A look back at Hollywood’s unrground gay club culture of the 1970s - Curbed LA

Contents:

• GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW
• A HISTORY OF L.A.’S GAY BAR SCENE, TOLD MATCHBOOKS
• EARLY GAY CLUBS LA
• LA’S GAY PAST: THIS IS LGBT HISTORY, TOLD SIX LANDMARKS
• A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S

GAY BARS OF LA: THEN AND NOW

Gay bars and sex clubs, most of them now closed. -based queer artist who was a regular at a number of the spots worked briefly as a barback at Cuffs, a major gay hangout of the recent “was credibly dark and super cisey, ” Jony rells.

“As Silver Lake — and the whole landspe of gay Hollywood and the east si — changed so much I always had this ia my head of turng the place back to Cuffs for one night, ” he says. The early ’90s, there were more than a dozen [gay bars] on the east si. ”The closg of many east-si gay bars n be blamed, part, on gentrifitn’s effect on rents.

It also n be argued that the ongog expansn of jt what queerns n mean uld have ma a segment of gay bars, which thrived a sort of self-intified exclivy, obsolete. “I’m not one of them, ” Jony says, “but a lot of gay men my age and a generatn olr like to talk about the days of male-only spac and what that meant to them. ” Jony is pleased that anyone who intifi as male — trans men, for example — are now more wele at gay bars than they were the past.

A HISTORY OF L.A.’S GAY BAR SCENE, TOLD MATCHBOOKS

A third factor the shrkg number of gay bars L. ’s gay bar scene was headier, wilr and perhaps more excgly illic.

EARLY GAY CLUBS LA

Back the mid-1980s, I ed to go wh iends to a happeng gay dis spot LA, a place lled Catch One. I’m not gay nor were the iends I’d go wh, but Catch One was always such a fun, iendly place. Moreover, ’s always been a place where gay men and women of all lors have felt ee to dance and jt be themselv.

This was pecially important for black and lato gay people, back the 1970s and 1980s, who didn’t feel as wele at the time Wt Hollywood. Hoe mic started Chigo the late 1970s, offerg gay, black, hispanic men, women, and other mori a place where they uld feel ee and safe and hang loose on the dance floors. Catch One first opened s doors 1973 as an early mec for gay blacks and latos LA.

LA’S GAY PAST: THIS IS LGBT HISTORY, TOLD SIX LANDMARKS

I wouldn’t have even known there was a gay night there if not for my Cafe LA terpreter for lat terviewe and LA-based archect/thor/producer and man around town, Humberto Capiro. They gaed such a dited followg among gay women who liked lat mic that they eventually helped to start a LGBT salsa night twice a month at an old, tablished night club lled Rudolpho’s Silverlake, at the rner of Fletcher and Riversi Drive. Later, they started “Salsa Con Clasé” on every first and third Saturday of the month, which ran om 1994–1999 and tered to both gay men and women.

A LOOK BACK AT HOLLYWOOD’S UNRGROUND GAY CLUB CULTURE OF THE 1970S

Rudolpho’s was eventually shut down by the fire partment for overcrowdg, but like Catch One, was once a place where everyone was wele, whether gay, straight, bisexual, or transgenr—the only thg that mattered was that you had a good time.

When we thk of LGBT culture and the movement for gay rights Los Angel, there's a tenncy to thk first of Wt Hollywood.

But LA's rich gay history touch the entire cy, om Endale (now Silver Lake/Echo Park) to Huntgton Park to "Gger Rogers" Beach.