“From Beloved Beacon to Forgotten Relic: Unraveling the Astonishing Decline of Howard Johnson’s Empire”
Noteworthy, Howard Johnson’s also had an established corporate policy against discrimination of any sort, and in certain regions local Howard Johnson’s even became something of hangouts for members of the LGBTQ community, such as in the case of locations owned by Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell, and John Timmins in New York, with these three all members of one of the very early gay rights groups, Mattachine Society.
While none of this latter is perhaps noteworthy today, at the time in New York many establishments refused to serve anyone who was openly gay, and it was even deemed illegal, according to the State Liquor Authority, to serve gay customers alcohol because the past was the worst.
But these franchise owners did it anyway at their Howard Johnson’s locations. And in one case very publicly with the Howard Johnson’s in Greenwhich Village used for a “Sip-In”, but not in the way the organizers of the Sip-in had originally hoped. You see, they were looking for a place to refuse them service so they could sue and challenge the law, so naturally targeted one of the biggest chains in the world in Howard Johnson’s for maximal publicity. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for Howard Johnson’s, one Randy Wicker who was involved recounts, “We went to Howard Johnson’s. Said we’re homosexuals and we wanna order a cocktail. And the woman said ‘no trouble!’” and happily served them. Leaving them to have to go find another establishment who would not do so, eventually settling on a bar called Julius’s that had recently been raided by police officers when the undercover officers posing as gay men had successfully entrapped and then arrested some of the customers there for agreeing to partake in homosexual acts with them. Needless to say, Julius was not interested in serving those involved in the sip-in lest he get in trouble again, and the whole affair was front-page news in the aftermath, spurring the New York State Liquor Authority to change its rules, though undercover officers still continued to do their thing for some time because the past was the worst.
