No one likes to talk about their age. Still, Rich Cummings, founder of Reel Q: the Pittsburgh International LGBTQ Film Festival (then known as Pittsburgh Lesbian & Gay Film Series) wants to talk about it. He is looking for folks of a certain age who were patrons of the gayish nightclub and after-hours bar formerly located on Route 51/Saw Mill Run Boulevard at Parkfield Street in Pittsburgh’s Overbrook neighborhood known as Paris After Dark in the 1950s, 60s, and very early ’70s.
Paris After Dark operated from 1950 until March 22, 1971, when it was raided by Liquor Control Board agents who seem to have stepped right out of the 1969 Stonewall riots. The LCB agents overreached and arrested 69 patrons of the bar, only two of whom were charged, the owner and bartender.
Rich Cummings is in the planning phase of a documentary about the nightclub and its role in the LGBTQ history of Pittsburgh with a focus on that infamous night in March 1971.
Anybody with memories of the nightclub and especially any of those arrested in the 1971 raid are asked to contact Rich to share your memories and our history. Rich Cummings can be contacted at richcummings1958@gmail.com.
