Mr. Whitekeys: boss.

• Author: Stomierowski, Peg
• Position: View from the Top

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Mr. Whitekeys came to Anchorage in the early 1970s. On his first day in town, he got hired to operate a jackhammer, which he'd never done. On his third day, he saw a newspaper ad for a piano player at Chilkoot Charlie's. "I figured I could be every bit as good at playing the piano as I was at running a jackhammer," he recalled, "and I got the job."

Keys spent the '70s playing in Spenard-area bars and creating advertising campaigns for local merchants. His team's highlight was Chilkoot's motto, "We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you!"

In 1980, he was handed the keys to a defunct hamburger restaurant that became Mr. Whitekeys' Fly By Night Club. The nightspot was all about the entertainment business: "We became the only bar in Alaska that did not hire musicians to sell more alcohol--we sold alcohol to support the musicians," he said.

"When we closed in 2006," he says, "the entire town believed I'd retired." But he only wanted to get back into full-time entertaining. "Now, I get to play stupid songs for a few hours and go home when the show is over. I don't have to degrease the kitchen or clean the bathrooms. The audience can make all the mess they want, and I don't care!"

VIEW FROM THE TOP It's easy to be on top in Alaska because the bar isn't all that high--you can be on top in Spenard and only be standing on the second rung of the ladder. I love the entrepreneurial spirit of the Last Frontier. You can succeed without having any kind of training or aptitude in any field. Where else can you buy a box of earring wires, gather a bucket of things that came out of a moose's behind, and immediately find yourself in the...