The ceiling fans whirred, pushing around the heat. I hurried to sit down, relieved that sitting meant no one could see the bottom half of me. This place was even smaller than the other club and not as bright. I followed close behind Max trying to keep my legs pressed tight together, but I kept knocking myself over. Max held the door of the Klub open, and I slipped inside looking straight ahead so I wouldn’t see people pointing at me. Timothy drove off leaving me standing on 8th Street where everyone could see me in pants. Max yanked the long coat off me and threw it in the backseat. Timothy was a muscular man in a black jacket with a cap on his head. Timothy, our limousine driver, pulled the car over to the curb in front of an awning that said Tom Kat Klub. It seemed to me that in a neighborhood where you could get a cheap salami sandwich, you didn’t need to arrive in a limousine. Sam’s Deli was across the street so I got myself a cheap salami and cheese sandwich. Last week after work, I walked up this street to the Whitney Museum ’cause I don’t know much about art and I wanted to educate myself. I didn’t feel comfortable driving in a limousine like a grand lady. I opened the window trying to catch a breeze. “That wasn’t exactly how I would have put it, but you have the spirit of the thing.” “Walk when he can take a limousine and look like a complete donkey. “Max, you know we could have just walked. We turned off Broadway onto Eighth Street.

THE LIMOUSINE BUMPED and shook over the cobblestone on its way past Wanamaker’s department store. Cameo appearances are made by Ethel Merman, Angela Lansbury, Lauren Bacall, Tallulah Bankhead and Walter Liberace. Through Juliana and Max Al is thrust into a world of “deviates” and “perverts” that she never before knew existed.

Juliana is a sexual risk-taker who easily reels in the mesmerized Al. Al is instantly drawn to her and seeks her out. He invites them to a nightclub where Al hears Juliana, the glamorous, perpetually-on-the-brink-of stardom singer, for the first time. Hartwell III, a failed nightclub owner and Broadway producer, who, according to Al, looks a little like Clark Gable. On the kids’ first day in New York City, they meet Maxwell P. It’s 1941 and Alice Huffman, “Al,” comes from the potato fields of Long Island with her childhood friends to make it on the Broadway stage, only to find she has no talent.

Gays and Lesbians hide in plain sight among straights who rarely notice them. JULIANA, is Tales of the City, set in 1940s Greenwich Village instead of 1970s San Francisco.

Juliana by vanda