The resulting loss of revenue at the clubs, meanwhile, scaled back entertainment budgets. Crime - organized and not - was pervasive on Bourbon Street, and Garrison’s crusade scored some political points. This freewheeling era came to a close, in the eyes of many patrons, with District Attorney Jim Garrison’s vice raids in the early 1960s. Bands often performed in floor shows featuring burlesque dancers (who stripped to varying degrees), comedians, and other entertainers. It took off as an entertainment district in the 1940s, when wartime activity brought waves of visitors to New Orleans. Fasnacht attributed this to her insistence on maintaining an atmosphere suitable for the “cufflink set.” Her political savvy and her family’s longstanding relationships in the city’s bar business probably didn’t hurt.Īfter closing Dixie’s in 1964 the Fasnacht sisters moved a few blocks down Bourbon Street, where they continued the lavish Mardi Gras celebrations that they’d become known for at the bar.īourbon Street, one of the most famous streets in the country, is only 14 blocks long, running through the middle of the French Quarter. The police raids that dogged establishments frequented by gay customers were less disruptive at Dixie’s than elsewhere. Local bigwigs including businessman Clay Shaw were patrons, as were Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Gore Vidal. In the heart of the French Quarter, the clientele included assorted bohemians and artists like the photographer Jack Robinson, who documented the community that formed around the club. In 1949, Dixie’s moved here, to what was at the time a quiet block of Bourbon Street, and the Fasnacht sisters took up residence above the bar. It is now on display on the second floor of the New Orleans Jazz Museum at the Old U.S. Visiting celebrities added their signatures to it over the years. It depicted dozens of musicians and artists, from Louis Prima to Lena Horne to Salvador Dali. The author Lyle Saxon, a regular at Dixie’s Bar of Music, connected the Fasnachts to the painter Xavier Gonzalez, who produced a 29-foot long painting for the barroom in the 40s. Before opening her club, she toured the country with her all-female jazz band called the Southland Rhythm Girls. Nicholls School in New Orleans alongside the Boswell Sisters, who went on to national fame as a vocal group. Her house band included a pianist named Dorothy Sloop, whom Fasnacht called Sloopy-the nickname reportedly went on to inspire the number one hit song “Hang On Sloopy.”Īs a child in the 1920s, Fasnacht studied music and the arts at Francis T.
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A clarinetist and bandleader, Miss Dixie regularly provided the entertainment herself. Miss Dixie opened the club with her sister, Miss Irma, in 1939 (its original location was on St. A generation before the Stonewall Riots, it served as a safe space for the gay community in New Orleans and attracted visitors from around the country. By design or not, today it is considered among the most important gay bars in American history. Yvonne Fasnacht, known as Miss Dixie, said she didn’t conceive of Dixie’s Bar of Music as a gay bar.