Boston Couple Transforms Vail's Abandoned Post Office Into Nu Gnu Club

Aspen —“It was a funny name, and it stuck,” Sally Hanlon recalled.

That is how the Nu Gnu got its name, a reference to a song from a Broadway show playing in New York when the couple was still living in Boston. But to understand why a nightclub named after a theatrical number became the beating heart of Vail’s social scene, you have to rewind to the mid-1960s.

Bill and Sally Hanlon were living in the suburbs of Boston, deeply embedded in a lifestyle that demanded significant effort. They would drive four and a half hours to Sugarloaf, Maine, ski for a couple of days, then drive back for their Monday obligations in the city.

“It was a perfect family sport,” Bill said during a 2021 oral history interview conducted for the Vail Public Library’s Vail Valley Voices Collection. He was speaking to Tony Mauro and Tara Flanagan, part of a series highlighting prominent local figures.

The couple was looking for a way to make that passion sustainable. They wanted to finish their degrees, get married, and build a life around skiing rather than treating it as an expensive weekend escape.

“We decided that if we met skiing, maybe we could make a living in the ski area,” Bill said. “And we looked all around and then we didn’t find anything.”

Sally stayed behind in Newton, Massachusetts, to continue teaching. Bill headed west to Western State College in Gunnison to finish his degree. A year later, Sally joined him in Crested Butte. It was there they met David and Renie Gorsuch, Gunnison natives who were considering a move to a fledgling town along Gore Creek.

That town was Vail.

Bill visited in 1966. He didn’t fall in love with the infrastructure; it barely existed. He fell in love with the potential.

“After seeing Vail in 1966 … I guess it was the mountain, the thought of a new town, and being part of coming and building something new,” Bill said. “It was very influential to a lot of people who came here.”

In 1968, an opportunity arose. The Hanlons were asked to open a nightclub in Vail’s iconic Clock Town Building, specifically the space that had previously housed the post office. The previous owners of the bar, which had been called Oso Negra or “Black Bear,” left in the middle of the night, essentially abandoning the lease.

Sally wasn’t initially sold on the idea. “We said, ‘Oh my God, we don’t know a thing about that!’” she recalled. “But it looked so good. And a lot of our friends, David and Renie Gorsuch and other people, were moving to Vail. And we said, ‘let’s go have a look.’”

They partnered with Paul Johnston, a hotelier who would later serve as Vail mayor. His son, Mike Johnston, is currently the mayor of Denver.

The Hanlons didn’t just open a bar; they imported a culture. From the rock-and-roll roots of Terry Ferry to the eclectic mix that defined the Nu Gnu with its Yo-Yos, they helped shape the identity of a town that was still being built. They took a space left in the dark and lit it up, proving that you didn’t need to be from Colorado to help build its soul.

To hear them tell it, the decision wasn’t about fame or fortune. It was about finding a place where the outdoors and community weren’t just hobbies, but the foundation of daily life.

“It was a nice way to round out life,” Bill said, his voice understated but firm.

That life is still here, even if the specific lineup of bands has changed and the town has grown far beyond the single street it once occupied. The Hanlons built something that outlasted their tenure, a cultural anchor for a mountain town that needed to define itself.

“It was very influential,” Bill said, looking back at the years they spent building that influence from scratch.