April 2, 2017
BARchive :: The Original Breakfast Club
Michael Flanagan READ TIME: 1 MIN.
There are rare bars that are popular in one generation and come back a second time. Even rarer is one which has three lives. The 181 Club was such a bar. It lasted from the 1950s to the 1990s and left its mark on three generations.
The person who brought the club into the gay world was a female impersonator with a following as big as any drag star today. Mr. Lynne Carter started performing shortly after returning from World War II. He was known for impersonations of Pearl Bailey, Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Mae West and Josephine Baker.
Years ahead of political concerns, he performed his impersonations of African American performers by using his voice, and not cheapening his act with blackface.
Baker was so taken with him that she gave him three taxis-full of Balenciaga and Dior gowns. He performed at the Beige Room and Ann's 440 in North Beach starting in 1951.
In 1954 he decided to try his hand at opening his own club. With the help of the two women who ran Ann's, he applied for a license, but Chief of Police Gaffney objected.
