34 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY JUNE 29-JULY 5, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com FACE TO FACE Weldon Webb was born in Hollister, but spent most of his life in Monterey County. These days, he co-owns and drives for Weldon Webb Driving Services, but in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s he was the owner and co-owner—with Jim Prater and then Kevin Hartley—of a legendary Monterey gay bar. After Dark opened in 1975 and Webb says that initially, he and his first business partner, Prater, wanted to keep a low profile. They removed the flashy neon of the previous bar— Johnny’s Cocktails (Do Drop Inn)—and picked an ugly paint color to blend in. At first, there was a big tree covering the entrance, which the city then removed when it became diseased. After Dark’s owners and clientele were not happy with more exposure. Bottom line, the bar was not seeking attention, even though soon it became quite famous for its Halloween, New Year’s and First Friday parties. After Dark closed in 1999, after thousands of nights of dancing. That means that it’s been 20 years since Monterey had a gay bar. Perhaps it doesn’t need one anymore, as Webb argues—not without nostalgia. The popular cocktail bar Pearl Hour now fills the After Dark space, and proudly continues the LGBTQ+ traditions with monthly drag shows and LGBTQIA+ nights. Pearl Hour’s owner, Katie Blandin, even created a drink called After Dark to celebrate the past. Webb doesn’t know what’s in it, but knows that it’s good. Weekly: What was gay life here like in the late ’60s and early ’70s? Webb: It existed underground. You couldn’t be out and open. So I didn’t go out, even when I turned 21. In a small town like Hollister, going out was not what you did. You stayed home and worked on cars. My family worked in agriculture, but that was not what I wanted to do. Only later, in 1969, a family acquaintance, about 10 years older, took me to a gay bar in Monterey. It had a jukebox. We had a drink and he asked me, “Do you know where you are?” Did you? I did. Well, how on Earth did you become a gay bar owner? I had a friend, Jim Prater, and we wanted to start a business together. Someone said, “There’s a bar in Monterey for sale.” I was against the idea. I said that I don’t know anything about running a bar and that Jim and I were talking about opening a small business, not a bar. And then this guy asked me: “Do you know anything about running a small business?” We went to see the place and it needed so much work. We didn’t get the place right then because the owner wasn’t ready to sell the property. She called a year later, and we became owners. How did it go? Good. We didn’t advertise, so it was word of mouth. There was another gay bar in Monterey where everybody would go, but it was old and had no dance floor. We had a dance floor and the place was fresh and clean, a wooden bar freshly stripped, a reel-to-reel [tape] player. Everybody came to us. But they never went back, which was sad. And how did the neighborhood treat After Dark? We didn’t want to upset the neighborhood. I remember thinking when we opened that now I would have to tell my parents. Jim wasn’t out either. Sometime in the ’80s, we put out a Pride flag—back then we would celebrate a Pride week, not month—and two days later, we received a letter from the city of Monterey. It said that flags are not allowed and there was a daily fine of $2,000. We installed lights in the colors of the flag instead and they couldn’t say anything. It started to loosen up a little bit; that was when our Halloween parties were big. A few years in, we added a DJ and a DJ booth. We had a front bar, and after 10pm we would open the back bar [Pearl Hour’s patio today]. What kind of music ruled back then? Who were today’s Lady Gaga and Beyoncé? Disco was huge back then, so I guess Donna Summer. Why did you close? It was a combination of factors. Business was deteriorating. The era of the coffee shop began. Going out to drink became passé. It was the beginning of the internet and people started to meet elsewhere, not only at bars. Is that why gay bars are disappearing? Yes, I think so. There’s no need for gay people to go to gay bars to meet each other. And also, gay people can go anywhere now. After After Dark Weldon Webb remembers a time when a gay bar was the center of the local LGBTQ+ scene. How times have changed. By Agata Pop˛eda Weldon Webb ran the former Monterey gay bar After Dark from 1975-1999. “Things have changed tremendously since we opened, for the better,” he says. DANIEL DREIFUSS
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