Physique mags helped her the gay market :: Bay Area Reporter

Contents:

• HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE
• OLD SHOEBOX GIV GLIMPS INTO A GAY MAN'S LIFE IN 1940S-'60S VANUVER
• VTAGE 1960S GAY BOX SHELVG UN - TEAK
• UNED STAT GAY MALE LEATHER CULTURE LLECTN, 1960'S-1990'S COLLECTN NUMBER: 7872
• PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S
• PHYSIQUE MAGS HELPED HER THE GAY MARKET
• KANSAS CY IN 1960S GAY RIGHTS HISTORY
• WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS
• 1960S GAY MEN LUNCH BOX

HOW THE MOB HELPED ESTABLISH NYC’S GAY BAR SCENE

In his own words, he felt “pafully isolated, strand between the sual homophobia of most ‘normal’ people and the flagrantly gay Hollywood subculture – where [he] was even ls fortable and ls accepted. Gaynor and Adrian were succsful durg a time when any sort of evince of their homosexualy would have hurt their reers, so ’s not surprisg that there isn’t ncrete evince about the tth of their relatnship. While gay characters were equently ed for lghs or not explicly stated to be queer the earlit mastream Hollywood films, a brief relaxatn Germany's film productn the early 20th century allowed for LGBTQ+ classics like "Different om the Others" and "Mädchen Uniform.

OLD SHOEBOX GIV GLIMPS INTO A GAY MAN'S LIFE IN 1940S-'60S VANUVER

The German film "Anrs als die Anrn" (English: "Different om the Others") is one of the olst survivg movi wh a gay protagonist and was ma durg a rare perd when German film censorship was relaxed after World War I. Charl Bryant's adaptatn of gay wrer Osr Wil's play of the same name reportedly featured several queer llaborators—namely, bisexual lead actor Alla Nazimova and set signer Natacha Rambova (her mored lover).

Although one uld argue that such a gelg terview procs was exploative, Holliday's mgs about his life, dreams, and art the face of societal anti-Blackns and homophobia provi the kd of tersectnal look at LGBTQ+ inty that '60s media sorely lacked. Produced durg the fal months of the Hays Co, Robert Aldrich's film about the breakdown of an agg lbian TV actor clud a lbian sex scene that broke down a major taboo associated wh the Co's erasure of gay characters on screen. William Friedk's "Cisg" was reviled by many gay viewers, wh one pamphlet sayg that, the film, "gay men are prented as one-dimensnal sex-crazed lunatics … It is a film about why we should be killed.

VTAGE 1960S GAY BOX SHELVG UN - TEAK

Gay first-time director Bill Sherwood's "Partg Glanc" is regard as the first film to al wh the AIDS crisis, which had a vastatg impact on gay and bisexual men particular the late 1980s and early 1990s.

In the early 1990s, several openly gay directors beme volved pennt cema, creatg a crop of queer movi that treated sexualy as fluid—exampl clu "Orlando, " "My Own Private Idaho, " "Poison, " and many more. Starrg major Hollywood actors like Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo, and Wley Snip as drag queens, "To Wong Foo" was the rare, explicly gay stud film that rose to the top of the box office durg s first two weeks theaters. After years of tellg bold stori featurg gay and trans characters, his film "All About My Mother, " which follows a woman who rennects wh her ex-partner (a trans woman) won Bt Foreign Language Film at the 2000 Amy Awards.

LGBTQ+ media advocy anizatn GLAAD puts out a yearly report on queer reprentatn media, and s 2019 report showed hopeful signs that media is beg more clive, wh a rerd number of gay characters on screen.

UNED STAT GAY MALE LEATHER CULTURE LLECTN, 1960'S-1990'S COLLECTN NUMBER: 7872

But between New York’s LGBT muny the 1960s beg forced to live on the outskirts of society and the Mafia’s disregard for the law, the two ma a profable, if uneasy, the gay muny blossomed New York Cy the 1960s, members had few plac to gather publicly. Unr the guise of New York State’s liquor laws that barred “disorrly” premis, the State Liquor Authory and the New York Police Department regularly raid bars that tered to gay the law saw viance, however, the Mafia saw a goln bs opportuny. It was the only place where gay people uld openly dance close together, and for relatively ltle money, drag queens (who received a bter receptn at other bars), naways, homels LGBT youths and others uld be off the streets as long as the bar was open.

“Fat Tony, ” for one, paid New York’s 6th Precct approximately $1, 200 a week, exchange for the police agreeg to turn a bld eye to the “cent nduct” occurrg behd closed Photo<em>An NYPD officer grabs someone by their hair as another officer clubs a young man durg a nontatn Greenwich Village after a Gay Power march New York, 1970. Sometim the ps even went to the extreme measure of sendg female officers to the bathroom to verify people’s get around laws that prohibed servg alhol to LGBT patrons, many gay bars—cludg the Stonewall—operated ostensibly as “bottle bars, ” private clubs where members would brg their own alhol. Apparently, too many high-powered dividuals—cludg Mafia members, police officers and big Hollywood nam—were implited as Stonewall Inn is a bar loted New York Cy’s Greenwich Village that served as a haven the 1960s for the cy’s gay, lbian and transgenr muny.

" This sign was wrten by the Mattache Society–an early anizatn dited to fightg for gay reportg the events, The New York Daily News rorted to homophobic slurs s tailed verage, nng the headle: “Homo Nt Raid, Queen Be Are Stgg Mad. ”Over the next several nights, gay activists ntued to gather near the Stonewall, takg advantage of the moment to spread rmatn and build the muny that would fuel the growth of the gay rights movement.

PNEERG PHOTOGRAPHS OF GAY LIFE THE 1960S

1 / 14: RxSome scholars have argued the famo Stonewall rts that sparked the natnwi LGBT movement were as much a ristance agast the mob’s exploatn of the gay muny as they were a stggle agast police harassment and discrimatory laws.

” Two of the ma gay-rights anizatns that me out of the rts, the Gay Activists Alliance and Gay Liberatn Front, actively champned gettg anized crime out of gay Mafia’s stranglehold on New York Cy’s nightlife bs took a huge h wh a seri of high-profile prosecutns the 1980s.

The reason that Don thought I might want to see the disrds, retrieved by a savvy book sut om where they'd been dropped next to a dumpster, was that several piec of this llectn dited that Joe was a gay man livg our neighbourhood the 1940s, '50s, and '60s; s for which we have few rerds of our muny's 's first clue might have been the paperback py of Richard Amory's Song of the Loon, an terracial and tergeneratnal gay love story om the early '60s, before eher of those load terms had been the flyers om Trojan Book Service offerg such tl as Ameri's Homosexual Unrground by Antony Jam (quote: "The good-lookg boy wh lily-whe sk was hky but the man sensed a kd of effemacy as he watched the boy leang agast the stair steps wh his crotch bulgg.

PHYSIQUE MAGS HELPED HER THE GAY MARKET

"Certaly the Tom of Fland-style greetg rd wh three studs, naked except for toqu and srv and boots, rollg the snow, was a clear, Joe was a iend of Dorothy's, and I quickly soped up the remas of his days for a closer look, and perhaps some clu to the liv of that generatn of gay men who lived their youth the years before Stonewall. I share the random mgs about Joe Selsey and how he might have lived his life as a gay man the Vanuver of his day for two reasons: To help realize that there is at least two generatns worth of lol, verifiably gay history that is slippg beyond our grasp; and to ask you, gentle rear, to share this story and the photos wh any iends you may have of Joe's if they knew him, and if they rell the Happytime Social Club, and n tell jt how happy those tim were? “I was 19, vulnerable, young and puttg my own inty together, ” says photographer Anthony Friedk when reflectg on his first project, The Gay Essay, which documents gay culture Los Angel and San Francis between 1969-1972.

KANSAS CY IN 1960S GAY RIGHTS HISTORY

But The Gay Essay really began while he explored the Los Angel Gay Communy Servic Center where he met Morris Kight and Don Kilhefner, two men who ran the programs there and found the Gay Liberatn Front Los Angel 1969 where they mobilized the muny agast the LAPD’s harassment of homosexuals.

Johnson, associate profsor of history at the Universy of South Florida, was rearchg his first book the attic of a 1960s gay rights activist, lookg for typewrten rrponnce the 1950s and 1960s documentg the feral ernment's Cold War purge of spected homosexuals as threats to natnal secury, when he disvered pi of magaz lled Dm, Physique Pictorial, and MANual, full of imag of nearly naked men. "I saw a disnnect between how gay men appreciated the works of 1950s physique artists and photographers and how most scholars studyg the history of the LGBT movement dismissed them, " wrote Johnson, who is gay.

"Many early historians of the LGBT movement, wh roots a gay liberatnist ethos that was explicly anti-palist, viewed for-prof enterpris such as physique publishers wh skepticism, nsirg them peripheral to movement polics... Fishg his book, "The Lavenr Sre: The Cold War Persecutn of Gays and Lbians the Feral Government, " Johnson traveled around the untry rearchg the ia of a "gay market" that existed a before Stonewall. He disvered that "wh a circulatn rate ten tim that of their homophile petors, physique magaz were the primary gay media outlet the natn such that by 1963, domtic sal of physique magaz topped ne ln per year, " he wrote.

WHEN PSYCHIATRY AND THE MEDIA COLLUD AGAST THE GAYS

Johnson realized that "by makg gay sire visible, by marketg to the mass and fendg om ernment censorship, physique entreprenrs helped create a sense of a natnal gay muny, " such that nsumer culture played a pivotal role shapg gay male cultural life and later polil engagement.

Johnson tells the story of the rise and cle of physique magaz durg the perd om 1951 to 1967 his new book on the subject, "Buyg Gay: How Physique Entreprenrs Sparked A Movement" (Columbia Universy Prs), as well as argug that both homophile anizatns and physique enterpris were fulfillg many of the same functns — fosterg muny, providg legal advice, and fightg reprsn among others, but the latter surpassed the former both numbers and fluence such that gay merce was not a byproduct of the gay movement but a talyst to .

1960S GAY MEN LUNCH BOX

Furthermore, physique entreprenrs, buildg on their fancial succs, veloped other bs, creatg a new niche gay market that clud the Cory Book Service, the Grecian Guild (gay social aterny), and the Adonis Club (pen pals). Only when the gay entreprenrs anized to large nglomerat wh natnwi distributn systems were they able to acquire the rourc that enabled them to fight is here that Johnson se a historil nnectn between his first book and his new work.

They helped take the stggle of gay people out of the realm of psychiatry and place the ntext of civil rights and the First Amendment, " he Womack, veloper of a publishg empire of gay novels and magaz (Guild Prs), fought agast censorship, culmatg the famo 1962 Supreme Court cisn MANual v. Directory Servic Inc., which marketed directori of gay bs, won a landmark feral district urt cisn that the Constutn clud protectns for DSI's homosexual ctomers, by allowg full ontal male nudy and open homoeroticism, "pavg the way for the sort of morn gay prs we have e to know and love, " he wrote.