Pete’s Satire Lounge sign on Colfax has fresh paint on it.

They rehabbed the interior as well. They redecorated in a similar
fashion to Pete’s Greek Town Cafe.

The Satire is famous for the earliest parts of the careers of the
Smothers Brothers, Judy Collins and Bob Dylan.

I’ve drawn the beautiful Satire sign in 3D before, click and see.

Denver’s 1st Summer Jazz Festival in 1959. Some big names: Ahmad Jamal, Dakota Staton and the great Shelly Manne and his Men featuring Richie Kamuca and Joe Gordon.

George Shearing at the Band Box in ‘63. Today it is Annie’s Cafe.

Count Basie and his Orchestra playing Verne Byer’s Academy Ballroom in 1963. Tickets available at the Bowl-ero, among other places!

Dizzy Gillespie at the Rainbow Ballroom at 5th and Broadway, 1959.

Saxman and big band leader Georgie Auld at the Melody Lounge, the Denver jazz hot spot in ‘59.

One of Denver’s greatest contribution’s to jazz, the late, great Phil Urso at the Rainbow Ballroom in 1959. He is featured on some of the best Chet Baker lps!

Another Verne Byer’s place, the Robin’s Nest on Lookout Mountain. Verne co-ran this place with bassist Ray Iverson, where they had famous Sunday jam sessions. This ad is from 1964.

Some more ads for Effie The Blonde Tigress at Vic Hawkin’s Senate Lounge on Colfax, a cocktail jazz act backed by Paul Warburton and Vince Limberg in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

The Four Breezes, featuring local greats Beatty Hobbs, Shelly Rhym, Leon Ragsdale and Ed Wright from 1959. Sugie’s Lounge, I believe became the Satire Lounge?

Here is Shelly Rhym and his pals again, this time backing up Denver jazz great, Ron Washington in 1959! Roxy’s Lounge was out on S. Sante Fe in Englewood.

Rose Murphy at the Melody Lounge in ‘59. What is great about this ad is her backing band featuring Slam Stewart of the famous scat-vocalese jazz duo Slim and Slam.

Vic Hawkin’s took over the Band Box on Colfax and renamed it Hawk’s in 1964. This ad is for music comedienne Peggy Lord, backed by local jazzmen Neil Bridge, Chuck Roberts and Jo-Jo Williams.

The Mel-Dawn Duo at Sammy Sugarman’s place, The Gaslite in the Alameda Inn in 1964. I am sure this place was toast after the famous Platt River flood a year later.

Jazz out on West Colfax, Lakewood Gardens became the Lemon Tree and is now called Sharks.

At lastly, some ads for the Queen City Jazz Band, a Dixieland outfit who held court at Mon-Vue Village from 1957 to 1967 (at least). They released many locally pressed lps. The Mon-Vue is still there and is currently Paradise Cove.

I was so excited when I spotted this example of Denver Googie signage,
that I rushed over to photograph it, without waiting for the snow to melt!

You can see the zig-zag pattern of the lights representing the tipped
martini drink pouring toward the restaurant. Spill your drinks here!

There are still a dozen or so martini glass signs around town, the
Satire Lounge being the most prominent in Denver. I didn’t have
a good picture of the R&R Lounge handy, but I did have a couple
of the Mozart Lounge.

The Mozart Lounge is located over by the Mayfair Shopping
Center off of 13th.

This reminded me to check on the current condition of the old
44th Avenue Grill sign, now being used at the new location
of the last remaining Gordo’s restaurant.

44th Avenue Grill was on the corner of Wadsworth and 44th, they
replaced the building, but kept the sign, moving it back west on
44th. They seem to have kept the martini glass intact, but the
lettering is replaced and in a contemporary desktop-publishing
font, and hey, they cut off the Gordo’s logo a little! That’s odd.

Ah, now this is more like it! This is the other original sign from Wads.
and 44th, again, moved a little west, lightbulbs and lettering intact!
Beautiful! And plural no less. . .

My friend Greg sent me this picture of another tipped martini glass sign out on Leetsdale. He has some cool photography sites, such as Gregory Ego Photos and Denver Images

Some of my Google SketchUp illustrations of the signage for Pete’s Satire Lounge.

I like to think of myself as a pretty darn good 3D illustrator, but sometimes it’s hard to make the time!

sketchup, coreldraw, photoshop

Pete’s Satire Lounge has one of the best, most-famous, Googie-style
signs in Denver! The snaking arrow and the martini glass are a joy to
look at, day or night.

Pete Contos is well-known for his great Denver restaurants, most featuring
delicious Greek food. My personal favorite is Pete’s Gyro’s Place.

Pete’s Satire Lounge opened in 1962, but I think it opened as The Satire as far back as 1959. Bob Dylan played here prior to his move to New York in early 1961 and signing with Columbia Records.

The Satire was part of Denver’s burgeoning folk scene along with The Exodus (now gone), as both clubs were booked by Walt Conley. Aside from Bob Dylan, he booked early folk talent like local singer Judy Collins, Pat Paulsen & Bob Gibson.

The Smothers Brothers were discovered clowning around here at The Satire
by Mercury Records, who then shipped them out to play The Purple Onion in San Francisco. In fact, Dylan’s performances at The Satire were as an opening act
for the Smothers Brothers!

Bob Dylan then left Denver after getting in trouble for stealing a bunch of Walt Conley’s record albums!