“Does anyone know the last time there was a drag show here at the Newtown Hotel?”, Minnie Cooper asked the crowd tonight. Instantly, my friend Graeme and I knew the answer.
On a Sunday afternoon in November 2007, Graeme and I were due to catch up for a beer, but to our surprise, the night before was the hotel’s final night after many years as a gay bar, and many years with drag shows.
For years, “The Newtown Hotel” had been a legendary “gay” pub run by the very famous/infamous lesbian, Dawn O’Donnell. It was a fun pub that you could hang out with your mates and have a laugh.
The pub re-opened five years later, as a predominantly “straight” venue, though definitely “gay-friendly”.
Minnie told the story of how she had been in rehearsal for a show at The Newtown Hotel, when the sudden closure occurred. Tonight’s show, she told us, was the show she had been preparing. There were lots of great musical memories of the 80s and 90s, and so both Graeme and I enjoyed it.
As I sat and watched the show, I couldn’t help but reflect on my most recent unfortunate experience at Darwin’s gay bar, “Throb”.
Nothing like that happened tonight at “The Newtown”, thankfully. The crowd was friendly, and incredibly young, compared to us, who you might unfavourably compare to “Statler & Waldorf”.
It’s great to see drag back at “The Newtown”, and good luck to Minnie and others for the return.
Good to hear about the Newtown. Your experience at Throb is in contrast to the way in the UK where, gay or straight, different generations interact with each other and there isn’t the ageism that you can find at times here.
Yes indeed. Sadly you see it far too often. Most commonly I see it on public transport where younger people fail to get up for older people needing a seat. They sit there, obsessed with their mobile phones “pretending” not to notice. “Get up”, I’ll usually say, and reluctantly they do. I have discussed this with lots of similarly aged women who say “You think it’s bad for you? How about being a 50 year old woman. You’re totally invisible”, a number have told me.
I can attest to this 50 year old invisibility!