"I don't think losing gay bars across America is progress. but I'll figure it out," Travis Neill, who worked as a bartender at Numbers for 16 years, says through a pained smile. One of the final scenes shows the last night at Numbers, where patrons toast amid tears. "Whenever Bob Hope would come we'd be excited," Braxton recalls. "Because he would take us to the Butcher Shop in Hotel Circle and treat us to a steak and lobster dinner. Braxton's performances at the Show Biz Supper Club drew celebrities including Lily Tomlin, Carol Channing, and Bob Hope.
Additonally, it showcases the story of Norman Braxton, who was one of the first drag queens of color in any of the San Diego bars. The film also takes us inside the spaces carved out for lesbians, Latinx people, and leather enthusiasts. "I don't know where we'd be without drag queens and the lesbians," says David Coppini, manager of WCPC. They also point out how many drag queens did shows for no pay and donated their tips to those suffering from AIDS. Interviewees credit lesbians for stepping up to care for gay men when nurses wouldn't touch or feed their patients and for donating blood because gay men weren't allowed to do so. When AIDS began devastating the gay community in the ’80s, the bars became the places for folks to gather, grieve, and raise money for men dying from the disease. Bars like the WCPC (West Coast Production Company) encouraged self-expression through events including amateur strip contests and Jell-O wrestling with drag tag teams. WCPC also hosted some of San Diego's first Pride events, but they quickly outgrew the space. The Ball Express, a massive club housed in an airplane hangar, drew crowds of a thousand people gathered for acts such as Barbara Cook, Gloria Gaynor, and Eartha Kitt. Despite being hotbeds for arrests, the bars were also places where resistance grew.ĭuring the '70s the muscled, mustachioed, surfer look took hold along with disco fever. Despite police harassment, the bars persisted, and the patrons returned. "We were popular then," she quips with a laugh. She went back to The Club the next night. She was booked for "lewd and lascivious conduct," but luckily her case was dismissed. “Our lives could have been ruined," says Jill McCall, a lesbian who was arrested at The Club in 1966 while celebrating with friends. Raids were frequent, and patrons faced jail time and public humiliation when their name, occupation, and address appeared in newspapers the next day. Visiting these bars was a high-risk activity. During this time, when homosexuality was criminalized and it was even against the law for two men to dance together, the bars provided a meeting place for LGBTQ people who were otherwise isolated. The post-World War II era heralded the opening of many more bars, catering to the independent men and women who had moved to the bustling port city for military jobs. The earliest example of a gay bar in San Diego came in the 1957, when straight ally Lou Arko bought the popular lunch club of the 1930's, the Brass Rail, and extended it into a meeting spot for gay people at night. Directed and produced by Paul Detwiler, the film has been released on the city's PBS station, KPBS. The new documentary San Diego's Gay Bar History surveys some of the 135 bars that have existed in the city and chronicles the various aspects of the LGBTQ community that have grown within them.