Julius (New York City)
Encyclopedia
Tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food, and in some cases, where travelers receive lodging....
in the New York City Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
neighborhood. It is often called the oldest continuously operating gay bar
Gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT and queer communities...
in New York; however, its management was actively unwilling to operate as such and harassed gay customers until 1966. In fact, the distinction of being the longest continuously running gay in New York belongs to the Candle Bar (formerly the Candlelight Lounge) at 309 Amsterdam Avenue, which was openly operating as a gay bar with a gay staff before April 1966, while the Julius bar was enforcing its policy of harassing and ejecting gay men. The Candle Bar has continued operating as a gay establishment uninterruptedly to the present day.
An event at the Julius bar at 159 West 10th Street in 1966, which is a block northeast of the famous Stonewall Inn
Stonewall Inn
The Stonewall Inn, often shortened to Stonewall is an American bar in New York City and the site of the Stonewall riots of 1969, which are widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for gay and lesbian rights in the United...
, established the right of homosexuals to be served in licensed premises in New York State. This cleared the way for the opening of many new gay premises with state liquor licenses.
Newspaper articles on the wall indicate it was favorite bar of Tennessee Williams
Tennessee Williams
Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...
, Truman Capote
Truman Capote
Truman Streckfus Persons , known as Truman Capote , was an American author, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and the true crime novel In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel." At...
and Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Nureyev
Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev was a Russian dancer, considered one of the most celebrated ballet dancers of the 20th century. Nureyev's artistic skills explored expressive areas of the dance, providing a new role to the male ballet dancer who once served only as support to the women.In 1961 he...
.
History
According to bar lore it was established around 1867 – the same year as the Jacob RuppertJacob Ruppert
Jacob Ruppert, Jr. , sometimes referred to as Jake Ruppert, was a National Guard colonel; a U.S. Representative from New York; and brewery owner, who went on to own the New York Yankees...
Brewery in the Yorkville neighborhood. Barrels stamped "Jacob Ruppert" are used for tables. Vintage photos of racing horses, boxers and actors are on the wall include drawings of burlesque girls as well as an image signed by Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
saying that he loves Julius. The bar became a popular watering hole in the 1930s and 1940s due to its proximity to the jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
club Nick's in the Village.
By the late 1950s it was attracting gay patrons. At the time the New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that ordered bars not to serve liquor to the disorderly, and homosexuals per se were considered "disorderly." Bartenders would often evict known homosexuals or order them not to face other customers in order to avoid cruising
Cruising for sex
Cruising for sex, or cruising is the act of walking or driving about a locality in search of a sex partner, usually of the anonymous, casual, one-time variety...
. Despite this, gay men continued to be a large part of the clientele into the early 1960s, and the management of Julius, steadfastly unwilling for it to become a gay bar, continued to harass them.
The Sip-in
On April 21, 1966 members of the New York Chapter of the Mattachine SocietyMattachine Society
The Mattachine Society, founded in 1950, was one of the earliest homophile organizations in the United States, probably second only to Chicago’s Society for Human Rights . Harry Hay and a group of Los Angeles male friends formed the group to protect and improve the rights of homosexuals...
staged a "Sip-In" at the bar which was to change the legal landscape. Dick Leitsch, the society's president, John Timmons and Craig Rodwell
Craig Rodwell
Craig L. Rodwell was an American gay rights activist known for founding the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop on November 24, 1967, the first bookstore devoted to gay and lesbian authors and as the prime mover for the creation of the New York City pride demonstration...
planned to draw attention to the practice by identifying themselves as homosexuals before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation. The three were going to read from Mattachine stationary "We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service."
The three first targeted the Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
-American Village Restaurant at St. Mark's Place and Third Avenue in the East Village, Manhattan
East Village, Manhattan
The East Village is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, lying east of Greenwich Village, south of Gramercy and Stuyvesant Town, and north of the Lower East Side...
which had a sign, "If you are gay, please go away." The three showed up after a New York Times reporter had asked a manager about the protest and the manager had closed the restaurant for the day. They then targeted a Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's
Howard Johnson's is a chain of hotels and restaurants, located primarily throughout the United States and Canada. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Howard Johnson's was the largest restaurant chain in the United States, with over 1,000 restaurants...
and a bar called Waikiki where they were served in spite of the note with a bartender saying later, "How do I know they're homosexual? They ain't doing nothing homosexual."
Frustrated, they then went to Julius, where a clergyman had been arrested a few days earlier for soliciting sex. A sign in the window read, "This is a raided premises." The bartender initially started preparing them a drink but then put his hand over the glass which was photographed. The New York Times ran a headline the next day "3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars."
The Mattachines then challenged the liquor rule in court and the courts ruled that gays had a right to peacefully assemble, which undercut the previous SLA contention that the presence of gay clientele automatically was grounds for charges of operating a "disorderly" premises. With this right established a new era of licensed, legally operating gay bars began. The bar now holds a monthly party called Mattachine.
Subsequent history
Scenes from the movie Boys in the BandThe Boys in the Band
The Boys in the Band is a 1970 American drama film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay by Mart Crowley is based on his Off Broadway play of the same title, Crowley penned a sequel to the play years later entitled The Men From The Boys...
(1970) were shot at the bar.
Julius was the site of a scene shot in the movie Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Next Stop, Greenwich Village
Next Stop, Greenwich Village is a 1976 romantic comedy drama film, set in the early 1950s, written and directed by Paul Mazursky, featuring, amongst others, Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, Ellen Greene, Lois Smith, and Christopher Walken. The film was generally well received by critics...
(1976). The scene included Lenny Baker
Lenny Baker
Leonard Joel “Lenny” Baker was an American actor of stage and film and screen best known for his Tony Award-winning performance in I Love My Wife in 1977.-Early life:...
and Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken
Christopher Walken is an American stage and screen actor. He has appeared in more than 100 movies and television shows, including Joe Dirt, Annie Hall, The Deer Hunter, The Prophecy trilogy, The Dogs of War, Sleepy Hollow, Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, A View to a Kill, At Close Range, King of New...
.
In August 2007, the bar was closed briefly after being seized for non-payment of taxes.
In fiction
The Julius's denial of service was dramatized in the film StonewallStonewall (film)
Stonewall is a 1995 historical comedy-drama film. Inspired by the memoir of the same title by openly gay historian Martin Duberman, Stonewall is a fictionalized account of the weeks leading up to the Stonewall riots, a seminal event in the modern American gay rights movement...
(1995). However, filmmakers moved the denial of service from Julius to the Stonewall Inn.