The history of Iowa’s oldest gay bar has been made into a documentary. Here's how to watch

On a typical Friday night at the Blazing Saddle in Des Moines’ East Village, tightly packed bodies crowd around the bar’s main stage, hands poking out from the throng to offer cash tips to performers dressed in drag. It’s the Saddle Gurls & Friends show, and once the artists take their final bow (or more commonly, dip into their most impressive split), the spotlights cut and the music bumps. Bargoers turn the stage into a technicolor dance floor, strong drinks in hand, staying true to the bar's motto: "Always a double, never a cover."

The Blazing Saddle is Iowa's oldest operating gay bar. It just celebrated its 40th anniversary. Opened in 1983 by Bob “Mongo” Eikleberry, it’s been referred to as the “Gay Cheers ” and has seen Iowa — and the nation — through decades of change for the LGBTQ population: from the beginning — and end — of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, to the outbreak of the AIDs epidemic, to the legalization of gay marriage and the more recent passing and signing of anti-LGBTQ laws in the state.

That history will soon be shared in the form of a six-episode docuseries, The Last American Gay Bar , on OUTtv , starting July 3.

While Blazing Saddle is certainly not the last of the nation's abundant gay bars, Des Moines-based film producer Kristian Day chose that name for the docuseries as a way to recognize how gay bars have evolved over time. The series considers the role gay bars have played as LGBTQ acceptance has grown and the "vital need" for gay bars has fallen.

“If gay people go out, they go everywhere. You can hold hands anywhere. With freedom, you lose a little of what you needed in the past,” is what one New York club owner was quoted for in the City magazine article, “Where have all the gay bars gone?”, which is what inspired the docuseries’ title.

“The idea of what gay bars were has definitely changed,” Day told IPR. “As things change, we all assimilate, and then there is a loss of identity with that."

Those changes include who is allowed inside the bar and the additions of a dance bar and drag shows (the opening of the Saddle predates the term LGBTQ , and was opened primarily as a place for gay men to mingle).

Today, Blazing Saddle is open to all, and while the typical patronage may look different than it did in the '80s — that is, no longer dominated by only gay men — Day says the Saddle maintains its identity by withstanding the test of time, and the history it holds. Its owners and a few staff members are the same people who were part of the bar in its earliest years.

“I think people need to know this history,” Day said. “I feel like this has kind of lived in the shadows for such a long time.”

From the bar’s gritty beginnings for gay Iowans trying to find safe places to be themselves, through the state's trailblazing legalization of gay marriage and continued efforts to be inclusive for all in an increasingly red state, the documentary explores Blazing Saddle’s role in offering Des Moines’ gay community a place to call home.

It does so through the eyes of ten men. From the bar’s leadership of Eickleberry, Bryan "Stinky" Smith and Ryan "Ima" Dennis, to the Saddle's bartenders and the veterans who found the bar after returning from the Vietnam War.

“Kristian brought the idea to Stinky and to Ima and Mongo and I happened to be in the room,” recalled Greg Chamberlin, a Saddle bartender for the last 30 years. “He started bringing up names, and the names started coinciding with who I had dated, what bars I had worked at. Just one thing led to another and I think the plot of the documentary began to formulate right then and there.”

The film started shooting last fall. Day worked with an archivist to pour through newspaper articles and find photos taken at the Saddle. Both were difficult tasks, given that the bar's history goes back to a time when LGBTQ discrimination meant taking photographs inside gay bars was generally frowned upon, and attention from the press was unwanted.

Chamberlin provided the crew with detailed, handwritten notes he'd been taking to document each of Des Moines' gay bars since the 1960s — a historic account well preceding the Saddle. Day conducted the interviews, despite some of the boy's doubts that the bar would be appealing to audiences.

“I’d never been told that our bar is that interesting, even though we've been around for 40 years, and we've seen all the things that we've seen," Smith said. “I'm really proud of this after watching it. I think it's great.”

On June 13, The Last American Gay Bar premiered at Varsity Cinema to a sold-out crowd. Day described the feeling of releasing the project: “like sending off your kid to college.”

“It's a story that I love, all my friends love. And it's in my town,” Day said. “This is a pretty special deal, and especially to do it here.”

How can I watch The Last American Gay Bar?

The miniseries premieres on OUTtv on July 3, releasing episodes weekly each Wednesday. The Canada-based LGBTQ broadcast network syndicates to Apple TV, Roku and Amazon, and can also be streamed on the OUTtvGo app. Once all episodes air, the full season can be streamed anytime, and will be exclusive to OUTtv for the next six years.