In September 1952 the opened a club in the cellar of the Odeon building, the house with the classical front standing here on the Singel. The DOK, short for De Odeon Kelder, grew under Lou Charité into the first and for years the largest gay disco in post-war Europe.
Visitors came from across Europe and from America, and anyone who was not a member bought a day membership at the door. At Easter and Whitsun the queue reached the Koningsplein. The finest story concerns Christmas Eve, when of the Salvation Army came down the stairs to give a speech, the music falling silent and the spotlights turning towards her.
Young men under twenty-one were kept out at first, because of that same . Dancers here often walked on to De Schakel near the Leidseplein, the other large dance hall of the COC, which earned the Leidsestraat between the two its nickname Rue de Vaseline. On 14 March 1989 the DOK closed after thirty-seven years.
We leave the Singel behind us and walk east into the Reguliersdwarsstraat, until we stand in front of number 37.
Sources. Story: reguliers.net on the history of gay nightlife; amsterdamopdekaart.nl on the Odeon building; Wikipedia, DOK (discotheek) Photos: Fotocollectie Anefo, Nationaal Archief, via Wikimedia Commons, item number 925-7709
