Through the 1950s – SF Gay History

gay bar in the 50s

In Los Angel throughout the 1950s, gay men lived unr nstant harassment by the police. They risked ostracism and loss of employment if outed.

Contents:

RUNNG A GAY BAR THE 1950S

Culture Lt ntributor Randy Dotga disvers a memoir by an opnated straight woman bold enough to n a gay bar the 1950s. He also looks at the gay nightlife scene San Diego durg the 50s. * gay bar in the 50s *

Back 1950s Hollywood, a hole--the-wall neighborhood gay bar offered an attractive mix of fizz, iends and fabulons. Authori om the police to the alhol board preferred to keep gays om ngregatg anywhere, so she ma sure to not draw attentn. But then a Milwkee thor heard about and brought back to life the newly published "Gay Bar: The Fabulo, Te Story of a Darg Woman and Her Boys the 1950s.

THE GAY BARS AND VICE SQUADS OF 1950'S LOS ANGEL

* gay bar in the 50s *

"In an terview, I asked thor Will Fellows to scribe what he disvered about gay life Southern California more than six s ago. Will Fellows: Helen Branson had many gay iends the 1940s and 1950s, and she was an extraordary straight ally at a time when beg a straight ally of homosexuals was unheard of. It was a pretty groundbreakg book: by my timatn, the first book by a straight person that picts the liv of gay people posively.

She was wrg this book when Senator McCarthy was still rantg and ravg about thgs, a climate of what we uld all ll homophobia -- great antagonism toward homosexualy and homosexuals, perversn and viants, and all that sort of stuff. She really saw as a kd of public livg had a lot of gay iends she'd veloped sce her divorce the 1930s, and she had managed other gay bars for other owners.

She was able to do thgs her own way, a way that created a hospable, iendly and vg atmosphere but still mataed safeguards agast problems wh law enforcement and htlers and people who were not necsarily out to treat her gay iends well. A: At that time, there some gay men who their self-prentatn, bee of feelg so opprsed and beltled and beleaguered and trapped their liv, they kd of acted out almost wildly flamboyant ways, rryg on ways that were more than jt thentic exprsns of maybe an gree of effemacy on their parts.

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

It was a Friday night the 1980s and police officers were raidg Spurs, a popular gay bar Ccnati. Carl Fox and others were orred by police to… * gay bar in the 50s *

The kds of dividuals -- the screamers -- were really a problem for the early homosexual rights anizatns bee they were jt bad p. Many lears of homosexual anizatns tried to distance themselv om the people, whom they viewed as excsively flamboyant typ. There's another thg that's a fascatg dimensn of homosexual thought at that time: even early gay rights anizatns were very tent on enforcg pretty tradnal standards of drs for men and women.

Q: It's amazg how Branson discs issu that are still big today: Can gays have healthy long-term relatnships? When she realized that the men she found most appealg as iends when she was workg as a palm rear Los Angel the 1940s were gay, she beme really trigued by that.

GAY BARS A HISTORIL 'REFUGE' FOR LGBTQ PEOPLE

Gigi’s, one of the most beloved and rpected gay bars on the Michigan map, is celebratg a tone few venu manage to reach — 50… * gay bar in the 50s *

But she pots out that gay men are real people who have a fascatg mix of thgs gog on their liv, wh var strengths and weakns. "The Brass Rail, which opened s doors Hillcrt 1960 (after apparently movg om downtown), is still a gay bar -- 's now known for s ethnilly diverse clientele -- and ss at the rner of Robson and Fifth. Durg the latter s of his life, gay bars went om rari San Diego to mon sights that serve a variety of typ of gay the past, kissg is most fely allowed.

At the same time thoands of gay men found themselv California after World War II, and they were prented wh the problem of livg a life the midst of social disapproval and police reprsn. Unr nstant harassment by the police, homosexuals risked social ostracism and loss of employment if outed.

SF GAY HISTORY

Most employers and ernment agenci barred homosexuals wh moraly cls and they were wily nsired to be secury risks. It was wily njectured that homosexualy rulted om emotnal trmas childhood, as is the se wh other mental illns, and that geics played ltle to no role.

On this basis the practice of nversn therapy took hold, wh wispread attempts to change people om homosexual to heterosexual (here are jt a few exampl om stunts at Oberl College Oh). Homosexuals had long been barred om employment feral jobs, a policy that was rerced 1953 by Dwight Eisenhower's Executive Orr 10450.

A survey nducted as late as 1967 for a CBS documentary (see the full program or a shorter versn) termed that two thirds of Amerins viewed homosexuals wh "disgt, disfort, or fear" while a majory favored laws agast all homosexual acts.

GIGI’S CELEBRAT 50 YEARS: THE OLST GAY-OWNED GAY BAR DETRO IS NOW A HALF-CENTURY OLD

In 1951 the California Supreme Court led that a bar uld not lose s liquor license bee tered to gay clientele.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* GAY BAR IN THE 50S

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You n try<!-- --> <a href="/newsletters">subscribg here</a> or try aga later.</span></div></div></div></div></hear><article class="article" data-rid="628299" data-rtype="story"><div id="gtm-visibily-50" class="gtm-pixel"></div><div id="gtm-visibily-75" class="gtm-pixel"></div><div id="gtm-visibily-100" class="gtm-pixel"></div><sectn class="sectn--bo sectn--bp sectn--first sectn--learboard"><div class="uw bp--rponsive"><div class="bp-ner"><p class="bp-label">Advertisement</p><div class="bp-ntent bp-ntent--centered"><div></div><div id="adslot-399002"></div></div></div></div></sectn><hear class="article-sectn--tle article-sectn--island"><div class="article-actn"><h1 class="article-hdr">Sayg Goodbye To Mache And Ramrod, Fenway's Last Queer Nightlife Spots</h1></div><div class="article-meta"><span class="article-meta-em--date"><span tle="Wednday, September 30th 2020, 5:00:31 am">September 30, 2020</span></span><ul class="article-meta-em--thorlist article-meta-group"><li class="article-meta-em article-meta-em--thor"><a class="article-meta-lk article-meta-em--thor" href="/si/staff/nathan-tavar">Nathan Tavar</a></li></ul><div class="article-share article-share-ins"><a href=" & target="_blank" rel="noreferrer" class="article-share-lk" tle="Share on Facebook"><svg class="in in-facebook" viewBox="0 0 128 128" role="img" width="24" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">facebook</tle><path display="le" d="M120.1,0H8.2c-4.4,0-8,3.6-8,8v112c0,4.4,3.6,8,8,8h60.4V78.2h-16V59.8h16V43.9 c0-14.6,8.9-24.3,26.4-24.3c7.7,0,13.1,0.9,13.1,0.9V37h-12c-5.3,0-8,3-8,8.2v14.5h18.7l-2.7,18.4h-16v49.7h32c4.4,0,8-3.6,8-8V8 C128.1,3.6,124.5,0,120.1,0z"></path></svg></a><a href="mailto:?body=Sayg Goodbye To Mache And Ramrod, Fenway's Last Queer Nightlife Sayg Goodbye To Mache And Ramrod, Fenway's Last Queer Nightlife Spots" class="article-share-lk" tle="Share by email"><svg class="in in-email" viewBox="0 0 128 128" width="20" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">Email</tle><path display="le" d="M64.2,86.3l-64-48V104c0,4.4,3.6,8,8,8h112c4.4,0,8-3.6,8-8V38.4L64.2,86.3z M64.2,72l64-48 c0-4.4-3.6-8-8-8H8.2c-4.4,0-8,3.6-8,8L64.2,72z"></path></svg></a></div></div></hear><sectn class="article-sectn--lead-image article-sectn--lead-image--hero"><figure class="article-fig article-fig--hero"><picture class="article-fig-ner"><img class="article-image" src=" alt="Send Saturday at Mache June. (Courty Kristen Porter/Hurley Event Photography)" style="object-posn:50% 50%"/></picture><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Send Saturday at Mache June. (Courty Kristen Porter/Hurley Event Photography)</figptn></figure></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--ntent hang-punctuatn article-sectn--first article-sectn--centered article-sectns"><p class="">The se of so much gay history Boston is pretty borg om the outsi, jt a squat gray buildg that stretch a whole block on Boylston near Fenway Park. Right now, the bars and storeonts that fill this buildg are empty as they awa the wreckg ball that will her a future luxury apartment buildg. But until jt before quarante — when Mache Nightclub and bar Ramrod officially closed — past the ont door and the blacked-out wdows at 1254 Boylston St., si was magic.</p><p class="">Ramrod, the leather and Levis gay bar, moved to the first floor 1981 wh Mache rvg out a separate gay nightclub downstairs 1998. Both spots had that kd of slightly dgy, lived- feel of a well-loved gay hangout, the cigarette smell that seemed to hang the air long after Boston banned smokg doors, the dim rners here and there for makg out. It was a sex-posive spot a (still) puranil cy, wh loud mic and stiff drks. Downstairs, drag queens twirled on stage ont of crowds that swayed unr the dis lights.</p><figure class="article-fig size-medium article-fig--pull-right"><a href="><picture><img class="size-medium article-image" src=" alt="Neon Calypso at Mache. (Courty Helix Peb Photos)" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Neon Calypso at Mache. (Courty Helix Peb Photos)</figptn></figure><p class="">The gay scene Boston is still domated by whe guys, but at least for many, Mache was a hub for a more diverse crowd. More people of lor, more women. The spot hosted <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dyke Nights</a> and at least one gay weddg receptn. The drag and theatril shows there were queer — as LGBTQ-iendly and queer as , well, weird. Like the betifully bonkers and often polil All-Star Mondays and the satiril shows staged by Ryan Landry’s vville-spired theater troupe the Gold Dt Orphans.</p><p class="">Before you uld tch her 2019 as part of season three of the realy TV show “The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula,” one of Vlencia Exclamatn Pot’s more memorable moments me when she started hostg All-Star Mondays’ late drag show. “The theme was raw meat and I had everyone throwg ham at me and like sptg up k pig stum,” she says. Drag artist Neon Calypso, who you n tch on the Quibi doceri “<a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nightgowns</a>,” won the Next Drag All-Star petn there 2016. “That was my moment of like, ‘wow, I f here. This is a home space for me where I'm able to exprs really polil and important topics and everybody is receptive,’” she says.</p><p class="">From 2006 until the very end, you uld tch Donald Smh slgg drks, always happy to chat anyone up. “Oh, was like a homeg,” he says of walkg through the doors. “I felt like a homeg queen. Mache was the welg mtee. It tght people a lot about life. We ma you feel much better about yourself so you uld lift yourself up out of whatever you were gog through and then move on. We're gonna miss that.”</p><figure class="article-fig size-medium article-fig--pull-right"><a href="><picture><img class="size-medium article-image" src=" alt="Miranda Wrights (left) and Severy Stone at Mache. (Courty Helix Peb Photos)" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">Miranda Wrights (left) and Severy Stone at Mache. (Courty Helix Peb Photos)</figptn></figure><p class="">Ask around about Mache and Ramrod and you’ll hear people mentng “home” a lot, which is maybe why s endg feels so raw for so many. The muny knew the buildg’s days were numbered sce late 2018 when word broke that Brish veloper Spe <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">secured the se for their first private dorm Boston</a>. Miranda Wrights, who worked on and off at Mache for 18 years, noted that the staff felt thgs were off for a while, which seemed to stem om a lack of tert om the top. “Why is the floor fallg apart and moldy? Why is the bathroom overflowg all the time?” she says she asked before quarante. “Bee they weren't gog to put any more money to bee they knew was closg but they weren't lettg other people know.”</p><p class="">But palism is palism. The owners of Mache and Ramrod — who didn’t want to ment for this story — own a bs, not a home, and nightlife plac aren’t a sh w. Doors officially closed on March 14, jt days before Gov. Charlie Baker’s shutdown orr, though few people even knew was the last night. Patrons and employe alike held out hope for a goodbye bash sometime after quarante. But then — like the lights flickg on at last ll — late July, the clubs’ manager Sean Caron <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted on Facebook</a> that nstctn perms for Spe’s new buildg had been approved. Constctn is slated to start sometime this fall and Mache and Ramrod will never open their doors aga.</p><blockquote class="article-pullquote breakout"><p class="article-pullquote-text">"Mache was the welg mtee. It tght people a lot about life."</p><ce class="article-pullquote-attributn">Donald Smh</ce></blockquote><p class="">There won’t be any big sendoff for the last gay bar and nightclub the historic gayborhood and ’s jt one chapter a story about people on the outskirts of a changg cy. “In the mid-1960s, Fenway was kd of an -between neighborhood. It wasn't downtown, and wasn't Brookle,” says Mark Krone, a board member of The History Project — a Boston-based LGBTQ history nonprof. “The number one thg about the Fenway was that jt wasn't very well off.”</p><p class="">Roomg ho among the to parts alerships on Boylston were home to mori, elrly people on fixed , and llege stunts. Queer stunts pecially stayed the area sce returng home to small towns meant a life back the closet. A 1977 <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">New York Tim</a> piece about an arson-for-prof rg that vastated Fenway wh at least 30 spic fir scribed the neighborhood as havg “had a reputatn for street crime, dgs and prostutn and was once one of Boston’s more notor red‐light districts.”</p><figure class="article-fig size-large"><a href="><picture><img class="size-large article-image" src=" alt="A group celebratg at Mache. (Courty Donald Smh)" loadg="lazy"/></picture></a><figptn class="article-fig-ptn">A group celebratg at Mache. (Courty Donald Smh)</figptn></figure><p class="">But, oh, the gay scene.</p><p class="">Followg the Stonewall Rts of 1969, more gay bars opened throughout the untry and by the 1970s and 1980s, you uld h up multiple gay bars all wh a few blocks of each other Fenway. The dis-fueled, legendary four-floor bar lled the 1270 opened 1969, jt a few doors down om the spac Ramrod and Mache would eventually occupy at 1270 Boylston. “It was one of the few gay bars where you uld see Black people gog , and Black queer people, and straight people,” Krone says. The ‘80s add Ramrod to the mix, and for s, men barhopped and then cised the Fens for late-night hookups among the bh.</p><p class="">Thgs weren’t as happy as the rosy remiscenc might lead you to believe. The muny was wrtlg wh addictn and was nsumed by fear of HIV/AIDS. The Fens were home to hookups but also a number of murrs and asslts, cludg a guy who’d troll the area and beat men wh a hammer. And by the ‘90s, rents were already skyrocketg even before the Fenway Triangle luxury apartments and mixed-e space opened 2004. Blame the ter for the ath of gay spac Fenway and beyond if you want, but the real reason perhaps isn’t that tidy. El, an eveng gay bar for Black patrons, operated briefly Roxbury om 1970 to 1973. The 1270 closed 1988. Elsewhere the cy, Chaps closed 1999, the same year that cy raids agast the Safari Club bathhoe for health vlatns led to the spot’s shutterg. Now, the se of the Safari Club is a luxury apartment buildg. Axis spun out 2007. In 2018, Paradise Cambridge closed and ’s soon to be a new facily for Novartis, a pharmactil pany.</p><blockquote class="article-pullquote breakout"><p class="article-pullquote-text">“The gay bars Boston never have e back after AIDS.”</p><ce class="article-pullquote-attributn">Mark Krone</ce></blockquote><p class="">Bis gentrifitn, Krone has another theory about the cle of the gay bar Boston. “I've talked to a lot of olr people about this Boston. Unlike New York and other plac which bounced back pretty well after the height of the AIDS crisis, gay bars wise, Boston never did,” he says. “The gay bars Boston never have e back after AIDS.”</p><p class="">Wh the closg of the bars and clubs, Boston is losg more than jt physil spac. “The very people who stayed behd Boston the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, who ma really bee more of a world-class cy, are the on who are beg thrown out,” Krone says. “The queers and the mory people and artists are the people who kept [Boston] gog so that now the hedge-funrs and the btech people n ll home.”</p><blockquote class="article-pullquote breakout"><p class="article-pullquote-text">“The queers and the mory people and artists are the people who kept [Boston] gog so that now the hedge-funrs and the btech people n ll home.”</p><ce class="article-pullquote-attributn">Mark Krone</ce></blockquote><p class="">So what now? COVID-19 and the ensug quarante have thrown the world for a loop, but there are still gay spots town, like Club Café Back Bay and Blend Dorchter, where Miranda Wrights hosts viewg parti of shows the “RuPl’s Drag Race” anchise. The experience is much different sce she n’t perform live and teract wh patrons, so she shows pre-rerd clips and also <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">streams onle</a>. Vlencia found the onle platform for drag performance artists lled <a href=" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Serve Network</a> and she and Neon are buildg up a roster of shows every night of the week. They hope to brg shows to a new home space once quarante is over to keep the spir of Mache’s All-Star Mondays alive.</p><p class="">As for what will actually happen to that block on Boylston, plans have changed somewhat after Spe met wh the muny. Now, stead of one dorm buildg, the pany plans to build three smaller more nventnal apartments, wh one at the origal Boylston se jog stctur Audubon Circle and Charlgate Wt. The Boylston buildg will clu a 10,000-square-foot black-box style theater for The Theater Offensive, an anizatn that creat and prents art by, for and about queer and trans people of lor. Recently, The History Project filed a letter wh the cy to try to save that historic buildg on Boylston, but they’re not optimistic.</p><p class="">Smh, though, imag a happier future wh a fal farewell to the spot that so many loved. “The le would've been all the way down the block,” he says. “It would've been that amazg.”</p></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered Tags_article-sectn--tags__NOKiB"><a data-ec="Article Tags" data-el="Mic" data-ea="Click" class="article-tag" href="/news/tag/sounds">Mic</a></sectn></article><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><hear class="zone"><div class="zone-ner"><h2 class="zone-hdr">Related:</h2></div></hear><ul class="article-story-group"><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="‘Alleged Lbian Activi’ Brgs Back Boston’s Lost Dyke Bars" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" href=">‘Alleged Lbian Activi’ Brgs Back Boston’s Lost Dyke Bars</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Wh The End Of Dyke Night's Send Saturdays At Mache, An Era Com To A Close" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" href=">Wh The End Of Dyke Night's Send Saturdays At Mache, An Era Com To A Close</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Newly Acquired Queer Film Collectn At Harvard Film Archive Celebrat Butch Inty" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" href=">Newly Acquired Queer Film Collectn At Harvard Film Archive Celebrat Butch Inty</a></li><li class="story-group-em"><a data-ec="Article Related Lks" data-el="Drag Queens Katya And Trixie Challenge Societal Expectatns In Their Gui To Morn Womanhood" data-ea="Click" class="story-group-lk" href=">Drag Queens Katya And Trixie Challenge Societal Expectatns In Their Gui To Morn Womanhood</a></li></ul></sectn><sectn class="article-sectn--story-group article-sectn--centered"><div class="ntributor has-photo"><div class="ntributor-profile"><figure class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-photo"><a href="/si/staff/nathan-tavar"><picture><img src=" class="lazy rd-image" alt=""/></picture></a></figure><p class="ntributor-profile-em ntributor-b"><a class="ntributor-name" href="/si/staff/nathan-tavar">Nathan Tavar</a> <span class="ntributor-tle">Culture Wrer</span><br/>Nathan Tavar wr about culture for WBUR.</p><p class="ntributor-more"><a class="ntributor-lk ntributor-b-lk" href="/si/staff/nathan-tavar">More…</a></p></div></div></sectn><sectn class="sectn--bo sectn--bp"><div class="uw bp--rponsive"><div class="bp-ner"><p class="bp-label">Advertisement</p><div class="bp-ntent bp-ntent--centered"><div></div><div id="adslot-399003"></div></div></div></div></sectn><div></div><div class="global-d-ponents onmand--is-playg"><div class="global-player"><d preload="to"></d><div class="global-player-bar"><div class="global-player-bar-left"><button class="global-player-bar-ntrol"><i class="in-play in-play--global-player-bar in-play--psed"><span class="in-play-shape"><span class="in-label" data-note="for-screen-rears">Rume</span></span></i></button><div class="global-player-label global-player-label--live"><div class="global-player-channel"><span>Listen Live</span></div><div class="global-player-tle"><a class="global-player-label-lk" href="/">Loadg...</a></div></div></div><div class="global-player-bar-right"><div class="global-player-x"><svg class="in in-close" viewBox="0 0 24 24" aria-labelledby="tle"><tle id="tle">Close.

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