Maxine's

Name of Bar/Club: Maxine's

Location: 243 So. Camac Street, Philadelphia PA 19107

Period in existence: 1936 to 1979, a speakeasy before that

Philadelphians who spent time at this bar or club:

[|From Leroy F. Aaron's obituary]

code Aarons' first brush with gay life was visiting a bar called Maxine's in Philadelphia while on leave from the Navy in 1955.

"I walked in and it was like Dorothy coming from sepia-tone Kansas to the Land of Oz, all of a sudden it was Technicolor," recalled Aarons in the October interview. "There were these gorgeous men. In those days, everyone went out in jackets and ties. There was a piano bar and a guy singing show tunes and I thought, 'Oh my God, there are other people, not just me!' And that started me off. I was a gay in the military."

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