The ship has sailed.

For people of a certain age who lived in the Bangor area in the 1970s through the 1990s, the Bounty Taverne at the Holiday Inn on Main Street was the meeting place.

There wasn’t another place like it.

The beer, the speaker dancers, the WTOS nights, the crowds, the bikini contests, the brawls, and the occasional visit from celebrities and athletes appearing across the street at the Bangor Auditorium – these are a few of the things that made the Bounty special to the scores who frequented it.

Considered the hottest nightspot north of Portland in its heyday, the Bounty opened in the 1970s as a venue for local rock bands to showcase their talent. With the debut of disco, the Bounty moved to a DJ format.

But the Bounty is no more.

It closed a few years ago, after a brief stint as a “chem-free” nightclub for the under-21 crowd.

Now, the building that housed it, the Holiday Inn on Main Street, is being acquired by Penn National Gaming Inc., parent company of Hollywood Slots at Bangor, as part of the site for the $90 million gaming complex it plans to open in mid-2008.

The real estate closing is set to occur before the end of the year, and the building will be razed early next year.

The imminent demolition of the Holiday Inn opened a floodgate of memories for those who haunted the Bounty for three decades.

Anchors aweigh

Designed to look like a sailing ship, complete with weathered wooden posts, fake cannons and rope rigging, the Bounty created quite a stir when it opened.

Former patron Ed Cutting, now researching how to improve the teaching of Maine history at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, was among those who appreciated the Bounty’s nautical theme.

“Literally coming to college from the deck of a lobster boat, I always liked the fairly accurate use of 19th century nautical gear,” Cutting said in an e-mail to the BDN.

“The drinking age was 20 back then and some of my fondest undergrad memories involve being there with friends from college. Bangor was a cultural ghetto for 20-somethings at the time – there was the Bounty and the Oronoka and little else,” he wrote. The Oronoka in Orono also has closed.

“While we didn’t know it at the time, we were the first members of ‘Generation X’ or the generation that was both too old and too young to really fit in anywhere. The baby boomers, then in their 30s and 40s, had their places but we had the Bounty.”

Resident Michael Gleason remembers it this way: “The Air National Guard had a Northeast Region Recruiting and Retention Conference (the New England states plus New York and New Jersey) at that Holiday Inn in the late ’90s, and I was surprised at the response of most of the out-of-staters to The Bounty.

“Most had never seen a facility that replicated a sailing vessel’s masts and rigging, and were quite taken with it. Who’d have thought that anything in Bangor would surprise anyone from, particularly, Massachusetts, New York or New Jersey?”

Meeting place

Some Bounty regulars met their significant others there. Among them was Thomas Goodin Sr.

“I first remember seeing The Bounty on TV, showing where it had just opened up, and was so taken back where the bar looked like a ship. I used to go there every Friday and Saturday night for a couple drinks and dance with some lady that caught my eye and [when] one did I danced all night with her,” he wrote.

“We met on July 15, 1977, and were married Dec. 16, 1977. We had 23 wonderful years together and would go back to The Bounty for a drink on July 15. My wife has since passed away and I now live in Massachusetts, but I will always have very fond memories of my evening at The Bounty when I met a special lady on the dance floor.”

A Bangor resident who didn’t want her name used remembered her friends “knew most of the bouncers and had so much fun there. The summer we all turned 21 we were there more than not.”

“My best friend had an apartment within walking distance, so it was a perfect ‘stumble’ home. I also had my first date with my husband there. He bought me lots of rum and cokes with cherries. If not for meeting at the Bounty, we would not be together today.”

Deborah Appleton, formerly Perkins, met her husband, Robert, there.

“He was up in Maine with his buddies hunting for a four-legged deer and ended up with a two-legged dear! We have been married for almost 22 years. I joke with him that I disgraced my family by marrying a flatlander because he is from Connecticut.

“Another story about the Bounty was when we would see our high school teachers in there. That would really creep us out. But I guess they were human, too. My boys would always hear me talk about the Bounty and what we used to do there so when they went there on the under 18 nights … it was kind of cool for them to see the place and they said it was nice. The tradition lived on! The most important thing about the Bounty was that it was what you wanted it to be and for my sister and our friend it was a safe place to go and have a good time.”

Many patrons made new friends.

Gary King of Howland recalled visits from professional basketball team members in the late 1970s: “I was talking to one of them when I happened to turn around and this guy’s belt was even with my nose,” he wrote. “Well, I’m not the tallest guy around, so I started to look up and had to bend my neck way back. ‘Damn, this guy is really tall,’ I said to myself. Not being shy, I asked the guy, ‘Just how tall are you?’ This tall dude answered me, ‘7’1″,’ with a big smile looking down on my lowly self. This is how I met the tallest man I have ever seen. P.S. He was so tall he had to duck down to go under the arches.”

Music and dancing

Steve Orlofsky, a 1974 University of Maine graduate now living in Surry, belonged to one of the bands that headlined at the Bounty.

“As I graduated from UMaine-Orono in 1974, I started playing in a local soul/rock band called Good Feelin’. It was a very good, popular band and we played at the Bounty Taverne many times during the summer of ’74,” he recalled in an e-mail.

“I loved playing with the members of Good Feelin’ and the Bounty was a great place to perform. Big, happy, dancing crowds!”

Gil and Karen Floyd, now of Palm Coast, Fla., liked the dancing and music.

“We probably had more fun there in the ’70s than anywhere else in the Bangor-Brewer area. Our good friend, Aubrey Morgan, worked the door at the lounge and we used to go and have a great time with Sha-Na-Na and Herb Reed and the Platters. They performed there a lot. Many fond memories of partying with them. Sorry to see it go, but things change with the times,” they wrote.

Another reader recalled:

“Thursdays were WTOS nights in the ’80s,” referring to the central Maine radio station. “I went there one Thursday in 1984 with my two older sisters and my older brother. We danced all night. Heineken was on special for $1. Bud was $2.75. A low budget prompted me to go for the Heineken. I have been drinking nothing but Heineken ever since!”

Dewey Gosselin of Bangor added: “I remember going to the Bounty with my buddies, Dan and Micah, and always finding plenty of girls to dance and drink with! Glad I lived walking distance from there.”

Gone but not forgotten

Though the Bounty is no more, it will live on in the hearts of those who loved it.

Vicki Newell worked at the Bounty when it first opened and continued to work at the Holiday Inn for about 16 years.

“I was really hoping that someone would come up with the idea of having a final farewell reunion before they closed the doors for good. I would have given anything to see Stevie Hughes do the row-boat again,” she wrote in an e-mail to the BDN.

“The one thing that old age can’t take away from you is your memories of better days gone by. I am thankful for the time spent at the Bounty as I have continued friendships with the great people.”

Cutting, too, will never forget it: “I think the last time I was in the Bounty was in 1989. I will always remember it fondly, the way it was in 1982 or so, the place where I went with friends when I was young and the future was unlimited. It will always exist in my mind and memories.”

Bob Webster, who works in the Westbrook area, perhaps said it best:

“Back in the late ’70s it was my favorite place to stop after work. All the people were very friendly there and many topics of discussion could be heard up and down the bar. It was always a place to go and feel comfortable and ‘at home.’

“The staff back then would go out of their way making sure you were happy while you were there. Always a friendly smile, daily newspaper, a shoulder to cry on and an attentive ear from all the bartenders.

“Goodbye, old friend. You will be missed by all who boarded your ship-like appearance. Sail off into the sunset, SS Bounty, with your bow high and with dignity.

“Thanks to all your crew members for such a memorable journey.”