Not an LGBTQ-owned business or caters to LGBTQ patrons, however, it does have a history of hiring LGBTQ people from about 1965-1971

Per YouTube video Mary's Club Owner on the History of Portland's Oldest Strip Club https://youtu.be/7ra_ninb9tA

Some history from Mary’s Club website: http://marysclub.com/history.php

Portland’s oldest topless bar is the downtown institution Mary’s Club. It originally opened as a piano bar during the 1930s, and was a popular nightspot into the 1950s, when Southwest Broadway was home to numerous movie theaters, restaurants and bars. In the mid-‘50s, the club started featuring topless dancers wearing pasties.

Mary’s Club owner Roy Keller told The Oregonian in 1965 that the club used to have the reputation for attracting the rough merchant seaman crowd, but the “clean, lovely personalities” of the dancers were attracting a more-refined crowd.

Mary’s introduced all-nude dancing in 1985 after a judge overturned city ordinances banning it at venues serving alcohol. In the late-‘80s, one of the dancers at Mary’s was – you guessed it – Courtney Love.

Mary’s Club continues to operate today and is a popular spot with U.S. Navy sailors when the Rose Festival fleet arrives every June.

·         Cited in The Yellow Pages – through Nov 1996 page 1164 under Night Clubs

At this moment there are two reasons Mary’s Club should be added to LGBTQ sites.

First, Second is an article that appeared in Exotic Magazine, July 2004 (Year to be confirmed) “Mary’s Club” by Julie Gallagher [Julie Gallagher has worked at Mary’s for one year. This article contains excerpts from her upcoming book.] (Cannot determine if the book has been published)

Bambi Darling, Tasha and Bambi Darling, Tasha and September Rose were some of the first strippers. There was a transvestite MC who helped keep the crowd entertained between sets. His name was Brandy Scott. He would paint half of his face like a woman’s and the other half like a man’s. Eventually he became a she and started stripping-at Mary’s. There was also Wally who owned Wally’s Place-a store next to Mary’s-and would make crowd by smoking spoons and eating cigarettes.

People’s attention spans were much longer then. The customers would come to see the strippers but were also there for the show. And what a show they got. A transvestite MC, telling jokes and prancing on stage until the go-go dancers were ready to bee-bop to Ray Charles’s “I Got A Woman.”

Second due to having Gary L Alexander/Scarlet O’Hara performed there. Per his book entitled From Life’s Not Just A Drag

Portland, Oregon in 1969 was a beautiful place.  By 1970 I was working at a little place called Mary’s Nightclub in Portland, Oregon. About a year before that I had visited Portland and won a contest at the Annual drag ball they held every year.  By then they had entered the Imperial Court System that was forming. This system in the gay community had been started in San Francisco by Impress Jose. I believe this was the beginnings of organization in the gay community. Drags brought many gays together at their annual ball. They brought many together from other cities around the country. [a cute story on page 119, 120 about going to San Francisco as Empress of Portland 1971]

There was a drag ball being held in town that weekend in Portland. I wanted to shine. I knew I was already somewhat of a celebrity in that I was a drag working at a straight nightclub, introducing strippers, and stripping myself. That was unusual at the time. [NOTE: It may have been unusual known to Gary, but there were several doing strip around the US. Kenneth Marlowe did it for years from Calumet City Il to Club My-O-My in New Orleans;  and Gerry Lee/Miss Lee “Male Stripper” amongst others]. I believe the theme had something to do with civilizations of the world. I decided to go as an African Queen. I had long enough hair to pull it all straight back into a ponytail. We took a tin can. Opened both ends and painted it gold. We placed the now gold can over my own ponytail. Out of that came a long ponytail that we had placed inside the can, so it would look like my own hair cascading out of the ”gold” cylinder from the top of my head. I had long dangling earrings and painted my skin a darker shade with makeup. MY dress was a leopard skin that crisscrossed my chest. I had glued falsies inside the lining. It crossed once and from there down it was see-through leopard skin material. The stunning thing was that I had a friend help me shave all of my “privates” When I say a friend, I mean a friend. When you have someone shave your testicles, they have to be a friend. I remember  we did it in the dressing room in the basement of Mary’s Club. I knew the stage in Portland would be a raised one, and that the audience would be looking up at me as I went around the stage that rose from the floor, in the lights, and at that angle, I would appear to be female. I worked the audience and they went wild. I was becoming quite a showman- and I liked it. I won the contest that night and—about two years later was asked to be Empress XI. Of Portland. I accepted.  [NOTE: The year 1969 also ushered in the Portland Forum, which became the oldest chartered gay organization in the State of Oregon. The organization then began staging the balls. In 1970, Scarlett was crowned Rose Queen XI at the Spring Ball. ALSO Queens were later renamed Empress. Monarch's History (rosecourt.org) http://www.rosecourt.org/index.php/history/monarch-s-history]

MY show was changing and developing. I was the M.C. and comedienne for real women, exotic dancers. I worked with some of the best in the business, and some of the most beautiful. I would really call Mary’s Club a typical strip joint that had been around for years. It is still in operation today, in the same spot at 129 Broadway.

Mary’s Club was a fun place to work. I got in touch with Pat Paterson last week. He was the Sound Engineer at the dub for years. I have also talked with Vicki. Vicki is the daughter of the owner Roy, when I worked there. Pat reminded me of an incident when I worked there. Pat used to call me. Not scarlet O-Hara, but Harlot O’Whora. I was quite the “whore” at the time.

Pat also told me that he had been in touch beautiful dancer that we had worked with at Mary’s Club, her name is September Rose.

Sandy Howard had been the M.C. and comedic at the club for quite a few years. He would be leaving and they needed a new M.C. for the show. I got the job. I was now working with strippers. I thought, “I can do that”. I began to take the best from each stripper and incorporate that into my own strip act. I was assembling some very beautiful costumes, and I could dance.

I had refined my act at Mary’s Club, and the Carriage Room in Portland. The Carriage Room was a nicer room than Mary’s club, but I wanted to 90 on the road. I knew that I could make more money.   Page 92, 94-98

In 1972 I worked at the Mushroom Showroom in Eugene, Oregon, at Eighth & Willamette. I had a bevy of beauties in my show. They were the local go-go girls that the owner had hired.  Page 121 

https://www.wweek.com/bars/2021/08/18/iconic-marys-club-is-moving-after-spending-over-60-years-downtown-following-the-sale-of-its-building/

Below Left, part of Doug Bakers Column in The Oregon Journal, July 9, 1969.

Patrick F Smith photo 2021