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# Gay bar’s lights to dim
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/gay-bars-lights-to-dim/
- Published: 2005-04-16T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T06:39:26.000Z
- Author: Ryan Hyatt
- Tags: Business, Main St, #archive-import

*All over for Friendship*

SM CANYON — It’s a last chance to have cocktails with the boys, as the oldest standing gay bar in Santa Monica celebrates its final hurrah this weekend.

The Friendship, tucked away at 112 West Channel Rd. in the Santa Monica Canyon, is throwing its “Last Voyage Party” on Sunday. The bar’s lease is up and the landlord wants market value for the site, a price the owner’s not going to pay, according to Smokey Hammond, 51, who has bartended at Friendship for 18 years.

Hammond said Friendship, which opened its doors in 1938, was patronized by servicemen during World War II and for years had a mixed clientele, all the while attracting local gays who hung out at Will Rogers Beach and lived in Santa Monica.

“There used to be five gay bars around here,” Hammond said. “There were four on Main Street. Santa Monica was popular with the boys, but Friendship is the only one left. Everyone comes here.”

Hammond said increasing rents have forced the gay bars out, but Friendship had continued to hold on until this month, preserving a history appreciated by patrons. A wood panel inside the bar has the names of Friendship’s most famous customers painted in red. As they die, Hammond said friends and relatives will often drop by to color the name in white.

Don Cranford bought Friendship in 1988 and hired Hammond. The bar was destroyed in the 1994 Northridge Earthquake and then rebuilt.

The Last Voyage Party on Sunday will be followed by another farewell event, the “Last Karaoke Night” with Steve Oles on Tuesday.

Hammond said the Golden Bull, a restaurant close to the Friendship, will remain open. There will be a special parking lot sale and party at the Golden Bull on Saturday, April 30, where memorabilia items from the Friendship will be put up for sale.

Hammond, who has spent most of his life bartending, said he has obtained another bartending job in Los Angeles.

“It’s a little sad to be closing,” Hammond said. “There have been so many people I have been in contact with over the years.”

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/041605-02_02.jpg)

Smokey Hammond, a bartender at the Friendship, struggles with saying good-bye to the longtime Santa Monica staple. (Photo: Ryan Hyatt/Daily Press)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 16, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/041605.pdf?ref=smdp.com)