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It took a lot of convincing to have Boots add disco lighting and better equipment. “Unfortunately, unlike Montreal and Vancouver, gay bars in Toronto-other than Stages-didn’t spend money on sound and lights. There was no disco lighting except for a mirror ball. “The turntables weren’t meant for DJ use, the mixer was a poor quality Citronic, there was one amp, and the speakers were in beer barrels on a small dancefloor. “The DJ booth was very primitive,” he recalls. From late 1981 to September 1983, he played there Monday through Saturday. Photo courtesy of him.ĭrue, who’d begun DJing in Vancouver while a UBC student during the mid-1970s, helped usher in change at Boots. We were proud.”īoots reflected this growth with its own development.īob Harrison Drue, circa 1982. We were winning the battle for our rights. For years before, bars that were going under would ‘go gay’ for the final months, but gay bars were becoming more respectable, cleaner, and nicer. “Those were the days when we actually had a ‘community,’ and the bars were our means to connect. “Toronto was vibrant compared to now,” says Storey of the years that followed the bathhouse raids. Large related protests helped spark a strong gay-and-lesbian rights movement in this city and beyond.īoots-along with bars like Katrina’s, Cornelius, The Barn and, soon after, Chaps-would serve as important gathering places and signifiers of change. That would come in the mid-to-late-1980s, as businesses like Second Cup-with its infamous steps-and Woody’s became anchoring social spots near Church and Wellesley.īoots and Bud’s also opened a mere half-year after the February 1981 police raids on four gay bathhouses that resulted in over 300 arrests. Why it was important: Boots opened at a time when gay bars were reasonably plentiful, largely based on or near Yonge Street, but there was not yet a centralized Gay Village. This would increase greatly over the years as both sides were renovated, expanded, and developed for a variety of uses and identities.īoots and Bud’s ad courtesy of Bob Harrison Drue. “Later, a DJ booth was added, and TVs with videos run by Peter Frost.”Ĭapacity at Boots and Buds in the early years is thought to be in the range of a few hundred people. “Bud’s had pub-like seating, and was usually not as busy as the Boots side,” says Drue. There was a wall behind the long bar and, on the other side of it, they installed a dancefloor near the back-it was put in as an after-thought, and it was small.
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There were stand-up tables, and beer barrel tables throughout.
HOUSTON GAY BARS 80S AND 90S WINDOWS
“I loved the crushed red-velvet semi-circle booths in front of the long bar and windows that looked out onto Selby Street. “Boots had limited seating,” recalls Drue. The remainder of the addition’s basement was a warren of rooms that were used as coat check, pool rooms, and small washrooms.”īob Harrison Drue, known simply as “Bob Harrison” during his DJ days, recalls that Boots, like many gay bars of the time, was initially a “stand-and-stare cruise bar for men.” (Women were not welcome until years later.) A jukebox provided the music, both on Charles Street and initially at the Selby location, where Drue would soon assume the role of Boots’ resident DJ. “Boots had the ‘Ladies Lounge,’ which is where a huge bar was installed, with booths along the windows. “Bud’s was in what had been a men’s draft hall, named after one of the original bartenders,” says Storey. This allowed the owners to open a lounge space, dubbed Bud’s, alongside Boots. The Selby’s rear sub-level was large, and divided into multiple areas, some of which had already operated as taverns and other social spots. Image courtesy of Canadian Lesbian & Gay Archives. Boots was really Rick’s place.”Īds for establishments owned by Rick Stenhouse, circa early-1980s. “Jerry was best known for the Club Toronto, while Rick also owned Crispins and Buddys at Gerrard and Church. “Rick and Jerry were part of a group of businessmen that had individual interests in a number of enterprises,” explains Brent Storey, a Boots regular-turned-staffer who soaked up a great deal of the Selby’s history from stories told to him by two long-serving bartenders and the building’s handyman of four decades. By the 1970s, it was in decline-however, Boots’ best-known co-owners, Rick Stenhouse and Jerry Levy, were not deterred by the Selby’s rundown state. The address is also said to have housed a brothel, and a popular licensed establishment in the 1950s named the Skyway Lounge. Ernest Hemingway and his wife took up temporary residence there during the 1920s while the writer worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star. Photo via Upper Jarvis Neighbourhood Association.