home of short-haired women and long-haired men.” The reputation has stuck to this day, although there probably are fewer members of the Gay Set-as they call themselves-in the Village now than there were a decade ago. Guides on the rubberneck buses acknowledged it by bawling as they passed Sheridan Square: “And now we’re in Greenwich Village. The tolerant Village long ago acquired a reputation as a haven for homosexuals. Go somewhere else.ġ4 February 1954, Sunday News (New York, NY), “Bulldozers in Bohemia” by Worth Gatewood, pg. A little toughie, obviously the owner, came up and told him bluntly that he wouldn’t like the place. Not long ago a reasonably normal guy fell into a bird trap for a glass of beer. And they whisper nasty things about each other.įurthermore, only birds are wanted along the Bird Circuit. The crewcut-“Very Butch,” the birds say-is highly popular. Their shiny blonde tresses are slicked down. They never wear hats, possibly because they have just come from the hairdresser. There is never a gal in a Bird Circuit saloon. On the Bird Circuit it’s Old Homo Week all year long.
4:īut the most fantastic change has been the growth of “The Bird Circuit.” This is a series of East Side saloons which cater only to the gay set. Billingsley bars limp-wristers.ġ7 June 1953, Daily News (New York, NY), “Dream Street” by Robert Sylvester, pg. Board is carefully scrutinizing all hooch licenses issued to places featuring the name of some bird.This does not refer to spots using the word “bird” itself but to places which have peacocks, parrots, swans, pheasants, canaries, etc., in their names.The Stork Club is the top exception. The liquor authorities have discovered “The Bird Circuit” is the nickname for bars and joynts which invite the patronage of the town’s whoopsys.The A.B.C. IN THE Tennessee Williams play, “Camino Real,” there is a line referring to “The Bird Circuit.”. One sailor comes in-they faint!ġ4 April 1953, Muncie (IN) Star, “Walter Winchell In New York,” pg. They stand three-deep at the bar and look at themselves in the mirror and what they see is depressing. Oh, the hot spots, ho ho! There’s the Pink Flamingo, the Yellow Pelican, the Blue Heron, and the Prothonotary Warbler! They call it the Bird Circuit. The “bird circuit” term is infrequently used to describe a district of gay bars in any city.Ī person frequenting the gay circuit is called a “circuit queen.” “Bird circuit” has been cited in print since at least 1953, when it was mentioned in the Tennessee Williams play Camino Real. Police raids eliminated the bars by the late 1960s. The bars had such names as the Blue Parrot (on East 53rd Street), the Golden Pheasant (on East 48th Street) and the Swan.
The “bird circuit” of gay bars existed in Manhattan, along Third Avenue around the lower East 50s, after World War II.