The Beatniks Smoldered in 1960
A CHEAPLY MADE black-and-white film, The Beatniks (1960) was voice actor Paul Frees’ only directing venture. It succeeded with neither critics nor the public, and it boasts a…More
Browsing: Cultural History
Blog Posts
Working Out
IN HIS NEW HISTORY of the gymnasium, Eric Chaline writes that one reason people go to gyms as adults is that they enjoyed physical activity when they were young, though I’ve always suspected that for gay male gym-goers the reverse is often the case.
MoreBTW
Out Came Iceman A retronym is a word like “landline” that renames a familiar item when something new comes along. With the advent of the cellphone, we learned we’d…More
At the Hidden Core of the Big Apple
THE INTERWAR YEARS, from the Armistice of 1918 until Pearl Harbor, were fertile for cultural productivity in New York City. Gay men and lesbians were at the heart of accomplishments…More
Letters to the Editor
If They Mated: Carson and Gypsy To the Editor: I was glad to see David Kaplan’s piece on Tennessee Williams’ friendships [in the Jan.-Feb. 2015 issue], including his…More
In (Partial) Defense of Harry Hay
OSCAR WILDE characterized gay love as that “great affection … such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy. … It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as…More
Christian Martyr, Pagan Witness
RADCLYFFE HALL’S The Well of Loneliness is the canonical lesbian novel that many people think they know; in some sense, it has become a part of queer folk culture.…More
America’s First Gay Town
ON JUNE 4, 2013 the National Parks Service officially designated the Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre on Fire Island, New York, for listing on its National Register of Historic Places.
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