Footage of a gay pool party in 1945 surfaced online and it’s pretty incredible.
The lost home videos were discovered Geoff Story, a filmmaker from St. Louis. He tells Nancy Fowler at St. Louis Public Radio that he stumbled upon them 20-some years ago at an estate sale of the now-deceased Buddy Walton.
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Walton was often referred to as St. Louis’ “hairdresser to the stars” and did hair for everyone from Eleanor Roosevelt to Ethel Merman whenever they passed through town. He was known for throwing lavish pool parties at his property.
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“These men are still in their 20s in the sun, swimming, like they always will,” Story says. “There’s a real sweet pain, and when you watch it, there’s a happiness but you can’t believe it’s so long ago and you can’t touch it–it’s gone.”
Finding the footage sparked an idea for a documentary. Story set out to find gay men who were alive in the 1940s and talk to them about their lives and experiences.
His new film Gay Home Movie, which he’s currently working on, offers a rare peek into a largely invisible world when LGBTQ people were forced to live and love in the shadows.
Related: PHOTOS: 1950s Gay Couple Found Safety, Showed Affection In Photo Booth
Story has high hopes for the documentary, which has already captured the interest of gay Hollywood exec Brian Graden, best known for his role in developing South Park.
“It speaks to a wide array of people on a very deep level,” Graden tells Fowler. “What are the chances someone would go to an estate sale and pick up these canisters of old footage? It’s almost like these men are trying to talk to us from beyond the grave.”
Watch:
whatsaywhat
that’s it? Tame.
TheBigOne
1945, fool. Do you have any clue whatsoever????
whatsaywhat
Mind you & your ad hominem name-calling
spacecadet
No one ever said it was going to be gay porn. This is fascinating stuff from a very different era.
ChrisK
I’m always fascinated by watching stuff like this. Just one day in the life of someone living theirs a lifetime ago. Think of future generations looking at ours.
silveroracle
Intriguing.
Jaxton
There was no gay identity back then. Gay meant happy.
TheBigOne
WRONG.
Kangol
You’re wrong, as usual! Read up on gay history!
eddiesocket
The word “gay” was not used, but of course there was a gay identity.
PinkoOfTheGange
The first recorded use of “gay” to describe a homosexual male, was in 1950 and referred to its prior use by men in bars to describe them selves and how not happy they were.
DistingueTraces
In 1942, Danny Kaye sang this Cole Porter lyric in the show “Let’s Face It” on Broadway:
“Don’t inquire of Georgie Raft
Why his cow has never calfed
Georgie’s bull is beautiful — but he’s gay!”
Not very ambiguous.
DistingueTraces
(sorry, it was 1941)
[email protected]
The 1938 film “Bringing Up Baby” clearly uses gay to mean homosexual in the scene where Katherine Hepburn’s aunt finds Carey Grant wearing her bathrobe”
http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/378247/Bringing-Up-Baby-Movie-Clip-I-Just-Went-Gay-.html
RIGay
Wow! My father mentioned “my type of people” back in his day (born in 1918) as “You didn’t talk about it, you SURLY never acted on it!” The movie is an incredible insight into that generation.
ChrisK
Imagine if you were one of those guys pulled into 2018. Talk about cultural shock. Then imagine what it will be like in 60-70 years if we could do the same.
Paco
“offers a rare peek into a largely invisible world when LGBTQ people were forced to live and love in the shadows.”
A modern gay republican’s dream come true.
barkomatic
Wow, that little snippet was very interesting to me and I assume there is more footage. I can’t even imagine what it was like to have the confidence to get to the point where you could kiss a guy in 1945.
spacecadet
I think there were networks of gay society or at least social groups. You just had to be very discreet. So yes, I can see gay men having the confidence to kiss each other even back in 1945 in the security of their own properties and being around others of their kind.
spacecadet
Wow. I love historical stuff like this. I’m looking forward to seeing this documentary: a peek into an era gone by and a reminder of how great we have it now (relatively).
AtlasRich
Of course it’s in color (very ahead of the times compared to most) and extremely daring. It’s great that we don’t have to live a secret life today but it seems that some government officials at the Presidential level want to go back to this….or worse.
PinkoOfTheGange
Color 8mm film was available in the mid 30’s and if some one could afford the camera then the film wasn’t much of a stretch.
The issue would be processing. Most sent it back to Eastman/Kodak in NY, including both my grand fathers, and someone inspected every frame for quality. Home processing, although not unheard of, was rare; moving pic film printing is nothing like stills. So he had to have a very friendly processor, and that would be a great part of the story.
Dashing Partycrasher
@PinkoOfTheGange — Interesting to know — thanks! The color 8mm camera and film must have cost a fortune back then, but celebrity hair stylists are of course very well paid. Maybe the camera was even a gift from one of his clients. I hope the documentary producers can discover who processed the film. I wonder if commercial processors would be within the law at the time to destroy it or bring it to police if they were not empathetic with gay people.
T-Bone
I’ll take the Woody station wagon.
ChrisK
I know. It’s very Norman Rockwell. Just need the dog with the spotted eye in the back.
PinkoOfTheGange
So is it just me or is there a whole Mickey Rooney Judy Garland let us put a musical on in the barn vibe to this?
USA-Travler
Oh so cool! I have met and chatted with several 80+ year olds about their lives. Younger guys would do themselves a great service to stop and chat. I can’t wait to see this flick!
nm4047
‘shock horror’ there were gays in the 40’s, who knew, I thought it was only a recent phenomenon. Would suggested the person the developed the footage was part of the group, imagine dropping it off during the puritan/homoginised era of the 40-80 at a kodak film joint.
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SeaNMtnsJon
Favorite story of the last 12 months guys! Very nice!
LJJ2018
Why does WayWire NEVER work for me. It’s impossible for me to watch any videos using the WayWire interface on this website. Don’t know if, maybe, because I’m using a Mac. It’s frustrating that there is no link provided to watch on Youtube instead, for example.
Bromancer7
Doesn’t ever work for me either. I have to open the frame source, find the YouTube ID, and then watch it on YouTube.
doug105
The ‘ St. Louis Public Radio’ link just below that has it on vimeo which works fine.
Dashing Partycrasher
The video won’t play for me here either. I’m sure you’ve found it by now but if not, a quick web search for “Gay Home Movie” brings you the video and the director’s website of the same name. The video is only 18 seconds, so that was a bit disappointing. Looking forward to the documentary, hopefully with more old footage.
gjhansum
My grandmother’s brother, born in 1874 was gay, even had a partner. Their parents died early so he raised her during her preteen years. She told me about him and his partner by referring to them as ‘different’. All of this happened in very rural South Dakota.
ChrisK
Being gay back then must have been akin to watching Brokeback Mountain.
Dashing Partycrasher
Great story! It probably helped that they were isolated from social pressures and finger pointing. And I wonder if they were influenced from native Americans in the area. From what I’ve read, many Indian tribes treated gay people as normal, or even special.
Dashing Partycrasher
I meant “influenced by”. No way to edit my previous comment. 🙁
girldownunder
Did anyone here dl it? Gone– the sh*ts!
girldownunder
oops- just saw the the link!
Great story– thank you, Queerty.
nickedbeater
Girl down under gave me a clue.
We are not all cyber-savvy. I am still groping my way through with my iPad.
Why don’t you just make it easy to start with? I’ve gotten into this sweet-crappy Zinfandel, and I need you to keep it simple.
Anyway I caught a haunting glimpse of the pool-side frolicking, finally.
Thank you, Girl down under.
nickedbeater
“This video is unavailable.”
Why do we have to put up with crap from Queerty?