In this episode of Revisiting The Gay Life, we're going to explore two very different versions of the 1970s queer experience through Randy Alfred's interviews with two gay fiction writers working on opposite coasts at the time.
Featured in this episode:
- ARMISTEAD MAUPIN — His Tales of the City is a love letter to San Francisco and a celebration of its quirks. Tales began as a daily fiction serial in the San Francisco Chronicle in 1976. Those columns became the basis of a wildly popular series of books, which were then adapted for TV and aired on PBS in 1993. This interview is from 1982.
- LARRY KRAMER — Most people him as a cofounder of ACT UP and as a polemic playwright, whose plays captured the fear and anger of the early years of AIDS. But before his activism days, Larry caused a stir with his 1978 novel, Faggots, which was a biting portrayal of New York City's gay scene in the 1970s. When it first came out, the book was condemned by many within the gay community. This somewhat testy interview is from 1979.
Also featured: "Michael's Letter to Mama." In 1999, Seattle Men's Chorus commissioned David Maddux to compose a choral piece with lyrics from Armistead Maupin's original coming-out letter that appeared in Tales of the City. This rendition is from San Francisco Gay Men's Choir.
Revisiting The Gay Life is a new 12-episode series from KALW’s Queer Power Hour. It explores a pivotal moment in SF’s LGBTQ history — from the rise of Harvey Milk to the early days of what would later be called AIDS.
We reconsider this time through a perhaps unexpected lens: a radio show called The Gay Life that aired on KSAN, a commercial rock and roll station in the Bay Area in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Revisiting The Gay Life is produced by KALW Public Media in collaboration with the GLBT Historical Society and The Gay Life's longtime host Randy Alfred.
Show Credits:
Executive Producer / Host: David Boyer
Producer / Engineer / Life Saver: David Kwan
