When I made my first Facebook ads for my Gilded Age MM series, The Slippery Slope, I used the tagline, “Romance in the Gay Club Scene of the 1890s!”. And almost immediately, I had someone comment saying “Are you kidding? Or do you mean the 1980s?”
Fortunately, I was able to reply and say, “It’s not a typo! There was a thriving gay club scene in The Bowery in the 1890s and earlier.” And guys, there was!
The neighborhood of Bowery was famous for being a little slice of New York City where all the rules were broken and where men and women of all inclinations could live as their most authentic selves. It was so famous for the wild lives people lived that “going slumming” by visiting the Bowery clubs was considered to be one of the not-to-be-missed tourist attractions of New York before the twentieth century.
The idea of social clubs and bars wasn’t new to the twentieth century. Neither was the concept of dance halls or public houses of ill-repute. By the end of the nineteenth century in large cities around the world, that hangout spot where everybody knew your name and was always glad you came was as much an institution as the church where many of the same people would sit on Sunday mornings, praying off their hangover. So it seemed only natural to me to set an entire series around one of these Bowery clubs with all their colorful characters.
The thing that might surprise people even more than the existence of nightclubs and dancehalls in the 1890s is that they were also known for drag queens and hook-ups, the same as clubs in that part of the city are known today. Drag culture and the gay social scene had their origins long before most people think, which is what I wanted to capture in my Slippery Slope series. A lot of the same terminology was used as well.
But even more important than that, the gay club scene of The Bowery was one of the few, rare places where the LGBTQ community could go in an era that was largely restrictive of their lifestyles (though not as much as the later, post-WWII era, believe it or not). Even the laws in New York against dressing in the clothing of the opposite gender were relaxed in this underground world. Men, and women, risked being arrested and imprisoned if they were caught almost anywhere in the streets dressed “inappropriately”, but inside the clubs, men had much more freedom to be themselves.
One of my inspirations and chief sources of research for this series, Gay New York, by George Chauncey, includes several fascinating primary-source accounts of men who found release from their closeted lives and acceptance for who they knew they were in this club world. As Chauncey relates, many men who had ordinary lives uptown kept rooms above the bars and clubs where they stored their personal effects, and at the end of the work week, they would steal down to The Bowery and dress as they pleased, keeping whatever company they wanted.
I wanted to capture this world of freedom amid a restrictive society in The Slippery Slope. It was so much fun to imagine what sort of men would have lived these semi-free lives in the “Naughty Nineties”, and what sort of lives they might have had. According to the first-hand accounts Chauncey includes in his book, it was surprisingly easy for men who loved other men to pick up “dates” for the night (the term was new and popular in the ‘90s), even men that nowadays we would think of as straight, who were called “trade” back then. I, of course, wanted to explore a world where my heroes could find not only short-term partners but lifelong lovers too.
And there were plenty of long-term lovers that made The Bowery their home or their home away from home. Some even considered themselves married and referred to each other as husbands, long before gay marriage was legal. Because love has always been love, no matter the restrictions that the outside world has tried to place on the queer community.
It’s been so much fun bringing this forgotten slice of history to the pages of romance India! The men of The Slippery Slope have their trials and triumphs, their highs and their lows, as much as any other corseted characters that are more usually seen in Historical Romance. These are stories that I was desperate to tell because I haven’t seen a lot of them up until now. But I think we’ll see a lot more Queer Historical Romance as the truth of history in places like The Bowery is brought into the light.
A TOUCH OF TENDERNESS by Merry Farmer
The Slippery Slope #4
How do you love a man who is still in love with someone else?
When Beckett Smith meets Noah Cheevers at the bar of The Slippery Slope, sparks fly…but not the sparks either of them expected.
Noah came all the way to New York from London to win back the love of his life, Marcus Albright…who has already moved on with a new lover. Beckett is head over heels for The Slope’s co-owner, Graham Ravenswood…who won’t give him the time of day after the one night they spent together.
But neither Beckett nor Noah is willing to give up their quests for true love.
Except when they fall for each other.
Passions spark and the two friends become lovers, but Noah is sick. Everyone warns Beckett against becoming involved with a madman, but it’s too late. He’s already given his heart away. And when Noah’s mental state takes a turn for the worse, their new, fragile love is put to the test.
Will Beckett’s quest to get help for Noah bring the two lost souls together, or is Noah too wounded for even Beckett’s love to heal him?
Forewarning: Be ready for depictions of mental illness and Victorian Era treatments for manic-depressive disorder in this heart-wrenching, friends-to-lovers tale of love against all odds, overcoming adversity, fighting for a chance to be together, and proving that no one is every too damaged to be loved.
PLEASE BE ADVISED: Steam level – very spicy!
Romance Historical [Self Published, On Sale: August 5, 2022, e-Book, / eISBN: 9798841406839]
Buy A TOUCH OF TENDERNESS: Kindle | Apple Books | Kobo | Google Play | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon DE | Amazon FR
About Merry Farmer
Merry Farmer is a bestselling, award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Torpedo, her grumpy old man, and Justine, the new, feisty baby. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn’t have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always have something to write about. Her books have topped the Amazon and iBooks charts, and been named as finalists in the prestigious RONE and Rom Com Reader’s Crown awards.
Historical, Contemporary…Merry!
No Comments
Comments are closed.