{{Short description|Historic nightclub in Kansas City, Missouri}} {{Infobox venue |name=Jewel Box Lounge |type=Nightclub |event=Female impersonation |address=3223 Troost Avenue |city=Kansas City, Missouri |owner=John N. Tuccillo |opened=1948 |closed=1982 |mapframe=yes |mapframe-zoom=14 |coordinates={{Coord |39.0678 |-94.5713}}}}
The '''Jewel Box Lounge''', also known as the '''Jewel Box''', was a nightclub & lounge opened by John Tuccillo in 1948. Located on the historic Troost Avenue in Kansas City, Missouri it was one of the earliest establishments in the area to feature drag queens and impersonators as entertainers. At its peak, the Jewel Box Lounge was one of the largest and best-known drag nightclubs in the United States.
== History == The Jewel Box Lounge started as an ordinary nightclub without female impersonation.<ref name="hinds_2015">{{cite news |last=Hinds |first=Stuart L. |date=June 2015 |title=The Jewel Box Lounge: Kansas City's home for femme mimics |work=The Phoenix Newsletter |location=Kansas City, MO}}</ref> Then in the late 1950s, several men dressed in drag gave an impromptu singing performance, and their popularity caused the owner of the club to make female impersonation performances the main focus of the club.<ref name="hinds_2015"/>
The Jewel Box Lounge employed several female impersonators who were nationally renowned entertainers.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79">{{Cite book |last=Hilderbrand |first=Lucas |date=2023 |chapter=Show Me Love: Female Impersonation and Drag in Kansas City |title=The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=79–84 |isbn=9781478024958}}</ref> Skip Arnold was one such female impersonator who performed at the Jewel Box Lounge.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/> He started performing at the Colony Bar nearby, and was then hired in 1959 as the first female impersonator for the Jewel Box Lounge.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/> Another famous performer at the Jewel Box Lounge was Ray Bourbon, who had originally started his drag career at Finocchio's Club in the 1930s.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/> At the Jewel Box Lounge, Bourbon sometimes played the role of Mavis, an elderly cleaning woman, who offered double entendres, and criticisms of the previous performers.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/> In 1964, at the Jewel Box Lounge, Bourbon recorded the drag comedy live album entitled, ''A Trick Ain't Always a Treat''.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/>
In 1966, in the same building, the owner opened a burlesque club called Cat Baleu, and a strip club called Yum-Yum, neither of which employed female impersonators.<ref name="hinds_2015"/>
From 1965 to 1967, cultural anthropologist Esther Newton did field work observing and studying female impersonation in the United States.<ref name="flanagan_20201013">{{cite news |last=Flanagan |first=Michael |date=2020-10-13 |title=Rediscovering 'Mother Camp' - Esther Newton, Skip Arnold and drag anthropology in the 1960s |url=https://www.ebar.com/story.php?ch=bartab&sc=barchive&id=298062 |work=Bay Area Reporter |location=San Francisco, CA |access-date=2024-01-01}}</ref> She attended over one hundred performances at the Jewel Box Lounge, and interacted extensively with the female impersonators there.<ref name="flanagan_20201013"/> Her doctoral dissertation was published and later collected into the 1972 book, ''Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America''.<ref name="flanagan_20201013"/> ''Mother Camp'' was the first book-length ethnography focusing on a gay community.<ref name="rubin_2018">{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Gayle |date=2018-11-15 |title=Esther Newton Made Me a Gay Anthropologist |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=120 |issue=4 |pages=852–853 |doi=10.1111/aman.13147|hdl=2027.42/146588 |s2cid=166026699 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
In 1972, the clubs Cat Baleu and Yum-Yum were closed, and the Jewel Box Lounge was moved to 3110 Main Street, but it never regained its former popularity.<ref name="hinds_2015"/> In 1982, the Jewel Box Lounge was shut down following a large final performance with a packed crowd.<ref name="hinds_2015"/>
== Demographics == Esther Newton listed the Jewel Box Lounge as being in the top four largest and best-known tourist clubs in the United States for female impersonation.<ref name="newton_1972_112">{{cite book |last=Newton |first=Esther |chapter=The Fast Fuck and the Quick Buck |title=Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America |year=1972 |location=Chicago, IL |publisher=The University of Chicago Press |pages=112–119 |isbn=9780226577609 }}</ref> The list included Club 82, Club My-O-My, Finocchio's Club, and the Jewel Box Lounge.<ref name="newton_1972_112"/> Newton described a tourist club as one specializing exclusively in female impersonation performances, rather than acting primarily as a gay bar with only occasional performances.<ref name="newton_1972_112"/> Another source describes the clientele as "diverse and accepting", and as, "mostly tourists and local fans".<ref name="jackson_2011_117">{{Cite book |editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=David W. |date=2011 |title=Changing Times: Almanac and Digest of Kansas City's Gay and Lesbian History |location=Kansas City, MO |publisher=The Orderly Pack Rat |page=117 |isbn=9780970430847}}</ref>
== Relationship to the Colony Bar == The Jewel Box Lounge had a close relationship to the Colony Bar. The two venues were owned by the same people, and were located in the same area, and both featured female impersonators, including some of the same entertainers.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_68">{{Cite book |last=Hilderbrand |first=Lucas |date=2023 |chapter=Show Me Love: Female Impersonation and Drag in Kansas City |title=The Bars Are Ours: Histories and Cultures of Gay Bars in America, 1960 and After |location=Durham, NC |publisher=Duke University Press |pages=68–69 |isbn=9781478024958}}</ref> The Jewel Box Lounge appealed to straight tourists attending performances, while the Colony Bar primarily appealed to the gay community as a meeting place.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_68"/> Newton described the Colony Bar as being less spacious and less well-equipped than the Jewel Box Lounge.<ref name="newton_1972_112"/>
Esther Newton described the Colony Bar as a "low hustling bar, where street fairies, other gay people, dating couples, and working-class men" rubbed elbows.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/><ref name="newton_1972_112"/> The Colony Bar was inclusive of gender-variant people who would now be considered transgender, non-binary, or gender non-conforming.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/> The bar held an annual Halloween drag contest each year.<ref name="newton_1972_112"/> A contemporaneous gay travel guide, ''Bob Damron's Address Book'', listed the Colony Bar as being frequented by "raunchy types", often sex workers.<ref name="hilderbrand_2023_79"/>
Common locations in Kansas City, Missouri, where cross-dressing occurred included the Colony Bar, the Forest Ballroom, and the Jewel Box Lounge.<ref name="reay_2020_ch2">{{cite book |last=Reay |first=Barry |date=2020 |chapter=The Transsexual Moment |title=Trans America: A Counter-History |location=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Polity Press |isbn=978-1509511792}}</ref> The Gay and Lesbian Archive of Mid-America (GLAMA), run by the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC), maintains collections of photos from the cross-dressing subculture in Kansas City, Missouri.<ref name="reay_2020_ch2"/>
== See also == * Club 82 (New York City) * Club My-O-My (New Orleans) * Finocchio's Club (San Francisco) * The Beige Room (San Francisco)
==References== {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.queermusicheritage.com/fem-jbl.html Queer Music Heritage: Jewel Box Lounge, Kansas City] * [https://digital.library.umkc.edu/taxonomy/term/469 UMKC Digital Collection: Jewel Box Lounge] * [https://digital.library.umkc.edu/taxonomy/term/6793 UMKC Digital Collection: Drag queens] * [https://www.thecut.com/2014/04/rare-photos-from-the-60s-kansas-city-drag-scene.html 'Private Birthday Party': Rare Photos From Kansas City's 1960s Drag Scene ] * [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6l_AH6av7Q Show Me Love: Female Impersonation and Drag in Kansas City] (December 2023 GLAMA presentation)
{{Kansas City, Missouri}} {{LGBTQ}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1948 establishments in Missouri Category:1982 disestablishments in Missouri Category:Culture of Kansas City, Missouri Category:Defunct LGBTQ nightclubs in the United States Category:Drag (entertainment) in the United States Category:Drinking establishments in Missouri Category:LGBTQ culture in Missouri Category:LGBTQ history in Missouri Category:Organizations based in Kansas City, Missouri Category:Tourist attractions in Kansas City, Missouri