The crew was anxious to knock off. It was a fine April afternoon in San Francisco, 1976. We'd finished the drywall in the Victorian on Fillmore. I was anxious to start ass-warming the meat rack at The Ambush on Harrison when Jim Goldsmith, owner of Jade Enterprises, my boss, nodded me over. Oh-oh. Had I screwed up the drywall?
"How'd you like to come to the talent show the Barbary Coasters are putting on Saturday?" he said. "It's our tenth anniversary."
"Sure," I said.
Goldsmith, his partner Chris, and the third member of their ménage a trios, Thaddeus, were members of the Barbary Coasters Motorcycle Club. I'd seen them in denim overlay colors sporting the blue and gold buddy-riders by the Bay emblem.
"Where is it?"
"California Hall," he said, "625 Polk."
I knew where that was. A lot of gay events were held there. I'd heard of the infamous gay ball there the cops had tried to break up on New Years Eve 1965.
"Starts at nine," he said and handed me a ticket.
"I don't have to perform?" I didn't. "Can I bring my camera?" I could.
After meeting for almost a year the Barbary Coasters were officially incorporated as a "Mutual Benefit" nonprofit with the California Secretary of State on November 25, 1966. As part of the post WWII California gay motorcycle club movement, they cultivated the rebel biker image popularized by Marlon Brando's 1953 film The Wild One.
The Barbary Coasters' outings or "runs" to such places as Stanislaus National Forest near Yosemite (1987) often featured grand pageantry and campy drag shows not dissimilar from the thespian productions of the City's famous straight "gentlemen's club" at its private Bohemian Grove hidden in the Sonoma County forest.
I found a parking space, presented my ticket, and entered. I was greeted by an all-male crowd, mostly in black leather, many with various denim club overlays.
"There you are," Goldsmith said. He put his arm around my shoulder and gave me a squeeze. He was in full leather including the Coasters overlay.
"Brought your camera," Chris said. He and Thaddeus were both dressed in black tuxes with ruffled shirt-fronts and big bow ties.
"Let's get our seats," Goldsmith said. He herded us into the auditorium. I sat on the outside aisle so I could maneuver quickly to make the best of my Nikon. With no flash I had to slow down the exposure speed.
There were a dozen or so amateur acts on stage, including an artfully clumsy drag ballet, "Schwanz Lake;" an umbrella twirling drag grandmother bawdily "Singing in the Rain;" and a racy Puck from the Bard's "Midsummer-Night's Dream." My favorites were Snow White singing a risqué version of "Someday My Prince Will Cum" and a trio of leathermen performing on an air-motorcycle as if they were cruising Ringold Alley after the bars closed.
The Barbary Coasters won the "Best Run of the Year Award" from the San Francisco Bay Area Leather Alliance nine times out of eleven from 1978 through 1988. Their last nonprofit statement filed with the California Secretary of State on October 27, 1989 listed them as "Suspended."
© 2014 [email protected] For further true gay adventures check out the award-winning Folsom Street Blues: A Memoir of 1970s SoMa and Leatherfolk in Gay San Francisco by Jim Stewart.
