Boom Boom Room: A Haven of OC's LGBTQ Community in the 1970s and '80s
The bar at the Coast Inn was constructed in 1927 and, by the 1940s, had become a haven for gay and lesbian guests, making it one of the oldest gay bars in the western United States. Artists from Laguna Beach, vacationers from Hollywood and beyond, as well as marines from the nearby bases all made this a center of gay nightlife. The Boom Boom Room was famed for its disco dancing in the 1970s as well as for the cabaret singing of Mexican American chanteuse (and Anaheim native) Rudy de la Mor.
In 1953, President Eisenhower had declared homosexuals a threat to national security because he perceived gay people to be vulnerable to blackmail, in a policy that became known as the "Lavender Scare," paralleling the "Red Scare" of communism. Gay service members could not safely express themselves publicly until 2011, when President Obama repealed Clinton's 1993 "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. Nevertheless, the military attracted people who desired a safe, queer space, and some of those people became fans of the Boom Boom Room.
Explore some of the spaces in Orange County shaped by the Cold War. Click on the starred map points to read more in-depth stories.
In Orange County, gay bars flourished in both Garden Grove and Laguna Beach. Garden Grove's Happy Hour Bar (12081 Garden Grove Blvd.), open from 1964-2003 and one of the nation's longest-running lesbian bars, anchored a neighborhood of more than a dozen mid-century gay bars.
At the Boom Boom Room in the 1980s, Michael Martenay built a memorial garden to be the final resting place for the ashes of more than 50 men who died during the AIDS epidemic. This space was a community center.
In 2006, when the Coast Inn was sold to a new owner and slated for bulldozing, conservative gay activist Fred Karger led community opposition that kept the Boom Boom Room open another year. Rising property values, an aging and gentrifying population and perhaps the greater integration of gay life meant that other gay bars have also recently shuttered across Orange County. The Coast Inn is now scheduled for restoration, but with no plans to reopen the Boom Boom Room.
