Fortunately, my attitude has always been my whole life, “I don’t give a shit. And, a lot of people couldn’t even talk to their family about it, you know. Larry Van der Beek La Noue: What was it like being a gay man in the ’60s? You didn’t really say much about it to other people, you know, unless they were close family. There was also Captain’s Table, which was a gay bar on Seventh Street, but that would’ve been like the hinterlands of Phoenix at that point. They advertised in the newspaper, but it never mentioned what kind of bar it was. It started off as an upstairs bar on Broadway and Central Avenue, and then they moved to another location. It was owned by Kaye Elledge, this short, gruff lesbian, and Violet O’Hara was very much a lipstick lesbian. Shore: When you’re talking about pre-Stonewall history, one of my favorite bar names was for a lesbian bar, Kaye’s Happy Landing Buffet. I was this teenager, a freshman in college, who was brought in, underage, by a friend, and got to drink there. They had a single stage, but they had booths all the way around. It was well-painted in blues and pinks, kind of like Copacabana-ish. Kim Moody, co-owner of Alwun House: South Seas was the most remarkable, elegant place. It was one of those businessmen lunch places, but then, at night, it became a gay bar. Where the Chase Tower is now, there used to be a bar called the South Seas. There were a handful of bars, but they were places that were more. There was always an edge in terms of the police getting involved. In the ’60s, it would not have been a place where you’d walk down the street holding hands. Marshall Shore, “Arizona’s Hip Historian” and project manager for the Arizona LGBT+ History Project: Pre-Stonewall, Phoenix was very different for gays and lesbians. Phoenix of the early ’60s offered a scant number of LGBTQ-friendly bars and hangouts, including spots like the South Seas and Captain’s Table, as well as the lesbian-oriented joint Kaye’s Happy Landings. ( Editor’s note: Some quotes have been condensed and edited for brevity and clarity.)
We’ve compiled quotes from our individual conversations to create an oral history of what the Valley’s LGBTQ bar scene was like back then, what they learned, and how those lessons are still relevant today. In recognition of the 50th anniversary of the riots this week, Phoenix New Times spoke with those who owned and patronized the Valley’s LGBTQ establishments in the ’60s and ’70s for their memories of the era and how Stonewall affected them, the bar scene, and the community as a whole. Stonewall certainly was one of the many catalysts for change. Long before there was Phoenix Pride, a Melrose district, or anyone using the phrase “gayborhood,” the Valley’s LGBTQ bar landscape was virtually nonexistent. In the early- to mid-’60s, you could pretty much count the total number of local gay and lesbian spots on one hand. The vast and colorful bar scene that exists today is a far cry from what existed in 1969. Members of the Valley’s LGBTQ community of the time were also empowered, not only to stand up for their rights but to effect change.Ī lot has changed in the past 50 years.
“I mean, I was rowdy, I always fought back, but after I read about Stonewall, then my attitude was, ‘You can’t be doing that shit. “I was like, ‘Those sons of bitches.’ I would have taken out as many as I could before they took me out,” he says. Valley resident John La Noue, who owned and managed various local LGBTQ bars in the ’70s and ’80s, remembers being just as furious. “It’s one thing for them to close the place, and it’s another to be dragged out of a bar.” We were infuriated,” Kim Moody, currently the co-owner of downtown Phoenix art space the Alwun House. Shockwaves from the Stonewall riots were felt around the U.S., including here in Arizona, where members of the Valley’s LGBTQ community of that era were outraged for many reasons, not the least of which because they’d endured persecution by the police for their sexual orientation. The turmoil came after years of police harassment of LGBTQ bars and an anti-gay legal system rife with homophobia. It sparked a spontaneous counterprotest and rioting by drag queens, neighborhood residents, and bystanders which lasted three days. on June 28, 1969, officers and detectives from the New York Police Department raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village.