Just Marion

Let’s go on a journey to a time removed from where we are today. In a time when the addition of the words listed for gay community were just that.  In recent years, all the words like transgender, or bisexual have become part of the vocabulary that a large part of the community uses to identify itself. Gay or lesbian were the only words that were used to describe the people who loved someone of the same sex. Times change, vocabulary changes, but the lifestyle is still very much the same, with few additions.

In Houston, Texas in the late 50’s, few people who were gay knew where to go to enjoy themselves and to meet others who were sharing the same lifestyle. Marion found a club to work in where her talent as a bartender was developed and highlighted. She had been a social worker, so she was used to meeting new people all the time and helping them figure out their life. During this time, she is also having to figure out her own life.  You could not tell it from her normal work day, but many things have recently changed for Marion. She has recently moved her family to Houston, and now is trying to figure out how to make it all work. 

While Marion was busy working at the club, things were beginning to make sense at home. Marion’s partner, Ricci, was beginning to relate to the people who had been taking care of her daughter for the past 5 years, in Brooklyn, New York. This is a lot to handle for everyone. Adam and Bess had to relinquish some of their parental role to Ricci, Carol’s mother.  They had been rearing her in their home in New York, while Ricci and Marion were figuring out their life. Life for everyone was changing in major ways.

Ricci has a new life to make in Houston.  While she was still in Chicago, she began to work at a new profession. Very few people in Houston had any idea what Ricci had up her sleeve when it came to working in a club frequented by up and comers.  The new work had a name, too. It was ‘exotic dancer’.  What in the world is this new thing all about?  People who came to a club began to find out what it meant. If you were a customer, you would be wooed by women on stage taking off their clothes while dancing to risqué music. If you have seen the movie “Burlesque” with Cher and Christina Aguilera then you get the idea I am talking about. The movie really painted a realistic picture of life the work that women did in the club. Ricci Cortez had a real life as an exotic dancer. ( Look her up on Social Media and you will see what I mean.) Her new career would take her across America, working in clubs large and small and gathering a new found reputation.  Ricci Cortez, the Sleeping Time Gal, was a real person.  

Adam and Bess were still taking care of Carol while all of these machinations were happening around all of them. They made sure Carol went to school each day and went to church on Sunday.  Life looks very normal for those seeing it at ground level.  When your relatives are beginning to change the vocabulary used in the city, the world does take notice.

Marion was working in a club called “The Desert Room”.  Aptly named for the fact that if you were gay in Houston in 1956 it probably felt like a desert. This club would be the first of many that she and Ricci would open and change gay life in Houston in its’ infancy.

Ricci Cortez was my mother. I am the Carol mentioned in the story. Marion Pantzer was Ricci’s life partner for many years. Adam and Bess Kurlandt were Marion’s parents. We had the original modern family well before any television show would have examined what life was really like. I lived it and this story tells the very beginning of what life was like before the vocabulary changed. Progress has been made. Marion and Ricci would be happy about these changes. They are gone now, but their life made a difference.

You may know people in your own community who have done similar work. It takes time to make a difference in the world. But one by one, it can be done.

Let me know what you think about this story. It is all true and the larger picture is what I am working on telling.