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Through the Sixties most LGBTQ nightlife in San Francisco was centered within the northern neighborhoods of town. Homosexual bars might be discovered alongside Polk Avenue, within the Tenderloin, and the South of Market neighborhood.
Within the coronary heart of town, the late lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin hosted non-public gatherings for queer ladies of their Noe Valley dwelling. They’d been doing so ever since shopping for their Duncan Avenue cottage in 1955.
A brief drive away within the metropolis’s Glen Park neighborhood, albeit for a short time frame, one may get pleasure from feminine impersonators acting at a restaurant location with a storied previous courting again to the 1900s. An account of their opening evening on the Casa Blanca Lounge in an October 1964 version of Residents Information, a defunct early LGBTQ newspaper, described it as “one thing that ought to have been seen.”
The author famous, “The addition of tacos to feminine impersonators is welcome to the jaded appetites.” One of many performers, referred to solely as Terry, was reported to have taken “so many curtain calls that he was embarrassed and when you’ll be able to embarrass that one you could have performed one thing.”
An advert had appeared in one of many newspaper’s September points touting that the eatery, positioned at 2972 Diamond Avenue, can be that includes “San Francisco’s Best Impersonators” Wednesdays by Sundays beginning on September 16. It highlighted the performers as being “Terry, Jay, Jamie & Chris” and famous that “Mexican Dinners” can be served.
The existence of what was basically a precursor to immediately’s drag exhibits would probably have been misplaced to historical past have been it not for a put up on the web site Nextdoor inquiring if there had been a bar in Glen Park that offered feminine impersonators. It had come to the eye of Paula Lichtenberg, a founding member of the San Francisco-based GLBT Historic Society.
In 2021, she reached out to Evelyn Rose, the founder in 2014 of the Glen Park Neighborhoods Historical past Mission, to inquire if she knew something about such an institution. The concept that there can be a venue for drag within the space got here as a little bit of a shock, Rose advised the Bay Space Reporter throughout an interview on the Cup Cafe coffeehouse positioned close to the place Casa Blanca had as soon as stood.
She has lived within the neighborhood for 35 years and moved into her present Glen Park dwelling along with her spouse 19 years in the past. As she works in medical communications and had different historical past initiatives to complete, Rose advised the B.A.R. it wasn’t till this previous January that she was in a position to begin trying into the historical past of Casa Blanca. It didn’t take lengthy earlier than she started unearthing archival proof concerning the lengthy forgotten LGBTQ gathering place.
“It was fairly a shock as a result of I wasn’t anticipating to search out one thing like that,” mentioned Rose, who in 2012 started writing about San Francisco historical past on her web site www.TrampsofSanFrancisco.com. (http://www.trampsofsanfrancisco.com/)
She additionally requested round to see if there was anybody nonetheless residing in her neighborhood who would have frequented the Casa Blanca or seen one of many feminine impersonator exhibits. Sadly, most residents from that point have since died, famous Rose, who to date has solely been in a position to converse with one particular person who recalled working into the restaurant to purchase cigarettes after they have been 15 years previous.
“We’ve misplaced the technology with that legacy reminiscence,” mentioned Rose.
She turned to varied on-line archives to see what she may discover concerning the Casa Blanca. It led her to discovering that there have been historic ties between Glen Park and the Bohemian denizens throughout city in North Seashore, well-known for its function within the beginning of the Beatniks.
An obituary she positioned within the January 28, 1954 version of the San Francisco Examiner for Angelo Pelligrino, the proprietor of an eponymously named restaurant that preceded Casa Blanca within the Forties, described it as a gathering place for town’s Bohemians.
“To study there was a tavern or bar working in Glen Park for the reason that Nineteen Thirties that was Bohemian or sort of avant-garde was shocking and thrilling. It was shocking as a result of I didn’t assume folks considered Glen Park that method,” mentioned Rose, explaining that the neighborhood was extra often called “a bucolic backwater” close to former farmland.
It started attracting extra residential improvement following the 1906 earthquake and hearth that devastated downtown San Francisco. Its remoteness grew to become a bonus for saloon house owners through the Prohibition period.
Over the a long time plenty of house owners had operated bars and eating places in Casa Blanca’s constructing, with the primary reference Rose discovered of it being known as Casa Blanca dated 1944. She suspects it took its title from the construction’s facade being painted white primarily based on previous pictures she was capable of finding.
By the Nineteen Fifties “it was already a hip place. It appears it was recognized by people in North Seashore,” mentioned Rose. “It was a spot for the counterculture to get collectively mainly.”
In 1959, brothers Andrew and John Tomasello had taken over possession of the restaurant. 5 years later, maybe to drum up enterprise, the siblings determined to function feminine impersonators.
“I don’t know why they began it,” mentioned Rose, although she famous seeing males dressed as ladies was a frequent side of popular culture again then. “Within the Sixties, we have been simply overloaded with examples of cross-dressing on TV.”
Based on the Residents Information there can be two exhibits an evening on the Casa Blanca. It described the stage as being close to a hearth in the course of the room excellent “for an indoor picnic.” It not solely raved concerning the Mexican meals being served as “scrumptious” but in addition “very fairly priced,” with patrons in a position to order for $1.50 a mix plate with a taco, enchilada, Spanish rice, and Frijole refritos.
As a result of its moderately hidden away location, the paper additionally offered readers with instructions for Casa Blanca whether or not they have been coming by automobile or metropolis bus.
“This can be a new kind bar for San Francisco, since it isn’t solely off the overwhelmed path, however can be providing an impersonator present nearly each evening of the week,” famous the paper.
Rose, utilizing a clue from one of many write-ups that referred to the individual working the exhibits as Charlie, was in a position to observe down his niece, who knowledgeable her that her uncle had died in 2010. The niece mentioned her uncle by no means mentioned along with her the Casa Blanca, however she did reveal he had emigrated from Mexico and had been considerably estranged from a few of his members of the family.
“It’s most likely how they began serving Mexican meals,” surmised Rose, because it had beforehand been often called a spot for Italian meals.
Sadly, Rose has not been in a position to study something concerning the feminine impersonators who appeared at Casa Blanca or uncover any images of them performing on the restaurant. Her archival analysis went chilly after discovering the final advert for the venue in a March 1965 version of the Residents Information.
By 1966, it was not listed within the metropolis’s cellphone listing, mentioned Rose. The next yr development started on the station and trackway for the regional BART transit line. It necessitated the tearing down of Casa Blanca’s constructing.
Digging by varied archives Rose did find a reference to a fair older feminine impersonation efficiency supplied in Glen Park. An commercial within the December 11, 1899 version of the San Francisco Name newspaper promoted feminine impersonations carried out by Child Troy on the zoo that had been positioned inside Glen Canyon, which is now a metropolis park.
“Cross-dressing and feminine impersonation dates again fairly far in San Francisco and Glen Park,” famous Rose, including that such performances have been “round for hundreds of years if not millennia,” with males in early theatrical teams taking part in all the feminine roles.
In June, for Pleasure Month, Rose offered her analysis into the Casa Blanca, in addition to the historical past of saloons in Glen Park and the neighborhood’s Bohemian connections, on the Glen Park Department Library. She hopes as extra folks study concerning the venue, somebody will come ahead with their private recollections of watching the feminine impersonators carry out there or somebody could have ephemera for it left to them by a relative or pal.
“I’d be stunned if the neighborhood didn’t have data of what Casa Blanca was,” mentioned Rose. “Possibly they didn’t discuss it, however in addition they didn’t discuss down about it both, to my data. That’s my impression anyway.”
By unearthing the historical past about Casa Blanca and its presenting drag exhibits, Rose hopes it gives a counterbalance to the latest wave of laws in opposition to, and protests of, drag exhibits and performers. In spite of everything, it’s proof that drag tradition has lengthy been part of the American story.
“I simply don’t get it, individuals who don’t need to open their minds or expertise other ways of life and other ways of dwelling,” mentioned Rose. “I simply don’t get it. Hopefully, we are able to provoke and push again.”
To study extra about Rose’s work documenting Glen Park’s historical past, and for data on tips on how to contact her, go to www.GlenParkHistory.org (https://www.glenparkhistory.org/)
Matthew S. Bajko is an assistant editor on the Bay Space Reporter.
CAPTIONS
The previous Pelligrino constructing within the Glen Park neighborhood of San Francisco preceded Casa Blanca, the place feminine impersonators carried out. Photograph: Courtesy Open SF Historical past
The primary advert for Casa Blanca, high proper, appeared within the Police and Peace Officers’ Journal in February 1945. Picture by way of Web Archive
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