Often when a customer headed to the exit of Brit's Pub, the downtown Minneapolis British watering hole, Freddie Manton would stop them at the door with one of his signature catchphrases. "Was it something I said?"
It was a joke that kept on giving, and one of the few of Manton's that's fit to print. A drummer whose career took him from London to Hollywood, Manton is best known in Minneapolis for his second act, greeting guests at Brit's Pub since it opened in 1990, with a personality as over-the-top as his colorful outfits.
Manton, whom staffers and regulars at Brit's Pub considered the heart of the establishment, died of cancer on March 19 at age 90.
"He provided so much character and was a focal point at the pub," said Brit's co-owner Stuart Higgins. "Much more than that, for the tens of thousands of people who have been through the doors the last 29 years, he was beloved."
Manton was born July 13, 1928, in London. He grew up during World War II and was evacuated to the British countryside with other children during the 1940 blitz. After the war, he joined the Royal Air Force, and then he toured the world as a drummer.
In the mid-1950s, Manton made his way to New York City, where he served gangsters at the Copacabana while building up his musical résumé, according to stories he told Higgins. Eventually, he moved out West and drummed for movie soundtracks. The cymbals played at the beginning of the 1955 Frank Sinatra flick "The Man with the Golden Arm" are supposedly Manton's, Higgins said.
Then, a childhood friend from London reached out. He was starting a British pub in Minneapolis and wanted Manton to join him.
"I think that Dad and Brit's Pub were pretty much the perfect pairing," said daughter Courtney Manton Chester, of Green Valley, Calif. "He felt most alive when he was with people. It's almost like he gave a piece of himself to everybody."