October 29th, 1997 to November 4th, 1997

Paris Dance to close Nov. 15

by Chris Badowski

Trish Koch recalls the evening of July 17, 1985 as a cool and beautiful summer night in Chicago. She dressed to the nines in a tuxedo shirt and leather pants and went to the opening night of Paris Dance.

The bar was packed with women. Koch chatted with friends and took great interest in a brown-haired girl named Ginger Oliver, whom she had met before.

"It was a celebratory mood. There were women there who you wouldn't normally see out. Lesbians were welcome at other gay bars but I never really felt comfortable at many of those places," said Koch.

An additional excitement of completion swirled around Koch who, only nine months before, had stood in the same spot in the bar and used a sledge hammer for one of the first times.

"We smashed cement, broke down walls, put up new ones, tiled floors and put in ceilings," she said. Koch and a handful of other women helped owner Linda Rodgers turn the building into what they hoped would be THE women's bar- a classy place where they could go to see and be seen.

"I knew Linda when she was a bartender," she said, "I thought she was a woman who had a lot of good ideas and I wanted to help in the effort."

Today, the bar in and of itself appears to be nothing special. From the outside, the building looks like a misplaced ship: an odd structure with porthole-shaped windows in the middle of an asphalted parking lot. But this building at Montrose and Clifton is like a dear friend whose exterior looks become unimportant when you know what is really inside.

Paris Dance is one of the few lesbian bars in Chicago; one of the few exclusively lesbian bars left in the country. Since that first day in 1985, it has become an institution, a place where lesbians in Chicagoland could come to safely and comfortably be who they were. Visitors from across the globe and newcomers to the lesbian community knew of Paris Dance as a type of Mecca, not where they came to pray but where they had to visit to be with women like themselves.

"It was the first bar I went to when I moved to Chicago from Boston," said chiropractor, Dr. Mary English. "It was the best known and it felt like home."

Rodgers said her mission when she decided to open the bar was that no matter who you were, no matter what age, you could walk in and see something which you could relate to and feel comfortable with.

She came to Chicago in 1974, after hearing a Robin Tyler album on which she said if you were queer and listening to that album, you should move to a major American city as fast as you can. Rodgers, a native of Clearwater, Fla., had become aware that homosexuality is tolerated more in a big city than in the small towns across the U.S.

For someone who had never known snow, Rodgers said the Chicago winter of 1975 nearly killed her. But she worked as a waitress in straight bars and got established in the city. After four and a half years, she felt she needed to "come out of the closet" and ironically began bartending at "The Closet." At the time, it was the only gay bar on the North Side which opened at 4 p.m.

There were other gay bars around town but they were few and far between.

In 1982, Rodgers started an all lesbian production entertainment company, "Keep Hers."

She brought in famous contemporary women's musicians like Meg Christian and Cris Williamson and even booked comic Kate Clinton's first Chicago performance. The business lost money on all accounts but one, the women's dance nights. Thousands of lesbians would pack The Metro to capacity on those nights.

Those popular dances were the spark for the idea of what Paris Dance would become.

Rodgers and her then-business partner, Barb Bancroft, converted an abandoned fish bait and tackle shop into a bar lounge, dance floor and cafe. Support came almost immediately as the two began to renovate. Their financial situation was aided by loans from friends of friends, women who believed in the idea and loaned money on a handshake. Other women, like Trish Koch, gave their time and did whatever needed to be done to get the bar open whether that was heavy labor like dry walling or working as security or bar back during the first crucial weeks. Over the years, as other lesbian and gay bars opened and folded, Paris Dance remained.

Ald. Helen Shiller, Paris Dance's next-door neighbor, commented that Paris wasn't ever like any other bar in the city, gay or straight, "They drew from all over and were always open to different activities." Shiller, Bobby Rush, Dawn Clark Netsch all held fundraisers at the bar. Rep. Luis Gutierrez came to the bar with his wife and daughter on one occasion and said he did so to help impress upon his daughter a life without bias or prejudice.

"The last event I was at was an ACLU event," said Candace Gingrich, "I did really appreciate that it wasn't a bar that only took from the community, but was one that gave back."

At one time or another, other lesbian celebrities who came to Chicago made Paris Dance the place they stopped. Martina Navaratilova walked in after a Virginia Slims tournament three years ago. She ordered an Evian and danced with the woman who accompanied her. Rodgers recalls that day with a smile.

She kept the Evian bottle for months afterward.

Melissa Etheridge was young and cute and not yet a big name when she first came by.

"And Ellen DeGeneres," Rodgers says, "looked like any other woman back then.

"Her hair was longer and cut much differently. She may have been here years ago. To this day, we think she might have been, but we don't really know."

After 20 collective years in the bar business, Rodgers now feels the need for a career change. Despite the difficulty of the decision, she will close Paris Dance for good on Nov. 15. She'll return to her home state of Florida and ponder her next career steps. The fixtures, the bar stools, the pool table, and the murals (which Rodgers refers to as "the girls") will all be auctioned off after the bar closes.

Trish Koch, who now works at Outlines, plans to go to the bar on that last night. Accompanying her will be her life partner, Ginger Oliver whom she met there that first night 13 years ago. They've been together ever since. She says her memories from Paris are deep. As a reminder, she might bid on one of those many items when all is said and done, "I might keep something physical. I think of all the friends we met, life-long friends who you could call at 3 a.m. if you needed anything."

The building and surrounding lot was sold eight days after it was put on the market. It will be razed and townhouses are proposed to be built on the site.

"Many women have asked me, 'Where will we go,'" says Rodgers. Girlbar on Halsted seems one alternative, but that bar is much smaller and does not have a parking lot. Girlbar owner Jennifer Murphy even expressed her sympathies about Paris Dance: "I hate to see it close. It was the place I stated going to when I first came out."

Choked with emotion, Rodgers recalls her own memories but she is ready to make this history her past. "Regardless of what is put here, it will be known to be built on the site of Paris Dance. That's not a bad deal."

There are many special events set for the final weeks of Paris Dance. See the calendar, page 8, for details, or call the bar at (773) 769-0602.
Or stop by 1122 W. Montrose.

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