Seattle’s first gay bar was opened in 1973 by Shelly Bauman, a runaway from Chicago, Illinois. Known as Shelly’s Leg, the bar had an incredibly interesting history that started with an injury and the amputation of a leg.

Ten years prior, in 1963, Shelly Bauman left home due to family tensions and started performing as a stripper across America until she settled in Seattle in 1968.

Then one day, at the Bastille Day parade in 1970, Bauman was exiting an old fire truck, which was transporting a large confetti cannon, filled with two ounces of black powder and a wet, compacted load of confetti. The cannon misfired and struck Bauman in the leg.

This injury, according to witnesses, left a “smouldering hole in Bauman’s leg”. Luckily, a doctor was also in attendance at the parade and slowed the bleeding in her leg. When brought to the hospital, doctors told Bauman her leg would have to be amputated at the hip; barely conscious and with no one else to agree for her, she signed the form permitting the surgery.

After the incident, the future owner of the original Seattle gay bar sued the cannon operator, parade organisers and the city of Seattle, winning the case. For the loss of her leg, she was awarded 330,000 USD.

Years earlier, Bauman had visited a disco in California along with friends Joe McGonagle and Pat Nesser. This visit was what inspired them to use the awarded money to open Seattle’s first disco and gay bar.

While other establishments had existed in Seattle that were popular with the LGBTQ+ community, Shelly’s Leg was the first to openly declare itself a gay bar.

In an interview conducted by LGBTQ+ historian Lisa Dady with McGonagle, the co-owner of Shelly’s Leg claimed they were the first bar in the city to have a DJ, saying: “Seattle had never had a disc jockey”.

The bar’s fame would reach far beyond Seattle, with many celebrities, including members of Led Zeppelin, visiting on occasion. 

While it was already pushing the envelope with its DJs and gay appeal, the bar never stopped being full of character. Drag shows, light rigs and live music were frequent, while Shelly herself would be on the dance floor in her wheelchair.

However, only two years after its opening, the beloved disco would have its life ended early, and in tragedy. 

Above the nightclub was the Alaskan Way Viaduct, an elevated motorway. At 1am, when the disco was in full swing, a truck driver transporting gasoline began to lose control of his vehicle when it started to jackknife. The truck collided with the guardrail and disconnected from the trailer as it spilt ignited gasoline from the overhead motorway.

According to a witness interviewed by The Seattle Times, close to 150 people were in attendance on that night of December 4, 1975. However, no one was harmed, with all attendees escaping through the side fire exit.

While repairs were made to the venue, its reputation had not survived. While they continued operating until 1977/1978, as sources conflict, it never returned to its former glory. 

McGonagle said in the same interview that his relationship with Bauman soured in later years due to alleged financial issues, and unfortunately, his partner and other co-owner of Shelly’s Leg, Pat Nesser, passed away in 1991 of lung cancer at 57.

Shelly herself passed away in 2010 due to health complications suffered from a small fire in 2007 started by an oxygen tank that assisted her in breathing; this was the fourth fire she survived in her lifetime.

The first of Seattle’s gay bars and home to some of the city’s most iconic gay history is closed forever, but the sign from Shelly’s Leg hangs in the Museum of History and Industry in Washington State.

If you are interested in more LGBTQ+ history, consider reading about Dublin’s famous PantiBar.