East St. Louis has long been the Metro area’s guilty pleasure and the exploited ghetto where folks went to gamble, find prostitutes, listen to jazz or club late into the night has a rich queer history as well.
Earlier this summer my friend Chris Andoe hosted the Gay East St. Louis Story Telling Party at the home of David Ray. It was a fun and informative evening filled with historical nuggets and salty tales. We were talking about the East Side, after all.
"I always thought the whole idea of East St. Louis was fascinating,” said Andoe. “Most cities don’t have this sinister alter-ego on the other side of a big river… It’s kind of the equivalent to International waters. It’s not quite reality and it’s kind of dream like. You’re not in your right mind when you get there and whatever happens over there stays over there.”
As early as the late 1940s our community had the Olde English Inn near the Stockyards and if you could get past the smell, it was a lovely place. It was an elegant establishment—people dressed to go out—complete with piano player. But the bar must have been the great experiment of its day: the front half was straight and the back half was gay.
“The Olde English was the Faces of its day,” recalled a regular. “It didn’t get popular until after the bars closed in St. Louis. The restrooms were wild. And if you didn’t pick up a trick in St. Louis, you went there and that was your last resort.”
Needless to say East St. Louis operated under its own set of rules. Police, politicians and gangsters were all paid off. But gay establishments in the 1960s and early 70s were still cautious. If you were new and walked in off of the street, you didn’t make it past the door person. Rather, a regular had to gain you entre and once you were in—you were in.
Jerry Edwards (who owned The Red Bull) and Helen Schrader were both colorful characters with a lot of clout. In her earlier years Schrader was a madam in the Valley who had about 50-women working for her in her heyday. And Edwards is reported to have quipped before opening his first bar: “You know all you need for these queers is a light bulb hanging down from the ceiling and they will flock.”
It’s interesting to note that tunnels connected all of the downtown businesses due to East St. Louis raising the streets by 10 feet after flooding in the early 1900s. According to urban legend Edwards blew up the tunnel which connected Helen Schrader’s to The Red Bull following an argument between the two owners.
Edwards would later open up The Newsroom (490 Missouri Ave.) Both of his bars featured the premiere female impersonators of their day: The Red Bull with Donna Drag and the River Queens (Claire Sheridan, Toni Taylor and Candy James) and The Newsroom with Donna’s twin brother, Lana Kuntz and Friends. Schrader's and PK's also offered stage shows.
In 1977 Edwards closed The Red Bull and opened the legendary Faces Nightclub on Fourth Street. Known nation-wide, it was a mammoth entertainment complex offering three levels of fun. The basement was a cruise bar complete with porno videos on four screens and its infamous dark-room. The main floor was the state of the art disco—and the third level was the cabaret where every queen fit for their frock performed at one time or another.
For nearly 30-years Faces proved the last word in St. Louis LGBT nightlife and it was not uncommon for patrons to leave squinting as the intoxicating beat of music gave way to birdsong at sunrise.
Following this summer’s Story Telling Party, one thing’s for certain. There seems to be a great deal of interest in seeing an after-hours nightclub return to our area and perhaps that will happen one day. But in the meantime the allure of East St. Louis lives on through its rich history and the stories her travelers tell.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
