Service for Oak Beach Inn owner - Robert Matherson

[babylonsister]

I grew up on Oak Beach and knew Matherson, so thought I'd share.

Service for Oak Beach Inn owner

BY ZACHARY R. DOWDY | [e-mail]
8:15 PM EST, December 14, 2007

For three decades, Robert Matherson loomed large over two areas of Long Island life: Its nightlife, where he was king of revelers, and its political life, where he was most comfortable playing role of critic of His or Her Majesty.

Matherson, who presided over Long Island's most celebrated nightclub, the original Oak Beach Inn and its many sequels, and who tried politics as a wild card candidate in a bid for Suffolk County Executive, died of cancer Thursday night. He was 65.

"I'd call him a good friend, bad enemy," said Jerry Cusack, owner of the Carriage House in Babylon, who worked as a bartender for Matherson for six years and who consulted with him when starting his own businesses. "Bob had a vision like nobody else I have ever met, but Bob loved a good fight."

Sometimes, the vision and the fight converged.

The Oak Beach Inn in Babylon, which Matherson bought in 1969 with $6,000 of an inheritance from his father's death, teemed with partygoers and music at mind-numbing decibel levels. That angered many of his neighbors - including Robert Moses, the developer and one-time state parks commissioner who had once been arguably the state's most powerful man.

When Matherson bought the OBI, it was no more than a tame restaurant and inn into the cornerstone of a nightclub dynasty that would replicate itself to its east at Oak Beach Inn East in Hampton Bays, to its west as Oak Beach Inn West in Island Park, and to its north as Oak Beach Inn North in Smithtown.

He even opened an Oak Beach Inn Key West when he relocated to Florida, after years of threatening to move off Long Island.

more...

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-webmath1215,0,6881140.story

[nedbal]

1. The loudest heckler was Robert Matherson-- shouted, "Rudy, you're a whore!

THE 1994 CAMPAIGN: THE RACE; With Cuomo, Giuliani Feels G.O.P.'s Fury

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5D9103FF93AA15753C1A962958260#
By DAVID FIRESTONE,
Published: October 29, 1994

On his first day of campaigning for Mario M. Cuomo, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani experienced the bitter price of bipartisanship today as angry supporters of State Senator George E. Pataki seized on Mr. Giuliani as the symbol of their candidate's misfortune.

Not only was the Mayor mercilessly heckled as a sellout by rank-and-file Republicans who crashed a Cuomo rally here, but he also drew almost identical taunts from the furious leaders of his party, including its candidate for governor.

Mr. Pataki accused Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Cuomo of cutting a secret deal to funnel millions of dollars to New York City in exchange for the Mayor's endorsement on Monday. William Powers, the Republican state party chairman, said the Mayor had sold out everything important to him.

"Giuliani is selling out his vote, he's selling out his constituents and he's selling out his principles," Mr. Powers said on the steps of City Hall.

The Republicans, in fact, appeared to be bursting with anger and frustration at Mr. Pataki's slippage in the polls and the mayoral endorsement, which added momentum to the decline.

A member of Mr. Pataki's ticket even turned his anger at Mr. Pataki. Herbert London, the Republican candidate for comptroller, issued a stinging statement demanding that Mr. Pataki "lead or get out of the way," urging him to explain exactly why he is the best qualified person to lead the party ticket.

Mr. London's criticism of his party's standard bearer was remarkably blunt, even for a man who originally wanted the top spot and has always seemed uncomfortable being lower on the ticket. In his statement, he made it clear that he stood for lower taxes, spending cuts and the death penalty, even if, he said, Mr. Pataki wouldn't fight aggressively for what he believed.

"Mr. Pataki's desire to avoid a head-on discussion of these issues has resulted in a dramatic downward slide for the entire ticket," Mr. London said. "All Republican candidates are beginning to suffer, and I can't allow this to continue to affect my campaign."

Mr. Pataki declined to criticize Mr. London at a news conference today, saying only that "he's not my political consultant," and noting that in America, Mr. London was free to say what he wanted.

But it was Mr. Giuliani who became the lightning rod for most of the Republican fire. The anger seemed to intensify after polls showed that Mr. Giuliani's backing was having an effect. A Newsday / WABC-TV poll released today said that Mr. Pataki's support had slipped from 44 percent to 38 percent in the days immediately after the Mayor's endorsement, although with the poll's margin of sampling error the race was still statistically a dead heat. Mr. Cuomo's support rose from 37 percent to 40 percent in the same period, the poll said.

The most visible symbol of Republican fury was on colorful display today at the rally here on the steps of the Babylon Town Hall, possibly the most raucous stop of the Governor's 1994 campaign. Though most of the crowd of 400 or so was behind the Governor, a substantial minority carried Pataki signs, many of which had been converted into anti-Giuliani placards. "Rudy the Rat," said one. "Benedict Rudy," said another.

There were some good-natured face-offs in the crowd before the speeches began, but once the program started, the two sides took turns trying to shout each other down. The loudest heckler was Robert Matherson, the owner of the Oak Beach Inn on Long Island and the man who has been hanging signs on area highways urging people to get out of New York before it's too late. He loudly and repeatedly shouted, "Rudy, you're a whore!" while the Mayor spoke.

The Mayor did his best to ignore the man, but Mr. Cuomo used him as bait, deftly turning the heckler and his accusations of prostitution into the voice of his opposition.

"The way you use that word, you look to me like a guy who's very familiar with the species," the Governor said to a suddenly speechless Mr. Matherson. "This is a great advantage to us, because they're showing you what they are. They feel the heat. They're going down. They're going down, and they're revealing themselves, and you're going to see more of it over the next week. These guys are sinking and they know it.

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