Merlin's, Binghamton 3577

By the early 70's there were already gay newsletters or fliers that identified the locations of such, and in a town with a major university there was probably a gay student group that kept lists. By the mid 70's there was usually a call-in line somewhere in the state that you could call. There was also a national guide that was self-published by Bob Damron starting in the 60's. Also, if you were an out-of-towner, taxi drivers usually knew.

BUT, all those guides and resources were only somewhat reliable. Even today bar's find they can't support themselves on gay clientele and become straight bars or close, and vice-versa, and that was quite common in the 70's. So, you had to be very careful about casing the place.

In the smaller towns, you could walk in and still be not certain until you spent a fair amount of time. The first time I went to a bar that was listed as gay in Flagstaff in the early 80's, I couldn't tell and never could decide whether it was or wasn't. It wasn't until the late 70's and early 80's that the rainbow flag became an accepted symbol for designating a space as gay or gay friendly.

Re the local town, in the 70's the local straight community often didn't know of the existence of a gay bar in their town. And, sometimes when they found out, the bar mysteriously got torched.