All language subtitles for The.Last.American.Gay.Bar.S01E03.1080p_Legendas01.ENG

(Music)

The Ken Eaton murder

Ken was a public school teacher

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

So he had to maintain a closet

Nevertheless, he socialized a
lot.

Just a couple of months before
he was murdered,

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

Pretty prominent in terms of

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

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

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

Over the last few years before
that,

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

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

To help the community,” he said.

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

I'll do that.”

About two months later, he was
murdered.

And um..

Everybody was looking for a
motive.

(Dance Music)

The police found out, of course,

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

Nobody could put it together.

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

The first thing is they found a
list of

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

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

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

Because everybody felt at this
time good enough

And trusting enough that
everybody could find those
things out.

But he had three names marked
with stars,

And they just knew that was a
sex club.

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

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

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

Got to me, and

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

If there is ever anything he
could do

To make a difference, he'd do
it.

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

So that this becomes the story.

That it should be.

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

And I think it changed the
direction of the investigation.

So they went down to the gay
loop,

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

And I think it was breaking

The news that this was a gay
murder,

Changed that whole
investigation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When he looked in the dumpster,
he found

A bunch of bloody clothes along
with some stereo equipment.

He thought, “This is really
bizarre.”

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

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

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

But that really shook this
community.

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

English teacher at Brody Middle
School.

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

He cut his hair too.

And she said the whole place was
just devastated.

There were gay bashings
happening in the city.

The Des Moines Police Department
was not nearly as friendly

Towards us as they are now.

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

Was considered - you were
considered visiting

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

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

But people didn't question it.

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

Would print this person was
arrested being

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

And that would cause people to
lose their jobs,

And it broke up marriages,

And some people committed
suicide from it.

So I think people honed in on

The sexual part

And also, where else did we have
to go?

(Dance music)

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

Des Moines, and Chuck Brooks had
created a bar

Called The Des Moines City Disco
Park.

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

The dance floor had lights in
the bottom of it.

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

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

Every night at City Disco.

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

Des Moines had something like
this.

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

It was called the Country Cove.

It had been a straight bar
called The Cove,

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

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

The leather bars

And the bath houses of the 70s
and 80s

They were highly sexually
energized.

A little bit of everything
happened in the bars.

Maybe the main floor,

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

Where clothing was optional.

Or they'd have a cell set up

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

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

Police and rat on the gay party.

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

And the next morning, this bar
owner would show up

And bail all of her own
customers out of jail.

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

But the bar owners did not

Necessarily act appropriately

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

Something happened at the City
Disco which was unusual.

People that were gay would
invite their straight friends,

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

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

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

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

And pretty soon City Disco was
having problems.

And then there was a fire.

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

And it was beginning to look a
little unusual.

Chuck was a tall, trim man with

Kind of a pencil mustache. He
was not unattractive,

But his biggest quality was he
was arrogant.

Yes.

Well, I even went home with him
one night.

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

And so, eventually it worked
into a three way.

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

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

And Larry and his lover.

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

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

And he was a conniving,
cheating, sonofabitch

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

It mysteriously burned.

But he was always out of town.

He had somebody else do the
work. Hmm.

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

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

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

Torch the Cove, see.

And what it was, we got torched.

I think Marlys had something to
do,

Cause we were, Country Cove, was
busy place.

Really busy, you know,

And Marlys didn't like it.

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

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

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

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

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

But he started doing crack and
stuff like that.

And that wasn't my thing.

The I could see that when we
opened up

The Barbell

I didn't realize that Chuck

Was dealing in crystal meth.

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

Because of that.

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

This was not Chuck Brooks'
finest moment,

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

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

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

The Barbell Athletic Club, and
left the trunk open,

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

Full of methamphetamines,
sitting up on the curb,

And he was very quickly
arrested.

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

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

And yes, the car with the
Cadillac was on

The sidewalk.

But all of those fires stopped
after 1980.

Because that's when Chuck owned
his bars.

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

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

And I had never got anything
back from him.

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

So that ended our friendship.

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

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

Now the East Village is a
vibrant

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

I never really saw prostitution
or anything

Going on.

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

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

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

It was crazy.

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

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

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

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

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

And I'm like, “Yike.”

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

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

As SMBD - been there done that -

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

The Saddle when we started.

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

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

The tables were yellow formica
tables,

It was nothing special.

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

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

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

We were trying to find a name.

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

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

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

I can remember the bartender
that when he waited on me

Was just dressed to the nines.

He was - the jewelry, the whole
thing,

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

Gary was on the other end -
bigger than life.

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

Right off he knew that I as new.

When I started working there,
the back bar

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

He let me kind of play with
things. The back bar that's
there,

I designed and had built.

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

Every person at the bar was gay,
and you looked around and you
go,

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

I had only been going there
about a week

And then I ran into - I sat down
at the bar -

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

My cocktail there at the bar,

And I didn't realize that lo and
behold I was sitting next to the
owner, Bob, Mongo.

Good ol' Mongo. I was sitting
next to him. And so we just
started talking,

He was a character. He just
cracked me up.

And he had such great stories.
He was a Vietnam vet, you know.

I mean, he was a man. I just
felt like I was a regular.

Part of being a bar owner is
being a showman. Ringling
Brothers or something.

Because you get so many
different types of people,

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

And figure out where they're
coming from.

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

It wasn't like he was dressed to
the nines because he owned a gay
bar.

It was like, nope - work boots,
work shirt, BOB.

It said “Bob” right on his
shirt. Bob is kind of a jack of
all trades.

And a master of none.

The first time I ever heard
about Bob,

My friend Morris - my queen
mother - had Bob

Reroof his house. Bob can do
anything.

Just ask him, you know?

When you roof a house, you take
a knife and you cut the

Shingles off on the edge with a
nice straight line.

Well, Bob had dropped his knife
or something and had decided

He'd just tear them off. Yeah.

Morris had this new roof that
looked like shit.

That's the first time I heard
about Bob.

Bob was like Dad

To like 90% of this crowd.

I never wanted to be some living
legend,

I'm just trying to be one of the
guys, you know? I get no
respect.

Every Thanksgiving and
Christmas,

I'd bring a big spread down
here. Anybody could come in and
eat for free.

One time there was this whole

Homeless guy walking down the
street, and he kind of looked
in,

And I said, “Sir, have you eaten
today?” And he said, “No.”

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

He said, “God bless you.” And I
said, “No, God bless you.”
“Why'd you let that bum in?”

“Cause he was hungry.”

It really meant something to me,
and Mom used to get so mad at
me.

“Why, you got your own family,
come on over!” And I said, “Ive
got a bigger family, Mother,"

“And the people need something”"
Suicide rates among

Gays and lesbians are higher
during the holidays

Simply because they've been
kicked out of their homes,
nobody loves them,

And I said if I can show a
little love and a good hot meal,

There be it.

I remember starting to read

Papers - short newspaper
stories, never on a front page.

About what they were calling a
“gay cancer".

Or a “gay plague”.

Well, that's something that's
happening in New York City or
San Francisco, it's really not
going to affect us here.

AIDS had closed down most of
those

Highly sexualized environments -
Bath houses closed.

Back rooms closed. And people
were dying.

So that changed the gay scene