At the Allegro, I can remember guys with tambourines on the dance floor, and the excitement - we kind of knew that the future was wide open, and there was this kind of pride and pleasure in being gay. I don’t know what happened there at 3 a.m. It was right next to McGillin’s, this rowdy college bar. It was a great conversation bar, and without the pandemonium and thumping music of the Allegro. Thom Nickels: The Allegro was really the happening place, but the Drury was this charming piano bar they had great manhattans. Henri David: A lot of gentlemen told me that even before I was born, you’d know they were gay if they wore a red tie and a red handkerchief when they went to Drury Lane. It was like the gay bar for the Socially Registered. I went there once with two older lesbian friends of mine who were in evening gowns. Thom Nickels, author, Gay and Lesbian Philadelphia, and architecture columnist for the Bulletin and Icon magazine: Maxine’s was really elegant. The oldest gay bar in the country was Maxine’s, which is now Tavern on Camac. Center City is honeycombed with little streets like Drury Lane and Camac Street, and the gay bars were on those little tiny streets. There were so many clubs, and it was so much fun. ![]() Henri David, jeweler and party-giver: We always joke when we’re at the Kimmel Center that we’re sitting in the Allegro.
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