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moments in gay new orleans history by Frank Perez E-mail: f.perez@sbcglobal.

New Orleans gay community. His lifetime of philanthropy qualifies him as one of the most significant gay men in New Orleans history.

4 moments in gay new orleans history by Frank Perez William Ratcliffe Irby: A Gay Man of Consequence William Ratcliffe Irby is now known mostly only to New Orleans historians and a handful of tour guides but he should be a household name in the New Orleans gay community. His lifetime of philanthropy qualifies him as one of the most significant gay men in New Orleans history. Irby was born in Virginia around 1860 and by the time he was twenty he was living in New Orleans. When he died in 1926, he had been a banker, owned a tobacco company, and served on the Board of Administrators at Tulane University. As impressive as these personal accomplishments are, his true legacy is as a French Quarter preservationist. In the 1920s, Irby became a part of what John Shelton Reed calls the Dixie Bohemia a circle of writers and artists and like-minded friends in the French Quarter who would play a vital role in transforming the Quarter from a run-down slum on the verge of being razed into a viable neighborhood that not only fostered creativity but was also worth preserving. Other gay (and bisexual) men who played a role in this transformation included Lyle Saxon (writer), Richard Koch (architect), Weeks Hall (artist), Sam Gilmore (poet and playwright), William Spratling (Tulane Professor and silversmith), Pops Whitesell (photographer), and Cicero Odiorne (photographer). Of this group, Irby, Saxon, and Koch joined other French Quarter preservationists, notably Elizabeth Werlein, to prevent corporate interests and greedy developers from completely destroying the historic buildings of the French Quarter. Werlein was almost single-handedly responsible for the creation of the Vieux Carre Commission. Irby personally saved several important landmark buildings, the most culturally significant of which was the old French Opera House. From 1859 to 1919, the French Opera House at the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets served as the epicenter of Creole society during a time when the city was becoming more and more Americanized. At the turn of the 20 th century, New Orleans was the theatre capital of the South and the French Opera House was its crown jewel. Throughout the 19th Century, New Orleans had a love affair with opera and was considered the opera capitol of North America. But by 1913, the Opera House had fallen on hard financial times and went into receivership. Irby bought the building and then generously donated it to Tulane University, along with enough money to keep the place afloat. When the venerable old building burned to the ground in 1919, Lyle Saxon tearfully watched the destruction and lamented in his newspaper column the next day, The heart of the old French Quarter has stopped beating. In 1918, Irby purchased and restored the Seignouret-Brulatour Court at 520 Royal Street. The home was built in 1816 for Francois Seignouret, a French wine importer and furniture maker. In 1870, another French wine importer named Brulatour bought the home. By the time Irby acquired it, the property was in disrepair. In 1922, after extensive renovations, Irby donated the slave quarters and the use of the courtyard to the Arts and Craft Club, which used the facility for exhibition space and classrooms. The courtyard, considered one of the most beautiful in all the French Quarter, became the subject of countless paintings. The Arts and Crafts Club, which had been founded a few years earlier in Alberta Kinsey s Toulouse Street studio, was chiefly responsible for introducing modern art to New Orleans. Also in 1918, Irby, who was Jewish, donated $125,000 to the Roman Catholic Arch-Diocese of New Orleans for the purpose of repairing and renovating St. Louis Cathedral, which was already showing its age before being ravished by the great hurricane of For a while, the Cathedral was closed to parishioners for fear it would collapse on them. Irby made the donation anonymously and was not identified as the benefactor until after his death. In 1920, Irby purchased the old Bank of Louisiana building at 417 Royal Street (better known today as Brennan s Restaurant) and donated it to Tulane University. The building had been built in 1795 by Don Vincente Rillieux, great grandfather of French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas. Julian Poydras turned the home into a bank before it reverted back to being a home. Paul Morphy, world chess champion of 1859, lived in the house until his death in In 1921, Irby purchased the lower Pontalba Building on Jackson Square for $68,000 from Michel Joseph Gaston Delfau de Pontalba, grandson of the famed Baroness Micaela Pontalba. He then donated the building to the Louisiana State Museum, which retains it today and administers the 1850 House, a replica of a typical 1850s New Orleans Row-House residence. The aforementioned acts of philanthropy are but just a few examples of the numerous gifts William Ratcliffe Irby bestowed upon New Orleans. Irby did not live as an openly gay man nor did he hide his sexuality from other Friends of Dorothy. Lyle Saxon, for example, occasionally in his writing makes subtle references to Irby s sexuality, using code words and phrases that only gay men would get. Irby s life ended as colorfully as it had been lived. One afternoon in 1926, Irby went to the local bathhouse (yes, there were bathhouses then) before spending several hours socializing with friends. Then he went to his favorite restaurant to dine alone before going to a local mortuary to make his funeral arrangements. Then he crawled into the casket he had just purchased and put a bullet through his brain. review...books, movies, cds by Blanche ambushreview@aol.com Photo by Larry Graham, GrahamStudioOne.COM A Commentary You may have read or heard about this recently...those wacky Hollywood moguls are at it again. First it was talkies, then movies in living color, next came 3D, now they re predicting a movie experience that will cost as much as a Broadway show. Ironic, but two of the most successful blockbuster movie makers of all time, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, are predicting that the blockbuster driven Hollywood system is due for a meltdown. They spoke at the opening of the media center at the University of Southern California. Spielberg said a streak of bad blockbusters would destroy the current cinema system. Everyone knows movie studios are in the business to make money...there is a [continued on 26] 24 The Official Mag: AmbushMag.COM June 25-July 8, 2013 Official ficial Southern n Decadence Guide SouthernDecadence.COM

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ambush paparazzi The Club Scene ~ New Orleans, Metairie ~ Photos by Charles Jenkins, Tony Leggio, Paul Melancon, Darwin Reed

ambush paparazzi The Club Scene ~ New Orleans, Metairie ~ Photos by Charles Jenkins, Tony Leggio, Paul Melancon, Darwin Reed ambush paparazzi Darrin slingin cocktails @ Golden Lantern New bartender Carey joins bar baron James as Golden Lantern goes 24 hours Cha Cha welcomes you to Good Friends Eric behind the bar @ The Phoenix