The Beige Room

The Beige Room
Map
Restaurant information
Established1949
Closed1958
Previous owner(s)Al Burgess,
Chinkie Naditz
Street address831 Broadway,
San Francisco, California
Coordinates37°47′50″N 122°24′39″W / 37.797184°N 122.410795°W / 37.797184; -122.410795

The Beige Room, also known simply as Beige Room, was an American nightclub known for gay female impersonators, in operation from 1949 to 1958 and located at 831 Broadway in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, California.[1][2][3][4]

History

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The club was owned by Al Burgess and Chinkie Naditz;[5] and was founded in 1949 at 2215 Powell Street, and it moved in 1951 to the Broadway address.[6] On Sundays The Beige Room would host dance parties.[7]

The performers were openly gay, unlike at other female impersonator clubs at the time.[4] The Beige Room performers included owner Al Burgess,[8] T.C. Jones, Lynne Carter, Leslie Marlowe, Ray Saunders, and Kenneth Marlowe.[7] José Sarria performed at The Beige Room before moving to the Black Cat Bar.[6] Lynne Carter was a club headliner, she was famous for doing impersonations of Pearl Bailey and Josephine Baker and would often socialize with the patrons after the performances.[7][5]

In total, a collection of San Francisco LGBT venues opened and flourished in the early 1950s, including The Beige Room, Tommy's Place/12 Adler Place, Miss Smith’s Tea Room, Tin Angel, the Paper Doll, Dolan's (new supper club), and Gordon's (new supper club).[9]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Semaphore, Issue 189". Telegraph Hill Dwellers. Winter 2010. pp. 16–18, 23. Retrieved 2023-04-14 – via yumpu.com.
  2. ^ Shaw, Randy (2015). The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime, and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco. San Francisco, CA: Urban Reality Press. ISBN 9780692327234.
  3. ^ Boyd, Dick (2010). "Before the Castro: North Beach, a Gay Mecca". FoundSF. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b Crawford-Lackey, Katherine; Springate, Megan E. (2019-09-04). Preservation and Place: Historic Preservation by and of LGBTQ Communities in the United States. Berghahn Books. p. 223. ISBN 978-1-78920-307-3.
  5. ^ a b Irvin, Sam (2011-11-15). Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise. Simon and Schuster. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-4391-7654-2.
  6. ^ a b Cordova, Cary (2017-05-04). The Heart of the Mission: Latino Art and Politics in San Francisco. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-8122-9414-9.
  7. ^ a b c Boyd, Nan Alamilla (2003). Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965. University of California Press. p. 130. ISBN 978-0-520-24474-0.
  8. ^ "Al Burgess Collection of Beige Room records". Online Archive of California.
  9. ^ Boyd, Nan Alamilla (2005-04-13). Wide-Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965. University of California Press. pp. 82–83, 132. ISBN 978-0-520-24474-0.
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