Disco Overtime (Times Square Episode 5)

Terrific City

On this episode, Melissa and Cheyenne stay out late for the birth of NYC nightlife. Then we revisit the history of the 1970 film The Boys in the Band and refresh ourselves with "Maude." Our special guest is Ed Dixon, actor and author of the memoir Secrets of a Life on Stage…and Off.

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On this episode

Theatre raids / proto-disco, all genders, all the time / a safe space, an outlaw space / OT / time-and-a-half at the massage parlor / "white savior Barbie" / Johnny and the rentboys / The Gaiety / The Haymarket / 8 shows for 8 dollars / bodacious ta-ta's / "when you think of it connected to Lauren Bacall" / The Boys in the Band / "a goddamn laugh riot" / "The Gay Bar," Maude / "Archie Bunker in an ascot" / watch Behind the Green Door / call us! / become a patron / so long

Further reading and viewing

• Hooking up in Times Square theatres
  • Times Square Red, Times Square Blue, Samuel R. Delany; NYU Press, 1999
    
• proto-disco
  • "A Night at the Loft, the Dance Party That Spawned All Other Dance Parties," Pitchfork, Andy Beta; February 19, 2014
  • "Lofty Ideals," Soho Memory Project; February 25, 2012
    
• Police overtime and loitering arrests
  • "The NYPD Arrest Women for Who They Are and Where They Go: Now They're Fighting Back," Village Voice, Melissa Gira Grant; November 22, 2016
    
• The Knapp Commission
  • "Mayor Lindsay appoints the Knapp Commission to investigate police corruption," New York Daily News, William Federici; May 22, 1970
    

• "Homosexuals Hold Protest in ‘Village’ After Raid Nets 167," New York Times; March 9, 1970 (online archive)

"Homosexuals Hold Protest in ‘Village’ After Raid Nets 167," New York Times, March 9, 1970

• Secrets of a Life On Stage... and Off, Ed Dixon (2012)
  
• The Gaiety Burlesque
  • "Gaiety Boys," Vanishing New York, March 3, 2011
    
• No, No, Nanette
  • Playbill, 1971 revival (online archive)
    
• Pippin
  • Playbill, 1972 original production (online archive)
    
• The Haymarket
  • "When Libido Ran Wild," Bruce Benderson, 3:AM Magazine

The Boys in the Sand, 1971

The Gaiety, 1980

“The most savage sequence is a telephone game blundered into by Alan (Peter White), a possible “straight” who was once the host’s college roommate. Each player must dial, and then blurt “I love you” to the person he holds dearest. All the players are stoned out of their minds, but not out of their situations. Amid the four-letter confrontations, ugly—and sometimes beautiful—revelations occur, until finally the game’s inventor is buried alive in a landslide of truths.”

— Time, "Shades of Lavender," March 30, 1970

The Boys in the Band

The Boys

• The Boys in the Band, d. William Friedkin; 1970 (full movie online)
  
• "The Gay Bar," Maude, 1977 (full episode online)
  • "Florida Gay Rights Activists Boycott Orange Juice, 1977-1980," Global Nonviolent Action Database

Times Square / Leland Bobbe

Featured Music

• "Shannon," Henry Gross; 1976
  
• "Midtown American Main Street Gang," Dion;1978

Credits

TERRIFIC CITY is hosted by Melissa Gira Grant and Cheyenne Picardo. The show was recorded and edited by Cheyenne Picardo, and it was produced by Melissa Gira Grant. (Thanks to Bradley Robinson for helping with music supervision.)

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