Queer Places:
6619 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, CA
The Tool Box, 399 4th St, San Francisco, CA 94107
Henri Leleu (July 31, 1907 - February 27, 1996) was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. As a young man, he lived and worked in Beverly Hills, California, as a publicity man and later secretary-manager for the Beverly Hills Junior Chamber of Commerce. At 33, his life changed profoundly as he was recruited into the Navy to serve in the Pacific Rim arena for the duration of World War II. For the next several years, he sent letters home either mildly complaining about the working conditions or sharing his delight and fascination with the military. At times, he had rather cushy jobs during the war, writing news releases for the Navy or doing administrative work. In any event, he must have enjoyed his life there, writing a two-page feature of his military experience for a local hometown paper and meticulously saving documents and photographs from this period of his life.
After the war, Leleu stayed on in Asia. He became an insatiable traveler, exploring the Philippines, China, and India. Later, he traveled to Europe and started an export business with the help of his hometown connections in the U.S. He worked in Copenhagen, Denmark for at least a year or two, collecting antiques which he would later sell to a dealer in Texas. During this time, he continued traveling throughout Europe and acquired a talent for business, a skill which would serve him well in the various political organizations he later became involved in.
Sometime during the early 1960's Leleu arrived in San Francisco. He soon became heavily involved in the leather scene and in various gay political organizations. He attended motorcycle runs--weekend events sponsored by leather bars in which men would ride out into the country for a few days of drinking, camping, food and sex. Leleu was an avid photographer, capturing much of these events. Before kink went mainstream, and when in fact there was only one gay male leather bar in San Francisco, Leleu was there with his camera, capturing the young twenty- or thirty-year-old crowd in their cruising and partying. In the early 1960's, he also made the shrewd decision of investing in the Tool Box, a tavern which quickly became a central place for the leather scene. A few years later, he also served as treasurer for the Tavern Guild, an organization of gay bars which attempted to address, among other business concerns, the prevalent problem of police harassment in and around the bars.
By the late 1960's he documented demonstrations, the queer Tricycle races of the early 70's, and many drag events in the bars.
My published books:
