Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

San Diego Museum of Art scores hit with exhibit of portraits from Albie's Beef Inn

Vincent Van Go-Go

Garrison's soft contours have drawn comparisons to Renoir, while his use of light and color evoke a mature Rembrandt, and his sense of staging harkens back to the days when Playboy still featured nudes.
Garrison's soft contours have drawn comparisons to Renoir, while his use of light and color evoke a mature Rembrandt, and his sense of staging harkens back to the days when Playboy still featured nudes.
Place

Albie's Beef Inn

1201 Hotel Circle South, San Diego

When the word came down that Albie's Beef Inn in Mission Valley was scheduled to shut its doors for good, few people wondered where they would go for Steak Diane or a chance to croon "It Had to Be You" in public. But everybody wondered what would become of the ladies: Larry "Vincent" Garrison's tastefully tacky nude portraits of PSA stewardesses.

"We had offers from all over the country pouring in," reports Beef Inn owner Ron Mailgaise. "I could have retired on the money people were pushing at me. But you know how you sometimes think it's a damn shame when a guy marries a beautiful girl and takes her out of public circulation? That's kind of how I felt about these girls. For decades, they've been generously sharing their goodies with anyone who wants to come in and buy a drink. I couldn't imagine them disappearing into some rich guy's man cave forever. This was part of our city's cultural patrimony, and I wanted it to endure."

Sponsored
Sponsored

Happily, just as Mailgaise was experiencing his aesthetic cris de couer, San Diego Museum of Art Director Roxana Velasquez was having a crisis of her own: declining revenue and attendance. "There was a real feeling here at the museum that we had somehow lost touch with the larger San Diego community," she admits. "Instead of serving as a vital resource, we had become, in the public eye, a place to store pictures that were made before there was YouTube. We needed to become a local destination. When I read about Albie's closing and saw the gallery-ready frames on those nudes, a light just went on."

Albie's Airline Angels: Cheesecake at the Beef Inn, 1962-2015 has been drawing capacity crowds since it opened on November 3. There has been talk of a traveling exhibition, but some out-of-town critics aren't willing to wait. New York Magazine's Jerry Saltz recently Tweeted, "Off to SD to look at art. Somebody pinch me."

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Halloween opera style

Faust is the quintessential example
Garrison's soft contours have drawn comparisons to Renoir, while his use of light and color evoke a mature Rembrandt, and his sense of staging harkens back to the days when Playboy still featured nudes.
Garrison's soft contours have drawn comparisons to Renoir, while his use of light and color evoke a mature Rembrandt, and his sense of staging harkens back to the days when Playboy still featured nudes.
Place

Albie's Beef Inn

1201 Hotel Circle South, San Diego

When the word came down that Albie's Beef Inn in Mission Valley was scheduled to shut its doors for good, few people wondered where they would go for Steak Diane or a chance to croon "It Had to Be You" in public. But everybody wondered what would become of the ladies: Larry "Vincent" Garrison's tastefully tacky nude portraits of PSA stewardesses.

"We had offers from all over the country pouring in," reports Beef Inn owner Ron Mailgaise. "I could have retired on the money people were pushing at me. But you know how you sometimes think it's a damn shame when a guy marries a beautiful girl and takes her out of public circulation? That's kind of how I felt about these girls. For decades, they've been generously sharing their goodies with anyone who wants to come in and buy a drink. I couldn't imagine them disappearing into some rich guy's man cave forever. This was part of our city's cultural patrimony, and I wanted it to endure."

Sponsored
Sponsored

Happily, just as Mailgaise was experiencing his aesthetic cris de couer, San Diego Museum of Art Director Roxana Velasquez was having a crisis of her own: declining revenue and attendance. "There was a real feeling here at the museum that we had somehow lost touch with the larger San Diego community," she admits. "Instead of serving as a vital resource, we had become, in the public eye, a place to store pictures that were made before there was YouTube. We needed to become a local destination. When I read about Albie's closing and saw the gallery-ready frames on those nudes, a light just went on."

Albie's Airline Angels: Cheesecake at the Beef Inn, 1962-2015 has been drawing capacity crowds since it opened on November 3. There has been talk of a traveling exhibition, but some out-of-town critics aren't willing to wait. New York Magazine's Jerry Saltz recently Tweeted, "Off to SD to look at art. Somebody pinch me."

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Halloween opera style

Faust is the quintessential example
Next Article

Domestic disturbance at the home of Mayor Gloria and partner

Home Sweet Homeless?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader