Tube Bar prank calls

The Tube Bar prank calls are a series of prank calls[1][2] made in the mid-1970s to the Tube Bar in Jersey City, New Jersey, in which Jim Davidson and John Elmo would ask "Red," the proprietor of the bar, if they could speak to various non-existent customers. The gag names given by the pranksters were puns and homophones for often offensive phrases. Recordings of the calls were circulated widely on duplicated cassette tapes and may have been the inspiration for a long running gag in The Simpsons.[1]

History

In the mid-1970s, two young men—John Elmo and Jim Davidson;[3][4][5] later known collectively as Bum Bar Bastards, or The BBB—began calling the Tube Bar located at Journal Square in Jersey City, New Jersey. The bar was owned by heavyweight boxer Louis "Red" Deutsch, and most of the time Deutsch himself answered the calls. During a call, the pranksters would ask Deutsch to call out fictitious, pun-like/homophones names such as "Pepe Roni" (pepperoni), "Hal Ja-Like-a-Kick" (how'd you like a kick), "Phil My-Pockets" (fill my pockets),[6] "Al Coholic" (alcoholic)[1][6][7] or "Mike Hunt" (my cunt).[2][7] Most of the time, Deutsch would call out the names, unaware that he was being subjected to a prank.

At times, Deutsch would catch on, and when he did, he would respond with extreme hostility, shouting profanity, obscene sexual references (usually involving the caller's mother), and threats of physical harm at the caller. He would utter threats such as, "I'll break dem bones on you, on your feet, you'll never be able to walk for the rest of your life!" as well as "I'll cut your belly open and show you all the black stuff you got in there!" Sometimes Deutsch would offer the two pranksters a reward of $100 or $500 if they would show up at his bar in person, but they never took him up on the offer.[3][8]

By the 1980s, dubbed cassette tapes of the calls were shared between staff of several major league sports teams such as the New York Mets, Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Dolphins. These dubbed copies of the calls were unofficially referred to as the Red Tapes or Tube Bar Tapes.[9] The popularity of these prank calls spread throughout respective sports leagues, branching out to sports reporters and then into the larger media world.

Bar location and details

The Tube Bar itself was located at 12 Tube Concourse, Jersey City, adjacent to the entrance of the Journal Square PATH station and across the way from the Landmark Loew's Jersey Theatre.[10] The small complex of commercial storefronts that included the Tube Bar was demolished in early 2009 to make way for the 1 Journal Square development project.[11][12]

Legacy
  • Animator and cartoonist Matt Groening has described himself as a fan of the tapes, particularly the "Garden Grove calls". His series The Simpsons features a running joke of Bart Simpson making prank calls to barkeeper Moe Szyslak, asking to speak to patrons with joke names. Groening describes the similarity between these jokes and the Tube Bar calls as "creative synchronicity."[13] Co-developer Sam Simon told The Howard Stern Show in 2007 that the jokes are a "homage to or parody of the classic Red tapes".[14]
  • During the 1980s, several different record labels released various edits of the tapes on CD, LP and cassette tape before the Bum Bar Bastards came forward in the 1990s to claim copyright of the tapes and officially release their version.[8]

Discography
Tube Bar album releases
# Album Format Release date Label Catalog Number
1 The Tube Bar Cassette Tape 6 November 1988 TeenBeat Records Teen-Beat 22[15]
2 The Tube Bar LP 15 February 1990 TeenBeat Records Teen-Beat 31[16]
3 The Tube Bar CD 23 September 1991 TeenBeat Records Teen-Beat 81[17]
4 Tube Bar CD 1993 Detonator Records 30414-2[18]
5 Tavern Tour Cassette Tape & CD 1997 Padded Cell Productions bbb1111[19][20]
6 Tube Bar Collector's Edition CD 2006 T.A. Productions 634479238611[21]
7 Drunk, Dirty And Disgraceful CD 30 October 2006 T.A. Productions 634479416163[22]
8 Tube Bar Red's Bootleg Tape [Remastered] CD 1 September 2007 T.A. Productions 883629285993[23]
9 Tube Bar Legendary Prank / Crank Calls [The Ultimate Collection] CD 23 October 2008 T.A. Productions 883629648101[24]
10 Tube Bar Prank Calls 35th Anniversary Complete Collection CD 1 September 2010 T.A. Productions 885444445392[25]
11 Tube Bar Vol. 4: Rummies, Bums & Dummies CD 17 April 2013 887936261862[26]

See also

References
  1. Ehrman, Mark (24 July 1993). "Phone Pranks: Not Just For Kids Anymore". Lakeland Ledger. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  2. Sisario, Ben (March 7, 1999). "POP MUSIC; Giving Jerseyana A Voice". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 10, 2008. Retrieved October 14, 2007.
  3. Beato, Greg (June 2002). "Off the Hook". SPIN. SPIN Media LLC: 76. Archived from the original on 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  4. Burke, Doug (July 1997). "Prantagonize, Issue 1: The Bum Bar Bastards". Frank's World Entertainment Network. Archived from the original on 1 October 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  5. "The Bum Bar Bastard Interview". CranKings. 27 May 1997. Archived from the original on 20 March 2008. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  6. Walsh, Mike. "The Legend of the Tube Bar, Part 1: Introduction". Mouth Wash: Articles, Stories, and Humor by Mike Walsh. Archived from the original on 21 March 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  7. ""The Tube Bar Tapes" - Transcrierea". grup goarna.go.ro. Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  8. Moran, Mark; Sceurman, Mark (2006). Weird N.J. Vol. 2: Your Travel Guide to New Jersey's Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling. p. 110. ISBN 978-1454903628. Archived from the original on 2021-03-17. Retrieved 2020-11-07.
  9. Walsh, Mike. "The Legend of the Tube Bar, Part 2: How the Recording Got Around". Mouth Wash: Articles, Stories, and Humor by Mike Walsh. Archived from the original on 11 November 1999. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  10. "Tube Bar, Inc., Petitioner, v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Respondent". leagle.com. Leagle. 26 December 1950. Archived from the original on 2 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  11. Hack, Charles (8 April 2009). "It's all up from here for Journal Square". NJ.com. The Jersey Journal. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  12. McDonald, Terrence T. (5 January 2015). "Jared Kushner buys site of long-delayed Journal Square project for $27M". NJ.com. The Jersey Journal. Archived from the original on 3 June 2015. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  13. Ehrman, Mark (3 June 1993). "Telephone Trespassing: Think only kids make prank calls? Now grown-ups are dialing, baiting their prey and taping what follows. And thousands collect the recordings". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  14. "The Howard Stern Show" (Interview). Interviewed by Steve Langford. 8 November 2007.
  15. The Tube Bar {audio documentary} (Media notes). Teen-Beat. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  16. The Tube Bar (Media notes). Teen-Beat. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  17. The Tube Bar Deluxe (Media notes). Teen-Beat. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  18. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar (CD, Album) at Discogs (Media notes). Detonator Records. Archived from the original on 8 December 2014. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  19. Bum Bar Bastards – Tavern Tour at Discogs (Media notes). Padded Cell Productions. Archived from the original on 11 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  20. The Official Bum Bar Bastards Homepage (Media notes). Padded Cell Productions. Archived from the original on 10 June 2004. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  21. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar Collector's Edition at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 17 March 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  22. Bum Bar Bastards – Drunk, Dirty And Disgraceful at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 18 February 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  23. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar Red's Bootleg Tape [Remastered] (CD, Album) at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 22 February 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  24. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar Legendary Prank / Crank Calls [The Ultimate Collection] (CD) at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  25. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar Prank Calls 35th Anniversary Complete Collection (CD, Album) at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 9 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
  26. Bum Bar Bastards – Tube Bar Vol. 4: Rummies, Bums & Dummies (CD, Album) at Discogs (Media notes). T.A. Productions. Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2015.
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