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I could have danced in the street." Kaminsky quickly recruited Wally Whetham, a Kohl’s Food Store butcher, to take over the tavern license and changed the name of the bar to the Black Nite.Ī party at the Black Nite (PHOTO: Wisconsin LGBT History Project) Kaminsky forget it … I was the happiest gal in the world when it was sold. "I wanted no part of that, I didn’t like the place and I never let Mr.
Mortified, Mary Wathen got out of the bar business in 1959 and moved back to Omaha. "It was the original Fruit Loop," said Bunny, a contributor to the Wisconsin LGBT History Project, "and it was popping!" Plankinton and a longtime gay landmark earlier as the Anchor Inn) to create the city’s first gay bar strip. Plankinton) and Tony’s Riviera (open in 1952 at 401 N. Mary’s Tavern joined The Fox Bar (open in 1948 at 455 N.
After World War II, savvy sponsors quickly figured out that money was to be had in catering to a crowd that had nowhere else to go. "They drove regular customers away," she complained to Kaminsky, whose response was "if we can’t beat em, let’s join em." Mary complained immediately about being "bothered" by homosexual clientele from nearby taverns. Unable to get a tavern license in his name, Kaminsky convinced Mary Wathen of Omaha, Nebraska, to open Mary’s Tavern in hers. Long known as the Old Mill Tavern and Cafe, the ground floor storefront was acquired by local financier Harry Kaminsky in 1958. Plankinton Avenue was later home to manufacturers Fairbanks, Morse & Co. The streets were indeed dark – with something more than night.īuilt by George Burnham in 1853 as a grain elevator, the old flourmill at 400 N. Paul Avenue dead-ending at the river to the east, Milwaukee Road railway junctions to the west and ancient coal-stained buildings all around, Plankinton looked and felt like a scene from a Raymond Chandler novel. In this lost and lonely part of town, the only new businesses that were opening were businesses that didn’t really want to be found. After World War II, the Downtown freeway loop offered a bright promise of renewal, but its delays also discouraged new investment in these properties for an entire generation. Murky by day, murkier by nightĪfter 100 years at the dense heart of downtown commerce, the 400 block of North Plankinton Avenue was showing its age.
Plankinton Ave.,) one of Milwaukee's most popular gay bars of the time. 5, 1961, four troublemakers got more trouble than they bargained for at the Black Nite (400 N.
As a result, many people today believe that LGBTQ history began with New York’s Stonewall Riots of 1969.īut eight years before Stonewall, Milwaukee was the scene of an early uprising unlike anything local police had ever seen before. As the greatest generation continues to leave us, the actual course of these events has been slowly evaporating into hidden history. The Black Cat Protests of February 1967.įew of these early LGBTQ uprisings ever made news headlines and few if any factual police records exist from these incidents. The Compton’s Cafeteria Riot of August 1966. 17, 2017, but in honor of Pride Month and Pride Week at OnMilwaukee, we've republished it today. This article was originally posted on Feb.