The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's: A Gay Life in the 1940s

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Summary: This extraordinary memoir...is historically crucial!
Review: "A queer bar in St. Paul?," journalist Ricardo Brown writes in this vivid memoir, discovered posthumously in 1999, of his mid-1940s Midwestern youth. "I knew there were queer bars in cities like New York-I'd been to one-but I never dreamed a place like that could exist in St. Paul."

Disillusioned with Greenwich Village gay life at 18, and discharged from the navy for announcing his sexual orientation in the same year, Brown returned home to Minnesota in 1945-where he found a surprisingly thriving, if silent, circle of gays and lesbians, all of whom frequented Kirmser's (sort of the local gay version of Cheers). A "ma-and-pa operation" run by a German immigrant couple, Kirmser's served straight workingmen by day, gays by night-decades before the Stonewall riot brought such secret establishments out of the closet. But what really makes The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's tick are the unforgettable characters Brown met there, from Dale, who lost his job after an anonymous tip off about his sexuality, to "Flaming Youth," a fortysomething queen who could never live down his past, to Bud York, a handsome, all-American jock pumped with forward-thinking pride.

"This extraordinary memoir...is as historically crucial as it is eloquent,". "Never glamorizing or waxing sentimental, [Brown] convincingly, honestly and intelligently portrays the pain and the deep sense of community he and his friends experienced in the face of persecutuion."

Rating:
Summary: Interesting slice of history
Review: A fascinating look at a gay underculture that existed in the 1940s. I enjoyed the anecdotal style, the snapshots. I'm sure the author could have shared much, much, more about his life, but appreciate what he did choose to tell - those stories that centered around the bar and its patrons. Anyone who reads this book cannot help but come away with a deeper understanding of the social history of twentieth-century homosexuality. Thank you Ricardo Brown.

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Summary: Gay Life After WWII...............
Review: I am often leery of memoirs published by University presses as they tend to be filled with stoic facts, are often boring, display little emotion, and reveal very little of the real person being showcased. This book is certainly an exception in every way, as it reads like a novel, and is filled with fascinating, intimate details of Ricardo's life. Ricardo J. Brown's memoir offers us an exciting look into gay life of the late 1940's. Brown was discharged from the navy for being a homosexual, and returned to his working-class life in St. Paul, Minnesota. Most of this memoir centers around a bar called Kirmser's that catered to working class men during the day, and at night became a hang-out or underground club for gay men. It's Brown's own personal observations, feelings, and experiences he shares with us of the friends he made during these nightly visits to Kirmser's that are so enlightening, fascinating and fun to read. Some of the stories are sad and tragic, too. It's the honestly in the telling of these stories that will captivate you. A few personal photos have been included in this memoir.

If you want a glimpse into what gay life was life in the time before Stonewall, then this book is an excellent choice. It's a small book that's filled with the life of a time most of us know little about, but would like to know more about. Gay life in the 1940's was quite different than today and certainly very closeted. What will always remain the same whether it is 1945 or today is the love, emotions, and personal intimacy that people share and have in common. A remarkable memoir!!

Joe Hanssen

Rating:
Summary: an important document, but disjointed
Review: I couldn't help but feel empathy for the author in facing the difficulty of his life, but at the same time the stories seem somewhat disjointed. There is no compelling narrative- only snapshots that illuminate various characters and traditions- like taking a figurine from the shelf, inspecting it, and putting it back. Each segment underlines the reality of gay existence before stonewall, but I also felt a certain lack of emotion in the writing- more of a filtered look at the past, than an open examination of what constructed the being. But perhaps the detachment I felt in the author's telling was what makes the book poignent- even after so many years, he still couldn't face the emotions he kept so dutifully bottled thanks to society's conventions. I can only imagine the pain, the loneliness, the heartbreak that was excised and lies obscured under the text.

Rating:
Summary: Nice read but left wanting more
Review: I eagerly approached "The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's" excited for a peek into gay life in the 40's in mid-America. While I found it a pleasant and intereresting read I felt myself wanting more. After reading it I found myself wishing that Ricardo Brown had gone deeper and into more depth about some of the people who frequented Kirmser's. Instead he often skimmed the surface leaving me wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: One of the best books, I've ever read. This book deals with working class gays,who are not int the closet, nor are they self hating stereotypes. This book should be given to every young gay male, starting out in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Spare, elegant memoir
Review: Ricardo Brown's posthumously published memoir of gay life in 1940's St. Paul, MN is a series of sharply etched vignettes of the lives of gay men and women at a time when homosexuality was still "the love that dared not speak its name." After acknowledging his homosexuality to his superior officer in the Navy, an act of almost unbelievable courage considering the time period, and receiving a dishonorable discharge, Brown returns to his home town and finds refuge amid a small group of habitues at Kirmser's, a seedy "queer bar" run by a German couple. The book is comprised of reminiscences about the lives of these pre-Stonewall gays and lesbians. Brown's gift for the telling anecdote and bringing people and places to life in a few well-chosen words is evident on every page. Paradoxically this results in the whole being less satisfying than it might be, as one wishes for more detail and context about these people. Still, for the modern-day reader, "Evening Crowd" is an fascinating window into the not-so-long-ago past.

Rating:
Summary: A nice look back at gay life
Review: Ricardo J. Brown has left a slight memoir in The Evening Crowd at Kirmser's (A Gay Life in the 1940's) that gives a few brief, yet important, snapshots of a particular time and place. The author pulls from his memories his experiences during a couple of years in a working class bar in St. Paul that had a gay and lesbian clientele once the sun rolled down. It is interesting, for a change, to get a bit of gay history from a working class viewpoint and not from the one of the usual coastal cities of America. For this reason, this is an important document and one wishes that there were many more like it. The writing does not particulary sparkle and there are many questions still remaining but this book does present a broad range of characters that identify as being different and are simply looking for (and finding) companionship. A fascinating little volume.