 60 cents; stingers, 75). The founding Mates family (rhymes with rates operated the White Front until the early 1960s. The bar was then old to others who kept he White Front name un- il the mid-1980s. But by hen racers had secured corporate sponsors and were becoming high-toned and were ascending into St. Elmo status.

The White Front was fading and is today a windowless club called Club Venus. Its stories are kept alive in the minds of certain old-timers. Here are some of their tales: Rookie A.J. Foyt gets unwittingly ammered on screwdrivers A.J. Foyt, who would become one of the greatest race car drivers of all time, did not drink much, but in 1958, as a rook ie, he allowed some of the veterans to drag him to the White Front.

I wanted was a Foyt recalls, sitting in the garage of the race team he owns, still sort of grumpy more than a half-century later. they told me, one of the guys told me, have no and they give me orange Except the orange juice had vodka in it. That made it a screwdriver. Foyt, now 80, downed the screwdriver, and then downed another, and then another. At least three he downed, probably more.

In version of events, the climax is: throwed up a couple ut his longtime assistant, Anne Fornoro, who was sitting with Foyt in the garage, corrects him. she says, way I always heard it, you spent the hole night in the bathroom wrapped a round the obby Unser is attended to, medically, by the bartender obby Unser, who would win the Indianapolis 500-Mile Race three times and become nearly as famous as Foyt, remembers a bartender at the White Front amed Audrey. run a sprint car race some- Unser says, come in at the end of the day with blisters on my hands, my hands bleeding, from the race. Audrey I know if I ever new her last name Audrey had a first-aid kit behind the bar. order a eer and lay my hands on the bar, and doctor them Walking on broken glass with championship car designer A Watson A Watson was a smart, serious per- on, one of the greatest designers and builders of race cars in the history of the Indianapolis 500.

His career spanned four decades. His cars won six times. But at the White Front, play- ul side emerged. John Mahoney, a track hotographer and White Front regular in he late 1960s through the 1970s, recalls Watson making use of his trademark flat-top hair style. hear cheering, and look over and Watson would be alancing a beer bottle on his head.

He ould balance it pretty well, but it usual- Watson, who died in 2014, demonstrated a fascination with broken glass at the White Front on at least one other occasion. Jim McGee, an Indy 500 crew chief, recalls Watson sitting at a table with chief mechanic Jud Phillips. The two drank cocktails called They would drain them, McGee says, and then hurl the empty glasses against the White cinder-block walls see how ig a pile of glass they could ow to describe the White Front: is a relative term The White Front, which began shortly after Prohibition and lasted into the mid-1980s, was different things at differ- nt times. Or else people saw it through ifferent lenses. Or both.

Probably both. obby Unser says it was respectable place, a nice place, second home, where all the racers hung But one Indy 500 yearbook warned readers that of the of the White Front were bit Nick Mates, the son and nephew of the owners and grandson of the founder, dispute the characterization. But John Mahoney, a former regular, ays the reputation was undeserved. a ll the years there I saw just one says. It involved the sprint car driver Dee Jones and unidentified opponent in a game of pool.

was around Mahoney says, and it was over fast. No real injuries. It as two guys knocking over a couple of hairs. Lady came from behind the bar and broke it up. It might have been Audrey.

The other guy left. Dee Clark Gable, a fan of both racing and the White Front The White Front had a long bar along the west wall, with a black-and-white TV high in one corner and rarely on. Cigars could be bought from behind the bar. Photographs of race car drivers covered the place. Every year they were changed to reflect the current 33 starters in that Indy 500.

Some of the ashtrays were made by Nick father out of pistons from racing engines, Offenhausers. His father did the work using a metal lathe he ept in his basement at home. He gave away the ashtrays as souvenirs. Some of them got swiped. Nick still has one.

Near the bar was a stage for music a cts and a dance floor. At the grand open- i ng of the new building, in September 1 952, Groucho Marx (who was in town on an unrelated matter) sat at one of the tab les. There are photographs. Mates says that Clark Gable, a race fan, once had some drinks at the White Front and that Tony Hulman, the beloved illionaire who owned the Speedway, came in with him but drink. A the White Front, there was such a thing as a free lunch The White Front was literally nearly in the shadow of the Speedway.

If you pened the front door you could hear the race cars. ut Nick father did not simply wait for racing people to come into his business. He went out and got them. He had T-shirts made up that said hite and he gave them to racing eople. In exchange for being walking illboards for the tavern, Mates gave them a free lunch.

The shirts become iconic. Even some of the drivers wore them. This was before the days of driving suits. Drivers an the Indy 500 wearing T-shirts. ecades later, an Indy 500 memora- ilia dealer made up a new batch of White T-shirts and got $35 apiece for them.

all over but the room rom the outside, the old White Front uilding is practically unchanged. Ins ide, though, the walls have been covered in a dark material and the windows covered over. No natural light gets in. The only trace of the interior of the venerable old watering hole is in the room, where the old ceramic-style cin- derblock walls are still out in the open and look just as they looked. Call Star reporter Will Higgins at (317) 4 44-6043.

Follow him on Twitter: PHOTO PROVIDED BY NICK MATES Arace car sits in front of the old White Front Tavern, opened in 1935 by George and Violet Mates, that preceded White Front restaurant and bar, which was relocated to 3535 W. 16th in 1952. The Speedway landmarks were frequented by Indianapolis 500 race drivers and fans. Bar Continued from 3A Nick Mates INDIANAPOLIS NEWS 1952 FILE PHOTO In the in the and Indianapolis 500 race drivers frequented White Front, a restaurant and bar operated by Nick and Mafalda Mates at 3535 W. 16th St.

CHARLIE STAR The building that was White Front is now Club Venus, a strip club. Inside, much has changed, but the room remains much the same, Star reporter Will Higgins notes. View a video and hoto gallery of the White Front through the years..