La Cage Aux Follies began as a dance bar, and was relatively popular from day 1. Upon its opening, it is also believed to be the first bar with windows open to the street. Although the dance area was not large, the location and timing was excellent, and La Cage quickly took dominance of the gay dance scene, largely helped by DJ Tony Aiello, who presided as DJ at La Cage for almost 20 years. La Cage quickly overtook Club 219 as the city's premier gay dance bar, and over the next few years competing venues such as Factory II closed; and it kept a good and loyal share of the dance crowd market as dance venues such as Kisses, Factory III, and others came and went.

Over the years, La Cage evolved. In 1988 the area of the building to the south of the La Cage bar opened as the separate but connected "Dance, Dance, Dance". La Cage was also known as the bar that never stayed the same. The owner was never satisfied, and it seemed every year or two the bar underwent a drastic remodeling: bars would be ripped out and pop up against another wall, the dance floor would move and shift, the DJ booth would be remodeled, video screens came and went, etc.

The building became a small complex, with varying degrees of success. An outdoor patio was somewhat popular, but the limited summer season, and the bar's main draw as a dance bar, caused the patio to quitely go away after a season or two. A basement restaurant in the mid-1990's was never too successful, although it did offer something of a refuge from the louder music above, and there was regular traffic between the two floors. The basement eventually closed. A bar/restaurant in the basement was resurrected in 2003, named "etc", but again it had limited success, and mid-2004 held rumors of a layoff or cutback of staff.

La Cage was also the source of some controversy. In the relatively conservative Milwaukee market, La Cage's habit of charging cover charges well above the average for a Milwaukee gay bar often caused grumbling, and the bar's habit of both charging for "prefered-member" cards, and invalidating and forcing people to buy new cards after just a year, was further criticism. Through it all, there was a loyal following. There were also some comments that La Cage was catering too much to the straight clientele; although, located as it is in the midst of several popular straight bars, that is almost unavoidable. There were also occasional rumors about large tax debts of the business.

View the bar circa 2002-2003

Early in 2004, La Cage was remodeled again, this time tearing out the entire center of the building to creat one large room: a large dance floor in the center surrounded by bars, tables, walkways. In July, the club was renamed from "La Cage" to simply "Cage". The "too straight" mumbles started again, and the new "Cage" began advertising "We're not going Straight, We're going Forward".

By mid-2005, the bar reverted to its former name, and began advertising itself again as La Cage.

It seems clear that La Cage (now Cage) will continue to be at the center of activity, and a swirl of controversy and comment, for some time to come.

    
Views of the Building, late 2006
    
Strut Your Stuff, with Abbey Rhodes; July 1985

Jazz ad, Dec. 1989