While doing my research, one name that kept coming up was Alfred Finnie. Alfred Finnie was “a Black gay street hustler and gambler” known for his drag balls, the first of which started in 1935. “The Finnie's Ball became a celebrated Halloween event on the South Side, drawing thousands of gay and lesbian participants and heterosexual onlookers well into the 1960s.” These balls were allowed to happen openly because of the fact that it was set on Halloween. “The official “approval” was made possible by the fact that the events regularly took place on those holidays, and thus for official purposes, were able to pass as conventional masquerade balls.” It was a public and relatively safe way for those who wanted to be in drag to be out in the city.
In the 1920s and 1930s the most prominently queer parts of town were “Towertown” and “The Levee.” Towertown was on the north side of the loop, and the Levee was in the south loop. “The Dill Pickle Club on Tooker Alley hosted group discussions and debates on homosexuality and lesbianism, while the Bally Hoo Cafe on North Halsted featured male and female impersonation acts, as well as a contest for cross-dressed patrons.” These were events that were happening in the Towertown area in the 1920s. While there was yet to be a specific word for those who do drag, Chicago had been giving the people who wanted to perform a relatively safe space to do so for the time. There were many public parties that opened the door to outsiders that wanted to look in, but private parties were still the main form of gay Chicago subculture at the time. Towertown had been home to many queer people at the time, so they found spaces in their community to be public about who they are and how they wanted to look.
The Levee was home to predominantly black queer people. It was in the south loop, and had been home to many queer blues performers as well as being a place where drag balls were common. The Finnie Balls had all been in that area and it allowed for the people who did drag to do so openly. “The first Chicago balls were also racially integrated, a fact frequently remarked upon by those who attended or wrote about them.” This had given many queer people a safe place to be themselves in an America that was still segregated. The segregation itself is shown in the fact that Towertown was mostly white, and on the north side of the loop, while the Levee was predominantly black and on the south side of the loop.
The loop itself was somewhere you could find a hidden queer community. “Though The Loop wasn’t a gay neighborhood per se, it was a place gay people could meet each other.” It had places where you could meet but it also had jobs. In the 1920s you could find gay men as department store clerks in the loop. “Many working-class lesbians “passed” as men in order to gain access to better-paying jobs” Their “passing” as men allowed not only for them to get better jobs but also allowed them to get married. In Terms of En(queer)ment it says that many blues songs used the term “Bulldagger” as a way to refer to the women who dressed as men. There werent a lot of places that allowed people to be openly queer, and comfortable not only in their own skin, but also in the clothes that they wore. But in the 1920s and the 1930s Chicago, queer people found their spaces.
Queer people have been hiding their truth about who they are for a very long time, quietly finding those that are like them because they can’t safely be open. But in the 1920s where people are already sneaking around, going to speak easy’s and finding hidden places to do illegal things. Being quietly but openly queer was more than possible. The nations situation at the time was already hidden underground parties, and queer people had been doing that for a long time. It was a space that was made for them to thrive in and thrive they did. Drag, in one way or another, has been along for a very long time, and 100 years ago in Chicago in the 1920 there was more going on than we will probably know but what we do know is that Drag had found its place in Chicago, and has been going strong for over 100 years now.
Citations
-Cabello, T. (2021, February 02). Queer BRONZEVILLE: A short history of BLACK queer Chicago and AIDS ACTIVISM, 1920-1985. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://www.aidschicago.org/page/news/all-news/queer-bronzeville-a-short-history-of-black-queer-chicago-and-aids-activism-1920-1985
-Gays and lesbians. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/509.html
-Drag in the Windy City. (n.d.). Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://digitalchicagohistory.org/exhibits/show/drag/terms-of-en-queer-ment
-Chicago gay Neighborhood History. (2021, May 05). Retrieved May 10, 2021, from https://chicagodetours.com/chicago-gay-neighborhood-history/
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