A White Horse

the memory palace

Nate DiMeo

Radiotopia, Publicradio, History, Natedimeo

4.8 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 June 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm

Notes and Reading:
* Most of the specific history of the White Horse was learned from “Sanctuary: the Inside Story of the Nation’s Second Oldest Gay Bar” by David Olson, reprinted in its entirety on the White Horse’s website.
* “Gayola: Police Professionalization and the Politics of San Francisco’s Gay Bars, 1950-1968,” by Christopher Agee.
* June Thomas’ series on the past, present, and future of the gay bar from Slate a few years back.
* Various articles written on the occasion of the White Horse’s 80th anniversary, including this one from SFGATE.Com
* Michael Bronski’s A Queer History of the United States.
* Radically Gay, a collection of Harry Hay’s writing.
* Incidentally, I watched this interview with Harry Hay from 1996 about gay life in SF in the 30’s multiple times because it’s amazing.

Music
* We start with Water in Your Hands by Tommy Guerrero.
* Hit Anne Muller’s Walzer fur Robert a couple of times.
* Gaussian Curve does Talk to the Church.
* We get a loop of Updraught from Zoe Keating.
* We finish on Transient Life in Twilight by James Blackshaw

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This episode was originally released immediately after a gunman murdered 49 people at Pulse in Orlando, Florida
0:06.6	Place where people danced that was four years ago today
0:14.2	This is the memory palace. I'm Nate DeMail
0:19.6	The White Horse Inn on Telegraph in Oakland opened in 1933 where thereabouts
0:25.8	No one's been able to nail down the date
0:28.6	Historians have tried as have some of its various owners it seems over the years
0:34.2	But if you're not an academic or if you don't have a personal financial stake in solidifying its claim as the oldest gay bar in the United States
0:42.2	To operate continuously in one location. It doesn't really matter when the White Horse first opened its doors
0:50.3	Just that it was soon enough
0:53.0	For a man to walk in on just the right night in 1936 or
0:57.5	46 or 54 and see the most beautiful man he'd ever seen in his life
1:03.0	And just be done for
1:05.5	Soon enough for another man who'd heard of this place heard of places like it
1:11.4	whispered about or mocked by the fellas in the assembly line or in the office or in his usual joint across town
1:19.0	Heard the cracks about pansies and perverts and queers and feared what they might mean
1:25.6	Feared why the words seem to cut right through
1:28.6	Sit strange in his belly and tighten his throat
1:32.9	But who fought through that fear to make his way there to the White Horse
1:37.4	Who may have circled the block all butterflies before working up the courage to park
1:43.5	Who may have walked right past it rather than be seen walking in by some stranger?
1:48.6	Or maybe he pulled his collar up and tipped his for door low and pushed through the door as fast as he could
1:55.1	And who may have learned that night in that bar?
	...

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