305 S. Lumina Avenue
Wrightsville Beach
Vintage custom designed oceanfront 5 br, 4½ ba home on
large 75 foot wide lot with rows of protective dunes and
forever views. Deep covered wrap around porches and ¾-
inch full tongue and groove oak panelling. $3,195,000
Intracoastal Realty Corporation is licensed in NC
And everybody had a nickname. Charlie
Rivenbark was “Runt.” William Bryant was
“Bingo.” The Spot’s co-owner, Elverton
Anderson (E.A) Shands was “Curly.” The
Wrightsville Beach chief of police was
“Stinky” Williamson, and his brother, who
was the chief of police in Wilmington,
was “Fatty” Williamson. (Their brother,
Rhomey, was a state policeman.) Current
Mayor of Wilmington Bill Saffo’s father,
with a Greek first name of Advgerinos,
became known as “Dokie.”
One of the more famous
stories — told in different
ways by at least
“These
calls would come in
almost daily, from around
the world, which is how its reputation
three people who
remembered the
tale distinctly
— centered on
Dokie Saffo’s
purchase of a
used Cadillac,
shortly after
mustering out
of the service in
1953. More than
anything, Dokie
wanted to show off his
new purchase to Roy
Rudd and drove to
The Spot to do just
that. All excited,
Dokie parked
directly in front of
the place and, with
a King Edward cigar
poking out of the side
of his mouth, went
inside to fetch Rudd.
Rudd stepped out, with a
much more expensive cigar
sticking out of his mouth, took a quick look
and said, “You know, Dokie, there are three
things that don’t impress me — a fat Greek
… smoking a cheap cigar … driving a used
Cadillac.”
“Anybody who’s heard that story, probably
as The World
Famous Spot was
established.”
heard it from me,” says Harold “Booty”
Horn, who met Rudd when they were both
in the service — Horn in the Navy, Rudd
in the Army. “He had quite a wit about him
and just had this personality that was infectious.
64
WBM october 2010
When The Spot opened up originally,
me and my wife, Eloise, used to roll the
babies down there in the strollers. It wasn’t
like one of those places where they’d be
throwing beer bottles at you overhand.”
Rudd played host to local luminaries
like Sonny Jurgensen, a graduate of New
Hanover High School, who went on to quarterback
the Philadelphia Eagles from 1957
to 1963 and the Washington Redskins from
1964 to 1974. Roman Gabriel, another New
Hanover High School graduate, who
quarterbacked the Los Angeles
Rams (1962 to 1972) and
the Eagles (1973 to
1977), was also a frequent
patron.
Rudd’s love of
athletics led him
to sponsor a city
basketball team
in Wilmington
called, appropriately
enough,
The Spot, with
A.L. “Alley” Hart at its center. The relationship
between these two led to “The
Internationally Famous Whale Boat Races”
(WBM, March 2010), which ran for three
years, from 1967 to 1969; all because Rudd
approached Hart one day and said, “Alley,
we have to do something to liven this beach
up.”
Rudd’s desire to “liven this beach up”
extended beyond the beach and the walls of
his establishment and was exemplified by