S2 E6"Faces Behind the Names"
Flyers, magazines, television — how should we tell the public that we’re organizing?
The Daughters of Bilitis are refused their chance to make their case on television. Their magazine volunteer Barbara Gittings risks personal exposure, and a young new militant activist using the name "Randy Wicker" pushes buttons inside the New York Mattachine. Meanwhile, a genderqueer crowd at Cooper Do-nuts in LA erupts in the first known riot for queer rights.
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Original release: July 15, 2020
Wicker Research Studies: Randy, Ron, Hal, & Elver letters 📩
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Season 2 Bonus episodes
“Billye Before Bilitis”
Subscribe on Patreon or Apple Podcasts to listen to this bonus episode from spin-off podcast Forgotten Fairy Tales—and many more from Mattachine Meeting, Randy Wicker Radio, Infamous Crimes: White Night Riot Interviews, and more!
Check out these free bonus episodes from season 2:
“Live and Let Live:
6 Decades Later”
Interview w/ Randy Wicker
Featuring Sylvia Rivera, Randy’s friend Michael, and stories about Marsha P. Johnson, the Mattachine, and radical activism.
Recorded in Hoboken, New Jersey, January 16, 2020.
“Return to Normalcy”
•
2020 Election Day bonus!
The 1920 presidential election proves yet again that history repeats itself, from fear-mongering to political scandal, and even a sitting president infected by the pandemic he downplayed. Make sure you have a plan to vote!
“Trans-sexuals and the Police”
on KPFA,
April 10, 1968
Three transgender San Franciscans discuss police problems and their work as members of C.O.G., Conversion our Goal, with Police Community Relations Officer Elliot Blackstone of the San Francisco Police Department. Herb Kutchins of the San Francisco Bail Project moderates.
“A Step Higher”
w/ Mattachino
Wendell Sayers
Historian Eric Marcus interviews Wendell Sayers, an attorney, the first Black assistant attorney general for the state of Colorado, and one of few Black members of the Mattachine Society.
He attended the 6th annual Mattachine convention in 1959, a dramatic event featured in S2 E8.
Instagram @queerserial
JULY 14, 2020
“We have yet to move out of that strange, dark jungle of fear. I hope that our fear of living will soon be replaced with enlightened thoughts and human understanding.” 📺
—Fannie Hurst, “Showcase” on WABD New York, 1958 (and tomorrow, on episode 6, “Faces Behind the Names”) 🎭
📸 Eleanor Roosevelt and Fannie Hurst, 1962. Photographer unknown.
📸 Fannie Hurst, date and photographer unknown.
JULY 19, 2020
My aunts Dee and Betsy joined me over zoom to record! Look how cute!! Dee is playing “Showcase” host Fannie Hurst in this week’s new episode.
📺
JULY 14, 2020
From Mattachine Society President to the San Francisco offices 🔍
🗂 @onearchives
JULY 14, 2020
Masks off. Tomorrow, episode 6 “Faces Behind the Names” 🎭
🗂 @onearchives
JULY 15, 2020
“Would you like to join a group of women like us?” ☕️
Join the East Coast in a new chapter led by Barbara Gittings, today in episode 6, “Faces Behind the Names” 🍴
📸 DOB San Francisco chapter, 1959. Left to right: Del Martin, Josie, Jan, Marge, Bev Hickok, Phyllis Lyon. @makinggayhistorypodcast, photographer unknown
see you in the magazines
JULY 19, 2020
A few pages from a Mattachine Review issue (Sep. 1958) featured in this week’s episode, “Faces Behind the Names.” 📌
JULY 20, 2020
1958 issues of ONE Magazine, released during the events of episode 6! (part 1)
🎶 Chronological, except starting with March.
✏️ The last frame is a draft press release announcing the Supreme Court’s decision allowing ONE to continue mailing magazines. (S1 E10)
🗂 @onearchives
JULY 29, 2020
Which is your fav? I love the Christmas bells and the squiggly men of May ‘59. ✍️
1958-9 issues of ONE Magazine, released during the events of episode 6. (part 2)
🗂 @onearchives
JULY 20, 2020
This April 1959 issue of The Ladder (released during the events of the newest episode) teaches Lesbian readers where to find people like them... 🌳
📸 Washington Square Park, c. 1950s, photographer unknown
JULY 21, 2020
“You should be more careful, Barbara.” 📬
Barbara Gittings works late into the night and Florence Jaffy reports groundbreaking results in the first survey of lesbians done by lesbians... in episode 6! ✏️
📸 by Kay “Tobin” Lahusen, @nyplpicturecollection
cooper do-nuts riot, may 1959
JULY 18, 2020
This week in episode 6, the first known riot in American queer history breaks out at Cooper Do-nuts, an event featured in John Rechy’s 1963 novel “City of Night.” 🌙
“…there is here a mood of superficial good humor, of euphoria bordering on hysteria.” 🍩
Rechy’s book, which contains one of the only accounts of the riot, follows a young hustler as he explores his gender and sexuality in four cities. 📚
AUGUST 15, 2020
Cooper Do-Nuts, the location of the first known queer riot in the U.S. 🍩👮🏻
Episode 6 🎧
🗂 Still from Kent Mackenzie's 1961 film "The Exiles"
📚 John Rechy recorded this history in his 1963 novel “City of Night”
OCTOBER 25, 2020
Homosexual League of New York 💥
Randy Wicker and I discuss the so-called “one-man league” of 6 in our interview on the podcast! 🎧
📸 Randy’s personal photos
JULY 19, 2021
“I am OUT of the movement for good…I DON’T WANT TO FIGHT CITY HALL. I WANT TO EAT, SLEEP, FUCK, LIVE!”
—Randy Wicker writing to Frank Kameny, September 1963
🎧 What did Randy do? Hear the wild story over seasons 2 and 3!
📸 Randy (Batman) and his partner, from his personal collection. He also printed buttons in his shop that said “Batman Loves Robin.”
📸 Leading a protest at the University of Texas, covered in the Texas Ranger, 1960.
📸 Randy and the other panelists of “Live and Let Live” on WBAI, 1962.
SEPTEMBER 22, 2020
I’d say spoiler, but it’s a 62-year-old resignation letter. Hal Call’s dramatic move in Interim fallout. 🖊
🗂 @onearchives
📸 Don Lucas and Hal Call on “The Rejected,” KQED, 1961. Also a spoiler.
MAY 31, 2021
💣 “A Moral Dilemma”
🗞 Philadelphia Inquirer ad for the Janus Society’s discussion following the Armed Forces Day protests, the first national gay rights demonstration. Philadelphia LGBT Mapping Project. (Hear the story on the podcast this season, episode 6.)
📸 Guy Strait, San Francisco, May 21, 1966. @glbt_history
JULY 21, 2020
ravyn wngz speaks to Toronto press.
#blacklivesmatter