Before Pride Month is over, I wanted to share a movie review I wrote for a Nashville publication a few weeks back. This new PBS doc examines a lesser-known civil rights struggle from the 1950s that found homosexual federal employees forced out of positions with the government for fear that their sexuality made them vulnerable to coercion by those filthy communist Russians.,, 

In 1953, during the first freeze of the Cold War, newly-elected President Dwight D. Eisenhower took the White House in the midst of chaos. The so-called Red Scare found Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy leading a government purge of supposed communists and soviet sympathizers that famously reached all the way into the entertainment industry, destroying lives with accusations and blacklists along the way. A new public television documentary, spotlights The Lavender Scare – a lesser-known purge of gay employees of the federal government. TheLavender Scare demonstrates how gays were seen as vulnerable to communist blackmail because of their sexual secrecy. The film quotes Joseph McCarthy, “Homosexuals must not be handling top secret materials. The pervert is easy prey for the blackmailer.”

It’s ironic that an executive order from President Eisenhower ultimately blackmailed thousands of federal employees into resigning quietly for fear that their sexual orientation might be made public. The Lavender Scare revisits a time during the 1950s when gay men and lesbians sought to blend in and not be visible. Fear of anti-gay laws, homophobic violence, and social alienation all meant that many American men and women found themselves leading double lives.

During the purge American citizens were exposed to targeted legal investigations that peered into every part of a person’s life: a government worker’s fellow employees and supervisors were interviewed; a worker’s minster, priest or rabbi would be contacted; social habits were monitored and connections were made between known homosexuals. By the time F.B.I. agents confronted a suspect they already had extensive insights into every aspect of a person’s daily habits. Suspects were not allowed to confront the confidential informants who often outed them, and they weren’t allowed any legal representation or due process.

The Lavender Scare’s deep historical documenting is one of its best strengths, and its educational value alone make this an important film to watch in June. The movie retraces the footsteps of large populations of gay men and lesbians who moved to Washington, DC in the 1930s. Those young men and women sought the 1000s of government jobs created under Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. They also sought the sophistication and freedom of an urban lifestyle in the nation’s capital over the provincial backwaters and small-minded hometowns they fled. The Lavender Scare also examines the revolutionary effect World War II had on the lives of gay Americans. The total mobilization of the country pulled thousands of young men and women into the military’s same-sex environments. For many gay American soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines the war was an opportunity to meet like-minded friends and lovers. One former sailor interviewed for the documentary flatly states, “I didn’t know how many people were gay before I joined the Navy.”

 Director Josh Howard’s take on David K. Johnson’s book combines found footage and stills with lots of Ken Burns-esque voiceovers to bring public documents, letters, diaries and the people behind them to life. He also uses “Dragnet” style narration and the files, folders, and photos asesthetics of a police procedural to bring a paranoid, crime film tone to the investigation scenes in the movie. The Lavender Scare is narrated by Glenn Close and features voice acting from Cynthia Nixon, Zachary Quinto, TR Knight and David Hyde Pierce.

Howard is an entertaining filmmaker, but the story that’s the real star of The Lavender Scare. If there is any real value to observances like Pride Month it’s that they can focus our attention on people and issues that many of us may only be cursorily connected to in day-to-day lives. For me The Lavender Scare is an invitation to discover a story from a chapter of our country’s recent history that I’ve never known about. It’s a love story and a tragedy, but it’s also a story about workers’ rights and civil rights and the pursuit of happiness. The Lavender Scare is a valuable addition to queer cinema, and its an important American film.

The Lavender Scare premiered on National Public Television stations on Tuesday, June 18

Check your local listings and Public Television sites to see the new film, but go ahead and watch this great little primer from Step Back History while you’re here…

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If you follow me on Facebook you might have seen my ornery post last week wherein I linked to an announcement about Leonard Cohen’s new album, and complained about my Nashville music peers constantly celebrating “great” songwriters who shouldn’t even be allowed to mutter Cohen’s name in their prayers. GREAT is a big word, and while I certainly stand by all my friends’ and peers’ rights to love what they love, there aren’t a lot of songwriters in this world that I would call GREAT.

Lyrics are almost always the weak spot for me when people mention less than GREAT songwriters that they love. Frankly, melodies are the easier part of the job, and my GREATS list all have great melodies too, but they’re not still toying around with silly story songs, and dumb near rhymes, and they actually manage to get some sense of rhythm into their words. Cohen is one songwriter on my list, and Tom Waits is another.

When I discovered this video on YouTube I thought it was just a fan tribute, but it turns out that No Visitors After Midnight is an actual DVD release that collects two live Tom Waits performances from BBC Studios, London, July 27, 1979 and PBS Soundstage, Chicago, 1975.

Here’s a GREAT songwriter…

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When the Watergate scandal first broke, it didn’t really break at all. Initial notices about the burglary appeared in news papers but TV mostly ignored it. Of course, Woodward and Bernstein famously bit and wouldn’t let go of the story in the Washington Post, but on television Dick Cavett’s entertainment talk show became the unlikely setting for bringing the sordid story into the public light of day. This “Dick Cavett’s Watergate” episode of PBS’s SECRETS OF THE DEAD celebrates the role Cavett played in bringing down President Nixon…

From 1972 to 1974, the Watergate scandal was frequently a part of “The Dick Cavett Show.” In fact, Cavett was at the forefront of national TV coverage, interviewing nearly every major Watergate figure as the crisis unfolded. With exclusive access to the archive of the show, DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE documents the scandal in the words of the people who lived it: from the botched burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters; to the must-see TV of the daily Congressional Watergate hearings; to the ongoing behind-the-scenes battle between the White House and “The Dick Cavett Show,” culminating with the resignation of President Nixon on August 9, 1974. DICK CAVETT’S WATERGATE offers a unique opportunity to mark the 40th anniversary of a defining moment in American history.

The Watergate trial began on this day in 1973. Here’s “Dick Cavett’s Watergate…”

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Celebrating the 90th birthday of Malcolm X who was born on May 19, 1925, here’s the full PBS documentary Malcolm X: Make it Plain…

And for good measure, here’s one of my favorite films of all time…

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Today we look back on the death of the legendary flying ace, the Red Baron. Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen was the greatest fighter pilot of World War I, adding 80 combat deaths to his credit. However, on his last day of duty, Richtofen was shot down, ending one of the greatest military careers of all time and shrouding the death of the Red Baron in a haze of mystery.

Who killed the Red Baron? This NOVA, PBS documentary seeks the answers.

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“My diet consisted chiefly of black coffee and fingernails.” This is how Rod Serling described his days as a young, struggling writer before his big break came when he sold his first teleplay.

In the mid-50′s, television was considered to be the “orphan stepchild of radio” according to this PBS American Masters episode illuminating Serling’s life and career. Serling started writing for television at that time and is one of the people who helped to define the new medium even as he pushed its dramatic and social potentials to their limits.

Honing his art crafting scripts for live television dramas, Serling hoped to make a name for himself in the “bumbling, inexpert medium” even as he hoped to raise the artistic profile of TV above the usual fare of sports programming and game shows. He went on to write early television classics like “Requiem for a Heavyweight” — which won five Emmys — and to invent a place he called The Twilight Zone. The program also points to Serling’s idyllic, small town upbringing and the horrors he saw as a paratrooper in World War II, recounting the effects these twin ghosts had on Serling’s outlook and art.

Here is Rod Serling: Submitted for Your Approval

What’s your favorite episode of The Twilight Zone? Please leave a comment and tell me why. Thanks!

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