Common Sense	Common Sense Archive

Rummaging around in closets and boxes of old stuff has an upside. Among the curiosities there are things to give to friends, to sell, and just to trash. There are also the little gems.

In this last category I would place The Gay Engagement Calendar. This was an annual spiral-bound desk calendar compiled by Martin Greif. I have here before me what I think to be a complete run of this title, from 1977 through 1987. The 1977 edition was published by Stein and Day -- Sol Stein's house always had an interesting list, often including titles of specific interest to our community. Within a few years, this item would be published by Main Street Press, which may have been Greif's own imprint. (Greif was also the author of The Gay Book of Days.)

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reif begins each year's edition with a disclaimer: "The Gay Engagement Calendar includes the names of both gay and straight people, because many heterosexual celebrities -- particularly writers and entertainers -- have appealed to a large gay audience. Their inclusion in this calendar is in no way to be construed as an implication that they are themselves homosexuals."

I've no doubt that it was necessary for Greif and/or his publisher to include this disclaimer, but it has a patina to it 30 years later.

The Advocate, the national G/L fortnightly, regularly runs a feature "Big Gay Following," featuring a show biz celeb who we are to assume is heterosexual. For so many gay people, entertainers and the culture of show business is a central fact of their cultural constructs. Phyllis Diller noted that she never did fag jokes -- very common at the time she was coming up and even today in comedy-club venues (think Eddie Murphy) -- because gay men were among her earliest and most devoted fans. Michael Chabon, the award-winning author, said in one interview, that after his first novel, Mysteries of Pittsburgh, was published, many people though he was gay. (Chabon was a beauteous young man and there was just enough gayola in his novel to let readers make the assumption.) What I found interesting is that Chabon said he did nothing to dissuade folks from thinking he might be a gay author, and that as a result he picked up a considerable gay readership, which, he noted, has stayed with him throughout his publishing career. He also happens to be a very good writer.

Anyway, back to the calendar. When you open one, the double-spread has the photo or graphic reproduction on the verso, with calendar listings on the recto. For each day of the week, under the date, you'll find a sentence or two with old news that may be, as it still is for me, new news. The entry for Friday, June 17, 1977 informs that: "King Charles XII of Sweden, one of the greatest military geniuses of history, whose noble lovers included Prince Maximillian of Württemberg and Generals Stenbock and Rehnsköld, born in Stockholm, 1682."

And then there's Thursday, July 19, 1979: "Franklin Pangborn, who in Hollywood's golden era was to homosexual stereotyping what Stepin Fetchit was to black, dies at 65, 1958."

Greif collected all these nuggets, each its own acorn which, with proper care, could develop into a solid oak.

Tuesday, March 23, 1982: "After he is attacked by 'Christian' neighbors to determine his true sex, Thomas Hall is examined by the governor of the colony of Virginia and declared to be 'a man and a woman' and is forced to wear men's clothes and a woman's cap, 1629." What was that all about? If director John Waters ever got hired by the History Channel, this might be perfect material for his signature style. Was there any other time in our national history wherein a governor made it part of his or her job description to determine the sex of a citizen, much less mandating that citizen's attire? 1629 was a different place.

Friday, August 30, 1985: "To explain away money paid to a one-night stand blackmailer, playwright George Kelly (the late Princess Grace's uncle) cooks up a story (worse than any of his plays) about a married bellhop that he is putting through college, 1932." Hmmm. Makes the Kelly family sound even more interesting than I had always thought it to be. I recall that the late Jack Dunphy, Truman Capote's longtime companion (as we used to say), wrote a novel which was said to be based on what he knew about the private lives of the Kellys. Was it An Honest Woman? Dunphy grew up poor in Philadelphia. The Kellys were something considerably more than two-toilet Irish, the father handsome and successful, the sons just knock-outs, and Grace well Grace. Could there have been some hanky-panky in paradise? Perhaps inappropriate paternal behavior, which Dunphy suggested? I'll have to reread the novel. Dunphy also wrote a play, among his many, called The Gay Apprentice. My goodness, we already have enough stuff to start a gay trivia game. But there is always more -- and why do we know this stuff anyway?

One more date to go out on: Saturday, July 21, 1984: "And a one-third share in a Fire Island cottage to Pope Sixtus IV (born today in 1614), who was so openly gay that a group of his cardinals safely petitioned for 'permission to practice sodomy during the warm months.'" Lent may not have been the appropriate occasion for sodomy among the Princes of the Church, particularly during the Counter-Reformation, but the warm months could be more like a Dress-Down Friday.

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Author Profile:  Mitzel
	Mitzel was a founding member of the Fag Rag collective, and has been a Guide columnist since 1986. He manages Calamus Books near Boston's South Station.
	Email:	mitzel@calamusbooks.com
	Website:	calamusbooks.com