The Gobbler Reborn: the New Gobbler Theater

Sometimes miracles do happen: the revamped and re-imagined Gobbler Theater in Johnson Creek, WI is now a popular new venue specializing in "intimate" concerts - the building's unusual circular layout must make for a one-of-a-kind entertainment experience we'd love to see firsthand. Piet Levy of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has put together a beautiful photoessay on the Gobbler, with some rare views of its past and present incarnations. Levy describes how the owners deftly "tuned" the Gobbler Theater's bookings for maximum local fan appeal:

Following a soft opening with a local school choir in December 2015, the Gobbler Theater had its first name band last April in Starship—the rock group behind the infamous, oft-maligned "We Built This City." But the venue between Milwaukee and Madison quickly and wisely switched gears to focus on country, the dominant genre in the market. Noted g[u]e[s]ts so far include Maddie & Tae, Jana Kramer and Confederate Railroad, with Lorrie Morgan, Easton Corbin and Little Texas coming up through July.

We Fans of the Gobbler certainly wish Theater owner Dan Manesis much success with his "labor of love." You can check out upcoming shows - including country stars Lorrie Morgan on April 29, and Aaron Tippin on October 13 - and purchase tickets at the official Gobbler Theater website. (Photo by Dan Zaitz for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Belated RIP: Gobbler Architect Helmut Ajango

The saying goes, one should never wait too long to contact (or re-contact) long-lost friends or relatives; the same could be said of long-admired artists, like Helmut Ajango, architect of the Gobbler Restaurant and Motel, who passed away November 2013. You never know when you'll lose your only chance. I'd mused on the idea of sending Mr. Ajango a postcard or letter telling him how much I admired the Gobbler's design and how much interest the building continued to inspire decades on. I'm sure he already knew, judging from the number of Web references to his designs steadily amassing over the past decade or so. Of course, the Gobbler was only one of many dozens of striking buildings, homes, banks, and churches he dreamed up on his drafting table that still bring a touch of bygone-era beauty to towns and cities across the Midwest. I never sent that card, but wish I had. RIP, Mr. Ajango.

• Madison.com obituary dated November 16, 2013
• Creative mind behind Fireside, Gobbler: Fort architect Ajango dead
• Dunlap Memorial Home obituary for Ajango, and for his wife Martha, who passed away less than six months later. Sadly, their son Bradley Kent Ajango also died in 2013, one month before his father Helmut.
• A GazetteXtra piece on the Fireside Dinner Theater, another Ajango creation, and the proposed Starlight Restaurant, planned in 1969 as "Janesville's restaurant in the sky," inspired by Seattle's then-new Space Needle.

Image courtesy Madison.com.

What's the Status of the New "Gobbler Theater"?

UPDATE, 6/12/15 4:25PM: Check out the Gobbler Supper Club & Motel Facebook page for photos of the ongoing restoration; looks like a lot has been changing beneath the famous dome!

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It's been a little over one year since the Midwestern press announced Wisconsin entrepreneur (and fellow Retrologist) Dan Manesis' plans to resurrect The Gobbler Restaurant as a 400-500 seat entertainment venue.

• Former Gobbler restaurant being converted to live music venue
• On Wisconsin: Meet the man with optimism and financial wherewithal to revive the Gobbler
• Resurrecting “The Gobbler:” What is in this icon’s future?
• The Gobbler is coming back!
• Historic Johnson Creek restaurant to be reborn as small theater
• Gobbler to become entertainment venue
• Village of Johnson Creek Meeting Minutes from April 17, 2014, Announcing Manesis' Proposal for 'Gobbler Theater' [PDF]
• YouTube video from 2011 showing the (then) condition of the Gobbler's interior.

Has anyone heard "through the grapevine" if there's been any progress on the project? [Fantastic image of discarded Gobbler chairs courtesy of the Mid-Century Modern Freak blog. I'm unsure of the photographer (I will gladly credit) or the date, but about 10 years ago we found one discarded purple chair in the Gobbler dumpster that's a proud conversation piece.]

Gobbler Links: Updated!

"My mom and my dad just both liked the color pink. Some people like green, some like blue, they liked pink."

-- Clarence Hartwig, Jr., quoted in Linda Godfrey's "The Gobbler Lives"

Many of the websites that were featured on the original post are now defunct, but archived links have been provided where available courtesy of the wonderful Wayback Machine.

You can obtain information on the current status of the property by contacting the real estate agency representing the current owners. More information is available at www.buythegobbler.com. (Please note, I am not connected with the property owners or the real estate agency in any way, and I can not answer any inquiries about the property.)

The Gobbler Motel and Restaurant now has its own Facebook page. (Please note that while this page lists this blog's link in the "About" section, I am not connected with the page, or its authors/owners.)

• Wisconsin State Journal: "Gobbler Supper Club, icon of Wisconsin kitschiness, heads for auction block"
• MissionCreep: The Gobbler Supper Club and Motel: "Romance Meets Turkey Filling in the Midwest," by Kitty Kocol and Lois Mathison
• The Sighs and Whispers blog featured a colorful post on the Gobbler.
• HotelChatter.com mentioned Requiem for the Gobbler Motel in their March 2005 story, "The Mystery of the Gobbler Motel," and a follow-up, "The Gobbler's Last Supper," dated February 17, 2006.
• On March 12, 2005, the Madison, WI Capital Times featured an article by columnist Doug Moe, "The Gobbler was one of a kind."
• James Lileks' "Grooviest Motel In Wisconsin" - One of the definitive Gobbler resources. This extensive site features a selection of images from the motel and restaurant's promotional brochure, accompanied by Lileks' deliciously twisted commentary.
• Via Archive.org: Linda Godfrey has a newly-renovated page on www.cnb-scene.com devoted to the Gobbler, Remembering The Gobbler Supper Club: A Turkey of A Restaurant, where you'll find some very nice photos of the restaurant interior (and that four-sectioned sofa that I didn't have the presence of mind to shoot when I had the chance!).
• Via Archive.org: 30-second TV ad for the Gobbler Restaurant (from 1980) in Windows Media Player (.wmv) format! Listen/watch at your own risk - just try prying that insanely catchy jingle out of your brain. It's a kaleidoscopic blend of classic Americana, with sections devoted to CB and amateur radio, transportation, old advertisements and more.
• Architect Helmut Ajango's Gobbler page - Links directly to his 'Gobbler' page, but you can navigate the entire site from this location and view images of his varied creations through the years - including over one hundred churches, and a memorial in Ajango's native Estonia. Come to think of it, the Gobbler restaurant would make a dandy church; Protestant, of course.
• Via Archive.org: chez smartygirl: live - Another fun personal account of a Midwest Gobbler pilgrimage (with photos) taken prior to the motel's demolition, during the "John-John's Rib House" (pre-2001) era.
• Via Archive.org: The Gobbler Lives: the great icon of 70's kitsch returns to Johnson Creek by Tenaya Darlington - Tenaya writing for the online Isthmus Daily Page (Madison, WI); here she provides an aesthetic and gastronomical critique of the 2002 'Round Stone Restaurant' incarnation of the Gobbler Restaurant.

Gobbler Gala Set for June 6th, in Johnson Creek WI!

Gobbler Motel and Restaurant Fans have an exciting date to mark on the calendar - the Gobbler Gala is coming to the one-of-a-kind former restaurant on June 6th! Wisconsin State Journal's Doug Moe give us the details:

...On June 6, The Frank Lloyd Wright Wisconsin Tourism Program will host "The Gobbler Gala," a dinner and discussion at the building in Johnson Creek, just off Interstate 94, that was once the Gobbler Supper Club.

There will be a catered gourmet turkey dinner and speakers will include Jefferson architect Helmut Ajango, who designed the Gobbler, and Wright historian Sidney Robinson, formerly of the University of Illinois-Chicago, now with the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. As one who rarely missed an opportunity during a Madison-to-Milwaukee run to duck off the highway and seek refreshment at the Gobbler, I am both amused and pleased by this development.

The idea came from Jack Holzhueter, retired after many years with the Wisconsin Historical Society, and a Wright Tourism board member. He enlisted another board member, Margo Melli, a Madison attorney and law professor, and together they persuaded the current owner of the Gobbler property, Jefferson attorney Raymond Krek, to go along. Though the restaurant has been closed for several years, much of the interior is still in place and Holzhueter said there's even a chance they'll get the revolving bar operating.

The only real problem is explaining the uniqueness of the Gobbler, which for most of its years had a motel adjacent to the restaurant, to those who never experienced it... [read the full article at the Wisconsin State Journal]

You can read more about the Gobbler's Motel's history and 2001 demise at our sister site, farkleberries.

The Gobbler Motel and Restaurant: The Television Commercial

From what I've been able to determine, this catchy commercial aired in the Milwaukee/Madison area broadcast market in the early to mid 1980's. Look closely, and you can see the restaurant's padded vinyl seating, the rotating bar, even the dance loft rendered in loving hand-painted detail! There's even a brief glimpse of the motel entrance in a pan shot.

I don't know the exact airdates, or which creative/advertising agency put it together, but it's delightful.

[Kindly uploaded to YouTube by user "miaotong"]

Once Upon A Time, in Wisconsin...

There was a place called The Gobbler.

The motel's design was a unique spoked "Prairie" style semicircle; luxurious purple, red, blue and pink shag carpeting graced many of the Gobbler's surfaces in its early-1970's heyday, a period when grooviness meant a bedroom covered floor-to-ceiling in the stuff.

Every detail - from lavender vinyl dining room upholstery to built-in 8-track stereos [in the "business suites" - as if we couldn't guess what sort of "business" was conducted in a motel room with a red shag-covered heart-shaped bed] exemplified over-the-top kitsch luxury.

Staying at the Gobbler, a traveler could enjoy hip sleepquarters, and then roll downhill for fine dining specializing in Meleagris gallopavo at the matching Gobbler restaurant. That would be - ahem - gobbler, because Clarence Hartwig Sr., the original owner of the complex, was a well-known Wisconsin turkey farmer.

Some people believe every object contains a bit of the energy of everyone that came in contact with it: considering its rich lore, that alone would have been enough reason to keep the Gobbler standing. Sure, we can't keep every old building - we'd be overrun with collapsing hulks in a few generations. Still, we can try to remember the interesting, the adventurous, and the unique. The Gobbler certainly was all of those.

Don't forget to stop by the recently-updated (April 2005) Gobbler Links section, with connections to fresh news stories on the Gobbler Motel and Restaurant!

Down, But Not Exactly Out

We beging our story in October 2001, when the circular Gobbler Motel looked down, but not exactly out. The siding was cracking, yellow-brown weeds shot up in unlikely places (like windowsills), and the blue landscaping gravel surrounding the entries was peppered with beer bottles and cigarette butts: the Gobbler had sunk to a nighttime make-out hangout for the locals. Tellingly, a black flocked plastic-letter board toothily revealed chunks of the motel's newest name:

WELC M O KING RTH 'SINN.

V S A N M ST C D ACCE TED.

Purple Windows and Shag, Shag, Shag.

In fact, the Gobbler had been renamed King Arthur's Inn several years ago. Walking around the low-slung, swoopy perimeter gave one a view of the exterior-situated rooms, some visible through parted curtains (with the exterior glass shielded by purple-tinted Lucite™) - most of the legendary shag carpeting was long since replaced by more serviceable (and hygienic) indoor-outdoor pile, but the fake stone interior was essentially intact - giving the impression of a cheapie Mod Adirondack ski lounge.

The rear part of the motel, where the swimming pool and shuffleboard court once were was also in dire need of attention; two glass doors, uncloseable because of some mechanical flaw were secured with a thick chain and an ordinary padlock. Every room was dotted with miscellaneous leavings and debris, like carpet remnants, empty paint buckets, and wood scrap. Not the sort of property that screams "DEVELOP ME!"

Abandoned!

We spotted the fabled "eyeball" railings as we peered through the smudged glass doors of the lobby (see the photo at the top of this page). As you can see, the interior was done in a hunter-green duotone motif, a la Wal-Mart, circa 1990. You can see a triangular brass colored lighting fixture on the faux stone (well, maybe it was Z-Brick™ - I didn't get a chance to touch it for myself) fireplace, which itself was composed of metallic bars wedged between its upper and lower section, possibly to suggest "flames".

The white object in the lower left hand corner is an abandoned laundry cart. You know someone left in a real hurry when you find a half-empty laundry cart in front of the lobby door. There must have been an ill wind in store - perhaps a frosty Wisconsin one, redolent of cow belches.

Stone Faux Fireplace

Beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, but ultimately what made the Gobbler so perversely appealing isn't just its extreme appearance.
It was the motel's air of mystery.
After all, what on earth could have made people up and leave in such a hurry that even the tourist-trap brochures remain stacked on the lobby desk?

UFO? Or Restaurant??

The Gobbler Restaurant had been reopened early 2002 under the name "Round Stone Restaurant": the cuisine is best described as classic American Diner, but the interior was restored to a good measure of its former glory. We stopped by for coffee and dessert one evening on the way back from Madison. Fortuitously, when we expressed our archival curiosity to the maitre-d', we were given a brief tour of the restaurant.

Redone in a subtle late-80's jewel tone theme, the foyer sported two large circular "couches" divided crosswise into four equal seating sections to greet waiting patrons. A decorative fountain worthy of a Las Vegas Chinese eatery dominated the lobby; artificial palm trees and orange-and-fuchsia lotus blossoms frolicked with the pink plastic flamingoes ensconced there, like some bizarre Botticelli's Venus.

Eye Of The Gobbler

How groovy! How positively shagadelic!

Some of the overstuffed white vinyl seats at the bar were - gasp - loveseats! Imagine - two swinging lovebirds could cozy up to the bar ("belly up" isn't quite the right image) and sip Long Island Iced Teas while spinning around the room. You wouldn't be able to tell if your vertigo was induced by the booze or the orbiting bar.

The "Royal Roost" loft wasn't open for business at the moment, but we did get a chance to see it for ourselves - after climbing the Brady-Bunch-Era steps, we saw the interior was still covered in a lavender shag, with a built-in bar and circular dance floor - and, not mentioned in previous literature - a one-way mirror connected to the adjacent upstairs manager's office, no doubt to discourage any hanky-panky in the loft (or more likely, to enable discreet spying). Sadly, the Roost's primary function is now for mere storage of essentials like glassware and table napkins.

A visit to the ladies' room was an adventure in itself: it was shaped like a wedge, with no right angles in sight (probably a bit disorienting after a few drinks) and wallpapered with red, purple and gold butterfly-design paper, it made everything else in the place seem almost conservative by comparison.

Sign Of The Times

[Memorial Day 2002] View from the I-94 exit 267 eastbound offramp, showing the "exit now for the NEW Gobbler!" sign which was painted over or removed sometime in June 2002. Photo courtesy David Mierzwinski (be sure to check out his Retro Milwaukee" site on our Links page)

The Grand Carport

The Gobbler Restaurant's grand carport, where diners and swingers could pull up under the glittering icicle-light trimmed canopy, and marvel at the red-carpet luxury of genuine sandstone, amethyst chunks set into the facade, and volcanic tufa for a coarse, rugged touch. It was almost like parking at the entry of a spaceship, all swooping lines and Jetsons curves.

As you walked in, you were greeted by an onslaught of pinks, purples, brasses and all shades in between - from the walls, the turkey-motif carpeting and the vinyl chairs to the clamshell phone booth backdrop.

It was a sight to see, indeed.

Pile Of Rubble

The End: alas, the noose was tightened, and there was to be no stay of execution. We didn't even see the gallows floor drop out.

When we returned on an icy day on February 10th, 2002 en route to Madison, it was already over.

I knew something was wrong when we approached the Johnson Creek interchange off I-94, and this time, no familiar spiked dome stood atop Hartwig Hill.

The Gobbler was gone.

Swimming Pool Pit

What awaited us in the gusting, frigid wind was a blackened hole surrounded by slushy snow, partially filled with architectural wreckage. They burned it down! The air still had a smell of charred plastic, burnt wood and insulation.

There was something heartbreakingly sad about looking into a pit that was the Gobbler's swimming pool, once filled with laughing children in inflatable beach rings and blase hipsters sipping mai-tais, now strewn with relics like theft-proof hotel coat hangers and half a pink toilet.

Pompeii could have been no more tragic. I pictured the building screaming as it burned like some inanimate Joan of Arc, proclaiming its sanctity unto ashen death.

Before we drove away into the sunset on Wisconsin I-94, I made sure to take souvenirs. A brick with two cracked blue pool tiles. A rusted coat hanger with a ring instead a hook...one that no one would ever try to steal again. And, most poignantly, a chunk of semi-precious pink rose quartz the size of my fist - somewhere in that morass was a piece of stone that possessed the power to draw love, peace, and harmony.

Surely, the gods were smiling, to allow me to keep such a gift, since that half a toilet I had my eye on was just too hard to pull out of the rubble.

"No Water For You!"

5/30/02 - On our recent Memorial Day weekend trip to Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Indiana we stopped by Johnson Creek hoping to take some additional interior photos of the Gobbler restaurant (a.k.a. The "Round Stone"); unfortunately, it appears that the establishment has "bitten the dust" once more.

Driving eastbound on I-94, a large sign next to the restaurant reads, "Exit here for the NEW Gobbler!" - I'm not certain how old the sign was, but it didn't seem to be enough to stave off the eatery's recent closing.

There seems to be a newly-paved parking area adjacent to the Gobbler restaurant, which could be intended for a new building somewhere; and although the interior lights were on, a quick drive around the rear revealed several utility disconnection notices posted on the Gob's kitchen door - "no water for you!" The garbage man apparently hadn't been paid either, as the air was ripe with Eau de Olde Dumpster.

However, some unexpected treats awaited us; several food-service carts and steam trays were left outside by the trash, and one of the lavender tufted chairs (with some dings) was left out for the vultures. The chair we promptly rescued, and now graces our non-lavender living room.

Just think - nearly half a century's worth of Gobbler tushes have polished that vinyl seat!

"Sargon and His Wife": Beheaded!

Johnson Creek was practically deserted that Memorial Day Sunday (2002) - that, and the mild sunny weather emboldened us to do some spelunking in the Gobbler Motel ruins. The concrete foundation clearly shows the outlines of the round "Passion Pit" beds, with the nearby sunken hot tubs now filled with ash and debris.

At the motel entry, a square slab of concrete marks the spot where the faux fireplace stood, with rusty square holes where the Eyeball Railings once leered at guests.

Remember "Sargon and his wife"? The Gob's trusty luminous guardians of the front door have been beheaded, their headless corpses (with wires jutting out of their necks) warning trespassers away.

The Blue Door

Here, the swimming pool pit is still filled with the burnt jetsam of hostelry, like old chunks of bathtubs, toilets and shower stalls, and one lone pile of (seemingly inflammable) refuse sits atop the circular concrete slab - frankly, I'm surprised that no one has lit a bonfire atop Hartwig Hill yet! [Note (10/31/03): Has anyone burned the remains yet? - LR]

Several entry points to the underground led only to storage areas, where we found items like damp boxes of old documents and receipts dating back about 5 or 6 years, broken lavatory fixtures and empty paint buckets.

Oddly, one white toilet was placed squarely in the center of one basement room, like a ghostly throne...