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Link: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20160102/NEWS/160109992
Link: http://www.vvdailypress.com/article/20160102/NEWS/160109992
- NEWBERRY SPRINGS
- 'It's a big deal now'
- By Matthew Cabe
Staff Writer
Posted Jan. 2, 2016 at 11:00 PM
NEWBERRY SPRINGS — Andree Pruett talks about the Bagdad Cafe as if the diner’s longevity is a mystery.
“We’re just hanging in there some way or another,” she says amid the din of people from “away” flooding the cafe’s entrance. “Do you mind calling me back? I got this tour bus just pulled up.”
The background noise had diminished when Pruett answered the telephone the second time. Luckily, she had a rare moment of spare time to offer a more detailed response to the initial question.
“I’m nice to people that come in,” she said with the remnants of a southern drawl. “Word of mouth spreads when you’re nice to everyone. That makes a difference. Anyone who works for me has to be nice, too.”
It’s a simple yet baffling answer considering Pruett wanted nothing to do with the Bagdad Cafe in 1995 when her late husband, Harold, became interested in purchasing the tourist stop roughly 30 miles outside Barstow along a stretch of Route 66 that runs parallel to Interstate 40.
The Pruetts moved to the Mojave Desert from Los Angeles so Harold could start an ostrich farm and Andree could focus on a writing career. The Bagdad Cafe had other plans.
“We were sitting here having a hamburger,” Pruett said, “which was the best hamburger I ever had. My husband was talking to the waitress about selling the place. I said, ‘Don’t even think about it.’ We went home and my husband told my son that I didn’t want to buy the cafe that was in the ‘Bagdad Cafe’ movie, and my son told me we had to buy it. So we did.”
Released in 1987, “Bagdad Cafe” quickly built an international cult following thanks to its peculiar characters and unique visual style created by Percy Adlon, the film’s German director.
Knowing the popularity of the film — shot on location at the cafe — the Pruetts’ first order of business upon taking over ownership was to change the name, which was called the Sidewinder Cafe at the time.
The second order of business was to rename specific menu items; the Jack Palance Burger — named after the “City Slickers” actor who played Rudi Cox in “Bagdad Cafe” — is a popular choice.
And twenty years later, Pruett has grown to need the Bagdad Cafe as much as it needs her.
“I almost went under I don’t even know how many times,” she said. “But somehow I managed to stay open. It’s kept me going after I lost my husband and son.”
Harold Pruett II, 32, was a character actor with more than 30 film and television credits to his name. He had a recurring role on the hit Fox TV series “Party of Five” in the late 90s before an accidental drug overdose ended his life in 2002.
Pruett started the Harold Pruett Drug Abuse Foundation to honor her son’s memory.
“I’ve gone through some really hard times, but I thank God that I’m doing alright now,” she said.
To say the Bagdad Cafe is “doing alright” would be an understatement; scores of people from across the globe visit the ramshackle building located at 46548 National Trails Highway on a daily basis.
“Seventy-five percent of my business is French speaking,” Pruett said. “Twenty-five percent is from everywhere else. Not everybody buys anything, but I treat everyone the same.”
Whether purchases are made or not, most who visit leave something behind. Hats, photos, business cards and foreign currency smother the walls and ceiling.
Naturally, a few “Bagdad Cafe” movie posters have found their place on the walls.
And a battered Meister piano covered in handwritten notes and old plane tickets sits in one corner like a valiant monument to multilingual communication.
Encased in the mementos of countless passing lives exists the true appeal of the Bagdad Cafe — a sense of belonging to a worldwide community that can only be found in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s a big deal now,” Pruett said. “We did a live reality show for Chinese television about two weeks ago. A live feed all the way to China. Can you believe that?”
And while the “Bagdad Cafe” movie has added to the international appeal, Pruett actively pursues new ways to increase her establishment’s gravitational pull, as it were.
In 2008, she finally got around to her writing and produced a screenplay titled, “The Real Bagdad Cafe.” Copies are available for purchase in-house. And she will soon launch a membership club to draw even more international interest.
“I’m here for good it looks like,” she said.
So chances are Pruett will be around to greet the throngs of visitors for a while yet. She welcomes conversation, but also lets the Bagdad Cafe speak for itself, as well as for all the travelers who’ve left pieces of themselves behind before getting back on the road to everywhere else.