It got political
in the '70s ...
"The only group I got involved in was the Tavern Guild, and I attended the first meeting, and a few after that, but it got too political. I also went to a couple of Pride marches, but there again it became too political. I'm not a very political person. As political as I get is since I've been retired I've volunteered for the Breast Cancer Walk and the AIDS Ride, and the last couple of years I've been involved in the AIDS Walk."
Ron Helizon ( Polish Princess ) ...
"I went to his bar occasionally, but it was off the beaten path for me. By the time he opened Company, I was working nights at the New Flight. It wasn't convenient for me. I'll tell you one thing, everytime I went there I couldn't remember leaving, because he would not let me be sober."
Bearded Lady ...
" ... At the Bistro. I went there occasionally, and I went there one night because I heard Rudolf Nureyev was there. Bobby ( The Bearded Lady ) was trying to get Rudolf to dance, and he said, 'Honey, I'm tired, I already did my show tonight,' so Bobby said, 'I've already done six shows, and I'm not a bit tired.' And Nureyev said, 'But I'm not on what you're on.'
La mere vipere ...
"That was wild. The mother snake, that's what la mere vipere means. It was an offshoot of the Snakepit. The Snakepit is much more fun to talk about. They used to decorate for every holiday, whether it be Christmas, Easter or Groundhog Day, but the kick was they never took any decorations down. They just put up new ones. It was marvelous. The Snake Pit was the original punker bar. I don't know why they named the one place the mother because it should have been the other way around."
Bijou ...
"I finally convinced my first lover to take me there. At that time it was a little theater and the screen was an area painted white on a blank wall. In those days there was no videotape, it was all film. A short was running and as they were done without sound, they played rock music in the background. So I'm sitting there on a Sunday afternoon and there's this guy up on the screen getting totally plugged, and on comes this record, and it was the Moody Blues ... 'I'm just a singer in a rock 'n roll band' ... I started laughing and Don is trying to stop me. I said to him, 'Well, don't you think it's funny.' He said, 'We're getting out of here, you're embarrassing me.' I went to the Bijou many times after that, and I discovered I do love porn."
Glory Hole ...
"They were one of the first places to open an outdoor patio, and the owner decided to put in a pool. If you got there the day they changed the water, you were OK. Anytime after that ... I mean, things would float on the top of the water there. This is no BS, things would actually float. This was before AIDS."
Crystal Blinkers ...
"Robbie ( Crystal ) was a buddy of mine. I met Robbie at Shari's. Robbie got handcuffed one night, but with both cuffs on the same wrist; somebody did it as a prank. But the thing is that when they put them on, both of the key eyelets were in, so Robbie wore this set of handcuffs for ... I don't know how many years. He thought it was nice jewelry. The joke was, 'Robbie, if you get arrested how will the police know which handcuffs are which.' Oh Robbie was fun."
Memory check: Wally rang me recently and said I'd made a mistake in the first installment of his interview. I referred to the top floor of the Trip as the Trip Hop, when it should been Trip-Up.
Bill Kelley writes about the Trip ...
"A few thoughts about the Trip came to mind. Firstly, maybe the most significant chapter in its history was when it was raided. I've forgotten the year, but I believe it was in the very late '60s. On Sunday nights it purported to operate as a private membership club, and on that night alone it permitted same-sex dancing, which was verboten by the police at the time. Police obtained a membership card by confiscating it from a member on the street, entered, and arrested everyone on grounds of public indecency—for dancing with each other. Ralla Klepak represented owners Ralf Johnston and Dean Kolberg, as well as the customers.
"The criminal cases were eventually won. The license revocation proceedings were more protracted and complicated, but they were eventually won, too, as I recall. They included a successful appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court, which ruled that the city could not keep a bar closed during the pendency of its appeals from a license revocation order. As I recall ( I haven't looked it up ) , the case was titled Johnkol, Inc. v. City of Chicago, and it was precedent-setting.
"Second, one of the organizers of the benefit that you report was undoubtedly Paula Karol, not Paul Carol. She was a local singer with a large gay following. Skip Arnold, of course, was a well-known drag comedian from, I believe, Kansas City.
"Third, for a while during the mid-'70s, the Trip was the location for a weekly live gay radio show. I can't remember the show's name or how long it ran, but it was certainly a first for Chicago." — Bill Kelley
What A Difference
A Gay Makes
Oct. 14-20
1996
U.S.: In Raleigh, N.C., a state appeals court return custody of two young boys to their gay father, ruling there was no evidence he exposed them to "improper influences" by living with a male lover. The N.C. Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that had transferred the boys from Frederick Smith to his former wife. * The U.S. Supreme Court rejects the appeal of Lt. Paul Thomasson, a former Navy officer, dismissed for declaring his homosexuality.
1991
U.S.: At least nine lesbian and gay employees of Cracker Barrel Old Country Stores are fired as a result of the company's policy of supporting "heterosexual values." Queer Nation, among other activist groups, mount a series of protests. * Andrew Sullivan is named editor of The New Republic, becoming the first openly gay editor of a major magazine of opinion in the U.S. * Madonna's Truth or Dare is the Top Video. * One time Vice-Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro, in her keynote speech to the Human Rights Campaign Fund, says: "At the same time our government spends millions to recruit and train volunteers, when we need to have the most effective, high-morale armed forces, it goes after people like Perry Watkins, Miriam Ben-Shalom, and Joe Steffan ... it's a perfect example of how mindless bigotry undermines a nation." * George Foreman, former World Heavyweight Champion boxer, donates $100,000 to the food pantry program of the Houston AIDS Foundation. "I know that some day they are going to find a cure for this dreadful disease," said Foreman at the check presentation, "And I want to be able to tell my children that I was a part of that."
1986
U.S.: True Colors by Cyndi Lauper is in record stores. * The National Board of Directors of the American Civil Liberties Union votes to adopt a formal policy statement endorsing both gay and lesbian marriage and a range of economic benefits for gay and lesbian partners. * In Princeton, N.J., in the largest single philanthropic effort to date in support of hospital care for PWA's, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation donates $17 million for the care of AIDS patients around the country. * In Iowa City, the Gay and Lesbian Pride Week Committee announces a new fund to provide assistance to victims of domestic abuse. * In Boston, at an elegant black-tie banquet at the Park Plaza Hotel celebrating the 5th anniversary of the New England Committee of the Human Rights Campaign Fund is marred by hotel staff clearing the tables wearing yellow rubber gloves.
1981
U.S.: A presentation of The Celluloid Closet, an audiovisual show prepared by Vito Russo that explores gay and lesbian images, themes, and characters in American cinema, drew more than 1,000 people to the Beacon Theater in New York. * In Detroit, approximately 3,000 people attended the All People's Congress at Cobo Hall to map strategy to oppose the Reagan Administration's budget cuts. Gay men and lesbians joined Salvadorian refugees, welfare rights activists, poor people, and others. * In Providence, R.I., Bella Abzug, a former U.S Rep. and an outspoken supporter of gay rights, has a speaking engagement canceled after the local Roman Catholic Bishop received more than 100 calls complaining about Abzug's pro-abortion stance.
