END OF AN ERA - MILWAUKEE LOSES LEGENDARY GAY BAR OWNER

If there is a Milwaukee gay bar that could be called “legendary”, it would have to be The Factory. Although only open for 8 years, even 20 years after it closed many of the young gay people (not even alive at the time) have heard mention of “The Factory”. What few realize though is that the man who opened The Factory was responsible for at least 5 Milwaukee gay bars in the 1970s and 1980s, and had a hand in even more. That man was Chuck Cicirello, who passed away recently at the age of 67.

Chuck’s career in gay bars began with The Neptune Club, opened early in 1972 on N. Kane, but it was short-lived. Just a year later, Chuck was ready to up the ante: in March 1973, he opened “The Factory”, advertised in the “GPU News” as “Where friendships are made”. It went on to read: “The Factory is now open, and four bartenders are making great drinks. You can work on a big production on the dance floor and put in overtime at the huge bar. For those who appreciate large dimensions we have 2400 square feet of good times manufacturing floor space. If you want to make it, make it at The Factory.”

he Factory, at 158 N. Broadway, was a smash hit immediately. Milwaukee had never seen a club like it, gay or straight: it had a large dance area, high ceilings (in an old manufacturing space), and was busy nearly every night of the week. The dance floor was one of the first in the Midwest with a DJ and light show (this was pre-disco!), so The Factory was perfectly positioned to be even more of a hit when the age of disco came.

During virtually its entire run, the main room of the bar featured a huge island bar with service on all four sides. At various stages of decoration, some of the legendary designs of the Factory included: Tables along the sides with phones to call any other table; a canopy over the entire island bar, with a “Pacific islands” theme; and a raised dance floor made of transparent plastic, lighted from below with flashing colored lights. For a time a large devil’s head containing the DJ booth extended over the dance floor, nostrils snorting smoke; during this time, the bar was advertised as The Inferno.

As business picked up over the years, the Factory was expanded into an attached annex, connecting through the beer bar. Known as “The Loading Dock”, it was used for additional dancing and quieter visiting during busy hours, and was also used to host meetings and had a stage for drag shows and musical performances. For a time, Chuck opened the upstairs in the same building as the Broadway Health Club, a men’s health club/ bath house. Opened in March 1978, it was raided on numerous occasions by the then notoriously homophobic Milwaukee Police; it closed in 1981.

Factory II

After 10 years, Chuck was ready to move on. Disco had already begun to decline, and Club 219 had opened to take away the dance crowd. The Factory closed its doors in November 1982. (In 1986, the building became the home of Theatre X, which has extensively renovated the space and added a theatre.)

But Chuck had only begun. He opened “Factory II” in December 1982, at 132 E. Juneau, in the space that had previously been called Kisses bar. This bar was considerably smaller than the original Factory, with low ceilings. The bar and dance floor were on two different levels with an open stairway between them. The bar had a somewhat cramped feel if it got crowded, but it was a lot of fun and it had a loyal following from some of the original Factory patrons, as well as attracting more of the younger crowd. The bar was not to be as popular as the original however, and the location was out of the way of the gay bar district; The Factory II closed in September, 1984. (That building is now the home of Village Church.)

27th Street Danceteria

Chuck was ready now to try a novel concept. In April 1985 he opened 27th Street Danceteria. Originally opened as a juice bar for gays of all ages (including underage people) to meet, mingle, and dance, 27th Street Danceteria ran into a legal dilemma when it was discovered that dancing was not allowed past midnight unless the location held a liquor license. It was thus forced to apply for a liquor license to make dancing available up to bar-closing time.

Originally attracting all gays and lesbians (due to Chuck’s previous mega-bars, the Factory bars), 27th Street Danceteria eventually become known more as a black GLBT bar and dance club. The bar struggled to hang on, and finally closed in June 1987.

Factory 3

Meanwhile, Chuck had decided to move his main gay bar back to the downtown area. He opened Factory 3 in November 1986 (at 511 N. Broadway). Located in a downtown warehouse building on a historic block, the bar had high ceilings excellent for disco lighting. The bar made an excellent venue for shows, with a large stage, plenty of seating, and excellent lighting and sound system. Advertising touted the high ceilings, wide open spaces, and large footprint (over 6,000 square feet). Although briefly popular, largely for its shows, the bar didn’t retain its appeal compared to the already 2-year-old La Cage dance club, located farther south; this third Factory to close in 1988, after just 2 years.

By the mid-1990s, Chuck had been hired to manage the Club 219 bar. He did that for many years, until the Club 219 closed in 2005. It was rumored that Chuck was looking around for a location to open yet another bar.

Remembering

Chuck was not just a bar owner and manager. He was very active in the LGBT community as a whole, participating in many events and findraisers. In the early 1980s, Chuck also served as President of BAM, the Business Association of Milwaukee, a coalition of gay bar owners which pooled purchasing resources and for some years held various benefits and social parties.

For all his contributions to the community, Chuck Cicirello will not be forgotten anytime soon by Milwaukee’s gay community. Whether people knew him as Chuck Cicirello or Chuck Balistreri (as he was sometimes called), they will remember him for his good nature and friendly attitude toward everyone. On his death, on February 1, 2011, Chuck left behind a wife, two sons, and two grandchildren. He was buried at Highland Memorial Park.

The Factory bar was the inspiration for a disco bar in several chapters of a running story, The Beef Matson Mysteries, written some years later by Rick Chris, a prominent national artist who grew up and came out in Milwaukee. Rick has made several paintings of The Factory for that series of stories.

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