Gay Barchives

John McMarlin tending bar at Copa Key West. 1983

Gay Barchived

Art Smith’s “Gay Barchives” is his homage to the bygone era of the gay bars, discos and mega clubs – recording gay history, one bar and one story at a time.

BY SARA GIZA

Long before the advent of dating apps as a way to meet others, gay bars served as the primary gathering place for LGBTQ+ community members. Back in the 70s and 80s, it wasn’t safe to come out. This left members of the community in the closet and living dual lives. Often, going to a gay bar was their only opportunity to be their authentic selves. A brief moment of respite from a cruel world.

This fact hasn’t been lost on Tampa resident Art Smith. In his early 20s, circa 1982, he travelled to Atlanta, Georgia, for a weekend trip with his then boyfriend to ring in the New Year. After having such a great time, the couple immediately made plans to move there the following weekend. “That was all inspired by the fabulous reception we got from bars like Backstreet,” Smith said. “For the gay community at that time, it was just an incredible experience to see that many people in those facilities having the time of their lives. We stayed there because the environment was so accepting and diverse. At that time, Atlanta had at least 30 gay bars—each with its own flavor and tone. People would go out five, six, seven nights a week. One big family.”

After being approached by a friend, Smith suddenly found himself in the publishing world with a focus on gay magazines. At the request of his friend, he began his role as editor and associate publisher of Guide Magazine. He went on to work for several other publications including Hot Spots and for Watermark, as well as launching his own publication Ovation: Celebrating Our Gay Lifestyle. In all of these roles, he was constantly in contact with bar owners and performers. “You were expected to go out all of the time. It’s hard to write about an event, if you weren’t there. I was totally immersed in the gay community then,” Smith said.

“I’ve always been something of a history buff. I enjoy knowing things about the past, remembering things and having conversations about shared experiences from years gone by,” Smith shared. That interest, combined with his publishing background and knowledge of gay bars, has led to very ambitious but imperative project—attempting to record the history of as many gay bars as possible that have fell to the wayside throughout the years all across the United States, as well as personal experiences that took place at each one.

Smith’s project, Gay Barchives, has multiple components. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 to March 2021, he researched, documented and digitally reconstructed logos for over a thousand bars. “That project continues pretty much every day now,” Smith said, adding “every couple of days, I’m discovering another bar I didn’t know about. Now, there’s about 1500 and it is still going.” He has interviewed bar owners, performers and patrons.

“It became more and more evident to me, that there were a lot of people out there who wanted to relive some of those memories or share those experiences. I think particularly because of Covid-19 and being restricted from going out to experience those things in the current age,” he said. On his website, Smith not only provides information on the bars he’s researched, but will also be including interview segments with celebrities, bar owners, patrons and entertainers. The interviews will be available in both video and podcast format. He is also currently working on a book version of Gay Barchives, that he intends on being a series, with each edition focusing on a different type of bar. After a poll on the Gay Barchives Facebook page, it was overwhelmingly voted that his rst book focus on discos and mega clubs.

Floyd Taylor and Bruce Vilanch at Island House Key West 2015.

Art Smith 2021

Smith shared a perhaps somber, but important piece of history he discovered while working on this project. The story of The Upstairs Lounge in 1973 New Orleans. “When we had the Pulse nightclub tragedy in Orlando, it pretty much rocked the world. People all over the country did memorial events. It was immediately billed as the biggest tragedy to ever strike a gay bar in the U.S.,” Smith said. “In the course of my research, I discovered that four years to the day of Stonewall, The Upstairs Lounge experienced a re bombing that killed 32 patrons.”

Noting that even during the Pulse coverage, it was never mentioned, Smith went on to say, “when it happened in 1973, it made the front page of the newspaper for about one day. Then it was pretty much dropped.” The stairs leading up to the second- floor bar were firebombed, so there was no escape for anyone there. “Nobody was ever prosecuted for the re, although they’re pretty sure who did it. Several of the bodies were never claimed by family, because they were too embarrassed to say their son was in a gay bar. The windows of The Upstairs Lounge had metal bars on them. The front-page picture in the newspaper shows a person wedged between the bars trying to escape, a charred skeleton,” Smith said.

“The whole concept of this project is that historians like to talk about the activists, political issues, laws, but so much of our history is wrapped up in the bar scene,” said Smith. “Those were our meeting places, our sanctuaries, our community halls and our family dinners.”

Art Smith says that the biggest motivating factor keeping him and this project going, is the great feedback he gets from other people. People tell him often how grateful they are, that he is doing this work. “When you keep hearing things like that, it makes you feel like you’re contributing something lasting like a legacy. This is going to be what I’m leaving the world,” he said.

Stay in the Know

Art Smith plans on publishing his first book, Gay Barchives: Discos and Mega Clubs by the end of this year • What to expect: All editions of the book series will include digitally reconstructed bar logos, photographs and personal stories • Visit gaybarchives.com for information on forthcoming books and to view all aspects of the project • Get interactive: Reminisce with the 2400 individuals who have already joined the Facebook group in its first year: @gaybarchives • Get involved: If you have a story you’d like to share about a gay bar, Art Smith would love to talk with you. Email gaybarchives@yahoo.com