This was four decades after World War II helped transform the Tenderloin into the city’s leading center for gay bars. There’s a difference between bemoaning all changes in San Francisco and wanting to preserve and appreciate the parts of the city’s past that helps define it.Īunt Charlie’s Lounge opened in 1987. Nothing signifies authenticity more than Aunt Charlie’s and the neighborhood it inhabits, the Tenderloin. As San Franciscans fear that what makes the city genuine and unique is being lost, places that signify its authenticity are more treasured than ever before. But I think Aunt Charlie’s popularity is due to its authenticity. One answer is that Aunt Charlie’s remains a popular bar that also attracts the younger demographic that attended the film.
Why so much interest in a Tenderloin gay dive bar? Sponsored by the Tenderloin Museum along with its Mid-Market neighbors Zendesk and Zoosk, the film sold out a Wednesday night showing three weeks in advance. The film follows three older drag entertainers at Aunt Charlie’s bar in the Tenderloin over the course of one evening. On February 24, a sold-out crowd attended the Tenderloin Museum’s showing of James Hosking’s documentary film and photo series, Beautiful by Night.
