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On December 13th Robert Matherson "Bob" former owner of Long Island's hottest nightclubs Oak Beach Inn "OBI" died from cancer at the age of 65.

When Bob was 25 in 1969 he took the $6k he inherited from his father & bought an Inn on Long Islands South Shore located on the water with plans to turn it into a rocking nightclub called the OBI South.

This plan did not sit well with Master NY Roadbuilder Robert Moses & Moses started a war that Bob would fight for 30 years.

As his nightclub grew in popularity Bob opened other OBI's on the Island. The OBI West building located in Island Park was owned by a wiseguy & when he saw that Bob had turned it around & was pumping big bucks the wiseguy wanted the club. Bob refused & Henry Hill was sent in to sterno it as loosely depicted in the movie Goodfellas.

One of Bob's many stories was one day he was behind schedule & had to make a bank run to get change. He rushed to the bank & made it just before closing. When he exited the bank a cop was standing by his car & demanded to see Bob's I.D./License. In his rush, Bob forgot his wallet at the OBI & the cop promptly arrested him. Bob landed up bailing himself out with the dimes he got from the change run.

Bob fought the corrupt political machine for most of his life & in the early morning hours would be out hanging banners off of overpasses. One that sticks in my mind was when NY Gov Mario Cuomo was running for re-election, regardless if driving the Southern State, Northern State or LIE people were reading Bob's message, "We haven't suffered enough, Re-elect Cuomo". Cuomo lost his re-election bid.

Bob was a ruthless employer & would can any employee for any infraction. He once hired a band & discovered that the music didn't fit with the crowd. When he told the band they were being let go, the band leader informed Bob that they were under contract with him for X amount of weekends & they expected to get paid for that amount of time or they would bring him into court. Relenting Bob agreed to allow them to continue their gig. The next weekend when the band showed they were a little confused that another band was setting up on stage. Bob directed them to the kitchen & informed them that is where they would be playing. Oh, the lead singer? Dee Sneider (Twisted Sister).

Bob had full time drivers on payroll who drove those billboard trucks all over LI, Brooklyn in Queens with the message, "Move Out Of New York Before It's Too Late".

In 1974 I was home on leave & on the way overseas to Okinawa. All my friends who were older than my ripe 17 years planned a big night out in a hopping club called the OBI North. Worried that I would not get in I left my wallet home to play the no ID game & proceeded with my friends to the club wearing my Dress Blues. The line had to be at least 50 yards long & I kept sweating not being able to get in. Soon after arriving a doorman spotted me and yelled for the Marine to come forward where I was escorted in, no cover-charge & drinks on the house.

20 years later soon after retiring, Bill (Wheels Of Gold) Goerl brought me to the OBI South & I fell in love with the place & became a regular. I eventually became the Karaoke DJ then manager of the 1500 capacity club with Bob being my mentor in this business.

December 1999 Bob closed the doors on the OBI for good & I helped him move to Key West to open a new OBI. Key West & I didn't agree and I stayed just long enough (3 months) to put the club together & headed back to NY.

Bob was hated by some & admired by many. He brought down the Suffolk Republican Machine and won many lawsuits against government. The land that the OBI South as with all homes on Fire Island sits on are county owned 99 year lease type deals. His final win was the leased land being deeded to him, he flipped it to a developer for $5mil & the Town of Babylon forking over $7+ million to the developer to buy it back & turn it into a park.

RIP Bob

A clarification on the playing in the kitchen story.
Bobby had hired both Twisted Sister and The Good Rats to play all summer long. But after a couple of weeks it became obvious that people coming to the Hamptons did not want to see the same bands every weekend playing their own music. Bobby asked the bands to play cover tunes to help promote dancing and partying.

Twisted Sister agreed and continued to play on the main stage. The Good Rats did not agree so Bobby had them play in the kitchen. The first weekend he let the public come in to see them. After a lot of people came back to watch he closed the kitchen and made them play alone. He wanted them to get mad and not play and then he could claim breach of contract.

After a week or two of this Pepe Marchello, Good Rats lead singer, collapsed or faked collapsing and was carried out by EMS and taken to the hospital. They never played there again.

I worked there at the time and helped construct the kitchen stage which was made out of plywood laid on top on empty beer bottle cases.