THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY JULY 11

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

JULY 11

Today is MANHATTANHENGE (sometimes referred to as Manhattan Solstice) a semi-annual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan's main street grid. The term is derived from Stonehenge, at which the sun aligns with the stones on the solstices. It was coined in 2002 by Neil deGrasse Tyson, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History. It applies to those streets that follow the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, which laid out a grid offset 28.9 degrees from true east-west. At sunset, a traveler along one of the north-south avenues on the West Side looking east can observe the phenomenon indirectly, being struck by the reflected light of the many windows which are aligned with the grid. An observer on the East Side can look west and see the sun shining down a canyon-like street. The dates of Manhattanhenge range from May 28 and July 12 or July 13 (spaced evenly around Summer Solstice). The two corresponding mornings of sunrise right on the center lines of the Manhattan grid are approximately December 5 and January 8 (spaced evenly around Winter Solstice). As with the solstices and equinoxes, the dates vary from year to year. Goldengatehenge occurs around Halloween in Berkeley, CA, when the sun appears to set through the Golden Gate when viewed from the Sather Tower on the UC Berkeley Campus.

1931 – TAB HUNTER, American actor, born; In Hunter's 2005 autobiography, Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of a Movie Star, he acknowledged his sexuality, confirming rumors that had circulated since the height of his fame. According to William L. Hamilton of the New York Times, detailed reports about his alleged romances with very close friends Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood were strictly the fodder of studio publicity departments. As Wood and Hunter embarked on a well-publicized and groundless romance, promoting his apparent heterosexuality while promoting their movies, insiders developed their own headline for the item: 'Natalie Wood and Tab Wouldn't.'" Hunter did become close enough with Etchika Choureau, his co-star in Lafayette Escadrille, and Joan Cohn, widow of Harry Cohn, to contemplate marriage, but thought he never could maintain a marriage and remained merely platonic friends with both women.

During Hollywood's studio era, Hunter says, life "was difficult for me, because I was living two lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. And then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft and succeed ..." The star emphasizes that the word 'Gay' "wasn't even around in those days, and if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out. I was in total denial. I was just not comfortable in that Hollywood scene, other than the work process." "There was a lot written about my sexuality, and the press was pretty darn cruel," the actor says, but what "moviegoers wanted to hold in their hearts were the boy-next-door marines, cowboys and swoon-bait sweethearts he portrayed." Hunter had long-term relationships with actor Anthony Perkins and champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson before setting down with his partner of 25 years, Allan Glaser. They live in Montecito, California.

1946 – JACK WRANGLER, American actor, born (d: 2009); Jack Wrangler was every inch a star. He survived the mayfly world of porn, in which the rate of turnover is unusually high, to become a legend in his own time. The camera loved him and he loved the camera and himself, in uninhibited return. Porn-starring is consistently hard work. And if you doubt that such hard labor is difficult to keep up, just think of your own performance in a crowded doctor's office when the army-sergeant nurse bellows loudly that she wants a specimen right this minute in this tiny cup and you spend the next eternity in a narrow cubicle unzipping your fly and looking for it, the poor frightened thing. Would you be able to perform on cue in front of three cameras, fourteen arc lights, a script girl, and a crew of six? Porn is notoriously dumb—dumb plots, dumb faces, dumb music – and uniquely difficult to pull off with any true eroticism or style. (A spot of acne on a callipygous ass can disconcert.) But the moment the camera focused on Jack, something magical occurs. He's the real thing, intelligent, alert, alive—the picture stops and the camera laps him up. The audience rises to a single man and applauds the star. Another standing ovation for Jack Wrangler.

In 1976, Wrangler met celebrated 1940s pop singer and film actress Margaret Whiting when she attended one of his one-man erotic shows in New York. As he later recalled, "I was with my manager when I looked over at Margaret, who was surrounded by five guys at a booth. 'There she was with the hair, the furs and the big gestures. I thought, 'Boy, now that's New York! That's glamour!' I had to meet her." A relationship ensued. He was 33; she was 55. When Wrangler confided to Whiting that he was gay, her response was "only around the edges, dear." They lived together for 20 years before they got married and remained successfully married from 1994 until their deaths. Whiting survived him until 2011; Wrangler passed in 2009.

After becoming involved with Whiting, Wrangler retired from porn and devoted his time to his first love, musical theater. A fan of Johnny Mercer, he was one of the co-producers of the cabaret Dream, which featured songs by the composer and included Whiting in the cast. Other performances he wrote and produced include Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: the Jazz Concert; The Valentine Touch; The First Lady and Other Stories of Our Times, and Irina Abroad!

1946 -- VITO RUSSO (d: 1990) American LGBT activist, film historian and author best remembered as the author of the book The Celluloid Closet (1981, revised edition 1987) was born on this date.

Russo developed his material following screenings of films shown as fundraisers for the early gay rights organization Gay Activist Alliance. He traveled throughout the country from 1972 to 1982, delivering The Celluloid Closet as a live lecture presentation with film clips at colleges, universities, and small cinemas such as the Roxie Cinema in San Francisco. In both the book and in the lecture/film clip presentation, he related the history of gay and lesbian moments – and the treatment of gay and lesbian characters – in American and foreign films of the past.

In 1983, Russo wrote, produced, and co-hosted a series focusing on the gay community called Our Time for WNYC-TV public television. This series featured the nation's first GLBT hard news and documentary video segment produced and directed by social behaviorist D. S. Vanderbilt.

Russo's concern over how LGBT people were presented in popular media led him to co-found the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a watchdog group that monitors LGBT representation in the mainstream media and presents the annual GLAAD Media Awards. The Vito Russo Award is named in his memory and is presented to an out gay or Lesbian member of the media community for their outstanding contribution in combating homophobia. Russo was also actively involved in the HIV-AIDS direct action group ACT-UP.

Russo appeared in the 1989 Academy Award-winning documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt as a "storyteller," relating the life and death of his lover Jeffrey Sevcik.

In 1990 Vito Russo spent a year teaching at the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching a class, also entitled "The Celluloid Closet". He enjoyed being a professor, spending lecture breaks smoking and joking with his students.

Also in 1990, Merrill College at UC Santa Cruz established Vito Russo House to promote Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered awareness and provide a safe and comfortable living environment for queer, straight-supportive and all students who value and appreciate diversity. The house tailors its programming to meet the needs of GLBT students and offers all an opportunity to build understanding and tolerance.

Russo died of AIDS-related complications in 1990. His work was posthumously brought to television in the 1996 HBO documentary The Celluloid Closet narrated by Lily Tomlin.

After his death there was a memorial in Santa Cruz put on by students and colleagues. There were testimonials about how inspirational he had been and en masse, the group sang "Somewhere OverThe Rainbow" in his memory. Russo's papers are held by the New York Public Library.  A documentary on the life of Vito Russo, "Activist: The Times of Vito Russo" is currently in production by Los Angeles production company Automat Pictures and producer Jeffrey Schwartz.

A family-approved biography of Vito's life, written by NYIT professor Michael Schiavi, titled Celluloid Activist: The Life and Times of Vito Russo was published by the University of Wisconsin Press in the spring of 2011. Jeffrey Schwarz's 2012 documentary VITO! premiered on HBO and White Crane Books released a two volume companion set of books, Out Spoken: A Vito Russo Reader Reel One and Reel Two  It was a 2013 Lammy Finalist for LGBT Nonfiction.

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