It is with a very heavy heart that we announce our club brother, Ted Swierczewski, lost his battle with cancer and passed away on November 3, 2020. He will truly be missed by not only our club brothers but the community at large. Ted worked diligently all year preparing for MAL getting the wrist bands, weekend t-shirts, and Centaur store ready for MAL Weekend. Ted will truly be missed by all who knew him.
Category: Memoriam
In Memorium: JP Halford
It is with a heavy heart that the Centaur MC announce the passing of JP Halford, Past President of the Centaur MC. JP passed away peacefully in his home with his partner Dougie at his side. JP’s passing leaves a huge void behind. The numerous stories you shared with everyone around you gave us the history behind the foundation on which the community was built. Your fight is over and you are now at peace.
In Memorium: Chris Wilkins
It is with a very heavy heart that we announce our club brother, Christopher A. Wilkins, passed away this morning. He will truly be missed by not only our club brothers but the community at large. Chris always went the extra effort to make our exhibitors feel welcome and appreciated at MAL. We know Chris will be happy to be with his partner Ron, who passed away 2019. Chris will truly be missed by all who knew you.
In Memorium: Steve Kenney
It’s with a heavy heart and tearful eyes that we announce the passing of our club brother Steve Kenny. He passed at 6:48 am the morning of February 26, 2019 with his husband Rick at his side. Once arrangements are finalized we will post an update. Please keep Rick and Steve’s family in your prayers.
In Memoriam: Hugh Stewart Gage
Remembering Hugh Gage
John Peter Halford
13 April 2018
It was over fifty years ago that I first came to know the name Hugh Gage. He was playing one of the two pugnacious gangsters in the American Light Opera production of ‘Kiss Me Kate’ who show up to pay a decidedly unusual tribute to the Bard of Avon with “Brush up your Shakespeare” and I was immediately struck by his presence and delivery of the witty and smart mouth Cole Porter number.
The following season I was engaged by ALOC to design their revival of ‘The Desert Song’ and it was backstage at Baltimore’s Lyric Theatre that I had the pleasure to meet Hugh for the first time. He had by then become treasurer of the company. We worked well together on a number of shows and got along famously. It was the beginning of a long association although he could often be very demanding and occasionally very critical. Nevertheless he could also be amusingly caustic and annoyingly right.
The palmy days of ALOC were not to last and its history was brief but vivid before poor management caused its collapse in 1967 and I lost sight of Hugh for nearly a decade.
My own fortunes changed and some years later I chanced to be in the DC Eagle on a Saturday night when they were having a Uniform Night hosted by the Centaur Motorcycle Club, a leather club I knew little about save from acquaintances like Marc Cohen and John Bonnage, but feeling emboldened by wearing camouflage I ventured into the section of the bar restricted to leather folk where I thought I saw someone who looked like a young Hugh Gage – but on closer inspection turned out to be the same old Hugh Gage!
Hugh greeted me warmly and introduced me to other members of the club – to the new president, Lou Tuck, to the dynamic Tony Bachrach – and before the evening was over I was exhorted to attend one of the Centaur meetings where, I was told, “guests are always welcome.”
These monthly meetings were held at that time at Dick’s Bar on New York avenue (Dick being the former partner of Big Don Bruce who owned the DC Eagle), and it was here that my knowledge of the ways and doings of the Centaurs deepened with my closer involvement with the club, and gained their appreciation for what I was able to offer. After the 1987 Leather weekend wind-down dinner Hugh Gage, who was now the new president of the club, came up to me, addressed me firmly and demanded “Well, do you or do you not want to join this club?”
I was dumbfounded and at a loss for words but managed to stammer “Yes” and nod my head before being besieged by four club members who all were eager to sponsor my pledge application.
Pledgeship in most leather clubs was , in those days, de rigueur following tradition and ritual; but so far I had little interest beyond a nominal sense of fellowship and fraternity as well as taking pleasure working on projects for the club as Hugh and I resumed our friendship.
For Gay Pride in June, the club had asked me to design a float for its entry in the parade, and for Olympia that year I prepared the promotional materials and the cloisonné run- pin, by which time my pledge time was coming to an end. The decisive meeting in July was held at my house and when closed session demanded that I withdraw while the vote was taken; someone asked Hugh if they didn’t vote me in would they all have to go home? The invitation to membership was extended and I was honored to accept. Things changed substantially for me but Hugh remained a valuable friend, a staunch ally and a wise counselor for a good many years.
Hugh Gage: A history
Past President Len Griffin interviewed former President Hugh Gage about his history with the Centaur MC.
THE BEGINNING:
I had been casually seeing a guy named Ernest (actually, Ernest was not his real name I later found out – it was Charlie) who was a terrific piano player and who designed and built the Eagle nail sculpture in the first Eagle. One night we went in for a drink and I got to talking to the bartender, a guy named Billy Enright. His co-bartender was Mai Ling (The Chinese Princess). Mai Ling , among other things, altered the Levis for Billy and himself to create baskets the size of Rhode Island. Billy, who was seeing Don Bruce at the time, didn’t need much help in that department, but nonetheless it was an eyeful. Not that I ever paid attention to things like that. Being 5′ 4½’ where else are my eyes going to land? On several occasions that evening, I put my drink stirrer in my eye. The next night, Saturday, I went down to Johnnie’s on the corner of Pennsylvania and 9th Street, where they had a drag show upstairs. With the exception of Raquelle Rondelle (sounds like cheese spread), the performers were fairly terrible, and one in particular, whose name mercifully escapes me for the moment or for the ages, could not count to four-forwards-and whose wig kept slipping. That was OK with us and only made the evening more fun. I was sitting with a guy named Irv Fleming and his friend Tony Bachrach. I had never met either of them before, but as the night wore on, we got a terrible case of the giggles. I actually thought the management would throw us out; I did not know the reputation Fleming and Bachrach had at Johnnie’s. As it turns out Fleming was a cook at the Eagle, and he and Bachrach were both members of the Centaur Motorcycle Club. Bachrach was in the process of moving up from Richmond. Oh yes, Billy Enright was a member of the same club. Funny how things work out. Well, for about a month I would make it a habit to drop in on the Eagle, say hi to Billy, see Irv, (who was a good advertisement for his cooking – very large man, great fun), have a drink with Tony, and got to meet some of his club brothers, all of whom I liked. Lots of laughs. Then one night, Irv said that the club was going up to Philadelphia to do a bar night, and would I like to go along. The rest is history, but worth telling, nonetheless.
On that weekend I got to meet Marvin Edwards and Phil Donato (Marvin was president, and he and Phil and several others lived in Richmond. ) The Centaurs were a Richmond Club, but half of the members lived in the DC area. As someone who had lived in Richmond for a year as a teenager, I could understand why so many were moving to DC. There were also members – Butch Tyson and George Marks- who lived in Norfolk – and they also had come to Philadelphia. I must have taken the field that day and gained a totally undeserved reputation – I scored after 15 minutes in the bar. No-one was more surprised than I, but notoriety must come easily or cheaply in Philadelphia (with apologies to John Rocco). At least it did for me!
The rest of the weekend is kind of a blur, but the Chinese Fire Drill on Rte. 95 on the way home, and the antics at Maryland House in the men’s room and the lunch counter were extra moments indeed.
After that weekend, I asked a lot of questions about membership. Billy and Irv said they would sponsor me. At that time you had to have a motorcycle license, so I took lessons. I got to meet Ed Stanley, Rusty, Gary, Donny, Rick, little John, Mike Webber, and a seeming host of others. In the Sunrise days of the Empire, you went through a probationary period after pledging. I was presented with Billy’s colors in the middle bar of the Eagle, cried, became a brother, dropped my bike on my first long ride to Altland’s, have never looked back, and cannot imagine what life would be like otherwise. I would not trade my life as a Centaur for anything else in the world- every moment -and I do mean every moment – fills me with pride for my brothers and the joy of being in their company. As Billy Enright said to me the
night of my vesting, “With a Centaur for a brother, you need no other.”
It is true.
–Hugh Gage