Uncle Ugly or Eric von Zipper?
Uncle Ugly portrait by Virgil Elliott. Thanks to a splendid write-up by Nicki Dwyer about Joe's Cafe Gallery — which you can read @ Nicki's Central West End Guide here — we were contacted by a former habitué of Gaslight Square, the artist Virgil Elliott , who now lives and works in California. He was most interested in the photographs by Thelma Blumberg, with captions written by O'Connell's legend Jack Parker, and provided this additonal information about the photograph of the Boneshakers. The bikers in the "Boneshakers" photo are Paul Stearns (standing) and Dennis Brannaker (sitting on the steps). The location of the shot is the porch/steps of The Exit, the coffeehouse at the corner of Boyle and Westminster. This was the summer of 1968. Dennis Brannaker drove a cab for a living, and at some point acquired the nickname of "Uncle Ugly," after being known previously by some people as "Dirty Denny." But since there was another guy nam...