After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Read Online Free Page B

York…”
     

     
    Herb Traub Jr. (portrait)
     
    In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Jim would go out for drinks at the Pirate’s Cove, a bar next door to the Pirate’s House restaurant that was frequented by gays and was owned by Herb Traub Jr. The bartender at the Pirate’s Cove was Bill Durden, who then started up what became a busy bar called The Lamp Post on East Bay Street. The Lamp Post was popular with gays and cross-dressers as well as prostitutes who came in with their johns. Jim did not try to hide his sexual orientation to his close friends, like Carol Freeman. In fact, she accompanied him at least once on his visits to The Lamp Post as a lark.
     
    Miriam K. Center, a writer friend of Jim’s, described the 1970s as Savannah’s “sexual coming of age.” Jim, she told me, loved “street trash” and frequented the bars looking for wild young things. A number of gay bars sprung up in that era, like Dr. Feelgood’s on Drayton, the Basement on Bull Street, Woody’s on River Street, and Faces on Lincoln, all of which are closed except for Blaine’s Back Door Bar, which still thrives at 13 East Perry Lane.
     

     
    Blaine’s
     
    In the last half of that decade, a straight couple opened a three-story disco nightclub called Who’s Who (also known as The Pick Up) at Bay and Abercorn. It was a mixed crowd of people 18-40 with gays making up approximately 75% of the clientele. The club had female impersonators and was the largest dance club in the city. Eventually, the owners opened up a bar on the other side called The Fountain, where the famous singer Emma Kelly performed. The bar burned down just before Hurricane Hugo hit the Low Country in 1989.
     
    Jim always came to Who’s Who in the afternoon. Jim was a big backgammon enthusiast, so the owners accommodated him and put in two backgammon tables where Jim could play, sometimes with his lawyer friend, Sonny Seiler.
     
    Once, Danny came into the bar, high on booze or marijuana, and quickly got loud and obnoxious with Jim. After that, Danny was not allowed in the bar.
     
    A friend of Jim’s who frequented Who’s Who told me that when Jim spotted an attractive young man, he’d ask the bartenders to find out if the young man would be receptive to having drinks with Jim. That way, Jim would not have to face rejection if the young man was not interested. Jim had a big problem with rejection—one that this friend personally experienced. He explained that while Jim had always been a gentleman to him, he lost his temper when he turned Jim down sexually. This particular friend had a significant other to whom he was faithful.
     
    “What’s wrong with me?” Jim yelled and grabbed the friend’s arm. “What can a Jew boy do for you that I can’t do for you?” Later, Jim apologized to his friend, but the episode was not easily forgotten.
     
    Another nightclub that Jim frequented was Club One on Jefferson Street, which still showcases female impersonators like the Lady Chablis. Club One was similar to Who’s Who, but larger. Jim became friends with bartender Ali Fennell when he dropped in late evenings for his vodka and tonic with a twist of lime. Occasionally, Jim would show up at the end of the night with Danny, who was a friend of the Lady Chablis. Danny would be high on weed and Jim would be drunk on vodka, Ali recalled.
     

     
    The Lady Chablis
photo by Jeanne Papy
     
    Another aspect of Jim’s gay Savannah were the bachelor parties he would have for his gay friends, many of whom were designers, decorators and antique dealers from the Savannah, Hilton Head and Charleston areas. There was always one big Christmas bash for the bachelors when he lived in Mercer House, but I heard about other parties when I interviewed Mike Hawk several years ago. He told me about the smaller Sunday parties. It was illegal to buy alcohol in stores on Sunday. Restaurants even needed special licenses to offer drinks, and could only offer them after church was over, at