History of Gay and Lesbian Life in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Businesses - Bars and Clubs

 
Manhole
Location: 207 S. Washington Street, Green Bay WI

Opened:
Closed:

1976
late 1981/ early 1982
Clientele:

Male/ female
Bar/ Dance club

 

 
       
 

The Manhole was opened by Joe Mallien and Mike Dziuba, as probably the first gay leather bar in Northeastern Wisconsin. The DJ was Mark 'Za' Mariucci, who went on to open several bars of his own, and also founded and ran 'Quest' magazine, a Wisconsin LGBT periodical for 25 years.

The Manhole is perhaps most remembered as the first home bar of the Argonauts Leather Club. They held their "annual run", (which started as "Winterfest" before moving to August), at the Manhole, approx 1976 to 1981.

After five very successful years, the bar was relocated and in June 1982 became The Body Shop, under the same ownership.

The old brick building that housed The Manhole was in an earlier life horse stables. Since torn down, the site of the Manhole has been a Chase Bank parking lot since at least the mid-1990's.

The history of LGBT bars in Northeastern Wisconsin was the subject of an excellent article in the Green Bay Press Gazette in 2020.




Dance floor, c1978-1981
(Fog on dance floor is from dry ice, not fog machine juice as is used today)
(Photos courtesy Mark 'Za' Mariucci)
 


Neil Pollock giving sales pitch at a Tupperware party at Manhole (circa 1979)
(Photos courtesy Mark 'Za' Mariucci)
 
 


Matchbook cover

Credits: Information of bar's origins by NE Wisconsin LGBT History Project,
Paul "Cricket" Jacob and Lloyd Schaefer,
with additional information gathered by The Project.
Web site concept, design and arrangement by Don Schwamb.
Last updated: July-2021.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.