"These coming-of-age stories from men ranging from 24 to 84 smash the stereotype that gay culture is exclusively an urban culture."---Chicago Tribune<BR><BR>"Fellow's project is a true achievement, one to take its rightful place in future studies of gay American history."---The Advocate<BR><BR>"Long before the make-better mavens of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy put their mark on mainstream culture, gay men have evinced a talent for collecting, organizing, renovating, and restoring that goes beyond mere gender stereotype. Fellows examines this tendency in this chronicle of queer pioneers in historic preservation, a concept at once original and yet so obvious it is surprising that no one has attempted it before."---Library Journal<BR><BR>"Will Fellows uncovers a remarkable time capsule of how gay folks lived and gathered a half-century ago in a small bar on Melrose in Los Angeles, interweaving the remarkable charm of bar owner Helen Branson's 1957 memoir with his own deft cultural analysis."---Tim Miller, performer and author of Body Blows and 1001 Beds<BR><BR>"An extraordinary picture of gay America on the cusp of revolution. Will Fellows has again produced something both charming and instructive that belongs on every shelf of gay literature."---Darden Asbury Pyron, author of Liberace: An American Boy<BR><BR>Vivacious, unconventional, candid, and straight, Helen Branson operated a gay bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s---America's most anti-gay decade. After years of fending off drunken passes as an entertainer in cocktail bars, this divorced grandmother preferred the wit, variety, and fun she found among homosexual men. Enjoying their companionship and deploring their plight, she gave her gay friends a place to socialize. Though at the time California statutes prohibited homosexuals from gathering in bars, Helen's place was relaxed, suave, and remarkably safe from police raids and other anti-homosexual hazards. In 1957 she published her extraordinary memoir Gay Bar, the first book by a heterosexual to depict the lives of homosexuals with admiration, respect, and love.<BR><BR>In this new edition of Gay Bar, Will Fellows interweaves Branson's chapters with historical perspective provided through his own insightful commentary and excerpts gleaned from letters and essays appearing in gay publications of the period. Also included is the original introduction to the book by maverick 1950s psychiatrist Blanche Baker. The eclectic selection of voices gives the flavor of American life in that extraordinary age of anxiety, revealing how gay men saw themselves and their circumstances, and how others perceived them.<BR><BR>"Fascinating, poignant, hilarious, and eye-opening. Fellows adds depth, detail, and insight to Branson's groundbreaking original work."---Philip Gambone, author of Travels in a Gay Nation