Gene’s Music Bar, The Lasso Bar, and The Zoo Bar
by Paula Bosse
Gene’s Music Bar, S. Akard Street (click for larger image)
by Paula Bosse
In Dallas’ pre-Stonewall days, there were only a handful of gay bars in the city, and they weren’t widely known beyond those who frequented them. Those were the days when “homosexual behavior” was illegal, and vice raids on gay bars and clubs were frequent occurrences. In an interview with the Dallas Voice Alan Ross remembered what the bar scene was like in Dallas in those days (click for larger image):
Dallas Voice, Sept. 21, 1990
There was the well-appointed Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit (later renamed Villa Fontana), one of Dallas’ earliest gay bars, located on Skiles Street near Exall Park in the area now known as Bryan Place, and there were rougher, seedier places, generally downtown. Three of those downtown bars (which apparently catered to a “straight” clientele during the day and a gay clientele at night) were Gene’s Music Bar and The Lasso — both on S. Akard, in the shadow of the Adolphus Hotel — and The Zoo Bar, on Commerce, “across from Neiman-Marcus.”
Gene’s Music Bar (pictured above) at 307-09 S. Akard began as a place where hi-fi bugs could sip martinis and listen to recorded music played on “the Southwest’s first and only stereophonic music system.” Not only did it have the sensational Seeburg two-channel stereo system, but it also boasted one of the best signs in town.
Nov. 1958
The Lasso Bar at 215 S. Akard was in the next block, across from the classy Baker Hotel, and a hop, skip, and a jump from the elegant Adolphus. Its proximity to the impressive Adolphus meant that the Lasso snuck its way into lots of souvenir picture postcards and Dallas Chamber of Commerce publicity photos. Its sign was pretty cool, too.
March, 1958
The image below gives you an idea of what that block looked like at night, neon blazing. (This super-blurry screenshot is from WFAA-Channel 8 coverage of 1969’s Texas-OU weekend, here — at 6:16 and 9:13.)
The Zoo Bar at 1600 Commerce began as a cocktail lounge and often had live piano music. It was across from Neiman’s and it was 3 blocks from Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club (downtown Dallas ain’t what it used to be). It also had a better-than-average sign.
1966
Nov., 1963
Sept., 1952
These three downtown bars, popular as hangouts for gay men, had their heyday in the 1960s and ’70s. By the mid 1970s, the LGBT scene was shifting to Oak Lawn. An interesting article about the uneasy relationship between the “old” Oak Lawn and the “new” Oak Lawn can be found in a Dallas Morning News article by Steve Blow titled “Last Oak Lawn Settlers Brought Controversy” (Dec. 9, 1979).
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Sources & Notes
Top photo of Gene’s Music Bar is from the blog Old Dallas Stuff.
Color photo of the Lasso and the Adolphus is from an old postcard. Black-and-white photo of the Lasso and the Adolphus is from the Texas Historical Commission site, here.
Blurry shot of Gene’s Music Bar and the Lasso Bar at night is a cropped screenshot from daily footage shot by WFAA-Channel 8 on Oct. 11, 1969 — the night before the Texas-OU game; from the WFAA Newsfilm Collection, G. William Jones Film and Video Archive, Hamon Arts Library, SMU.
Color image of the Zoo Bar and Commerce Street is a screenshot from home movie footage of the 1966 Memorial Day parade in downtown Dallas, shot by Lawrence W. Haas, viewable on YouTube. Black-and-white photo of the Zoo Bar from the Sixth Floor Museum Collection, via the Portal to Texas History, here (I’ve cropped it). Zoo Bar matchbook from eBay.
Read more about Dallas’ gay bar scene in the article I wrote for Central Track, “Hidden in Plain Sight, A Photo History of Dallas’ Gay Bars of the 1970s,” here.
More on the the persistent arrests and police harassment that went on in gay clubs in Dallas for many, many years can be found in the Dallas Voice article by David Webb, “DPD Vice Unit Wages 50-Year War Against Gay Men” (Aug. 3, 2007), here.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
Flashback : Dallas 
Steve Blow’s 1979 DMN article might be the first use of the word “gay” in that paper and is certainly the first time the paper wrote an objective story about the LGBT community in Dallas.
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I just went back to the DMN archives and found that the word “gay” had been used in the late ’60s a few times, but by 1970 the word began to be used regularly. The Steve Blow article might have been one of the first to present the Dallas gay community in a positive, human light.
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So from the article, one can assume that Adair’s bar moved from Oak Lawn to Deep Ellum due to the owner’s dislike of gays and the changing neighborhood demographic?
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Probably, but Adair’s widow (R. L. Adair died of a heart attack in January, 1987 at the age of 47) said the move to Deep Ellum in 1982 was because the Cedar Springs building they had been leasing was sold. (Adair’s parents ran the original bar/cafe from 1966 to 1977 and, apparently, owned the building, which was ultimately purchased by Frank Caven.)
The following appeared in the 1987 DMN obituary for R. L. Adair (the original owners’ son who was quoted in the Steve Blow piece linked above): “His parents owned Adair’s Bar & Grill in Dallas from 1966 until 1977, when he took over the business. He later renamed it Adair’s Saloon. Adair’s was formerly located on Cedar Springs Road but moved to the Deep Ellum area because of Adair’s outspoken opposition to the growing gay community in Oak Lawn.” I’m not sure who owns Adair’s these days.
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Interesting. Thank you for the follow-up.
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When I was first “coming out” in the very early 80’s I would frequent Cedar Springs ( I actually discovered the area in the late 70’s while in High school working part time for an Architecture firm on Lee Parkway) and would hang out at the Round-Up at happy hour.
One afternoon, two patrons walked out of the Round-Up and were immediately harassed by some patron from Adair’s. A fight began to ensue, and the other patrons of each bar came out into the street to watch. Neither side actually wanted to join in, while egging on the fight, but in the end the two gay guys whopped the Adair’s patrons butt, to which one of them yelled out, ” Dont F*** with the Fags, cause we’re butcher than we look” – to which “our side” cheered, and the Adair’s group just scowled.
Adair’s would soon move to Deep Ellum
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Have so enjoyed reading this…I moved back to Dallas in March, 1975 (Richardson High School, class of 1970) after college in Austin…also coincided with my coming out…and, yes, the first bar I ever went to was the Bayou Landing…I knew there were others, but this was the most well-known…I seem to remember that they billed themselves as the largest gay bar in the U.S., with 5 dance floors…I also remember another theater that showed these movies, I thought on Fitzhugh east of Central Expressway…Studio 9 does not ring a bell…they used to advertise in one of the Dallas papers with a tiny ad that stated “all-male films” – also remember the Encore on McKinney and, of course, Lucas B&B on Oak Lawn…thanks so very much for posting this…Dallas has come a long way…
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Thanks, Peter! Five dance floors?!!
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[…] Building that look directly across into other windows. (That must be … strange.) And since I recently posted photos of this same block of S. Akard, I immediately recognized the short building with the odd-shaped window (…I think […]
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While I dont remember the gay bars in Downtown, I do remember the book stores and the Trailways Bus Station on Jackson, which seemed to attract the Hustlers of the era.
I was in High-school and worked part time for an Architecture firm behind Lee Park and would have to go downtown to the Trailways to deliver things to ship. I remember the area at once scared me, and also intrigued me.
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[…] “Gene’s Music Bar, The Lasso Bar, and The Zoo Bar.” I love this — Akard looking north toward the Adolphus. This post also has another photo fave in it: the Zoo Bar on Commerce. […]
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[…] related post — GENE’S MUSIC BAR, THE LASSO BAR, AND THE ZOO BAR — was also fun to write. Both of these articles have great […]
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Nice article. My grandfather Gene owned those bars and more.
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Thank you!
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I enjoyed the article immensely. I knew Gene quite well. My aunt worked for Gene at the Music Bar for years. I used to visit her on my lunch break, and sometimes Gene would be there. He was a very nice guy. We all liked him a lot. She had known him for a long time. My uncle also was friends with Gene.
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I am 61 and I actually went into the Villa Fontaine on a couple of times when I was a young teenage kid
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