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Headlines in The Midtown Journal, a South End scandal sheet, announced, “Down Maine Man Meets Buddy on Common. Then, as today, encounters did not always turn out well.
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“”Once they discovered they could get a little cash and free food…they seemed to fall all over themselves to meet us.”Ĭruising continued along the paths on Boston Common during the war. There were about 40 Marines assigned to the Baltimore and Claridge estimated that between him and his friends, they slept with 90% of them. “It was there I danced with a beautiful young blond sailor named “Veronica,” because of his Veronica Lake style of hair falling over one eye.”Ĭlaridge later attended a party at the Copley Plaza for sailors from the Baltimore, a ship stationed in Boston Harbor.
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“I always thought being gay was fun.” His friend Bernard, an older man, gave “tea parties” in which scotch was served to his gay friends and visiting servicemen. Everyone at the party he was invited to that evening in Wellesley would be gay and he was excited. Preston Claridge, scion of a Mayflower family stood in his Harvard dorm room, knotting his tie. Even though she knew there were other lesbians in the detachment, she did not cruise them or get cruised by them. She played around but she had a partner in Georgia.” Jean and her fellow WACS frequented a bar Bernstein’s, a few blocks away. “My commanding officer turned every head at the Boston Army base – 5’6”, curly blond hair, cute as can be and a smart cookie. She was then assigned to the Boston Army base and lodged at the Franklin House in the South End, which served as a barracks. knew she was a lesbian but still she was “very naïve in those days.” She joined the WAC, an auxiliary corps of the Army, and was stationed at Fort Devens. ”It was packed with servicemen, several rows deep, standing along the crescent-shaped bar, too many to count…Crowded tight together, jostling back and forth, not one lady…among them.” When he squeezed into the bar, a sailor turned to Lord and said, “Hey, cutie, you must be new. The friend recommended that Lord book a room and then proceed to the bar and pick someone up. “The lobby was long and high, expensive and gold-plated, busy with war-time visitors. A friend told him about the bar at the Statler Hotel (now Park Plaza). As a young gay man, he was also delighted to explore the pleasures offered by World War II Boston. This was not hard duty for an intellectual like Lord. From then on, she believed the police were out to get her.ĭuring this time, James Lord, aged 20, had just arrived at the Army Specialized Training program at Boston College where he was ordered to study everything related to France: its language, culture, history, and customs. May had no involvement in the robbery and after providing an alibi, was released. While in jail, she was also charged with armed robbery. Two nearby undercover police officers jumped out from behind a lamppost and arrested May on suspicion of solicitation. One night, a drunk man on Castle Street, asked May for a light. Sometimes they ventured to the bars in Scollay Square but their bars were Playland and The Empty Barrel on Broadway in Bay Village. Thelma and May liked to promenade up and down Tremont and Washington Streets, looking for men. If life was not easy, it could at least be glamorous with just the right touch of make-up and attitude. One time, they got so hungry, they captured a swan in the Public Garden and attempted to cook it in their room until the landlady found out and stopped them, or at least that is how the story went. They have trouble paying the meager rent and often spend what money they have on drinks and makeup. Charles shares the room with another man, Peter Seifried, whose drag name is May. He applies mascara and lipstick, puckering his lips and widening his eyes, he slowly turns into his drag persona, Thelma. On Washington Street, you could take in a floor show at the Hoffman Grill, which specialized in the “Finest Italian American food.” In was perfect for anyone who wanted to live anonymously.Ĭharles Gautreau stands in front of his mirror over the sink in his room in the New York Streets area of the South End. Prostitutes mingled with bookies at joints like the Junee Café (“When It’s Thirst, Come Here First”). The South End in the 1940s was a densely populated neighborhood of bars, restaurants, cheap hotels, and rooming houses.
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What was it like to be queer in 1940s Boston? It’s impossible to fully capture the diverse experiences of LGBT people at any given time, much less a decade as momentous as the 1940s, but by reaching into the archives of The History Project, Boston LGBT archive, we can get a glimpse into the lives of five people who lived in a place and time that is at once familiar and alien. Wellesley House Party 1940s/Courtesy: The History Project.