“Here was a huge place that was really done very nice, and all the staff were attractive, wearing bow ties and dress shirts,” Alexander said. In Mahoney’s documentary, photographs of Veltman’s club show a grand, multifloor space with soaring, vaulted ceilings, elegant furniture, a rose window, multiple rooms – including a neon-lit, mirrored space frequented by showy drag queens – and a dance floor complete with disco ball. We don’t care what your persuasion is,” he said.Īlexander described “The Country,” as many in the film refer to the club, as an “upgrade” from the previous selection of gay bars in the city, which were often windowless, dark, and small.
“We wanted everybody to come and have a great time. This is a unisex bar,’” Alexander said by phone from Arlington, where he works as an events manager. But Veltman, a prominent gay personality in San Antonio at the time, intended the club to be for more than one community. “I had never been in a gay bar before,” Alexander said. Related commentary: Gene Elder Remembered: The Triumph of Imagination Over Suggestion The club’s first regular disc jockey, Jamie Alexander, also appears in the film. Many figures who witnessed firsthand that era in San Antonio’s history are present in the film, including Gene Elder, who started the nightclub with Veltman and who went on to run the Happy Foundation, named after the fuller version of Veltman’s nickname.
