S2 E8"Peddled Like Pornography"
‘Whom Should We Tell?’
And who won’t find out once the biggest scandal in homophile history breaks?
Down at Mary's First and Last Chance, spies from the SF Alcoholic Beverage Control Board take notes on local lesbians.
In Denver, Elver Barker makes a case for the Mattachine to go public at the organization's sixth convention, while a San Francisco mayoral candidate quietly infiltrates the gathering for his own agenda. The biggest scandal in homophile history is about to break!
or your favorite podcast platform.
Original release: July 29, 2020
Mary's First & Last Chance bar
6th Annual Mattachine Convention
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Season 2 Bonus episodes
"The Dogcatcher"
Listen here
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
the wolden scandal
& the sixth annual mattachine convention, 1959
JULY 29, 2020
On today’s new episode, a scandal at the 1959 Mattachine Society convention traps the Mattachinos and the Daughters of Bilitis in the middle of a heated campaign. 🗳
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” is out now!! 🗞
AUGUST 2, 2020
Did you hear what happened at the Mattachine convention? 🤭
Episode 8 🎧
🗂 @centeroncolfax
JULY 27, 2020
Bonus! Hear Mattachino Wendell Sayers talk about his time in the Denver Mattachine chapter. Sayers, second from top left, was one of few people of color to join the Mattachine Society — while he was working for the Attorney General’s office! — and he attended the sixth annual convention in Denver, which we’ll visit later this week in episode 8. 💼
📸 Freshman photo of Wendell Sayers in the Washburn College yearbook, School of Law, The Kaw (Topeka, KS: Washburn College, 1904–1933: 55). Credit: Ancestry.com and @makinggayhistorypodcast.
💜 Huge thank you to Eric Marcus and Making Gay History for allowing me to use the audio of their interview together.
AUGUST 1, 2020
“Mayor Christopher and Chief of Police Thomas Cahill have allowed this city to become the national headquarters of the organized homosexuals in the United States… Every San Francisco neighborhood is threatened by the bold shadow they cast over the entire community.” 🗳
One of my favorite scandals of the season!!
1 & 2: Russell Wolden political cartoons from the San Francisco Chronicle
3: Assessor Wolden in a different scandal. @sfpubliclibrary
4: THE Bill Brandhove and Russell Wolden, hilariously printed by the News-Call Bulletin above the quote from Wolden, “I wouldn’t know him if I saw him.”
5: Brandhove. Check out that ring.
6: Wolden’s campaign material, discussed in the episode.
7: FBI getting into the game.
8: SF Progress copied into FBI file. @glbt_history
🚬
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” is out now!
AUGUST 9, 2020
The successful publicity of the 6th Mattachine convention resulted in this fabulous pamphlet “Breakthrough in the Conspiracy of Silence,” as heard in episode 8! 📣
Lots more fab bonus stuff at patreon.com/queerserial 🎊
🗂 @onearchives
AUGUST 1, 2020
Girl I was giddy when I found this resolution notarized by Darlene Armbeck. SPOILER it’s the smoking gun. 💥
Also, HUGE thank you to @nickotawang for the transcript of the Mattachine Society’s 6th convention. It’s legit hilarious. 🚬
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” is out now!
JULY 28, 2020
Drift into San Francisco for tomorrow’s new episode — and the biggest scandal yet. 🔍
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” tomorrow 🤭
AUGUST 1, 2020
You might have seen Mattachino J.J. Belanger when this first photo went viral after it was rediscovered in 2014. It was taken in 1953, the same year he joined the Mattachine. He attended the (season 1) convention where the founders were ousted, and he appears again this week on the podcast at the 6th convention! 💋
“Homosexual life can be downright fun. It should not be peddled in the shadows of the cruisiest streets like the latest samples of pornography.”
J.J. Belanger 🤫
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” is out now!
📸 Robert Block (left) and J. J. Belanger in a photo booth, Vancouver, Canada.
📸 Belanger at 17 in the Royal Canadian Armoured Corps, June 1940.
📸 Belanger (left) and Daryl Mutz, Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia, September 1953.
📄 Belanger’s Mattachine membership information
@onearchives
Elver Barker aka carl harding
JULY 30, 2020
The legendary “Education Handbook” written by Elver Barker (a.k.a. Carl B. Harding). 🖊
Also, just for fun, the outline of the proposed radio program Elver mentions in his convention speech in this week’s episode. 📻
🗂 @onearchives
📸 Elver Barker, 1968. tyleralpern.com
AUGUST 3, 2020
I’m sure it’s evident by now that I adore Denver Mattachino Elver Barker. Here are some of his gorgeous paintings! 🎨
1, 5, 8: unknown photographer or title
Image 2: Spiderwort with Bee
Image 3: R.C. Gorman, painted from life by Barker.
4: Prickly Pear Cactus
6: Feather painting in transparent oils
7: Oil On Pavement After Rain No.II
9: I’m not sure if Elver created this Denver Mattachine Newsletter cover, but I think it’s a safe assumption.
10: Elver’s 2004 obituary
📸 tyleralpern.com
JULY 31, 2020
“It is an undeniable and uncomfortable fact that we homosexuals ourselves are largely responsible for the aura of ignorance and prejudice which enshrouds us. We are responsible because of our silence. And our silence is rooted in fear. “
—Elver Barker A.K.A. Carl B. Harding 🤫
Episode 8 “Peddled Like Pornography” is out now! Read it here, or hear Radical Faerie Joey Cain monologue part of it in the show 🧚🏻♂️
🗂 glbt_history
📸 tyleralpern.com
AUGUST 2, 2020
“P.S. I have an apartment which can accommodate 2 guests. You may give my address to any Mattachine people coming through Denver. I would be happy to meet them and could provide lodging if they wished.” 🏔
Elver Barker gave Denver’s Mattachine such a beautiful touch. He was crafty in his art and his organizing. He cared about the work. If this story is a game of kings, court jesters, and queens (Bill Brandhove), then I would consider Elver Barker the Olenna Tyrell of the season.
I chose my dear judy Joey Cain to voice Elver because he reminds me so much of him. Joey has opened his home to me countless times so I could do research for the podcast in San Francisco. He also provides lots of wine (again, like Olenna). Joey was a founding Radical Faerie, former SF Pride president, and an Edward Carpenter know-it-all.
🗂 all docs @onearchives
📸 Joey at SF Pride 2004
📸 Joey protesting for Chelsea Manning, 2013
📸 Recording the podcast in Chicago, 2019
📸 Joey and me at the podcast’s presentation at @glbt_history, 2019
see you in the magazines
JULY 30, 2020
“You parents of daughters—do not sit back complacently feeling that because you have no boys in your family, everything is all right as far as you are concerned. To enlighten you to the existence of a Lesbian organization composed of homosexual women, whose purposes are the same as the Mattachine Society, the male counterpart, make yourselves acquainted with the name ‘Daughters of Bilitis.’” 📩
An angry city discovers the Daughters in the newest episode, “Peddled Like Pornography.” Available now 💕
AUGUST 4, 2020
June ‘59 is by far one of their best. Check out ONE Magazine’s issues released during the events of episode 8, “Peddled Like Pornography.” 👙
@onearchives ☀️
AUGUST 2, 2020
Some GORGEOUS covers of the Mattachine Review, published by Pan-Graphic Press. Spot any familiar names? 🔍
The green one is my favorite but I stupidly didn’t take a full photo of it.
🗂 @one_archives
AUGUST 2, 2020
Divine and Christine Jorgensen at the Limelight disco in Atlanta, 1981. 💃
📸 @digitaltransarc
AUGUST 3, 2020
Patreon subscribers get a bonus crossover episode today! Ever wonder what the Mattachine Society actually does when they’re not bickering and scheming? And why are they so scared of starting a pen pal club? Join me and Don Lucas in the Mattachine office. 💌
patreon.com/queerserial
link in my bio!
🗂 @onearchives
📚 Martin Meeker’s “Contacts Desired” led me to this story.
AUGUST 4, 2020
𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚍𝚞𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚌
AUGUST 3, 2020
“...oh, yes, and incidentally, there are some female homosexuals too and because they are homosexuals all this should apply to them as well.... Lesbians are not satisfied to be auxiliary members or second-class homosexuals.”
🖊 Del Martin, “The Ladder,” 1959
📸 @glbt_history
APRIL 9, 2021
“‘At a very proper East Side hotel…a conclave of ladies with crew cuts.’ Her comment was obviously not based on first-hand observation.”
September 1958
🗂 @glbt_history