 This
is a magical picture that captures some of the
excitement and ambiance of a night at Tony Mart’s. The
focus of the picture is the enormous “Follow the Arrow”
neon sign that was and probably will forever be the
largest neon sign in the city of Somers Point. This
picture shows the parking lot to the immediate south of
Tony Mart’s. The parking lot is where “Steels Ship Bar”
stood until it burned in a fire in 1967. Tony Mart
purchased Steels Ship Bar, demolished it and made it
into the parking lot you see. The small building with
the light on top of it, to the left of this photo, was
actually a warehouse that belonged to Steels Ship Bar
and was then converted into “the ice-house” to be
utilized as yet another warehouse and storage area for
the Herculean Tony Mart operation. The front apartment
over the main entrance was probably occupied by one of
the custodian porters at the time, Armando Romero or his
brother Abraham.
At this time, in 1974, the rear upper apartments were
still occupied by musicians. Mace was living there and
may have been performing on the center stage at the time
of this photograph.
 This
is the Mace that performed at Tony Mart’s in 1974. They
were actually the second Mace with the replacement of
the original front man, “Tony Cherry” by a new front
man, PJ, who favored several Bruce Springsteen songs
including “Rosalita” and “Tenth Ave Freezeout” as their
signature dance songs along with The Rolling Stones and
David Bowie as “Ziggie Stardust” also quite popular at
the time.
In this photograph, are, from left to right, the drummer
and leader of the band, Joe Samino, who had a great
relationship with Tony Mart. This meant that he was
reliable and reasonably priced and he was able to
control his group and make certain that they performed
on time and played never-ending dance music in order to,
as Tony Mart would put it, “Keep the room moving” at all
times. The theory was very simple: sweating and dancing
sold drinks. Just above Joe standing of the left is the
late John Leafhead, keyboard player. In the center is
the front man, P.J. and to his right, was the lead
guitar player whose name was also John. Below seated on
the right was Dave the Bass player. His classic white
charger is seen in several of the exterior photos of
Tony Mart’s from that season. |
This is a view of the interior of Tony Marts looking
forward or eastward towards the front door and the bay.
This photograph is taken from the snack bar the farthest
back from the front door. To the left is the small
“Cherry Bar” and moving forward to the right is the Main
Bar with the stage and “L-Bar” on the left further
down.
 An
excellent photograph of the central area of Tony Mart’s
taken from the stairs leading to the elevated seating
area of Jr’s Lounge. To the immediate left are the
front doors. In the foreground is the “Square Bar”. To
the far left is the oval-shaped “Main Bar”. In the
center is the main or central stage with the “L-Bar”
stretching around from the right side of the stage and
then along from the rear of the stage to the left.
Behind the L-Bar is the dance floor and then the “Back
Bar” or the draft beer bar. Seated with the white
blouse is Maris Evoy, Roger Evoy’s wife and faithful
Tony Mart devotee. In the right foreground is the very
front of the “Lounge Bar”. This was a huge bar that was
approximately 100 feet long and 40 to 50 feet wide.
There was a stage behind this bar to the far right (not
depicted). There was also a small stage to the far left
behind the Main Bar in front of the air conditioner and
in front on the Altec Lansing “Voice
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