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Tim Lewis: the jazz musician and graphic artist's 'gift of sound and vision'
Tim Lewis has been making music and defining the visual landscape of San Francisco for over forty years. There have been peaks during this period when he was playing as many as three gigs a night, and lows where it has been weeks before performances.
Harry Partch at Opus: How the iconoclastic composer performed at a 1950s San Francisco gay bar
On the list of things that made composer Harry Partch unique, sexuality is admittedly a minor factor. More unusually, he gave two talks on his music at Opus One, which was both a classical music bar and gay bar in North Beach.
When Doris Fish Resurfaced - 'Blonde Sin' silkscreens at the 2007 Castro Street Fair
Found treasure that tells the tale of personal history is a story that has been repeated many times. When some silkscreens of drag performer Doris Fish were discovered, a lost legacy became reborn.
Finding Fe-Be's - Rediscovering the history of an iconic bar
One thing about Fe-Be's that most people know it is that it was the first leather bar on Folsom Street. If there is a second thing people know, it's that the bar was the place that the iconic "Leather David" was born. But there's more to the bar's story.
Robbie Robinson makes history: former bartender and barber reveals a lost gay San Francisco
James "Robbie" Robinson visited San Francisco while stationed at Parks Air Force base in the East Bay in 1957. After being cruised on Market Street, the man led him to the Silver Dollar Bar. His visit began a gay journey in creating community.
Taking the Detour: Fond remembrances of a sexy cruise bar
Fourteen years after the original Detour Bar closed, mention of it evokes strong memories for patrons, especially after news of a new very different bar taking its name. Let's recall the sexy, cruisy original.
From Stonewall to the White Horse: The Bay Area's part in uprisings that changed the world
Unlike 1969's Stonewall, disturbances in San Francisco started over job rights. Because the disturbances spread and issues multiplied, they would eventually include at least three bars, including Oakland's White Horse.
The Raid on Tommy's Place - a case of Cold War anti-queer crackdowns
Paranoia, red-baiting and homophobia swept across the United States in the early 1950s like a cold fire, and San Francisco was not exempt from its reach. The vile Joseph McCarthy and his toady Roy Cohn engaged the country in the Army-McCarthy hearings.
Best Bars and nightclubs - 2019's reader favorites
The Besties give us an opportunity to visit some longtime favorite watering holes, to visit some of the newer venues in town and unfortunately to note the passing of one venue.
Best Events - Weekly, monthly and one-off parties rock
From drag shows to dancing bears, game nights and beer busts, cubcakes, mangos and other treats, your choices for Best Nightlife Events truly represents a diverse menu of options.
Ann and Maxine Weldon – allies from before Stonewall to the AIDS era
Ann and Maxine Weldon from Bakersfield, performed in clubs beginning in the 1950s, and developed relationships with their gay audiences that came to benefit both the audience and the performers.
Life during wartime - Melissa Hawkins' nightlife photos at the GLBT History Museum
The GLBT Historical Society and Museum is presenting the exhibition 'SoMa Nights: The Queer Nightclub Photography Of Melissa Hawkins,' curated by photographer Hawkins and nightlife historian Marke B.
Lenny Mollet – The Godfather of Chez Mollet and other bars
Lenny Mollet was a Grand Duke of the Ducal Court, the president of the Tavern Guild, and one of a generation of gay men who fought for a place of their own in the city. He owned a gay bar in San Francisco a decade and a half before the Stonewall riots.
Ministers, homophiles and raging cops - How a raucous New Year's Day ball changed San Francisco
History sometimes seems ruled by events with unintended consequences. That certainly is the case with the Mardi Gras Ball at California Hall, which happened on January 1, 1965. It's an event that's been called 'San Francisco's Stonewall.'
A Celebration of Streetbar - How the first gay bar in Palm Springs signaled a change
Palm Springs has been associated with the gay community for a very long time. But it wasn't always friendly. Streetbar became a pioneering business by breaking new gay ground in 1991.
When Polk Street Exploded: Tear gas, murder and the tradition of the Halloween buses
Mention Halloween violence in the LGBT community, and most people think of events of the last decade, which ended the closing of Castro Street for the holiday. But history does repeat itself, as the '60s and'70s Halloween celebrations prove.
Live from the Stud! - Etta James, Sylvester and more - when live music first ruled Folsom Street
When we think of entertainment in our bars, the chances are that we think of drag performances or DJs more often than live music. But from the 1960s to the 1980s at the Stud (then at 1535 Folsom Street), live performances often ruled the night.
Charles Pierce: a male actress to remember
Charles Pierce's connection to San Francisco history is easily lost due to his larger than life personality and his talent.
Beats, Bohemians and Bars: Jack Spicer, Allen Ginsberg and their circle's San Francisco haunts
A literary spark started fires on both U.S. coasts following World War II. The Beat writers in New York and the Berkeley renaissance poets in the Bay Area started out separately, but they converged in a conflagration that burns to this day.
Frank Banks, musical master of The Mint
From 1975 to 1988 Frank Banks was both defined by and helped define The Mint (1942 Market) in San Francisco. He would go on to play other bars before he left and his presence here was felt all the way to City Hall, but The Mint was his home.