Thoughts on '70s lesbian separatism ...
"Women could not get the financial support from the well-to-do. Most of the support for the women's groups came from the men because they would come round and say, 'Oh we're going out of business, we've run out of money,' so we would give them the money, or have a fundraiser. But god forbid you should try and walk in the Lesbian Community Center. Even the women's bars. I can remember when I was director of switchboard when Gay Horizons was over on Sheffield. We wanted to take the telephone operators around on a bar tour. People were calling up and wanting to know where to go, and we were recommending bars, so we felt we should go to the bars and see them.
"It was no problem until we got to Augie and CK's. We had called, so they knew we were coming, and they said it was OK, but they would not let us in until one of the women who was with us spoke up and said, 'Now wait a minute. These guys have to recommend places for these women to go, now why can't they come in and see the bar.' Finally, they let us in, and I have never been so uncomfortable in a gay bar in my life. The women just stood around and glared at us, 'How dare you be in our bar.' But my god if a woman had even been asked for a second ID going into a men's bar there would have been hell to pay. And that really held back the women's part of the gay movement. It was really unfortunate." — Lee Newell
The old days ....
"Sukie. Love to read your column. A life-long Chicagoan, the little tid-bits about our history always bring back some great memories. Does anyone out there remember the snack shop at the corner of Clark & Division, Feast On A Bun? Next door was a bar called Jamie's and the drag queens would come out and wave to the tourist bus.
"There were also two drag queens that ruled the streets at that time. Sheba and Alfonso. They worked the Rush Street area and we all had a great time at Bug House Square. There was also a restaurant at the corner of Division & Dearborn that was very popular as a pick-up spot.
"I was part of the raid at Louie Gager's bar and the next weekend there was also another raid at an apartment next to the Ambassador Hotel. That raid took in well over 50 people. They were jumping from the fire escape to elude the police." — An anonymous e-mail.
Lincoln Bath raid ...
"At the time of that Lincoln Bath raid my lover Geoffrey Marks, now deceased, lived next door to Jerry. When the list of names came out in the paper with Jerry's at the top he asked Geoffrey, 'What shall I tell my patients?' Geoffrey replied, 'Tell them, oh, didn't you know, and leave it at that.' Not many asked.
"The interesting thing about that list was the name the paper left off. Apparently, Walter Pidgeon was a regular at the Lincoln Baths when in town and was there that night. He was ushered out a back door so the reporters would not see him." — Thomas N.
Memory Check: A few weeks back Vicki St. John talked about Jerry _______ , his dentist, who was arrested in a raid on the Lincoln Baths. Jerry's name and address was printed in the paper and he took them to court and won. This was reputedly the last time the names of arrestees in gay raids were mentioned in the paper. Whether this is true or not, I'm not sure.
The late historian Gregory Sprague, whose archives are kept at the Chicago Historical Society, wrote about the gay bathhouse subculture in one of his lectures, "Discovering the Thriving Gay Male Subculture of Chicago During the 1920s & 1930s": "Turkish bathhouses, as shared urban semi-public space, also made a transition between the World Wars, to primarily homosexual establishments. Prior to the 1920s when indoor plumbing was not commonly available in most households, Turkish baths provided a public service for the general urban population of males who desired warm baths on a regular basis. Although some same sex encounters did take place in these Turkish baths, they were not primarily homosexual environments. But after World War I when indoor plumbing became a common occurrence, the popularity of baths declined except in the case of men desiring homosexual encounters. As one gay man recalled: 'By the 1930s, Turkish baths had gradually become colonized by homosexuals.'
"In the early 1930s, Chicago had essentially 4 homosexual baths, including the very popular Jack's Baths. One patron of Jack's Baths told a sociologist around 1932 what he did at Jack's: 'I merely go into a room, leave the door open. A person comes by asks for a match and plays with me. We are both naked. He will either brown ( anal intercourse ) or french ( fellatio ) and then he leaves the room. We do not even learn the name of one another.'"
I'm always looking for bathhouse stories. CBC Club Chicago ( 609 N. La Salle ) , C.H.A.P.S ( 116 W. Hubbard ) , Devon Baths ( 1314 W. Devon ) , Gay Broadway ( 4411 N. Broadway ) , Gayshe Baths ( 4816 N. Western ) , Man's Country ( 5015 N. Clark ) , Man's World North ( 4740 N. Western ) , Ohio & State Baths ( 9 E. Ohio ) , Steamworks Ltd. ( 3131 N. Lincoln ) —not the current one —Swimming Pool ( 4809 N. Kenmore ) , Unicorn ( 3246 N. Halsted ) , Wacker Health Club ( 674 N. Clark ) , and Wabash Baths ( 28-32 E. 8th St. )
The memory section in this column contains just that—memories—and are only to be used as a starting point for research. Send your stories to Sukie de la Croix at WCT.
