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Show 173 although Brian Jeffries believed the Tin Angel ultimately closed because of waning popularity, Rita Kelly considered the bar successful, but despite (or because of) its popularity and "classy" image, it eventually fell victim to antivice crusaders: "I think Salt Lake decided that it just wasn't what they wanted and they didn't want their children seeing it and they just closed it down like they do everything they don't like.'?" City ordinances prohibiting entertainers from circulating among patrons or performing in ways that would "offend against good morals" gave credence to her assumption, and Ben Holbrook felt the bar's closing exemplified a more general precariousness of gay institutions in a repressive culture: They just had to find ways to clean things up. Anything that did something unusual like the drag performers, they thought that was terrible, and then you'd get your religious people that would go by and say that shouldn't be there. They'd say, "You've got to check into this, I don't want my children to see this." It was just so stupid, everybody wanted to think they were so pure." Although the Crystal and Radio City managed to avoid forced closure, the Crystal did so at the expense of scuttling its gay clientele, and gay men at Radio City risked being swept up in police raids. According to Keith Branson, "It was very strange, the Radio City operated mixed, it was straight in the daytime .... It was just down the street from the police station, and I remember drinking in there when cops were there in the middle of the aftemoon.?? The bars' proximity to police headquarters made them easy targets, and 7°Jeffries, Kelly interviews. 71Salt Lake City Published Ordinances (1955), sec. 22-2-68, 20-2-69; Holbrook interview. nBranson interview. |
