Everybody Winked

I could tell you a million stories about the bar, about JoAnn Dare and Candy René and Marquita and all these other terrific people. And Johnny and Vera McGovern who ran the place. Who were brother and sister. It was called the, uh . . . what the hell was it called . . . the Liberty Inn.

On the side of the building . . . it was at Clark and Erie, it’s not there any more, but on the side of the building was painted a big sign that said “McGovern’s Liberty Inn: Chicago’s Oldest Nightclub.” I don’t know what that was about. But they were a pair, Johnny and Vera.

It was actually one of the nicer places on the street. It wasn’t run by hoodlums. I mean, all the rest of these joints were run by real thugs. And Johnny and Vera were, you know, just . . . I don’t know, they probably inherited the bar from their father. So they weren’t gangsters, they were independent.