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Garden of Allah (cabaret)

1946 establishments in Washington (state)1956 disestablishments in Washington (state)CabaretHistory of SeattleKing County, Washington geography stubs
LGBT culture in SeattleLGBT stubs

The Garden of Allah was a mid-20th century gay cabaret that opened in 1946 in the basement of the Victorian-era Arlington Hotel in Seattle's Pioneer Square. It was Seattle's most popular gay cabaret in the late 1940s and 1950s and one of the first gay-owned gay bars in the United States. Prior to becoming a cabaret, the space had been a speakeasy, during Prohibition, and then a tavern. The Garden catered to all factions of the LGBT community, though heterosexual patrons, tourists and military personnel on leave also visited. Acts were primarily female impersonation, though some male impersonators also performed; the former sometimes included striptease. One act was the professional female-impersonation Jewel Box Revue, though that act was largely geared to and supported by hetero people.Patrons report that the cabaret became like a "family" or "support group," and Don Paulson, author of An Evening at the Garden of Allah: A Gay Cabaret in Seattle, noted that he believes the sense of community and group consciousness produced by the Garden was what made the gay rights movement of later decades possible.The Garden closed in 1956, when a combination of a rate raise from the musicians' union and a raise in city taxes on locales that provided both entertainment and alcohol put it out of business.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Garden of Allah (cabaret) (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors).

Garden of Allah (cabaret)
1st Avenue South, Seattle International District/Chinatown

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N 47.6 ° E -122.33416666667 °
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1st Avenue South 300
98104 Seattle, International District/Chinatown
Washington, United States
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OK Hotel
OK Hotel

The OK Hotel was an American bar and music venue located under the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle's Pioneer Square district. The club's 15-year-plus life span came to an end with the Nisqually earthquake of February 28, 2001, which damaged numerous buildings in the historic district.Most widely recognized as a prominent location in the movie Singles (1992), the OK Hotel was one of numerous active Seattle rock venues during the celebrated local scene of the late eighties. The first musical group to play live at the venue was local band Seers of Bavaria, featuring future bass player for pop-punk band Flop Paul Schurr on lead vocals. The club's debut headliner was Vexed, also from Seattle. Local bands such as Tad, Mother Love Bone, The U-Men, Screaming Trees, Green River (an early version of Mudhoney), Soundgarden, Bikini Kill, and Nirvana (including the first live performance of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on April 17, 1991) played at the OK Hotel; as well as touring punk, rock, and continental jazz artists. It is mentioned in "Thanx", the last track on Sublime's debut album 40 Oz. to Freedom. It was also where Queens of the Stone Age played their first live show.During the final years preceding the Earthquake, the OK Hotel had become a treasured home for Seattle's lively creative music culture, featuring artists Bill Frisell, Amy Denio, Robin Holcomb, Wayne Horvitz with Zony Mash and Ponga, the Living Daylights, Sweet Water, Medicine Hat, Black Cat Orchestra, and hip-hop group The Physics. Renovation of the building was completed in 2004 as residential property with 42 living spaces and artist studios which are open to the public during First Thursday Artwalks.