The Gay 90s in the Swingin' 60s and 70s

Towards a theory of the straw boater in midcentury America

Back here I contributed some observations on the midcentury fad for the 1890s. Anyone else remember that? From roughly the early 60s until the early 80s there was a vogue for the “old timey” that manifested throughout the culture, affecting movies, TV, music, literature, fashion, graphic design, typography, and retail. It also made an impact on restaurant culture. Remember when fast food joints like Wendy’s and restaurants like T.G.I Friday’s were decorated with Tiffany lamps, polished brass, and bentwood chairs? Maybe not because the craze seems mostly to have gone down the memory hole. But even before H.D. Miller mentioned it with respect to Shakey’s a friend and I had been talking about the phenom so I’ve collected a number of examples that I’m going to explore in this post.¹

First², what do I mean by the “Gay Nineties”? Historical periodization always feels arbitrary no matter which years are chosen as bookends. I think there are a few ways to define the period, from strict to broad:

• The strict definition limits it to the decade of the 1890s, so 1890-1899 or 1891-1900 depending on how pedantic you want to be. The advantage of this approach is its literalness — only things from between those dates are relevant. Makes things easier but that literalness is also its weakness. It’s not like one second past midnight on January 1, 1900 people collectively said, “Welp, the 1890s are over, therefore everything we did yesterday has to change!”

• I think a better approach defines the period by using significant events. Examples would be the “long 19th century” of 1789-1914, the French Revolution to the outbreak of WWI, or “the Sixties” being something like 1962-1975, the Beatles to the end of the Vietnam War. In the case of the 1890s, I think there’s a decent argument that it’s the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Others have pointed out that a decade doesn’t really get started until the second or third year.

• But for my purposes I’m going to go even broader than that. The European Belle Epoque is “usually considered to begin around 1871–1880 and to end with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.” In American terms that would be something like the end of Reconstruction in 1877 to the beginning of WWI. This encompasses the American “Old” or “Wild” West period, the Gay 90s, and early 20th century. Most of my evidence will come from the period between the World’s Fairs but some will come from the Wild West and years before WWI.

Am I being so broad that I sorta undercut my thesis? Probably! But I’m barreling ahead anyway.

Gay 90s before the 60s

Before the Gay Nineties fad took off, there were two influential precursors: MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and Disneyland. Here’s the trailer for the Vincent Minelli-Judy Garland classic, released in 1944, which centers around the St. Louis World’s Fair. Wiki describes it as a “gigantic critical and commercial success.”

Note the movie title font. We’ll be seeing many similar examples and variations.

Just over a decade later, Disneyland opened in Anaheim, CA. Disney, born in 1901, moved to Marceline, Missouri in 1904, about 200 miles northwest of St. Louis. Visitors enter Disneyland via Main Street U.S.A., a turn-of-the-century promenade based upon Walt’s childhood memories. According to a Disneyland souvenir booklet, “Here is America in 1890-1910, at the crossroads of an era. Here the gas lamp is giving way to the electric lamp; and the newcomer, the sputtering horseless carriage, has challenged Old Dobbin to the streetcar right-of-way.” In Walt Disney’s Disneyland Chris Nicols writes, “Disneyland itself is just as old today as the setting of Main Street U.S.A. was when it opened. The corner drugstore and the barbershop quartet were within living memory.”

The Red Wagon Inn, a now-defunct Main Street U.S.A. restaurant decorated with “authentic mementos of the gay and glamorous 90s,” appeared to be modeled after Delmonico’s, the 19th-century New York City restaurant considered America’s first fine dining establishment. Nichols writes:

Swift’s featured an old-fashioned potbellied stove and butchers in straw hats and cuffs…Performers such as the Dapper Dans strolled down Main Street entertaining visitors…guests could choose the “Delmonico style” wood-paneled Red Wagon Inn steakhouse…

A detail from the L.A. Times July 15, 1955 advertising supplement announcing the park.

A full page from the same advertising supplement.

Frontierland’s Golden Horseshoe Revue was designed by Harper Goff, a Hollywood production designer who also worked on Main Street U.S.A. and created the sets for the 1870s-set Doris Day musical CALAMITY JANE. From Disney’s website:

Relive the golden era of Disneyland Park at this old-timey saloon that’s been here since the very beginning…Take a look at the wall-mounted longhorns, which were chosen by Walt himself, the polished brass banisters and 1850s-style period chandeliers…

Peak Gay 90s in the 60s and 70s

The fad had its most significant run from about 1962 to 1982. Some examples from the wider pop culture before moving on to restaurants.

THE MUSIC MAN (1962)

Memorably parodied by THE SIMPSONS, the movie is set in a fictional Iowa town in 1912.³

HELLO, DOLLY! (musical 1964, movie 1969)

The musical premiered on Broadway in 1964 with Carroll Channing originating the role. Channing won the Tony that year, beating Barbara Streisand in FUNNY GIRL but Streisand would star in the Gene Kelly-directed movie adaptation in 1969. Notice that “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” mentions Delmonico’s. The second act opens in a restaurant.⁴

Whitman Old Maid (60s)

Pretty sure this version of the card game survived into the 80s. I have memories of that artwork.

PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (novel 1967, movie 1975)

The story takes place on Valentine’s Day 1900.

New Orleans Square (1966) and the Haunted Mansion (1969)

The new Disneyland area was based on 1850s New Orleans but Disney was inspired by the St. Louis World’s Fair which was held in commemoration of the Louisiana Purchase. It sufficiently recalls the Gay 90s that I think it can be included.

This video introducing New Orleans Square beings with Walt noting it’s “a century ago,” so supposedly the 1850s, but it ends with a Dixieland jazz band, which is more turn-of-the-century.⁵ Such anachronisms were intentional because Walt felt the park’s emotional impact was more important than historical accuracy. “Authentic turn-of-the-century costumes for such a place would have been mainly grey and white, but this would not be appropriate for the attraction’s cheerful mood, so we opted for colorful costumes instead,” recalled designer John Hench.

The Haunted Mansion’s columns, veranda, and wrought iron evoke a great Southern plantation.

Club 33, Disney’s exclusive, “secret” restaurant, is located in New Orleans Square. It’s recently been expanded and redesigned but here’s what it originally looked like.

MCCABE & MRS. MILLER (1971)

The Robert Altman masterpiece, one of the great 70s movies, is set in 1902.

This poster with the original title has an even stronger 1890s look.

THE GODFATHER II (1974)

The scenes with young Vito take place in 1901.⁶

Miller’s Outpost (founded in 1972 in Ontario, CA)

Unlike Pic ‘n’ Save below, the store branding extended beyond the font used in the signage. My memory is that the interior had a strong Old West theme — murals and dressing room doors that resembled the swinging saloon kind. Unfortunately I can’t find any photos to back me up.

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE (1974-1983)

The series takes place from the 1870s to 1890s.

Can we include the prairie dress on our list? I think so. Characterized by “ruffles, a high neckline, voluminous sleeves, and a billowy body,” Ralph Lauren⁷ adapted the prairie dress to his 1978 Fall collection.

This notes that “[b]y the late 60s, style had become quite theatrical…Fashion leaders began to sport long, loose and layered outfits, inspired by second-hand, or 'vintage' styles, often from the late nineteenth century and the 1930s.” Some more 1890s-adjacent, Victorian-influenced fashions from Lauren during the late 70s and early 80s.

LIZZIE BORDEN (1975)

The TV movie starring Elizabeth Montgomery, about the murder and trial that took place between 1892 and 1893, was popular enough that “Lizzie Borden took an axe / and gave her mother forty whacks / When she saw what she had done / she gave her father forty-one” was still a schoolyard chant when I was in elementary school in the early 80s.

Leon Redbone’s ON THE TRACK (1975)

Redbone “favored material from the Tin Pan Alley era, circa 1890 to 1910.” The album cover features Michigan J. Frog from the Warner Bros cartoon “One Froggy Evening” (1955), a character “who wears a top hat; carries a cane; and sings pop music, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley hits, and other songs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”

PETE’S DRAGON (1977) takes place in 1900.

THE STING (1977) is set in 1936 but uses Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” a 1902 ragtime song, as its theme music.

Pic ‘n’ Save (founded 1950 in Culver City, CA)

The only 1890s-adjacent thing that I remember about this store is the Wild West typography. My memory is that the store interior was plain. A minor bit of evidence but I’m including it anyway.

E.L. Doctorow’s RAGTIME (novel 1975, movie 1981)

The novel and Doctorow himself seem to be mostly forgotten, but the book was a hit at the time.

In this clip Patinkin plays a silhouette artist. Main Street U.S.A. has long offered silhouette portraits which “gained popularity in the United States during the early 20th century with artists doing them for people at state fairs.”

The climax of the Gay Nineties trend is probably the opening credits of CHEERS (1982). Although, taking another look, some of the photographs used in that montage fall outside the 1890s time frame, both before and after. But that typography and much of the illustration is definitely an 1890s callback.

In the season six premiere, the first episode where Kirstie Alley replaced Shelley Long, Cheers is purchased by a corporation and the employees are required to wear uniforms that have a Gay 90s look. Was it a reference to T.G.I. Friday’s?

I can think of two more TV examples, both from ABC sitcoms that premiered in 1985. The opening credits of MR. BELVEDERE were sung by Leon Redbone in his turn-of-the-century style and the season one GROWING PAINS opening credits featured the same art used by Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor.

Oh right, this is a blog about food. The 1890s trend not only affected pop culture, it influenced restaurants. Why not, a restaurant is another kind of show, right? Some of these places were founded prior to the 60s and may have had the 1890s elements from the beginning or they may have adopted the Gay 90s branding during the peak of the fad. Regardless, the recurring elements:

• Design: Old West font. Use of Art Nouveau, Gibson Girl.

• Decor: Hairpin bentwood chairs, polished brass, leaded-glass Tiffany lamps

• Clothes/Grooming: striped shirts (usually red and white) with vest, garter on the arm; derby, straw boater, suspenders, handlebar mustache.

Baskin Robbins (founded 1945 in Glendale, CA)

Baskin-Robbins eventually abandoned this branding in the 80s but recently returned to a modified form.

Swensen’s (founded 1948 in San Francisco, CA)

Another ice cream example. The original San Francisco location still exists and there’s an 1890s illustration on their home page.

Shakey’s Pizza (founded 1954 in Sacramento, CA)

I can’t add anything to H.D. Miller’s Shakey’s primer.

Shakey’s used to provide songbooks for diners. Did any customers start a barbershop quartet? Form a Dixieland band?

Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlor (founded 1963 in Portland, OR)

I had my fifth birthday party at the Farrell’s in Rosemead.

Baskin-Robbins, Swensen’s, Farrell’s — there seems to be a particular affinity between the 1890s and sweets/ice cream. Could the compatibility be connected to the ice cream cone being introduced at the St. Louis World’s Fair? Then there’s this piece which argues that a woman named Agnes Marshall wrote a number of influential books about ice cream between 1885 and 1901. Main Street U.S.A. used to have the Carnation Plaza Gardens and currently has the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor.

The Buena Park Farrell’s was located a block south of Knott’s Berry Farm. Even Knott’s had a late-19th-century attraction — a replica of the Bird Cage Theater that was popular in Tombstone, AZ from 1881 to 1894. The Knott’s Bird Cage Theater is where Steve Martin got his performing career started between 1963 and 1966. Knott’s was holding Gay 90s theme nights into the 1990s.

T.G.I. Friday’s (founded 1965 in New York City)

The logo in use from 1965-2004.

I’m not sure what the proper term is for those globe lamps and chandeliers, but that’s another recurring lighting element along with leaded glass.

This piece, where I got the above picture, has some good details about restaurants inspired by Friday’s:

In April 1966, Maxwell’s Plum opened a block from Friday’s, initially as a café for the theater next door. Three years later, Maxwell’s Plum remodeled and expanded its bar and restaurant into the old theater space, blooming into its full Art Nouveau-revival glory…

In August 1969, 26-year-old Perry Butler opened Perry’s, a clean, well-lit bar on Union Street that also found decorating inspiration in P.J. Clarke’s—with mirrors, a tile floor, bentwood chairs, framed memorabilia, and checkered tablecloths…

Martin Cate, cocktail historian and owner of a San Francisco tiki bar called Smuggler’s Cove, told “The Bold Italic” that [Henry] Africa wanted to scrub the Victorian saloon of its seedy “opium-den” reputation, making them more like “your grandmother’s living room,” with Tiffany-style leaded glass lamps, overstuffed Victorian furniture…

Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer (first published in 1969 in Pasadena, CA)

While the stores have a South Seas decor, the TJ’s newsletter has always been illustrated with old-timey art. In his memoir BECOMING TRADER JOE, Coulombe writes, “For artwork, I simply turned to nineteenth-century books and magazines, of which I built a large collection. I knew that (under the copyright laws of the time) works created prior to 1906 were no longer subject to copyright, so we were free to use the artwork.”

Pringles (1968, P&G)

The logo was designed by Arch Drummond who created an “image similar to old-fashioned bakery owners so that people associate wheat and potato chips with their favorite baked goods.” Mr. Pringle looks like a barbershop quartet cosplayer. Even though the current version of the mascot has fallen victim to the rage for minimalist design, the handlebar mustache still reads as 1890s.

Wendy’s (1969, Columbus, OH)

While the hamburger has roots going back centuries, it’s likely that its popularity got a big boost by the St. Louis World’s Fair. Dr. Pepper was created in 1885, Coca-Cola in 1886, Pepsi in 1893.⁸ Wendy’s striped, high-necked dress with billowy arms is period appropriate too.

Fuddrucker’s (founded 1979 in Houston, TX)

I might be wrong about this one. Googling reveals that Fuddrucker’s uses a Texas roadhouse decor which makes sense given its Houston origin. The last time I was in Fuddrucker’s was sometime in 2002 or so in Laguna Hills and I remember it sporting the Route 66 look. But I also have some fuzzy memories of the Fuddrucker’s on East Foothill in Pasadena, where the Panda Express test kitchen is now located, that had a Gay 90s interior. Maybe I’m misremembering? The name “Fuddrucker” certainly has a 19th-century Americana ring to it. Professor Frederick Fuddrucker’s Phenomenal Phrenological Formula (“Now with more morphine!”) sounds like a patent medicine that should’ve been for sale at one of the world’s fairs.⁹

While the above were nationally-known restaurants there were some significant local examples of the 1890s trend here in L.A.

Clearman’s North Woods Inn (originally founded in 1958 in Monrovia, CA but relocated in 1966 to San Gabriel, CA) and Clearman’s Village

With locations in San Gabriel, Covina, and La Mirada, architect Robert Frank Duff designed the North Woods Inn to look like a 19th-century Alaskan hunting lodge. The restaurants still exist and their cheese bread is an enduring work of genius that stands alongside only MCCABE, THE GODFATHER II, and Disneyland on this list.

The Clearman’s Village shopping center, located across the street from the San Gabriel branch, no longer exists.

Old Towne Mall (founded 1972 in Torrance, CA)

Another local shopping center, one that “did not have department store anchors but was focused on a mix of shopping, amusement and entertainment.” They only had the budget for one “e” so they couldn’t afford “Olde Towne.”

I only remember going there once when I was pretty young so I don’t recall that, according to Wiki, it had a turn-of-the-century wax museum, Civil War reenactments, and costumed Old Towne singers performing in the gazebo. The gazebo is another architectural element that connotes the late 19th/early 20th century.

The brochure from its opening.

Gay 90s (founded in 1960 in Beverly Hills, CA)

According to this the “Gay 90’s saloon was opened in partnership with a man named Charles Deering McCornick, the heir to the International Harvester fortune. The saloon was a smashing success, with people always lined up outside waiting to get in.” You’re telling me a bar inspired by a turn-of-the-century brothel complete with “pulchritudinous,” “beauteous feminine cupbearers” was a big hit? Gosh, you don’t say. Featuring piano and banjo music sing-a-longs like Shakey’s Pizza. An adults-only Shakey’s.¹⁰

Gay 90s Burlesque (founded late 60s? in Las Vegas, NV)

Racy as it appears, Gay 90s: Beverly Hills Vintage Cathouse Edition was outdone by this fine establishment in Vegas. The building still exists today as a strip club.¹¹

An ad for one of its more infamous acts.

Pretty contemporary!

Why the 1890s?

How to explain the Gay 90s fad? Here are a few ideas and observations not all of which are that convincing but then I’m not a PhD candidate in American studies trying to defend a dissertation so gimme a break.

• All of this “old-fashioned” and “old-timey” nostalgia happened during a time of significant social change. Given the upheaval, people wanted to remember a time of stability, or what they perceived to be stable. The 1890s connotes grandma or great grandma “sitting in the parlor,” small town life, a slower pace, comfort, reassurance. In The World of Yesterday, his memoir of life in pre-WWI Vienna, Stefan Zweig called it the “Golden Age of Security.” Industrialization may have been expanding rapidly in the big cities, but life still felt more human-scaled, less threatening, less mass produced or “efficient.” The Gay 90s was the apex of 19th century culture before the cataclysms of World Wars I and II.

• At the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair Frederick Jackson Turner¹² presented his frontier thesis where he argued that disappearance of the frontier in the 1880s closed out the first major section of American history. The Gay 90s was the beginning of a new period. It was the past but still relatable to someone in midcentury America.

• The approaching bicentennial caused people to consider the era of the 1876 centennial as much as the 1776 founding. The Revolutionary Era was too remote while the late 19th-century was more recognizable.

• The 60s and 70s were the heyday of Second-Wave Feminism so it was natural that people might look back to the First Wave, which lasted from 1848 to 1920. I also wonder if the influence of Victorian-era fashion during the mid 60s to 70s was not only some kind of nod to First Wave feminism but a pendulum-swinging-back reaction to the popularization of the miniskirt in the early 60s. From modern miniskirt to vintage maxi dress.

• Some Los Angeles-specific observations. L.A. was an isolated backwater for much of the 19th century. If you were in the east getting to southern California meant sailing around Cape Horn or taking the train to San Francisco then heading south by wagon. Midwesterners taking the Spanish Trail from Santa Fe had to cross Death Valley, one of the hottest, most inhospitable terrains in the world. Getting here was not only arduous, there wasn’t any reason to L.A. because nothing was here. The city didn’t begin to emerge as a major destination until it was connected to the Southern Pacific railroad in 1876 and the Santa Fe railroad in 1885. Oil was discovered in 1892¹³ and Mulholland built the aqueduct in 1913. The 1890s period is when the city began to take shape.

Continuing 1890s influence

Although the fad peaked and passed, the 1890s are still with us, influencing the “hipster” look in clothes, grooming, fonts, and restaurant branding.

Think of the “artisan butcher” in a leather apron, handlebar mustache, who shaves only with a straight razor.

When you think “classic barbershop” it probably conjures 1890s interior design.

It lingers not just in male fashions, but female clothes too. For example, the tradwife meme, prairie dress revival, and “cottagecore.”

A lot of good examples in this Vogue article from summer 2022.

What about restaurants? There are vestiges of the 1890s in my neighborhood.

The 1894 Wine Bar at Vroman’s Bookstore

The 1894 Wine Bar is named after the year that Adam Clark Vroman, an Illinois immigrant, founded his eponymous bookstore in Pasadena, CA.

I ordered The 1894 cocktail which is “pear sake shaken with agave and lime with a splash of sparkling wine,” garnished with a thin slice of (I think) dried sweet potato. Verdict: too sweet for me!¹⁴

The glass globe lamps provide only the vaguest echo of Gay 90s decor. Those chairs are midcentury modern, no hairpin bentwoods to be seen.

The Raymond 1886

Pasadena used to be known primarily as a city of Craftsman houses, most famously the Gamble House, built from 1908-1909. The architectural emphasis has shifted to midcentury modernism with the success of MAD MEN and as the population ages. Grandma’s heyday is no longer the turn of the century, her’s is the 60s and 70s. The Raymond is a Craftsman that survives, preserving the city’s late 1800s past. The tin ceiling and damask wallpaper strongly evoke the late 19th century.

All of this old-timey stuff called for an Old Fashioned.

This post is pretty California centric. Many of the examples either originated or were most popular here, so it’s possible the 1890s trend didn’t hit your area as hard. On the other hand, maybe it did and you have your own examples.

1. By “number of examples” I mean “this post is way too long” but at least most of it is visuals.

2. The lawyer in me had to resist saying “As a threshold matter.”

3. Besides the “Marge vs. the Monorail,” THE SIMPSONS has two other significant Gay 90s parodies: The Be Sharps in “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” and Moe’s Family Feedbag, modeled on T.G.I. Friday’s, in “Bart Sells His Soul.” Although I suppose the former is a more direct Gay 90s satire while the latter is a parody of the Gay 90s nostalgia that’s the subject of this post.

4. I saw the 2017 Broadway revival of HELLO, DOLLY! with Bette Midler and it was pretty good. I have now mentioned Garland, Streisand, and Midler in the same post, hitting the gay musical theater trifecta.

5. Disneyland used to have Dixieland jazz nights from 1960 to 1970 where Kid Ory and Louis Armstrong would play until 2am. The shows drew thousands. I’m not kidding. On Grad Nite in 1993 I got P.M. Dawn and Jon Secada. Big come down.

6. I wanted to include the rooftop sequence where Vito murders Don Fanucci but that scene is set in 1917 which falls outside our timeframe. It’s more WWI than pre-war.

7. Pronounced LAWR-en, NOT la-REN. Think square WASP not faux French.

8. The period from the 1860s to Prohibition is considered the Golden Age of Cocktails, when many of the most famous were created. The Manhattan, Gin Fizz, Sazerac, Gimlet, Stinger, Martini, Daiquiri, Singapore Sling, and Negroni were all invented during the 1880s to early 1900s. David Wondrich’s Imbibe! is highly recommended.

9. The Great American Medicine Show is a good book about Old Weird America.

10. Look at the dude in the lower left gazing up at that leggy beauty. That’s the happiest he’s ever been.

11. The link is SFW.

12. This has to be the only thing ever written in history that mentions both Frederick Jackson Turner and a trans stripper.

13. Paul Thomas Anderson’s THERE WILL BE BLOOD, based on Upton Sinclair’s Oil!, which is in turn based on the life of oilman Edward Doheny, takes place at the turn of the century.

14. I powered through and finished it anyway.