Des moines gay bar
Director: Kristian DayRun Time: 66 min.
Starring: Brian Ohrberg, Bryan Smith, Gary Moore, Greg Chamberlin, John Schmacker, Rick Miller, Robert Eikleberry, Ryan Dennis
Join us for a sneak preview of the first three episodes of the six part series on the legendary Iowa gay bar, Blazing Saddle, and the history of the local gay society dating back to the 1960s. Full series coming soon to OUTtv.com.
Episode One
As three gay men arrive of age and examine their sexuality in 1960s Iowa, the United States goes to war with Vietnam. The young men enlist or are drafted, forced to live in the closet as they face their own mortality. The Stonewall Riots take gay rights into mainstream conversation, and the men come home to a changed nation.
Episode Two
The war is over and Stonewall has changed the lgbtq+ community forever, but most gay Iowans are still living in the closet. Cruising and elicit hookups are the only ways LGBTQ+ people can convene – and adult bookstores and gay bars are the only places they feel safe being themselves. But a gruesome murder threatens to change all that.
Episode Three
Iowa’s LGBTQ+ people experiences violence, making secure spaces like gay bars even more im
What a new docuseries about The Blazing Saddle reveals about Des Moines' LGBTQ history
He had a title but no show.
That's how Iowa filmmaker Kristian Evening and his closest friends began their yearlong journey to creating "The Last American Gay Bar," a six-episode docuseries on The Blazing Saddle, Des Moines' oldest gay block that has grow a cultural and community fixture for LGBTQ+ Iowans. The first three episodes — which premiered June 13 at the Varsity Cinema — showed a sold-out crowd a glimpse of how a group of gay Iowans navigated life spanning decades, as their metropolis, state and nation changed.
Part of an episode recounts the iconic moment when a gay activist threw a pie in the deal with of celebrity and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant during a 1977 press conference in Des Moines and the dread that overshadowed the community after local public school mentor Ken Eaton was murdered in 1988. The show also touches on the impact of the 1969 Stonewall Riots and the AIDS epidemic in the early 1980s.
Day, whose small team started the project last October, said up until that signal, what he knew about Des Moines' gay community came from his barber, Rick Adkisson, over at the Dreamers Roos
The history of Iowa’s oldest same-sex attracted bar has been made into a documentary. Here's how to watch
On a typical Friday night at the Blazing Saddle in Des Moines’ East Village, tightly packed bodies crowd around the bar’s main stage, hands poking out from the throng to present cash tips to performersdressed in performative. It’s the Saddle Gurls & Friends show, and once the artists obtain their final bend (or more commonly, dip into their most impressive split), the spotlights slash and the harmony bumps. Bargoers rotate the stage into a technicolor boogie floor, strong drinks in hand, staying true to the bar's motto: "Always a double, never a cover."
The Blazing Saddle is Iowa's oldest operating same-sex attracted bar. It just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Opened in 1983 by Bob “Mongo” Eikleberry, it’s been referred to as the “Gay Cheers” and has seen Iowa — and the nation — through decades of change for the LGBTQ population: from the inception — and termination — of Don't Ask, Don't Explain , to the outbreak of the AIDs epidemic, to the legalization of queer marriage and the more recent passing and signing of anti-LGBTQ laws in the state.
That history will soon be shared in the form of a six-episode undertake
Bars and Nightlife
Gay Bars and Clubs
Blazing Saddle (416 East 5th Ave), If you’re looking for a friendly LGBTQ+ bar in Des Moines, then you’ve found it! The Saddle is open 365 days a year featuring daily Happy Hour, Trivia Night every Tuesday, and monthly charity events for non-profits. Additionally, Latin “Nites” and various types of Performative Shows every Wednesday through Sunday. See the Blazing Saddle Calendar of Events.
Buddy's Corral (418 East 5th St) is a mixed, relaxed neighborhood bar with jukebox, karaoke, located next to Blazing Saddle.
The Garden Restaurant & Demonstrate Lounge (525 E Grand Ave) is an LGBT+ owned and operated business that is abode to a host of astonishing talent with an outstanding legacy. The Garden offers a extensive variety of entertainment and a full kitchen menu.
The Locust Tap (434 E Locust) embodies the term "dive bar" nearly perfectly. Between the years of graffiti on the walls, original tile floor (amongst other things) dating website back 60+ years, cheap drinks, and no-frills atmosphere, what you see is what you obtain. It attracts an incredibly broad variety of clientele. It's tru