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50 years in 50 weeks: 1986 - Call me
Determined to pick some prominent arts event from 1986's Bay Area Reporter issues, what stuck out more prominently was the high number of phone sex ads.
While the Tom Robinson Band, then known for the inspiring folk-derived anthem, "Glad to be Gay," had a performance at the Old Waldorf (444 Battery St.), the venue's promoters used the ad to politicize their pro-gay presence.
The B.A.R.'s June 23, 1977 illustrated cover, an ad for The Balcony bar, took a macho cartoonish focus with art by Chuck Arnett, who was known more famously for his mural on the wall of the Tool Box bar.
As advertised in the April 17, 1974 'Bay Area Reporter,' the EndUp's Jockey Short Contest, immortalized by Armistead Maupin in his best-selling 'Tales of the City' series, took place frequently at the South of Market nightclub.
As we continue to celebrate the Bay Area Reporter's 50th anniversary, each week we'll take a nostalgic look at a highlight from each year's issues. In May 1, 1971 , a plumaged party seemed like a lot of fun.
With more than 900 articles penned for the Bay Area Reporter, I feel a strong connection as the newspaper celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. I thought to share some behind the scenes tales as well.
Our veteran erotica reviewer reminisces about the early glory days of gay porn on film, vintage B.A.R. coverage, and porn's rise, (ahem) in popularity before changes made into VHS and online formats.
The Bay Area Reporter first published on April 1, 1971, two years after the New York Stonewall Riots. But the paper's emergence grew not out of activism, but from San Francisco's growing gay bar scene.
The opportunity to see Marlene Dietrich in person came 23 years after her U.S. film dbut. In 1953 the Sahara Las Vegas offered her $30,000 per week to perform. And so her career as a cabaret singer was born. The film star later performed in San Francisco.
Queer Nation Chicago inspired Terence Alan Smith to become Joan Jett-Blakk and run a write-in campaign amid the reelection campaign of Richard M. Daley, and later, a write-in run for the presidency.
Two years before the Bay Area Reporter premiered, the New York City-based GAY covered politics, arts, civil rights and sexuality with a bold and groovy style. The complete issue collection from 1969 to 1974 is online.
Skip Arnold's historic drag act became one of many fascinating anthropological subjects by scholar Esther Newton, whose groundbreaking dissertation, once ignored, has found new readers.
In a continuing effort to receive support from readers, the Bay Area Reporter has launched its membership program.