Today in San Francisco History - The Black Cat Café
On Halloween night, the "Black Cat Cafe" -- that notorious, flamboyant and most historically significant of San Francisco's gay nightspots, held a final celebration before closing down for good.
Though Prohibition had shuttered the venerable North Beach establishment in the '20s, the Black Cat proudly reopened in 1933. Number 710 Montgomery Street quickly became a magnet for artists, writers, and beatniks. Steinbeck, Saroyan, and Ginsberg all patronized the joint, and in fact, the Black Cat played the role of the "Bohemian Bar" in Kerouac's novel On the Road.
Following World War II, a new military policy precipitated the sudden discharge of thousands of gay men into the welcoming arms of our liberal city. The Black Cat became a central gathering place, evolving into a kind of bohemian drag bar, but much more than that; a place where poets, sailors, stevedores and suits could shake off convention, creating a wild sense of revolutionary freedom for gay and straight folks alike.
The San Francisco Police Department began a campaign of organized intimidation, raids, and arrests, and the state suspended the bar's liquor license. On principle, the (straight) owner took the case to all the way to the California Supreme court, which determined that serving drinks to homosexuals was not a crime -- one of the earliest legal affirmations of the rights of gay people in the country.
The state responded with a constitutional amendment creating the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control -- the "ABC" -- giving it broad powers to shut down establishments that didn't toe a straitlaced line.
Years of harassment followed, but the Black Cat flourished. The star of the drag show was a certain José Sarria, who eventually -- though failing in his bid for a spot on the Board of Supervisors -- became the first gay man in the country to run for elective office. The bar had evolved again, into a rallying point for a social and political movement.
By 1963, the owner was too tired and broke to keep up the fight. The ABC yanked the Black Cat's liquor license for good -- and what's worse, on the night before its famous annual Halloween bash. The boisterous party was held anyway, with soda and juice sold at the bar.
The Black Cat closed down permanently the next day, but even a cursory glance around modern San Francisco will tell you that its legacy lives on.