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Vintage 1960s Portable Travel Bar Suitcase Hard Case

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Air travel in the 60s

Glamour, luxury and style?

Flying is not what it used to be. In the 60s it was glamorous and stylish. To fly meant you had arrived, you were part of the jet set. Certainly flying was still for the privileged few, but was it that glamorous?

In the 1969 film, "Billion Dollar Brain", Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) received a telephone call on an old Bakelite black telephone. A talking computer told him to go to West London Air Terminal and pick up a package from a locker. He took a taxi to West London Air Terminal at Cromwell Road, Kensington. In the locker were a thermos flask and an air ticket to Helsinki.

West London Air Terminal, built in 1963, was a modern, efficient looking building. It had a departure lounge and check-in desks, but no aeroplanes ever landed or took off from there. After check-in passengers and their luggage were transported by bus to Heathrow. The terminal was used exclusively by British European Airways (BEA).

Air travel had an image of glamour and excitement in the 60s. Air travel was for the rich and famous. The 1963 film "The VIPs" tells the story of a group of wealthy people stranded at Heathrow by bad weather. As well as Harry Palmer, the most famous 60s spy, James Bond, travelled by plane to Jamaica (in "Dr No") and Miami (in "Goldfinger"). The phrase "Jet Set" conjures up an image of well-healed and sophisticated international travellers. Today air travel seems far from glamorous. Yet even as far back as the 'fifties flying was opening up to ordinary people as well.

The effect of this change was that by the end of the sixties the actual experience of flying was already losing some of its appeal. Subscribers to "Which?" magazine picked up on a few of today's favourite moans: queues, crowding, delays whilst waiting for luggage and damaged luggage. The airlines themselves had been wrestling for years with the problem of transporting increasingly large numbers of people.

In the early 'fifties there was only one class of travel: first or better than first class. Such luxuries as cocktail bars, and even beds had been provided on transatlantic flights. Fares were expensive and passengers were either very wealthy or claiming the trip on expenses. By the end of the fifties, there were four classes of travel, deluxe (better than first), first class, tourist class and economy class.

Deluxe services gave passengers the very best that the airlines could offer. On the new jets, there were no flat beds or separate bars. Passengers, instead, had wide reclining seats and superb gourmet catering. BOAC's Monarch service was flying from London to New York with Boeing 707s in 1960. The advert stressed the Rolls Royce Conway engines that powered the 707, confirming that BOAC was still buying British. The 707s had just replaced Comets on this route. It also suggested that this was the Rolls Royce of air services. BOAC claimed that it was the finest service in the world.

The four class arrangements did not last long. Pan American only offered first and economy on its transatlantic jet service by 707 from 1958. In the sixties economy and tourist were much the same. Most European flights offered passengers a choice of first or economy/tourist. British European Airways offered passengers first and tourist. Tourist class passengers were given a seat with 34" pitch. First class passengers enjoyed 42" pitch and greater seat width, together with better food and drink. In Len Deighton's "The Ipcress File", the Harry Palmer character (he had no name in the book) told readers a free drink and an extra 6" of seat width made first class worth the extra money; if it was on expenses that was!

How much more money was it? A flight from London to Helsinki, a trip also made by Harry Palmer, cost 114 first class return and 80 economy by SAS in 1967 (1277 and 896 adjusting for inflation). If you are wondering, the same trip costs 289 economy and 820 business today. There are two interesting points here. Certainly, the trip cost more in the sixties to travel in economy than it does today to travel business class, but business only offers the same legroom as economy did in the sixties. The other important factor is that the price differential is much greater today. If you were able to afford the sixties' economy fare, you might think it was worth paying about forty percent more for greater comfort and better food and a more enjoyable trip. Nowadays it would be hard to justify paying nearly three times as much for the business class fare.

First class menus from the 60s were fantastic. This is from a Swissair menu, from 1966:

• Hors d'oeuvre
• Imported Malossol Caviar, Melba Toast, Butter
• Slices of Foie Gras de Strasbourg, Pumpernickel, Butter
• Fresh, Cold Lobster Bellevue, Chef's Sauce
• Glaced Asparagus Spears, Air-dried Ham, Sauce Mayonnaise
• Thin Slices of Smoked Salmon, Fluffy Horseradish Sauce
• New Zealand Shrimp Cocktail, Cocktail Sauce
• Real Turtle Soup
• Cold Vichyssoise
• Main Courses
• Prime Filet Mignon with Truffles, Potato Balls, Artichoke Bottoms, Grilled Tomato, Salad
• Veal Steaks, Swiss-Italian Style, with thin Layer of Swiss Cheese, Noodles in Butter, Braised Lettuce with Chipolata, Salad
• Poached Breast of Chicken in Curry, Pilaw Rice, Buttered, early June Peas, Salad
• Chops and Cotelette of Spring Lamb, Miniature Potatoes, Buttered String Beans, Salad
• Roast Pheasant en Cocotte, Sauce Smitane, Mascotte Potatoes, Leaf Spinach, Salad
• Swiss Speciality of Minced Veal with Button Mushrooms in Cream Sauce, Spaetzlis in Butter, Salad
• Saute of Filet of English Sole with Truffles, Diced Artichokes, Olive Potatoes, Salad

Travelling economy in the sixties could vary from airline to airline, just as it does today. In 1965 a journalist writing for 'The Aeroplane' made a round the world trip in economy class. He found that six-abreast seats with 34" pitch did not offer enough comfort to sleep. Some airlines even allowed more than the regulation 34" and some even served champagne to economy passengers. Free food for tourist and economy passengers had become common in the sixties. The seats in BOAC's VC10s had a reputation for being particularly comfortable so much so, that this writer felt that they solved the legroom problem. He also found that economy passengers were often infrequent flyers, and that they did not mix well with more seasoned travellers.

One innovation from the sixties that made flying more bearable in the less comfortable parts of the plane was in-flight movies, or IFE (in-flight entertainment). There had been experimentation with in-flight movies as early as 1925. However, TWA was the first airline to regularly show in-flight movies. Their first offering was 'By Love Possessed', shown in 1961.

Passenger experience of in-flight movies in the 60s was vastly different from today. They were only shown on popular long-haul routes. Not all airlines did them, although there was increasing competitive pressure to do so. There could only be one movie per cabin. It was either a video, or a 16mm cine film. United offered a 16mm colour cine system and the choice of several audio channels as an alternative.

Films shown by airlines were necessarily bland. They had to offend no-one and attempt to entertain as many passengers as possible. By 1966 there were over 200 daily feature length movies being shown by the airline industry. They were usually somewhat behind what was on offer in the cinemas. Nevertheless, passengers showed a distinct liking for them.

At the end of the 60s there were two radical developments that promised to shape the future of air travel: jumbo jets and super sonic travel. Concorde demonstrated supersonic travel in 1969 and the airlines were primed to take up Boeing's new 747 jumbo jet. At the time it seemed that supersonic travel would soon be a part of our lives, but it was the jumbo that really set the pace for the future. The first airline to fly the Boeing 747 was Pan Am. Their first commercial flight was in January 1970.

So was air travel in the 60s more glamorous? If you were flying first class, possibly yes. Paradoxically first class was more affordable in the 60s than today.  Against that you had to make do with a mere 42" pitch, bettered in most business class seats on long haul flights today.  There were fewer people flying in the 60s, so there was probably a greater chance of being next to an empty seat in economy than today. Some economy seats were better than others and most offered the regulation 34" pitch, putting most of today's carriers to shame. But with limited in-flight entertainment and no free drinks, it was hardly that much better than economy travel today. It was more a question of attitude.  Flying itself was exciting.  It isn't today.

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The Sixties were the greatest travel era – a glorious time of freedom and discovery

Hilary Bradt kicks off our six-part series on the best decade for travel with a compelling insight to the 'endlessly thrilling' 1960s

The Sixties, coming after the post-war austerity of the Fifties and before the arrival of guide books in the Seventies, were a glorious time of freedom and discovery – when even a holiday in Europe was a big adventure. 

Of course there were downsides, but these were no deterrents to the brave; indeed, they often favoured budget travellers like me. After the end of the Second World War, for example, the government took steps to protect sterling by limiting the amount that could be taken abroad. The Exchange Control Act of 1947 decreed that your travellers’ cheques had to be listed in your passport. A £25 per year limit in the 1950s was relaxed in the first half of the 1960s – but then Harold Wilson imposed a £50 restriction in 1966. 

Hansard reported the Opposition’s outrage: “The hon. and learned Gentleman may not be aware of it, but I have been looking at a booklet published by Sir Thomas Cook & Son which shows that British tourists are restricted to relatively modest hotels costing less than £3 a day. If they want to go to a better hotel, they can afford to stay for only one week.” Of course there were ways around this – there had to be. 

A friend’s mother used to send her £5 notes to a poste restante address inside Knorr soup packets since the foil beat Post Office X-rays. It was before the arrival of lightweight luggage too, but we penniless students cheerfully made do with what there was: assorted bags and, in my case, my father’s Bergen rucksack, canvas with a steel frame and weighing almost as much, empty, as a fully-loaded modern backpack.

Jet planes and budget airlines belonged to the future, but that was just fine for me because we had Brian Hughes and his train to Greece. Brian was an enterprising Oxford undergraduate who booked whole railway compartments to transport youngsters to and from Athens, travelling non-stop from Calais (no Channel Tunnel in those days) via Yugoslavia to Greece. 

Each compartment had seating for eight and during the day we travelled conventionally, watching the passing scenery become increasingly exotic. At night we rearranged the compartment for a tolerable night’s sleep. As Brian explained: “The luggage goes on the floor to provide a bed for two, then two on the seats and two aloft on the luggage racks.” In a postcard home I commented wryly on the latter: “Because of the bars I woke up segmented like a worm.”

Greece was a revelation. You stepped out into a blast of heat doing your best to act grown up and be interested in ruins but really longing to plunge into the Mediterranean and eat mysterious meals. No need to understand the menu, you just walked into the kitchen and pointed to the bubbling pot that most took your fancy. 

We all hitchhiked. It’s what you did. And we slept on the flat roofs of hotels for free or for a nominal cost. It was wonderful! An undeveloped country, utterly foreign and with no guide book to explain it. Unadulterated travel. 

I turned 20 on my first Greece trip in 1961, and I returned twice, though the third year saw us on our way to the Middle East, hitchhiking every mile of the way, sponging unashamedly on the generosity of drivers and the hospitable people of Lebanon, Syria and Jordan (which was considerably bigger in 1963), and taking in our stride the lechery encountered in Italy and the Arab countries. We were gone for three months, it cost £90, and that was it; I was now a traveller and I’ve never stopped wanting to experience new countries. 

In 1964, after seeing The Royal Hunt of the Sun at the National Theatre, I made it my goal to see the land of the Incas. But my job as an occupational therapist didn’t earn much (my first pay packet was £38 in cash) so I went to the USA where ‘socialised medicine’ was despised and an unbelievable number of dollars was paid into my bank account each month. 

I saved enough money to visit Iceland to go pony trekking, travel across the US with a friend in her VW Beetle and, in 1969, set off on my own for Peru, taking buses through Mexico and Central America, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru before taking a variety of vessels down the Amazon. I not only visited Machu Picchu but slept in the ruins on a bed of straw – one of only two gringos to visit that day. Such adventures consolidated my career as a traveller and writer, leading to the publication of the first Bradt guide (to Peru and Bolivia) in 1973. 

The Sixties were not for the faint of heart, but endlessly thrilling – definitely the best decade for travel!

Here's the rest of the series, with recollections of travel during the Seventies , the Eighties , the Nineties , the Noughties and the 2010s.

Did you travel in the Sixties? We'd love to read your stories in the comments section below

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On the Menu in Moscow, Soviet-Era Nostalgia

Themed eateries in the Russian capital cater to a taste for the past, recalling Black Sea vacations, Space Race euphoria and the days of service without a smile.

By Anastasia Miari

It’s lunchtime in Moscow and the line for Stolovaya 57 is out the door — a 20-person long struggle for borscht, jellied pork, soft boiled vegetables and grated cabbage. Though it might be hard to imagine that people would wait any amount of time for a tray of food served by a stern-faced Russian woman in a dowdy canteen, this restaurant in Moscow’s historic GUM department store is proving otherwise.

“Stolovaya” is Russian for “canteen” and the common term used for affordable state-run diners before the collapse of the U.S.S.R. At these establishments Muscovites would gather for a filling meal — complete with lemon tea — and a guarantee of great value for money. Today, Stolovaya 57, with its drab 1970s interiors and the unimpressed lady counting up the plates of food on each person’s tray with a wooden abacus before barking their total at them, is one of a growing number of restaurants catering to a Russian nostalgia for the “good old days” that have sprung up around Moscow.

The longing for service without a smile is part of a general nostalgia in Russia. The independent polling organization the Levada Centre recently found that two thirds of Russians harbor feelings of regret toward the breakup of the Soviet Union. “Life was better back then,” said 73-year-old Vera Petrovna, who sat at the table across from me at Stolovaya 57, tucking into a plate of soggy looking dumplings. “I had my own career and I wasn’t constantly looking for more. I wasn’t even trying to make ends meet. I was rich with my cow, my plot of land and all the vegetables I could grow for myself in the summer.”

Customers choose three or four small dishes — or judging by some diners’ selections, as much as their tray can handle — usually a vegetable or salad option ranging from over-boiled carrots and broccoli to mayonnaise-laden Russian salad, then a plate of meatballs, mashed potato and gravy or oven-baked herring with rice pilaf. It’s all served lukewarm, aside from the soup of the day, which perhaps is the most hearty and fulfilling option on the menu. At 470 Rubles for three courses and a tea (about $7.30), a meal here is perhaps the cheapest thing you can find in GUM, otherwise populated with upmarket designer stores like Bulgari and Gucci.

When it opened in 2012, Stolovaya 57 was the first of the city’s foodie spots to feed Muscovite’s nostalgia, but since then, a number of Moscow restaurateurs have opened themed eateries that cater to the longing for a past before Putin. Here are five of the most notable.

Grand Cafe Dr. Zhivago

One of 18 restaurants in the ‘ Restaurants of Rappoport ’ group and perennially popular since opening in 2015, Grand Café Dr. Zhivago — where the well-heeled of Moscow brunch — is almost always fully booked. Just opposite the Red Square with a view of the Kremlin through floor to ceiling windows, the restaurant is designed in the style of an elegant cafe at the turn of the 20th century and is peppered with a mix of Russian revolutionary and Soviet references.

“The main purpose was not to make a historical restaurant for tourists, but I was inspired by the Russian avant-garde movement at the beginning of the 20th century and went with that,” said the owner, Alexander Rappoport, a lawyer turned restaurateur.

Inside, the color red reigns. Red carnations — a historic symbol of the Russian proletariat — adorn each table under dramatic crimson chandeliers. Waitresses (and there are only waitresses here, no male servers to be seen) dressed in freshly starched maids uniforms complete with crochet-trimmed aprons and pretty white bonnets, wear thick smears of red lipstick on stern expressions. Imitations of works by avant-garde artists like Malevich and Petrov-Vodkin look down on diners from the high-sheen monochrome walls.

Wes Anderson-like in their color-coordination, the interiors at Dr. Zhivago are enough of a draw, but the Grand Café’s more-than-reasonably priced menu packed with modern Russian favorites like hot oxtail sandwiches (280 rubles) and perfectly poached eggs topped with red caviar (460 rubles) is another. “When we first opened, the number of restaurants serving Russian cuisine could be counted on the fingers of one hand, and that was in Moscow — the capital of Russia with a multimillion population,” said Mr. Rappaport, explaining the ‘empty niche’ that existed before Dr. Zhivago.

Try the hearty “Guriev Zhivago” (200 rubles), a rich semolina porridge with blueberries, hazelnuts and candied fruit on a frosty morning or the cherry dumplings (280 rubles) if you have a sweet tooth.

Grand Cafe Dr. Zhivago, Mokhovaya Street, 15/1; Phone : +7 499 922-01-00 ; drzhivago.ru/en/

52 Places to Go in 2019

A starter kit for escaping into the world.

Varenichnaya No. 1

Varenichnaya No. 1 translates to “the No. 1 place for dumplings.” It may well be a chain (19 have opened in Moscow since it first opened in 2014) but it’s hailed as the ultimate place to experience vareniki — with more than 20 kinds of dumplings on the menu and the young, cool and freelance of Moscow descending en-masse during weekdays.

The Soviet nostalgia levels here are through the roof. Walls are plastered with U.S.S.R. propaganda, with posters depicting beaming blond comrades, hard at work. Soviet literature like dog-eared copies of Krasnaya Nov, the iconic Soviet magazine, is at hand to flip through while you wait for multiple orders of dumplings. Old gramophones, TV sets and telephones are crammed onto midcentury bookcases. The entire place is designed in the style of a 1960s Soviet apartment, a colorful contrast to the dowdy Stolovaya government canteens of the same era.

It’s popular with young Muscovites dipping into books and punching away at their MacBooks between slurping down their hot dumplings. Our waitress, dressed in a Soviet era maid’s uniform of simple, starched, button-down dress in black with matching frilled white apron took our order for two lots of pelmeni. We opted for a main course of soft stewed beef dumplings and a dessert serving of sweet cherry. Expect to pay Cold War prices for a hearty Russian feast (700 rubles for a main, dessert and a soft drink).

2-Ya Brestskaya Ulitsa, 43; Phone +7 903 672-97-97; varenichnaya.ru/

52 PLACES AND MUCH, MUCH MORE Follow our 52 Places traveler, Sebastian Modak, on Instagram as he travels the world , and discover more Travel coverage by following us on Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our Travel Dispatch newsletter : Each week you’ll receive tips on traveling smarter, stories on hot destinations and access to photos from all over the world.

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Let’s Reminisce Over Airplanes That Had Piano Bars, Cocktail Lounges, Pubs, and Restaurants

A irlines today just aren’t up for a good party anymore. Look at those fancy folks hanging out in comfy swivel chairs, ordering Martinis and asking attractive strangers, “ So, do you come here often? ” Don’t they look like they’re about to have the best flight of their lives?

The 1970s was without doubt, a golden age of air travel. It was the era that saw the upper decks of Boeing 747s turn into full-scale cocktail lounges and restaurants for first class flyers. On the lower deck, there were also coach or economy lounges. Continental Airlines had a pub while American Airlines had an infamous piano bar.

Qantas Airline’s 747B boasted a luxurious “Captain Cook First Class Lounge” (pictured above). Here’s a closer peak into life on the upper deck…

Pictured above is a Continental Airlines coach lounge in the 1970s, you know, back when you could say airlines actually cared about customer service … ( burn )! Coach lounges were located on the lower deck, usually behind first class seating.

And here’s the American Airlines economy class piano bar, located at the rear of the 747-100 cabin. The piano was of course technically an electric Wurlitzer organ, but hey, it’s live music on a plane. Think of all the singalongs we’re missing out on.

Here’s the piano bar in action (spot Fonzie):

And just in case you were wondering what popping down to the pub with your mates would be like on an airplane …

Good times.

In their advertising campaigns, American Airlines called themselves a “747 Luxury Liner”.

I’m not going to argue with them.

And here are a few more first class lounges on the upper deck…

Is it just me or was the party better in coach?! To the piano bar!

And if you thought 1970s air travel was swanky, check out the 1930s Boeing Clipper…

Personal dressing rooms…

A ladies powder rooms…

So what to you say airlines? How about we bring back the fun in flying?

Images (c) The Boeing Company

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Urban Moscow and Leningrad of the 1960s through the eyes of American John Reps (PHOTOS)

American historian John William Reps explored urbanism and public spaces in a wide variety of countries around the world. In the summer of 1964, he also visited the USSR, including Moscow and Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), where he took many color photographs of the most ordinary districts and courtyards, as well as new residential complexes, which were still in construction. Thanks to his photographic collection, we can immerse ourselves in the atmosphere of the Soviet 1960s.

The early Soviet industrialization increased the urban population, but didn’t manage to provide them with accommodations. So for several decades, people lived in communal apartments or dorms. Nikita Khrushchev was famous for many things, including the de-Stalinization process in the USSR. But his name was truly immortalized in the khrushchyovka residential buildings. 

In the early 1960s, Khrushchev launched a massive construction building process that was aimed at dealing with the living space crisis. 

This is how a typical khrushchyovka looked. A low-cost concrete-paneled building of three to five stories, it had incredibly small apartments and no elevators. Though, people were just happy to get their own living space and move out of communal apartments or dorms.

The authorities did their best to arrange the urban space within the newly built districts. A green area with trees…

…playgrounds in every courtyard…

…and even fountains! Though this “luxurious” decoration was more of a rarity, rather than a rule. But, happy kids used them for summer bathing, not just for looking at.

All the new districts had their own schools in the neighborhood, so that kids could walk to the nearest one on their own.

And, of course, nursery schools and kindergartens for smaller kids. Parents could take their kids to the nursery from a very young age - even several months old - and return back to work for the progressive Soviet future.

New districts had typical retail buildings that often had a universal range of goods represented. 

John William Reps was amazed with a net aimed at preventing chunks of the facade from falling onto unwitting pedestrians.

Khrushchyovkas had very small balconies and, firstly, people tried to arrange some gardening there… but soon, they turned into an extra storage space , as small apartments didn’t have much of it.

And below is an interior courtyard and park area with a housing block built in Stalin’s era. Usually, such buildings had more stories (which required an elevator) and more facade decorations. 

The photos above were all from Moscow and below you can find some from Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Streets in new residential districts were built wide and included growing trees along the roads to create shade and to prevent dust and dirt from reaching pedestrians.

In early residential buildings, all the ground levels were made into living apartments to maximize the available space. Later, architects suggested turning ground floors into retail areas. 

In Leningrad, John William Reps visited just built massive complexes with high-rise housing.

And some earlier buildings in constructivism style, where any space could have been turned into a playground of sorts.

A lack of space and balconies forced many people to dry their laundry outside, so this is a typical thing for any surrounding areas of Soviet apartment blocks. 

So that you didn’t think that everyone lived only in a mass built small khrushchyovka in the USSR, here’s another Leningrad example of a gigantic ten-story residential complex.

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30 Infamous Police Raids of Gay Bars and Bathhouses

The interconnected history of lgbtq+ rights and police raids.

The morality warriors for years used the power of law enforcement to crack down on consensual sex between adults, especially when those adults were LGBTQ . But the result has often served only to bring queer people together as a community. Raids on gay bars and bathhouses served to inspire the historic Stonewall riots that launched the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the U.S. The Toronto bathhouse protests served the same purpose in Canada. Fifty years after the Black Cat protests in Los Angeles , which indirectly led to the launch of The Advocate , we take a look at some of the most consequential strikes on gay bars and bathhouses dating back more than a century.

1. The Ariston Bathhouse (1903)

In turn-of-the-century New York City, queer people found company with one another in the Aristan, and police found reason to raid. On February 21, 1903, authorities detained 60 men in the club and arrested 14. A judge would later decry the acts committed in the bathhouse as “horrible practices.”

2. Baker Street Club (1918)

The San Francisco Police Morals Department in 1918 planted a cook in the newly opened Baker Street Club to conduct surveillance on sexual activities inside. On February 16,  police besieged the flats, then over a period of 10 days locked arriving patrons in rooms for questioning and to sign confessions. At least 31 men were arrested. The information gathered actually led to a wider investigation of homosexuality in nearby cities, which resulted in 20 arrests, including two cops on the Baker Street beat, according to Allan Berube’s A History of Bathhouses .

3. Turkish Baths (1929)

Moral reformers in New York City raised political pressure on police in the 1920s to shut down the Lafayette Brothers’ Turkish Baths, a popular spot for gay men living and visiting the city. A German gay magazine in 1929 published an account of a 26-year-old European visitor that said eight detectives went undercover in the bathhouse, then rounded all patrons in the front room and beat the guests. The account notes a Swedish visitor had two ribs broken during the raid, and called the police action the “crudest treatment I’ve ever been through” before blaming American “furtiveness and phony shame” for motivating the police action, according to Allan Berube’s A History of Bathhouses .

4. Cooper’s Donuts (1959)

Located between Los Angeles gay bars Harold’s and the Waldorf, Cooper’s Donuts at night became a hub of social activity for drag queens, gays, trans people, and hustlers in the 1950s. Maybe a doughnut shop wasn’t the best place to avoid police, but it still came as a shock when two officers showed up in May 1959 to randomly ask folks for IDs. The incident led to a violent interaction between the police and the LGBT people gathered before those letters of the acronym had found their way together. While one of the first known pushbacks against police raids, it likely would have been forgotten if not for the fact gay literature pioneer John Rechy happened to be there as the time.

5. 21st Street Baths (1966)

San Francisco police in 1966 announced a crackdown on gay bathhouses and in March of that year raided the 21 st Street Baths. A clerk was arrested for refusing to cooperate with police, and a minister was arrested for making an advance on an officer. A jury was unable to agree on a verdict on the minister’s case, according to A History of Bathhouses .

6. Gene Compton’s Cafeteria (1966)

The Tenderloin district in San Francisco served as an accepting haven for drag queens and transgender folk in the 1960s, and eventually became a target of police as well. Gene Compton’s Cafeteria was generally a safe place for people in the late hours of night, but one August evening in 1966, an officer arresting a patron for violating a “cross-dressing” ordinance got a splash of hot coffee in the face and violence broke out. Owners of the establishment responded by banning trans people, which in turn sparked a riot that later became the subject of trans director Laurie Lezin-Schmidt’s documentary Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria.

7. Black Cat (1967)

A New Year’s police raid on the Black Cat , a gay bay in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles, resulted in the beatings of more than a dozen people; two men were arrested for the crime of kissing and a bartender suffered a ruptured spleen. While such raids of gay bars were common in the late 1960s, the severity of this incident sparked protests for weeks. It also led Richard Mitch and Bill Mau to launch local gay rights newsletter PRIDE (Personal Rights in Defense and Education), which would later become The Advocate.

8. Dover Hotel (1969)

The Dover Hotel in Los Angeles operated practically as a gay bathhouse, and as such drew the attention of police, who conducted frequent raids. But one such action turned deadly on March 9, 1969, when nurse Howard Efland was, according to witnesses, beaten to death outside the hotel. The incident has been memorialized by the  Back2Stonewall website, which says vice officers reported Efland groping them, something that apparently warranted the man being dragged downstairs in the nude before the assault. The officers would report that Efland was being taken to a police station when he kicked a vehicle open and was flung onto the Hollywood Freeway and died. The L.A. County Coroner would rule the death an “excusable homicide.”

9. Stonewall Inn (1969)

There may be no more revered location in LGBT history than the Stonewall Inn in New York's Greenwich Village, where a police raid on June 28, 1969, closed the bar down for the illegal sale of alcohol. But as the police handled the incident with signature NYPD “bad grace,” as an article published in The Advocate put it, onlookers began throwing pennies at officers and then set the bar on fire. The next day, management found cops had taken all the money, including waiters’ tips, before opening the bar up as a free store for passersby to take whatever they wished.

10. The Snake Pit (1970)

Mere months after the Stonewall riots, New York police officers raided the Snake Pit and arrested 167 patrons. Diego Vinales, an Argentine national, reportedly leaped from a second-story window to avoid being captured and deported, and impaled himself on an iron fence; he survived and was charged with resisting arrest . The raid would prompt a demonstration by the Gay Liberation Front and other organizations that moved through the day from Sheridan Square to St. Vincent’s Hospital, according to an account published in The New York Times .

11. Liberty Baths (1978)

California lawmakers in 1976 passed a consenting adults law in part to stop persecution of gays through bathhouse raids, but that didn’t stop San Francisco cops from raiding Liberty Baths in an apparent test of that law, according to  A History of Bathhouses . Three patrons were arrested on charges of lewd conduct, but prosecutors declined to bring the cases to court. 

12. Club Baths, Romans II, Richmond Street and Barracks (1981)

While gay Americans have Stonewall, LGBT Canadians have Operation Soap. Four Toronto bathhouses — Club Baths, Romas II Health and Recreation Spa, Richmond Street Health Emporium, and Barracks — were all raided on February 5, 1981, and 286 men were arrested on charges of prostitution or indecency. The incident remains one of the largest mass arrests in Canadian history, according to The Guardian . The orchestrated event prompted 3,000 protesters to take to the street the following day. After decades of criticism, Toronto police last summer issued a public apology for the raids.

13. Pisces Health Spa (1981)

A "morality" force also was conducting stings in Edmonton, Canada, the same year as the Operation Soap raids. Undercover officers regularly visited the Pisces Health Spa and would arrest 56 men. The matter inspired the play Uncovered ,   and police today concede a cultural insensitivity in the raid on consenting adults.

14. Brownies (1988)

London gay sauna Brownies was closed down by a police raid in 1988. The owner of the Streatham establishment would end up fined 5,000 pounds and sentenced to six months in jail, something Gay News    at the time would label a “draconian sentence.” A judge justified the sentence based on the shock that might befall a person who walked in off the street expecting only to find a sauna.

15. Copa and Club 21 (1991)

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office conducted joint raids of Florida gay bars Club 21 and Copa on May 3, 1991, and the incidents would play a role in Sheriff Nick Navarro eventually losing reelection, ironically after conducting such raids in an apparent publicity stunt. Byron Jones, who led a group from the Gay and Lesbian Youth Group in Club 21 the evening of the raid, wrote later in The Advocate that hundreds were detained by police though only six were arrested. But it was the raid at Copa that prompted a lawsuit from owners that would be settled out of court by the next administration. At the Copa, Navarro actually invited media and visiting dignitaries to watch the raid happen; he even brought his wife along for the festivities, according to the Miami Herald .

16. Junjie (2000)

Three years after China decriminalized homosexuality, police in Guangzhou in July 2000 raided the Junjie men’s health and beauty center and arrested 37 men on charges of prostitution. The BBC reported that authorities had characterized the arrests as part of a “strike against evil social phenomena.”

17. Pussy Palace (2000)

Formally called the Toronto Women’s Bathhouse but known to the city’s lesbians as the Pussy Palace, the establishment was the site of a raid September 14, 2000, when six male police officers descended on an all-female party. About 350 women were at the party when officers conducted strip searches and tore signs from the walls. Police charged organizers of the Pussy Palace Collective with violating liquor laws, though the courts would throw those charges out in 2002, according to CBC News . When Toronto’s police chief issued a public apology for bathhouse raids through the years, the collective politely rejected the gesture and declined to appear at a ceremony marking the news.

18. Goliath’s Sauna (2002)

Police in Calgary, Canada, drew criticism after a 2002 raid of Goliath’s Sauna & Texas Lounge, the only gay bathhouse in town. Authorities charged two bartenders with running a common bawdy house and 13 patrons as having no lawful excuse for being there.

19. Taboo (2003)

Montreal police raided gay strip bar Taboo on May 10, 2003, then publicly suggested they were specifically raiding the establishment because of the potential for older men preying on young dancers. Four patrons were arrested for committing indecent acts, while seven staff and 23 dancers were also arrested. While police said they had investigated a complaint about underage dancers for several months leading up to the raid, investigation ultimately determined just one dancer to be too young to legally work there, and he’d gotten the job with a fake ID and would turn 18 within weeks.

20. Hamilton’s Warehouse Spa and Bath (2004)

Under the guise of doing public health inspections, authorities in Hamilton, Canada, on August 4, 2004,  arrested two patrons for indecency and sparked outrage in the Canadian gay community. Police later admitted learning gay activities happened at the establishment thanks to spotting comments on a gay cruising website, despite initially suggesting they had no idea the business was a bathhouse.

21. Destination and Oasis (2008)

During what AIDS activist Wan Yahai suggested was a crackdown on gays  in Beijing, the Destination got closed March 9, 2008, by police supposedly for playing music too loud and hosting too large a crowd, according to an article in the Shangaiist . Later that month, 10 police cars rolled into Oasis, the most popular gay bathhouse in Beijing, and cops rounded up more than 70 people, including staff and patrons, during a March 20 raid. The following day, police went into a second Oasis location and arrested staff.

22. Rainbow Lounge (2009)

A June 28, 2009, raid on the Rainbow Lounge, a gay bar in Fort Worth, Texas, resulted in one bar patron being seriously hurt. Two officers involved in the incident would later be fired for failing to report the use of force . Their direct supervisor also lost his job, and other superiors in the department received suspensions or reprimands for the handling of the raid. 

23. The Eagle (2009)

When the Atlanta Police’s “Red Dog” unit raided gay bar the Eagle in September 2009, patrons reported being forced onto the ground while officers used homophobic slurs and conducted background checks on everybody there. Police found no weapons or drugs, nor any indication of public sex, and nobody was charged with any crime. But Lambda Legal would file a federal lawsuit that the city settled, though courts found that for years the police were not meeting terms of that agreement . The incident today still gets characterized as a huge debacle and black eye for Atlanta police.

24. The Club Dallas (2010)

After years of minimal friction between Dallas police and rhe Club Dallas, a complaint prompted officers on October 8, 2010, to raid the bathhouse and arrest 11 people on public lewdness or indecent exposure charges, according to the Dallas Voice . The club reportedly helped bail individuals out of jail and offered to pay for their legal representation.

25. Jonker Street (2010)

Two gay spas in Malacca, Malaysia, were raided after police received calls from the parents of an Indonesian student. Fridae reports that more than 30 men, all in their 20s to 50s, were arrested in the illegal clubs during the November 2010 raids. 

26. Club Ghost (2013)

Lebanese police arrested four people during a raid of Club Ghost ordered by Dekwaneh municipal official Antoine Chaktoura, according to Global Voices . One of the arrested people, a trans woman, would tell NOW Lebanon that she was stripped nude for pictures and called a “half a man” by police.

27. La Bata de Boatine (2013)

Gay Pride in Barcelona closed in violent fashion in 2013 when police on June 29 broke down the door to La Bata de Boatine around 3 a.m. and cleared about 50 customers out of the establishment. Four van-loads of Catalan regional police arrived and cordoned off streets, according to local newspaper El Diario . Bar owner Miquel told the paper police only asked him for identification, and blamed the high-drama affair on homophobia. Police immediately afterward raided El Bar, a straight bar next door thar shared an address.

28. Central Station (2013)

Police arrested 40 people standing outside popular Moscow gay bar Central Station in December 2013, shortly after a number of disputes between the bar owner and building landlords, according to The Moscow Times .  Andrei Lishchinsky, head of the club, told the news outlet that he believed police were working in concert with people who had previously attacked the club.

29. Club Envy (2014)

Club Envy became the de facto gay bar in Nairobi, Kenya, after the closing of Tacos, and police there knew it. After a July 6, 2014, raid in which around 65 gay people were rounded up and taken to the police station, Nairobi news outlet Ghafla reported that the arrests were made simply because the patrons were homosexual.

30. BlueBoy (2016)

The longest-running gay bar in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, still sees police raids today. Passport reported that last July, the bar saw a slowdown in traffic thanks to a police raid weeks earlier. Police apparently regularly came in to demand the IDs of guests, then ended up arresting Muslims to charge them not with any homosexuality-related crime but with the illegal consumption of alcohol, a violation of Sharia law largely unenforced in straight nightclubs.

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