Ad Lib Nightclub

Crime boss Frank Balistrieri was long associated with downtown strip clubs and dive bars. Jealous of the long-time success of Angelo Aiello's Mint Bar, he always wanted a queer space of his own. 

While his attempts to muscle in on the short-lived Pink Glove (631 N. Broadway) failed miserably in 1958, he found another opportunity nearly a decade later.

While the Ad Lib opened as a high-class supper club showcasing jazz legends, Balistrieri saw dollar signs in the Sexual Revolution, especially after Sir Lady Java made headlines for her "shockingly erotic" Third Sex show at the nearby Le Bistro (821 N. 3rd St.) Milwaukee's former Theater Row was becoming a red light district of adult bookstores, X-rated cinemas, strip clubs, street prostitution, and rooms rented by the hour.

In August 1967, the Ad Lib became a striptease cabaret. When the Ad LIb B-Girls kept getting in trouble with the law, Balistrieri replaced the entire cast with female impersonators to circumvent local obsenity laws.  For the next eight years, all of the dancers were male -- except one (Misty Dawn) who'd had gender affirmation surgery. 

The joke was on the straight male audience, who usually had no idea they were watching the city's strangest drag show.  However, it's clear that some men came to the Ad Lib to satisfy their unspoken desires.

The cabaret featured many Wisconsin drag titleholders:  Jamie Gays, Winnie Storm, Samantha Stevens, Peaches Toy, Chanel Capri, and more, as well as visiting national superstars like Randy Taylor and Robin Rogers.

As massive moneymakers, the Ad Lib Girls enjoyed access to a reliable income, regional performance opportunities, media attention, and the fierce protection of the Balistrieri enforcers. It's almost impossible to believe such a space existed in 1970s Milwaukee.

After a long series of legal battles, including Misty Dawn's 1970 victory that rewrote Milwaukee nightlife ordinances, the Ad Lib closed in July 1975 when Alderman Kevin O'Connor revoked their license in a downtown vice clean-up.  

The space later became Balistrieri's La Scala restaurant.  In 2016, the Commerce Building was converted into the SpringHill Suites Hotel. 

The Ad Lib is significant as the one-and-only successful queer space associated with the Milwaukee Mafia.  Due to the long-standing police payoff system, organized crime simply could not crack into the established gay bar scene, so they focused on other ventures (i.e., vending machines, jukeboxes, gaming devices.)

Although Balistrieri's "useful idiot" Joseph Enea tried to transform the long-running Empire Lounge (716 N. Plankinton) into an out-and-proud gay bar in May 1975, the fiasco shut down after five disastrous months.