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I remember Julius from the 70' into the late 80's: Summer nights when it was so crowded that if you were near the front, you had to exit out the front door and re-enter through the side door to hit the head in the back. To tell you the truth, I've been uneasy about returning, afraid almost, because I'll be looking for the faces and the sounds I know now only exist in a ghostly world.
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You can be sure they will include facts, statistics, cold and heartless, but you will-you must remember the blood and guts of that fight, and how much Life meant to us then and I hope now too. Those who write history will never include the important things. As long as we tell the true story, never allowing them to forget, we're solid. Please don't ever lose those memories, the images of their faces, their names, and the fun you had together.
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For me, going back to past places causes me pain, but also keeps alive my anger and determination. I was around when the boys were creating GMHC, and as one by one, they fell prey to AIDS. I so well remember those days.when we were careless, silly, and horny. Said the bartender, "As long as the owner of the building stays alive, Julius' will stay alive." He figures at least another decade. And who knows how long this will last? Julius' has survived building collapse and seizures, and the landlord seems to support the bar. The bar is quiet enough and friendly enough that, if you're chatty, you can have fantastic conversations with men who knew the Village way back when. These guys went through Stonewall - they are not afraid to kick some hetero ass. The patrons will not tolerate idiotic, yuppie behavior. I am sure that's due to the gay factor, which protects Julius' as one of New York's best-kept secrets. Unlike other old bars, like McSorley's, Corner Bistro, and Chumley's, where you can only go during the day because the nights have been overtaken by frat boys, tourists, and girls with pointy shoes, Julius' has stayed authentic.
#JULIES GAY BAR NYC TV#
The kitchen, a grill in the corner, is cooking delicious burgers and fries, and the TV is tuned to Jeopardy. In the evenings, it's livelier and gayer, but no less gray. If you go on a weekday morning (Julius' opens at 11:00), you'll encounter a few regulars, older men in Yankees caps who sit and talk about the weather. A softball trophy reads, "It's not easy being the queen," and the straw I got in my mug of Coke happened to be pink. There is little in Julius' that marks it as a gay men's bar. On another wall, Walter Winchell tells you why he loves Julius' and Eddie Condon poses with '50s burlesque queen Lois DeFee. The bar may have come out of the Civil War and gone through days as a speakeasy, but the feeling you get is very 1950s. They are slick-haired men and women in furs, a few naked burly-Q girls, a couple of boxers. One wall is covered with framed photographs of the once-famous. (Though the breed is debatable-some say those dogs are Bassett hounds). "We think the original owner liked beagles," the bartender told me. Julius' tables, chairs, and bar are made from the brewery's wooden barrels and they're stamped "Jacob Ruppert." (The brewery was replaced by Ruppert Towers, an example of architectural "brutalism.") The footrail at Julius' bar is a string of beagles standing nose to tail and cast in brass. No one seems to know when exactly it opened, but the best guess is 1867 - the same year that the Jacob Ruppert Brewery opened in Yorkville, on the Upper East Side. In fact, go there for the vintage-bar experience, because Julius' is one of the oldest, unchanged bars in town. Now that Dick's bar has become the fratty 12th Street Ale House, where can you go for a gay dive-bar experience? The answer is Julius' bar on 10th and Waverly.