An Evening at the Garden of Allah: A Gay Cabaret in Seattle (Between Men--Between Women)
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- Synopsis
- On a cold December night in 1946, a new club opened up on Seattle's seedy First Avenue. Located in the basement of a once-grand Victorian hotel, the Garden of Allah was one of America's first gay-owned cabarets. Patrons filed down a white marble staircase and passed through a peephole to gain entrance into an exotic, bacchanalian world of variety, vaudeville, and burlesque, hosted by a cast of beautiful female impersonators. The Garden of Allah was a haven of spontaneity, outrageousness, and affirmation for its gay and lesbian clientele in the repressive, often violently antigay environment of postwar America, and a place where straight patrons were welcome to join the circus of entertainment. While gay bars and clubs in other cities were frequently raided, the Garden flourished because of Seattle's infamous yet effective system of police "protection" which, fueled by payoffs, kept the club free of serious harassment for nearly a decade. Through interviews with former patrons and performers, DON PAULSON and ROGER SIMPSON capture the joyful evenings where those on stage proclaimed to the gathered audiences, "Come out and be yourselves." Here are the lives of the female impersonators, the Prima Donnas and the Dames, singing ballads to the accompanying roar of the Garden's old theater pipe organ. Dressed regally or garishly as their stage personas demanded, their bravado helped others to affirm and take pride in their lesbian and gay identities. These precursors of today's drag queens blast many deeply rooted assumptions about gender as they detail the excitements, tragedies, and complexities of their day-to-day lives. Here too are the stories of lesbian and gay audience members who found a home at the Garden, the soldiers and sailors who patronized the club, the fashionable locals slumming on notorious First Avenue, and the tourists who came to be photographed in the Garden's atmosphere of debauchery and abandon. In particular, three female impersonators are profiled: Francis Blair; Hotcha Hinton; and Jackie Starr.
- Copyright:
- 1996
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Excellent
- Book Size:
- 167 Pages
- ISBN-13:
- 9780231096980
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- Date of Addition:
- 08/11/20
- Copyrighted By:
- Columbia University Press
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Entertainment, Nonfiction, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
- Submitted By:
- Terry Gorman
- Proofread By:
- Terry Gorman
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.
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