The Bowery

This famous honky-tonk bar is best known as the birthplace of the band Alabama. Beyond its musical history, the building has a spooky past that employees and visitors have experienced firsthand.

The Bowery was built in 1944 by Jack Cook and Cooter Jennings, opening its doors just fifty yards from the Atlantic Ocean to serve visitors, locals, and servicemen stationed at the nearby U.S. Army Air Corps airfield during World War II. The honky-tonk faced the old Myrtle Beach Pavilion and quickly became a gathering place for the beach community. Its place in music history was secured when a young country group called Alabama became the house band from 1973 to 1980, playing for tips and beer before signing with RCA Records on April 21, 1980. The band was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2005, and The Bowery trademarked itself "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

The ghost story centers on a real person whose legend has grown far beyond the facts. Joseph Shotkus, known as "Don't Cry Joe," was a beloved waiter and bartender who worked at The Bowery from the day it opened in 1944 until his death in 1997 -- over fifty years behind the bar. He earned his nickname during earlier work at a joint called Sloppy Joe's, where he would sing the song "Don't Cry, Joe" and begin weeping as he sang. He was famous for carrying twenty-five beer mugs at once and was a fixture so constant that regulars could not imagine the place without him.

According to owner Victor Shamah, who was present for the incident, Shotkus collapsed one day while drinking a beer at the bar and began to turn blue. Shamah and others revived him, and upon regaining consciousness, Shotkus wanted nothing more than to get back to work. He did not die that day, but the story morphed over the years into the legend of "Barman Joe" -- a patron who supposedly died on his barstool, sprang back to life just long enough to finish his drink, and then died again for good.

Today, staff and visitors report hearing a man's voice singing near the bar after hours, even when no one is there. Some have felt a tap on their shoulder from an unseen hand. The Bowery is a regular stop on Myrtle Beach ghost tours, where guides tell the tale of Barman Joe. Owner Shamah has expressed frustration that tour companies perpetuate the distorted version rather than honoring the real "Don't Cry Joe" Shotkus, whose devotion to the bar over half a century makes the true story more remarkable than the legend. The Bowery remains open seven days a week with live music, its walls covered in over seventy years of memorabilia, and the question of whether Joe ever truly left remains a matter of debate between the ghost tours and the man who owns the place.