Click to enlarge
Gay Chicago Memories: 1300 N. Wells
Owen Keehnen
—The Gay & Lesbian Review
$21.95
Availability: In stock (can be backordered)
Prefer another retailer? Choose your format below and you’ll be taken to the retailer’s website to complete your purchase.
Description
From the Author of Man’s Country: More Than a Bathhouse
A Very Queer Street—Before there was North Halsted, there was 1300 N. Wells
Long before the rainbow flags flew high on Chicago’s North Side, a single block on Wells Street pulsed with the heat and heart of gay liberation. Carol’s Speakeasy, Den One, the notorious Bijou Theater, Glory Hole Tavern, adult bookstores, backrooms, and cruising alleys—it was all there, hidden in plain sight on the east side of the 1300 block. And then it vanished.
In Chicago Memories: 1300 N. Wells, the lost world of 1970s and ’80s queer nightlife roars back to life. Through candid interviews with patrons, bartenders, and performers, plus unearthed ads, articles, and forgotten ephemera, author Owen Keehnen uncovers the stories behind the storefronts. This is more than nightlife nostalgia—it’s a raw, riveting portrait of a revolutionary era in Chicago’s gay community.
From the acclaimed author of Man’s Country: More Than a Bathhouse and Dugan’s Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady comes a thrilling excavation of LGBTQ+ history, sex, joy, danger, and resilience—just one block south of forgotten.
The Block That Built Gay Chicago — Then Disappeared
Trailer
About the Author
Queer historian and writer Owen Keehnen is the author of several fiction and nonfiction titles. His books of LGBT Chicago history include Dugan’s Bistro and the Legend of the Bearded Lady, Man’s Country More Than a Bathhouse, and Gay Chicago Memories 1300 N. Wells. He coauthored, with Tracy Baim, the biographies of three Chicago LGBTQ community legends — Leatherman: The Legend of Chuck Renslow, Jim Flint: The Boy From Peoria, and Vernita Gray: From Woodstock to the White House. He worked with St. Sukie de la Croix on the Tell Me About It series, a gay-studies trilogy chronicling milestones in LGBTQ lives. Keehnen is the co-founder of the LGBTQ history/education organization, the Legacy Project and was on the founding committee for AIDS Garden Chicago. He was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 2011. He lives in Chicago with his husband, Carl, and their dogs, Vince and Daisy.
Discover More
You may also like…
-
-
LGBTQ+ HistoryChicago After Stonewall: A History of LGBTQ Chicago From Gay Life to Gay Lib
$28.95 Add to cart -
Praise
“Owen Keehnen, Chicago’s gay Studs Terkel, has done it again. In 1300 N. Wells, he captures the raw, unfiltered pulse of a lost era. This is urban archaeology at its most evocative—a vivid recreation of a very queer street and its place in our collective soul.”
“Long before the rainbow flags flew on Halsted, there was the 1300 block of North Wells. Keehnen’s deep-dive interviews and research make this an unforgettable portrait of queer Chicago at its boldest, messiest, and most alive.”