282. Vibe Checking the Gays in 1969

Done & Dunne

Hemlock Creatives

True Crime, History

4.7 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 12 January 2026

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we begin our look into Mart Crowley and his breakthrough play "The Boys in the Band" in a slightly offbeat way. Mart's life and times, and Dunne's role within the creation of the play and the movie version are essential parts of this investigation, but here in the beginning of these episodes, we are wandering back to LOOK Magazine from December 2, 1969 with a piece by Jack Star titled "A Changing View of Homosexuality", which takes the pulse on what the current feeling is among folks. What was the vibe about gays in 1969? You may be surprised in a few ways as we set the stage for this pioneering work and the man behind it. Continue your investigation with ad-free and bonus episodes on Patreon! To advertise on Done & Dunne, please reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Dun & Dun. I'm Alicia, your hostess on this podcast journey, All Things Dominic Dunn,
0:07.1	where it eventually all connects. Thank you for joining me today as we dive into a story still
0:14.2	untold within our cinematic universe of Dominic Dunn. Today we are hopping all the way back to December 1969 with a little
0:23.7	bit of trashy tabloids about all the homosexuals. Why this today, Alicia? Well, we are going to be
0:31.8	talking about Mark Crowley, the playwright of the boys in the band, the play that changes just about everything in the moment regarding gay visibility.
0:42.3	The Boys in the Band was controversial, mostly because gays had not really been portrayed in a realistic way without suffering or dying at the end of the story for their sexual preference.
0:58.1	Mark Crowley will pin this play and that is a whole different story.
1:03.0	His life, his work, his friendships, and how our man Nick came to produce the boys in the
1:09.4	band as a movie after the success of the play.
1:13.6	Honestly, Dominic Dunn gave Mark Crowley a whole lot of encouragement to write the play in the first place,
1:20.9	but all of those stories are coming in the future.
1:24.0	Today, I wanted to set the stage a little bit and journey us back to 1969 for a, you know, general view on the gaze.
1:34.3	I wanted to convey the thinking at the time.
1:37.5	What was the norm?
1:38.5	What was the hot take going on 60 years ago?
1:42.5	Today, we are going to go to Look Magazine from December 2nd, 1969, in a piece from Jack Star titled
1:50.7	A Changing View on Homosexuality.
1:54.6	Oh, how far we've come and how much has stayed the same.
1:58.9	Let's investigate.
2:00.3	Music much has stayed the same. Let's investigate. Oh, friends, I am such a fan of diving into old magazines from the past.
2:23.6	Today we are going to Look Magazine in a feature that is about the boys in the band, a new film
2:31.6	raising questions about homosexuals. We're going to talk about the film and the
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Hemlock Creatives, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Hemlock Creatives and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.