Warbird Information Exchange

Mike Peters, (Bio) mpeters@greeleytribune.com
January 31, 2007

One of the most unusual pieces of bar decoration in the state rolled out of Greeley on Tuesday afternoon on the back of a semitrailer bound for California.

The B-17 Bomber, which for 28 years hung from the ceiling of the old State Armory Bar in downtown Greeley, was sold to a California man who may rebuild the plane and use it once again as a movie prop.

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The plane was originally purchased from the 20th Century Fox movie ranch in Malibu, Calif. Stories were that it was in the Gregory Peck movie "12 O'Clock High," a 1949 movie about World War II. Or, it could have been a prop plane in the TV series of the same name that ran from 1964-67.

Wherever the old plane was before, in 1978, it landed at the new State Armory Bar, 614 8th Ave. in downtown Greeley.

The original Armory building was erected in 1921, and for 37 years was a training and meeting site for the Colorado National Guard. It was then used as a Catholic Youth Center, then the Greeley Boys Club, and finally purchased by Grand American Enterprises of Boulder.

Grand American Enterprises had several other restaurants with similar odd-antique motifs.

When they remodeled the building, the B-17 wasn't the only oddity to the decor. They added a gunboat, a hansom cab, old empty missiles and bombs and a huge billboard of a model in a bikini, advertising Coppertone tanning cream.

The restaurant/bar was closed and sold earlier this month to the downtown real estate development firm of Thomas & Tyler LLC. Drew Notestine, a member of Thomas and Tyler, said they purchased the building, but the plane didn't go with it. Dean Hagemeister was the owner who sold the building, then the plane.



A WORLD WAR II B17 Bomber is installed in the State Armory in Greeley in the summer of 1978. The plane was recently purchased by a man in California after the Armory was sold.
Tribune file photo
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Jim Clark of Clark Enterprises Construction said his firm was hired to remove the plane from the building, then placed it on the semi for the California trip.

Did you know?
There were more than 12,000 B-17 Bombers built during World War II. The most famous was the Memphis Belle. After the war, many were used as targets for atomic bomb tests in Nevada.