A Brief Gay History Chronology
of Asbury Park, NJ
of Asbury Park, NJ
Asbury Park, the city by the sea, has had a long and exciting history. Yet the one constant throughout it all has been the presence of a gay community.
This post is a very brief and high level overview of some of that history. For the sake of brevity, many people, stories and establishments are not included.
During WWII, British soldiers were billeted at the Berkeley Cartet Hotel on Sunset Ave. Some of those soldiers were gay, and they frequented establishments along with locals and men from New York and Philly such places as Fox's and The Plantation. The Plantation was a straight bar that was 'gay', one night a week. Both located in the area of Summerfield and Lake. At that time, Summerfield ran all the way to Lake Ave, and did not stop at Cookman.
During the 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's, if you were gay, Asbury Park was a place that you come to to "be yourself", It was a place were people could feel relaxed and not 'intimidated'. In the 40's and 50's, here men were able to dress casually in the bars, and not wear the suit, tie and hat that they did in the bars in New York City and Philadelphia, This is that story.
The Blue Note was one of the most popular establishments in Asbury Park during the 60's. Lines outside and down the street were not at all unusual. Originally a straight Jazz club, the owners soon made it a very successful gay bar. Located on the east side of Bangs, between Bond and Monroe, it had a piano bar and a lounge. The old police station use to be just down the street. The Blue Note was closed for 6 months in 1965-66 by the State of NJ Alchohol Beverage Control (ABC) for "catering to homosexuals". After it re-opened, the doorman was responsible for circulating through the crowd to make sure men were not touching or kissing each other.
The Owl & The Pussy Cat opened as a lesbian bar on the corner of Main and Cookman. The building where Brando's Citi Cucina restaurant is today. In 1981, it moved to The Albion Hotel on Kingsley. The Albion was a lesbian hotel with 4 bars, a restaurnt, 65 rooms, and a pool. It operated until 1989. The Rainbow Room neon sign that hung at The Albion during it's hay day (pre-gay) now hangs at the Asbury Park transportation center.
The Colony Baths were located at 500 Summerfield or the southwest corner of Summerfield and Grand. It burned down on Halloween in 1980. Another bath house operated for 1 year in an old hotel on Kingsley.
The Loading Dock was a lounge and dance bar located on south side of Cookman Ave, between Main and Bond, in the middle of the block. The front door was on Cookman, however, many men didn't feel comfortable walking inside from such a visible location as Cookman Ave. So they walked down the alley and entered through the back door. Management and patrons, found this much more discreet.
The Bond St. Bar was a lesbian bar on Bond St. that operated between the 70's and 80's.
Chez Elle (french for "her house"), opened around 1965 at the corner of Summerfield and Cookman. It was owned and operated by one of Asbury Park's most legendary women, Margaret Hogan. In 1967, Manny's Den, (later The Den in New Brunswick) and Val's in Atlantic City went to the State Supreme Court to challenge the states ability to to deny and/or revoke a bars liquor license for serving "apparent homosexuals". They were victorious. Court documents showed that ABC agents testified that they could identify "fruits" "by the clothes they wore". "Such as tight jeans, turtleneck sweaters, gaily printed pants, very casual shirts, sneakers, moccasins, and boots".
It was not the local police who raided bars or harassed it's patrons. Instead it was agents from the State of New Jersey Alcohol Beverage Control. In fact, locals, including the police and politicians - for years - had a live and let live attitude. Pretty much responding only to complaints of lewd or rowdy behavior.
Danny's was located across the street from Chez Elle, on the south side of Cookman Ave. Danny's was always rumored to have been mob owned. The straight owners owners also owned several bars in New York, pre-Stonewall. It was only open 1 - 2 years. Danny's had a bouncer named "Murphy". He was one of the original "Stonewall 9" from New York City.
The Moroccan Room was on the corner of Kingsley and 1st. It was a large straight club, but it had 2 rooms for 'gay dancing' and shows.
The Atlantis was a totally upscale bar and restaurant that featured performers such as Eartha Kitt. Fire destroyed the interior in the early '80's,and it re-opened as Visions, and later as Down The Street.
The Empress Hotel on Ocean Ave was built in the '50's as a family hotel, and was a favorite of Judy Garland when she would perform at The Paramount, or the Garden State Arts Center (now PNC Arts Center). Shepp Pettibone bought the hotel in 1988 after it had been abandoned for many years, opening the dance club Paradise, and in 2004 opened the hotel.
I'll be adding to this over the course of the next couple of weeks. Adding hotels, bars, and restaurants. I would welcome any and all comments and personal memories you may have, or like to add.
A huge thank you to Mario DeStefano and John Loffredo for your help and input. It's greatly appreciated!
Mark McDonald is a Realtor here in Asbury Park, and is intimately familiar with the area, it's people and all this community has to offer. He can be reached at 908-489-1268
40 comments:
I remember back in the 60's ? a bar called Pillow Talk with satin pillows hanging from the ceiling. This bar was next to the palace and movie theater.
My late uncle, who was gay, was commissioned to paint a mural on the wall of the M&K Bar, another gay bar. I never saw that mural, but I'd love to see a photo of it, if anyone has one.
I got my start as a DJ at the M & K disco in 1977.... went on to DJ at the new M & K disco when it opened in 1978... I am STILL a DJ to this day down here in Florida.... M & K was a major landmark in gay club history! Oh, the memories!!!
William Krauter
Wilton Manors, Florida
billymanors@aol.com
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i have been searching for play lists from the M & K . I am straight but LOVED the M&K - absolutely the best music EVER. To the DJ... Awesome, can you share some of your top favorites from the early - mid 70's
No mention of Archies or the Odyssey, but I see its just a brief... If theres a book to be made lets go, we lost so many, and now many of us are getting older we still have stories!
OMG!!!! My heart belongs to the M&K!!! First gay dance club my friends & I ever visited & we had the times of our lives, every weekend! Before my “initiation “ on the dance floor at the glorious M&K, I was relatively unfamiliar with this phenomenon called “DISCO”! As I would discover, even in NYC & DC, the M&K gave way to an incomparable experience, guaranteed. This SoCal lawyer misses the music & Monmouth County’s very finest slice of the late 70s in Asbury Park, NJ. K. A. Walker, Esq.
Lived at the Moroccan Room..Best DJ. Shows were very campy. Lots of fun and laughs.
Hi fabu. Do you remember where Archie's was?
there werre 2, one the first was over by the movie theater or across from the "old M and K" then after that block was torn down for condos, he moved over to Main Street between Cookman and Lake with the alley in the back and it became "the loading Dock".
Archies was on Cookman you went thru the bar out back was the beer garden which you could enter from Lake/Summerfield Ave it was just down the block and across the street from the original M&K. There was an Irish Bar a few doors down.
I was the light man at The Odyssey from opening day through August 1986. I was hired to work there while I was working the lights at Charlie's West in East Orange...An old friend worked at The 'Old" small Odyssey and told me they needed a good light man. I used to go to the "old" M & K so I knew of Asbury Park's scene since the mid-1970's. I went down to see the place, it was a small bar with a very small dance floor. They were just about to start construction to open a large "new room" with what sounded like great sound and lights..... I asked to see the plans, liked it and took the job. I did lights and effects there until I left to move to San Francisco in 1987. The place was like no other on the Jersey Shore...The people. their antics and energy were amazing. I met some of the closest friends I would ever wind up having..Most of which I remain in touch to this day.
Those where the days, Best time of my life, I was also very good friends with Archies same name BTW, and yes no mention of the Odyssey either, also there was a Gay club called PJ's right on cookmen ave as well in the 70's, that was owned by Paul & Jack who also happen to own the M & K. that I use to go to as well. now I'am, telling my age. ha ha.
I worked with Ernie "Do Rose, Ernie!" Dunda at, of all places, the Boy Scouts of America National Headquarters in 1972 or '73. He brought me out, and I spent the next many, many years enjoying nightlife, daylife, and gaylife in Asbury Park. I also spent a lot of time in New York and New Hope, but Asbury was and always will be very special to me. Ernie and Michael Shelly, resident drag queens at the Moroccan Room, were close friends. And there were many others. I miss them all very much. It started for me at El Matador. I frequented Asbury until about 1985, after which I was more involved in New Hope, where I now live. There's just too much pleasant memory to write here at 5:00 a.m., but I'm forever grateful to have been a part of the gay scene in Asbury Park in the Seventies, when I was known to many as...
Kenny Cadillac
Whatever happened to Ray Palazzo?
He died a long time ago....he was a victom of the plague.
Remember it all.you on lights todd would spinn and michael joel and chantel and. MARIO. WE WERE ALL in a Word scandalous. Straight Robert
Wasn't there one small next to the Stone Pony? Also wasn't there a lesbian bar called Malibu? In the later days there was an all male strip club with str8 dancers anyone remember the name? it was where Porta is now??
Anyone remember the woman bouncer at the M&K in the 70's I think her name was Chet. I Bartended on weekends
Fun to see all these comments. I spent a fin year in the mid 70s building the el Moroccan disco below the robert Allen hotel....and the gilded bar upstairs. One across the street too. Bartender there as well....drag shows w/ Ruby red lips, Dorian. "Mother" & many others...personalities all....doesn't seem as long ago as it was.
I also worked there as a bar back and cocktail server.
I remember all the names listed above and always having a great time!
What about the Bar "Anybodys" ?? Asbury took it for eminent domain. Why did they want that property so much ? very sad, shame on Asbury park. "Anybodys" fought till the end !!
Not sure how to do this but to "Unknown said" dated Aug. 14, 2019 (which I just read in 2021) regarding the woman bouncer at the M&K...Yes, she was called Chet. Her name was Claire Tritschler and she lived in the Silverton section of Toms River at the time. I don't know if she's passed or living now.
found this:
findagrave.com/memorial/78580540/claire-e-tritschler
Loved the M&K. Was down there almost every weekend. Knew the owner Paul very well. When the bar close after 2 or 3 am about 20 of us would go over to Paul's house and continue the party till the sun came up. Great times in the 70's and 80's. They are a great bartender there in the 70's named "SOLDIER MICHAEL" - hot guy. Anyone remember him?
Do you remember a Collette early 70s?
I lived in Greenwich Village in the 70's but would get to Asbury on at least one Saturday night a month, winter or summer. The crowds of men and women from all over that would arrive on a Saturday night for dancing at the M & K and after closing food at the Asbury Diner were truly amazing. The city has not seen anything like it since. I am so glad not to have missed the fun. Memory of those Saturday nights always makes me smile.
I see this blog is old, but i have to give you a shout out .
Thank you so much for this blog.
As a straight bohemian type woman who loved to dance and have fun in the 70's, i was lucky to frequent many of the places you mentioned.
It was safe, fabulously fun. No bother from straight men. Lucky also to have great companions.
The dance floor at the el Moroccan , with the lights pulsating, was divine.
The drag shows perfect.
Btw,companions taught me much. the Hadassah shop.
I lived for a time on Cookman Ave above a pharmacy in a large artists studio while working as an RN and artist's model.
Thanks so much.
If I ever get a chance to move back, Asbury or Belmar, will look you up.
Great writing.
I recall the original M&K as I practically lived there. Great times. I was so young. I remember Paul well. He always treated me well. What I remember more was meeting the love of my life there as well as meeting one of the best friends I ever had there. My Aunts managed the Asbury Hudson Hotel that was attached, though I think only for one year or so. They were old wonderful women, who owned a 2 story house in Asbury for much of their lives until the riots hit, and one was not particularly fond of gay people, but that changed after the AH! I remember her being amazed at how polite and well treated she was by all these young men. I moved up to North Jersey and eventually NYC and was only once in the 3 story M&K and I don't remember it. Even before all of that, I remember the Chez Elle. I don't know how I got in the place at 16, but I did and Maggie sort of took me under her wing. I've read wild tales since about her, but I don't recall knowing anything about them then. She didn't take any crap from people though and no one was allowed to bother me inappropriately. I also remember the Blue Note, but by the time I was aware of it, it was a bar for much older men and I felt really uncomfortable being the focal point. Some years later I went into a bar named Archie's, who was an old roommate along with someone else who I cannot remember, though I think his name was Ray. Speaking of the name Ray, I had an off an on relationship with someone pretty well known in the area named Ray Palazzo. I read a comment on this site that he passed away from AIDS and that may very well be true, but there is a Ray Palazzo in his 80's living in those condos near Sunset Lake. I was wondering if it were one and the same. I didn't visit the Jersey Shore after 1975 until 2005 and the old M&K building was still standing, though boarded up much like most of the area. They were building those condos then that I just mentioned. Wish I had bought one! I had a bad childhood on the Jersey Shore and beyond all of that I just mentioned, I had a negative opinion of the area, but when I returned in 2005, I realized it's pretty damn terrific, though at that time Asbury still had a long ways to go and, of course, it will never be what it was once, but what will be. I lived for movies growing up and spent half my childhood in the glorious Mayfair Theater. I was still there when it was demolished for a parking lot. I never even took a look. The good old days, along with some not good ones. I wish I could return, but I'm not a millionaire and that seems to be just about what it takes.
I worked at both the El Matador on Kingsley and 4th Ave and the El Morrocan on SECOND Ave and Kingsley. They were both owned by the same group of north jersey men. The El Matador opened first and had a great sound system with Tommy the DJ. Nick was the manager and Tiny was the bouncer at the door. They both were from the same north jersey family. They then opened the El Morrocan on second and kingsley in the basement of the Robert Allen or Robert Treat Hotel just west of the Albion. Once the El Morrocan took off, they changed the name of the El Matador to the Super Scene and it evolved into a straight disco and most of the clients were from north jersey. When the El Morrocan would close at 3 AM, they they opened up the back room and served breakfast until around 5 AM. Wonder what ever happened to Ernie and Michael? I guess I worked and hung out in asbury from around 1970 to around 1976. i also worked the night shift at the asbury diner What a crazy place that was when the bars closed at 3 am! Was the original M&K where the women's bar was upstairs? I know there was a jute box in one of these places and they borrowed a bunch of my 45's from the 50's and 60's and the place closed down without notice and I lost all those great records - darn! I lived with Tony "sash" and Lena LaBoy. I remember when Lena had the last of the surgeries, she took off for Vancouver Canada. She wanted to go somewhere that no one knew her or her past and find a man and lead a life like a straight woman. I hope her dreams did happen. She was so nice. I saw tony sash a few times after he moved to atlantic city and then I heard that he died. Sash and his black beauties. There were a group of guys that came down every weekend from Paterson - Jimmy and Pat and a few others, They used to stay in my apt with me every week end I lost touch with them all. I remember the blue note and matty playing that piano. He was great and every time I walked in there he would stop what he was playing and started playing Summertime, my favorite song at the time. The last time I saw Matty he was in a local nursing home, restrained in a very uncomfortable chair, placed in front of a blaring TV., I cried. That was so not him. My memories tell me that I was living in the exact place I should have been living and in the exact time. Well thats it for now Enough is enough
A t’ousand t’anks to Barbara — for that stellar stroll down memory lane~ queer, but quintessential Jersey Shore-style. I am so grateful for this blog & its’ irresistible ability to lure all of us,who came of age, at the M&K (followed, w/o fail, by the bodacious disco breakfasts in the wee hours, at the Asbury Diner). Gee whiz ~ that glorious joint was a lot different when I went there with my aged p’s (aka, the ‘rents, as in dear mamá & papá — who perpetually visited AP to be close to my very stern great granddad, “Daddy Van” — who had a thing for the adjacent town of Ocean Grove, a favored summering spot for some sect of itinerant holy rollers who erected tents; talked in tongues & performed bizarre rituals. Wonder if they knew AP was such a denizen of those they’d undoubtedly call deviants? Possibly, their ceremonies were dedicated to our purification? The inimitable tri-level club (did the M&K really only occupy two floors? If so — yes: the women’s area was sequestered upstairs — but all felt so welcome whether up or down — & as if we had been given special privileges to dance the nights away in Paradise. In the 70s, when my 1st, semi-out” & similarly-Catholic girl’s, boarding school survivor & I, had anointed our sorta “shaky” — but sorta-cool selves with made up identities, we met Arlene B, Joanna D, Joan F, Rita C — all older & far more confident denizens of Long Island, whom we dubbed “the Packers.” We permitted ourselves to be “adopted by” this group of gorgeous grrrls, to ease our ecstatic entree into a world never surpassed in NYC (where I lived), DC (where I’d dance my way into practicing law), LA (ditto— becoming a bi-coastal attorney-at-large) — but those incomparable nights at the M&K = the very, very best times — always & forever.
Before it was Anybodys it was Atlantis and next it was Boots a denim and leather bar. There was a piano bar on Bonds st that was so relaxing to hand out. Odyssey was my first gay bar and lost my @#$%.
Thinking Blue Note bar was a nice piano bar
Why yes it was.... ashame its all gone now....
What ever happened to Michael Joel ?
Or Mr Lucky?
Like one the anonymous posters above, I also worked a mid 70's summer building the El Moroccan and living at the Robert Allen....built a bar upstairs as well (it was all plush fabric & gilded
frames). Also bar-tended there. Remember the DJ Ritchie (i believe). He had a sister living in Ocean Grove (no cars on Sunday). there was cool tavern in a white frame building across the street we used to go to to shoot Pool.
A lot of characters: Ruby Red Lips (first met at Dirty Edna's in AC), Mother, Dorian,and many other drag show performers I can't now recall. Nicky-the manager & his crew at the R.A., Sherry Scott, George, Kaka the crazy Brazilian, Gorgeous Good Looking Gus-the "godfather of Brooklyn, Frank the plumber & his wife.. .....it was long ago. But, it was a great and fun time.
I often wonder who is still out there and what happened to all.
Good memories
I was there. I worked first at the El Matador on the corner of Forth and Kingsley. Nicky DeMartino was the boss and Tiny was at the door. There were two brothers who bartendered. Good looking young guys. I think the DJ was Tony. Then they got their hands on second and Kingsley. Robert Allen Hotel where you frequently could get crabs just from sitting on the couches in the lobby. As they started putting their time into making the ElMorrocan the prime gay spot, they kind of converted the El Matador into the Super Scene. Known for incredible sound system - the beginning of disco - 1972 (ish) and attracted rich young straight kids from north jersey. This was their spot to be in. They mingled with the drag queens. And the characters like Tony Sash and Lena LaBoy and Bobby Wicca. I know Sash is gone as is Bobby Wicca. Lena LaBoy wanted to vanish once she got her final surgery up at a hospital in Boston.
Said she was going to Vancouver and find a decent straight man and get married and live a normal life. He would never know about her gender change or how she made the money to be who she really was, I don't know what happened to Lena or as her mother would call her, Eddie.
I do know that Tony Sash and Bobby Wicca have made their way to wear the angel wings they earned while living here. Donald Trout, after years of working with a traveling circus and roaming the streets of New Orleans and meeting Katrina face to face was put into a nursing home against his will. (for his safety, basically)
I did remember stuff happening at the Robert Allen, but it seems it did not last long and without the funding from Nicky and his north jersey family. Allen Lozito! Now there was a great unique drag show. He was like a stand up comic. I think he is gone, too....There were the boys from Paterson that came down every weekend and stayed at my one room apt that had 5 mattresses one on top of the other and we would lay them all out as we crashed the night after the qualudes (sp?) were passed around to level us out from the beauties or christmas trees. Oh the poppers on the dance floor! I don't know what happened to any of the Patterson boys...Jimmy and Pat ...don't remember any of the others...I worked the floor at both the El Matador /Super Scene and the El Morrocan and the breakfast after last call at the El Morrocan walking up a few steps to what became sort of like a diner for breakfast foods. Waitressed there from 3 AM to 5 AM....Before these places there was Danny's and the M&K and then the new M&K and the ChezEl and one place that was on Cookman down closer to the Palace 'the name of that bar was a guys name, forget what it was....oh and the piano bar, Matt Matlin, owned it....It was thought of where the old queens went. I think it was the first gay bar in AP...Danny's, Chez El and The Blue Note were the first three places, I think.Everytime I walked in the Blue Note, no matter what Matty was playing, when he saw me, he would stop and start playing one of my favorite songs, "Summertime". At the M&K was a really nice bar tender, Glen Timins and I think he survived the PLAGUE. I heard rumors that he was still in the area, but never ran into him. Ah Memories! So sad when we lost one after the other when it did not even have a name The Gay Cancer is what it was first called. Not only did the bars feel the impact of loosing so many, so quickly but the other businesses like the baths and the glory holes at the adult book stores, all seemed to close down one after the other. The Mine Shaft in the meet packing district of the city felt the impact. I would go to exhibitions of the Panels in remembrance and often see a name of someone I knew and did not know that they, too, were swallowed up in the forces that had no cures, no hope....I was a part of the AP Gay Bars only from 1971 to 1983 I must have met hundreds of people during that time and thinking back - it was only at the most 12 years of my life but it has affected me, for the rest of my life. "I grow old, I grow old, I shall wear the bottom of my trousers rolled, shall I part my hair behind, do I dare eat a peach, I shall wear white flannel trousers and walk upon the beach, I hear the mermaids singing each to each, I do not think they shall sing to me"
It's interesting to read all this.....brings back distant memories of some good times when I was much younger......living a different life in a different time. Still, time-by-time my thoughts drift back. I drove through Asbury Park not long ago and most of what I remember-the places are all gone. I imagine that may of the people from those times are as well......it's all a "Long time passing".
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