In 1960s, Drag Found a Home in San Francisco’s Glen Park

thegavoice.com:

During the 1960s most LGBTQ nightlife in San Francisco was centered in the northern neighborhoods of the city. Gay bars could be found along Polk Street, in the Tenderloin, and the South of Market neighborhood.

In the heart of the city, the late lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin hosted private gatherings for queer women in their Noe Valley home.

They had been doing so ever since buying their Duncan Street cottage in 1955. A short drive away in the city’s Glen Park neighborhood, albeit for a brief period of time, one could enjoy female impersonators performing at a restaurant location with a storied past dating back to the 1900s.

An account of their opening night at the Casa Blanca Lounge in an October 1964 edition of Citizens News, a defunct early LGBTQ newspaper, described it as “something that should have been seen.” The writer noted, “The addition of tacos to female impersonators is welcome to the jaded appetites.” One of the performers, referred to only as Terry, was reported to have taken “so many curtain calls that he was embarrassed and when you can embarrass that one you have done something.” An ad had appeared in one of the newspaper’s September issues touting that the eatery, located at 2972 Diamond Street, would be featuring “San Francisco’s Finest Impersonators” Wednesdays through Sundays starting on September 16.