GLR May-June 2026

Carol’s Speakeasy, with a capacity of 1,300, was not just a bar; it was a community center. Roller Sundays (bring your own skates) were known as “drunkenness on wheels.” A dry-ice ma chine created waist-high fog for the half-naked dancers. “Tillie the Bearded Lady,” a bear of a drag queen, mud-wrestled in cake mix and dealt drugs out of the coat-check room. Carol’s of fered all-night boat cruises on Lake Michigan. But Carol had her problems, including multiple police raids. Undercover offi cers complained of having their genitals fondled but were more concerned about overcrowded conditions, a backdoor that wouldn’t open, nonfunctioning fire sprinklers, and exposed electrical wiring. Richard Farnham Carroll died in 1979, but Carol’s survived until 1991, hosting many political fundraisers during the AIDS epidemic. Jeffrey Dahmer, one of its last pa trons, confessed to murdering Jeremiah (Jeremy) Weinberger, whom he met at Carol’s and who worked at the Bijou Theater. The 77-seat Bijou opened in 1971 and survived until 2015. To obtain a legitimate theater license, the owner first played Richard Nixon’s “Checkers speech” for four to five weeks. From there he moved on to Nights in Black Leather and Boys in the Sand . Victorino, a patron, recalls that the place smelled of “poppers, man and ass ... and the floors were sticky.” Jeff Stryker appeared in person to promote his films and sell auto graphed dildos for $79. Along with a bar, the theater had a “sex garden” in the rear. Glory Hole’s name was originally denied by the Liquor Control Commission. Owner Robert Hugel successfully refiled with an explanation that the bar was named for the Glory Hole Mine in Colorado. Ad copy shouted “Hot Men! Hot Music! Hot Dancing!” and the bar listing described it as “high camp.” It had a small dance stage, an above-ground backyard swimming pool, and a five-foot plaster penis hanging from the ceiling. Patron Steve Lutz described it as “the sort of place you could pass out at the bar, and as long as you weren’t bothering anyone, they let you be.” It remained open from 1972 to 1988. The Over 21 Bookstore (which opened in 1971) and the Peeping Tom (1979) were next-door neighbors. Peeping Tom employee Dean Ogren recalled that the Over 21 attracted a much straighter crowd, while the Peeping Tom was “gay, gay, gay!” Open 24 hours, it drew patrons from local bar traffic as a convenient place for quick sex. Ogren’s job was to knock on the doors of booths if a movie wasn’t running and say: “Quar ters, quarters.” Gay Chicago , “the gay weekly for nightlife news,” began publication in 1976, changed its name to Gay New s in 1977, and continued publication until 1991. Publisher Ralph Paul Gernhardt worked side by side (in his own apartment) with life long newsman Dan Di Leo. Karen Ross started as the typeset ter and moved up to advertising. Along with bar news, the paper was famous for its pre-Internet message board. Ross remem bers that before AIDS, readers would first check the astrology page and the message board. After AIDS, they went right to the obituaries. Nothing remains of these establishments in the 1300 block of N. Wells Street today. Carol’s Speakeasy sat empty for 25 years until it was demolished in 2016. Fortunately, Owen Keehnen has preserved the memories of those who reveled there. _________________________________________________________________ Larry Reynolds is a retired federal attorney.

L ARRY R EYNOLDS All on One Block

GAY CHICAGO MEMORIES: 1300 N. Wells by Owen Keehnen Ra tt ling Good Yarns Press. 208 pages, $21.95 O WEN KEEHNEN, Chicago’s gay Studs Terkel, takes us on a tour of nightlife in the 1970s and early ’80s on a single block, referred to by Chicagoan Malone Sizelove as “our Times Square.” The rapidly paced narrative of Gay Chicago Memories is composed of reminiscences from in terviews about Carol’s Speakeasy, the Bijou Theater, the Glory Hole, the Over 21 Bookstore, the Peeping Tom Arcade, and the newspaper Gay Chicago , all located on the 1300 block of N. Wells Street. Richard Farnham Carroll and his drag persona Carol had a raspy voice and was famous for his Carmen Miranda-style hat. He bought Den One, which featured a swimming pool by the dance floor, and named it Carol’s Speakeasy. Carol had previ ously owned Mother’s Coming Out Pub (which offered a free Sunday buffet, including beef stroganoff), Mother’s Other, and Carol in Exile (originally known as Garland’s, as in Judy), which was Chicago’s biggest beer garden, where you could “roast your own wiener.” Two Gift Subscriptions For the Price of One!

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