I sometimes went to her bar, a lesbian bar, where some Bourbon Street strippers hung out. The bar on the left of the carriageway at Pat O’Brien’s was not a gay bar but it was the place where closet queens hung out, afraid to be seen in a gay bar.Īlice Brady was the best known lesbian in town. And it may have been the place which had a tombstone as a coffee table. There were other bars but those were the main ones I frequented. So Candy screamed at them, ‘Alright, bitches, what do you want?’ They fled. So Candy spoke up in a louder voice, ‘What would you like to drink?’ Still, the rude couple just stood there silent. Candy asked them what they would like to drink. One night, a straight couple wandered back, opened the door and just stood there, frozen, as if they had seen some alien from outer space. The bartender / bartendress was Candy Lee who kept us entertained with her raunchy humor. Tony Bacino’s, on Toulouse near Bourbon, was another gay bar but I preferred the smaller bar in the back of the patio, in the old slave’s quarters. Sometimes in warm weather, the crowds at Dixie’s and Les Rendezvous would gather on the corners, forcing straights to parade between the groups who yelled out scores for the men. It was painted lavender leaving no doubt for gays as to what kind of bar it was. I’m told she had a good time.Ĭatty corner across the street from Dixie’s was Les Rendezvous. My friend, Elmo Avet, one of the town’s great characters, was close pals with the famous actress, Helen Hayes, and he took her to Dixie’s one night. Her sister, Irma, manned the cash register. It was supposedly mixed but I only met gay guys there.ĭixie and her band entertained us with Miss Dixie on the clarinet.
![blacksmiths gay bar new orleans blacksmiths gay bar new orleans](https://www.scoundrelsfieldguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/New-Orleans-Lafitte-7-1080x675.jpg)
One night a young man was leaving the bar and a couple of guys near the door said, ‘He’s a friend of Tennessee Williams.’ The youngster overheard this and yelled back, ‘Friend, hell, I used to fuck him.”ĭixie’s Bar of Music was another bar I sometimes visited. I met Tennessee Williams there several times, usually for the first time since he was too drunk to remember the last time.
![blacksmiths gay bar new orleans blacksmiths gay bar new orleans](http://www.lafittesblacksmithshop.com/AboutUs02.jpg)
The juke box played Nat King Cole and other romantic music that was popular at the time. While predominantly gay, it had several straight people who were also regulars. Hence, the name, in Exile.īack then, it was a combination bar and art gallery with burlap on the walls and an art show that would change regularly. I started hanging out at Lafitte’s in Exile when it was a relatively new bar, having moved from its former location in Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop to the other end of the block and into a vacant grocery store. So when I was discharged in ’56, I knew where to go. One of the advantages of being an MP was that we had a list of all the off-limits bars which were mainly gay bars. First, that was when I was coaxed out by a fellow MP and squad member who was bi-sexual, had a wife and child back in California and was an excellent bottom. After training, I was sent right back to New Orleans, stationed at Camp Leroy Johnson, which was out by the lake. I volunteered for the draft in 1954 as the Korean War was ending. “For what they are worth, here are my recollections of the bars I visited in the late 1950s.
![blacksmiths gay bar new orleans blacksmiths gay bar new orleans](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/R1WWKC/the-reported-oldest-bar-in-louisiana-lafittes-blacksmith-shop-bar-at-the-end-of-bourbon-st-in-the-french-quarter-new-orleans-R1WWKC.jpg)
Remembering the French Quarter Bar Scene in the 1950s