| OCR Text |
Show 157 street and those with status and reputations to protect entering from the back alley. Whereas Evan Thompson described the Crystal during the 1950s as "just a hole in the wall" requiring entrance from the street, accounting for its small clientele, the rear entrance option at Radio City ensured weekend crowds numbering in the hundreds. However, despite a steady influx of newcomers, Radio City retained a consistent core clientele, and an evening's revelries often continued after the bar closed at private parties which some described as "taking the entire bar to somebody's house.?" The scarcity of gay meeting places fostered an almost stubborn loyalty to the bars despite their limitations, and gay men became adept at making do with what they had. When frequenting the Crystal Lounge in the 1950s, Ken Mattingly "never saw any kissing or hand-holding, if there was any hand-holding it was done under the table" --the first place where he encountered same-sex dancing was not a gay bar, but a club catering to African Americans in a remote gravel pit north of the city. Leaving nothing to chance, Radio City featured lights underneath the bar which prevented surreptitious touching, and as Ben Holbrook recalled, "for touching or anything like that, they eighty-sixed you out of the bar, you couldn't touch anyone, and if you were in the restroom too long, they would go in and tell you to get out, even if you were waiting to pee." Because dancing at Radio City required mixed couples, patrons adapted by pairing up with couples of the opposite sex and dancing in groups of four: "There had to be two guys and two girls, you had to be really careful...It used to be kind of funny, the girls were probably dancing with each 32Ramos, Thompson, Jeffries interviews. |
