Ad Lib Nightclub

The Ad Lib Nightclub operated at 323 W. Wells Street in downtown Milwaukee from 1966 to 1975. It opened as an upscale cabaret and supper club that booked nationally known jazz musicians, then shifted to a striptease format in 1967. Although it was never founded as a gay bar, the Ad Lib gained a lasting place in Milwaukee LGBTQ history after it added female impersonator floor shows around 1969.

Performers such as Misty Dawn drew gay patrons, and a 1970 obscenity arrest of a transgender performer led to a notable courtroom challenge to the city's gendered tavern ordinances.