Pictured is Tommy Thomas (center), Mike Dorner (right), and Ron Bartani (left). It’s not 100% clear how Mike Dolner came into The #Palomino Club. Mike Dolner was Tommy and Bill Thomas’s most trusted employee and bar manager. Only a handful
of employees were given the keys to the club.
Mike had worked at The Palomino for more than 30 years. He was a short man with greased hair. He didn’t shave much and had stumps for where several of his fingers used to be. Mike could have been the poster child for why sexual harassment laws were created. Often Mike would take his stump for what used to.be a thumb and goose the waitresses at The Palomino Club. He had a unique accent and would often use the invented word “onna-counta, which meant “on account of”. Mike could often be seen walking around the club with a distinct limp, surveying the employees to ensure they were in line with Tommy’s stringent rules. He’d also often work the door, open and close the club when the Thomas brothers neede a break. The Palomino was the only life the Mike Dorner had. After Tommy Thomas died in 1985, Billy Thomas Jr. kept Mike working at the Palomino up until his death. He lived in a trailer near his sister in Akton California. Mike wasn’t feeling well one day while working at The Palomino. Rumor has it that he checked himself into the hospital and died that night. An autopsy was performed and they found him riddled with cancer.
There is no doubt that Mike was the most loyal employee the Palomino Club ever had. Even when he wasn’t working you would find him at the bar drinking a “Coorski”.