NEWSLETTER \ Issue 28 \ Summer 2011

Janice Perry 1980s

Erik Borg Erik rattigan’s Exposure in : Janice Perry at Zap back! ● Despite the controversy that Robert une 2011 saw the centenary of Terence

, 1979 © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission. by Used Foundation. Mapplethorpe Robert © 1979 Heeter , Lyle and Ridley Brian Mapplethorpe’s photographs caused in Rattigan’s birth. Rattigan was the most the 1980s, I’d never heard of him until Jsuccessful British playwright of the mid 20th lesbian stand-up comedian, Janice Century. His first hit wasFrench Without Tears in Perry, came over from the States. At the 1936, while the 1940s brought among others The time, senator Jesse Helms (America’s Winslow Boy and The Browning Version. The plays equivalent of Mary Whitehouse) was were exceptionally well written – structured and witty Mapplethorpe: kicking up a stink about Mapplethorpe’s and usually concerned with morality and depth of work, to the extent that museums and feeling. In one the question is posed, “You know galleries were cancelling his exhibitions. what the real Vice Anglais is? It is not flagellation or Exposure in Sympathetic to his plight, and determined pederasty, or whatever the French think it is, it’s the to help out, Janice took out needle and inability to express emotion.” thread, made for herself the necessary Many of the plays had gay undertones, most Eastbourne addition for a show depicting well- notably Separate Tables where the Major is t his most controversial, Robert face. This certainly wasn’t a show of his most endowed, naked men and performed revealed as having had unspecified peccadilloes in Mapplethorpe photographed leather- sexually explicit work, his Self-portrait with a live version of Mapplethorpe’s work. a cinema. This was in the 1950s when homosexual A clad men indulging in S&M sex, and Bullwhip and Man in Polyester Suit were She had her all-women audiences in relationships could lead to imprisonment, blackmail full frontal nude shots of eye-wateringly well- notably absent. But if you were really looking stitches. My memory is of Janice at the and public disgrace. It was also a subject almost endowed black men. He became famous for for it there was probably just enough to Zap Club on Brighton’s seafront, in a little forbidden under the theatrical censorship operated these as well as iconic portraits of his artistic re-ignite the debate about public funding for black dress and fishnet tights, bright red by the Lord Chamberlain. Rattigan and his affluent contemporaries (Andy Warhol, Grace Jones, explicit/challenging art that his work sparked stilettos - with jacket and penis to match. upper-class lifestyle went out of fashion after Look Keith Haring) and the society figures of New York. during his lifetime. Not only were there over 60 She remembers… Back in Anger opened at the Royal Court in 1956. Terence Rattigan early 1950s He was Patti Smith’s lover in the early 1970s, photographs on display, but also a handful of “When I did the Mapplethorpe piece An assertive heterosexuality had arrived, sidelining living for some time at the famous Chelsea sculptures never seen before in a UK public that night, some people gasped, and the homosexual coterie of Binkie Beaumont’s Hotel, and was internationally regarded as a gallery. As well as a number of talks the Towner looked nervously around the room, circle that had dominated the theatrical world for major figure in photography during the 1980s. hosted a Studio 54 night, inspired by the because lesbians and penises were a long time. Rattigan carried on writing until his He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1986 and died legendary New York nightclub that defined not supposed to be in the same room death aged 66 in 1977. His later work did deal a three years later. He sounds Especially poignant Mapplethorpe’s era. together. Then they broke into laughter, little more explicitly with gay themes but he never thanks be to... like an unusual choice for a Eastbourne and a very beautiful moment. Sadly, just this considered ‘outing’ himself. ● Like (nearly) everyone else in this current and every contribution is welcome and was the self-portrait major retrospective exhibition homosexuality, how times past year I was asked not to do that piece Terry was a Brighton resident for a few years. In 1960 financial climate, we’re feeling the pips appreciated. This year’s star of the show, in Eastbourne, a seaside with a skull-headed have changed you may be at a women’s event in Germany, because his long-time lover Michael Franklin decided that sea air squeak but thanks to help and support from though, is Malcolm who has made a town with one of the highest walking cane... thinking. Once this would the presenters were afraid that some of would help him recovery from pneumonia. They moved funders and individuals we’re managing donation of £1,000 from a legacy he percentages of people over 65 in the region. have seemed inconceivable, with even the idea the women would be angered by the sight to a 7th floor flat in Embassy Court, . Rattigan to keep afloat. In the last twelve months, received! In these uncertain times, when Given the subject matter surely Brighton raising enough influential eyebrows to prevent of my big brown schwanz.” hated it. The following year he rented it out and bought we’ve received a sum from Brighton & charities are going to the wall, we are would have seemed the obvious location. it from ever taking place. This thought had To see a recent version of this hilarious Bedford House at 79 Marine Parade. Frederick Ashton Hove City Council’s Small Grants budget, very grateful to him for sharing his good I’m guessing, but I strongly suspect it went plainly occurred to the curators at the Towner routine, look for “Janice Perry” at and Cuthbert Worsley were regular visitors. equal to about a third of our running costs, fortune with us. to Eastbourne to showcase the impressive too. On a wall opposite the entrance was a www.youtube.com. A new audience is discovering Rattigan in this while the newly operational Rainbow Fund - And let’s not forget everyone who saves Towner art gallery (owned jointly by the Tate small oil painting of an almost naked Constant Incidentally, in the early Eighties, Janice centenary year, with several highly-praised revivals set up by Gscene Magazine in conjunction us money by giving their professional and National Galleries of Scotland), which Lambert in 1927 by bisexual artist Christopher had a show at the Drill Hall in London, already. Most eagerly awaited is the Chichester with other local LGBT businesses and services for free or less than the going rate. opened in April 2009, as it a contains a large Wood, from the Towner’s permanent called Janice Perry and Friends. One of Festival Theatre’s celebration from July to September. administered by the Community We love you all. enough gallery space in which to display such collection. Alongside was a small card her friends was a lesser-known, Brighton- There are rehearsed readings of five of his plays and Foundation - has given us help towards the By the way, we have recently added to a extensive collection of Mapplethorpe’s work. explaining this wasn’t the first time Eastbourne based comedian – a slender sapling three full productions of others including The Deep cost of moving premises. our website the facility to make donations

The photographs spanned his creative life had flirted with such scandal. Bless.Alf called Simon Fanshawe. Linda ([email protected]). Dickson Fraser by Designed 2011. Ourstory Brighton © Blue Sea, possibly his best piece of writing. Mark We rely heavily on gifts from individuals securely online using PayPal. You don’t and indeed his death. Especially poignant was need to have a PayPal account, just use the self-portrait with a skull-headed walking your credit or debit card. Look for the cane taken shortly before his death, the skull Brighton Ourstory PO Box 2861, Brighton BN1 1UN Visit us online at www.brightonourstory.co.uk DONATE button on our Home page and in sharper focus than Mapplethorpe’s own elsewhere on the website. Toupie (middle row, centre) with some of her moving on! ambulance unit his time last year, as Brighton arduous task of moving several hundred heavy Ourstory looked forward to future boxes of archive material carefully, efficiently T months of creative work on a revised and with good humour. We’d like also to say edition of our 1992 classic Daring Hearts, how much we’ve appreciated the help and snug in our city-centre office at Mitre House, understanding of the manager and maintenance little did we know we would shortly be looking staff at Mitre House during the protracted for another home. Part of Mitre House is to negotiations on our new premises. We’ll miss become a hotel and our offices were wanted the waft of Tony’s brass polish and the gleaming as conference rooms. Little did we also stair rail. know that the Daring Hearts project would We’d like to take this opportunity to say be set back by the recession when British farewell and thank-you to three trustees who’ve Bookshops folded leaving our publisher, retired from the Brighton Ourstory board in the QueenSpark Books short of The Daring Hearts last year. Sally, was with us for funds. To new contributors project is not seven eventful years, in which who were expecting to see forgotten or she kept order and kept us their stories in print by now in abandoned but positive! She is now focussing the new edition, please accept on hold... on the demands of work and our apologies. The project is not forgotten or new baby. Melita and Mark joined the board abandoned but on hold while we settle in and in November 2009 to help out while I was in boost our funds sufficiently to go ahead with hospital and their work since then has helped publication. Ourstory move forward in difficult times. They Finding a new home for the archive took a have all made their mark and their contribution while and we headed up a few blind alleys, has been very much appreciated. where estate agents failed to understand our Soon after we moved, we were very pleased budgetary constraints but are now bedded to play host to our first guests: Bart and his into a bigger space, where we hope soon partner Steven from the Belgian equivalent of to entertain our usual variety of researchers, Ourstory, Fonds Suzan Daniel (named after depositors and other guests. More apologies the woman who started the first Belgian gay/ go to those who have put forward their lesbian group in 1953). It was really good to names as volunteers and not been invited hear how they have been getting on in this, engineer, ‘Where is Miss Lowther?’ and looked Rose in action for interview – the upheaval of moving has their fifteenth anniversary year and to swap around, surprised at not seeing her… the man put everything on hold but we will soon be experiences – here’s to the next fifteen!Linda replied, ‘…she hasn’t arrived yet.’ In view of in a position to start archive work once Una and John in August something Miss Lowther had told me not long 1923 (still cold) WALKIE TALKIE

more. And we hope this double-issue of magazine Queen The ago regarding a supposed hallucination of the newsletter will make up for the one her, seen by a friend, I then understood that THIS WAY… missed at Christmas. something of this nature had occurred – and ● Something to look out for during July Our thanks go to Shaun Johnson and his had the presence of mind not to exclaim aloud and August is a new season of Rose Collis’ team (Chris and the Mystery Toad!) at man- that I had seen her – but, having walked all enjoyable and entertaining history tours. with-a-van.com, Brighton’s only out-gay Is Anyone There? round the showroom and ascertained that she Rose is taking to the streets to track down removal contractor, who undertook the n August 1920, lesbian author, Radclyffe- evening they waited until she’d gone to bed and was not there, I remarked in an undertone - in personalities from literature, stage, screen, Hall, known then to her friends as John, and crept out to join Toupie at a Brighton nightclub, French - to Miss Radclyffe-Hall, ‘All the same, I medicine and politics, including many of Iher lover, Una, Lady Troubridge came to stay where they all “talked and howled until 1.30am.” saw her.’ interest to an LGBT audience. They include at the Prince’s Hotel on Hove seafront The main purpose of their stay in Hove was John and Una then hurried round to see Tea Tours, Bloomsbury in Brighton (now Brighton & Hove council offices and for John to get some advice from Toupie on the Toupie who had not yet left the house and found and The Clifton, Montpelier, Powis Tour. renamed King’s House). matter of purchasing a motor The main purpose of her dressed in the exact outfit On Saturday August 6, Rose will be that Una had described. They leading a special ‘Pride Promenade’ Their great friend, Toupie Lowther, another car, so one morning she and their stay was to get lesbian, came down from London to be with Una, - wearing thick winter then both wrote a detailed commissioned by Brighton & Hove advice on purchasing them and stayed with her mother in a nearby coats, despite the season - set account of the occurrence, Libraries, starting at 2pm by the Peace a motor car... square. Toupie, daughter of the Earl of Lonsdale, off for a car showroom at 26, St which was published the Statue on the seafront - near what’s left Street puppets Hate, Fear and Ignorance get was the first woman in Britain to own and ride a John’s Road, near . While they following year in the Journal of the Society for of the - with free refreshments a brief spell in the light motorcycle! In the First World War, only recently were still thirty feet away, Una had the following Psychical Research, of which John was an and discounted copies of The New ended, Toupie had formed a spectacular, spooky experience: enthusiastic member. Linda Encyclopaedia of Brighton available. women-only ambulance unit, which had driven “I could see two cars, one a black touring As if this isn’t enough, every third Tuesday in on the battlefronts alongside the French army, and one a red touring car outside the garage ● Taken from Una’s account in that journal, for the month she will be hosting ‘Up Your Street’, despite opposition from the authorities. John to which we were bound and between the red which many thanks to Alf Le Flohic, local gay a regular monthly local history supper club at later used Toupie’s experiences in her famous car and the entrance of the garage, I distinctly historian and trustee of Brighton Ourstory and The Swan, 9 Rock Street novel, The Well of Loneliness. saw Miss Lowther. She was wearing a thin, dark from Sally Cline, “Radclyffe-Hall, A Woman For full details of all tours and booking Soon to divorce, at the time Toupie was navy blue suit… and a black felt man’s hat. I said Called John”. information, see www.rosecollis.com married with two small children. This didn’t to Miss Radclyffe-Hall, ‘Oh, there is Toupie, what impede her lesbian activities and her lover, Nellie a baby, she is already there, she has got there Linda with Bart Rowe joined John and Una at the Princes Hotel. before us to look at the engine.’ Contact us by email on [email protected] and Steven Sadly, they didn’t like her very much and one “As we entered the doors, I said to the Shaun “Great to be part of the euphoria of this moment in history.” Creative Energy Richard t’s always interesting to meet researchers start talking to people and I was blessed to find when they come to consult Ourstory’s that people - when given the space - want to Iarchive collections but we don’t always connect, to share and to be heard. A particular get to see the end results of their labours. So area of fascination for me was the double lives it was a treat to go to the Nightingale Theatre LGBT people have been forced to create in during the Brighton Festival to see David order to be accepted in society, the effect this Sheppeard’s illustrated performance (with Alice has on people’s personal lives and how this Booth) of his piece, Photographic Memory. behaviour has evolved to the present day. Funny and moving by turns it traced key The job was then trying to create a figures and moments in David’s life, blending coherent theatre piece, transmitting the them into a wider social and political context excitement of hearing others’ stories, historical with sensitivity and care. context and my own life He explains below how the Something experience. I wanted to make project came about: personal and this something personal and Photographic Memory candid as well candid as well as a bit political! began life with a personal as a bit political... With the support of The frustration with Pride. I don’t think it is essential Nightingale (www.nightingaletheatre.co.uk), The for us all to have an encyclopaedic knowledge Drill Hall (www.drillhall.co.uk) and the Arts of LGBT history but a healthy curiosity of how Council things gradually came into focus and people who faced similar issues to ourselves the finished piece was presented as part of led their lives can only help us learn lessons and Brighton Festival Fringe 2011. Visit www. protect traditions that we value. For me this is davidsheppeard.co.uk for more information an important part of what Pride is, and could about my work. “Brighton Pride be about, and this is why I think Ourstory is so I am also director of Pink Fringe, supporting 1991 was a moment of valuable as an organisation. queer art projects in Brighton and we are fury and passion. Fury at Clause 28, the abusive bigots I started researching at Ourstory where presenting an outdoor performance called lining the march and the rage Linda helped me unearth some truly inspiring Parade Protest Perform investigating the only a queer in the early 90s materials about where Pride, especially in significance of the Parade/Protest in could feel against Thatcher. The passion came from the Brighton, came from. A key moment was LGBT history over the Pride week. Visit pride of reclaiming the seeing a photo of someone I know from the www.pinkfringe.co.uk for further details. city I lived in.” Pride protest in 1991. This encouraged me to David Sheppeard Kate Wildblood “I just remember going along and having a good time!” Brighton Lesbian & Gay Helen Jones Pride, May 24–27 1991 ven though I was there, when I think cartoonist David Shenton, a ‘Lesbian and Gay seen – that took place in 1973, organised by the of Brighton Pride in 1991, I think of a Brighton’ walking tour from Brighton Ourstory, Sussex Gay Liberation Front, formed in 1971 E rather rough old affair, just a renamed a cabaret show at the Sallis Benney Theatre by a group of students from the University of Anti-Section 28 march really. Lots of angry with The Well Oiled Sisters, a women only barn Sussex with lesbians and gay men from the town. shouty people with banners, spending a dance at the NALGO Club, A Pink Picnic in However only a tiny minority of Brighton’s gay Saturday afternoon marching from Hove Town Preston Park on the Monday – “look for the pink population were ready to take to the streets in Hall to Brighton Town Hall. And a fair number balloons” and also that weekend there was an 1973 and it wasn’t until 1991 that Pride returned. of the general public weren’t Alternative Miss Brighton event I don’t remember the 1991 march so much pleased to see us – they glared It was very in the train station car park as how I felt, there was a new sense of direction and swore at us from the homemade yet hosted by Lily Savage (Paul – we may have failed to stop Section 28 of the pavements as we passed by. O’Grady) and Simon Fanshawe Local Government Act in 1988 (banning the And whilst all that was all very powerful... followed by a huge party at ‘promotion’ of homosexuality), but it had made so true, it wasn’t the full picture – hell no! It was a Club Shame (The Zap Club). many of us angry, we were determined to reclaim impressive four day lesbian and gay festival of It was very homemade yet very powerful in it’s the one thing that law was supposed to stop us events, with it’s own programme and everything, determination. It was arranged by passionate having - pride in being lesbian and gay people. which included: A ‘Tack’ disco at the University volunteers and funded by gay friendly local The homophobia of the then Conservative of Sussex, screenings of Torch Song Trilogy and businesses and the odd jumble sale at the government had inadvertently galvanised lesbians Poison at the Duke of York’s cinema, pavement Hanover Community Centre, literally! and gay men across the country into co-ordinated drawings in Churchill Square from Guardian It wasn’t the first Gay Pride Brighton had opposition. In Brighton we turned it into Pride. Alf

Brighton Ourstory PO Box 2861, Brighton BN1 1UN or contact us by email on [email protected] New In The New arrival, Ron Strank Archive (centre) with his team. lthough we had to have an embargo Three magazine from 1969 and two substantial on new deposits for the archive articles from Sunday paper, the News of the Aduring the protracted period we World of the same year. The articles come as were packing up and moving, we still have a surprise in this particular organ of the press. some exciting additions to report. Squeezing They present thoroughly unsensational portraits in before the move is a donation from Jackie of women who have given up heterosexual of two boxes of DIVA magazines from 1999- relationships in favour of a lesbian lifestyle. 2009. Mark sneaked in his 1972 New Curtain Their author, Maureen Lawless, spent several Club membership card months interviewing members - Brighton’s premier venue A pivotal time in of lesbian social network, for gay men throughout Britain’s lesbian Kenric. What resulted reads the 1970s reverberated consciousness... as a genuine and honest from the basement of the account of both reasons and Queen’s Hotel. Melita donated five T-shirts - feelings. Not unsurprisingly, given the source all brand new so we can’t use the sweat to of the interviewees, lesbian clubs and butch/ clone future activists. First off the mark when fem role-playing get something of a rough ride. we re-opened for business was Reet (thanks There are photographs of the women, who to Jean for courier services), with two boxes all look quite normal and the text emphasises Ron Strank (centre) with of lesbian fiction from the 1960s and a set of just how normal they are. Being the News of partner Roger, Linda at items, which together spotlight a pivotal time the World, though, a sub-editor has added Meet Our Ancestors in Britain’s lesbian consciousness. a few completely unrelated pictures of two The items are: a copy of Brian Magee’s affectionate women in diaphanous nighties (this book, One In Twenty, several copies of Arena is about lesbians, when all’s said and done). LGBT History Month ● We were delighted to take part in two events for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month in February. Linda gave a talk about the history of gay Gay charge nurses at Bevendean rights in Brighton to Sussex University’s hospital 1969 LGBTQ Group. A lively discussion followed on the role of Pride events in the city. Our exhibition, Meet Our Ancestors, had an outing to the Brighton & Sussex University Health Trust’s LGBT Forum event, where Ron Strank shared memories of his work in Brighton (see main article, this page) and Bevendean Bevy James Ledward talked about his experiences answered an advertisement for matron at Bevendean had been known amongst the other I’d been in a tight corner I could have shared with as editor of G-Scene magazine over the last Bevendean Hospital – mainly to get the hospitals as ‘Little Vatican’ because the matron her. And one of the assistant matrons lived with a sixteen years. It was a pleasure to be involved Iinterview experience but I ended up getting had been a great Catholic and then after I got woman and knew how many beans made five. in both these events and to see the tide of the job! I was the first male matron in Brighton & there it was known as ‘Fairyland’. I didn’t go I had a chum who was a GP in Brighton. He interest that LGBT History Month is creating. Hove. The hospital had started life as Brighton round saying, “I’m gay!” but it was pretty well was gay and a bit repressed. He it was who took Libraries in particular have answered the call Sanatorium - for the frail elderly. It was up on a understood. When my partner, Roger, came to me to the 42 Club for the first time. And then one with exhibitions, talks and poetry readings T-shirt hill off Bear Road. When I started there, in 1968, stay, they knew he was ‘the fella’. of us found a gay club where you could dance. taking place at Jubilee, Hove, Shoreham, message it was reeling from a controversial death. People I was conscious all the time The guy on the door said, “You Eastbourne and Hastings libraries. Proudest were frightened to go there because it was of being watched – sounds a One of the other know what sort of club it is?” moment, no doubt, for the fearless and seen as a place to die. I wanted to change that bit paranoid but why shouldn’t matrons was a We said, “Yes, it’s gay isn’t it?” tireless group of teachers who started LGBT image. We put on nativity plays on the wards they? All the other hospitals in kindred spirit... “Why, are you gay?” We took History Month nationally six years ago, was at Christmas and friends and family came, we the group were headed by very that as a compliment. I never ’s programme of awareness had a float in the Lions Carnival and a feature on able women. I think they found me a curiosity. But said I was matron in that club – I tried to keep events, which also raised funds for Allsorts Radio Brighton. We got publicity and the staff they couldn’t really do much in case they pulled my professional life separate. But people in the Youth Project. Reaching young people was thought it was fun. Four years later, patients the whole house down. If they started saying, 42 Club were very generous to the hospital and always the primary goal of LGBT History were asking to go there. “This guy’s gay and he’s got a boyfriend”… in my last year there it was the beneficiary of the Month and Varndean is a shining example of At first, we couldn’t get staff so I put out an well, there were women in the group who had wonderful 42 Club pantomime. Ron Strank just how well this can work. advertisement and we had a number of men girlfriends and they were open secrets but apply – because me being a man in charge – everybody kept shtum. One of the other matrons and a number of those were gay. There were was a kindred spirit – I just knew. We weren’t You can contact us by phone on 07552 778577 about half a dozen that I appointed. Previously bosom buddies but we talked about things and if