Friday
Oct 28, 2005
SGN.org
Volume 33
Issue 43
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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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SEATTLE'S GAY HISTORY: 'Jamma Phi (1959 -1963): Seattle's first Gay Organization |
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| SEATTLE'S GAY HISTORY: 'Jamma Phi (1959 -1963): Seattle's first Gay Organization |
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| By Don Poulson
- SGN Contributing Writer
In March 1959, seven young Gay men decided to form a nonprofit social club for the enjoyment of it's Gay and Lesbian members. It was also a grand excuse to have drag and costume balls like the historic New York drag balls of the 1890's and 1920's. An old grange hall or road house was rented and - by word of mouth and a notice at the Gay bars - 200 of Seattle's finest Gay revelors drove to the site for an evening of dancing, B.Y.O.B. drinking and a fabulous floor show. Great effort was put into the show - there wasn't a rhinestone or a tropical bird feather left on the planet! For one sweet night it was Seattle's own Babylon on Liberty Avenue. From the program: "So gather up your beads and frilliest flappers, roll up your stockings and prepare a fresh batch of bathtub gin because on October 21,1961, Jamma Phi will present the third annual show, The Roaring Twenties.' The setting for this show was a Speakeasy during the reign of "Flames, Flappers and Flasks.' The show lineup was: Black Bottom, Last Night on the Back Porch, Put the Blame on Mame, It's never too late, Gentleman Jimmy, Carnival Tango, Barney Google, Running Wild, Nagasaki and the finale with the entire cast was the Charleston. At midnight they had the costume judging contest and prizes awarded for the most beautiful drag, the most beautiful costume, the most original and most comical costume. Admission to the Ball was a whooping $3.00. Jamma Phi grew out of the Mocambo Bar crowd, but Gays held similar dances on occasion at rented spaces around the city. The words Jamma Phi, which at the time were part of a local joke, became the clubs official name and was incorporated on May 2,1961. Locations for the Jamma Phi Drag Balls were the Golden Pheasant, Belleview Gun Club, Shadow Lake Grange Hall, Roycroft Theater, Morrison Hotel and Eagles Ballroom, Norway Hall, etc. Jamma Phi became incorporated so that the club could function as a legal, private, entity protected by laws of the city, county and state. Their goal was to purchase their own building for official club business and their own hall for social functions. Jamma Phi business meetings were held once a month except, June and July. There was was a $5.00 initiation fee, and $1.00 a month members dues. Nonmembers were required to pay $6.00 a year. Ben Combs, a.k.a. Kitty Star, recalled: "On the first show, our Master of Cermemonies was on roller skates. There was another guy who was a stripper. I said to the MC, 'I can do better than that.' He said, 'Well why don`t you show us on our next show.' That lead to doing eight strip shows at the Balls. Claude, my lover who's family came to Seattle in the Denny party, helped me put my act and wardrobe together. Some of my clothes came from the Goodwill, but I revamped them. I never shopped for women's clothes at the big department stores, because they discriminated. I bought my black net stockings, corset and bra at Champion Costume Display. "The Balls were a lot of fun. We never made any money after expenses, but when you're having fun and doing something you enjoy, who cares. It was a big part of my youth and I loved it. Nothing much became of the social club, we'd see each other a lot at the Gay bars anyway, but we did put on some fabulous shows. We had secruity at the door, so there was never any trouble with hoods or police. We were out to have a good time, a safe time, and the hall owners never gave us any flack about our customers. Money talks. We behaved ourselves - everyone drank heavily, but we never heard of any auto accidents on the way home.' It is not clear why Jamma Phi, nearly half a century ago, did not realize their dream of owning a piece of real estate to stage their exotic Drag Balls and to help bring the Gay and Lesbian community together. Like other organizations, burn out could be a factor or perhaps a strong leader did not step forward to keep the dream alive. In the 1950's, the Gay community was suprisingly small and paranoia was rampant even though the police pay off system gave the Gay community a measure of protection. Drag Balls or not, Jamma Phi was an example of early networking and keeping the community vital, visible and together. But by the 1960's, the community had enlarged considerably and Jamma Phi was eclipsed by the many Gay bars, the court system's drag balls and a myraid of consciousness raising groups such as the Mattachine Society, the Dorian Group, Daughters of Bilitis, Lesbian Resource Center, Radical Women, Freedom Socialist Party, Gay Women's Alliance, Gay Liberation Front, Seattle Gay Alliance, Gay Bowling, San Terre Yacht club, etc., a drop in the bucket compared to today. But the dream of owning a piece of real estate materialized afterall with the birth of the Seattle Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. It only took half a century. |
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