Personal interviews with Hay by the author provide the basis for most of this text. Over a decade of knowing Hay, I’ve heard many of his stories, some from public speeches, most from casual conversation. I thus collected many stray scraps of his history without formal interviews, especially between the inception of this project in late 1986 and its completion in 1990. Some information, as well, was elaborated or clarified in Hay’s readings of various manuscript drafts.
Many published interviews, essays and letters by or about Hay may be found in various organs of the gay press. Most of this material can be found at the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives in Los Angeles, and in Hay’s personal papers, at the James C. Hormel Gay & Lesbian Center/San Francisco Public Library. The bulk of quotations from written sources may be found in the copious correspondence, notes, manuscripts and family documents in Hay’s personal papers.
To indicate frequently cited correspondents and collections of personal papers, initials are used for Harry Hay, James Kepner, and Stuart Timmons. Interview dates are listed at first citation. Some ongoing, informal interviews, such as with John Burnside and William Moritz, are undated.
Interviews with Hay’s siblings, Jack Hay, 2/21/87, and Peggy Hay Breyak, 7/15/86. Jean Hay, letter to S.T., 6/25/87; Ronald Kirk, letter to S.T., 6/5/87; Harnish Mearns, letter to Jack Hay, undated.
Also consulted on Hay’s ancestors: U.S. Government Commemorative Biography of James Allen Hardie, 1877; Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume 1607-1896, Marquis Publications, 1967; Allen Johnson, ed., Dictionary of American Biography, vol. 4, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1932; Robert M. Utley, Frontier Regulars: The United States Army and the Indian, New York: Macmillan, 1973; Iain Moncreiffe, The Highland Clans, New York: C.N. Potter, 1967; Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, New York: Holt Rinehart, 1971; Philippe Julian and J. Phillips, The Other Woman: The Life of Violet Trefusis, Harvest, London: HBJ, 1976; Brian Roberts, Flawed Colossus: The Life of Cecil Rhodes, New York: Norton, 1987.
2. The example
Interviews with Peggy and Jack Hay, correspondence with Jean Hay; Robert Balzer, letter to S.T., 7/11/87; interview with Hannah Hay Muldaven, 3/14/87.
Information on Southern California from Carey McWilliams, Southern California: An Island on the Land, Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith, 1973; Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream: California through the Progressive Era, New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. On the Western Rangers: Harry C. James, A Manual For Trailfinders, Los Angeles: Harry C. James, 1933; H. Allen Anderson, The Chief: Ernest Thompson Seton and the Changing West, College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. On the Wobblies: Patrick Renshaw, The Wobblies: The Story of Syndicalism in the United States, New York: Doubleday, 1967; Fred Thompson, The I.W.W.: Its First Seventy Years, Industrial Workers of the World, 1967; Charles R. Perry, Collective Bargaining and the Decline of the United Mineworkers, New York: University of Pennsylvania, Industrial Research Unit, 1984. On Wovoka: Vincent H. Gaddis, American Indian Myths and Mysteries, Radnor, Pa.: Chilton Books, 1977; Will Roscoe and Harry Hay, A Blessing From Wovoka, San Francisco: Vortex Media, 1988. On Edward Carpenter: Edward Carpenter, The Intermediate Sex: A Study of Some Transitional Types of Men and Women, London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1909; Intermediate Types Among Primitive Folk A Study of Social Evolution, New York: Mitchell Kenerly, 1914; Edward Carpenter: Selected Writings, vol. 1, Sex, ed. David Fernbach and N. Grieg, London: Gay Men’s Press, 1984.
3. A toe in the mainstream
Interviews with Jean Hay Burke, 8/19/88; David Hawkins, 3/7/87; and James Broughton, 10/5/86, supplied details of Hay’s term at Stanford. Hay helped secure his transcripts from Stanford University. Correspondence and telephone interviews with Gerard Koskovich, Stanford’s Gay/Lesbian historian. Hay’s personal correspondence from the period from James Broughton, Smith Dawless, Jean Hay, and others was very useful. Robert Balzer, letter to S.T., 7/11/87; HLH.’s letters to Jim Kepner; an unpublished interview with Hay by William Lonon Smith; press clippings and studio biographies on John Darrow from the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills, Calif.
Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1976; Los Angeles High School Blue and White, Summer, 1929.
Interviews with Helen Gorog, 2/11/87,4/13/87; Miriam Brooks Sherman and Al Sherman, 8/7/88; Ben Dobbs, 5/20/87; Peter Brocco, 5/9/88; Michael Furmanovsky; 3/9/89, John Cage, 3/6/87; Sally Norton, 4/8/89. John Cage, letter to S.T., 3/13/87.
On John Cage: Calvin Tompkins, The Bride and the Bachelors: Five Masters of the Avant-Garde, New York: Viking, 1965; Franz Von Rossum generously shared information from his forthcoming biography of Cage, 10/7/89. On Will Geer: Raymond Strait, Star Babies: The Shocking Lives of Hollywood Children, New York: St. Martin’s, 1979; Sally Norton’s unpublished Ph.D. thesis, A Historical Study of Actor Will Geer: His Life and Work in the Context of Twentieth-Century American Social, Political and Theatrical History, Los Angeles: University of Southern California, Drama Department, 1981. Clippings from the Margaret Herrick Library were also used for information on Geer and other Hollywood agitators. On Communism: Lester Cole, Hollywood Red, Palo Alto, Calif.: Ramparts Press, 1981; Joseph R. Starobin, American Communism in Crisis, 1943-1957, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972; Peggy Dennis, Autobiography of an American Communist, Berkeley: Creative Arts, 1977; Vivian Gornick, The Romance of American Communism, New York: Basic Books, 1977; John D’Emilio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983; McWilliams, Southern California.
On agitprop theater: Jay Williams, Stage Left, New York: Scribner’s, 1974; Clifford Odets, Six Plays by Clifford Odets, New York: Grove Press, 1979. On Hollywood: Deems Taylor, A Pictorial History of the Movies, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1949; Charles Higham and Roy Moseley, Cary Grant: The Lonely Heart, New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1989; Vito Russo, The Celluloid Closet, New York: Harper & Row, 1981.
Interviews with Reginald LeBorg, 5/13/88; Helen Gorog; Florence Robbins; Walter Keller, 7/2/87. Stanley Haggart, letters to H.H., 7/27/37, 10/23/37, and undated letters.
On Hollywood in the Thirties: Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Created Hollywood, New York: Crown, 1988; McWilliams, Southern California; Harry Hay, “Sister Cain,” unpublished story, 1937; Harry Hay, “Flight of Quail,” unpublished story, 1937; Richard Meeker [Forman Brown], Better Angel, Boston: Alyson, 1988.
Interviews with Helen and Lacie Gorog, 4/13/87; Kate Hay Berman, 3/14/87; Hannah Hay Muldaven; Bill Alexander, 7/19/86; Miriam Sherman; former C.P. colleague (name withheld by request); Stanton Price, 6/3/87; Earl Robinson, 8/12/86; Irv Niemy 7/11/86; Ben and Martha Rinaldo, John McTernan, 8/19/86; Kay Cole, 4/21/87; Joan Mocine, 1/20/89; Mary Mocine, 1/20/89; Alma Meier, 5/2/88; Jim Kepner 8/22/86; Alan Eichler, 3/14/90. Manly P. Hall, letter to S.T., 5/28/87.
Beverly Hills High School Annual, 1931; letters of Anita Hay; Harry Hay and Reginald LeBorg, Largo, unpublished screenplay; David Gebhard, et al., A Guide to Architecture in Los Angeles and Southern California, Santa Barbara: Peregrine Smith, 1977; Jay Williams, Stage Left; Eric Gordon, Mark the Music: The Life and Work of Marc Blitzstein, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989; Larry Warren, Lester Horton: Modern Dance Pioneer, New York: Marcel Dekker, 1977; “Los Angeles against Gerald L.K. Smith: How a City Organized to Combat Native Fascism!” (pamphlet), Los Angeles: Mobilization for Democracy, undated (circa 1947); Otto Friedrich, City of Nets, New York: Harper & Row, 1896; Harry Hay, Music: Barometer of the Class Struggle, unpublished, 1948.
7. Changing worlds
Stewart George Rippey, The Year of the Oath: The Fight for Academic Freedom at the University of Southern California, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1950; Robbie Lieberman, My Song Is My Weapon: People’s Songs, American Communism, and the Politics of Culture, 1930-1950, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1989; Thoinot Arbeau, Orchesography, trans. Mary Stewart Evans, New York: Dover, 1967; Enid Welsford, The Fool: His Social and Literary History, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1961; J.D. Robb, “The Mattachines Dance: A Ritual Folk Dance,” Western Folklore, vol. 20,1961; Grand Larousse Encyclopedique, Paris: Larousse, 1963; Karl M. Schmidt, Henry A. Wallace: Quixotic Crusade, 1948, Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, I960; Eann MacDonald [Harry Hay], “Preliminary Concepts,” in A Homosexual Emancipation Miscellany, 1835-1952, ed. Jonathan Ned Katz, New York: Arno Press, 1975.
8. Mattachine
Interviews with Kate Hay Berman, Martin Block, 8/21/86; Rudi Gernreich, Summer, 1980; Helen Gorog, James Gruber, 2/4/89 and 2/11/89; Evelyn Hooker, 2/10/90; Jim Kepner, Dorr Legg, Oreste Pucciani, 5/25/90; Martha Rinaldo, Earl Robinson, 8/12/86; Charles Rowland, 7/28/86,8/13/87, and 12/12/89; Miriam Sherman, Michael Shibley, Don Slater, Konrad Stevens, 12/12/89.
Notebook of Mattachine Society minutes transcribed by Rudi Gernreich in 1952 (papers of Oreste Pucciani); Hay’s 1950s handwritten notes proposing Greek and Latin names resulting in U.S. “homophile” term remain in his papers; Ruth Bernhard, letter to S.T., undated (Summer, 1986); Hay divorce papers, Case #D-425693, Los Angeles Court Archives; Marvin Cutler [W. Dorr Legg], ed., Homosexuals Today: A Handbook of Organizations and Publications, Los Angeles: ONE, Inc., 1956; D’Emilio, Sexual Politics; Donald Webster Cory [Edward Sagarin], The Homosexual In America: A Subjective Approach, Greenberg, New York, 1951; Jeff Winters, “Review: Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities,” Homosexual Information Center Newsletter 37, undated (1983).
9. Collapse
Interviews with James Burford, 5/25/89; Kay Cole, Ben Dobbs, Jack Hay, Jorn Kamgren, 6/27/88; John McTernan, 8/19/86; Frank Pestana, 7/22/86 and 12/13/89; Frank Wilkinson, 12/28/89; Donald Wheeldin, 5/25/89; Sandra Gladstone, 5/26/89. Dorothy Healey, letter to ST., 6/8/88.
“Testimony of Harry Hay, Accompanied by Counsel Frank Pestana,” in Investigation of Communist Activities in the Los Angeles, California Area, part 1, Hearings before the Committee on UnAmerican Activities, House of Representatives, 84th Congress, 1st session, June 27-July 2,1955, Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1955; Donald Wheeldin,
“Un-Americans Shift To San Diego,” People’s Daily World, 7/5/55; LA. Times, 7/5/55; Nicholas von Hoffman, Citizen Cohn, New York: Doubleday, 1988; Katz, Gay American History.
Interviews with Kate Hay Berman, Hannah Hay Muldaven, Jorn Kamgren, Jim Kepner, Dorr Legg, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, 8/4/86; Don Slater, Walter Williams, 6/14/89. H.H., letter to Rudi Gernreich, undated (probably 1956).
“The Moral Climate of Canaan in the Time of Judges,” ONE Institute Quarterly of Homophile Studies, vol. 1, no. 1 (Spring/Summer, 1958); “The Hammond Report,” ONE Quarterly: Homophile Studies, Winter/Spring, 1963; Robert Graves, The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1948; Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, vols. 1 and 2, Edinburgh: Penguin, 1955; Robert Graves to H.H., 3/19/61; Walter L. Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh, Boston: Beacon Press, 1986; David King Dunaway, Huxley in Hollywood, New York: Harper & Row, 1989; Noel I. Garde, Jonathan to Gide: The Homosexual in History, NewYork: Vantage Press, 1964; W.H.Kayy, The Gay Geniuses: Psychiatric and Literary Studies of Famous Homosexuals, Glendale, Calif.: Marvin Miller, 1965; Judy Grahn, Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds, Boston: Beacon Press, 1984; Arthur Evans, Witchcraft and the Gay Counterculture: A Radical View of Western Civilization and Some of the People It Has Tried to Destroy, Boston: Fag Rag Books, 1978.
Interviews with John Burnside, Bill Fishman, Al Gordon, James Gruber, Dorothy Healey; Jim Kepner, Dorr Legg, Phyllis Lyon, Del Martin, William Moritz, Silvia Richards, June, 1988; and Don Slater, April, 1986 and June, 1989.
“Deposition of Lewis Bonham,” ONE Inc., etc., vs. Donald Rutherford Slater, October 13, 1966, Los Angeles; “Deposition of Chet Sampson,” ibid, (both in J.K. papers); Alfred Craig, “One Becomes Two: Homosexuals Split,” LA. Free Press, 6/18/65; Don Slater, letter to ONE subscribers, 4/18/65; ONE Confidential, vol. 10, no. 4 (April, 1965) (Slater); Don Slater, letter to ONE subscribers, 9/17/65; Don Slater, letter to “Friends of ONE,” 9/24/65; Dorr Legg, “A Statement About ONE, Inc.” (letter to ONE supporters), 8/22/66; Taylor Branch, Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954-1963, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988; D’Emilio, Sexual Politics; “Protest On Wheels,” Tangents, June, 1966; Paul Coates, “Problem for Army,” LA. Times, 4/24/66.
12. Change of scene
Interviews with Phillip Blood and Joan Blood, 5/25/89; John Burnside, John Ciddio, 8/5/86; Katherine Davenport, 4/20/87; Pat Gutierrez, 8/5/86; Sue-Ellen Jacobs, 2/3/87; Luke Johnson, 8/3/89; Jonathan Ned Katz, 4/8/90; Morris Kight, 5/28/90; Don Kilhefner, 11/1/89 and 11/8/89. Alejandro Lopez, letter to S.T., 9/18/87; Tom Dickerson, letter to S.T., 7/10/89.
“The Homosexual: Newly Visible, Newly Understood,” Time 10/31/69; H.H., letter to editors, Time, 11/14/69; D’Emilio, Sexual Politics; Alphonso Ortiz, The Tewa World: Space, Time, Being and Becoming in a Pueblo Society, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969; Sue-Ellen Jacobs, “Top Down Planning: Analysis of Obstacles to Community Development in an Economically Poor Region of the Southwestern United States,” Human Organization (reprint, undated); Nancy Adair and Casey Adair, Word is Out, San Francisco: New Glide Publications, 1978; Edmund White, States of Desire: Travels in Gay America, New York: Dutton, 1980.
Many interviews for this chapter were conducted at Faerie gatherings between 1980 and 1989 and are undated. More formal interviews are dated. Interviews include: Albert Bell, Faygele Ben-Miriam, Betty Berzon, 7/20/89; Blue Sky Butterfly (Walter Blumoff), James Broughton, John Burnside, Joey Cain, John Callahan, Tracy Cave, Cacho, David Cohen, Craig Collins, Tom Dickerson, Dimid, Bill Fishman, Harry Frazier, Fritz Frurip, Tom Heskette, Bill Hill, Chris Kilbourne, 7/2/89; Don Kilhefner, Richard Labonté, David Liner (Sai), 8/4/86; Gene London, Lin Maslow, William Moritz, Chaz Nol, Alan Page, Will Roscoe, Bradley Rose, Dan Siminoski, Joel Singer, Stuart Szidak, William Stewart, Mark Thompson, Neal Twyford, Mitch Walker, 6/24/89; Martin Worman, 8/21/89.
Harry Hay, “Western Homophile Keynote Address,” The Ladder, June/July, 1970; Arthur Evans, letter to S.T., 6/5/86, extensive correspondence between Harry Hay, Don Kilhefner, Mitch Walker; Circle of Loving Companions, “Who Are the Gays,” and RFD staff, “Comments,” RED, Autumn, 1975; Evans, Witchcraft; Arthur Evans, The God of Ecstasy: Sex Roles and the Madness of Dionysis, New York: St. Martin’s, 1988; Fritz Frurip, “First Gathering Letter,” unpublished, September, 1979; Mark Thompson, Gay Spirit, Myth and Meaning, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1987; Sharon McDonald, “Gays and Spirit, Part 3,” The Advocate, 2/17/87; Mitch Walker, Men Loving Men: A Gay Sex Guide and Consciousness Book, San Francisco: Gay Sunshine Press, 1977; Mitch Walker and friends, Visionary Love: A Spirit Book of Gay Mythology and Trans-mutational Faerie, San Francisco: Treeroots Press, 1981.
Interviews with Phyllis Bennis, 8/9/86; John Burnside, John Callahan, 6/3/86; Jonathan Ned Katz, Don Kilhefher, William Moritz, Bob McNee, Shane Que-Hee, Bradley Rose, Will Roscoe, 7/1/86; Mark Thompson, 4/13/89; Martin Worman.
Stuart Timmons, “A Sign of the Times? Veteran Gay Activist Removed from Parade,” The Advocate, 9/16/86.