In 1981, Steve Freeman and his partner Rick opened TapeLenders on Cedar Springs. The store specialized in renting Beta tapes. Rick died a year or so after the store opened. (My member number was 232. I can’t remember my own phone number. I don’t know why I remember my original TapeLenders membership number)
Steve was one of the most entrepreneurial people I’ve ever known. He opened a travel agency, The Reservation Desk. He bought a limousine and started a company called The Limousine Desk. When bookings took off, he bought a few more limos.
He opened a gay bar where Peker’s is now.
When the Havana Inn in Oklahoma City became a gay resort, he opened a card shop inside the hotel called Jungle
Red. After his death, his employees at Jungle Red made this quilt panel for him.
Attached to Steve’s panel is one for Vito Russo, author of “The Celluloid Closet” and co-founder of GLAAD.
