Career
A former minor league baseball player, policeman and P.J. Clarke"s bartender, the establishment attracted writers and editors who spread the word. Joice filed for bankruptcy in 1994. The The Lion"s Head closed two years later, in 1996, due to rising rents.
The place became legendary as the location where:
Lanford Wilson had scribbled a play on a napkin
Rod Steiger picked up his mail
Norman Mailer had planned his 1969 campaign for Mayor
Pete Hamill had reportedly talked Robert F. Kennedy into running for the Senate
Jessica Lange was once the second prettiest waitress on her shift
Joice, who was born in the Bronx but raised in Chicago, was the son of the chairman of the Chicago Board of Trade.
His surname was of Norwegian derivation, not Irish, as was often commonly assumed. Returning to the Bronx for high school, he would spend one year at Fordham University, three years in of Korea, and two years with the New York Police Department, before becoming a publican, first as a bouncer at another public, Downey"s, and later as a bartender at P.J. Clarke"son
Finally he became the proprietor of The Head. When Joice lost the public to bankruptcy in January 1994, "he felt that he was losing a little piece of himself", said his widow, Judy.
Joice"s son, Maxwell Kane, said "My Dad was that restaurant."
Joice died from lung cancer in 1997, aged 65.
Wes Joice Corner at Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South.
