Long before Hillcrest became nationally known as San Diego’s gayborhood, there was Show Biz Supper Club — one of the city’s earliest and most legendary drag venues.
Opened in 1968 on University Avenue, Show Biz Supper Club hosted San Diego’s first regular drag show revue, featuring performers from the famed Turnabouts cast and helping establish female impersonation as a major part of the city’s nightlife scene.
This was the late ’60s — before Pride marches, before widespread LGBTQ visibility, when drag shows often took place under the watchful eye of police raids and public hostility. But inside Show Biz, the mood was completely different.
The club mixed dinner service with full theatrical revues — a classic supper club format where audiences watched glamorous drag performances while enjoying cocktails and late-night shows.
For many San Diegans, it was the first place they ever saw drag as entertainment rather than spectacle — a space where performers built reputations and crowds came specifically to see the show.
Through the 1970s and early ’80s, Show Biz helped lay the foundation for San Diego’s LGBTQ nightlife culture before closing around 1984.
