EVA & ADELE. A celebration of the right to be different.
An occasional blog of our activities for the LGBT History Project with the odd post on subjects connected to LGBT History generally. Contact us at lgbthistoryproject@hotmail.co.uk.
Tuesday, 28 February 2012
Monday, 27 February 2012
The Fastest Woman on Water
Marion Barbara Carstairs, known as Betty or Joe, (1900–1993) was a wealthy British power boat racer famous for her speed and her eccentric lifestyle.
Her parents were a troubled couple who separated soon after her birth. Her mother, an alcoholic American heiress, married three more times.
During World War I, Carstairs served in France with the Red Cross, driving ambulances, before going to Dublin with the Women's Legion Mechanical Transport Section. After the war, she served with the Royal Army Service Corps in France, re-burying the war-dead. Later, in 1920, she and a group of friends started the 'X Garage', a chauffeuring service that featured a women-only staff of drivers.
Carstairs lived a colourful life. She usually dressed as a man, had tattooed arms and loved machines, adventure and speed. Openly lesbian, she had numerous affairs with women, including Dolly Wilde (Oscar Wilde's niece and a fellow ambulance driver from Dublin with whom she had lived in Paris) and a string of actresses, most notably Tallulah Bankhead. Carstairs married once, to a French Count in 1918 so as to gain access to her trust fund, independent of her mother. After her mother's death the marriage was immediately annulled on the grounds of non-consummation.
In 1925, she purchased a motorboat after inheriting a fortune through her mother and grandmother from Standard Oil. She was also given a Steiff doll by a girlfriend, Ruth Baldwin, and christened him Lord Tod Wadley. She was extremely attached to this, keeping it with her until her death although, unlike Campbell's mascot 'Mr Whoppit', she didn't take it into her speedboats for fear of losing it. Between 1925 and 1930, Carstairs spent considerable time in powerboats, becoming a very successful racer, although the Harmsworth Trophy she longed for always eluded her. She did take the Duke of York's trophy and established herself as the 'fastest woman on water'.
Carstairs was known for her generosity to her friends. She was close to several male racing drivers and land speed record competitors, using her considerable wealth to assist them. She paid $10,000 of her money to fund the building of a Bluebird for Sir Malcolm Campbell, who once described her as "the greatest sportsman I know". She was equally generous to John Cobb, whose Railton Special was powered by the pair of engines from her powerboat Estelle V. And after she invested $40,000 purchasing the island of Whale Cay in the Bahamas, she lavishly hosted such guests as Marlene Dietrich and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. She not only constructed a Great House for herself and her guests, but also a lighthouse, school, church, and cannery. She later expanded these properties by also buying the additional islands of Bird Cay, Cat Cay, Devil's Cay, half of Hoffman's Cay, and a tract of land on Andros.
After selling the island in 1975, Carstairs relocated to Miami, Florida where she lived until her death in 1993.
Sunday, 26 February 2012
Burke Proposes Abolition of the Pillory, 1780
On Monday 10th April 1780, two men were convicted of sodomy and sentenced to stand for an hour in a pillory ‘near the obelisk’ in London. Theodosius Reade was a plasterer and William Smith a Hackney coachman. After about half an hour of appalling treatment by the mob, according to one account Smith was hit on the head by his ear by a stone and fell over dead. Another account suggests that he sank down and tried to strangle himself ‘till he appeared black in the Face, the Blood gushing from his Ears’.
Reade managed to get through the hour, but ‘was so severely treated, that it is doubtful whether he will recover’. It is not entirely clear whether Reade eventually died or not of his injuries.
For conservative statesman, Edmund Burke this seems to have been the final straw. He gave a speech in Parliament the next day proposing the abolition of the pillory. He argued that the ‘wanton cruelty of the mob’ and the negligence of those in charge of the pillory meant that the lawful sentence had been exceeded. On that basis, he felt that use of the pillory ought to be abandoned. He was supported by Sir Charles Bunbury who cited the case of a man in Bury St Edmunds, also sentenced to be pilloried for sodomy, who so feared the mob’s reaction that he took poison the night before. However, he was still pilloried and ‘whether he died from the poison, or in consequence of his ill treatment from the mob, had never been ascertained’.
Over the next few days, editorials in the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser were aimed against Burke, referring to him as ‘the advocate of the guilty’ and ‘displaying his talents to obtain mercy for sodomites!’ they also claimed that ‘every man applauds the spirit of the spectators, and every woman thinks their conduct right.’
A few days after the incident, a Coroner’s Inquest into Smith’s death brought in a verdict of Wilful Murder by a person or persons unknown. Also, interestingly, at least one newspaper reported that Reade’s maidservant was imprisoned for accusing him [presumably falsely] of ‘the Practice of which he was convicted and sentenced’. The maid was also pilloried.
The Attorney General ordered an inquiry into the deaths and, as a result, the Under-Sheriff of Surrey was tried, but acquitted. Burke was able to secure a pension of £36 a year on the Civil List for the widow of William Smith. The pillory was not abolished until 1816 (except as punishment for subornation and perjury) and not totally abolished until 1837.
NOTE: Edmund Burke (1729-97) was a hugely influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator and political thinker, notable for his strong support for the American Revolution and his fierce opposition to the French Revolution.
Reade managed to get through the hour, but ‘was so severely treated, that it is doubtful whether he will recover’. It is not entirely clear whether Reade eventually died or not of his injuries.
For conservative statesman, Edmund Burke this seems to have been the final straw. He gave a speech in Parliament the next day proposing the abolition of the pillory. He argued that the ‘wanton cruelty of the mob’ and the negligence of those in charge of the pillory meant that the lawful sentence had been exceeded. On that basis, he felt that use of the pillory ought to be abandoned. He was supported by Sir Charles Bunbury who cited the case of a man in Bury St Edmunds, also sentenced to be pilloried for sodomy, who so feared the mob’s reaction that he took poison the night before. However, he was still pilloried and ‘whether he died from the poison, or in consequence of his ill treatment from the mob, had never been ascertained’.
Over the next few days, editorials in the Morning Post and Daily Advertiser were aimed against Burke, referring to him as ‘the advocate of the guilty’ and ‘displaying his talents to obtain mercy for sodomites!’ they also claimed that ‘every man applauds the spirit of the spectators, and every woman thinks their conduct right.’
A few days after the incident, a Coroner’s Inquest into Smith’s death brought in a verdict of Wilful Murder by a person or persons unknown. Also, interestingly, at least one newspaper reported that Reade’s maidservant was imprisoned for accusing him [presumably falsely] of ‘the Practice of which he was convicted and sentenced’. The maid was also pilloried.
The Attorney General ordered an inquiry into the deaths and, as a result, the Under-Sheriff of Surrey was tried, but acquitted. Burke was able to secure a pension of £36 a year on the Civil List for the widow of William Smith. The pillory was not abolished until 1816 (except as punishment for subornation and perjury) and not totally abolished until 1837.
NOTE: Edmund Burke (1729-97) was a hugely influential Anglo-Irish politician, orator and political thinker, notable for his strong support for the American Revolution and his fierce opposition to the French Revolution.
Friday, 24 February 2012
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Remember Anita Bryant?
Anita Bryant was responsbile for possibly one of the most unpleasant anti-gay campaigns in the US in the late 1970s. In 1977, she led a, sadly, successful vote to repeal Miami-Dade's gay-rights ordinance. At the time she was a popular singer with appearances on TV. She appears to have been making very good money, and was at one point worth several million dollars.
On 26 January this year, her husband of the time, Bob Green, was found dead at his home in Miami Beach, aged 80. This gives us an opportunity to reflect on the impact on them of Bryant's campaign.
As you may imagine, their activities attracted the attentions of gay rights campaigners, so that Bryant found herself frequently on the receiving end of a 'zap'(1) and even on one occasion got a pie in the face on TV. The regular zapping led to them losing work and lost Bryant a TV series, which was to have been sponsored by Singer Sewing Machines. That didn't deter them - they set up Anita Bryant Ministries to counsel gay people ['ex-gay', rather than supportive, would be my guess] and built a radio
studio for a planned Anita Bryant Christian show
In 1980, Green came home one day to find Bryant was gone. The breakup caused many of her religious conservative folowers to abandon her, accusing her of not being a good role model. The ministry failed and the radio show never happened.
Bryant divorced and later married Charlie Dry, a former astronaut test pilot, moving to Oklahoma. They have apparently had a series of bankruptcies and tax troubles. Bryant still
performs occasional gospel concerts.
Green became a recluse and lived, resentful, in Florida. "Blame gay people? I do. Their stated goal was to put [Bryant] out of
business and destroy her career. And that's what they did. It's
unfair.''
(1) - zap (fr hip sl // onomatopoeic comic bookese) to embarrass publicly; defeat; cause a disturbance, such as by boycotting [from The Queen's Vernacular: A Gay Lexicon by Bruce Rogers]
Sources:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anita_Bryant
Monday, 20 February 2012
How Bona To Vada Your Dolly Old Eek!
In the 1950s and 60s, gay men spoke a slang, Polari, to avoid detection and prosecution.
How did Polari come about?
Polari has its origins in a variety of slangs from theatre speech to thieves’ cant to back slang. It arose as a way for homosexual men to gossip and talk about their sex lives (and other people’s!) without revealing dangerous information to outsiders.
During the post war period and into the 1960s, gay men could be (and often were) arrested for any indication of male-male sex. Their diaries and address books were confiscated and combed for evidence of ‘homosexual rings’ so that more ‘perverts’ and ‘queers’ could be arrested.
Perhaps worse, if an unscrupulous person found evidence that a man was homosexual, they might blackmail him, squeezing money from someone too scared to go to the police. (The 1961 film, Victim starring Dirk Bogarde, shows how easy it was to extort money this way.)
‘Why did Polari fall out of use?’ you ask
- In 1967, ten years after the Wolfenden Report made its recommendations, Parliament finally made sexual acts between two consenting males in private provided they were over 21. Suddenly, the need for caution was not quite so great. Although the change in law didn’t stop blackmail and violence at once.
- Round the Horne crackled out of the nation's wirelesses on Sunday afternoons from 1965, becoming one of the most popular comedies of the era until it finished in 1969. With its ground breaking mixture of innuendo, camp comedy and word play, it netted a regular audience of more than 15million listeners and was one of the best loved programmes in radio history. Two of its characters were Julian and Sandy, two ‘resting’ thespians who had a regular spot show casing their adventures. Kenneth Williams camped his way through the script as limp-wristed Sandy, normally introduced by Hugh Paddick's character saying "Hello, I'm Julian and this is my friend, Sandy", making homosexual double entendres that allowed British suburbia to laugh openly about what had been strictly taboo. They sprinkled their conversation with lashings of Polari, introducing it to a wider audience.
- As the gay rights movement gained confidence, many activists saw Polari as a reminder of the oppression of previous years and rejected it.
However….
- In the early 21 century, there was a revival of interest. Staff in Madame Jojo’s, a cabaret bar, were taught Polari. As many of them were not native speakers of English, it helped them communicate with the bar’s patrons.
- Dr Paul Baker, senior lecturer in linguistics at Lancaster University, has made a study of Polari and its use and origins.
A bit of Polari for the Novice…
Body..................................bod, leucoddy
Bulge of male genitals.....basket
Clothes..............................clobber, drag
Drink..................................bevvy, buvare, schumph (vb)
Dull, boring........................naff
Effeminate.........................camp
Good looking man............dish
Masculine..........................butch
(Talking) rubbish...............(cackling) balonie
Young boy..........................chicken
BEVVY: Possibly short for ‘beverage’, maybe related to the Italian: bevo - I drink.
CAMP: Allegedly short for Known As Male Prostitue
DRAG: Particularly referred to women’s clothes; believed to have come from Shakespearean stage directions: “So-and-so enters, DRessed As a Girl”.
DISH: In one episode of Round The Horne, a character complained that "All the dishes are dirty!" "Ooh speak for yourself, ducky!" said his chum, quick as a flash. The audience probably got the use of the word ‘dish’ as an attractive young man, as in "Isn't he dishy?", but only fluent Polari speakers would also know that it refers to a person’s backside, which would afford them an extra special laugh.
NAFF: Originally used to denote sexual non-availability of a heterosexual man, it allegedly is an abbreviation of ‘Not Available For Fucking’. Its meaning evolved later to ‘dull', 'boring', 'drab', etc. The opposite in meaning was ‘TBH’ (or ‘to be had’).
Counting to ten in Polari:
1 una
2 dewey
3 trey
4 quarter
5 chinker
6 sey
7 setter
8 say dooe
9 sey trey
10 dacha
Some of my sources:
Saturday, 18 February 2012
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister
The BBC's dramatisation of Anne Lister's diaries can be seen on i-player here:-
UPDATE 17/05/15
No longer available on i-player, but available on DVD.
For more about Anne Lister, see:
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/knowing-your-own-heart.html
http://lgbthistoryproject.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/knowing-your-own-heart.html
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