Why Beg “Gay the ’70s New York and L.A. Was Magic” (Gut Column) – The Hollywood Reporter

Contents:

• WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)
• LAST CALL: BEHD THE TERRIFYG UNTOLD STORY OF NEW YORK'S GAY BAR KILLER
• SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
• JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

WHY BEG “GAY THE ’70S NEW YORK AND L.A. WAS MAGIC” — AND HOW HOLLYWOOD HAS CHANGED (GUT COLUMN)

The most wonrful thg about those days was that the gay folks power lent a hand to young gay people tryg to get a foothold the bs. There was a powerful work of olr succsful gay men like theatril agent Milton Goldman and entertament attorney Arnold Weissberger who troduced younger gay men to succsful showbiz typ at their betiful apartment on Sutton Place overlookg the East River. If he shone three tim, they lled the NYPD, who had a al wh the Mafia owners of the gay bars to arrt a quota of “faggots” each week.

There was rampant homophobia by stud and work executiv and by some olr agents, notorly at CAA (though not Ron Meyer nor the Young Turks, several of whom were known to be gay). The notor Art Murphy wrote about movie gross Daily Variety and was very openly gay — he was close to every movie executive town.

Tommy Nutter, who was known for the betiful pipg on the cloth he signed for Mick and Bian Jagger, picked me up at a dis New York one night and I end up at Stigwood’s offic at 135 Central Park Wt, n by Peter Brown, who ed to be Tommy’s boyiend and who had worked for the very gay Beatl manager Brian Epste. New York's Lost Gay BarsWe've known for many years that too many of our cherished gay bars and clubs are shutterg, fallg victim to risg rents and the ubiquy of apps like Grdr and Scff.

LAST CALL: BEHD THE TERRIFYG UNTOLD STORY OF NEW YORK'S GAY BAR KILLER

The history of NYC nightlife is studd wh the memori of fascatg boît that attracted gays sperate need of nnectn, then ultimately fell away as newer spots and trends emerged.

Once a year—for three years a row—they've done Gay Bars That Are Gone, an rmative walk as part of Jane Jabsftival, May.

Kyle: My favore is probably the Nth Circle (a fab Wt 10th Street steakhoe-turned-gay-bar full of leather clon, twks, htlers, and celebry drop-s, all eher cisg, playg pool, dog dgs, or bbg agast each other. We try to ver different typ of plac--gay dance clubs, leather scene, piano bars, Rose's Turn, the old Duplex space.

SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

Now you n stay your hometown and live your gay life, you don't have to e to a metropolan cy and have that nnectn.

JAGUARS ACH KEV MAXEN RECEIV OVERWHELMG SUPPORT AFTER G OUT AS GAY

The gay bars are spac that seem a ltle more tertg to When I go to Boston or other smaller ci, the people are more open and willg to talk to each other. New York Cy – and Greenwich Village, particular – are associated worldwi wh gay rights and gay history bee of the Stonewall uprisg of June 1969 and the newly visible gay world that flowered the Village as a rult of . By the 1850s, people that we would today ll gay began to play an important role New York – at least the cultural life that was beg a signifint feature of the cy.

Whman read his most clearly homoerotic works, the ‘Calam’ poems, aloud to the circle of his iends who gathered at Pfaff’s beer cellar, at Broadway and Bleecker Street, which suggts that they were at least what today we ll ‘alli’.

There is ls evince of gay life New York the s after the 1850s, perhaps bee the Civil War retard the velopment of alternative liftyl the US. As Gee Chncey explas his masterly book Gay New York, at that time people tend to divi men not to gay and straight, but to ‘normal men’ and ‘fairi’ and was nsired possible for ‘normal men’ to have sex wh ‘fairi’ whout brgg their normaly to qutn, so long as they retaed the sertive role sex. The gay bars were known for their ‘fairy’ waers, who, acrdg to police reports, ‘rouge[d] their necks’ and sang ‘ filthy dti’, ie performed drag.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

By the 1890s, New York’s velopg gay world was already a paradoxil suatn and that remaed typil of the cy until the 1970s. From the 1890s on, has an enormo history of gay liv, lov and muni, as well as of cultural productn by gay people and, om the 1950s, polil activism. There are even bars, such as Juli’ on Wt 10th Street – important gay history bee of the Sip-, a key gay-rights prott that took place there three years before the Stonewall – that have prospered through the whole time perd.

There have also been cultural movements, groups and stutns that were fluenced by the gay muny, such as the Harlem Renaissance, the Beat poets, o -o -Broadway and Andy Warhol’s Factory. And many gay-rights anisatns have been found New York, om the Gay Liberatn Front the early 1970s to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, Act Up and Queer Natn. Today, the Stonewall Inn is one of the most famo plac the Village, but there are others nearby that are also important to gay history, cludg still-vibrant stutns such as Juli’ and the Cherry Lane Theatre.

Andrew Lear is a former profsor of classics and history and the founr of Osr Wil Tours, the first and only pany to o er tours foced on gay history New York and around the world. In fact, the people who were most at risk – this se, gay men who met for hook-ups at New York Cy bars that served the muny – were given no staed or amplified warngs by eher the thori or the media, creatg a safe space for the murrer to ntue to wreak havoc.

In fact, the se got so ltle attentn relative to s horror that today few remember , even wh the gay, three s after the murrs, journalist Elon Green has wrten a book tled Last Call: A Te Story of Love, Lt, and Murr Queer New York that go beyond the facts of the story to reveal the larger issu that surround them. Worse, that perd reprented the height of ignorance and fear about Aids, as well as the peak ath toll the gay muny the wt, greatly impactg how the muny was viewed.

Between 1987 and 1994 the cy saw a greater number of killgs than any other stretch more than half a that benighted era, gay bars were often ‘the one refuge om the perils of everyday life’, says Green.

’ Photograph: Wonwoo Lee/Getty Imag/Image SourceI n speak to the equency of vlence the gay muny back then.

In that same time ame, a close iend was gay-bashed to unnscns by a gang of young men, g a days-long stay the hospal, and I was punched so hard the stomach outsi a gay dance club I thought the guy mt have ed a hammer. Several years later, on a sunny day on Christopher Street (then the center of New York’s gay life), a man g an anti-gay ephet smashed my bt iend the head wh a rock. ”Meanwhile, the officer did story at the re of Last Call ptur a time the cy, and the liv of gay men, that seem far removed om the current one.

At the same time, was a particular type of gay man equentg a specific kd of bar, who tend to be the victim this se.