History of Socialization, Drag and Bars in Erie

by Harry Miller

It was a very different social time and political climate for gays in Erie in the 1950's and 1960's. The threat of being exposed or arrested was very real to many people and gay bashing were as common place as they often are today. Heterosexual owners of many bars did what they could to accommodate gays with certain areas, certain days and times - but when push came to shove, they usually backed down for their own economic reasons.

There were many city ordinances and laws that had to be obeyed, with threat of arrest, fines or closure. Bars could not be billed as gay or gay friendly. Word of mouth was the only way of communicating this within the community itself. Bars were not allowed to permit same sex dancing, under any circumstance under penalty of fines or closure. Events were not allowed to called Drag Shows. They usually were called Halloween parties since dressing up at Halloween became much more acceptable. This is why most drag shows and contests were held at that time of year. Additionally, there was a law on the books that anyone dressed in clothing of the opposite sex must have at least three items of their gender's clothing on to be "legal"- otherwise they could be arrested.

Numerous bars were known to be gay friendly. The "A Bar" was a popular gay hang out which was located on Perry Square where City Hall now stands. It was particularly popular with the women's softball teams. The Fiesta Room at the Lawrence Hotel also catered to it's gay clientele. Mary Alice Brown was a young jazz entertainer at a bar called Slivers who encouraged her gay customer base.

During this time frame and before, the penchant for partying late at night was also born for very practical reasons. It gave gay males time to take a girl to dinner or a movie, drop her off at a respectable hour and then have time to head out and party with all their gay friends. Cover maintained. It was not an ideal life for anyone, but it was an acceptable alternative. The only ones hurt were the girls who were lead on by gay men and the guys horrible sleep patterns. After the bars closed, many men would go 'cruising the carousel '…

Cruising the carousel was the term for hanging out at the circular parking lot that was in front of the Train Station / Post Office in an attempt pick up someone for casual sex. Usually one would drive slowly in circles, checking out the guys who were standing around getting high or drinking. When a hook up was made, they usually drove to the parking lot on the other side of the tracks to have sex. ( ACL lot ) this continued into the 70's and 80's. Despite the activities being completely illegal, the police generally looked the other way and left the gays alone. Padewsky Park was also another common cruising ground, as well as the trails near the Erie Zoo.

In the 1950's and 60's, the highlight of the year was the Harvest Ball, which was held near Halloween at the Log Cabin, which was a rental vacation area located at the bend where Buffalo Road turns in to Harborcreek Borough. It was billed as a Halloween party but in actuality was an excuse for everyone to dress in drag and camp it up. A show was organized and 'The Equinox Empress' would be crowned. This was the first official drag title in the Erie area. The drag was pure camp, often with group drag. The 'Pointer Sisters' and a complete bridal wedding party made appearances as well as a group of 'nuns" known as " The Sisters of the Moist Womb". Impersonating famous celebrities was more prevalent then than creating your own characters. You could usually find Jayne Mansfield, Bette Davis, Diana Ross as well as several Judy Garlands...

Three or four hundred people would attend the Harvest Ball, coming from all parts of the state as well as Cleveland and Buffalo. At this time, Erie was actually more socially progressive than Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Another annual event which drew crowds from these areas was the Summer Picnic. Locations for the picnic would vary, often at campgrounds and a few times at the Monastery in Girard. There would be tons of beer and dancing that attracted hundreds of people from the tri state area, with buses coming from major cities. As time went on, Pittsburgh and Cleveland started producing their own picnics, which over time eclipsed the Erie picnic. I believe the last picnic was produced by Nick Panos of Lizzy Bordon's and was held at Camp Eriez, a summer camp past Avonia. Pittsburgh and Cleveland may have gotten bigger, better and shinier - but Erie was the originator.

In the early and mid 1970's, there were two gay bars in Erie - The Washington Grill, located at West 10th and Washington streets and The Midtown Lounge, located on French Street, between 7th and 8th Streets. Both bars were gay owned and operated but otherwise looked like any traditional corner bar in Erie. Each would have a couple of drag shows during the year but their highlight show was always the show / pageant around Halloween.

Despite being competitors, the two bars would coordinate their pageant shows so that they would always be separate nights - often alternate Saturdays if the 31st fell midweek but sometimes on Friday for one and then Saturday for the other. The contest at the Washington Grill was " The Miss Erie Pageant", having inherited the right to use the title from a previous sometimes gay bar, "City Pub".

City Pub was a bar on Liberty Street at 11th, which most recently was known as The Beer Mug, but has since been torn down. The bar was a straight bar and straight owned, but on weekends, they allowed gays to take over the back room of the bar. It was closed by the city twice for"allowing same sex dancing", which was against city ordinances.

The Midtown Lounge called their contest, " The Miss Bay City Pageant". Both the Miss Erie and Miss Bay City contests were pretty simple and straight forward affairs.

Each contestant would perform one song / number and there would be pre-selected judges, usually friends of the bar owners and former title holders, who would decide the winners. The only prizes were a sash, tiara and a bouquet of flowers. It was not uncommon that drag performers would hold both of these titles - but never in the same year. Title holders would usually be featured and given prominence in any shows for the following year, until they give up their title.

Both of the bars would have changing / dressing rooms set up in their basements, and entrances would be made from there. The midtown Lounge would simply clear the dance floor for their performances, whereas the Washington Grill had a small stage with a short runway and steps made that they would bring out when they had shows.

Performances by the drag queens during this time frame generally fell in to one of two categories: highly dramatic slow torch songs or highly dramatic camp songs.

Performers generally did their own hair and make up but would often gather and do so at a gay owned or gay friendly beauty shop. Clothes and costumes were often purchased at a small dress shop located in one of the plazas on West Eighth Street called CaRo - The Tall Girls Store, which was always gay friendly and the staff enjoyed helping the queens choose their outfits.

The Washington Grill also had an unusual event one year during it's entertainment peak - Drag Queen Mud Wrestling. It was a hoot, but only ever done the one time. A pool had been set up in the middle of the dance floor filled with liquid ceramic mud. A roster of local gay dignitaries and characters were lined up for this. I took part in the event. Our match was Big Renee versus another queen and myself. We won - turns out that big doesn't translate well in wet mud. They funniest part of this no one but a few got to see - they had us shower and clean up afterward in an apartment above the bar. What a frigging mess! The worst of the ordeal was trying to shower the mud off of you - in ice cold water only - only the first person showering got any warm. A dozen people showering in secession left absolutely no warm water. We were screaming as we showered. I was cleaning mud out of my ears for weeks after. Never do that again... this was about he same time that Dwarf Tossing was an entertainment event at many bars - a time in cultural history to be proud of for sure.

Around 1975 or 76, The City Squire Club opened as an after hours gay club. Erie now had three gay bars and the disco night life was thriving. The City Squire Club had been previously an 'Italian Supper Club', complete with Mafia ties. It was located on Brown Avenue, where the dismal bar Lefty's currently is located. Two of the three new partners were gay and the transition from Mafia to gay club was made - although when Ray Ferrito was arrested for the car bombing hit of a Cleveland man, he was still officially the President of the club. The club featured a lighted plexiglass dance floor - right out of Saturday Night Fever. It always maintained it's identity as a gay club, but always had a strong showing of the liberal young hip crowd - a sort of Studio 54 for all the beautiful people in Erie. Erie had many after hours clubs at threat point in time, but the cool people came here.

The Squire always featured heavy security and although, being a club, we were legally able to be open until 3 am, we were very often open and serving until 5, 6 or 7am. ( all the after hours clubs did this ) Gays at this time would generally go to either the Midtown or the Grill until about 2 am and then shift up to the City Squire to continue their debauchery. This led to some wild times with some very drunken customers. The Squire did continue to function as a dinner restaurant in the earlier evening, serving some pretty decent food. I still serve their Creamy Onion salad dressing in my restaurant.

Around this time, in their final days as an Erie entertainment powerhouse, the historic Calabrese Club brought in a couple of professional Vegas female impersonators for a couple of engagements - Tiffani Jones The Texas Tornado and Bobbi Callicote... they sold out the house and were wonderful - swirling and twirling in tons of wild red fabric... The Calabrese Club was located in Little Italy and featured a straight clientele. It was on West 16th and has since been torn down. The audience for this event was mixed - gay and straight. The older straight crowd seemed to enjoy it as much as the younger gays.

The City Squire Club joined the other gay bars hosting it's own Halloween weekend drag pageant. Their contest was simply called "Miss City Squire". It was always held on a Sunday evening, to as not compete with the other bars, which were not open Sundays. Eventually, after the Washington Grill closed - the Silver Slipper on State Street, Embers on State Street, Lizzy Bordon's on West 12th Trance onRaspberry, one have adopted 'The Miss Erie' title and contest as it became available. 'Miss Bay City' and 'Miss City Squire' titles and contests died when their bars closed.

During the late 70's, an attempt was made to start a gay tourist area. A group of investors bought the Kelso Beach Hotel and several cottages in the area. The hotel, bar and rooms were remodeled and publicity was started, mainly in the Pittsburgh area. Only one drag show was produced here, which took place on the wooden deck overlooking the lake. Let me tell you, stilettos and wooden decks are not meant to go together. The investors had visions of the Kelso area being another P-town, but then realized how long and how much money would be involved to make that dream happen and abandoned it. There was also a great deal of animosity and discrimination from the heterosexual neighbors, who had no intention of letting their neighborhood go gay. All plans were scrapped after the hotel had a major fire late that summer.

Lizzy Borden's hosted the first and only 'Mr. Erie' contest. It featured ten young men vying for the title in evening wear, sports wear and swim wear categories. As the reigning Miss Erie, I acted as hostess and performed several numbers as well as Ernestine as emcee and comic relief. The funniest moment of the show came during the swim wear competition. One of the contestants had a banana stuffed in his swim suit, which he pulled out, peeled and ate. Ernestine had a few too many cocktails during the show and had to be led off stage in her long john tutu during a rambling long closing speech after she started to repeat herself for the third time. She got the biggest applause of the night as she was pulled thru the doorway, waving frantically at the crowd.

While the 'Miss City Squire" contest was of similar format and style as the contests at the other bars, their drag shows were a step above. The large upraised dance floor lent itself well as a stage. There was plenty of room to have multiple performers or group numbers, something that the other bars did not have.

They were produced by one of the bar owners and had a choreographer, set designer and featured group dance numbers. There were several rehearsals for the shows, mostly for the group numbers and you were not allowed to miss a rehearsal or you were out of the show. Karen, the choreographer, would put us thru our paces... kick, kick, spin, 2, 3 4... over and over till we got it right. A large follow spotlight was always leased for the shows. Performers were never allowed to be seen by or to mingle with the crowd before the show. ( it will ruin the illusion! )

Performers would very often act as back up singers for other performers for their numbers, and the favor was usually reciprocated in the next show. Several times, back up dancers were used. All of this meant lots of rehearsal time. There was a comraderie not rivalry among the performers. One queen, 'The Incomparable Luciana' had a huge collection of rhinestone jewelry which she was always willing to loan out - but you could bet she would be waiting in the wings to rip it off of you as you exited the stage. I'm sure that she has every piece of that jewelry to this day.

Each show would have a theme and a featured performer, who the show would be built around. My favorite show was 'Here I Come Again' with Buddy Pacy as the featured performer as Dolly Parton. The show was given a country western theme because of that. The set featured a large yellow crescent plywood moon with a working swing ( for The aforementioned Incomparable Luciana to perform 'The Man in The Moon is a Lady' ). The set was also adorned with walls of bales of hay, cornstalks and pumpkins. Two hot young men were part of the stage props, lounging in Daisy Duke shorts and ripped flannel shirts, just laying provacatively on the hay bales for the whole show except for dancing backup for one queen's number.

Marlene was the emcee for the show and we had rented a pig costume worn by Jessie, who would dance around as comic relief in between numbers. The show also had an intermission.

There were eight queens performing with one song each as well as Buddy who had three numbers. Buddy, as always, was fabulous and had the crowd eating out of his hand. She was as much of a star then, as she is now. We had rehearsed extensively for the finale number, Here You come Again. Dolly started out solo, but one by one, we eight other performers appeared behind her, forming a kickline, wearing flouncy square dance dresses, swirling our skirts... kick, kick, spin, 2, 3, 4... We all were joined on stage by the pig, Marlene and the two hillbilly hunks. Joining hands,

The best part of the show, the audience never got to see. We exited thru the front door of the club and had to make it to the kitchen back door. Thirteen screaming costumed performers running in the rain, leaping over potholes in their stilettos, desperate to get back in time for final curtain call. We all made it, with no sustained injuries, despite colliding with parked cars. The audience was aghast as we reappeared one by one from the curtain on the stage after seeing us exit. It was a great and memorable show.