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Jewel's Catch One

January 31, 2023

Jewel's Catch One was a dance bar owned by Jewel Thais Williams, located on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles. Open for forty years,[1] it was the longest running black gay dance bar in Los Angeles. After nearly closing in 2015, it was purchased by Mitch Edelson - who reopened under new management. Briefly called Union after the change in management, it has since reverted to the Catch One moniker.

Jewel's Catch One
AddressLos Angeles, California
U.S.
OwnerJewel Thais William

History

Opened in 1973, Jewel's Catch One was one of the first black discos in the United States and was for a long time the major black gay bar in Los Angeles.[2] The original owner of the club was Jewel Thais-Williams. She graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in History, and during her college years she wanted to be self-employed. Her first business was a boutique, but it went out of business, so she bought a bar. She opened the club after she experienced discrimination in different clubs around West Hollywood, because she was black and female. Women at the time were not allowed to tend bar, but Jewel saved enough money and bought the bar despite the limitations.[3] When the club opened, it became a hub for a diverse population of performers, including Sylvester, Whitney Houston, Luther Vandross, Janet Jackson, Donna Summer, Whoopi Goldberg, Rick James, and Madonna.[4]

As the years went by, the attendance of the bar went down. When Jewel was about to shut the club down, it was bought by Steve Edelson and his son Mitch Edelson in November, 2015.[5] After that, it became known as the last Black owned disco and was renamed The Union.

The club was featured as an organization in an exhibit in the City Hall in Los Angeles called "Defiant Spaces".[6]

Documentary on Jewel's Catch One

A documentary about the nightclub, Jewel's Catch One, directed by C. Fitz, started shooting in April 2010 and was finished in June 2016.[7][8] The film premiered at Provincetown International Film Festival on June 19, 2016, followed by a Los Angeles Premiere at Outfest on July 10, 2016, a New York Premiere at UrbanWorld Film Festival on September 25, 2016, and a European Premiere at BFI London Film Festival October 9, 2016. The film celebrates the legacy of the nightclub, its community, and the life-changing impact its owner, Jewel Thais-Williams, had on her community breaking down racial and cultural barriers and building the oldest black-owned disco in America. Jewel’s Catch One covers four decades of Los Angeles history honoring the music, fashion, celebrities, and activism. Variety Magazine called the film “an undeniably loving documentary tribute by director C. Fitz to the club and its longtime owner Jewel.”[9] In the film, through exclusive interviews and performances from Thelma Houston, Sharon Stone, Maxine Waters, Jenifer Lewis, Bonnie Pointer, Thea Austin, and Sandra Bernhard, plus rare archival footage of Madonna at the club, director C. Fitz documents how the club grew to be known as the unofficial Studio 54 of the west coast, except everyone was allowed in without judgement. The film culminates with Jewel and her Catch community becoming a national model of how to fight discrimination and serve the less fortunate. The film follows Jewel as she buys the building next door to Jewel's Catch One and builds a non-profit health clinic. The feature documentary was named one of the best LGBTQ films to watch on Netflix of all time by Logo TV’s NEWNOWNEXT in 2018. The film covers the Catch One family battling tirelessly against racism, homophobia, and hate for over forty-two years to keep the club doors open to everyone through its closing in 2015. It screened internationally on the film festival circuit in over fifty film festivals, including BFI, Palm Springs Film Festival (Best of Fest’ list January 10, 2017), UrbanWorld Film Festival, and Melbourne Documentary Film Festival.

In the spring of 2018, Ava DuVernay obtained the distribution rights from C. Fitz and Dancing Pictures LLC with her distribution company, ARRAY.[10][11] Array released the Jewel's Catch One documentary on Netflix.[12][13][14] It has won four awards for “Best Documentary” and a Top Jury Award. The film tells the history of one of the original safe spaces for the LGBTQ, Black, and AIDS impacted communities.[15][16][17][18]

Jewel Thais-Williams

Originally from Arkansas, Thais-Williams' father, in search of employment and educational opportunities, moved their family to Gary, Indiana, where Thais-Williams was born. She was the fifth born of eight children. During World War II, several of her uncles and cousins were drafted into the navy and stationed in San Diego. These relatives sent back word of San Diego's excellent weather. Her family, wanting to leave the harsh weather of Gary, decided to relocate to San Diego. They lived with relatives for a short time before moving their large family into a one-bedroom residence.[1]

Shortly after high school, Thais-Williams moved to Los Angeles. Despite having several intimate (though not explicitly sexual) encounters with other women, she did not realize that she was a lesbian until her mid twenties. Her first date with a female was with a woman she worked with at a Safeway supermarket.[1]

Having grown up black and in poverty, Thais-Williams felt that she would not be able to acquire personal wealth without starting her own business. She purchased what was then the Diana Club with a down payment of $1,000 and an agreement to pay an additional $18,000 within two months. With the help of her brother-in-law, a banker, she secured an advance for the remaining $17,000. Soon after acquiring the club, white customers stopped patronizing the establishment, and employees quit, not wanting to work for a black woman. Despite these initial challenges, she was able to succeed. A man named "Tex", whom Thais-Williams described affectionately as an old "redneck" from Texas,[1] mentored her and helped her though the initial phases of setting up her business. Her bartender asked for his job back, and Thais-Williams obliged. Some of the white customers also returned and developed a strong relationship with her. Her club attracted a mainly African American clientele, which were underserved by the night club industry at the time.[4][1] The blue collar white clientele would visit the club by day, and the blacks would be her primary customers at night.[19]

While she was still owner of the nightclub, Jewel went back to school and got her Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine from Samra University in 1998. Due to the high rate of preventable diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, in minority populations, Jewel opened a non-profit called the Village Health Foundation with the purpose of educating lower-income communities on nutrition and living a more healthy lifestyle.[3]

Also, it served as a space for political organizations to have their community meetings.[20]

While patrons of Jewel's Catch One as undergraduate students at the University of Southern California in the mid 1980s, filmmaker, Cristina Kotz Cornejo and her life partner, African-American playwright and artist, Angela Counts befriended Jewel and were so taken by the club and her life story they asked permission to shoot what would be their first film about Jewel. By the early 1990s they had produced a short documentary titled, Jewel and the Catch. The film has since been selected to be part of the UCLA Film Archives' Outfest Legacy Project Collection. In 2013 Raven-Symoné selected an excerpt from Jewel and The Catch to screen at the 2013 Outfest Legacy Awards.[21] In 2016, Producers of the Amazon series, Transparent selected footage from Jewel and the Catch to appear in the opening credit sequence of season 3 of Transparent by Jill Soloway.

Legacy

To honor her contributions to the LGBT community, Thais-Williams was appointed the Grand Marshall of the 2016 Los Angeles Pride Festival.[22][23]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Jewel Thais-Williams". THE LAVENDER EFFECT®. 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  2. ^ Moon-Ho Jung, The Rising Tide of Color: Race, State Violence, and Radical Movements across the Pacific, University of Washington Press, Jul 1, 2014, p. 211
  3. ^ a b "Jewel Thais-Williams Celebrates Forty Years in Four-Day Extravaganza - Los Angeles Sentinel". Los Angeles Sentinel. 2013-05-17. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  4. ^ a b Anderson, Tre'vell (March 16, 2015). "Jewel's Catch One disco's demise marks era's end for L.A.'s gay blacks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  5. ^ Romero, Dennis (November 18, 2015). "Lost Globos' Mitch Edelson Buys Legendary Mid-City Club Jewel's Catch One". LA Weekly. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  6. ^ "Defiant Spaces: 60 Years of Queer Organizations in L.A. | ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries". one.usc.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-20.
  7. ^ Ahmed, Tufayel (2016-10-07). "Meet Jewel Thais-Williams, the woman behind Hollywood's first black gay club and an LGBT activist". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  8. ^ "Trailer Watch: "Jewel's Catch One" Offers a Look Into America's Oldest Black-Owned Disco Club". womenandhollywood.com. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  9. ^ Barker, Andrew (2016-07-15). "Film Review: 'Jewel's Catch One'". Variety. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  10. ^ Ramos, Dino-Ray (2018-03-05). "Array Releasing Acquires LGBTQ Disco Docu 'Jewel's Catch One'; Sets Screening Tour And Netflix Release". Deadline. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  11. ^ "Array Releasing Picks Up C. Fitz's Doc 'Jewel's Catch One'". Blackfilm - Black Movies, Television, and Theatre News. 2018-03-05. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  12. ^ "Ava DuVernay's Array Releases Trailer For New "Jewel's Catch One'". Essence. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  13. ^ Brown, August (2 May 2018). "The story of L.A. club Jewel's Catch One and its pioneering owner finds its way to Netflix". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  14. ^ "5 Queer Titles to Stream in November". www.out.com. 2018-11-01. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  15. ^ ""Jewel's Catch One" Jives to Legacy of Black Disco in Los Angeles | The Takeaway". WNYC Studios. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  16. ^ Rao, Sameer (2018-04-27). "WATCH: 'Jewel's Catch One' Trailer Takes You Inside the Country's Oldest Black-Owned Disco Club". Colorlines. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  17. ^ "Netflix Doc "Jewel's Catch One" Introduces the World to an African American LGBTQ Crusader". www.villagevoice.com. May 2018. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  18. ^ "A New Documentary Explores the Roots of Jewel's Catch One". Los Angeles Times. June 10, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  19. ^ thepridela (2016-06-09). "Pioneer: Jewel Thais-Williams - THE PRIDE LA". THE PRIDE LA. Retrieved 2017-05-20.
  20. ^ Hope, Analena (2011). "Fast Food, Slow Death and the Propaganda of Health: Jewel Thais-Williams' Radical Battle for Black Survival".
  21. ^ Hernandez, Greg (November 23, 2013). "Recap of the Outfest Legacy Awards honoring Lee Daniels with surprise guest Jane Fonda!". Greg In Hollywood. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  22. ^ "LA Pride festival, parade runs this weekend in West Hollywood". ABC7.com. June 9, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2021.
  23. ^ "City Council honors Thais-Williams, club owner who supported black LGBTQ community". City News Service. 2019-10-06. Retrieved 2019-10-06 – via Los Angeles Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

Coordinates: 34°02′52″N 118°19′27″W / 34.047816°N 118.324105°W / 34.047816; -118.324105

January 31, 2023
jewel, catch, dance, owned, jewel, thais, williams, located, west, pico, boulevard, angeles, open, forty, years, longest, running, black, dance, angeles, after, nearly, closing, 2015, purchased, mitch, edelson, reopened, under, management, briefly, called, uni. Jewel s Catch One was a dance bar owned by Jewel Thais Williams located on West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles Open for forty years 1 it was the longest running black gay dance bar in Los Angeles After nearly closing in 2015 it was purchased by Mitch Edelson who reopened under new management Briefly called Union after the change in management it has since reverted to the Catch One moniker Jewel s Catch OneAddressLos Angeles CaliforniaU S OwnerJewel Thais William Contents 1 History 2 Documentary on Jewel s Catch One 3 Jewel Thais Williams 3 1 Legacy 4 ReferencesHistory EditOpened in 1973 Jewel s Catch One was one of the first black discos in the United States and was for a long time the major black gay bar in Los Angeles 2 The original owner of the club was Jewel Thais Williams She graduated from UCLA with a B A in History and during her college years she wanted to be self employed Her first business was a boutique but it went out of business so she bought a bar She opened the club after she experienced discrimination in different clubs around West Hollywood because she was black and female Women at the time were not allowed to tend bar but Jewel saved enough money and bought the bar despite the limitations 3 When the club opened it became a hub for a diverse population of performers including Sylvester Whitney Houston Luther Vandross Janet Jackson Donna Summer Whoopi Goldberg Rick James and Madonna 4 As the years went by the attendance of the bar went down When Jewel was about to shut the club down it was bought by Steve Edelson and his son Mitch Edelson in November 2015 5 After that it became known as the last Black owned disco and was renamed The Union The club was featured as an organization in an exhibit in the City Hall in Los Angeles called Defiant Spaces 6 Documentary on Jewel s Catch One EditA documentary about the nightclub Jewel s Catch One directed by C Fitz started shooting in April 2010 and was finished in June 2016 7 8 The film premiered at Provincetown International Film Festival on June 19 2016 followed by a Los Angeles Premiere at Outfest on July 10 2016 a New York Premiere at UrbanWorld Film Festival on September 25 2016 and a European Premiere at BFI London Film Festival October 9 2016 The film celebrates the legacy of the nightclub its community and the life changing impact its owner Jewel Thais Williams had on her community breaking down racial and cultural barriers and building the oldest black owned disco in America Jewel s Catch One covers four decades of Los Angeles history honoring the music fashion celebrities and activism Variety Magazine called the film an undeniably loving documentary tribute by director C Fitz to the club and its longtime owner Jewel 9 In the film through exclusive interviews and performances from Thelma Houston Sharon Stone Maxine Waters Jenifer Lewis Bonnie Pointer Thea Austin and Sandra Bernhard plus rare archival footage of Madonna at the club director C Fitz documents how the club grew to be known as the unofficial Studio 54 of the west coast except everyone was allowed in without judgement The film culminates with Jewel and her Catch community becoming a national model of how to fight discrimination and serve the less fortunate The film follows Jewel as she buys the building next door to Jewel s Catch One and builds a non profit health clinic The feature documentary was named one of the best LGBTQ films to watch on Netflix of all time by Logo TV s NEWNOWNEXT in 2018 The film covers the Catch One family battling tirelessly against racism homophobia and hate for over forty two years to keep the club doors open to everyone through its closing in 2015 It screened internationally on the film festival circuit in over fifty film festivals including BFI Palm Springs Film Festival Best of Fest list January 10 2017 UrbanWorld Film Festival and Melbourne Documentary Film Festival In the spring of 2018 Ava DuVernay obtained the distribution rights from C Fitz and Dancing Pictures LLC with her distribution company ARRAY 10 11 Array released the Jewel s Catch One documentary on Netflix 12 13 14 It has won four awards for Best Documentary and a Top Jury Award The film tells the history of one of the original safe spaces for the LGBTQ Black and AIDS impacted communities 15 16 17 18 Jewel Thais Williams EditOriginally from Arkansas Thais Williams father in search of employment and educational opportunities moved their family to Gary Indiana where Thais Williams was born She was the fifth born of eight children During World War II several of her uncles and cousins were drafted into the navy and stationed in San Diego These relatives sent back word of San Diego s excellent weather Her family wanting to leave the harsh weather of Gary decided to relocate to San Diego They lived with relatives for a short time before moving their large family into a one bedroom residence 1 Shortly after high school Thais Williams moved to Los Angeles Despite having several intimate though not explicitly sexual encounters with other women she did not realize that she was a lesbian until her mid twenties Her first date with a female was with a woman she worked with at a Safeway supermarket 1 Having grown up black and in poverty Thais Williams felt that she would not be able to acquire personal wealth without starting her own business She purchased what was then the Diana Club with a down payment of 1 000 and an agreement to pay an additional 18 000 within two months With the help of her brother in law a banker she secured an advance for the remaining 17 000 Soon after acquiring the club white customers stopped patronizing the establishment and employees quit not wanting to work for a black woman Despite these initial challenges she was able to succeed A man named Tex whom Thais Williams described affectionately as an old redneck from Texas 1 mentored her and helped her though the initial phases of setting up her business Her bartender asked for his job back and Thais Williams obliged Some of the white customers also returned and developed a strong relationship with her Her club attracted a mainly African American clientele which were underserved by the night club industry at the time 4 1 The blue collar white clientele would visit the club by day and the blacks would be her primary customers at night 19 While she was still owner of the nightclub Jewel went back to school and got her Master of Science degree in Oriental Medicine from Samra University in 1998 Due to the high rate of preventable diseases such as diabetes and obesity in minority populations Jewel opened a non profit called the Village Health Foundation with the purpose of educating lower income communities on nutrition and living a more healthy lifestyle 3 Also it served as a space for political organizations to have their community meetings 20 While patrons of Jewel s Catch One as undergraduate students at the University of Southern California in the mid 1980s filmmaker Cristina Kotz Cornejo and her life partner African American playwright and artist Angela Counts befriended Jewel and were so taken by the club and her life story they asked permission to shoot what would be their first film about Jewel By the early 1990s they had produced a short documentary titled Jewel and the Catch The film has since been selected to be part of the UCLA Film Archives Outfest Legacy Project Collection In 2013 Raven Symone selected an excerpt from Jewel and The Catch to screen at the 2013 Outfest Legacy Awards 21 In 2016 Producers of the Amazon series Transparent selected footage from Jewel and the Catch to appear in the opening credit sequence of season 3 of Transparent by Jill Soloway Legacy Edit To honor her contributions to the LGBT community Thais Williams was appointed the Grand Marshall of the 2016 Los Angeles Pride Festival 22 23 References Edit Los Angeles portal a b c d e Jewel Thais Williams THE LAVENDER EFFECT 2015 04 02 Retrieved 2017 05 19 Moon Ho Jung The Rising Tide of Color Race State Violence and Radical Movements across the Pacific University of Washington Press Jul 1 2014 p 211 a b Jewel Thais Williams Celebrates Forty Years in Four Day Extravaganza Los Angeles Sentinel Los Angeles Sentinel 2013 05 17 Retrieved 2016 05 20 a b Anderson Tre vell March 16 2015 Jewel s Catch One disco s demise marks era s end for L A s gay blacks Los Angeles Times Retrieved March 11 2021 Romero Dennis November 18 2015 Lost Globos Mitch Edelson Buys Legendary Mid City Club Jewel s Catch One LA Weekly Retrieved March 11 2021 Defiant Spaces 60 Years of Queer Organizations in L A ONE National Gay amp Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries one usc edu Retrieved 2016 05 20 Ahmed Tufayel 2016 10 07 Meet Jewel Thais Williams the woman behind Hollywood s first black gay club and an LGBT activist Newsweek Retrieved 2019 02 09 Trailer Watch Jewel s Catch One Offers a Look Into America s Oldest Black Owned Disco Club womenandhollywood com Retrieved 2019 02 09 Barker Andrew 2016 07 15 Film Review Jewel s Catch One Variety Retrieved 2019 02 09 Ramos Dino Ray 2018 03 05 Array Releasing Acquires LGBTQ Disco Docu Jewel s Catch One Sets Screening Tour And Netflix Release Deadline Retrieved 2019 02 09 Array Releasing Picks Up C Fitz s Doc Jewel s Catch One Blackfilm Black Movies Television and Theatre News 2018 03 05 Retrieved 2019 02 09 Ava DuVernay s Array Releases Trailer For New Jewel s Catch One Essence Retrieved 2019 02 09 Brown August 2 May 2018 The story of L A club Jewel s Catch One and its pioneering owner finds its way to Netflix Los Angeles Times Retrieved 2019 02 09 5 Queer Titles to Stream in November www out com 2018 11 01 Retrieved 2019 02 09 Jewel s Catch One Jives to Legacy of Black Disco in Los Angeles The Takeaway WNYC Studios Retrieved 2019 02 09 Rao Sameer 2018 04 27 WATCH Jewel s Catch One Trailer Takes You Inside the Country s Oldest Black Owned Disco Club Colorlines Retrieved 2019 02 09 Netflix Doc Jewel s Catch One Introduces the World to an African American LGBTQ Crusader www villagevoice com May 2018 Retrieved 2019 02 09 A New Documentary Explores the Roots of Jewel s Catch One Los Angeles Times June 10 2016 Retrieved March 11 2021 thepridela 2016 06 09 Pioneer Jewel Thais Williams THE PRIDE LA THE PRIDE LA Retrieved 2017 05 20 Hope Analena 2011 Fast Food Slow Death and the Propaganda of Health Jewel Thais Williams Radical Battle for Black Survival Hernandez Greg November 23 2013 Recap of the Outfest Legacy Awards honoring Lee Daniels with surprise guest Jane Fonda Greg In Hollywood Retrieved March 11 2021 LA Pride festival parade runs this weekend in West Hollywood ABC7 com June 9 2016 Retrieved March 11 2021 City Council honors Thais Williams club owner who supported black LGBTQ community City News Service 2019 10 06 Retrieved 2019 10 06 via Los Angeles Times a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint url status link Coordinates 34 02 52 N 118 19 27 W 34 047816 N 118 324105 W 34 047816 118 324105 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Jewel 27s Catch One amp oldid 1131739541, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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