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SOUTHERN VOICE
OCTOBER 14/1993
Iasi cm n Mil’s
no better place to have suspense and a real eerie feeling of
decadence than a lesbian bar, because lesbians have always been
outlaws,” says Mary Wings, an author of lesbian mystery novels,
in the opening moments of “Last Call at Maud’s.”
Wings is one of many lesbians interviewed in this documen
tary who look back on their own lives and the glory days of
Maud’s, a lesbian neighborhood bar which opened in 1966 in the
Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.
The film, which opens
Last Call at
Maud’s
runs Oct. 15-21 at
Georgia State’s
Cinefest. For more
information, call
651-2463.
Oct. 15 at Cinefest at Georgia
State University, traces the
California lesbian culture and
bar scene in the years follow
ing World War II, concentrat
ing on Maud’s, which was
much more than a place to grab
a drink—more like a haven
and sorority house for 23 years
for a generation of lesbians
who knew all too well what it
meant to be an “outlaw” and live under the constant threat of
police raids. Not until 1973, in fact, was it even legal for a
woman to be a bartender in California.
Director Paris Poirer tells the absorbing story through a host
of guests at the last bash for Maud’s, which closed in September
1989. Maud’s owner Rikki Streicher, poet/historian Judy Grahn,
scholar Sally Gearheart, political organizer Pat Norman and the
founding mothers of the West Coast lesbian movement, Del
Martin and Phyllis Lyon, tell the stories that add up to a signifi
cant piece of gay history in which social life and political orga
nizing were closely connected.
The 77-minute film actually interweaves two parallel stories.
In the first, Streicher gives an anecdotal history, of the bar that
includes a clip of Janis Joplin, who was often found sitting at a
bar stool in Maud’s during the 60s.
More than 400 archival documents, including photographs,
This telling peek inside a lesbian bar in 1942 is part of the archival material in “Last Call at Maud’s.”
newspaper clippings, flyers and advertisements, were used to
place the personal history of Maud’s within the larger context of
gay life in San Francisco. The film could have easily fallen into
the home movie genre, but the historic documentation and the
women of Maud’s raise it to a much higher plane. It is an
authentic social history of the ebb and flow of lesbian and gay
life from the post-war era to the present, entirely from the per
spective of personal experience.
The other story is told by the patrons of Maud’s, both well
known and not. Perhaps the most significant and fascinating
stories come from Martin and Lyon, who founded The Daugh
ters of Bilitis in 1956 and the first lesbian publication in the
United States, “The Ladder.” Their memories of the 50s and 60s
underground, of bars being raided regularly by the police, are a
credit to the patience they mustered for many years when even
the most mundane facts of their daily lives broke the strict anti
homosexual laws that were on California’s books.
Martin and Lyon describe one mixed bar where, when the
designated lookout announced that the cops had arrived, the
male and female couples on the dance floor instantaneously
switched their same-sex partners for those of the other gender.
Despite having to live mostly hidden lives, none of the
women at Maud’s seem stricken with regret, bitterness or the
kind of anger that eats from within. These are strong women,
funny women, women you want to hang out with.
“Most of the women in the film arc sort of surrogate moth
ers, whether they’d like to think of themselves that way or not,”
says Poirier. “The younger generation needs to hear these stories
from their forebears if they’re going to progress. They need to
figure out where we’ve been so they can decide where they want
to go.”
Toward the end of the film, at Maud’s last party, we find out
why the bar is shutting its doors. One interviewee explains,
“Lesbians are sober and lean and marching now.” Lesbians
today do not need the bars like they did in the past, Streicher
admits. The refuge that Maud’s provided for so many years isn’t
so urgently needed any more because of the diffusion of lesbians
and gays into the mainstream.
“There are no more dyke bars, just the intermittent sex clubs
and weekend parties where lesbians take over clubs...and the
older women aren’t going there,” laments Poirier. “Women of
different generations wouldn’t come together except to see mov
ies like this. It’s a sort of virtual reality replacement for the bars
themselves in a way.”
In addition to its showing at Cinefest, “Last Call at Maud’s”
will also be showing at The Atlanta Lesbian and Gay Film
Festival, scheduled for Nov. 12-21.
CHRISTINA CASH
Tfourth
a lesbian organization
promoting social and
business networking
presents
What
presented, by
Dr. Joanne DeMark
is Your
Briefcase:
Developing Your Life’s Work in the Gay ’90s
Tuesday, October 26th
Programs held at Unitarian Universalist Church, 1911 Cliff Valley Way
Reservations by 5 PM on Fri., October 22nd.
$2.00 late Fee. Members $9.00 - Non-members $11.00. nn .
Information Hotline: (404) 662-4353 Ift)
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