For one thing we worked together, sometimes in larger groups, but most of the time in pairs. I thought I wrote most of the rules, but here it was a bit different. Marlowe describes Club My-O-My's culture of entertainers mixing with guests and hustling tables: I found that when you worked at the My-O-My you were part of the clique. Kate Marlowe (born Kenneth Marlowe) worked as a female impersonator at Club My-O-My in the 1960's, and describes the close bond of the entertainers there: Īll the cast was really a club. Īnother source characterizes club-goers as mainly middle-class white heterosexuals and tourists. One source says that Club My-O-My catered to a white audience, both heterosexuals and homosexuals, and was popular with tourists. On January 17, 1972, Club My-O-My was destroyed by a second fire. If there were issues, entertainers would deny any accusations. Ĭlub My-O-My had a sheriff assigned to keep watch at the front door for any issues. On May 4, 1948, Club My-O-My was badly damaged by a fire, but was rebuilt shortly thereafter. The name Club My-O-My was in use as early as October 1947, when it appeared in Billboard magazine.
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In the late 1940's, the Wonder Club was renamed to Club My-O-My. In 1936, after the police raid of the Wonder Bar, it was moved to Jefferson Parish, outside police jurisdiction, and reopened as the Wonder Club. Owner Emile Morlet requested an injunction in court, but was denied on grounds that the club was a menace to morality.
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In 1936, the Wonder Bar was raided by police. The Wonder Bar was located in the French Quarter at 125 Decatur Street. “Nobody cared about us.In 1933, a predecessor to Club My-O-My, the Wonder Bar, opened up with underground drag shows.
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"In Orlando, those poor people know at least that the whole world is behind them,” he said. Moreau, the outpouring of support for the victims in Orlando has been an “uplifting” sign of progress, he said. “People now feel more of a sense of their own history,” he said.įor Mr. Johnny Townsend, who interviewed survivors in the late ’80s and finally published their accounts in 2014, said the 40th anniversary commemoration gave it a kind of public attention it had not had before. As time passed, the tragedy became “a rumor” to new generations of L.G.B.T. Rey said people who lived through that period did not talk about it for decades. Survivors had to deny any connection to the fire, including the loss of loved ones, because they could lose their jobs or apartments if bosses and landlords suspected they were gay. “There was never any sense of justice,” said Sebastian Rey, the president of the L.G.B.T. He committed suicide a year after the blaze. No one was charged with the attack, and a man viewed by many as the primary suspect was never arrested. The fire was an open wound for the gay community in New Orleans for years. people have a place at the table now that they did not have then,” said Clayton Delery-Edwards, who wrote a book about the arson that was published in 2014. Forty years later, a son of his, the current mayor, Mitch Landrieu, declared a day of public mourning for the fire’s victims on its anniversary. The mayor, Moon Landrieu, did not cancel his vacation. “They dug a hole in the ground and put a bag in it and covered it back up,” Mr. Those three were buried in unmarked graves in a potter’s field along with a fourth person, Ferris LeBlanc, whose family did not know his fate until last year, Mr. There are three people who were never identified at all.
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“His mother refused to collect his ashes because she was too embarrassed that she had a gay son,” Mr. Camina, who directed a documentary, UpStairs Inferno, about the blaze. He was one of many who died without ever coming out to their families, and his mother would not deal with his remains, said Robert L.
Wikipedia fire at gay bar new orleans full#
His charred body was left slumped against the window bars in full view of passers-by for hours. When firefighters extinguished the blaze, they found a pile of charred bodies, some embracing and others pressed against the windows.Ĭongregants from the New Orleans chapter of the Metropolitan Community Church, an L.G.B.T.-affirming group, were meeting there after services.
Wikipedia fire at gay bar new orleans windows#
One group of patrons fled out a back exit, but another was trapped across the room, caught between the flames and floor-to-ceiling windows fitted with metal bars.