after hours with john eddy
episode details
After Hours is a fun, historical debrief and game show, where we ask some of the most prominent Queer D.C. icons for their hottest gossip and wise advice. This episode, we are joined by John Eddy, co-founder and president of the Clubhouse, a space created by and for the Black Queer community. Learn about John’s first foray into the D.C. Queer scene, one of his favorite yearly traditions at Clubhouse, what made Clubhouse such a special place, and so much more!
You can find a transcript for the episode below or a pdf version here.
If you want to learn more and stay up to date on all things Queering the District Podcast, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
Have a story to share? Think we missed something? Give us a call, and bare it all after the beep at 202-753-6570.
Special thanks to the Rainbow History Project, the DC Public Library, and the countless other academics and historians, whether featured in these episodes or not, who helped inspire and guide us through this process.
Audio editing by Madalyn Reagan
Videography by Sam Joachim
Video editing by Abby Stuckrath, Madalyn Reagan, and Sam Joachim
transcript
Text in italics and parentheses indicates ambient sound, sound effects, and music integrated into the podcast, unless noted otherwise.
ABBY: Hey folks, thanks for tuning in to Queering the District Podcast, where we learn about the history of Queer third places in Washington, D.C.! Season one is focused on the evolution of Queer bars, from prohibition to present day.
This season we’ve got two types of episodes: historical and after hours. Our historical episodes explore decades of Queer bar history through narrative-driven stories, while our After Hours episodes bring back favorite guests for gossip games, advice, and late-night chats.
This week is an after hours episode, a one-on-one conversation with John Eddy, one of the founders of the Clubhouse, a bar created by and for the Black Queer community in D.C. It was open from 1975 to 1990.
If you want to learn more about the Clubhouse, tune into our last historical episode, “no place like home” which is out now.
This interview is also offered in two formats: audio or video. So if you’d like, hop over to YouTube to watch a video version of this episode. Either way we are so excited for y’all to learn more about John Eddy and hear our super fun conversation, enjoy!
(Funky, music with horns starts playing and then fades into the background)
JOHN EDDY: Being part of the gay community or the LGBTQ plus community, to me, is one of the best things that's ever happened to me in my life.
ABBY: Hi everyone, welcome to After Hours, a fun historical debrief and game show, where we ask some of the most prominent Queer icons in D.C,. their hottest gossip and their wise advice. Today, we are joined by Metropolitan Capitolite member, Clubhouse founder and president, John Eddy. John, thank you so much for being here with me.
JOHN EDDY: Thank you for inviting me. I really appreciate it.
(music fades out)
ABBY: Of course, so you moved to D.C. in 1955 at 10 years old. When did you start to become involved in the gay/Queer community in D.C.?
JOHN EDDY: Well, when I was in my first year of high school and my sister was in her last year of junior high school, I came home one day, and I saw this kid in the living room. So I said to my mama, “who's that f*****t in the living room?”
(Abby laughs)
So, my mother said, “What? What are you talking about? That's your sister's boyfriend.” I said, “Oh my god. Okay.”
So fast forward. Six years later, a lesbian who I worked with invited me to a party. So she told me, “Look, it's going to be a mixed party. There'll be girls dancing with girls, guys with guys and girls and boys. You think you can handle it?”
So I was curious. I say, “I think I can handle it.”
So I went to the party, and I became a wallflower, and then they put this record on that was a slow record. It lasted six minutes plus, and it's called, which I'll never forget the name of it, stay in my corner.
And I was just beginning to listen to the record, and somebody tapped me on my shoulder and said, “Would you like to dance?” Now, I knew it was a guy by his voice, and then I said, Well, I came to a party, so I supposed to participate. So I said, Well, this is going to be my first dance with a guy, so let me try it.
And when I turned around, it was my sister's boyfriend, the same one who I had called a f****t six years earlier.
ABBY: You clocked him quick. (laughs)
JOHN EDDY: And so we danced and danced, and we became lovers.
ABBY: That's so sweet (laughs), and such a fun, how did your sister react to that?
JOHN EDDY: Well, she did not find out until about maybe nine months later. He lived over on 15th street, and I used to go there every Friday with my little suitcase of clothes and leave from his house on Monday to go to work.
And what I didn't know was, my sister's best girlfriend lived in the building. He lived on the top floor. She lived like the middle floor. So, she called my sister up. She said, “you know, your brother comes over here every weekend,” and I've been seeing him about for the last three or four months, every weekend, going upstairs, and, “oh, by the way, do you know Rodney lives upstairs?” So my sister said, “no, why is he coming over there and spending the weekends with Rodney?”
So she called me up about three o'clock in the morning. She called me Junior. My family called me Junior, “Junior, you know, God does not like your lifestyle.”
And I said, “I tell you what,” you know, it's three o'clock in the morning, “I want you to call God and tell him to call me. If he's got your number, he's got mine too and hung up.”
ABBY: But you were sort of able to kind of find that like found family with sort of the Metropolitan Capitolites. Would you say?
JOHN EDDY: Yes, more or less, yes. They, more or less, became my family, and we did a lot of things together beside have parties every other Saturday.
ABBY: Right. And you, once the house parties started to get a little bit too crowded, a little bit too popular, ya’ll decided to open the Zodiac Den.
JOHN EDDY: We knew nothing about running a bar. We were totally blank. We knew nothing about inventory. We knew nothing about bartendering. All we knew how to do was play music, and we had two turntables, a DJ booth, and so we had to learn everything.
ABBY: And so, you went from Zodiac Den, moved upstairs, had Third World, and then y'all decided to have a 10 times bigger space and take over this massive warehouse, Clubhouse. How did that transition, like, your life and change your life, whether that be like the workload you then had to take on, but then just the community that the Clubhouse created?
JOHN EDDY: The Clubhouse, of course, upended my life, because I was already working a full-time job, and now I'm working another full-time job, so just about every moment I had was either Clubhouse, at the Clubhouse, or at home, doing Clubhouse work.
ABBY: Well, one thing from our initial interview that I loved, that we talked about, was the different kind of themed party nights that you had, and I would love to talk about maybe some of your favorite themed party nights that you were able to be a part of, that you were able to see. Or some that you thought had like the best reaction to. I know, Jay Jay mentioned the pajama parties. We talk about later in our episode three, which will be out next week, about the blackout party, stuff like that.
JOHN EDDY: One special party, which was a, what was it called, an auction, a slave auction.
ABBY: Oh (laughs), I remember you talking about this.
JOHN EDDY: Where the girls could buy girls, or the guys could buy guys, and they had to stay with them for three or four hours and we..
ABBY: You cuffed them?
JOHN EDDY: And we roped them together. (laughs) They had to go around and stay together for three or four hours, and they'd have to pay $10.
ABBY: Oh, (laughs) only $10 for four hours.
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, $10. But back then, $10 was a lot of money. So [they] said, “Oh, I like her.” “$10”
And we'd have volunteers to be slaves, lots of volunteers. We never had to go out and solicit. We had lots of girls and lots of guys who volunteered to be slaves.
ABBY: (laughs) And it was successful?
JOHN EDDY: Very successful. We donated the money to local gay charities.
ABBY: Wow. I think that's maybe one of the craziest parties, I feel like I’ve heard of.
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, that was one of the craziest parties, but it was interesting.
ABBY: Yeah, something to bring people in, something different.
JOHN EDDY: Especially, you know, if a girl saw a particular girl that she liked and she didn't know how to approach her…
ABBY: It was a way to be brave.
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, and a lot of folks got closer (laughs).
ABBY: Being tethered together for four hours, they're gonna be close by the end of it, no matter what.
(groovy music starts to fade in and plays in the background)
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, so that was one of the more successful events that I liked.
ABBY: How often did you all do that?
JOHN EDDY: Once a year.
ABBY: Once a year. Okay.
JOHN EDDY: We didn't like to overdo those type of things, so even the pajama party was once a year.
ABBY: So, everyone came out.
JOHN EDDY: Everybody came out or tried to come out, one or the other.
(groovy music swells then fades into background again)
ABBY: So just to kind of give people a little bit more perspective of the space that Clubhouse was like, we created a little segment called, ‘A Person Walks into Clubhouse.’
So here's how it works, I'm going to toss you a character description of a person, and you'll tell me what happens next. Who notices this person? What kind of energy do they bring? And, of course, what kind of drama did they bring into the space?
So this is our first person: a shy kid from the suburbs, clutching a coat too big for them, walks into the Clubhouse for the first time. What happens next to this poor little fellow?
JOHN EDDY: Well, first of all, he might can't get in.
ABBY: True!
JOHN EDDY: Because you've got to have a membership to get in, or know somebody who is a member. And most likely, he walked up and down the line and asked people, do you have a membership? Can I get in with your membership?
And they probably looked at him and said, “oh, I’ll take this little cutie in with me,” and he came in with his big coat. And normally, he would be accepted right away, because most likely, who he came in with, he would stay with. They would take him over to the coat room, allow him to check that big coat, then they'd take him out to the dance floor and start dancing with him, and he would become accustomed to the music and to the vibes and fit in.
ABBY: Did you ever have people come to you at the end of the night and tell you that it was like their first time, and tell you what it was like for them to be in that space for the first time?
JOHN EDDY: I'm still having people tell me that. To this day, I’m still having people tell me that the Clubhouse saved their lives. I had people who said they were about to commit suicide till they came to the Clubhouse and then enjoyed the energy and came back week after week.
We had a coat room, and we checked choir robes, where people would come and dance and six or seven in the morning go put on their choir robes and go to church.
ABBY: What do you think was so special about the Clubhouse that people just kept coming back? Like, what about that space that you created was life saving for people?
JOHN EDDY: Well, when we initially started the Clubhouse, we wanted to have a party that you couldn't have at home. I mean, we wanted you to be able to jump crazy, knock things down, be yourself, you know. That energy that you had pent up all week, we want you to release it.
So I think most folks just enjoyed that alone, just to come and just really be themselves. And, we helped to create the vibes because at the beginning of the night, I'd make the staff go out with tambourines and things and shake them and get people dancing. And, I made the staff dance with customers beginning of the night.
ABBY: That's so, did you ever dance with any customers?
JOHN EDDY: Yes.
ABBY: Did you ever have any interesting or fun interactions with people when you were dancing with them?
JOHN EDDY: No, because most folks did not know my position in the Clubhouse. I was the,
what's that, the boss thing? The, when you don't know who the boss is? What's that?
ABBY: Oh, like Undercover Boss.
JOHN EDDY: I was the Undercover Boss. Andre was our general manager. I was his boss, but most folks didn't know it, and I would just observe. Where I see things wrong, I'd call Andre up say, “hey, you need to fix this, this, or what, go to the manager. So you need to fix this.”
Most folks did not know my position in the Clubhouse, and I have always had to maintain my position that I did not interact with the customers on a personal basis.
ABBY: So let's get to our next person, a Friday night regular, who you said, came that's more of a straight night, a straight membership, joins a friend who comes on Saturday, which we know is a more Queer/LGBTQ night, not knowing that it was going to be a different crowd. What do you think their initial reaction would be to walking in from a Friday night to a Saturday night?
JOHN EDDY: Well, first of all, they knew.
ABBY: Okay.
JOHN EDDY: Okay, because most likely the Saturday night person told them.
ABBY: Right.
JOHN EDDY: You know, you're coming, or they had heard about the Saturday night parties. We had a lot of Saturday, Friday night people who wanted to come to Saturday night. We had situations where, if New Year's fell on a Saturday, we had a problem, because we had to have a party for the straight folks, and we had to have a party for the gay folks.
So what we generally did was separate the club, because we had two different entrances. The straight folks would come in up the street from 1294. Their line would loop up the street. The gay folks' line would loop down the street to 1296, so we've had the straight folks trying knocking on the door to try to get in.
So of course, if that straight person came in with the gay person, he most likely would stay with the person. During the night, he would dance with the person in the group, with the people, and he would enjoy himself.
ABBY: And you said on Friday nights, there was more of like a dress code. You had to take care of people a little bit more. But on Saturday nights..
JOHN EDDY: Come as you dare.
ABBY: Come as you are.
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, and the reason why we had that because we know in our community, we do not, we do not fight in our good clothes. So, straight folks have a tendency to want to get drunk and fight. So if you come all dressed up, you know, most likely not gonna fight (laughs).
ABBY: In a suit and tie, you don't want to punch anyone out. Exactly.
JOHN EDDY: But on Saturdays, you can come as you dare, or come in and strip after you get there.
ABBY: Amazing (laughs). Okay, our last person is an ex of yours, or a team member, shows up unexpectedly. What's sort of the energy and response?
JOHN EDDY: Well, thank God I never had an ex to show up (laughs) first of all. And second, we've had a lot of exes who would come, but most of the time the exes would come and they would blend in. They would actually dance with their ex and their ex's piece. So a lot of times, you know, they would just blend in. They would never fight, never an issue. They realized that's the ex, and I've been replaced. So they enjoy themselves.
(Upbeat instrumental music starts to play in the background)
ABBY: Amazing. I think that's something special about the Queer community, is that if you're an ex, you're still in the family.
JOHN EDDY: Yeah, you're still in the family, no grudges.
ABBY: Exactly.
(Upbeat instrumental music swells then fades back into background)
ABBY: So our next segment is all about trying to reveal some of the secrets of the Clubhouse in the classic game of Never Have I Ever, where we're gonna have you hold up these two paddles— yes for you have and no for you haven't. We'll just ask you some fun questions about Clubhouse, and we can see what juicy goss we can get out of ya.
(Upbeat instrumental music ends)
Okay, okay, so your first one. Never have I ever denied someone a membership because I simply didn't like their vibe.
JOHN EDDY: (upbeat guitar strum) Yes.
ABBY: So when did you do this? What was, what kind of vibe would make you go— Mm-mm we can't give them one.
JOHN EDDY: Well, we had people who come, who would not reveal the entire name or their address, or why they wanted to be a membership for Saturday night or Friday night. And so we see what this is, person may not fit in.
So we would tell them, “Well, come back in a month or two and be re-interviewed.” Sometime they came back, sometime they didn't. Sometimes they came back and got a membership. But it wasn't too many people we denied.
ABBY: It was more of if a person wasn't being honest about who they were.
JOHN EDDY: Being honest, and we, during that period of time, of course, we had to be very cautious, also about…
ABBY: Right.
JOHN EDDY: Because a lot of people, we had married people coming up in there. We had lots of bisexuals coming up in there. We didn't allow cameras. So, because we knew people had their secrets, and back there in ‘75-‘80, you know, it was anti-gay, right?
ABBY: So you had to protect your space.
JOHN EDDY: We had to protect our community.
ABBY: All right, next one, never have I ever flirted with a patron or club goer.
(gloomy guitar strum)
Never?
JOHN EDDY: Never.
ABBY: Even when you were at the Zodiac Den or at Third World? Never?
JOHN EDDY: Never. I've always believed in maintaining a separate. Not that I didn't want to, (John and Abby laugh), but I didn't.
ABBY: Did you ever go to other bars?
JOHN EDDY: Yes, I went to other bars, and also people who I later dated came to the Clubhouse, but I never met anyone or participated with any of the staff or anybody.
ABBY: Okay, next one. Never have I ever lied about bar capacity or permits.
(gloomy guitar strum)
Never?
JOHN EDDY: Never. We had what you call a public hall license, which means you could have been open 24/7 since we didn't sell any liquor. We had beer on Friday nights and some special parties, but then we went and got a special, called Class D, license to sell the beer, but we had to stop selling it by two [a.m.].
But we never had fire inspectors. I don't know, I just thought about that. (John and Abby laugh) We never had fire inspectors. We only had one inspection when we went to open, and that was the electricians came to inspect. We never had the health department, none of those things.
ABBY: In your whole…
JOHN EDDY: In 15 years.
ABBY: Wow.
JOHN EDDY: So, somebody was watching out for us. We ran a tight ship.
ABBY: Tight ship, amazing.
JOHN EDDY: Remember, sometimes we've had up to 4,000 people in there. We have never called the police in 15 years for anybody or anything. We had our own internal security force, and we controlled everything. But by being membership, we let the members, or potential members, know up front, if you mess up, we taking your membership, and you can't come back again.
ABBY: And do you think that's what really protected the space?
JOHN EDDY: That helped to protect, yeah.
ABBY: Amazing. Okay, next one, never have I ever threatened to ban someone.
(gloomy guitar strum)
ABBY: It was still that, like everyone was just on good behavior.
JOHN EDDY: Everyone was on their...
ABBY: They behaved because they just loved the space so much. They didn't want to threaten their membership or their status.
JOHN EDDY: Their membership and their friends were coming. So they wanted to be with their friends (laughs).
ABBY: I think that's very unique out of most clubs for you guys to be able to say that, that it was such a safe space, truly, that people could come and be there
JOHN EDDY: And be themselves.
ABBY: And never have any issues.
JOHN EDDY: Correct.
ABBY: That's amazing. Okay, never have I ever let someone into the club for free or without a membership.
(upbeat guitar strum)
You have. (laughs) When did you do this?
JOHN EDDY: (laughs) I did it a few times. For example, we'd had people come from out of town, and they'd show me an out of town ID, so I let them in. Or we've had people, I could look at younger people, and see that this may be their first time, and they trying to feel their way around. So I let them in just to kind of be like, come on in, check it out. If you like it, then make a reservation with one of your friends who have a membership and come back for an interview.
ABBY: That's lovely. Okay, last one, never have I ever stayed up more than 24 hours to work or party at the Clubhouse.
(upbeat guitar strum)
So when was this? Was it a typical week, or was it rare?
JOHN EDDY: Well, we've had several parties that I've had to stay up. We had a contest once a year, which was called ‘Outlast the DJ,’ which means, as long as there was 100 people dancing on the floor, we kept playing music. Now, if the DJ got tired and couldn't play anymore, we had to pay everybody on the floor $100
ABBY: Now, did anyone ever beat the DJ?
JOHN EDDY: No, because we offered him $500. (Abby and John laugh)
He had a bathroom break, but he had to take the bathroom break while the music was playing. He couldn't stop the music. So, we always offered him $500 because we were 1000 or 100 people out there.
ABBY: Yeah, that’d be a lot of money (laughs).
JOHN EDDY: That’s gonna be a lot more money (laughs).
(Upbeat, fast-paced jazzy music starts to play in the background)
So that would normally, I'd get there midnight, and maybe leave, midnight the next night.
ABBY: People would last that long?
JOHN EDDY: People would last to four or five.
ABBY: That's crazy, the commitment.
(Upbeat, fast-paced jazzy music swells then plays in the background again)
ABBY: Our viewers have left you a couple voicemails asking for your help, or just some advice that you think that you could give them. So let's listen to the first one, and let's see what brilliant insight that you can give them.
(Upbeat, fast-paced jazzy music ends)
CALLER ONE: Hi. My question is, what advice would you give your 18 year old self?
JOHN EDDY: My advice to my 18 year old self is: enjoy life to its fullest, don't get depressed, don't get bored, and don't give a damn about what other people think of you.
ABBY: That's good. What do you do to not stay bored? What do you do when you needed something to do? How did you invigorate yourself?
JOHN EDDY: I seem to be self motivated. Yeah, I don't ever recall being depressed. I always seem to find something to do to entertain myself.
ABBY: Do you think that's just because of the way you are, or being in D.C., because there's so many things to do here.
JOHN EDDY: A combination of the two, I'm a Leo, and, you know, we
ABBY: That explains it (laughs).
JOHN EDDY: We all about getting out, doing something, having fun, creating a business, etc, etc,
ABBY: Amazing, okay, let's listen to maybe one or two more.
CALLER TWO: Hello, Queering the District, I just graduated and am in the emotional whiplash that comes with erasing my Queerness in professional spaces. What's your experience with that? Do you have self care tips for reclaiming your wholeness outside of work and being fully seen? Thank you.
JOHN EDDY: That's a tough one.
ABBY: That is a tough one.
JOHN EDDY: Well, first of all, I don't believe you can erase yourself, especially in this day and age. And, you know, I always wanted somebody to challenge me to ask me, ‘was I gay?’ And it never happened!
In both my professional side as a manager in the postal service, as well as in the gay side. So, I kind of think if you just be yourself and do what you want to do, people will ignore it, as long as you're not flamboyant and trying to be somebody you're not. Most of the time, people will avoid asking you that question.
Now I travel all over the world, and there's many clubs, gay clubs that I go to, they stop me at the door, and I have to prove through certain things that I can do, that I'm gay, that I could get in.
ABBY: Did you ever have in the workplace that you felt like you couldn't say a certain word or act in the way that you felt like was being yourself, but you felt like you had to maintain that sense of professionalism?
JOHN EDDY: Even maintaining that professionalism, I was just being myself. And, I have, I worked for the Postal Service, a mid-level manager out of headquarters, and I've traveled to 48 of 50 states training people, and I've trained up to 400 or 500 people at a time in each state. So I've had all types of people, all kind of genre that would come in, and I just was myself.
ABBY: That's amazing.
JOHN EDDY: And, I was hoping somebody would question me. I've always wanted to say I'm gay, but I've never had the opportunity to say that.
ABBY: I feel like, when I was first coming out, that was something I struggled with. Was that, I was like, I remember, I was at a party, and I was sitting down, and I thought I'd put on, like, the gayest outfit I could ever put on. I was like, I looked myself in the mirror, was like she's so gay, like, there's no way you can't.
I sat down and someone was talking, and I mentioned, like, oh, a girl. And they went, “Oh, you're gay. I never would have guessed.” And my heart broke to pieces!
JOHN EDDY: Well, it's almost like me. I've always wanted somebody to challenge me.
ABBY: Yeah.
JOHN EDDY: And nobody never challenged me, other than Rodney. (laughs)
(Upbeat, groovy music with a synth piano starts to play)
ABBY: Other than Rodney! (laughs)
ABBY: John is going to leave us a message on our bare it all after the beep hotline: phi-phi. So without further ado, take us home John with a voicemail about your favorite D.C. memory.
JOHN EDDY: Okay, one of my most favorite events was not at the Clubhouse parties, but we did something unusual once. We had a Mother's Day affair at the Clubhouse where we invited all the members to bring their mothers and grandmothers. It was a very highly successful event, to the point that we did it every year thereafter.
(Upbeat, groovy music with a synth piano swells then plays in the background)
ABBY: Hey baby… we’re so glad you’re here, thanks for listening until the end of the episode.
Don’t worry, we promise we won’t leave you hanging for too long. Next Wednesday, we’ll pick right back up on the history of bars starting in the early 1980s when AIDS/HIV began to spread, thus changing the Queer community forever. And then we’ll have another After Hour episode in two weeks time.
We want to thank the Rainbow History Project, the DC Public Library, and the countless other academics, historians, whether featured in these episodes or not, who really inspired and guided us through this process.
I also want to shout out the rest of the QTDP team, Ellie, Mads, and Sam for making this podcast happen. Thank you so so much.
You can find a transcript for this, and every episode, on our website at queeringthedistrictpodcast.com and linked below in the episode notes.
If you want to learn more and stay up to date on all things Queering the District Podcast, follow us on all of our social media pages @queeringthedistrictpodcast! You won’t want to miss exclusive interview clips, juicy voicemails, and those bi-weekly spotlights.
So do you have a story to share? Do you think we missed something? Give us a call, and bare it all after the beep at 202-753-6570.
See ya later!
(Upbeat, groovy music with a synth piano fades out)
