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Friday, Aug 29, 2008
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| Seattle Gay History - Governor Hotel (circa. 1946) |
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| by Don Paulson -
SGN Contributing Writer After World War II, Seattle Gays were beginning to come out and find their place in society. For the young, especially, it was cheap housing, companionship, sex and finding a lover that was among their top priorities. The Governor Hotel was made to order, downtown was where the action was, hot with Servicemen. The Governor turned all Gay in 1946 when Garden of Allah Cabaret performer, Skippy LaRue, moved in after a few months in a rooming house with Gay and straight men and women in a mansion on First Hill, complete with a stern landlady. There were other landlady situations, some offering food, but mostly they were small, perhaps widow owned and a source for extra income. In addition, there were many small hotels, some still very nice, but most had seen better days, like the 1906 Governor. It was the last remaining downtown Seattle hotel of wood construction. With no Gay organizations existed in 1946, parties and the new Gay bars were the only ways to congregate and have a good time. No wonder it was partytime. The Governor was old and tired but it spent its last ten years of its dutiful life going out with a bang, thanks to the Gays. Dale Evans remembers: "I never went to many wild parties at the Governor because I was a sexual butterfly, not a social butterfly. There was a lot of cruising after the war, Gays got bolder and tricks were more willing to come out.' The street level housed a grocery store and a Chinese laundry. A stairway in the center lead up to the lobby on the second floor and to an open space that went up four floors to a skylight. Rooms were off the balconies. The Asian landlady lived on the second floor and furnished towels, bedding and maid service. She must have been aware of all the activity but left everyone alone. Most of the rooms were 15x15 with a brass bed, table, chairs, dresser, and a sink (in the corner of the room). The bathroom was down the hall. It was a place where Gays or straights could rent a room and sneak a trick in the back door, which was never locked. Jimmy Calley remembers: "I'd been bringing tricks here for four years. One day a friend of mine, Gene, was in the stairwell and overheard two detectives talking to the manager and my name was mentioned. Awhile back, I picked up a sixteen year old and brought him there and the detectives were concerned about this. I don't know the details, but the kid was a well known hustler and hardly an innocent. I never went to the Governor again." Skippy LaRue remembers: "When I moved in, a Madame, her two hustling girls, two straight hustling boys and some older men and a few Gays were in residence. After I moved in, it became all Gay, especially with Stars from the Garden of Allah Cabaret and their friends. Large or small, there was a party all the time. At one of my all night parties, 63 people crowded into my apartment, which was the old dinning room and kitchen. I had one of several apartments that were turned into kitchen units. The police came by, but they only told us to keep the noise down and told the piano player to stop because 'you can't play anyway.' The next morning, sailors and soldiers were crashed out on the lobby floor. "The Landlady always left the Hotel's front door unlocked and never seemed to be concerned about all the traffic. One night, at a party, this alcoholic with mental problems got mad, ran out into the hall and started using his head as a battering ram on Dale's door, then, he knocked the door down. He was coming at my door, so, I told him I had a pot of boiling water and a hot iron ready. He left, but the next morning we found him passed out in the lobby. He had peed in my goldfish bowl and killed Betty Grable and Heddy LaMarr. "The 'Gov' got to be pretty wild. Gene who lived on the fifth floor had a party that got too noisy and everyone was arrested. They weren't that noisy but that's the way police were. Since Gays were considered undesirable citizens, they'd arrest us just to harass. But, that never stopped us from having more parties or helping another Gay in need. If one renter didn't have the rent money, he'd move in with someone else. At one time, there must have been a dozen guys sleeping in one room. I was working at the ferry dock, so, I had money to feed a lot of the unemployed kids. Sometimes I'd get them drunk." One night Jim Gerlach had a party and someone brought a young, cute eighteen-year-old who was refused entry because he was too young. Issac Monroe recalls: "There was this old hotel called the Governor. Everyone knew about it, but elite Gays didn't go there and considered it riff raff. I was taken there reluctantly, across a muddy parking lot and up the back stairs to a party on the fifth floor. A long haired nelly guy came to the door with baggy, pleated pants and one of those blousy white shirts. With a limp wrist he said, 'Honey, you're real cute but I can't let you in.' I felt real bad, the rejection for sure, but the whole scene seemed so degenerate, this awful place and now being rejected by trash. How dare you refuse me! "Another time I was taken to one of Skippy LaRue's parties when all the Female Impersonators from the Garden of Allah were there: Jackie Star, Hotcha Hinton, Francis Blair and comedian Kenny Bee. I thought, 'Why would anyone want to live in this dreary place or even party here and here I am again!' But everyone was having a good time and dancing to swing music on an old upright piano. Yet, everything seemed to be on the edge of social rejection, where people wind up who have nowhere to go, rejects. I had my sites on the real people, the Jack Armstrong, 'all American boy' types like me, not something out of Charles Dickens for gods sake! I was there awhile and introduced to a lot of people. "I told them my mother was a reporter for the newspaper and everyone turned and stared. My friend who took me there asked, 'Why did you tell them that for?' I said, 'I'm just saying who I am. He said, 'Your mother is not who you are, they're not going to invite you back.' 'Why,' I asked, 'I'm not going to rush home and tell mommy.' He said, 'Well that doesn't matter. If anything ever went wrong and there was a bust, you'd all go to jail. Your mother would bail you out and take you home because you're underage, but the rest would get charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor or worse. The whole thing could turn into a scandal.' I had to experience some hard knocks to finally realize I had the wrong attitude about the residents of the Governor Hotel. These guys who I so disapproved of were lots of great guys trying to live life and have some fun, not something out of Charles Dickens." |
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