Crazy, huh? Women have been socializing at city drinking establishments after social trends shifted after prohibition (though may not have wanted to, since many were rough, unwelcoming places). But it was still perfectly legal for a bar to refuse to serve, or even admit, a female—until a 1970 sex discrimination law took effect.
From Knife and Fork in New York, a 1949 city restaurant guide by Lawton Mackall, here’s a partial list of old “male citidels.”
Naturally, the movers and shakers at the Waldorf-Astoria, St. Regis, and other posh hotels got used to seeing chicks around. As the maitre ‘de of the Roosevelt Hotel told the New York Times in 1971, “the men are happy now, especially since the hot pants came in.”
Tags: manhattan bars, New York bars, Roosevelt hotel, St. Regis, taverns, Waldorf-Astoria, women
