Pride Month: This Is It
Over at 418 East Wells Street there is a bar next to the Bar, so to speak. Without knowing it is there, it’d be easy to miss. There are no flashy signs or any signage at all. This bar, tucked away next to Milwaukee Bar Association, is not to be overlooked, however. It’s an important landmark and piece of Wisconsin history. There, behind the doors, is This Is It.
Why is it important? Why is it historical? Well, that can be easily answered, as This Is It is the oldest operating gay bar in Wisconsin. Back in the late 60s, June Brehm was a successful supper club owner in Butler, but wanted to expand into downtown Milwaukee. Upon checking out a tiny bar for sale at Jefferson and Wells, she declared that “This is it, we aren’t going anywhere else”, and so the bar’s name was made. This Is It opened in 1968, during a time where gay bars really weren’t that common (though it should be noted that it was nowhere near the first, even in Milwaukee).
The décor is still very 1970s, even to this day. Stained-glass chandelier lamp, tufted black vinyl half booths, red carpeted walls are what help give the place its ambience – but we’re not here to be a Yelp review, we’re here to talk about history. As Pridefest president Scott Gunkel told the Journal Sentinel, gay bars were “our community center, our meet and greet, our place for organizing. That was the bars. That was the bloodline of the community.” This Is It was an important part of that community, in no small part because of June and her son Joe’s acceptance of all that came in the doors.
If you want to read a little more about This Is It, take a look at its entry over at the Wisconsin GLBT History Project, and they even have a short entry on June Brehm, too. This Is It also features in Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin’s Historic Bars & Breweries, available at your local library.
Of course, the great thing about it being the oldest operating gay bar in Wisconsin is that you can still go by 418 East Wells and check it out yourself!