Los Angeles, specifically West Hollywood, has long been a gay cultural center. The Gay disco scene in the 1970's was booming there, though underground. Almost any empty building with low rent and enough space to dance was rented out for nightly gay clubs and discos. James Rojas, city planner, wrote "At that time in our lives we were not able to talk about our sexual identity, but we could perform it on the dance floor while burning off our youthful energy,". This sentence paints a clear picture of the importance of the underground nightclub scene in 1970's LA.
These abandoned buildings allowed for the bars to keep a low profile and not attract too much attention. Some of the most popular clubs from that time were Outer Limits, Other Side, Paradise Ballroom, Sugar Shack, After Dark, Gino’s II, and Circus Disco. Circus Disco was especially impactful, as it formed in direct response to gay injustices and was born to act as a safe haven for the queer community. Another popular spot that wasn't a nightclub but was actually a cafe was Arthur J’s coffee shop, described by James Rojas as "the quiet world of mainstream gay white culture." This does specify white, which shows that even "safe spaces" still held their prejudices and discriminated, but it was significant for its location on Santa Monica Boulevard. Overall it is clear that the underground gay disco or nightclub culture in Hollywood in the 1970's was not only popular and very successful, but also showed how important queer safe spaces have been through all of history, and shows how queer people can find or create those safe spaces almost anywhere.
Above was mentioned the bar Circus Disco, which should be discussed in more detail as being one of the most accepting queer locations in Los Angeles during it's time. The bar, though now sadly closed, once stood tall with it's face being a two story tall clown with an open mouth. This face showed the almost comical nature of the club, and kept "serious clubgoers" from invading it's safe walls.Though the entry cover charge could be steep sometimes, no one was ever turned away- there were rarely even bouncers outside of the location. A majority of the clients at Circus Disco were Latinx or black, alongside transgender people, drag queens, and even the pioneers of the "leather men" label.
The club not only acted as an open safe space based on sexuality and race, but also acted as a home for those struggling with testing positive for HIV during the 70's-90's. It was described as nearly always being a "buoyant cross section of humanity", and allowed clubgoers to forget all their woes. Racial tension and rioting, AIDS discrimination and defunding, and the hatred towards LGBT people, drag queens, and people of color were all left outside the gaping clown mouth and were exchanged for a constant thrum of people and the booming speakers drowning out your thoughts.
https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/2/04/feeling-love-las-dearly-departed-circus-disco
One specific drag performer from that era who was incredibly popular in Hollywood was Divine. Born Harris Glenn Milstead, he took the world by storm after becoming John Waters' muse and starring in many cult classic, "trashy" films. Some of his iconic drag roles included Roman Candles, Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingoes, Polyester, Female Trouble, and even Hairspray in 1988. He was known for performing crazy roles or doing crazy things on screen, like acting as Jacky Kennedy in a re-staging of the JFK assassination in Eat Your Makeup (which happened "too soon" for viewers likings). Another crazy stunt was featured in Pink Flamingoes, where Harris/Divine ate actual fresh dog feces for a scene in the film.
John Waters help craft divine's image in more ways than one. he was quoted as wanting a "300 pound beauty" because he wanted the star of his films to defy the usual beauty stereotypes. He also encouraged divine to start building her look by shaving back her hairline and wearing strong makeup, and eventually told her to become the "Godzilla of drag", and to begin breaking even more rules by wearing more groundbreaking makeup and outfits. The things that Divine did during his time and the choices he made in terms of character, fashion, makeup, attitude, and style all paved the way for what we see drag performers doing today. Without Divine's influence the drag world as we know it could be a completely different place, or might have never reached the popularity it has now at all.
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