Ron Byers
Cruising for sex in the late 60’s and early 70’s was an experience that seems seedy and dangerous by today’s standards but at the time when there were no protected spaces for gay men to connect with each other they had to carve out their own places at local businesses that were willing to allow gay men to gather as long as some discretion was used.
The Pig N Whistle Lunch Room was one of those places. Located at 10548 Jasper Avenue, it opened around 1938 and was bought by local businessman Henry Wener in 1942. During the many years he owned The Pig it became a busy 24-hour spot often frequented by athletes, politicians and Journal staffers. In 1962 he sold the business to an Asian family who operated until it closed in 1975.
How Willi Z. figured out I was gay before I did is still a mystery to this day. We met while in Stratford Junior High School where we both played in the Band Program. During Grade 9 we joined the Cosmopolitan Junior Concert Band Club and our parents would take turns driving us to practices at Westminster School in the Glenora neighborhood. It was during these practices that we discovered the joys of cigarettes – which we concealed in our instrument cases leaving them smelling like tobacco. It was also when he introduced me to the surreal night time world of gay cruising.
One day he asked if I wanted to go Downtown with him that evening to check out a place he had been – I wondered to myself if I was daring enough to go out late at night without asking my parents. Later that evening I silently snuck out my basement bedroom window, carefully closing it so I could get back in. We met up and boarded the bus to downtown.
I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I trusted my friend as we rode until the bus arrived in front of the Corona Hotel. We got off and crossed the street heading to a cafe where the night sky was pierced by a glowing neon sign with 3 pigs dancing silently to the unheard music.
It was late – likely around 11:00pm – and it was busy. What struck me was that the customers were all male and it seemed they all turned to look at these 2 young kids venturing in and ordering a coffee at the counter. We must have been a bit out of place for most of the men – after all I was only 14 at the time.
Our coffee arrived and as I looked down I suddenly became familiar with what the term “greasy spoon cafe” meant. There, swirling in the coffee and added cream, were little globules of grease which gently clung to the spoon as I drew it out. Though I often wondered where the grease came from I felt it best not to really question its origins.
That night was the first of many over the following years and it lead to an array of eye opening experiences that my young mind embraced. On the nights that followed we often watched a parade of guys come and go – appreciating the glances and smiles they sent our way. Outside on the street the scene was even more colorful. Older men drove around the block in their cars – some convertibles – checking out the guys who paraded like peacocks up and down the sidewalk, seeking attention and a hookup.
The sidewalk was also shared by a small group of folks that were nothing that my upbringing had not prepared me for. This is where I first was introduced to the very small tight-knit Trans community. At a time where it was still illegal to engage in sex with someone the same sex, here were these “men” dressed to appear as women walking up and down the sidewalk. We got to know a few of them and hear their stories. They were on the street to make money offering blow-jobs for a few dollars – $5 if my memory serves me right. They could not get work dressed as their authentic selves and were denied welfare benefits by an uncaring society. The world had little sympathy for them and over time most left us too soon when the challenges of being a Trans person in the late 60’s became more than they could deal with.
Courtesy City Of Edmonton Archives
We would often hear stories from the Trans street workers of them routinely being rounded up and jailed by the Edmonton Police Services. It was rumoured that the EPS would sit upstairs in the Seven Seas Restaurant that was located across the road and take photos of the street workers. It would then be quiet on the street for a few days as they paid their penance and then were released back onto the streets – where they had to work extra hard to make up for the money they lost so rent could be paid and food purchased.
Perhaps the most jarring memory that still haunts me to this day is that of a middle aged Trans person we visited when a friend we had met asked if we wanted to smoke some hash at a place nearby. We walked the few blocks to a rooming house located a few yards North of the El Mirador Apartments. It was lightly raining that night and we walked up the stairs to the attic space where we were let in to a dank, cold, sparse living space where a single Trans woman sat smiling up at us as we came in. She explained that because she could not get work and was denied welfare benefits she had to hustle in order to pay rent and feed herself. Because she was now older the money from working the streets was not enough to afford very much. After a pleasant conversation we left and went back to The Pig and I remember thinking how sad I was for this person that society had no interest in helping. The memory of that encounter is as vivid today as it was back then. That was the first and last time we saw her, I remember our friend telling us she had passed away at some point not long after.
Over the next few years my friend and I graduated on to Jasper Place High School and often would head downtown to have coffee at The Pig or go a few steps East to another coffee shop called Jack’s Grill. Jack’s had also been around for many decades but had been know as the A-P Cafe and was located at 10534 Jasper Avenue. Around 1963, like The Pig, it too was sold and changed its name to Jack’s Grill. Jack’s wasn’t as popular as The Pig. It was brightly lit with stark fluorescent lighting and the walls were plain and had little on them. We would sit and chat with the music from the juke box being played from the table top selectors. The coffee lacked the “greasy spoon” attributes of its neighbor down the street… which truthfully didn’t disappointed us.
It was likely at Jack’s Grill that I first crossed paths with 2 other young guys that in later years became dear friends. At the time we really were only acquaintances and never spent much time chatting but now comparing our memories of those days we certainly shared similar experiences. Years later in 1976 one would become known as Empress I Millie and the following year the other became know as Empress 2 Chatty Cathy Jackson. Unbeknownst to my friend and I – it was just around the corner from The Pig, at a new nightclub called Pegasus owned by former local boxing legend Pierre Cochard, that these two did their first drag show probably in 1970-71 while still under age. The legal age was dropped by the Alberta Government from 21 to 18 on April 1, 1971.
One other place, which at times became a bit busy, was located in the Jasper Block building, which still stands today, was the Olympic Restaurant. Located at 10518 Jasper Avenue it occupied a space that had for several decades been the location of the Lido -based on signage seen in the images above. Little can be found in historical records about the Lido but we believe it is not the same as the well-known Lydo delivery food business. The “Guide For the Naïve Homosexual” – first published in 1971 – notes that the Olympic Restaurant “…has young, effeminate hustlers and old men.”. Records show that this place was only open from 1970 to about 1972.
In a bit of a twist in my life, Mallabar Formal Rentals moved next door to the Olympic taking the space at 10514 Jasper Avenue in 1972. I started working for them in 1973 but the homophobic retail staff and Manager decided THEY were uncomfortable with me measuring the inseams of the male clientele booking their tuxedo rentals so they moved me to the basement booking office along with the seamstresses. On the floor above me the dry cleaning machine pumped out heat and tunnelled it down to the “sweat shop” below. In the Fall that year I became the Manager of the Mallabar Dance & Theatre store which had recently opened on the other side of the restaurant at 10520 Jasper Avenue.
When the Olympic closed Arizona Pizza opened in its place and then a long string of a various other pizza places and food businesses occupied the space and were not welcoming to the gay clientele. Today this historic building still stands on Jasper Avenue and the main floor where these businesses had once operated is now the Rocky Mountain Icehouse.
Courtesy Google Maps
1974 became a year of change for this strip of gay cruising spots. Edmonton’s LRT construction began that year and that prompted a building boom. Both The Pig N Whistle Lunch room and Jack’s Grill fell to bulldozers clearing their way for the small 2 story building and Energy Square now located on the west part of that block.
These were not the only places where the “gays” cruised back in the 60’s and 70’s, you can read more about them in my next story….
Ron Byers
Ron Byers is a community leader and storyteller. Decades of work in Edmonton’s non-profit sector have given him an extensive resume of service as well as a unique viewpoint on our city and its history.
He has left his mark with many groups such as the Alberta’s oldest 2SLGBTQ+ organization the Imperial Sovereign Court of the Wild Rose where he was a Founding Member, the Pride Centre of Edmonton as part of developing its Aging With Pride Program and the Edmonton Pride Seniors Group. He also worked with the Edmonton Heritage Council and its Edmonton City As Museum Project (ECAMP) to bring stories of our Queer history to the public space. Ron also helped develop and monitor the Harm Reduction Program, PeerNPeer managed by the Queer & Trans Health Collective – QTHC (formerly Edmonton Men’s Health Collective).
He is also a positive speaker for HIV Edmonton, founder of Pride Edmonton and Rainbow Story Hub and the Cultural Events Lead for the 2030 Gay Games Bid Committee.
Rainbow Story Hub
Darrin Hagen
