I hit many of the watering holes in this story.
From 1948 through the 50’s I was a habitué of North Beach. This story has been a blast from the past for me. During the 1950s era of sexual repression, the gay community was able to thrive in North Beach by creating a public sphere where gay people and lesbians could be free to talk and create like-minded public communities.
He goes on to describe the scenes at six North Beach bars that he feels “best exemplif a cross section of gay/lesbian establishments,” including The Paper Doll, The Black Cat, The Beige Room, Mona’s, Tin Angel, and the Fallen Angel apartment. He opens the article with his own personal account of going to lesbian bars on Broadway Street as a teenager in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Dick Boyd recounts the Gay and Lesbian scene in North Beach during the 1940s and 50s. Originally published in The Semaphore #189, Winter 2010įront of Mona's, 1945. Author of Broadway North Beach: The Golden Years
