The Legendary Horseshoe Tavern by David McPherson

Author:David McPherson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dundurn
Published: 2017-08-31T04:00:00+00:00

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The time had come for the Horseshoe Tavern’s founder and building owner, Jack Starr, to come out of retirement and look to find a new manager to revive his beloved tavern and make it a mecca for live music again. At the time, Art Clairman, Starr’s son-in-law, was managing the building’s lease on Starr’s behalf.

Kenny Sprackman had recently revived the Hotel Isabella, located just off Yonge Street. Thanks to a tip from his father, who was then working as a bankruptcy trustee, Sprackman had learned about the failing nightclub and, using his hard-nosed business sense and on-the-ground DIY publicity, saved the Isabella from receivership. Within a year, the venue was a major force in the emerging punk, rockabilly, and new wave music scenes. It was there that bands like the Parachute Club played (before they were known as the “Parachute Club” and their top forty hit “Rise Up” skyrocketed up the charts).

After a couple of years at “the Izzy,” Sprackman, too, could not compete with the high-flying interest rates and lost the hotel to the banks in 1982. Following a couple more adventures in various bars, the free-spirited Sprackman decided to take a hiatus from the club management business; instead, the entrepreneur picked up some odd jobs here and there while figuring out what venture to try next.

One of these temporary gigs was driving cars south from Toronto to Florida for Canadian snowbirds. Art Clairman’s parents were two of these recent retirees; they had owned Claires Cigar Store on Bayview Avenue. By chance, in the fall of 1983, Sprackman ended up driving the Clairmans’ car down to the Sunshine State. He did the same thing the following spring. The Clairmans were pleased with Sprackman’s work. The message filtered its way back to Art, and through these conversations it wasn’t long before word of this young man and his successful background of managing clubs found its way back to Jack. This fortuitous meeting between Art Clairman and Kenny Sprackman led to a formal meeting between Jack and Kenny. During a long lunch at the Simpson Tower, the two men sealed a deal in which Kenny would join a pair of others Starr had recently recruited — Richard Kruk and Michael “X-Ray” MacRae — to manage the day-to-day operations of the Horseshoe and book bands.

Gary Clairman recounts how this transpired:

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