Patrons didn't get service with a smile. They were lucky to get service.
Mitles, better known locally as ''Gorgeous George,'' was famous in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s for insulting customers at the Plantation Bar in the Mayflower Hotel.
The elegant, 450-room inn on South Main Street had nearly 400 attentive employees who were always at the beck and call of guests. And then there was Mitles, the sole proprietor of the tiny lounge on the ground floor.
''Shut your face,'' he told visitors. ''Don't give me any argument. Remember, customers are a dime a dozen.''
Being rude was Mitles' act — at least we think it was an act. Instead of being outraged, patrons came back for more taunting and formed a fan club in the bartender's honor.
Gorgeous George was one of Akron's offbeat characters, the kind
who used to make the town more interesting but no longer seem to exist in modern society.
He was a short, stocky fellow with a shaved head and pencil mustache, and somewhere beneath the starched collar, vest and bow tie, it was rumored that he had a neck.
Mitles set sail at the Mayflower about 1947 with a past that was as colorful as it was sketchy. He was born in Greece in 1897 and emigrated to the United States as an adult. He served as a cavalryman in the U.S. Army, lived for a time in Hawaii and found work as a horse wrangler in Hollywood.
Among his bit parts, he appeared as a chariot driver in the 1925 silent movie Ben Hur.
''I was not any part of any horse in that picture,'' he joked.
On the wall at the Plantation Bar was an Army photo of a uniformed Mitles on horseback. If customers overlooked the image, it was understandable, because the wall in the smoke-filled room was covered with garish decorations, including papier-mache masks, ceramic figures, an upside-down clock that ticked backward and dozens of signs spouting Gorgeous George's feisty philosophy.
''If You Are Drinking to Forget, Please Pay in Advance,'' one sign read.
''We Only Kid the People We Like,'' another read. ''Don't Act Like a Customer, Act Like a Friend.''
Beware of flying bottles
One of Mitles' favorite practical jokes was to throw a beer bottle at customers he didn't recognize. It wasn't a real bottle, of course, just a lightweight paper replica, but it sure made the newcomers wonder what kind of bar they had just entered.
''If you don't like it, there's the door,'' he used to say, only half-jokingly.
Gorgeous George made a big show of grumbling at customers and mocking their drink orders. He often referred to them as ''jugheads,'' and he meant that in the kindest way.
''Like this girl, she came in and ordered a Scotch — Scotch, mind you — mixed with Coca-Cola,'' he once confided to the Beacon Journal. ''Why? Why? Who would want to mix Scotch with Coca-Cola?''
Another patron ordered vodka with lemon juice and soda.
''Can you beat it?'' Mitles muttered. ''Vodka with lemon juice and soda. Jugheads.''
In 1949, Beacon Journal columnist Kenneth Nichols wrote about the bartender's gruff service and growing cult.
''The customers love it,'' he noted. ''Not only that, but they have banded themselves into a drinking club known as the 'Gorgeous George's Group.' There are approximately 100 members — and a waiting list.''
Members joined for $2 and paid a monthly fee of $1.
Naturally, Mitles served as president and fined his regular customers if they didn't appear at the bar at least twice a week.
President Mitles was empowered to ''enact and enforce such rules'' as he believed were necessary with ''the rubber stamp of the club's board of directors.''
He imposed fees for all sorts of improper behavior in the bar, including using vulgar language, kissing in public, making a wife wait too long for dinner and talking back to the bartender.
Membership privilege
The bar officially opened at 4 p.m., but members could sneak in the back door a couple of hours earlier if he permitted.
''I close when I feel like it,'' Mitles said. ''When I go on vacation, the place closes until I get back.''
Serving people from around the world, Mitles proudly tacked up business cards from faraway places such as Belgium, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sweden and Japan. His famous guests included Frankie Avalon, Dinah Shore, Gloria DeHaven and George Liberace.
Regular customers discovered that Gorgeous George wasn't always as rough as he seemed. In fact, he was an old softie when it came to his favorite subject: horses. The former cavalryman loved to go riding and even served as an equitation judge at the Bath Horse Show.
The Mayflower Hotel was sold twice during Mitles' reign, changing its name to the Sheraton-Mayflower, then simply the Sheraton and back to the Mayflower. The bartender kept outlasting the hotel executives.
Beacon Journal reporter Abe Zaidan caught up with Mitles in 1968 and discovered that service hadn't improved in 21 years.
''Hey, George, where's my drink?'' one customer wondered.
Mitles replied: ''If you're in a hurry, kid, there's a bar upstairs. I didn't ask you to come in here. You didn't see a welcome sign, did you? You'll get served when I'm ready.''
Those darn jugheads.
The last call was fast approaching at the Plantation Bar.
Closing in 1971
A week away from its 40th anniversary, the Mayflower Hotel closed in 1971. The building stood vacant for two years before being reborn as an apartment complex in 1973.
Mitles packed away his philosophical signs, backward-ticking clock and Army horse photo and left downtown Akron.
In the early 1970s, he tended bar at the Brookside Country Club in Norton, where by necessity he had to water down his act. As manager, he even resisted the temptation to throw fake beer bottles at newcomers.
Mitles was 78 years old in 1976 when he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in his West Akron home. His ashes were interred at Rose Hill Cemetery in Fairlawn.
Gorgeous George has been gone for 35 years.
We sure could use his help today. There seem to be more jugheads than ever.
Mark J. Price is a Beacon Journal copy editor. He can be reached at 330-996-3850 or send email to mjprice@thebeaconjournal.com.
