For Boston institution, closing credits roll

Cheers bar lays off fabled bartender

For decades, Eddie Doyle was the mainstay at the Bull & Finch, now Cheers. He is known for his zany charity bashes. (Globe Staff Photo / John Tlumacki)

Eddie Doyle has signed thousands of autographs, posed for just as many pictures, and has raised more than $1 million for Boston charities.

Although he never held public office, pitched at Fenway, or performed on local TV, Doyle is famous. He's also among the newly unemployed.

For nearly 35 years, or almost half of his life, Doyle has been the smiling face behind the bar at Cheers - the Beacon Hill pub that inspired the TV show with the same name in the early 1980s. As one of Boston's last fabled bartenders, he served drinks and advice for five decades. During that time, his charitable deeds became the stuff of legend. Along the way he got to know thousands, introduced dozens of singles who would eventually marry, and held numerous fund-raisers that attracted everybody from the glitterati to the near-homeless.

But a few weeks ago he was told by Tom Kershaw, owner of the Cheers bar, that the recession had hit his industry and he was being laid off. Doyle, who is in his late 60s, said he's surprised but not bitter.

"I'm a casualty of the economic situation that we're in," said Doyle, who spent part of this week cleaning out his office.

Kershaw acknowledged that it was a difficult decision. "Business is way off," he said, adding that he would continue to send Doyle a weekly paycheck until the end of the year. "It was very tough. Personally, for me, it was a disaster. Eddie and I have been friends for 40 years."

As word spread of his layoff, many people, such as former Boston mayor Raymond Flynn, said that the city has lost an institution.

"He's as important as George Washington to this city; he's that well known," said Flynn. "The Cheers bar was internationally famous, but before it was internationally famous I think Eddie really brought them that notoriety and that attention. They say it's a bar where everybody knows your name but it's really a bar where everybody knows Eddie Doyle."

"It's the end of an era," added Bill "Spaceman" Lee, the former Red Sox pitcher who often sipped draft beer in the basement pub that Doyle presided over. "That must mean in these tough economic times everybody's going to be sober in Boston."

Besides being the guy who knew every regular's name and their drink, Doyle aspired to give back to the city where he was raised. In 1979, after reading a Globe Santa column about two brothers who were trying to keep their family together during Christmas, he got the idea to hold an auction at the bar - then known as the Bull & Finch. The regulars, who included everybody from doctors to construction workers, contributed $570 to the charity - bidding on homemade pasta dishes, desserts, and a game of Monopoly.

"It took off from there," said Doyle, who decided to make it an annual auction. Over the years, Doyle and his volunteers raised more than $450,000 for Globe Santa - which purchases gifts each year for needy children. Other recipients included The Jimmy Fund, The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care, Friends of Floating Hospital, and The Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund. With TV newsman John Henning and former Detroit Tigers pitcher Mark Fidrych serving as celebrity bartenders, the auction attracted hundreds of participants each year. In 2004, the "Cheers for Children" auction passed the $1 million mark in donations.

With his exit from Cheers, Doyle said, he is getting out of the auction business. Kershaw said Cheers would still accept donations for the charities but was uncertain about the auction's future. Some in the philanthropic community said the auction's end could be a blow to the charities.

"I think he's going to be sorely missed," said Scott Neely, executive director of The Cam Neely Foundation for Cancer Care. Neely said his organization had received more than $200,000 from the auction.

Doyle became a regular at the bar in 1969, and in the early 1970s he met his wife, Marcia, inside the pub. In 1974, he left his day job as a graphic artist and joined its staff. At that time it was known as the best dart bar in the city.

Steve Lipofsky was a regular during those days. He said part of the lure of the bar was Doyle's unassuming demeanor. "He's somebody who would listen to you and care about what you said," said Lipofsky, who served as the Celtics team photographer for two decades.

By the early 1980s, Doyle had created a softball team and held fishing trips for the staff and regulars. "We had a community," said the soft-spoken Doyle, who stands just under 6 feet, has a thick, droopy white mustache, and has worn a Red Sox cap every day for as long as he can remember.

Doyle organized other charity events with former Eliot Lounge bartender Tommy Leonard. When one of the Public Garden's bronze ducklings went missing in 1989, the men sold buttons to raise money to have the ducks recast. Doyle also created The Boston Barleyhoppers, a running club that ran once a week from the Bull & Finch to an area bar. "We'd have two beers at the bar and run back," said Doyle, who also led the group to charity work, such as assisting disabled racers after they arrived each year for the Boston Marathon.

The club's motto was "We run for fun, and roam for foam." It lasted 15 years, and produced 22 marriages. "The poor guy was always buying wedding presents," said Malden's Joy Curtis, who met her husband at the runner's club and has been married for 22 years.

Because he was so busy, Doyle rarely met any of the people who were direct recipients of his charities. No matter, said Doyle, who believes most people want to help others. "Little things like that keep you going. They bring people together and there's nothing wrong with dipping into your pocket to help out your fellow man. Something good always comes of it," said Doyle.

In 1982, Doyle's life, and the bar's atmosphere, changed almost overnight. After "Cheers" premiered on NBC, Doyle went from barely being able to pay his rent to serving 5,000 people a day. Each day, he poured hundreds of beers and cocktails for mostly tourists, who asked for his autograph and wanted to know everything about the TV show. "Some expected to see Ted Danson behind the bar," said Doyle, referring to the actor who played the Cheers bartender on TV.

As the real-life bartender of a pub that was the focus of a mega-hit TV show, Doyle was a regular viewer. "It could have been any bar in the US," said Doyle. "But in the end, they did capture the whole thing - with their crew of misfits and eclectic collection of customers that fit but didn't fit."

On a late afternoon last week, about half of the 50 chairs in the bar were filled. Along the burnished wooden bar, Christine Kelly poured a draft and said she missed working with her mentor. "Eddie is the heart and soul of this entire building," said Kelly, who worked alongside Doyle for 16 years and regularly bids at the auction.

Doyle said he plans to do some work on his house in Westwood, spend more time with his wife and cat, and, perhaps, write a book about his life in the bar.

Meanwhile, for once, he'll be the focus of attention later this month, when his old friends gather to honor him at Cheers. He downplayed the event, saying it wasn't necessary. "I'll still be around. I'm not dead," he said.

Steven Rosenberg can be reached at srosenberg@globe.com