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- [Man] I always dreamed
about Cherry Grove.

It was a gay Shangri-La.

- [Man] We arrived at the
dock and I looked down

and I saw all of these
beautiful men in speedos

and high heels and I thought
I had died and gone to heaven.

- [Man] Cherry Grove was
always the best kept secret

in the whole gay world
for decades and decades.

- The first time I came
to Cherry Grove

was the summer of 1943.

I wasn't born yet, but my
mother came all that summer.

- As a kid I came over here.

The family had property
here in 19-,

it was the end of World War
II, back in late 1944, 1945.

- I first came here in 1951

maybe for a day or a weekend.

- 1954.

- 1955.

- 1956.

- In the summer of 1957.

- 1957, I was 20 years old.

- 1958.

- Probably in '58 or '59.

- About 1961, '62,
it was about '63.

- I came in 1963, and
I fell in love with it.

- I came for my
first visit in 1968.

- The late 60's.

- First time, 1970.

- 1972, I was 17.

- Early to mid '70s.

- 1977.

- 1977.

I remember because that was the
year after the bicentennial.

- 1982.

- 1983.

- I believe that I first
visited Cherry Grove in 1999.

- In 2002.

- I came the summer after 9/11.

- 2004.

- My first day trip was in 2005,

and my first girlfriend
brought me,

and it was incredible,
and really eye-opening.

I had just come out as gay,

and it was really life-changing
for me to arrive here.

- [Interviewer] One common
story is that there were

pirates on Cherry Grove.

- Recently?
- No. (chuckles)

- Pirates, recently!

That would be fun.

- [Interviewer] Years ago.

- I would imagine
there could be.

- Well, there used to be
shipwrecks along the coast,

and were there pirates?

Possibly, Fire Island
got its name by people

that were shipwrecked
here in the early days

and would light fires
on the bay coast

to tell the people on
the mainland that

they were here,
and they were stranded.

- They claim it was
called Fire Island because

the pirates would set
fires on the island,

they'd lure the ships in and
then murder

the ships and steal their goods,

that's one of the lores.

- Charlie Dickerson
was a World War,

let's see, World War I veteran,

and he had a wonderful
series of short stories,

and one of the stories
that he had was

of a Mr. Smith, who was
supposedly here

in the 1600s, who was a pirate,

and who lived someplace
in this area

of Fire Island, we don't
know exactly where.

- They say there is
treasure on Fire Island.

People through the years
have come up with coins.

- When I used to take
my walks every morning,

which I can't do anymore,
but I would always

be looking for the chest
of coins or something,

but never found it,
and no one else has,

as far as I know.

- [Man] When there's fog
at night, the pirates come

into the Meat Rack out of
the fog and murder people.

- [Interviewer] Have
you ever seen one?

- Yes, I did,
but he didn't kill me.

- In the old, old days,
when there was no wagons

and no people, and there
were just people over

here building, and I
guess they were,

I guess they would harvest
hay over here and ship it off.

I think that was one of the
things that they did do,

and in order to do that,
they had to have horses

to take the carts of hay
to the, to the boats,

and there were a couple
of guys over here

who had brought a
horse over on a barge,

and the horse died, and
they didn't know what to do

with the horse, so they
were just sitting around

drinking quite a bit,
wondering what to do with it,

and they decided
they'd better bury it,

so they dig a hole, and
they bury the horse,

but they didn't dig the
hole deep enough,

and the four legs were
sticking up out of the,

out of the earth, so these
guys just sawed the legs off.

(upbeat guitar music)

- My grandparents first
came to Cherry Grove,

like, 1918, and it was
very rural at the time,

and they rented for six years,

and they realized that they
had discovered paradise.

So, they bought the property
where my house is now,

and we've been here ever since.

- Sayville families built
the original cottages

and brought them over
and bought huge

stretches of the community,
the Duryeas

and the Greens, and the Gerards,

their family names,
and they bought

whole stretches from
the bay to the ocean.

- My aunt owned property
here, and we came over

to help her open up the houses
and close up the houses,

so as a little kid, it
was mostly off season.

My jobs were to clean
the chimneys,

because the kerosene
was the only,

there was no electric,
the only way of lighting

at night was the
kerosene, and so,

I cleaned the chimneys, I
got to dig the garbage holes.

Over here, we had
outside burning,

the west end,
if you dig in your yard,

all of a sudden,
you'll hit crunch,

because you'll be
hitting old, rusty cans

or whatnot, the things
that were left over

from back in the earlier days,

before we had garbage service.

- When I first came here,
we did not have electricity,

we did not have running water,

we had to pump water up to
tanks on top of the house,

and we'd all be at the beach.

The first one home
would have a hot shower,

the rest of us would not.

- I just find the fact that
there was no electricity

until the '60s very interesting,

I can't imagine living
without electricity.

I can't imagine putting
on a drag show with

a generator in here in
the community house.

Can you imagine putting
your makeup onto that?

Mary, some of them
are beasts as it is,

can you imagine without
lights what they look like?

(soft piano music)

- The fire department
consisted of everyone.

There was a post with a
big, round ring on it,

which was a railroad
tie bent into a circle,

with a hammer hanging,
and if there was a fire,

you would ring this gong.

- Living with my family,
it was kind of touching,

though I was only, like, 23.

So, we would go out to
Ocean Beach for the day

and dance at the hotel,
and then we moved

to Ocean Bay, and I rented
there for two years.

I loved the whole
idea of Fire Island.

- I don't think I
knew what it was.

I think I, I, I knew that
it was a queer community,

and I was a kid from
the south Bronx who

knew I was gay, but didn't
know what that meant.

(upbeat techno music)

- It was just different than
anyplace that

I probably have
ever been, and it was.

I stayed with Dick Hall
and Michael DeSantis,

and I stayed there about
four or five weekends,

but I was a guest that
never wanted to leave.

- We would find Captain
Hawkins, who had keys to houses,

and we'd get together and
he'd find a house for us

for 20 bucks for the weekend.

A lot of people stopped using
their houses in the summer,

and that's when the
rentals started.

Next generation were
the local people who

inherited the houses, began
to sell them to the renters.

- Maggie and I rented with
Tom Holden and a bunch

of the guys, and our share
each for the whole summer,

starting in May through
September, was 125 dollars.

- I met a guy, and he
knew about Cherry Grove.

I hadn't even heard
of the place,

so we came out
here for a weekend,

and we stayed at the hotel.

And there was an awful lot
of dancing in those days.

There was nothing
but men out here.

You had one or
two women, I think,

but essentially,
it was nothing but a mass

of young men in
their 20s and 30s,

and coming out here

with a boyfriend was like going

to a whorehouse with your wife.

- [Interviewer] Were women
allowed to dance together?

- No, no more than guys were.

- [Interviewer] So,
what was the policy?

- The policy was, then,
when the bartender whistled

or Duffy, himself did,
the women would quickly

find a male partner
and get up and dance.

It was the same in the city.

- Like, up at the Ice
Palace, they had a jukebox,

and when dancing, you
had a dance with maybe

three guys and one girl.

There always had to be a
girl in the dancing group,

and if the cops came
in, the lights went on,

and then, right away,
it stopped,

or you just stayed
dancin' with the girl.

(jaunty ragtime music)

- I've been in the
shows since 1955.

It's 60 years on the calendar,

but I've been performing
for 61 years

in the, this is my 61st season.

It was very hard
at the beginning,

because people, someone,
I'm not even gonna mention,

called me The Singing Jew,

and then there was,
there weren't that many

Jewish people out here then,

but I bought my
house early on, anyway.

But there was somebody who was,

he owned a house on the ocean,

he was very wealthy, big shot,

with people around
him all the time.

They came to the theater,
and I was in a show,

and they were sitting
in the first row,

and when I started
to sing, they all put

their newspapers
up in front of their face

and I stopped the song,
and I ran across

the stage, and I
grabbed the newspapers,

and I threw it at them,

and the audience went wild,

and then I started
my song all over again.

* Keep your sweeties,
I'll eat my Wheaties *

* With an all-American boy *

(crowd laughing)
(upbeat piano music)

(crowd laughing and applauding)

* Soccer, baseball,
tennis, hockey *

* Let 'em play ball *

* Gino, Tester, Slugger, Rocky *

* I love 'em all *

* Tease us, read us *

* I'm hot for Adidas *

* On an all-American boy *

(soft guitar music)

- When I was in high school,

my best friend told me
that he saw in a magazine

a picture of two boys
holding hands on a beach

in a place called Cherry Grove,

and I was very
interested in that,

because I was gay,
and didn't know it,

but I knew that I would
be very comfortable

and very at home
in a place like that,

so I went to the store
where the magazines were,

and sure enough, there
was a picture of two boys

on the beach in their
little bathing suits,

going to the water,
holding hands.

- [Man] In the '60s,
it was amazing,

'cause you just get people
coming to Cherry Grove

from all over,
all over the world,

just to meet other gay people.

- [Man] Hello, Dolly was blaring
out of all of the windows.

- [Man] I had heard that
it was a gay party town,

and that it was very free
and promiscuous and fun.

- To me, Fire Island
was sex and booze.

That, you know, could have
as much liquor as I wanted,

have as much sex as I wanted,

if I wanted it, was
extraordinary.

- I was scared shit of
it, in plain English,

'cause I heard this was
an island of all gays,

and it was a sinful city,
supposedly,

you know, you hear
all these things.

(upbeat techno music)

- What is the Meat Rack?

- What is the Meat Rack?

- Well, there's many ways you
could describe the Meat Rack.

The Meat Rack was a sex haven.

- We'd all start getting
prepared to go out

to the Rack about 10:00 o'clock.

You'd do all sorts of
cleansing and gargling.

Filing your fingernails.
(laughs)

Getting everything together,

the poppers, the handkerchief,
before you went out.

- I don't think I can really
say what the Meat Rack

is because I have
never been there.

- [Man] There's a little
path that goes through,

because people who
wanna go from the Grove

to the Pines use
this same trail.

- Such a little trail that
people can

go off and be alone.

Some people prefer
not to be alone,

they like to show everything.

- I don't like that
term, and I never have.

You know, it's like, Meat Rack.

- Before I came out, I
heard the Ice Palace,

and I thought it was,
like, a freezer,

and then I heard the Meat Rack,

and I literally thought it was
a place where they hung meat.

- The Meat Rack's where we
tell people who come to visit,

"Don't go there unless
you're looking

"for a homosexual experience."

- It's like a circus.

You see all different
types of things goin' on.

- It's known for
havin' people that

perform sexual acts.

I think mostly at night,
although I've caught

a glimpse in the daytime.

- When I first came in the '70s,

it was the time of,
you know, liberation,

of course, and free sex.

- When I was younger, I
used to go to the Belvedere

and walk up to the Belvedere,
thinking I was going

to the Rack, and I
wouldn't have the balls to

pass the lions. (laughing)

I would turn around
and go back home.

- One Sunday morning, I
came out of the house,

and there was a guy
named Mitty Malleus,

and I go, "Hi, Mitty, how is
everything,

"how was the Rack last night?"

"Oh, May, you don't know
what I went through."

And I said, "What?"

She says, "There I was,
working on a nice,

"big piece of meat,
and some ditzy queen

"went and pulled
it out of my mouth,

"so I bit him on the hand."

I said, "Oh," I said, "He's
probably dead

"by now, with their
portion in you."

And, later in the day,
I met another friend,

Daphne, and I said,
"Daphne, how was the

"Meat Rack last night?"

"Oh, it was wonderful, but
some ditzy bitch bit me."

And I said, so I says,
"I think you better

"go to the doctor
and get a shot."

- We did go there once
when we were living

here in the winter, and
it was the dead of winter.

It was snow, the bay was
frozen, there was snow

on the ground, and we
went into the Meat Rack

expecting to find out
what was there,

it was a pretty wooded area,

and we were amazed in
January, there were a couple

of men in there, just
mind-boggling.

- I know what it's like
out here in the winter,

because I've been
out here in the winter.

I spent, actually,
Bobby and I spent

several Christmases here.

We always used to spend
Thanksgiving,

but when his mother was
alive, we were taking

care of her, so we
had to go back,

but we did spend a couple
of Christmases here

after that, and it was
absolutely breathtaking,

beautiful, and lovely,
with no people.

It was heaven, real heaven.

(soft ambient music)

- [Interviewer] There
was this whole myth that

there was something
called The Donut...

- Never.
- Rack.

- Never.
- So, it didn't...

- No, no.

- I heard that there
was a Donut Rack,

but I don't know if
it was true or not.

It certainly is a legend
'round here that there was.

- I don't think that's true,

'cause I'm not a lesbian.

- I heard about it also,
and there were several

women who would
exchange partners

after a party,
but that was that.

- The Meat Rack was on,
towards the Pines,

and the Donut Rack was
towards Sailor's Haven.

That's where they said it was,

but I don't believe it,
and I don't remember,

I mean, I remember the
statements about it,

but I don't think it ever
happened.

- Lesbians don't
cruise publicly.

- No, there was never
a Donut Rack.

There were maybe
24 lesbians in place

when we were there.

- I had a lover who was
trying to impress me,

so he was, they were
having the Bartender Awards

out here on Fire Island
back in the day.

They used to have Bartender's
Awards every month,

and they used to
travel bar to bar and

have this big parties,
and it was here

at the Ice Palace, so
he rented a limousine,

and stocked with
liquor and weed,

and all kinds of stuff,
and we got in the limo

and drove to Fire Island,
and went to the Pines

by mistake, and back then,

the taxi here on the
island was in a dune buggy

as opposed to boats, so we
had to walk to the ocean

and call a dune buggy
and travel along this

beautiful beach
in the full moon.

It was absolutely magical,

and then we landed
at the Cherry Grove,

and walked up into
the Ice Palace

to this massive drag show.

It was just a night
I'll never forget,

it was just spectacular,
and right away,

I knew this was
the place for me.

(sentimental orchestral music)

- You know, drag shows
were really nonexistent

anywhere else, and the
people that came over

to the shows,
this place was mobbed.

Even back in the early
'60s, I worked at Pat's

Restaurant for a while,
and the people

would come down
from Ocean Beach,

and they'd all
sit at a big table,

and they would keep
saying, "When are the boys

"coming in with
their funny hats,"

and I would make
up stories, and I'd say,

"Oh, they're not
coming in tonight,

"there's a big party
down at the other end

"of the beach, so nobody
will be in tonight,"

'cause they would sit there
for two or three hours,

waiting to see people
that were stranger,

I guess, then they'd ever seen.

- There was that feeling
that this was our place.

And, back then,
it was very important,

because we didn't have a place,

and we didn't feel like
we fit in anywhere.

- This was before
the Stonewall Riots,

and I worked the
Stonewall before the riots

in 1968, so it was
illegal to be gay,

and so we would come
out here to Fire Island

to meet other gay people
and everything without,

'cause we used to
meet in the streets

in Manhattan,
and three or four people

would be congregating
on a corner,

talking friends,
and we'd be arrested

and brought to jail for
homosexual,

we couldn't congregate
on a corner.

- The oppression against
the gay community,

the lesbian and gay
community, was so severe

that you couldn't
tell your family,

you couldn't tell your job,

you had to be
constantly closeted,

so the importance of
Cherry Grove was that

it was a safe haven where
people could come and be gay.

Hold hands with your
boyfriend and hang out

with other homosexuals,
as they called us,

and I think, in that,
it helped to create

a community that didn't
necessarily

exist in the city, for instance.

I mean, the major communities
were either private,

upper-class communities,
or the bars.

You know, there was always
a network of gay bars,

usually owned by the
Mafia, back in the '40s,

'50s, and '60s, and '70s,

and that's all there was.

- It was a very
different world back then,

in the gay world, you know,

we were still hiding.

I was still jumping
out of bathroom windows

from gay clubs that
were being raided,

so the fact that this existed,

literally, 55 miles
out of New York City

seemed like paradise.

- Maggie and I always
palled around with much

older people, you know,
and they just

welcomed us, as I said,
Natalia brought me up,

and she was 35
years older than I.

A very good friend, I met
Janet Flanner through her,

and a lot of the
literary groups.

Maggie and I gave a party
when our house was finished.

Natalia Danesi Murray
called us and said,

"Darling, I'm not
going to be here,

"I'm in Rome, but someone
is renting my house,

"and I want you to go
over and invite him

"to your party," and I said,
"Who's that?"

And she said, "Tennessee
Williams," and I said,

"Oh my God, how wonderful."

Went over the night
of the party and said,

"Mr. Williams, would you
like to come to our party,

"and it's our first night?"

"I would love to,
and please call me T."

He was the first one to show up,

and the last one to leave.

During the evening, people
would come over and say,

"Is that who I think it is?"

And I'd say, "Who do
you think it is?"

"Tennessee Williams,"
and I'd say,

"Well, just keep it quiet."

- [Man] There was
a tremendous emphasis

on home parties, house
parties, themed parties.

- [Man] Well, when I first
came here, there were these

huge costume parties,
and, in fact,

our house, there were
no trees at the time,

it was just sand, and
they once had a party,

and they had a rope
going from Belvedere

into our yard, and some
queen came as Peter Pan,

but she got stuck in the middle

for about an hour, screaming.

Someone arrived in a
barge shaped like swan,

pulled by eight muscle men.

They were really,
very elaborate.

There was an MGM party,
people would come

as their favorite star, one
person I remember coming,

being covered in glitter,
and had dry ice underneath

so there was smoke rising.

- I saw Sarah Vaughan here
at the Club Atlantique,

which is the Sandpiper.

I saw, Della Reese
was at the hotel.

- We always went every, on
Friday and Saturday evenings,

to the Le Monstrum,
we'd stand outside.

There were wicker chairs
and couches on the side,

and we both had wicker row,

and we'd sit there, and
there'd probably be,

like, 30 or 40 of us
standing around outside,

and there was one guy
there that we called

Popper Bill, and he
opened his vest,

you'd talk to him, he had
all these little pockets

in it, with all these
amyl nitrate and poppers

and things there,
that you just bought 'em

off him there, on the spot,

and it was, like, wide open.

- [Interviewer] How important
do you think Cherry Grove

was to sexual liberation and
the LGBT movement in general?

- Well, I think it was
very important in terms

of sexual liberation,
but it was absolutely

missing from the gay
rights movement.

- Well, certainly, Cherry
Grove was gay liberation

before it happened in the
city, there's no question

about that, people came
out here from the city

when they were living a
very confined gay life

in the city, and you came
here and you were able

to be gay or lesbian
on the walks,

and you felt a kind
of wonderful relief

from social pressures
you might be feeling

at your job, or in any other
part of your life in the city.

- I suspect the Mattachine
Society and the people

who were active in that type

of movement,
and of course, Stonewall,

was what led to gay liberation
more than Cherry Grove.

- I personally found the
residents of Cherry Grove

wanted nothing to do
with the LGBT movement

back in the '70s and '80s,

they wanted to be complacent
in their little gay haven,

so I personally
found it as a youth,

gay youth back then,
that it was a challenge

getting people involved
into the movement

or wanting to do anything,
even with the AIDS crisis.

They just wanted this to be
the perfect little haven.

I think many famous people
stayed here and visited here.

Gilbert and, you know,
Larry Kramer,

and different people,
but as a community,

I think that, individually,
people participated,

but as a community, it did not.

(soft orchestral music)

- We were sitting on our
deck and saying, you know,

"Why are gay people upset?

"Everything's fine,"
and not realizing that,

in a way, we were
in our little ghetto.

- I think it was very important,

and I was then
involved with Sage,

I was one of the
people who were found

at the women's dances,
and the freedom

that we had that night,
the very first dance,

and all of it together,
Stonewall,

and then the march in
Washington,

for women, was very important.

- I had read about
Fire Island in a book

when I was in middle
school or high school.

The book was
called Rainbow Boys,

and it was all about gay
men on the east coast,

and they talked about
going to an island where

everyone was gay,
and I was like,

"This doesn't exist."

When I first came to Cherry
Grove,

I slept on the beach, in a tent.

I was 16, and I
lived at the hotel

when I started working here.

- I had a girlfriend
in high school who came

with her family once to
look at the drag queens,

and she told me a
story on the phone once,

like, saying, "There's men
there who dress like women,

"and everybody gets
really drunk and they have

"sex with each other."

I remember her telling
me the really long story

on the phone and me
thinking, "How am I gonna

"respond to this without
giving myself away?"

- There was something
to me about Fire Island

that I had this kind of
preconception that

it was a little played
out, it was a little

kind of, like, passe, and
something from

the previous generation.

- I first came to Cherry
Grove as a visitor.

I was staying in the Pines,
and I wandered

down to Cherry Grove, and
gave it just the once over.

It just seemed like a
bunch of, you know,

fat queens in dashikis
and Judy Garland music

and a lot of drunk people,
and it looked kinda tawdry.

(upbeat techno music)

Over time, I began to
understand that it was

the people in Cherry Grove
that ultimately won me over.

- This is Jana Mooger,
and I'm in the beautiful

backyard palatial
gardens of Que Sera Sera.

(upbeat synthesizer music)

- [Man] Every house had
a name back in the day.

- Bangkok.
- Bottoms Up.

- [Man] Spank You Very Much.

- My house now is
called Bella's Passion.

Before that, it was
called The Cuckoo's Nest.

- Something and the Wolf.

Dennis and the Wolf.

- My name, Mae's Bush.

- [Man] Fairy View,
because you can see

the fairies from the house.

- Well, my house
is called Roseland,

because of my persona
out here, Rose Levine,

and I've been Rose Levine
since I arrived here

in Cherry Grove,
so when I bought a house,

I put a sign up, Roseland,

and it's still Roseland.

- We had a home called
The Valley of the Pods,

which, that was because
everyone in the household

joined AA, and at 6:00
o'clock, at that time,

everybody slowly
left the beach and left

their homes and kinda
wandered, like that movie,

Valley of the Pods.

- The one Judy and I live
in is called Happiness Is.

The little one around the
corner that was an outhouse

back in the 1800s, before
they barged it over here,

it was called
Small Comfort, it is small.

- [Man] Other names,
Boys in the Attic,

Above and Beyond.

- White Swallow, which
they made them change.

Lickety Split, which
they made them change.

- [Interviewer] Who
made them change it?

- The community, they said,

"Ease it up a little bit."

- I see people stopping
in front of Pride House,

and they're taking pictures.

I heard some people say,
"This is the house that was

"named after the Gay Pride day,"

and I stopped
and I said, "No, it's not,"

I said, "It was Pride
House and Prejudice House,

"and Prejudice House is
the one down at the foot

"of the dune, right next door."

- Oh, Hansel and Gretel.

Roman Holiday always had a
big crowd and nice people.

You see, years ago, a lot of
people stayed

in groups and kept
comin' back every year,

so everybody became
friendly and family,

so we got to know who was
who and what was what.

- Some old-timers have
come up to me, says,

"I remember
this wonderful party,

"this wonderful orgy,
if you will,

"that happened in
this house," my house.

I guess before it
was named O'Lay,

where there was
this leather group

and this black room,
and it was called

La Maison du Pain.

- Well, if I sell my house,
I'm taking my sign down.

Years ago, I was very
friendly with a hairdresser

who had a long braid in
the back of his hair,

and he wore a hat,
and he had an accent.

I cannot ever reveal
his name today

because he wanted to sue me,

'cause I told the story
on stage using his name.

So, I could tell the story,
'cause it's my story,

but I can't use his real name,

so I just refer to
him as Asshole.

So, the asshole came to
me on the beach and said,

"Darling, I'm having
a dinner party,

"and I'd love you to come,"

and he used to always
walk around with this

little capuchin monkey
that was this big.

It was beautiful,
and I loved it,

and it used to always
come sit on my shoulder,

I used to pet it,
I never had a problem

with this friggin' monkey,
can I curse here and there?

- Of course.
- Okay.

So, he invites me as
Bella to go to his house.

All right, Mary, I
can't eat that much when

I'm dressed as Bella,
you know what I mean?

I want to enjoy myself.

So, I go to his house,
and I've been to his house

other times, for a pool party,

but this was a special dinner,

a big party, you should say,

and he's telling me who
was going to be there,

Liza Minnelli, Claudette
Colbert,

and this one and that
one, I said to myself,

"He's so full of fucking
shit, I know that he does hair

"to famous people, but
this," but I had to go.

And, sure enough, all
these people were there,

Liza Minnelli,
Claudette Colbert,

the writer of some big movie,

whatever it was,
whatever he said,

and the food was delicious,
and the shrimps were this big.

So, after I made a pig of
myself, eatin' all the shrimps,

I had to go fix myself up,
because Bella was coming apart.

So, I went upstairs
to the bathroom,

and I started to fix myself,

and all of a sudden,
I look down,

and what do I see on
the side of the bed,

out of the bathroom, was
this cage with a blanket.

It was the worst thing
I ever did in my life,

to take off the blanket.

I took the blanket off,
and when I took

the blanket off,
I see the little...

(mimics monkey sounds)

You're sweet, that's a good pea,

I went, "Oh, oh," and he
remembered me.

So, I opened up the door, and
he just jumped into my arms,

and this monkey
was just delicious.

All right, Mary,
enough is enough.

I had this monkey in my
arms 15 minutes, at least.

I go to put it in the cage,
and it doesn't wanna get off.

So, I says, "Come on!"

I go to put it in the cage, and
I go to slam the door on it,

and the monkey held onto
the door and the cage,

and with one second,
became a vicious bastard,

because he opens his mouth,
and I saw these teeth

that I never saw before.

(hissing)

Oh, I jumped back,
I said, "What the fuck

"am I gonna do now?"

And I go to pick it up,
and he jumps up in the air,

and it lands on my head.

Into the wig, the nails
were, and I couldn't

get him out of my hair.

I couldn't do it, I
didn't know what to do.

I was startin' to freak out now.

I was on my hands
and knees, and I said,

"This is how it has to be."

I took him, still on my
head, and I threw him forward

so he would land on the bed.

He landed on the bed, broke
away from me and the wig,

had to see the wig when it
was done, it was horrible,

and I threw him in
the cage, when he went

(hisses) again,
I said, "Fuck you,"

and I slammed the door,
and his arm went limp,

and I see him crying
and holding the arm.

I said, "Oh, dear
God in heaven."

I covered him, I fixed
the Bella up beautiful,

all over again,
I went downstairs,

and I says, "I'm leaving
now, I have to go."

He was like, "Oh, no,
Bella, we're having this,

"we're having that," I
said, "Well, maybe I'll stay

"a couple more shrimp."

I'm on the beach
the next day with my

Bain de Soleil #4, and
I'm tanning my whole body,

and all of a sudden,
I see Asshole

walking with his
monkey in his arm.

And I put my head down,
made believe I was sleeping,

but I'm looking out with
the little corner of my eye

and I see the asshole, the
monkey,

and the monkey had a sling.

I says, "Oh, dear Jesus,
oh, dear Jesus."

"Bella, Bella!"

I says, "Oh, hi, yes."

"Look what happened!

"Do you know anybody
went upstairs

"in my room last night?"

I said, "I did,
to fix myself up,

"but I didn't
hear nothing strange."

I said, "Why, where
was the baby?"

"Right there",
"Oh, I didn't even notice."

"Right there", "Oh, really?"

"The monkey's arm, and
(babbling)"

I said, "Oh, that's a shame."

Well, all of a sudden,
somebody that I didn't know,

must've been a big shot,
calls this asshole's name,

and he gets excited to
see them, I had to think

it was somethin' to
do with California and

a whatever show he was gonna do.

He turns around, and
he says, "Here, Bella,"

and throws the
monkey in my arms.

The monkey looked at me,
and I looked at the monkey,

and I knew the monkey
remembered me.

Well, I got the biggest
(hissing),

freakin' out all over me.

She grabs the
monkey back, she said,

"You, you broke
my monkey's arm,"

and I never saw her again.

- At one time,
this was in the '60s,

you had to show that you
were staying with somebody

here in Cherry Grove before
they'd let you off the boat.

They just wouldn't let
anybody off the ferry.

Part of the thing was trying
to protect the community.

The reason why they were
doing this was to prevent

the Sayville types
from coming over

and beating up the guys,
the gay guys.

The guys used to come
by on motorcycles and

in automobiles and scream out,

"Oh, fuckin' faggots,"
and stuff like that

at the train station.

(upbeat electronic music)

- [Man] Drag queens used to
have to hide their clothes

underneath the boards of
the houses in order to,

because it was illegal
to dress like a woman.

- [Interviewer] Have you
ever heard any horror

stories about Cherry Grove?

- Horror stories, yeah.

Some guy was
murdered on Doctors Walk.

- [Interviewer] Why?

- In Limerick, do you
know the house Limerick?

Rough sex, he was the
piano player in Le Monster,

and they were having rough sex,

and the guy that he,
it's not funny,

the guy that he was
with stuck a sock down

his throat, and he
gagged to death.

- [Interviewer] And that's true?

- But they never
found out who it was.

- [Interviewer] And it's true?

- Yeah, it's a true story.

What do you think,
I make these things up?

- When I was working
at The Monster,

there was this guy going
around setting fire to houses.

He would set a
fire on one side of town,

then go to the
other side of town

and set a fire under
somebody else's house,

and it had everybody in
a total state of panic.

A maid in the Ice Palace
was cleaning his room

and found flammable
fluids under his bed.

The police came and arrested him

and quietly took
him off the island

early in the mornings,
before anybody

could see who it was,
'cause if they had,

they probably
would've lynched him.

- Years ago, there
was a young man who was

robbing people,
and he was finally caught,

and fairly kicked around
by some of the local

residents and was very
glad to have the police

come and take him away.

The evildoers over here are
meted a very strange justice.

- [Interviewer] Were
you ever worried about

getting in trouble
in Cherry Grove?

- No.

Just once, there was
said that they were doing

a thing on the boat,
checking everybody's bags

for drugs and marijuana,
so yeah,

they didn't have sniffing
dogs at the time,

so I put my little
wig on my head,

and I stuffed an ounce
into my wig inside,

and I just looked like
I had a bubble hairdo.

What can I tell you?

- There was an
author out here one time,

and he was gonna do a,
write a novel

about murder in the Meat Rack.

And we all went crazy,
"Don't you ever do that,

"because it'll give some
nut the idea to do it."

- [Interviewer] Do you
remember people being

arrested in the Meat Rack?

- Oh, yes, I remember
people being arrested.

Three guys that lived with us.

(somber piano music)

- In 1965, I had a guest,

and I was doing a show,

and he was supposed to
meet me at 2:00 o'clock

in the morning,
after the rehearsal,

that's how we
used to rehearse here.

I'm waiting and waiting,
I go home.

Anyway, he never showed up.

The next morning, since
we never had telephones

at that time in the house,

I got a telephone call
from the telephone

booth downtown, and he was
in jail on the mainland.

He went out last night and
he did a little cruising,

I guess, and they were
plainclothes policemen,

and he might've touched
him, boom, he was arrested.

I had to send $1,000
over to the mainland

to bail him out,
and he was terrible.

- [Man] During the '60s,
there were raids

by the Suffolk County Police
Department.

It was something that
happened with some regularity.

In those days, the Meat Rack

was all the way
up to Marilyn Walk.

- Well, we found out there
was going to be a raid,

we just was upset,
and "Why don't you just

"leave us alone,"
you know, they,

we don't do it in
front of them, and,

but they have come on our
territory now.

- [Interviewer] Were
you ever worried about

getting in trouble
in Cherry Grove?

- Yeah, I was, and in a way,

this doesn't, I don't think
speaks very well for me,

the danger of the Meat
Rack was one of the things

that attracted me to it.

- Frankie McNamara, he was
a queen that lived out here,

he's since passed, and I'm
very friendly with him,

and he was 10 years
older than me.

There were times that
people would go to the Rack,

that was the known
place, of course,

and one time they came,
all the cops,

not the rangers, the cops,

with flashlights and
floodlights and whatever,

and started to grab the
people and handcuff them.

Half-naked, half-undressed,
whatever it was.

Frankie was naked in the Rack,

completely bare-ass naked,
and I thought,

"Girl, you have no sense."

And she laid under the walk
that leads you into the Rack.

Under that, she was,
completely naked,

in the water, hangin' out.

Then, she floated
herself out to the bay

and floated herself
down to Aeon Walk,

and she saved herself.

- It was very disheartening
to see these poor boys

just sitting on the dock
at 7:30 in the morning

waiting for the police boat,
in handcuffs,

they would do it on purpose,

so people would see them.

- They used to take
you downtown,

chain you to the post,

the telephone pole,
and arrest you,

but they humiliated you.

That was humiliation, and then,

the next day, in the newspaper,

they would write a
whole article about

who got caught in the Rack.

Your name, your address,
your telephone number.

That was real discrimination.

- I was out in the Rack,
and all of a sudden,

headlights in a row off

of the beach just went on.

There were two, four,
six, eight headlights,

just went on,
I knew it was a raid,

and I could just
see my career going up

in smoke if I got caught,

and I got, maybe it was my
legal mind that went to work.

I said, "Well, I know
you can't go south,

"because that's where the
headlights are,

"and I don't know whether," I
didn't know

whether there were trucks,
automobile,

Jeeps, or what,
all I knew that there were

these headlights
shining from the dunes

into the Rack itself.

I also thought that

if this was this well-prepared

that maybe there was
somebody at each exit.

There was a eastern exit
that came into the Grove,

and there was a western
exit that exited into

the Pines, so there
might be a cop

standing there at
the exits to catch you

as you tried to get out.

So, that left only
one direction to go,

and that was north,
and the only thing

north was the bay, so
I headed for the bay,

grabbed a couple reeds,
broke 'em off,

and got into the bay,
and sat down in the

muck and mud of
the bay with the reeds,

and I sat there until the sun
came up.

I did not get arrested.

(chuckles) So, I don't
know who did that day,

but I never did, thank God.

- I remember one
morning in August,

this friend of ours,
knocking on the door,

very excited,
couldn't get his words out,

and he kept stuttering,
and we yelled,

"Say something, what is it,"

and he said, "The Meat
Rack was raided last night,

"and Marilyn Monroe died."

(somber violin music)

- When I first came, there
were still a lot of the

old timers that had
gone through that,

and what struck me
was that they could

talk about it with humor.

There was one that,
I knew him because

he was the lover of a good
friend of mine.

Years later, I heard the
story that they had met

by taking refuge under
the basement of a house

due to the raid
of the Meat Rack.

- The guy who ran
the Sea Shack kept a box

of money that, whenever somebody

was arrested, he had
his lawyer in Sayville

go and bail them out.

- There was a wonderful
straight couple out here,

Jim and Marie Fallon.

Marie came out when
she was two years old,

to Cherry Grove,
and she died at 92,

so for 90 years,
she come out here.

Jim was a lawyer in Sayville,

and he represented the
gay men who were arrested.

- Thank God for
some of the locals

that would go
to bat for them and

bail them out, but of course,

by that time, the newspaper
had your name.

- Ed McCarthy,
mainly, he took care

of a couple of people
and got them out of jail,

and Jim Fallon, and
these were straight men,

they were not gay, and
they were protecting,

as they said, that, "We're
protecting the boys."

- [Interviewer] Tell me a
little bit about the invasion.

- The invasion, well, the
invasion started in 1976.

It started, there was a drag
queen named

Terry Warren who was
an icon out here.

She was a great performer
in the bars and

in the theater here,
and she went

to the Pines for
dinner one night,

and John White, she
went to the Blue Whale,

and John White
asked his maitre d'

to ask her to leave because
it was a family restaurant,

and they wouldn't allow her
in because she was in drag.

Terry, more or less,
lived in drag,

even when he wasn't in
drag, he Looked like

he was in drag,
and he came back,

and it enhanced the rift
between the two communities.

I mean, people always
looked at us, like the Pines

was the upper East Side,
and the Grove was

the West Village, and
there was always that

competition that went on,
and I think that

sort of enhanced the feeling of
distrust

and dislike between the two
communities.

I mean, it just inflamed it.

On July 4th,
we were having a party,

and the subject came up,
and I remember

we were watching television,
and it was during

the Bicentennial, and they
had a massive flotilla

going up and down the Hudson
River, it was spectacular.

(somber music)

And the conversation
went on about John White

and what he did and how
disgraceful it was

and how could someone
in a gay community

be so closeted and close-minded,

how could he do that to his own,

how could anyone do
that to their own,

and it just sort of inflamed
everybody.

I don't know who said it,

but someone said, "Well, we
should go and show them,"

and "Why don't we have
a flotilla of our own

"in our bay," and it
just went on and on,

so we all decided to have
a little Pansymonium,

as we called it.
(upbeat techno music)

When I was homecoming
queen, I used to decide

to do something, and I would
call everybody up and say,

"We're all meeting at the pool,

"and we're all gonna be
Esther Williams today,"

or, "We're all gonna
meet in the Meat Rack,

"and we're gonna have lunch,"

so we use to have a
lot of these events.

So, now, this was to
become an event,

and we all got on the
phone and said,

"We're going to
invade the Pines,

"everyone has to be in drag,

"meet so-and-so at the dock,

"we'll order the water taxi."

So, it was sort of an event,

and everybody dressed in drag,

and there was a
small number of us,

and we went to invade.

To show, how dare you do
this to one of our own,

and we had no
idea what to expect,

but we went, and it
was very well-received,

it was rather an exciting
happening,

and we just decided
to do it every year,

and now it's grown
to what it is.

- Terry Warren and Suzy,
they were the only ones

that Jimmy married,
let go in drag.

Her and Suzy did drag
shows out here before

the rest of them did
it, I mean, they always

had the ball, and everything.

Terry died 25 years ago.

(somber ambient music)

- Before the Pines
had the Pavilion

and the dancing before that,

everybody came to Cherry Grove

to the Ice Palace and dance,

they all came from the Pines,

and so, liquor was turned
off at 4:00 o'clock,

but everybody stayed and
continued dancing until dawn.

Sometimes, I mean, I,
myself, would run down

to the ocean, throw yourself
in the ocean, come back.

A good number of us were on
minor drug kind of things.

You had the energy
to keep going,

and in the mornings, I remember
walking out to the beach,

and here it seemed like
500 guys walking back

into the Pines,
the sun was coming up.

They all kind of glowed, it
was just, it was marvelous.

- [Man] It hit here like a
nuclear bomb.

- [Man] Whole houses
were wiped out.

- [Man] When we come out on
a Friday night from working

in the city, we'd hear,
"Joe died, Al died,

"Steve died," five or
six of our friends

had died that week, and
any of us were vulnerable.

- We used to keep track
of the people we knew

who died of AIDS,
and we stopped counting

when we reached 100.

- I think it devastated the
community.

It was such an eye-opener
to so many people,

that early, early times,
to start seeing

everybody change,
I mean, people were

changing physically, and
it was such a visual.

I mean, if you lived in
New Rochelle

or Jersey City, or
something, and read about

the AIDS epidemic, it
might not have affected

you so much, but out here,
you saw your neighbors

losing 100 pounds or
getting Kaposi's sarcoma

on their face, and I
think it was devastating.

People didn't know what
to do or how to handle it.

- People felt that if
you got off the boat,

you were gonna get AIDS.

- There were definitely people
running around here, scared.

- A lot of people at the
time looked the other way,

especially at the
beginning of the epidemic.

We didn't know what caused it.

It was then, later on,
established to be bloodborne,

and there are a lot of people
that thought that maybe

mosquitoes would carry it.

- We invited some straight
relatives out here,

and they came home thinking it
was sort of a leper's colony.

They saw people very, very sick.

- The fact that I'm 87,
I'm damn glad to be here,

because there were an awful
lot of my contemporaries

who didn't make it,
I can assure you.

I could go right down
Lewis Walk, practically,

and I'm sure I could give you

a half a dozen names
of people who died.

- My friend Paul.

Paul, he was in a
house on Fire Island,

people were in that
house for a long time,

Bella and I, and a bunch.

My friend Joey, Joey Yvonne.

Aljean, and all the,
Jackie Morrell,

many, many, I could go on,
I could go on.

- The guys I spent so
much time with,

they were good friends,

and it was heartbreaking
when they died.

- Boys started dying, all
the men who owned homes

started to die off.

Women were making a lot
more money in their jobs.

- And there was a slogan
at the time,

"Men die, and the women buy."

- Women started to
have the kinds of jobs

where they made the money
to be able to come out here,

and there was more opportunity
to do that,

because of the demographic
changing.

- There was a real time
when this town was torn.

Gay men were dying of AIDS,
and lesbians were moving in.

- I remember the
memorial service,

the listing of people, you know,

60 names long,
that had passed along.

- Two pages of names for the
memorial service every year.

Two pages.

Lost a lot of friends.

And all I kept saying was,
"It is not fair

"to die from sex, that's a
ridiculous reason to die."

- Oh, I think it put
us through a protracted

mourning period, and a
period of cohesiveness,

of coming together, we
discovered a sense

of responsibility and
caring for each other

that we were less aware of
prior.

- Well, hello, buddies.

Welcome to our beautiful island.

Today is your day, please
use our island, use us.

We can't say how.

Have a great time,
we love you, thank you.

(crowd applauding and cheering)

- I think we, out here,
more than in the city,

felt a lot of compassion
for AIDS and HIV people.

I don't know why that is,
but that's how

I found it, I know on the
invasion, for instance,

people who were ill felt very
free to come

and participate in the
invasion, it was a free day

to have fun,
and I know in the city

people often didn't
go to public events

because they were so
self-conscious,

but I think out here
on the island

we all loved each other so much

that there was a certain
freedom about the experience.

- The thing I love about the
Meat Rack is,

that I've heard from other
residents here,

is that so many people who
passed away

had their ashes spread there,

and that, to me, just
speaks volumes, like,

that is the final place
that they wanted to be.

- I probably was lucky,
because I did

have a long-term relationship,

and that's probably what,
why I'm alive today.

- [Interviewer] Has the Meat
Rack changed over the years?

- Yes, it has.

Well, I haven't
been there lately,

to be perfectly honest,
so I don't know

how much it's changed, but
I remember in the '70s,

it was packed on both
sides of Cherry Grove

and the Pines,
and a very active place,

and I think the activity
lessened over the years.

I don't think it is what it was,

but it's still there.

- People are still joking
about the Meat Rack.

There's five people out
there, there's 20 people.

You know, it's not
like in it's heyday

of gloriousness, I thought.

- I mean, it used to be
a complete free-for-all,

in the best possible way.

And I think, you know,
that was probably tempered

a bit with the AIDS crisis.

- My fear is that the Internet

has made the Meat Rack obsolete.

- It has changed over the years,

and I feel like with
Grindr and Scruff

and all of, like, the gay apps,

no one really needs to go out
and see each

other anymore,
and it's all just social

media interaction,
and they police it now.

- [Interviewer]
What do you think about

people not being able to
lay naked on the beach,

or them writing tickets in the
Meat Rack?

- It's not the free

island that we had.

- There's a lot less
freedom allowed here

in Cherry Grove in certain ways.

I find that any of
the freedoms that

used to be enjoyed for free,

you can still enjoy,
but they're mostly

in venues like the bars and
restaurants

in towns have nights
where you're allowed

to take off your clothes
and have sex onstage

and do whatever you
want, as long as you pay

the cover or you're
participating in somebody

making money off of it.

I find that there are
much less opportunities

to do that in the
traditional places that

that was done in Cherry
Grove, like the Meat Rack,

or even on the beach.

- If nudity upsets you, you
shouldn't come to Fire Island.

This is our place to be free,

and that includes taking our
clothes off if we feel like it.

- Recently, it seems
that there has been

a kind of heightened
enforcement of

regulations about nudity,
about loitering

in the Meat Rack,
and it seems like very,

on the surface, it seems
a little homophobic.

- Because you're goin' right
back the way things were,

what, 50 years ago.

- The more that we,
as gay people,

become assimilated into
the rest of the population,

the more the subversive
or the underground

or the things that we did

that straight people object to

and still object to
will be cracked down on.

- I don't consider the
Meat Rack public.

That's the way I look at it.

It's like, I know
about that from,

you know, like, the
first season I was here,

and we didn't go there.

It was that simple.

- Government, and
governmental agencies love

to exercise their authority.

It's the only reason, sometimes,

that they feel like they're in
existence.

- Why don't they go find
some of these terrorists

instead of bothering us?

I think the terrorists are
doin' more harm than havin' sex.

- I do wonder, like,
what is the trade off

that we have now, that we
are so much more accepted,

that we can get married
in every state,

you know, like, there used
to be a kind of renegade

quality to being queer,
and as that lessens,

you know, I feel like
those kind of liberties

that we can take might get
diminished.

- [Interview] Do you
think that Cherry Grove

is as important now
as it was in the '50s?

- To me, it's very important.

I survived it here,
through all the years.

I felt that I was
accepted in this community

of Cherry Grove,
and this is where I live.

I may not live here 12
months out of the year,

but for the six-and-a-half
months I'm here,

this is my home,
these are my friends,

and this is my community.

I just love it here.

- The biggest argument
that you'll hear

or discussion that
you always hear is that

gays can go anywhere
in the world,

so they don't need a
destination,

and I actually disagree.

The reason I come
here is because

it's a community of my fellows.

- Even though there is more
widespread

LGBT acceptance,
you know, it has been

really powerful for me
as a queer woman

to be here, and to all
of a sudden be like,

oh, even in New York City,
where I live,

I don't feel as fully
comfortable

being out as I do here.

When I'm out with my partner
at dinner at a restaurant,

even in the part of
Brooklyn I live in,

which is very progressive,
there's still

a layer of shame
and a layer of, like,

that's so subtle and so deep,

I don't even notice
it until it's removed,

and when I come here,
it's sort of, like,

in the negative,
the absence of that

makes me aware that it was
there in the first place.

- Now, you can kinda be gay
anywhere,

is what people think,
but even, you can't.

In the streets of New
York, you can't be gay.

You'll get called a faggot
and this and that everywhere.

- You don't have to
worry about the judgment

quite as much, and I feel like
that's always been the draw.

- I think it still
retains its tradition,

its importance, simply
because it reflects,

I think, the entire history

of the gay movement.

- I've lived in New York
most of my adult life,

and I've seen neighborhoods
gentrify and change

and shift the value that
they bring to a community,

and I feel like that is
happening here,

but I don't think anyone
knows what the next

era will be for
Cherry Grove, like,

it might become a straight
community, it seems to me.

- Being the majority is a
different kind of experience,

and it's important, I think,
that we have that experience,

and I think it's important
that we preserve and honor

and build upon the
culture and the roots

that were laid down
in the 1950s.

- I really appreciate
what the people

did 50 years ago,
you know, to maintain

this for us,
so I would just say,

you know, like, keep it
for the next set of kids.

- I remember my parents
telling me they walked

to school barefoot,
and I always think

when I'm talking to
young gay people,

it's the same thing, you know,

when I'm telling them what
it was like when I was young.

So, I try to avoid saying
something like that.

Because, in 50 years,
it's going to be something

completely different,
and it's gonna morph

into something wonderful,
but probably very

different than we know it today.

(soft piano music)

- One of my favorite things is,

like, walking on the
beach at night.

I get to connect
with nature, it's quiet,

there's no one around,
it's just, like,

you and nature,
so I feel like if I could

never come back, the
last thing I would want

is, like, a night beach walk.

- If I could never return to
Cherry Grove,

then I would die. (chuckles)

- I don't know,
maybe start writing

little notes to myself, memoir.

- Watch the sunset on the
Great South Bay, mm-hmm.

- I would wanna kiss the little

chameleon that I
have on the door there

and wish it luck,
wish the house luck.

- I think have my
ashes thrown in the bay.

That would be it.

- I would have to walk to
the beach to see the ocean.

- I would just look back and
think of all the good times.

- The best thing that
I've ever gotten out

of Cherry Grove is the
relationships that

I've formed with other
people, so I think that

that's how I would
enjoy my last time here,

is being with the people here.

- Kiss my house goodbye.
(chuckles)

- I don't know what it would be,

because I hope that day never
comes.

(music swelling)

- The last thing
I would like to do

in Cherry Grove
if I can't return.

I'd keep singing.

Keep writing my column, I don't,

I'm not leaving. (laughs)

* I feel a song comin' on *

* It's a melody full
of the laughter *

* Of children out
after the rain *

* I hear a tuneful story *

* Ringin' through ya *

* Love and glory *

* Hallelujah *

* And now that
my troubles are gone *

* Let those heavenly
drums go on drummin' *

* 'Cause I feel a song *

* Comin' on *

(laughter and applause)

(soft ambient music)