Black gay bars louisville

A great many former patrons are undoubtedly deceased. Their memories may have dimmed, or they may simply be unwilling to sit down with a stranger to talk about them.

Long-running Lou. gay club's roots run to 70s

This report therefore wanders unavoidably from time to time into the netherworld of conjecture, assumptions, speculation, and educated guesswork. Some observations I make are based on general life experiences in gay gay subculture and my knowledge of the pre gay scene and are noted as such.

Catalogued at the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, it shows an establishment with a decidedly French flair, with a hand-painted mural of Parisian scenes and casual tables and chairs. The photo is one of the few interior shots of a Louisville bar or tavern in the collection. Its light, breezy atmosphere is faintly reminiscent of the restaurant in a popular film noir of the day, Mildred Pierce, a gay favorite.

The decor reflects the patriotic fervor all Americans felt after the Anglo-French liberation of Paris from the Nazis just a couple of years earlier. The Beaux Arts, which opened on April 16,had several inviting features. First, it was air-conditioned, still something of a novelty at the time.

It also offered music. One of its specialties was a mean Tom Collins. Within fifteen months of its opening, the Beaux Arts added dining. Dining is mentioned in only one other ad the following week. Judging from subsequent Louisville Courier-Journal ads and the Angel interview, louisville Beaux Arts seems to have reverted mostly to serving alcohol.

What kind of crowd patronized the place? The Beaux Arts, like most bars at the time, did not start out as gay-oriented. It may also have had a young crowd, perhaps populated by college students or graduates, but that conclusion is based solely on a single classified ad and can be easily discounted. Of course, the man might have been any age.

Then again, the ad could have been black by the managers themselves as an inexpensive way to bring attention to the bar. If so, perhaps they were trying to attract a younger set. Of especial interest to this study, during July and August a couple of ads include words later associated with the homosexual subculture.

But would they have been known to homosexuals living in smaller cities like Louisville? Most likely. Was management on to bar Probably the latter. The managers were simply being cute. It often engaged in naughty heterosexual innuendo. In one, a wife with a rolling pin confronts her husband as their baby boy looks on.