In all my years of living in the area, there was one character back in the day who always stood out in my mind as the quintessential Jersey Shore icon.
Beada B., whose real name was Donald Ward, had what was known in the bar and service business as “the magic touch”. From around 1982 until the mid-1990’s, every bar and club that he managed turned to gold. The liquor couldn’t flow fast enough, the bucks just kept on rolling in.
The first time I met Beada was in 1982. I was deejaying at the Bar Bombay, and Beada was managing a club in Asbury Park called Club Xanadu (which is now Porta, located on Kingsley Street). Beada came in with his entire crew of Xanadu service personnel and introduced himself and the others to all of the Bombay’s employees working that night. He invited all of us to come down for a night on the town at Xanadu.
A week or so later, a bunch of us from the Bombay visited Xanadu. The place was really nice. It had the largest lounge area I had ever seen in a dance club. It also had a huge dance floor with tremendous flashing lights for a great dance experience.
Beada and I hit it off, and we became friends. Whenever I went to a club that he managed, I was treated like royalty.
Every club that he ever worked at or visited, Beada and his crew would hit the ground running, let their hair down, and party like there was no tomorrow to get the crowds going. At his clubs, contests that would be considered politically incorrect nowadays were held unabashed. Bikini contests, dance contests. . .you name it, Beada ran it. If he didn’t run a contest, he would be a judge for it.
A year or so after I met him, Beada came away with the crown jewel of managerial jobs – at Montego Bay, the hottest club south of Asbury Park. It only had a six-month liquor license, but when it was up and running, it made more money and attracted more people than most of the other area clubs running year-round.
Beada moved on from club to club up and down Monmouth and Ocean Counties over the next several years, also frequenting the club scene down in southern Florida as well. The hype that followed him and his cronies never seemed to die down, whether it was here at the Jersey Shore or down south.
Then all of a sudden, he just up and disappeared from the Jersey Shore club scene. Rumor had it that he had moved to Israel to raise a daughter. It seemed like he fell off the face of the Earth. Nobody in the bar business locally or down in Florida saw him. It was like one of those people you graduate high school with who doesn’t want to be bothered getting contacted to go to any of the class reunions.
Just recently, I was talking to an old friend of mine, DJ Johnny M, who worked at Broker’s in Red Bank right around the time I was at the Bombay. He told me that he had heard that Beada may have resurfaced in the New York City area.
So Beada B., if you’re out there and you read this blog, DJ Kevin and your Jersey Shore fans want an update on how you’re doing.
(You can also follow Kevin Cieri's blog on his Facebook page, "Jersey Shore Retro" as well as on Twitter @jsretro).
