Many tourists stay around the tourist-heavy, shop-lined River Street, newly developed Plant Riverside district, and adjacent downtown, which all form Savannah’s equivalent of NOLA’s French Quarter and an active port where cargo ships routinely zip past along the city’s namesake river and hotels include an Andaz and new 416-room JW Marriott. But the upper floor, where Williams’ sister still lives, and its working pipe organ remain off-limits. Ultimately, Mercer House - once owned by the family of another iconic homegrown talent, prolific songwriter Johnny Mercer of Oscar-winning “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” ditty “Moon River” and Elvis’ “Fools Rush In” fame - proved an illuminating experience replete with photos of Williams and his parties, original antiques, paintings and furniture, especially for fans of the film and book. There’s Halloween weekend’s vibrant Savannah Pride, the hipster Starland District, an influx of creative young energy thanks to Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD for short - fashion icon André Leon Talley sits on its Board of Trustees) and, this being one of America’s most haunted cities, an expanding population of spirits (including the drinkable type at Ghost Coast Distillery). Today the lush, compact and walkable port city, hometown of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” season 8 queen Dax ExclamationPoint and Georgia Democrat Senator Raphael Warnock, boasts an even more progressive open queerness.
In 2019, 14.8 million visitors came for Savannah’s mix of historic architecture, gorgeous willow-draped parks, movie locations (including the spot where Forrest Gump sat on a bench babbling inane philosophies about chocolates), a buzzing riverside entertainment zone and live-and-let-live genteel Southern attitude. I’m touring the Mercer-Williams House, one of Savannah, Georgia’s most famous 19th-century homes, including the actual study where Williams shot and killed his hustler boy toy, Danny Hansford (played by Jude Law in the movie), reportedly in self-defense.Īdapted from gay author John Berendt’s bestselling 1994 nonfiction novel, director Clint Eastwood’s movie shined a Hollywood spotlight on Savannah and its quirky denizens, including iconic transgender entertainer The Lady Chablis, who famously played herself, regularly performed at LGBTQ bar Club One and, sadly, passed away in 2016 (which helped attract even more millions of tourists annually). The ghost of Kevin Spacey haunts this room.Īctually, it’s the ghost of a rich, gay antiques dealer and preservationist, Jim Williams, whom Spacey portrayed in the 1997 film “Midnight In the Garden of Good And Evil,” although the latter seems somehow more likely to impart chills and cringe these days.