Vintage coke sign comes with a good story

By ABBE SMITH
The Union Democrat

 Of all the memorabilia displayed at the Old Corner Saloon in Copperopolis, owner Bud "Odie" Odekirk thought nothing could match the photo of notorious stage coach robber Black Bart leaning on the same bar that stands in the tavern today.

 Then one day a customer pointed to the woman model on an antique Coca-Cola sign and said, "My boss knows her."

 After a little investigation, Odekirk, 69, tracked down the woman who goes by Nina Vivian. Next he drove the sign to her modest home in Danville and got the elderly woman and former model to sign it.

Now the autographed cardboard sign, protected by a plastic cover, is back on the saloon's wall - along side Black Bart and hundreds more eye-catching pictures and signs. It's a favorite of saloon patrons. But the story behind the autograph is as precious to Odekirk as the antique Coca-Cola sign itself.  
Coca-Cola sign owner meets the model

"We'd still be there if we could." he said of his visit to Vivian's Bay Area home. Odekirk said he had no idea what to expect as he drove out to meet the woman in September. She didn't offer him Coke when he came in, as one might expect. And, now in her 80s, she certainly didn't look like the woman in the picture. But something about her sparkling eyes reminded Odekirk of the Coca-Cola model. Gone are Vivian's brown locks, but her rosy cheeks remain. "She was really funny and clever," Odekirk said.

He said the woman, who posed several times in the 1940s for Coca-Cola and other companies, including the maker of Chesterfield cigarettes, was in her 20s at the time.

 Odekirk uncovered the sign when, after buying the saloon in 2002, he was removing drywall to reveal walls made of sturdy barn wood. The sign had been drywalled over and was preserved in almost 'mint condition, except for a few nail holes. Odekirk said ah appraiser had estimated its worth at about $4,000 - before the signature.

Copperopolis resident and saloon regular Darren Johnson said the sign escaped damage from the decades of saloon cigarette smoking because it was hidden for years behind the drywall. Friends and workers cleaning the place after Odekirk bought it had to scrub to get black smoke stains off the ceiling. "I think it's cool because it's in pristine condition," Johnson said.

Johnson's wife, Debbi, who doesn't drink alcohol but is also regular at the saloon, said the whole bar had a dark, murky feeling to it before it was cleaned that had to have been there since the 1800s," she said. Now the place has a cheery atmosphere and has become a destination for locals and tourists alike. "All the work guys come in after work," Debbi Johnson said.

Odekirk, a retired software engineer from the Bay Area, bought the O'Byrnes Ferry Road saloon in March 2002 for$205,000. He paid for the Gold-Rush era, 1862 landmark in cash because he said no one would finance the old building due to a lack of a sturdy foundation. Odekirk himself had to build pillars in the basement, where a speak-easy operated during Prohibition years, to reinforce the saloon's floor. "The place was like this," Odekirk said and tilted his, arm to show how the whole saloon slanted because of the floor.

Much of the memorabilia decorating the walls was there when he bought the place. Some pieces are additions from Odekirk's own collection. A buffalo head, baseball cap collection, horseshoes, a yellowed American flag, rodeo pictures, bumper stickers, a giant swordfish and ads for beer, cigarettes and Heinz soups grace the crowded walls. Hanging high up is a reward poster offering $300 for help catching a man who robbed a Wells Fargo stagecoach in Tuolumne County. The poster is dated Dec. 1, 1875.

 The saloon was at one time a brothel in addition to a saloon and speak-easy. A button still exists on the bar to alert people drinking and playing cards that the sheriff had arrived.  

The saloon's rich history and wealth of memorabilia is its greatest asset, said Odekirk. But the food and good company aren't bad either.  

Odeki.rk said people come in all the time and get lost looking '" at everything on the walls. He, said Vivian told him she once had an encounter with one of her own signs at a bar in Washington State. She was sitting in a bar in Washington and the bartender said, 'I know you from somewhere,'"  Odekirk recalled with a chuckle. "She just pointed to the sign."

FORMER COCA-COLA model Nina Vivian, in her 80's, poses (above) with a neighbor and (below) with Pat Presley, girlfriend of Bud Odie Odekirk, Odekirk owns the Old Corner Saloon in Copperopolis.