As a youngster growing up in the late 70’s/early 80’s, I had a misconception of L.A. life. Since my reality was based on what I saw on television, Los Angeles was all palm trees with tanned blondes sailing on yachts during the day, then going to the clubs at night, mostly to enjoy female mud wrestling. Why would I have such a skewed vision of Los Angeles? Eye On L.A., of course. Eye on L.A. is Los Angeles’ longest running news segment program, and it is still on today. I feel that Will Ferrell and Adam McKay must have watch many hours of Eye On L.A. as well to have created a movie as twisted as Anchorman. In fact, check out this promo for Eye On L.A. back in 1982, which starts with the startling tale of heiress Patty Hearst, the “Slave Of The SLA,” then ends with female mud wrestling. I can’t make this stuff up.


They used go on and on about the female mud wresting so much that Phranc, former member of Catholic Discipline and All-American Jewish Lesbian Folksinger, once wrote a song about Eye On L.A. called “Female Mud Wresting.” I always remember the line in the song, “Not like Steve and Melody, I do not like female mud wrestling.” The Steve that she referenced in the song is none other than Steve Edwards, who is still in the “light news” game on Fox’s Good Day L.A. Now Phranc has her own Internet show called Phranc Talk. It’s sort of like a Mr. Rogers show, only if an All-American Lesbian Folksinger did it. Maybe she could have Steve Edwards on her show one day. In this episode, she shares her song-writing skills and her bird named Pickles.

June, in addition to being Vision Research Month, Fireworks Safety Months, Light the Night for Sight Months, National Candy Month, Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month, Cancer in the Sun Month, Dairy Month, National Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Month, National Iced Tea Month, National Pest Control Month, Safety Month, Scleroderma Awareness Month, and Zoo and Aquarium Month, is also Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, first established by Bill Clinton back in '00. Therefore, I may in the coming weeks blog about iced tea or become aware of Scleroderma, but for now I will focus on Gay Cinema.

One of the first things I noticed about gay people's feelings toward Gay Cinema is that they're almost all negative.  Exceptions are usually foreign films, which are almost invariably downers. The first year Amoeba observed Gay and Lesbian Pride month in the movie department in the form of a display, we all had an uncomfortable chuckle about the unfailingly depressing storylines of the films we featured. Films based on the lives and deaths of famous gays like Joe Orton, Brandon Teena, Oscar Wilde and James Whale all ended tragically. And here I thought gay meant happy!


The history of Gay Cinema is quite unlike most minority driven alternatives to Hollywood. Unlike American Asians, blacks, Latinos and Natives -- whose identities have always been fairly obvious (except in cases of passing) -- gays have always had the option of remaining invisilble. Therefore, gays were never required to sit in the back of the bus, attend special schools or live in segregated neighborhoods. In the silent film industry, most gay actors understandably chose to hide their identitites. Though there are few overt representations of homosexuality in silent films -- mostly in European films -- most are merely hinted at. More importantly, however, the contributions of gays both in front of and behind the camera are many and noteworthy.

Friends!
Romans!
Countrymen!
Everyone else not covered by the above catagories!