Bonus Video! Meet Joani Hannon, Owner of Popular Queer Bars in 1950s Los Angeles
Hello there! This week Ollie and I have QUITE a bonus video for you: This is the story of Joani Hannon, a queer woman whose name isn't widely known today, though it absolutely should be.
Joani and her brother David were gay siblings who ran a queer bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s, at a time when it was super dangerous to do so. She also played the drummer in the film Some Like it Hot, and had a cute little interaction with Marilyn Monroe down in San Diego. After the film came out, Joani struck out on her own with a new performance venue in LA that provided a safe space for queer folks through the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Along the way she appeared in a lesbian-exploitation film, sweet-talked a producer into moving her entire home and bar up to Northern California, and kept drumming like a house on fire well into her 80s. Just an amazing woman and an absolute heroine.
Here's the full 20-minute documentary about Joani's life -- highly recommended!!! https://vimeo.com/138700734
For the full film Mondo Rocco, make sure you've installed every ad-blocker and anti-virus program you can, and then skip to 10:50 in the above video for the on-screen link. Or check out this short excerpt from USC, which is probably a lot safer: https://digitallibrary.usc.edu/CS.aspx?VP3=DamView&VBID=2A3BXZ0XOQWR&SMLS=1&RW=1385&RH=656&FR_=1&W=1871&H=1253
And of course, join me for another livestream today at noon pacific! We'll be starting a watch-along of Psycho. http://twitch.tv/mattbaume
Bonus Video! Meet Joani Hannon, Owner of Popular Queer Bars in 1950s Los Angeles (YouTube)
Comments (11)
written by his mother😄👌
I absolutely LOVED this video on Joanni. I agree queer history establishments need to AT LEAST be commemorated with plaques and Joanni's bars sound like exactly the sort of places that call for those. Thank you for what you're doing to record and commemorate these people and places here for all of us.
that Rocco video is 2 hours long, no wonder it isn't available. I'll try to save it and maybe cut it to several pieces for a more manageable upload
Matt- wanted to tell you about something I recently stumbled on: watched the entire 1990 TV series GRAND (lasted 2 seasons- only 26 episodes total). It was a horrible series but there was an interesting ‘Queer adjacent” episode (S2 ep5 “Desmond’s Mother.” A character discovers that his mother is actually his father- the father had presented himself as female for his child’s entire life so he’d have a mother. Here’s the video: https://youtu.be/zcJWMGG53QE?si=TaM4kFRP1ZMiO_Ek
Oh wow I had no idea about this, thank you for pointing me towards it! I always enjoyed Grand's theme song, but have never actually watched an episode.
Hi, brand-new patron here, I've been nibbling away at some of the old feedback/Q&A and bonus videos (they are very moreish; a bit like salted almonds, except they aren't bad for you), and it seems that you like people to recommend stuff to you. So, in that spirit: have you ever come across Tucker's Witch? It's a very obscure 80s show which is available in a bunch of places online, including YouTube, and it's about a husband-and-wife team of detectives where the wife has magic powers. Besides having an endearingly bonkers premise, it also has a beautiful cat which the wife has a psychic link with, and also possibly just the tiniest sliver of positive gay representation: there's a scene in a men's locker room at one point, and as part of the background noise, I'm pretty sure I heard a cheerful male voice say, "Hi, handsome!"
I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this but I’m so glad that I have now! Thank you!!!
If you like really bad movies, Joan’s film, 10 VIOLENT WOMEN can be streamed for free on the Tubi channel.
Also, Georgia Joan Waldor Hannan [the correct spelling of her name], 83, passed away peacefully at home on April 13, 2012 in the arms of her partner.
“Bum fuck Egypt” is a common expression that means “in the middle of nowhere.” Heard it all the time in the 70s and 80s where I grew up in Texas. (It is also shortened often to “B.F.E”.) I don’t think Joani really meant she was in Egypt. Shortly afterward she says “when I got back from the European theater…” 😉
Same where I grew up in the Midwest.