The Gay Metropolis, an utterly compelling social and political history of modern gay life, has been instantly recognized as the most authoritative and substantial work of its kind. Filled with astounding anecdotes and searing tales of heartbreak and transformation, it is the first book to devote equal attention to the personal and the political. Beginning with the profound effects of the Army on gay life in the 1940s, journalist and commentator Charles Kaiser leads us through a decade-by-decade account of the rise and triumph of gay identity. From the making of West Side Story, a modern telling of the Romeo and Juliet saga written, staged, and directed by four gay men, to the grim political witch-hunts of the '50s, to the Stonewall Riots, to catastrophe as AIDS appeared, Kaiser recounts with astounding behind-the-scenes stories the true history of the gay movement.
The Gay Metropolis is packed with never-before-told scenes involving such famous people as Leonard Bernstein, John F. Kennedy, Montgomery Clift, and Alfred Hitchcock as well as such little-known people as Sandy Kirn, a young Brooklyn woman who first heard the word lesbian when a neighbor spied her with an arm around her girlfriend at the end of a wartime blackout.
Along the way we learn about the importance of films like The Boys in the Band and Cabaret, the effects of J. Edgar Hoover on gay life, how the disco scenes of the '70s and '80s advanced the cause, and much, much more. A vital telling of postwar American history, filled with dazzling characters, tragedies, and happy endings, The Gay Metropolis is above all exciting and uplifting. It is an extraordinary work.
This “fascinating and fabulous oral history”(Vanity Fair), “both serious and gossipy”(New York Times), chronicles gay life in New York City-and americanca-since 1945. “Irresistible” (Out). Black-and-white photographs.
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