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Changing gay history
For better or worse, I was inadvertently involved in changing the face and fabric of LGBT history in Queensland, Australia, at a time when it was illegal to be gay while police and government were desperate to squash us.
An iconic Brisbane gay bar, within the Brisbane Fortitude Valley club space, Cockatoo Club at the time was owned by Tony Bellino where Vic, having met me at the Sheraton, hired me to work initially as his ‘eyes and ears’ bartender.
Tony found that his Cockatoo Club licensor/manager, Michael, in outward appearances was a nice guy, but had a history of insurance scams, and now had his hand deep in the till to pay his drug habit. Tony sold the Cockatoo Club to his brother Geraldo (Gerry/Geri) and Vittorio (Vic) Conte, in summer 1983 and Vic elevated me to bar manager.
In August, Vic and Gerry engaged a new co-manager, a “money collector” named Jerry James they had used to run around some of their various enterprises collecting their cash, to work alongside Michael initially managing all the money. This continued, for a month or two before Michael disappeared overnight into the ether. Vic’s wife Jan, joined as bookkeeper.
A short while later, it was revealed by Vic’s ex-wife, Jan, that Jerry also apparently had both hands deep in the bags of cash before it reached Gerry and Vic. Jerry also disappeared into the ether, quickly. At which time Vic and Gerry wanted a “clean” start with a fresh new young general manager.
With fresh clean hands (and no criminal record for the license), I was elevated to the top job overnight. Vic’s ex-wife, Jan became my new bar manager to manage the cash during the week. I loved having this pressure off me.
My principal focus was to rebrand the club, with a new business license, establish and operate the new expanded space using a restaurant license to continue to allow us to sell alcohol, and make money in form of cash, and lots of it.
With Vic and Gerry’s blessing (and budget), I developed an extremely theatrical nightclub space, that over the years grew and physically expanded to be the infamous super mega-club.
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