Thus, following Prohibition, liquor interests held significant sway in the city. During Prohibition, San Francisco was one of the “wettest” cities: speakeasies and bootlegging operations abounded. This created an environment in which queer spaces could become established. San Francisco has had a long history of opposing reform movements in the name of maintaining its particular reputation for being a “wide open town,” including anti-alcohol efforts like the temperance movement. As the 1954 police raid and ensuing press scandal at nearby Tommy’s Place/12 Adler Place shows, the connection and connotation of queer bars and nightclubs with prostitution persisted long after the Black Cat’s closure, and became more prominent during the moral panic of the 1950s. In 1921, the bar lost its dance permit and closed for over a decade, after women were observed mingling too much with guests, signaling possible prostitution. Gay establishments like the Black Cat had a fraught relationship with prostitution, which brought the attention of police during periods of vice crackdowns. Some notable regulars included the writers John Steinbeck and William Saroyan, and entertainer Bette Davis. The Black Cat Bar located at 710 Montgomery St., San Francisco California, was first established in 1906 on the corner of Eddy and Mason in the Tenderloin district.
