The author Lyle Saxon, a regular at Dixie’s Bar of Music, connected the Fasnachts to the painter Xavier Gonzalez, who produced a 29-foot long painting for the barroom in the 40s. Before opening her club, she toured the country with her all-female jazz band called the Southland Rhythm Girls. Nicholls School in New Orleans alongside the Boswell Sisters, who went on to national fame as a vocal group. Her house band included a pianist named Dorothy Sloop, whom Fasnacht called Sloopy-the nickname reportedly went on to inspire the number one hit song “Hang On Sloopy.”Īs a child in the 1920s, Fasnacht studied music and the arts at Francis T. A clarinetist and bandleader, Miss Dixie regularly provided the entertainment herself.
Miss Dixie opened the club with her sister, Miss Irma, in 1939 (its original location was on St. A generation before the Stonewall Riots, it served as a safe space for the gay community in New Orleans and attracted visitors from around the country. By design or not, today it is considered among the most important gay bars in American history. Yvonne Fasnacht, known as Miss Dixie, said she didn’t conceive of Dixie’s Bar of Music as a gay bar.
