Club Baths Chicago ...
"I had a partnership in it with Charles Fleck, and he was the owner of the Club Baths in Cincinnati. He owned it with a guy named Jim Campbell. They started the Club Bath chain. Fleck came here to talk to me and said he wanted to open a Club Bath here, which we did. It was at 609 N. LaSalle. It was on the 2nd and 3rd floors. It was RFZ Enterprises, Renslow, Fleck and Zeller. Zeller was Fleck's lover at the time. The Club Baths Chicago were there until the '80s, and I also had Man's Country, but Man's Country was totally mine. I had a different idea of a bathhouse; I wanted entertainment, more than just rooms and a steamroom to fuck.
"I sold my partnership in Club Baths to Fleck. Actually, what happened was, Fleck came in with me on Man's Country, but he didn't like it. He said it didn't fit the chain image. We were partners 50/50 in Club Baths, so we just traded. I gave him my 50 percent of Club Baths and he gave me the interest he had in Man's Country. Then Man's Country was so successful that Fleck went to New York and opened up another Man's Country there. I had nothing to do with that, that was Chuck Fleck copying me.
"I always said that people went to bathhouses for social reasons, including sex, and he said, 'Oh no, they just go for sex and nothing else.' I wanted to put TV rooms in, and lounges and entertainment, which I did.
"I got the idea from the Continental Baths in New York, but I went further than New York. What happened with Continental was, they took over a building and the building had a pool and stage already, and they just started using that because they had it. I went further than that, I had a stage, entertainers, and I had TV lounges where you could just sit around. In other words, I expanded on the Continental's idea.
"Fleck still owns a couple of Baths, he's now living in Russian River, California."
Zolar Disco ...
"It was The House of Landers, then they went out and I turned it into a disco, Zolar, then it burned down. Our motto was 'Zolar, it's Magic.' Then everybody started saying, "Zolar, it's tragic." It was small, but it was beautiful, and we did a lot of work on it. Once again, it was what we had. When we moved in it was very art deco and, instead of taking that stuff out, we just added to it. We put in the first ever Plexiglas dance floor with lights underneath it, 3/4-inch Plexiglas, it was very small, it was about 10'X10' but it was striking.
"The guy that did the designing, his name was Hollis Sweet, they called him Skippy, and he did the design and sound engineering, he's died since then. Brilliant man, brilliant, he died of AIDS a long time ago.
"Here's the shame of Zolar. It was next to the elevated tracks and we couldn't get fire insurance. There's a program the state has when you can't get fire insurance, and we had applied for that. It was going to kick in in 30 days, and it burned 15 days later. I lost a fortune on that one. We had electrical wiring that some prior people had done upstairs, and the whole room burned off. As a point of interest, when the new owners took over they just removed the roof and made it a flat roof, it used to be an A roof. It's still there, I think it's a grocery store."
Memory check: The Club Baths opened in March, 1970. The African-American female impersonator, Roby Landers, performed in Chicago for many years before opening his own bar The House of Landers at 936 W. Diversey. The bar lasted from 1973-'75.
In April 1974, the bar held their Catty Awards. Among the guests presenting the awards were Lisa Eaton, Ebony, Allen ( Knight Out ) , and Bill ( Pepper's Lounge ) . The winners were: Tearoom Queen of The Year—Wanda Lust; Tommy ( Ritz ) Runner Up. Sarah Bernhardt Award—Carol ( Coming Out Pub; Audrey Bryant, runner up. "Try It, You'll Like it" Award—Dugan ( Bistro ) : Artesia Welles, runner up. Wildest Worn Wardrobe Award—Ebony; Wanda Lust, runner up. Miss Vapors Award—Terry Page; Jill Christie, runner up. Good Witchie-poo Tonya Terrell; Allen ( Knight Out ) , runner up. Simple and Sweet Award—Ralph ( House of Landers ) ; Audrey Bryant, runner up. Fancy Fake Dancer Award—Laura Merill; China Nugen, runner up. Bad bar boy of the Year Award—Ron ( Up North ) ; Robbie ( Shari's ) , 1st runner up; Bob ( Knight Out ) , 2nd runner up. Queer of the Year award—Tilly.
In October 1975, after the bar closed down, 936 W. Diversey became the location of Zolar Disco. In the Oct. 29, 1975 issue of Chicago's GayLife, columnist Christopher writes: "The Preview Party at Zolar, Chuck Renslow's new disco-bar at Diversey and the 'El' Stop, was a real madhouse ...
" ... Be sure to look up at the ceiling too. Above the frescoed cut-out ceiling is a freak-out treatment that goes with the name of the place. Back further is the flashing light dance floor. Further back yet is a beer bar and game room, with genuine mechanical games to play.
"Upstairs at Zolar is the real disco scene, however, with the sound system that brings to mind the Bistro. Of course, the dancefloor is smaller, but the lights. Wow! With the music and crowd noise, I never did here an el train pass by. Quite unlike when Roby Landers held court in the same place some time back, and the el occasionally drowned out the music."
"Zolar burned down on March 21, 1976."
Two weeks ago Jorjet Harper said in her interview that the male writers at GayLife were all paid, while the women were not. Chuck Renslow tells me that the only writer who got paid at GayLife was Jon-Henri Damski. Some of the other men on the paper worked for Renslow in other capacities, and were paid for that, but not for writing.
Future historians take note: The memory section in this column contains just that-;memories-;and are only to be used as a starting point for your research. Send your stories to Sukie de la Croix at WCT. He also interviews over the phone or by e-mail sukiedelacroix@iname.com
