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Someone updated The Gateways wiki page.
- Thread starter Mentalist
- Start date
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
Channel 4 should make a two hour documentary/drama about its history.
There is already a radio dramatization that was on Radio 4. I went up to London and watched them make it. That was pretty cool.
Imelda Staunton played my grandmother. She will be playing Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter OotP.
http://epguides.com/GatewaysClub/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Staunton
Nice person in real life. She quizzed me on Gina so as to get the role as close to perfection as possible.
Imelda Staunton played my grandmother. She will be playing Dolores Umbridge in Harry Potter OotP.
http://epguides.com/GatewaysClub/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imelda_Staunton
Nice person in real life. She quizzed me on Gina so as to get the role as close to perfection as possible.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
That's awesome!
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
BUMP
Obituaries: Gina Ware
Independent, The (London), Aug 3, 2001 by Jill Gardiner
GINA WARE ran the Gateways club, on the King's Road, Chelsea, from the 1950s until 1985. Originally a mixed Bohemian club, frequented by artists, actors and writers from Augustus John to Diana Dors, it later became famous for featuring in the film The Killing of Sister George in 1968, giving millions of cinema-goers worldwide their first glimpse of real lesbians.
Gina Ware's connection with the Gateways, at 239 King's Road, began in 1947, when, as a young actress, known as Gina Evans, she visited the club on her 25th birthday, and was introduced by her sister to Ted Ware, the proprietor. In a conformist era, the Gateways was a haven for those marginalised by society. Frequented in the afternoons by a mixed, arty Chelsea crowd, its evening clientele was mainly lesbian, at a time when these women felt that the Gateways was the only place they were welcome. Gina Evans, a stylish beauty who had been painted by George Leach RA, among other artists, soon began working at the club, and recalled with relish how she once threw out a drunken Dylan Thomas.
Always able to stand her ground, Gina Evans was a strong-minded woman who commanded respect from men and women alike. Lively and vivacious, she was theatrical in manner, passionate and sometimes unpredictable, something she put down to her "Italian temperament". Though brought up in Cardiff, and not Italian-speaking, she was born Gina Cerrato, one of five daughters of a wine-chandler from Genoa and a half-Italian half-Irish mother from Manchester. Discovered by Paramount at the age of 14, she moved to London to embark on a film career.
She was cast as a vestal virgin in Alexander Korda's I Claudius in 1937, and also appeared in Undercover (1943), but was arrested on set as an "enemy alien" when Italy entered the Second World War. Narrowly escaping deportation on the Arandora Star (soon sunk by a German U- boat), Gina Evans spent much of the war as a rather unlikely Land Army girl, resuming her acting career in peacetime, but finally abandoning it, with relief, when she married Ted Ware in 1953. The couple had a daughter two years later. Increasingly, Ted, who was close to retirement, left Gina to run the Gateways, with a trouser- wearing ex-American airforce woman, always known as "Smithy", who became a firm friend of the family.
Lesbians and bisexuals flocked to the Gateways, as did curious heterosexuals, and by 1967 Gina made the club women-only. But Ted's portrait remained, and one woman who tried to turn it to the wall, on the grounds that she didn't want a man looking at her, got a characteristically fiery reaction from Gina. She always acknowledged how much Ted had taught her about the licensed trade, and took care of him until his death in 1979.
When Gina Ware allowed Robert Aldrich to feature the Gateways in The Killing of Sister George, it was her suggestion to invite genuine Gateways girls to appear as extras, which made the scenes more authentic. Ware also appeared on screen as herself: the glamorous night-club owner, in a sparkling black evening dress, immaculately made up and drawing on her long cigarette holder, shrewdly scrutinising the actress Coral Browne at the entrance desk, while Smithy served Beryl Reid and Susannah York from behind the bar. Though she enjoyed the filming, Ware was to regret it when the movie was released. Shocked by such scenes as George forcing her girlfriend to eat a cigar butt, Ware felt Aldrich had deceived her into colluding with a distorted portrayal of gay women. The publicity it gave the club was more welcome: the Gateways was packed with visitors from around the world for years to come.
Though supportive of social acceptance for lesbians, and keen to create a lively venue where they could enjoy themselves, Ware was never involved in political campaigning. When her club was the target of direct action by the Gay Liberation Front in 1971, who pulled the plug on the juke-box and urged the horrified Gateways women to come out of the closet, Ware called the police, and had the demonstrators thrown out. She continued to run the club with Smithy until 1985, and it was, by the time she retired, the longest surviving women's club of its kind in Europe. Its success was due in large part to Ware's shrewd business sense, and to her notoriously firm approach to keeping order. It was by sticking to the rules that she kept the club open against the odds, maintaining good relations with the police and resisting criminal protection rackets.
Friends and family knew her to be loving, generous and protective. Intolerant only of prejudice, she welcomed people of all backgrounds into the club and her home, from truck drivers to celebrities, and delighted in taking black friends in the Fifties to a restaurant on the King's Road which had once refused them entry. Gina Cerrato, actress and club owner: born Turin, Italy 18 March 1922; married 1953 Ted Ware (died 1979; one daughter); died 21 July 2001.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
Independent, The (London), Aug 3, 2001 by Jill Gardiner
GINA WARE ran the Gateways club, on the King's Road, Chelsea, from the 1950s until 1985. Originally a mixed Bohemian club, frequented by artists, actors and writers from Augustus John to Diana Dors, it later became famous for featuring in the film The Killing of Sister George in 1968, giving millions of cinema-goers worldwide their first glimpse of real lesbians.
Gina Ware's connection with the Gateways, at 239 King's Road, began in 1947, when, as a young actress, known as Gina Evans, she visited the club on her 25th birthday, and was introduced by her sister to Ted Ware, the proprietor. In a conformist era, the Gateways was a haven for those marginalised by society. Frequented in the afternoons by a mixed, arty Chelsea crowd, its evening clientele was mainly lesbian, at a time when these women felt that the Gateways was the only place they were welcome. Gina Evans, a stylish beauty who had been painted by George Leach RA, among other artists, soon began working at the club, and recalled with relish how she once threw out a drunken Dylan Thomas.
Always able to stand her ground, Gina Evans was a strong-minded woman who commanded respect from men and women alike. Lively and vivacious, she was theatrical in manner, passionate and sometimes unpredictable, something she put down to her "Italian temperament". Though brought up in Cardiff, and not Italian-speaking, she was born Gina Cerrato, one of five daughters of a wine-chandler from Genoa and a half-Italian half-Irish mother from Manchester. Discovered by Paramount at the age of 14, she moved to London to embark on a film career.
She was cast as a vestal virgin in Alexander Korda's I Claudius in 1937, and also appeared in Undercover (1943), but was arrested on set as an "enemy alien" when Italy entered the Second World War. Narrowly escaping deportation on the Arandora Star (soon sunk by a German U- boat), Gina Evans spent much of the war as a rather unlikely Land Army girl, resuming her acting career in peacetime, but finally abandoning it, with relief, when she married Ted Ware in 1953. The couple had a daughter two years later. Increasingly, Ted, who was close to retirement, left Gina to run the Gateways, with a trouser- wearing ex-American airforce woman, always known as "Smithy", who became a firm friend of the family.
Lesbians and bisexuals flocked to the Gateways, as did curious heterosexuals, and by 1967 Gina made the club women-only. But Ted's portrait remained, and one woman who tried to turn it to the wall, on the grounds that she didn't want a man looking at her, got a characteristically fiery reaction from Gina. She always acknowledged how much Ted had taught her about the licensed trade, and took care of him until his death in 1979.
When Gina Ware allowed Robert Aldrich to feature the Gateways in The Killing of Sister George, it was her suggestion to invite genuine Gateways girls to appear as extras, which made the scenes more authentic. Ware also appeared on screen as herself: the glamorous night-club owner, in a sparkling black evening dress, immaculately made up and drawing on her long cigarette holder, shrewdly scrutinising the actress Coral Browne at the entrance desk, while Smithy served Beryl Reid and Susannah York from behind the bar. Though she enjoyed the filming, Ware was to regret it when the movie was released. Shocked by such scenes as George forcing her girlfriend to eat a cigar butt, Ware felt Aldrich had deceived her into colluding with a distorted portrayal of gay women. The publicity it gave the club was more welcome: the Gateways was packed with visitors from around the world for years to come.
Though supportive of social acceptance for lesbians, and keen to create a lively venue where they could enjoy themselves, Ware was never involved in political campaigning. When her club was the target of direct action by the Gay Liberation Front in 1971, who pulled the plug on the juke-box and urged the horrified Gateways women to come out of the closet, Ware called the police, and had the demonstrators thrown out. She continued to run the club with Smithy until 1985, and it was, by the time she retired, the longest surviving women's club of its kind in Europe. Its success was due in large part to Ware's shrewd business sense, and to her notoriously firm approach to keeping order. It was by sticking to the rules that she kept the club open against the odds, maintaining good relations with the police and resisting criminal protection rackets.
Friends and family knew her to be loving, generous and protective. Intolerant only of prejudice, she welcomed people of all backgrounds into the club and her home, from truck drivers to celebrities, and delighted in taking black friends in the Fifties to a restaurant on the King's Road which had once refused them entry. Gina Cerrato, actress and club owner: born Turin, Italy 18 March 1922; married 1953 Ted Ware (died 1979; one daughter); died 21 July 2001.
Copyright 2001 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
HA!
CaptainWacky
I want to smell dark matter
SoftWARES (I don't know)