John “Mahuffer” Susor was born March 11, 1919 in Toledo, OH. The son of a contractor, John and his family were occasionally on the move, settling for a time in Saint Petersburg, Florida while his father worked on the famous Don Caesar Hotel. When John was 10 years old, his father Cyril tried to beat a train in his Ford Model T and was tragically killed.

During the Great Depression, things were tough for the single parent family. John, his mother Sarah, and his sister Ellen (DeDe) moved between the houses of family and friends to make ends meet. In these hard times, John was fascinated with the freedom of flight and built a glider with childhood friends that nearly made the newsreels of the time. He was an avid pilot and aviation enthusiast throughout his life.

In his teen years, John was employed by one of Toledo’s “influential families,” for whom he served as a driver. As this “family” wanted to keep their travels incognito, John was told never to tell anyone their real name. Outside the local speak-easy, John would tell those that inquired that the car belonged to “Mahuffer,” an entirely made up name that would follow him the rest of his life.

John served as a Major Sergeant in the South Pacific during WWII. In his downtime, he visited the colorful beach lounges, which would be the inspiration for his own bar, and hung out with the locals who taught who to dive for and catch octopus by biting of their beaks.

After managing several bars and hotels in both the north and south, John opened a bait shop on the site of the current bar in 1975. As his business expanded, so did his legend on Indian Shores Beach. John took on the moniker Mahuffer and began construction on a project that would span 40 years. He hauled in boat wreckage and built them into the bar along with buoys, nautical rope, nets, old motorcycles, toilet seats, and everything (and anything) under the Florida sun. Being a skilled diver, he pulled most of the wreckage out of the Gulf. He used a shrimp boat out of Madeira Beach called the “Blue Finn” for these sandy bottom excavations. Bar patrons added to his monument to bohemian beach bum culture with bras, panties, business cards, and graffiti.

He was also a notorious ladies’ man. Over his life, John was married nine times; Lynn Ellen, who is now part owner of the bar, is his only child.

GQ Magazine profiled John’s legendary love life last year. Here is the article:

Mahuffer’s reputation as an individualist with a mind of his own spread to City Hall. He regularly attended town hall meetings and even ran for mayor several times, losing by only a handful of votes. During hurricanes and tropical storms in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, John was one of the first to jump in a front loader to build sea walls for his neighbors. He was also a regular contributor to the Suncoast Sea Bird Sanctuary and adopted most of his beloved dogs from the ASPCA. Ironically, Mahuffer was publicly attacked by PETA for rehabilitating a featherless parrot he adopted as a rescue Read John's tribute to “Old Florida:”

Mahuffer had his share of controversy over the years. Budweiser and Sloppy Joe’s Key West threatened him with legal action for his satirical t-shirts. He also had run-ins with the law. One arrest sent John to the hospital at age 77 at the hands of local police. The St Petersburg Times recalling his "scrapes with authority".

John “Mahuffer” Susor passed away Thursday January 10, 2008 at Bay Pines VA Medical Center. We all miss him very much.