By Carolyn Gerin
( from issue 8 )

What was stirred up in San Francisco through the middle of this century (in and out of the cocktail shaker) had profound effects on every facet of queer life across the globe. Fear of being “found out” in the early days helped create a close-knit community — many times forged in bars and taverns. San Francisco ‘safe houses’ were birthplace to a legendary drinking culture that extended far beyond the barstool, and, over time, formed into a cultural and political zeitgeist that tattooed the city of San Francisco into a colorful leader in gay lifestyle. The next time someone tells you that hanging out in bars won’t get you anywhere, think again.

The Beginning

Some of the earliest roots of lesbian and gay bar culture can be traced to New York City during the Harlem Renaissance in the ’20s — home of the Cotton Club, the Drool Inn, and Hot Feet, where people could embrace rebel-sexuality, gender identification and refuge. Carefree flapper and “new woman” culture (ebullient having won the right to vote) also gave straight and bisexual women license to enjoy the fruits of the permissive attitudes of the time. Middle-class malaise gave way to free sexual expression and permission to explore downtown, counter-cultural adventures.

On the other coast, in neighborhoods like North Beach and Telegraph Hill, bastions of the Beats were also gay men, lesbians, sailors, prostitutes, and tourists on erotic holidays, melting into communities that can only be described as eclectic. San Francisco became the new home to thousands of servicemen discharged from the armed forces in the ’40s for “engaging in homosexual or other perverse sexual practices.” These servicemen stayed in the Bay Area with time and money to burn in the gay bars and taverns of prosperous, wartime San Francisco. Going back home to the closeted straight life didn’t sound very appealing when they had the option of living openly in San Francisco with its gorgeous weather and vibrant nightlife. San Francisco was a haven replete with possibilities. Gay-curious tourists who may have played it straight back in Omaha let loose in North Beach bars, bringing home the sort of memories that may not have sat well with their bosses. The Beat Movement, with ringleaders Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, made it hip for other bohemians, writers and artist types to find themselves in the North Beach and Telegraph Hill bar scene.

In 1936, Finocchio’s was opened. It was a bar with glamorous, costumed performers –men performing as women. Joe Finicchio was inspired by a customer at his father’s speakeasy who used to perform a female impersonation of songstress Sophie Tucker. Although Finocchio’s bar was successful, local police cracked down on female impersonators, revoking the bar’s license. They reopened on Broadway with an open door policy toward performers; the only criteria was to be sexy and entertaining in either genre (flamenco and hula dancing), and dead-on in impersonations. The club became a major tourist attraction, garnering national attention during the 1939 World’s Fair, touted by the tourist magazines as “America’s Most Unusual Nightclub.” The police (and the press) may not have bothered to check the facts: “finocchio,” Italian for fennel, is also a negative slang word for gay. With strip tease acts in gorilla suits, drag shows and debauchery six nights a week, Finocchio’s was so popular that the military made them sign an agreement to limit liquor sales during certain hours to servicemen. Closed in 1999 due to a major rent increase, Finocchio’s was legendary and brought in a crowd with the likes of Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, and Bette Davis.

Finocchio’s wasn’t the only bar of that time pushing the limits of gender, sexuality and equality. The Black Cat, circa 1933, offered another flavor of entertainment via waiter-turned-showgirl Jose Sarria, who dared to take it up a notch. Sarria performed for years as Madam Butterfly, Empress Jose, and the Widow Norton, preaching gay rights in his shows and crossing every social current. The Beats, gays, and even high society attended shows. In 1949, Sol Stoumen, the straight man who owned the Black Cat, faced down a police attempt to close the bar on the grounds that it attracted gay people. The Supreme Court ruled that a bar could not be closed simply due to the clients it attracted. Sarria went on to make even more history as the first gay man to run for the Board of Supervisors in 1961.

The hot spot for so-called “odd girls” was Mona’s 440 where, as the advertisements read, “girls will be boys.” Today, San Francisco has its share of drag queen luminaries, but in North Beach in the ’50s it was all about male impersonators such as Gladys Bentley and Kay Scott and their coterie of pin-up-worthy girlfriends filling the booths and ordering up stiff ones. Bentley dressed like a dapper dandy in a top hat and tux, flirting shamelessly to a smitten, all-women audience and “reinterpreting” popular tunes with highly sexualized lyrics. North Beach and Telegraph Hill are widely considered to be SF’s first lesbian neighborhoods, and during the ’50s there were several hot spots within spitting distance that catered to  “odd girls.” The original Tommy’s Joynt was owned by Tommy Vasu, the first known lesbian to legally run a bar in San Francisco. Dick Boyd, author of Broadway North Beach: The Golden Years, points out that, “men had to front for lesbians in bars and clubs in order to get the approval of the Board of Equalization for their liquor license,” which was the case with Mona’s in the late 1930s.

The drinking clientele for the bars and taverns had originally been blue collar, and as this population shrank, so did the profit. The Tavern Guild of San Francisco, formed in 1962, was the first gay business association in the country, protecting establishments such as the Suzy-Q Bar, where leader Phil Donganiero served up drinks and a few sage quotes:

“…The improved image takes the gay bar out of the class of a resort for social rejects, and establishes it as a social and recreational center that has a proper place in urban life,” he said. This “permits the bars and clubs the opportunity of being social centers for our people, with wholesome and safe atmosphere…[and] a stronger front from a united ‘Gay Community.’”

Protecting bar owners and bartenders from police raids and shakedowns, raising the image of gay taverns, and bringing them out of the shadows was the goal, and it worked. Over time, the Tavern Guild became a philanthropic organization and host of the infamous Beaux Arts Ball.

The Revolution

Darker moments in gay bar history changed our worldview of gay rights and became turning points and watershed moments for social change: The infamous Stonewall Inn incident, June 28, 1969, when police harassed habitués of the tavern on Christopher Street in NYC for “violation of liquor laws.” There was no turning back: gay patrons retaliated by openly protesting and throwing objects back at the police. The rebellion boiled over and the battle grew over a series of nights with hundreds of protesters. The Daily News reported that the incident, now gaining international buzz, had “all the fury of a gay atomic bomb.”

Ten years later, Dan White’s lenient sentencing for the shooting and murder of Harvey Milk kicked off a gay protest riot. The “White Night Riots,” on May 21, 1979, were started at the Civic Center in San Francisco and culminated at the Elephant Walk bar in the Castro. Police descended on the Castro, injured dozens of gay activists, destroyed property, threatened patrons, and practically destroyed the bar. The owners sued the City of San Francisco and won in a landmark decision. The Elephant Walk has now become Harvey’s in deference to the “Mayor of Castro Street,” as he was lovingly known.

It was not so long ago that gay bars were some of the only places where people could congregate without discrimination. Guys could throw on a dress, girls could throw on a suit, and bohemians could add to the mix. A big part of what we see today in queer rights, media, and culture, resulted from the simple act of pulling up a bar stool, ordering a drink, and starting a conversation. Today, we continue to toast to our history, to Harvey Milk, to a bright future and to the right to marry…It’s history in the making, once again, in a bar somewhere in the city.

Special Thanks:

Paul Boneberg, Director, Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society of San Francisco. www.glbthistoricalsociety.org.

Bill Lipsky, Board Member, Gay Lesbian Bisexual Transgender Historical Society of San Francisco. www.glbthistoricalsociety.org.

About:
Carolyn Gerin created the Anti-Bride series for Chronicle books, a bestselling 3-book series that created the pop cultural space for the alterna-bridal market. She serves as Sr. Editor for Destination I Do Magazine, the top destination wedding, romance travel magazine in the world. She covers food, wine, fashion, lifestyle and travel, and is a born bon vivant and libertine. 

She is keenly interested in social media/marketing and entertainment.

www.antibride.com      www.destinationidomag.com