LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
CAMP Memories: Rehoboth's Gay History Once in a Blue Moon, Part II |
by Fay Jacobs and Libby Stiff |
This is one article in a series of remembrances, oral histories and tales of the way we were in gay Rehoboth during the Twentieth Century. The short vignettes are based on interviews, newspaper clippings and whatever lore has been passed down through the years in our gay-friendly town. This is the 20th anniversary season for Baltimore Avenue's Blue Moon Restaurant and cause for great celebration. It's diverse clientele is drawn from the entire range of communities here in Rehoboth, and visitors from the entire East Coast. But as the Blue Moon was getting excellent notices from food critics from the N.Y. Times and Gourmet magazine back in 1981, they were getting a different kind of notice from some folks in Rehoboth. For all the people delighted to have this upscale urbane restaurant in town, there were other people, very vocal, who were not happy at all. During the first summer of operation, Rehoboth Mayor John Hughes called owners Joyce Felton and Victor Pisapia into his office for a dressing down. It seems that somebody sent the mayor an article describing what he called "gay food in Rehoboth." Victor, who was closeted at the time, stayed very quiet. Joyce wanted to know just exactly what made food gay. "It's your clientele," came the answer. And the Mayor explained that there was no way this town wanted a gay restaurant. It was a warning. While Joyce and Victor worked seven days a week to keep the restaurant going, a mobilization was going on in town. There were meetings, sides were drawn and the beginnings of an organization called AGVOanti-gay vigilante organization. Just as Joyce and Victor were frightened by the reactions the Blue Moon unleashed, so too, were the members of the opposition frightened by this new community they feared and didn't understand. Amid the controversy, the Blue Moon continued to attract its diverse crowd and diverse reactions. It wasn't unusual for the restaurant to be pelted with tomatoes or beer cans from passing cars. Just as it wasn't unusual for the dining room to be filled with a mix of gay and straight diners, local business people and politicians. According to Joyce, on the night then-Governor Mike Castle was having dinner at the Blue Moon, a full 16 ounce can of Coors beer was hurled through the window just moments after his party departed. Fortunately, no one in the dining room was hurtphysically. Under the scowling eyes of city politicians and a police force completely unaware of or uninterested in harassment issues, Joyce and Victor held the fort. Joyce recalls the city posting police officers on either side of the Blue Moon, holding the restaurant management and customers to an extra rigid standard. "It's a concept called specific enforcement" says Joyce, and in itself, it was a form of harassment. And even as the police and city fathers were determined to discourage, if not disrupt business, the Blue Moon's neighbors got into the act. If the police backed off and took a less aggressive stand, obsessive phone calls and complaints about the eatery forced the police right back into the middle. Complaining neighbors and anti-gay residents had an agenda and the police were bound to investigate every call. By its second year in operation, when the Blue Moon added the bar area, tomatoes and other projectiles were regularly lobbed through the doors. "If we could find out who did it, we prosecuted every single caseand this was before any hate crime laws were in people's consciousness. Mostly the vandals just got a slap on the wrist but we were determined to have a zero tolerance policy for harassment." And the vandalism, harassment and threats continued for years. By the late 1980's, when three of the Blue Moon's regular customers were attacked on the boardwalk by baseball bat wielding thugs, the city waited for days to make any public statement decrying the violence. "It was a horrifying moment for me, when I realized that violence against certain people was acceptable." "I was afraid somebody would burn the place down. But we just kept going." Whether it was too much stress for Victor, or just time to move on, Blue Moon's original chef and co-founder sold his interest to Joyce and moved to Sydney, Australia, far away from Rehoboth. But Joyce kept up the fight. And the customers kept coming. All kinds of customers. In addition to the loyal regulars, gay and straight, who savored the Blue Moon for its sophisticated food and ambiance, high profile peopleFrank Perdue, Baltimore Oriole Jim Palmer, Congressman Barney Frank and Governor Tom Carperdined at the Moon. "The crowds didn't care about local politics or social unrest. They kept us in business," says Joyce. "We just kept going." And as they persevered, more and more gay people moved to Rehoboth, joined the business community and started to see things change for the better. By the time the Blue Moon had been in business for about a decade, Joyce helped Steve Elkins and Murray Archibald found CAMP Rehobothto create a more positive Rehoboth for all. And in the thick of community fundraisers or charity events, gay or straight, you'll always find the phrase "donated by the Blue Moon" prominently displayed. In 1997, Governor Tom Carper presented Joyce Felton with the prestigious Delaware Restaurateur of the Year Award. "I felt so proud. It was an amazing moment. I felt like a survivor." she says. Can you tell us more about these and other Gay Rehoboth memories? Rehoboth residents and visitors wishing to contribute their recollections, photos or other printed matter, may contact the authors through CAMP Rehoboth, or email Fay at mvnoozy@aol.com or Libby at lstiff@hotmail.com. We'd love to hear from you! |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 10, No. 4, May 5, 2000. |