Fly By Night Club

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Mr. Whitekeys' Fly By Night Club was a bar and restaurant in the Spenard area of Anchorage, Alaska, bought and renamed by Mr. Whitekeys in 1980. The Club, well-known locally and a popular tourist destination, closed September 8th, 2006. It's slogan, "It ain't easy bein' sleazy," highlighted the whimsical and sometimes less-than-wholesome history of Spenard.

[edit] Attractions

Whitekeys and his band, The Spamtones, played nightly music for patrons, as well as staging seasonal evening performances. Each show played for part of the year, "Springtime In Spenard" from April-May; "The Whale Fat Follies" from June-Sept.; "The Freeze-Up Follies" from Sept.-Nov.; and "Christmas In Spenard" from Nov-Dec. The musical performances were generally satirical, touching on Alaskan people, places, society, politics, current events, and daily life. The performances were also accompanied by photo slideshows, which were often staged photos of visual gags reinforcing the song's imagery, but could play a larger role. For instance, patrons and fans submitted a number of photos of Alaskan vanity license plates, all of which were incorporated as lyrics in a song played to a slideshow of the plates.

[edit] Spam

The Fly By Night Club served standard bar fare, such as chicken wings, sandwiches, and fries, but the menu included a notable focus on Spam dishes. The Club's website claims, in fact, that the Club was founded because "there was no place else where you could order some of the world's finest champagnes and a damn fine plate of Spam." Spam-branded clothing was sold, and a popular tradition among patrons traveling abroad was to pose for pictures with a can of Spam. A song and slideshow was created to showcase these pictures, similar to the vanity plates.