In December 1969, Mart Crowley's play, The Boys in the Band opened at the then-Studebaker Theatre in the Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue. On the eve of The Hooker Report, just months after Stonewall and weeks after Time Magazine's cover feature on 'The Homosexual in America,' Mattachine Midwest ran a benefit at the opening night performance. Mattachine, Chicago's first modern gay-rights organization, not five years old, sold 300 'choice orchestra seats' to the show's opening, Dec. 2. Next morning, columnists and reviewers had a field day commenting as much on the audience as on the play.
Jon and Abra in the Chicago Daily News, while acknowledging the 'homosexual liberty lobby is raising funds to fight the blue meanies ( police harassment ) ,' noted that the theatre was 'jammed with the limp set, lads in fur, open-necked flounce shirts, leather maxicoats, plus several would-be ladies who walked funny.'
Doyenne of reviewers, Glenna Syse, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, said that the opening night audience reminded her of the disadvantages of being a critic. 'I don't mind telling you there were times ... when I wished it were 1953 and that the play I was watching was Tea and Sympathy...' The crowd 'hooted, hollered and applauded its way through the evening and almost managed to turn what is a compassionate, devastating and brilliant piece of writing into a circus.' She further noted that she planned to see the play again at a later date 'on some quiet night—say when the performance is a benefit for Field and Stream or Family Circle.'
Roger Dettmer of Chicago Today either saw the previews or wore blinders. His generic commentary only mentions the Chicago cast in the last paragraph of his four-column review. But, Sidney J. Harris, in a creditable review ( like the others he lauds the performance of Paul Rudd as Donald ) , warns the readers of his 'family newspaper' of the 'raw and raunchy' language of the play noting that his 'coarser fiber' sustained him. He concluded that the play was a hit: 'in this bleak season, the theatre has come alive with a play that involves, that deepens our insight as much as it entertains our sadly malnourished sense of humor.'
Concurrent with the Chicago opening the Dec. 2, 1969 issue of Look Magazine ran two features, one on the impending film version 'The Faces of the Boys in the Band' and the other 'A Changing View of Homosexuality.' In subsequent issues, Look's letters column reflected the dichotomy of response. Rodney Kings of Ohio wrote that the 'whimpering, bitching, sadomasochistic psychopaths portrayed' were a dying breed but the 'new homosexual looks and feels no different from the rest of American youth'. Today, 'The Boys in the Band' is alternately described by gay historians as either a landmark event ( largely because of its frank, crackling dialogue ) , or a play that ( because of its stereotypes ) set gay theatre back a couple of decades.
In Chicago, those reviews and commentary by columnists ( from the legendary Irv Kupcinet to Ron Powers ) continued a popcorn explosion begun by major features in Newsweek ( Oct. 27 ) , Time ( Oct. 31 ) , Look ( Dec. 2 ) , and articles in The Washingon Post, and dozens of smaller venues. Letters to the editors and opinion page articles continued well into the New Year. Parade ( Dec. 14 ) responded to a query from a reader asking about rumored government plans to legalize homosexuality by referencing the positive recommendations of the Hooker Report.
Panorama ( the Sun., Jan. 10, 1970 magazine section of the Chicago Daily News ) asked 'Does 'The Boys' tell it straight? There's a certain 'generation gap' in drama of homosexuals.' The feature by Jerome Landfield, then a teacher at Roosevelt University and reporter on cultural affairs for WBBM radio, questioned the veracity of the play compared to the experience of Chicago gays and found it echoed only the experience of 'aging unhappy fags ... obsessed with gayness and guilt.' What he called 'female homosexuals' and the younger generation ( 'the far-out fringe' the 'hard-hip movement' and the 'new militants' ) rejected the play's image. The first to tag Mattachine as representative of the past, Landfield asserted that Mattachine leaders had 'about as much influence over these people as the Rev. Ralph Abernaathy has over a group of Black Panthers whose leader has just been slain by police.'
The Sunday magazine section of Chicago Today ( Feb. 22, 1970 ) ran 'The 'gay' life in Chicago: Homosexuals today refuse to remain submerged and oppressed by the 'straight' world' by Paul Sampson. Still citing Boys in the Band, Sampson ran a two-page interview with Mattachine Midwest members, attorney Renee Hanover and gay students at the University of Chicago. Sampson also compared the situations of gays and Blacks: 'Both are minorities with legitimate grievances against the majority culture.' No names of gays or lesbians interviewed were used in these early articles, and the only illustrations were stills from the play. For the 1970 Chicago mainstream media, 'Boys' had just turned the key in the closet door.
Copyright 2007 Marie J. Kuda
