The Gas Lite, local bar and night club at 716 Main, has been sold to Earl Kelly, former owner Art Fritz announced today. Kelly, longtime resident of Miles City, has been employed by the Montana Highway Department for a number of years but now plans to devote full-time to the business. It will be known hence forth as Kelly’s Gas Lite.

From the Miles City Star, July 25, 1969. Anyone have memories of Kelly's?

At what point did they install the shag carpeting on the walls?

I remember my mom being upset with the gas lite being so close to my grandparents drugstore.

Aside from the music, there wasn't a great deal of difference between the Gaslite and the Disco. But disco?? Come on! ; -)



[Edited by Hal Neumann (7/20/2019 9:42:31 AM)]

Kelly's Disco Lounge came along a few years later, in the mid-seventies. Since I didn't get into Kelly's until the later seventies, I don't know if there were decor changes. Was there a disco ball? I don't remember.

I didn't make it in there until it was The Drake Lounge -- mid-80s. There was shag carpet on the walls at that time which I assumed was a holdover from the discotheque era.

I can't imagine a disco without a disco ball.

Anyone recognize the people in that photo Hal posted? The woman on the right almost looks uncomfortable having to walk past such a place.

I remember two exotic dancers in the bar one night, quite a sight for Miles City.

Did one of them look like Witch Hazel?

No, actually they were more like attractive black goddesses, for Miles they were quite nice. To bad you missed it.

I personally saw at least two strippers at Kelly's. What I remember most was they both had a "gimmick" and having seen the musical about Gypsy Rose Lee, I was amused.

In the early 70's Kelly's was the place to go. He brought in a lot of RNR bands and they place was crowded every night. A lot of memories from there.

Kelly’s Gas Lite was the first club in Miles that I sneaked into to hear the band. I had met the guitarists outside the back door after they had set up earlier in the day, and they invited me back to hear them play later. I told them the obvious, that I wasn't old enough. They said: "don't worry about that. Just come to the back door." So I did and that was the start of my guitar playing disease. Circa 1975.

Oh yes the Good Old Days of the Gaslite.....shiny vinyl Kustom speakers and amps.....and "Smoke on the Water" every set....Barb with her aerosal mace....full on most nights,packed on weekends.....

Good lord how old ARE you people?

Old enough to remember the Tongue River Clinic.

Also known as the Tongue River Riding Academy. I know a few jokes about it. Yeah, Kelly's was the hot spot in town in the 70s.

My recollection of that bar when it was "The Drake Lounge" is that it had sort of an Art Deco style back bar. Was that the case when it was the Gas Lite as well?

I remember the "disco" days of Kelly's quite well. I was in my early 20s at the time. It did indeed have a "disco ball" (although the proper term is "mirrorball"), and a lot of black lights, but not a whole lot else for lighting. It was definitely no Studio 54.

The dancefloor area was called "Your Room;" there was a large sign saying "Your Room" in a Partridge-Family style font on the front of the DJ booth.

It was pretty damn legendary in its day, but was eclipsed pretty quickly in the disco era by the Sun Dance Inn, which was in the old shopping center on Valley Drive East. But, seedy clubs tend to be pretty hardy, proven by the fact that the Sun Dance Inn is no more but there's still a bar in the Kelly's building.

Forsyth Mike wrote:

But, seedy clubs tend to be pretty hardy, proven by the fact that the Sun Dance Inn is no more but there's still a bar in the Kelly's building.

The Texas Club is no longer open as it was purchased by Stockman Bank.

If you couldn't find love at Kelly's you were looking in all the wrong places. I only spent one summer there but the ladies of Miles City were fine, fine, fine. I do remember Leotta Bradley rushing in at times to monitor the degrading of Miles City youth, bless her heart.

Sounds like Leota Henricks.

They were one and the same. Leotta also used to sit on Main and monitor the kids dragging Main. Thank God those were days before cell phones. You could get away before she got to the police station to report you.

I have a lot of good memories of Kelly's. They had a very tall blonde dj who worked there once a week. He played disco music among other things. Shorty Spang and his band played there frequently. The stairway to the bathroom downstairs was narrow and inevitably someone was coming the other direction. Earl was great. I walked in one night and one of our local cowboys got grabby. I had enough of his behavior and punched him. He doubled over and spun around. I kicked him in the butt and he went flying down the row of stools at the bar. Earl gave me a round of applause. What fond memories.

Amorette, I love you, you are on track with Miles of old. There were four houses at the riding academy, I wonder how many Whorses they had there?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/...7675.l2557

Not often that I'm happy to lose a bid but almost $40 in shipping seems a bit excessive.

eBay was more fun when you could see full usernames/feedbacks and figure out who was doing what & often understand why

[Edited by Dave Roberts (8/25/2019 9:37:27 PM)]