The Baton in Uptown is one of Chicago's oldest gay bars, famed for its drag shows

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The history of LGBTQ+ bars is rich. They're much more than places to get a drink. For many years, they were the only spaces some could go to meet other members of their communities.

One of Chicago's oldest LGBTQ+ bars, The Baton, first opened in 1969. While it struggled at first, it then became a celebrity hotspot.

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Music and makeup energizes the room at The Baton in Uptown to this day. The bar is widely known for its female impersonator shows, but it was ahead of its time.

"I was working at another bar, and then I decided it was time to open a bar," co-owner James Flint recalled.

Flint moved to Chicago from Peoria in 1963. The Baton first opened six years later in the River North neighborhood, when Chicago was a very different place.

"There was payoffs, there was the Outfit and there was the police . And trying to get people to come into an area like River North," he said.

Despite a once-dangerous neighborhood and police raids against gays, the Baton twirled on. But it wasn't an easy start.

"It was just a bar and nobody would come. We sit there with three or four or five people, so I thought we got to do something," Flint said. "So I got for my friends, and we dressed up. We didn't know a damn thing we were doing."

He even went to the street to flag down business, twirling his baton. Then they got a big break: the late Phil Donahue visited.

"It just started bringing people everywhere, brides, bachelor parties, political people, people started coming down and meeting everybody. Sports figures came in, movie stars came in. Madonna was there. Janet Jackson was my favorite," said Flint.

The Baton became a mainstay for bachelorette parties and tourists. It moved to the Uptown neighborhood in 2019. It's now known as one of the oldest Chicago-area gay bars, which is still operating, along with the Jeffery Pub in the South Shore neighborhood, which opened in 1960.

"It's been there so long, and it really does serve as a community center for the South Side bars," said author Rick Karlin about the Jeffery Pub.

Karlin, a former Chicagoan, co-wrote the book "Last Call Chicago," which dives into the history of LGBTQ+ bars in the Windy City.

"That was the only place that we were allowed to congregate. and they were very important, and they go back to. prohibition and beyond," he said.

Flint hopes that the high hair and heels continue to strut on stage at The Baton.

"I've had a lifetime and a wonderful lifetime just to the people I've met through the baton, politicians, sports figures. I mean, a poor boy from Peoria couldn't have met all these people if it hadn't been for The Baton," he said.

Flint said he thinks The Baton will be open for years to come, although he wants to focus more on his other business, The Miss Continental, an international pageant for drag queens.