Friday, Wayne: Milk trusted Moscone

Abstract

Wayne Friday: Harvey thought that George was approachable. You could deal with the guy. Harvey didn’t trust a lot of politicians. I can say that because many times he would come by. I was working in a bar on Polk Street. When he was running for office he would come. Harvey was a bathhouse dude. He liked to go to the bathhouses, and about twelve o’clock he would leave the bathhouses, come and sit in the bar with me and I close at two. Then we’d go to a little restaurant on Pine Street called the Grub Steak. I remember the Grub Steak. We would talk and he would hold court there until daylight. He would go over a lot of politicians. He really learned to like George especially after George had appointed him to the Board of Permit Appeals, and then [destroyed] him and said you can’t stay on the board and campaign for supervisor. Harvey understood that. I think of all the politicians that Harvey knew and that I know we discussed with Harvey, I think George was one that he trusted. Harvey didn’t trust very many people. He started off as a Goldwater Republican back in New York a long time ago. He could call Moscone in the middle of the night and they’d talk politics. If Harvey had come home and he heard something in the bar that he was pissed off about, he’d call George even after George became mayor. He’d call him in his home and talk to him about things. He really did like him. I’ve never heard him say bad words about him. I heard him get mad at Moscone a couple times, but it was mild compared to what he had to say about Dianne Feinstein later on, but that’s another story. Harvey Milk really, really liked George Moscone. I was not Moscone’s closest friend by any means, but I spent a lot of time with the guy and we drank a lot of coffee together, and you got to really trust him. He give you his word, you could take it to the bank. Even faggots for Christ’s sake. He would deal with us like he dealt with everybody else, and the Black Community was the same way with George. He was very close to the African American Community. He was a good guy. He was the first one to start it for all of us in San Francisco.

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Type

Interview

Date Original

2011-05-03

Relation

The Moscone oral history interviews are part of the George Moscone Collection, MSS 328.

Contributing Institution

Holt-Atherton Special Collections and Archives, University of the Pacific Library

Rights Information

To view additional information on copyright and related rights of this item, such as to purchase copies of images and/or obtain permission to publish them, click here to view the Holt-Atherton Special Collections policies.

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