[Dion]

Quite an interesting article that describes everything from the beginnings of Electric Avenue to how it was policed

Electric Avenue kind of snuck up on everyone, even those who were right in the middle of it all, like Al Thompson. A helicopter pilot from Winnipeg, Thompson moved to Calgary in 1981 and turned to bartending when the bust economy at the time dried up work opportunities in the air. He found work with the Claudio’s Group, owners of an eponymous restaurant on the south side of 11th Avenue between 5th and 6th streets, a strip that was primarily comprised of low-density office developments. Claudio’s eventually placed “Big Al,” as he became known, behind the bar at Bandito’s, its Mexican-themed restaurant and bar across the street.

Thompson recalls something of a snowball effect. “All of a sudden, across the road, the Manhattan Club went up,” he says. “Next door was Coconut Joe’s, then we had the King’s Horse open up across the street. Three Cheers was a couple of doors down and then we had the Keg at the corner.”

“It was ridiculous after we beat the Oilers. I remember a guy hanging off the roof of Bandito’s burning a Wayne Gretzky effigy,” says Jason Stang, who was hired to DJ at The Rave, a predecessor to Coconut Joe’s, when he was only 16. But, for all the drunken revelry that evening, Stang also recalls things seemed (relatively) under control. “The police got smart, shut down the block, dumped everybody’s booze and nothing too bad happened. It was contained chaos,” he says.

“I was bartending the night the Flames won the Stanley Cup,” says Jon Truch, owner/proprietor of 17th Avenue hot-dog joint Tubby Dog, who was also in high school when he began working as a busboy on the Avenue. “It was crazy. People were just throwing money around. They’d say, ‘Give me a beer!’ and you’d ask, ‘What kind?’ and they’d say, ‘I don’t care,’ and they’d throw you a $20 bill.”

“A normal night was really busy because of the concentration of bars,” says Steve Chapman, a former Calgary Police Service officer who spent time on the Electric Avenue beat. “There was a lot of movement. I could have balanced the city budget just by writing people up on jaywalking.”

For the most part, the officers working the Avenue during the late ’80s took a less-antagonistic approach. “You’d get people carrying open liquor, which, for the most part, you ignored, because it wasn’t worth it — unless the guy was an idiot, in which case you poured it out and sent him on his way,” says Chapman.

In the ’80s, the violence mostly took the form of fistfights. The high concentration of bars, mixed with the density of drunken patrons, made nightly altercations ubiquitous on the Avenue. Fistfighting was the strip’s official sport, and dustups were just as likely to involve door staff.

“There were actually a lot of wrestlers [working as bouncers] back when Stampede Wrestling was going on,” says Truch. “They were nice guys, but they had attitude, and, if people pushed them the wrong way, there were no constraints. If they wanted to hit someone, they hit someone.”

Pro wrestlers were also regular patrons on the Avenue. Truch recalls a night at Bandito’s when a visit from Stampede Wrestling legend Makhan Singh played out like a scene from the ring — someone tossed a pitcher of water at another intended target and hit Singh by mistake, resulting in an impromptu main event between the wrestler and Bandito’s manager, “Big Jim,” a football-playing farm boy bold enough (and burly enough) to take on a wrestling legend.

https://www.avenuecalgary.com/June-2...tying-History/