Tuesday, September 1, 2009

The Statler-Hilton Hotel Bar - Detroit Michigan (Gay bar)

 
 
This hotel was closed for years and is now demolished. I have heard stories of it being a gay hang out back in the day. It is located at Washington and Grand Circus Park. Bob Damron's 1968 guide book says "Mixed crowd and or tourists" and "Pretty elegant, usually a jacket and tie advised if not required." I don't know anything about what this place was like. Please post your stories and photos.

http://forgottendetroit.com/statler/index.html
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Posted by Chris H at 10:28 PM
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4 comments:

  1. steveApril 14, 2010 at 2:06 AM

    Don't know of this place. It was not around in the 1970's. There was a downtown bar called the Town Pump. It was a real dive go-go bar where all the junkie hustlers would dance for tips. I remember one guy throwing his lame thong across the room. At first glance, he was kinda cute but then I noticed the track marks on his arms….

    I hear it's now a yuppie bar, how ironic!

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  2. giovanniJuly 10, 2010 at 5:24 PM

    The Town Pump was the only gay bar I ever knew of that had a Revolving Door like a bank! It was on Park Ave. I was a go-go boy there and everyone called the Pump, "The Town Dump" because it was so trashy. There was a pool room on one side and behind the bar on a skinny stage about 5 feet off the floor, there were one dancer at a time dancing. It was fun being in there as a job. I would come to work and dance in my torn tank top outfit and do a striptease routine while the music played on, and at the end of the night,when the lights came on and mostly empty, nearly everyone had left by then, and we would find things left behind.. like dead bodies under the tables in the booths!! It was a real WILD place! HaHa I lived over the freeway and up the street at the Camelot Hotel then and walked home in the winter with 3 feet of snow on the ground and would hear this pounding noise and whaddya know there were rats as big as dogs banging their noses against the metal garbage cans left out on the streets where they would chew right through the metal right through to the food inside!! There were some mean Rats in Detroit as well!! One good thing happened to me there at the Town Pump- I met Adam from London England who was a repretory theatre actor on tour in the States, and we became wild for a few days together and he went home and we were penpals for over ten years until he died in the 1980's-- my first acquaintance who died of AIDS. I loved reading his long letters and he and had a wonderful distant relationship argueing politics and all kinds of stuff. He was a fascinating guy, who just happened to be in the neighbourhood in downtown Detroit and went out for a brew one night and saw me doing my thing and I got him so hot that he HAD to have me!! (And me him!) This blog should have a spot for the Town Pump although most "decent" people wouldn't admit going there, like CT's as well because of the trashy reputation, but everyone went there and loved it like the Stage 618 in Chicago. No one would admit going there, because it was so seedy but it was okay to go to.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 1, 2011 at 11:47 PM

    go go boy, you fucken fag!

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  4. AnonymousJune 27, 2012 at 10:09 PM

    Thanks for your story. I hang out at the Town Pump now. I never knew it was a gay club. Thanks for posting.

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