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(Music)

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The Ken Eaton murder

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Ken was a public school teacher

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And that was back in the day
when you couldn't be a public
school teacher and be gay.

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So he had to maintain a closet

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Nevertheless, he socialized a
lot.

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Just a couple of months before
he was murdered,

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I'm at a party and Ken is also
there. At the time, I was

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Pretty prominent in terms of

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Being visibly gay in the city.
The media had found me.

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And any news story came up,
they'd come to me.

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Ken complimented me on stuff I
had done for the community.

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Over the last few years before
that,

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And he told me, he said, “John,
I can't be out

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And keep my job   so there's
really nothing I can do

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To help the community,” he said.

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"But do know that if there's
ever anything I can do to make a
difference,

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I'll do that.”

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About two months later, he was
murdered.

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And um..

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Everybody was looking for a
motive.

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(Dance Music)

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The police found out, of course,

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And they couldn't make heads or
tails out of who was this, who
would have killed him, how did
this happen?

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Nobody could put it together.

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There was a whole series of
coincidences that occurred that
was just bizarre.

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The first thing is they found a
list of

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Gay people in a gay organization
called the Gay Coalition of
Iowa.

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My name was on that list too,
and it was the first time

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They actually published a list
that would give your address and
phone number.

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Because everybody felt at this
time good enough

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And trusting enough that
everybody could find those
things out.

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But he had three names marked
with stars,

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And they just knew that was a
sex club.

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Nobody would break the news that
this was a gay man.

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His daughter wasn't willing to
say that, his family wasn't
willing to say that,

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Nobody in the media would say
that, and finally a reporter
from the Des Moines register

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Got to me, and

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I thought about Ken and I
thought, you know, he told me

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If there is ever anything he
could do

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To make a difference, he'd do
it.

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And I thought to myself, you
know, Ken? There is something
you can do now. You can let me
out you.

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So that this becomes the story.

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That it should be.

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And so I did - I told the Des
Moines Register that this was a
gay man and this was a gay
homicide.

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And I think it changed the
direction of the investigation.

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So they went down to the gay
loop,

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And they eventually found the
two men who had done that.

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And I think it was breaking

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The news that this was a gay
murder,

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Changed that whole
investigation.

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One day, a garbage man was out
unloading the dumpsters,

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But he went to an apartment and
he couldn't get to the dumpster.

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So the first coincidence is,
there were two cars parked in
front of the dumpsters.

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Usually you're not allowed to
park in front of dumpsters,
right?

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And then the second coincidence
- the guy decides he'll get out
of

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The dump truck, and he will go
over to see if there's anything
in the dumpster.

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When he looked in the dumpster,
he found

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A bunch of bloody clothes along
with some stereo equipment.

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He thought, “This is really
bizarre.”

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So he called the police. The
police put two and two together,
and figured out

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When the contacted these guys'
girlfriends, they gave them all
up.

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They knew everything that had
happened, and I believe they're
still in jail to this day.

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But that really shook this
community.

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First of all, because he was
such a well-loved

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English teacher at Brody Middle
School.

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And I remember even the person I
go to that cuts my hair

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He cut his hair too.

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And she said the whole place was
just devastated.

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There were gay bashings
happening in the city.

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The Des Moines Police Department
was not nearly as friendly

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Towards us as they are now.

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There was a time period where,
to be in a bar that was
frequented by homosexuals

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Was considered - you were
considered visiting

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A house of ill repute. And they
could come in and arrest you

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For being in a place where that
had homosexuals. Now how they
would determine that, I'm not
quite sure.

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But people didn't question it.

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And at that time, then of course
the Register, or the paper,

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Would print this person was
arrested being

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In a house of ill repute with
homosexuals the next day.

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And that would cause people to
lose their jobs,

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And it broke up marriages,

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And some people committed
suicide from it.

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So I think people honed in on

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The sexual part

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And also, where else did we have
to go?

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(Dance music)

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By now, City Disco and the idea
of disco was really grabbing

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Des Moines, and Chuck Brooks had
created a bar

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Called The Des Moines City Disco
Park.

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It was a second floor
establishment, and the nice
thing about it is

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The dance floor had lights in
the bottom of it.

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That was a happening place back
then. I'd never seen anything
like it.

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So, we had a lot of fun, and we
had about 600 people there

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Every night at City Disco.

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And they had people from Kansas
City coming up here, and they
couldn't believe how

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Des Moines had something like
this.

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The first bar I went into was at
4th and Court Avenue in Downtown
Des Moines

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It was called the Country Cove.

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It had been a straight bar
called The Cove,

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There was a great big sign with
the word “COVE” running up and
down, so in order to make it a
gay bar,

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They just added the word
“country” in front of it and
that's all she wrote.

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The leather bars

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And the bath houses of the 70s
and 80s

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They were highly sexually
energized.

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A little bit of everything
happened in the bars.

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Maybe the main floor,

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Which would be a bar much like
any other bar, but maybe they
would have a back room or a
basement

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Where clothing was optional.

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Or they'd have a cell set up

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It's a true story that one of
the bar owners

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Would find out about a gay
party, and would call the

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Police and rat on the gay party.

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The police would come in and
arrest everybody at the party
and take them in to jail for the
night.

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And the next morning, this bar
owner would show up

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And bail all of her own
customers out of jail.

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You want me to say? Her name was
Marlys Watson. May she rest in
peace.

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But the bar owners did not

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Necessarily act appropriately

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When a bar was going under,
suddenly it was burning down
too.

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Something happened at the City
Disco which was unusual.

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People that were gay would
invite their straight friends,

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And I remember dancing on the
floor one time and looking over,
and there's like eight people

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Just sitting like this, just
watching us dance as if we were
freaks.

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And I thought, I'm not coming
back here anymore.

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And I think a lot of other
people felt the same way,

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And pretty soon City Disco was
having problems.

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And then there was a fire.

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This was the second or third
time that there was a fire at a
bar.

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And it was beginning to look a
little unusual.

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Chuck was a tall, trim man with

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Kind of a pencil mustache. He
was not unattractive,

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But his biggest quality was he
was arrogant.

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Yes.

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Well, I even went home with him
one night.

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I had the hots for Chuck, and
Chuck had the hots for someone
else, and that someone else had
the hots for me.

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And so, eventually it worked
into a three way.

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However, the third in that
triangle may have burned a bar
or two.

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I had a good time with him. I
lived with Chuck for quite a
while,

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And Larry and his lover.

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And then they met some woman,
they got married in London.

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Well, as a person I liked him,
until I got to know him.

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And he was a conniving,
cheating, sonofabitch

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And then if he was having a real
bad run of things, or whatever,

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It mysteriously burned.

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But he was always out of town.

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He had somebody else do the
work. Hmm.

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I know who done it, but when
three bars by one bar owner

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Tend to burn, then I think
you've got a problem.

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That's one that we heard, that
Marlys had paid him to

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Torch the Cove, see.

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And what it was, we got torched.

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I think Marlys had something to
do,

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Cause we were, Country Cove, was
busy place.

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Really busy, you know,

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And Marlys didn't like it.

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The P S Lounge had a fire. The
Country Cove eventually burned,
the one I worked at,

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And then again it didn't burn
down, it reopened as The Barn
Door.

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That's at least three, and I
know there's a fourth one.

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I was one of Chuck's best
friends all of a sudden, and we
played cards together.

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We played poker together all the
time. I'd known him for years,

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But he started doing crack and
stuff like that.

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And that wasn't my thing.

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The I could see that when we
opened up

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The Barbell

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I didn't realize that Chuck

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Was dealing in crystal meth.

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I didn't know that, see, which
closed our bar.

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Because of that.

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I thought, here we have AIDS,
you're bringing this shit to my
people, trying to kill them, and
you don't care.

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This was not Chuck Brooks'
finest moment,

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But he had just brought a
shipment “ice”, I believe it was
from Chicago,

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I'm not really sure where he was
bringing it in from,

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But he drove his car up on the
curb in front of his bar,

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The Barbell Athletic Club, and
left the trunk open,

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And went inside. The police came
by with the trunk open,

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Full of methamphetamines,
sitting up on the curb,

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And he was very quickly
arrested.

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He had taken all of his
possessions, and had put them in

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The building next door - I think
he was kind of living in there,

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And yes, the car with the
Cadillac was on

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The sidewalk.

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But all of those fires stopped
after 1980.

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Because that's when Chuck owned
his bars.

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Sorry. See I wasn't really
talking to Chuck then, see.

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He kind of pissed me off and I'd
given him some money,

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And I had never got anything
back from him.

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He paid everybody else off, but
didn't pay me, see,

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So that ended our friendship.

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I opened this, I thought, no I
ain't gonna be like that.

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I'm gonna go for my people and
my community first.

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Now the East Village is a
vibrant

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It wasn't back then. It was kind
of a rough place.

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I never really saw prostitution
or anything

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Going on.

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It's like there's this surplus
store, there's these abandoned
buildings.

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It's the kind of place you'd
come to buy your pot.

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It stuck out, it was painted
this dark purple, but it had
huge bars on the windows.

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It was crazy.

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All black windows, so you
couldn't really see in.

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I would see some guys walking in
and out, and some of them were
just, you know, like,
intimidating.

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Or you'd walk in and everybody
would rubberneck around, and
you're like, “Ooh."

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It kind of creeped you out a
little bit, and then they'd go
back to whatever they were
doing.

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All these leather dudes were
just piled up right in a row
down the whole thing,

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And I'm like, “Yike.”

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The whole idea behind leather,
it's a statement.

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Well, leather can be taken many,
many ways. It can be very, very
hard,

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As SMBD - been there done that -

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Or it can be taken softly. But
it was a very big part of

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The Saddle when we started.

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It was really kind of tacky. I
mean, the ice machine was there,

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There was a stereo system on top
of the ice machine that was the
DJ booth,

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The tables were yellow formica
tables,

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It was nothing special.

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Now, we used to have the bar on
this side. It was all wooden
floor,

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And I'd polish the shit and then
put all the varnishes on it,

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But you could never make it look
good all the time.

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We were trying to find a name.

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I was gonna call it The
Albatross - the bird that hangs
around my neck.

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Somebody said, well you should
nickname it. And I said, “Call
it Mongo's?”

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“No, Blazing Saddle!” Mongo like
that idea, so there it went.

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I can remember the bartender
that when he waited on me

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Was just dressed to the nines.

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He was - the jewelry, the whole
thing,

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It was like, OK that's what I
want to be. That's what I want
to do. It was Gary Moore.

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Gary was on the other end -
bigger than life.

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Bigger than life and had a boa
on. So I went right up to him.

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00:15:48,848 --> 00:15:50,783
Right off he knew that I as new.

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00:15:50,783 --> 00:15:53,619
When I started working there,
the back bar

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Was cement blocks with boards on
it to put the booze on.

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00:15:58,758 --> 00:16:03,229
He let me kind of play with
things. The back bar that's
there,

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I designed and had built.

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Everything was a double. People
loved that. That was a great
marketing idea.

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00:16:12,238 --> 00:16:17,777
Every person at the bar was gay,
and you looked around and you
go,

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“Smorgasbord” It's like so many
men, so little time.

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00:16:26,052 --> 00:16:29,989
I had only been going there
about a week

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00:16:29,989 --> 00:16:32,425
And then I ran into - I sat down
at the bar -

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And I was waiting for friends to
show up, so I was drinking

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00:16:36,262 --> 00:16:38,898
My cocktail there at the bar,

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00:16:38,898 --> 00:16:44,437
And I didn't realize that lo and
behold I was sitting next to the
owner, Bob, Mongo.

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00:16:44,437 --> 00:16:50,009
Good ol' Mongo. I was sitting
next to him. And so we just
started talking,

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00:16:50,009 --> 00:16:52,011
He was a character. He just
cracked me up.

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00:16:52,011 --> 00:16:54,981
And he had such great stories.
He was a Vietnam vet, you know.

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00:16:54,981 --> 00:16:58,951
I mean, he was a man. I just
felt like I was a regular.

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00:16:59,752 --> 00:17:04,790
Part of being a bar owner is
being a showman. Ringling
Brothers or something.

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00:17:04,790 --> 00:17:08,427
Because you get so many
different types of people,

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And attitudes, and everything
else. You've gotta adapt

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00:17:12,365 --> 00:17:14,667
And figure out where they're
coming from.

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Not exactly what you would
probably picture as a bar owner.

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00:17:19,538 --> 00:17:24,477
It wasn't like he was dressed to
the nines because he owned a gay
bar.

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00:17:24,477 --> 00:17:27,713
It was like, nope - work boots,
work shirt, BOB.

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00:17:27,713 --> 00:17:31,684
It said “Bob” right on his
shirt. Bob is kind of a jack of
all trades.

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00:17:31,684 --> 00:17:34,854
And a master of none.

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00:17:34,854 --> 00:17:38,391
The first time I ever heard
about Bob,

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00:17:38,391 --> 00:17:43,663
My friend Morris - my queen
mother - had Bob

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00:17:43,663 --> 00:17:48,000
Reroof his house. Bob can do
anything.

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00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:51,037
Just ask him, you know?

258
00:17:51,037 --> 00:17:55,007
When you roof a house, you take
a knife and you cut the

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00:17:55,007 --> 00:17:58,744
Shingles off on the edge with a
nice straight line.

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00:17:58,744 --> 00:18:04,083
Well, Bob had dropped his knife
or something and had decided

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00:18:04,583 --> 00:18:07,720
He'd just tear them off. Yeah.

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00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:11,691
Morris had this new roof that
looked like shit.

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00:18:11,691 --> 00:18:15,828
That's the first time I heard
about Bob.

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00:18:15,828 --> 00:18:17,897
Bob was like Dad

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00:18:17,897 --> 00:18:21,200
To like 90% of this crowd.

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I never wanted to be some living
legend,

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00:18:26,238 --> 00:18:31,544
I'm just trying to be one of the
guys, you know? I get no
respect.

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00:18:34,580 --> 00:18:37,583
Every Thanksgiving and
Christmas,

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00:18:37,583 --> 00:18:44,757
I'd bring a big spread down
here. Anybody could come in and
eat for free.

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00:18:44,757 --> 00:18:48,728
One time there was this whole

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00:18:48,728 --> 00:18:52,231
Homeless guy walking down the
street, and he kind of looked
in,

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00:18:52,231 --> 00:18:56,202
And I said, “Sir, have you eaten
today?” And he said, “No.”

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I said, “You come on in. You
don't have to buy a thing. Fill
yourself up.”

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00:18:59,105 --> 00:19:05,044
He said, “God bless you.” And I
said, “No, God bless you.”
“Why'd you let that bum in?”

275
00:19:05,044 --> 00:19:07,046
“Cause he was hungry.”

276
00:19:07,046 --> 00:19:10,950
It really meant something to me,
and Mom used to get so mad at
me.

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00:19:10,950 --> 00:19:16,555
“Why, you got your own family,
come on over!” And I said, “Ive
got a bigger family, Mother,"

278
00:19:16,555 --> 00:19:20,059
“And the people need something”"
Suicide rates among

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00:19:20,059 --> 00:19:23,996
Gays and lesbians are higher
during the holidays

280
00:19:23,996 --> 00:19:28,734
Simply because they've been
kicked out of their homes,
nobody loves them,

281
00:19:28,734 --> 00:19:32,071
And I said if I can show a
little love and a good hot meal,

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00:19:32,071 --> 00:19:36,008
There be it.

283
00:19:36,008 --> 00:19:39,512
I remember starting to read

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00:19:39,512 --> 00:19:43,482
Papers - short newspaper
stories, never on a front page.

285
00:19:44,483 --> 00:19:48,454
About what they were calling a
“gay cancer".

286
00:19:48,454 --> 00:19:50,122
Or a “gay plague”.

287
00:19:50,723 --> 00:19:56,629
Well, that's something that's
happening in New York City or
San Francisco, it's really not
going to affect us here.

288
00:19:56,629 --> 00:20:00,132
AIDS had closed down most of
those

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00:20:00,132 --> 00:20:03,836
Highly sexualized environments -
Bath houses closed.

290
00:20:03,836 --> 00:20:07,840
Back rooms closed. And people
were dying.

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00:20:10,142 --> 00:20:16,882
So that changed the gay scene