“One night I remember that it was really crowded and there were these three guys in suits – one of whom I found quite attractive – so I went up to him and asked him to dance and he responded gruffly, “No!’ When I went back to my friends, they asked me what I had done, and they said to me, ‘they are the police stupid, the light is flashing!'”īefore homosexuality was decriminalized in 1969 any same-sex couple dancing together was potentially subject to arrest under the charge of gross indecency. Getting there, you would sneak down the laneway, look both ways and then quickly go down the stairs.” The room was not very big, and was decorated by a lot of christmas tree lights with a central light bulb (red?) hanging from the ceiling.įormer producing director of Alberta Theatre Projects, Michael Dobbin, remembers: “It was a time when if you saw someone you recognized at the club it made you feel kind of queazy and you left. The 620 was just a number on the door, and there was no alcohol served – there was only popcorn and pop machines. It opened in 1967 or 1968, and was owned by a man described as short and swarthy, with a big nose and a limp. 620 8th Avenue SW Calgary today: image Google Earth
