Review: “Gay Bar: the Fabulous, True Story of a Daring Woman and Her Boys in the 1950s”
This year I am participating in the LGBT Reading Challenge to expand my knowledge and exposure to LGBT fiction. The more reviews I write, the more chances I have of winning the monthly prize. This is my review for January.
Gay Bar: the Fabulous, True Story of a Daring Woman and Her Boys in the 1950s is the best book I have read this year. Written by Helen Branson as a memoir about the gay bar she owned, the book was originally published in 1957 and is a time capsule of gay, mid-century Americana set on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. The preface for the book was written by Blanche M. Baker, M.D. who is considered to be America’s first advice columnist for homosexuals. The edition I have felt like two books in one, as the historian and author Will Fellows adds commentary and context to each of Branson’s conversational chapters. The book is truly remarkable, written and published by a straight, single, 60-something woman in the late 50s in defense of gay men, “my boys” as she refers to them throughout.
She was fiercely defensive of her boys and as protective as a mother hen. No one came into the bar without her approval, she even had a system of serving beer to a newcomer in a warm glass. That warm glass was a sign to her boys that she hadn’t yet approved the newcomer’s presence and to avoid him until she had given the ok. Anyone who disobeyed was kicked out. She did not permit anyone to fool around in the bathroom and her boys complied. She wasn’t interested in bringing in more business to her bar, she was interested in the lives and well being of an oppressed minority; the men loved and respected her in return because they knew she was protecting their safety. (I wonder how many gay boys of my generation really understand that only 50 years ago, just being seen at a gay bar could have serious legal consequences.) In 1951, a year before she opened her bar, the Supreme Court ruled that homosexuals had the right to congregate and be served in public bars and restaurants… Gee, thanks. But in 1955 California passed legislation that made it illegal for a bar to serve as a resort for users of narcotics, prostitutes, pimps, of “sexual perverts.” This meant a bar could have the liquor license revoked at any time. Newcomers to the bar could have been undercover cops or undesirables who were there to start fights and cause problems for Helen, so she kept them out.
Helen did not permit effeminate, “screeching” gay men into her establishment either. She wrote that she was rude to them until they left the bar. Thanks to Fellows’ commentary at the end of each chapter, I learned more about the Mattachine Society and the conflicts within the gay community in the 50s. The term “Swish” was used to describe men with bleached hair, limp wrists, and girly voices, men who often didn’t fit into the gay crowd. Even ONE Magazine, the first pro-gay magazine in the U.S., published a twelve page essay titled, “The Margin of Masculinity” about what a person could do to be more masculine:
First, watch your hands. No other physical factor is such a dead giveaway of the homosexual…Next, Johnnie, learn the upright posture of masculine males…To avoid the danger of ever lolling too prettily,… don’t ever let the knees or feet touch. It is impossible to strike an overly graceful pose while the legs are spraddled…When you carry a small package through the streets, never clutch it high on the chest…Skip the gentle expletives, watch your adjectives, and use superlatives sparingly.
Helen’s writing is shaded by common stereotypes and pseudoscience of her day. She echos the idea that gay men were gay because of an overbearing mother and absent father. But that is a fairly weak criticism as everyone fumbled around with that question, and no one really had a good answer.
But Helen didn’t really care about the reason why. She loved her boys, she empathized with and was a friend to (masculine) gay men who felt sad and lonely. Lucky for us she wrote about her experiences and now with the passage of more than 5 decades we have a relic of a world pre-Stonewall, and a record of people who faced terrible obstacles, but who did what they could to live authentic and honest lives.
This sounds extremely interesting. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
For a guy who loves history, especially mid-century American and GLBT history, I couldn’t put the book down. You can even get it as an ebook on Amazon. I thought it was fascinating.