The history of a legendary Tenderloin nightclub will come alive with a one-night event at the Great American Music Hall on Wednesday, April 23. Historian Michael Flanagan will recount Club 181’s epic history live onstage, with special guest interviews and performances.
San Francisco jazz legend Veronica Klaus will headline, with a set in homage to her time at Club 181, accompanied by jazz pianist Tammy L. Hall and her quintet. Other performers include Connie Champagne, who will revisit the role of Neely O'Hara, which she played in the club’s stage adaptation of “The Valley of the Dolls.”
A very queer history
In 1954, famed “female impersonator” Lynne Carter opened and performed at Club 181 at a time when the queer community’s right to assemble in bars was being challenged in the courts. In the early 1970s, legendary trans performer Vicki Marlane did shows with Empress Pat Montclair, and in the 1980s, Club 181 played host to Arturo Galster (as Patsy Cline) and Doris Fish, with her madcap drag troupe Sluts-a-Go-Go.
Over the years, drag queens, go-go boys, hustlers, jazz fans, and new-wavers mingled with Tenderloin denizens. Named for its Eddy Street address, the after-hours club skirted the law and criminal activity, yet those who patronized it or performed there recall the place as having a mythic allure.
In a recent phone interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Michael Flanagan discussed this history-lesson-as-variety-show, and Veronica Klaus recalled her memories of performing at the legendary club in the 1990s.
The right place at the right time
In 2017, historian Michael Flanagan wrote a seminal history of Club 181 in the Bay Area Reporter. The Tenderloin Museum’s Program Director Alex Spoto approached him to emcee the upcoming event, and to suggest potential performers.
“I suggested Collette LeGrand, who’d been there in the 1970s, and Kitten on the Keys (Suzanne Ramsey) and Leigh Crow (who can really croon) to recreate the spirit of Arturo Galster in the 1980s,” said Spoto.
Flanagan’s own history with Club 181 dates to a challenging time.
“I moved to San Francisco in 1980, and in the early 1980s, I went there and was blown away by the club. It felt like a 1950s jazz club. It had red velvet curtains, and it was a classy place. For me, the club came along at the same time a lot of bad news came along. It was the Reagan era, and the AIDS epidemic, and we could all use something to distract ourselves. Club 181 did a bang-up job of that.”
Hosting the event will provide a new challenge for the historian.
“I’ve done lectures on history, but this will be the first time I’ve done it in a performance venue. I’m doing emcee duties and providing context, along with the musical performances. It gives me a different kind of discipline. I have to say my piece and get off the stage so the performers can get out there.”
The jazz singer returns
Veronica Klaus has been a legendary fixture of the San Francisco jazz scene for more than thirty years. She currently lives in a converted church in the Upstate New York village of Sharon Springs, but she returns for Bay Area performances a couple of times a year. Her history with Club 181 goes back to when it reopened as a supper club in 1994.
“I had my twelve-piece band with a horn and rhythm section; we called it The Heart and Soul Revue. We performed every week for several months, and we had such a great time,” she said.
Even then, Klaus knew that Club 181 was a special place.
“I just knew it had such a great history. It was one of those places that was so chic and cool and retro. You could smell the history.”
The upcoming performance will be a homecoming for Klaus in more ways than one.
“I’m excited to have horns again which I haven’t used in quite a while. I’ll do a set of my old stuff and some new stuff. The Great American Music Hall is always an exciting place to perform. And I haven’t played with my dear friend and amazing pianist Tammy Hall in a while, so this will be a reunion of sorts with her.”
Klaus also acknowledges the historical importance of the upcoming event.
“It’s hugely important to celebrate our history as a trans community and an LGBT community,” she said. “Club 181 has such a long history. At age 60, it’s important for me to revisit that time.”
'Club 181 Live!' $20-$50. April 23, 7pm, Great American Music Hall, 859 O’Farrell St.
www.tenderloinmuseum.org
www.gamh.com
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