Finnie's Balls

Finnie's Balls

Annual Halloween Masquerade Balls (multiple locations)

38th and Michigan Avenue (basement of a tavern) Pershing Ballroom--3851 S. Michigan; also at Eighth Regiment Armory at 3519 S. Giles; also at Ritz Pavilion or Lounge (part of the old Ritz Hotel) 3947 S. King Drive/South Parkway Blvd; also at the (second) Coliseum (also called Coliseum Annex) at 63rd and Stony Island (originally held by the Goblins) or third Coliseum 14-16th at Wabash

"The most famous of these Drag Balls were the first Finnie’s balls, the first of which occurred in 1935 and was organized by a Black gay street hustler and gambler named Alfred Finnie, in the basement of a tavern on the corner of 38th street and Michigan Avenue. Guests of the ball paid twenty-five cents to attend. Nancy Kelly, who went to his first Finnie’s Ball in 1935, recalled that the event in its first years was relatively small. Until 1943, the ball was held up to five times annually at a number of different venues. As a famous female impersonator Nancy Kelly remembered, “they’d just pick out a random little shack you know. Decorate it, put up some balloons… and stuff like that. It was more homey than it is now.” http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/queer-bronzeville/part-2/drag-balls

http://blog.chicagohistory.org/index.php/2011/10/finnies-halloween-masquerade-balls/

http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2008/02/finnies_ball.php

http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/queer-bronzeville/part-2/drag-balls

1935/1970

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