The Gay Metropolis (67 page)

61 “You spoiled it with”: Gore Vidal, “Some Memories,”
United States,
1139.

“certainly one of the best” … “collective morale”: Gore Vidal papers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

II: THE FIFTIES

65 “In that era of general”: David Halberstam,
The Fifties,
x.

“Undergraduates seemed uniformly”: Martin Duberman,
Cures,
2.

“We are not living”: Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
229.

“The fifties was”: Author's interview with Gore Vidal, January 14, 1994.

66 “No picture shall be” … “he immediately complied”: Gerald Gardner,
The Censorship Papers,
xv, xx, 122, 207–10, 215.

67 “I Love Lucy” … suffer from morning sickness: Halberstam,
The Fifties,
196–201.

“utter anomaly”: George Chauncey, Jr., lecture at the Museum of the City of New York, June 22, 1995.

68 “Half of the nicest girls”: David Halberstam,
The Fifties,
201.

69 “homosexual panic”:
New York Post;
July 10, 1950.

The
Washington Post
reported: Ibid., July 13, 1950.

According to Washington insiders: Ibid., July 15, 1950.

“At no point, whether”: Ibid., July 14, 1950.

70 “spousal”: Richard Gid Powers,
Secrecy and Power,
171, 173.

“killer fruit”: Truman Capote,
Answered Prayers,
8.

“No one argues the question”:
New York Post,
July 22, 1950.

“More drastically than anything”: Ibid., July 12, 1950.

Hoover may have been too … “got to be born”: Ibid., July 18, 1950.

71 “low, low, low general” … “this sort of thing”: Author's interview with Benjamin C. Bradlee, April 6, 1995.

“the compulsive” … “their sex habits”:
New York Post,
July 22, 1950.

72 Some of his friends believe: Victor Navasky,
Naming Names,
75, 304.

“While other witnesses denounced”:
New York Times,
May 6, 1953.

“so compliant”: Navasky,
Naming Names,
75, 304.

“He wasn't threatened” … “blacklist destroyed Hollywood”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

73 “something which tormented” … “saved my life”:
James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket
(documentary).

“I'd been a boy preacher” … Cole was “horrified”: Ibid, and
New York Times,
December 2, 1987.

74 “primary issue”:
New York Post,
July 21, 1950.

“a preliminary sampling”: Ibid., July 20, 1950.

“homosexual angle”: John D'Emilio,
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities,
41–42.

“pervert problem”:
New York Post;
July 17, 1950.

“[Maryland Democratic Senator]” … “homo who was jealous”: Drew Pearson,
Drew Pearson: Diaries,
1949–1959, 188–89, 190, 192.

75 “The portrait of the Wisconsin”:
New York Post,
July 21, 1950.

“one of the boys”: David Halberstam,
The Fifties,
54.

“there was a lot of time”: Author's interview with Benjamin C. Bradlee, April 6, 1995.

“wreck the Army”:
New York Times,
August 3, 1986.

“real heart”: Neil Miller,
Out of the Past,
269–71.

76 “shamefully cut down” … “himself had practiced”: Ibid.

“Bonnie, Bonnie and Clyde”:
New York Times,
August 3, 1986.

“Anybody who knows me”: Nicholas von Hoffman,
Citizen Cohn,
132.

77 “The only thing I really”: Author's interview with Gore Vidal, January 14, 1994.

“In Schine's case”: Author's interview with “Bill Gillman,” November 10, 1994.

“thrilling moments” … “a gay restaurant?”: Author's interview with Ethan Geto, July 1, 1995.

“did not acquire” … “very busy man”: Author's interview with “Bill Gillman,” November 10, 1994.

78 “Roy was a lot of” … “growing up with him”: Author's interview with Stanley Friedman, November 30, 1994.

79 “Homosexuals and other sex”: “Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government: U.S. Senate document No. 241, December 15, 1950,” quoted in Donald Webster Cory,
The Homosexual in America,
272–77.

“sex perversion”: Ibid., 276–77.

“Homosexuality became an epidemic”: Lee Mortimer,
Washington Confidential Today,
110–19; and Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer,
U.S.A. Confidential,
quoted in John D'Emilio,
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities,
43–44.

80 “sexual perversion”: John D'Emilio,
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities,
43–44

“U.S. Agency Box Score”:
New York Times,
July 3, 1953; and February 24, 1954. Joseph Alsop, the scion … his death in 1989: The facts for the Alsop account are taken from the
Washington Post,
April 13, 1995. It is also discussed in
Joe Alsop's Cold War,
by Edwin Yoder, Jr.;
Molehunt,
by David Wise; and a doctoral thesis, “Joseph Alsop and American Foreign Policy,” by Leann Grabavoy Almquist.

82 “Perverts Called Government”:
New York Times,
April 19, 1950; May 22., 1950; and September 17, 1950.

“psychiatric case histories”:
Coronet,
September 1950.

“wide leather motorcycle” … “normal Saturday crowds”:
New York Times,
August 1, 1954

83 At the end of the decade: George Chauncey, Jr., lecture at the Museum of the City of New York, June 22, 1995.

“In those days it”: Author's interview with “Sam Baron,” December 12, 1991.

“The hustlers were mostly”: Author's interview with Jack Dowling, May 5, 1993

women were legally required: Author's interview with Sandy Kern, June 29, 1993.

84 “When a dead man”: Author's interview with Joe Schoener, 1978.

“I always felt ugly” … “I loved it”: Author's interview with Sandy Kern, June 29, 1993.

86 “We knew we were outside” … “place that was illegal”:
Before Stonewall
(documentary).

“sex is beautiful” … “woman again, or a man”: Author's interview with Sandy Kern, June 29, 1993.

89 “scientists, businessmen”: Donald Webster Cory,
The Homosexual in America,
161–62.

“homosexual creativity”: Ibid., 161.

“a gay man who got married”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

“The
idea
of family”: Author's interview with Stephen Sondheim, August 1, 1995.

90 “Jerry R. called today”: Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
187.

“I didn't want to write”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

“so-called Americans”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
14–15.

Laurents recruited Sondheim: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

“We thought the same way”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
15–16; and
New York Times,
October 21, 1990.

“Something's coming, it may”: Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
274–75.

91 “I remember all my collaborations”: Ibid., 275.

“Originally, Robbins wanted only”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, January 1, 1997.

“I twisted syllables”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
20–21.

“Jerry continues to be”: Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
270.

“The idea was”: Ibid., 275.

“I thought it would run”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

“It's such a shame”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
26.

92 “We thought at that point”: Ibid., 17.

Harold Prince was in Boston: Ibid.

Their gamble seemed worthwhile: Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
273.

“Despite the triumphant”: Ibid, and Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
25.

“It was extremely generous,” Author's interview with Stephen Sondheim, August 1, 1995.

“The next day I went”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

93 “The purity of the music”: Ibid.

The actor Alan Helms: Alan Helms,
Young Man from the Provinces,
98.

In 1996, it was one:
New York Times,
March 26, 1996.

“It was never an issue”: Author's interview with Murray Gitlin, February 26, 1993.

“There is one sensibility”: Letter from Arthur Laurents to the author, August 21, 1995.

“boy-girl stuff: Author's interview with Gore Vidal, January 14, 1994.

“If you think that's”: Author's interview with Sondheim, August 1, 1995.

94 “What we did was”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
26.

“The radioactive fallout”: Quoted in Humphrey Burton,
Leonard Bernstein,
276.

“It was a big hit” … “The picture failed for me”: Craig Zadan,
Sondheim & Co.,
26–30.

95 “It was a rare sort”: Quoted in Gore Vidal,
United States,
447. From an essay first published in
New York Review of Books,
June 13, 1985.

Michael Butler was the … “good arrangement for us”: Author's interview with Michael Butler, March 10, 1996.

96 “there are no homosexual”: Author's interview with Gore Vidal, January 14, 1994.

“What we can discuss”: Edmund White,
States of Desire,
259.

“any discussion of a group's”:
New York Times Magazine,
June 16, 1991.

“you got very good” … “impersonating a gay man”:
The Celluloid Closet
(documentary).

97 “At one point”: Gore Vidal,
United States,
443–44.

“so convinced of being”:
City Poet,
229, and
What Did I Do: The Unauthorized Autobiography ofLarmy Rivers,
with Arnold Weinstein, 228, 230, 232, 234.

98 “I wouldn't go to bed”: Author's interview with Gore Vidal, January 14, 1994.

“repairing the three of us”: Jack Kerouac,
The Subterraneans,
53—54.

“It is hard now”: Vidal,
United States,
1136.

99 “So why all the fuss?”:
New York Review of Books,
June 13, 1985.

“'Cause I was in love”: Allen Young,
Gay Sunshine Interview
with Allen Ginsberg, 4.

“Neal [Cassady]”: Ibid., 3, 4, 6.

“He had mixed feelings”: Ibid., 7.

100 “That was eliminated”: Ibid., 3–7.

“It took an enormous amount”:
Before Stonewall
(documentary).

“In the forties”: Ibid.

“We thought that we”:
The Celluloid Closet
(documentary).

“There was a series”:
Before Stonewall
(documentary).

102 “I loved the Puerto Ricans”: Author's interview with Franklin Macfie, May 12, 1993.

“just had to become” … “loved to have fun”: Author's interview with Murray Gitlin, February 26, 1993.

104 “I was twenty-one” … “the next fifteen years”: Author's interview with Roy Aarons, December 12, 1991.

106 There was another famous cluster: Brad Gooch,
City Poet,
194–96.

“Gay life was secretive” … “could talk to people”: Author's interview with Jack Dowling, May 5, 1993.

107 “14th Street is drunken,”: Frank O'Hara, “Homosexuality,”

After his adventures in the … “everybody bowed”: Author's interview with “Stephen Reynolds,” September 24, 1992.

110 “Truman lifted his cape”: Author's interview with Paul Cadmus, May 20, 1995.

“He was so funny”: Author's interview with “Stephen Reynolds,” September 24, 1992.

111 “officially came out” … “moved a mountain”: Author's interview with Franklin Macfie, May 12, 1993.

115 “sort of a village atheist” … “very cute country boy”: Author's interview with Walter Clemons, November 9, 1992.

118 “I have noticed that straight men”: Author's interview with Arthur Laurents, June 14, 1995.

“They would fix me up” … men had disappeared: Author's interview with Walter Clemons, November 9, 1992.

119 “It was vividly exciting” … “legs I've ever seen!”: Ibid.

120 “a room with a lot”: Author's interview with Murray Gitlin, February 26, 1993.

“It was before I”: Author's interview with Walter Clemons, November 9, 1992, and James Spada,
Streisand,
68.

121 “One day this girl”: Arthur Laurents interviewed by Larry Kramer in
The Advocate,
May 16, 1995.

“It took me all day” … “wouldn't believe it”: Author's interview with Jack Dowling, May 5, 1993.

123 “We didn't know” … “achievements of the homosexual minority”:
Before Stonewall
(documentary), and John D'Emilio,
Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities, 59–66.

gay friends:
Los Angeles Times Magazine,
June 10, 1990.

“She never treated”:
New York Times,
November 22., 1996.

124 “Curiosity and empathy”:
Los Angeles Times Magazine,
June 10, 1990.

“Every clinical psychologist”: Eric Marcus,
Making History,
24.

“gay men can be”: Ibid., 24–25.

Although it would be:
New York Times,
November 22, 1996.

In the seventies: Ibid.

“how
terrible':
Author's interview with William Wynkoop, June 3, 1993.