Brighton Ourstory #23

2008·1.3 MB·English

by  Brighton Ourstory

new in the
NEWSLETTER \ Issue 23 \ Summer 2008
archive...
t he last few months have seen some jacket and two creations of his own, heavily
unusually voluminous donations to encrusted with spangles and baubles in
the archive, testing the limits of our dazzling shades of blue and green. Thanks to
capacity for storage once again. From that John, his executor, for these and also to two the First lgB
inky old dearie Peter Burton have come two of Betty Lou’s former neighbours on opposite wallie hOdges
collections. Firstly a series of 300 (and then sides of Powis Square, Zita and Anna. 1916-2008 Vintage Section
some) videos of queer interest. And secondly From Brian have come several copies 28 flyer
MuseuM in
a remarkable haul of over 700 lesbian and gay of Square Peg and from Mark some Boyz ● Many years back, when little was
magazines and newspapers, including such and Capital Gays and a single 1978 copy of written about Brighton’s gay history, and
treasures as the 1950s European title Amigo, the short-lived fortnightly paper Gay Times I was a young man hungering for some
the British Man and with splendid artwork sense of rootedness in this fugacious
a good sampling Britain?
Society and a long run of by Oliver Frey. Ashley town, desperate to make contact with
of remarkable
the Seventies Canadian at the University of my tribal elders, I was fortunate enough
powerhouse Body Politic. drag wardrobe... Brighton’s LGBT Soc has to meet Wallie Hodges. Wallie had been a
These periodicals were donated a banner and pianist in many of the clubs in Brighton’s
collected in his career as Britain’s senior gay the society’s old pink furry comments box, underground in the bad old illegal days. P icture this: you’re browsing round the skills) or if you’d be interested in
journalist, his first articles appearing exactly 40 full of ancient flyers. Mark and Simon of The With a mind sharp as a pin he poured out North Laine area of Brighton – the running a fundraising event to help
years ago in Spartacus magazine. Thank you Arun Gay Society, one of Sussex’s oldest gay tales of long drunken nights peopled with arty, cultural quarter where ecologi- Ourstory on its way to having a
Peter and long may you scribe. organisations, have given us a large number prostitutes, bent coppers, back-street cally sound shoes mix with classy cheese and real presence in Brighton, please
A third large collection has come to us from of back-copies of their newsletter, importantly abortionists, brawling sailors, hob-nailed vegetarian cafes – a photograph in a window get in touch. We need a surge of
the estate of the human marvel and Brighton documenting gay life in the little-explored lesbians and impudent queans with the catches your eye. You go into the shop and support to create the first LGB
character Betty Lou (see reminiscences western half of the county. And finally, thanks wickedest tongues. ‘It was debauchery,’ it’s like stepping through the looking glass into museum in the country.
on the centre pages of this issue). A good to the estate of the late Wallie Hodges, we are he said, ‘but it was fun.’ Wonderland. Your attention is immediately
sampling of his remarkable drag wardrobe the proud owners of a carboy lamp and shade I sat enthralled and eventually taped caught by the dazzling, extravagant flamboy- BOracic lint
is now, thanks to Linda’s carpentry skills, which stood for many years on the piano at nine hours of his memories, some of ance of a Betty Lou costume. Tucked in a In the meantime, we need to pay
hanging safely with us. The drags include Brighton’s old seafront queer drinking club, the which were featured (under the nom de corner is the old Lesbian Line office, another the next quarter’s archive rent!
what appears to be a Victorian mourning 42. Many thanks to one and all. guerre of ‘Grant’) in the Ourstory book holds the 42 Club or the Variety. Banners, Brighton & Hove City Council
Daring Hearts. We became friends and I clothes, placards, club cards, flyers, records, has helped pay our running
visited him regularly for the last nineteen ss magazines from bygone days. And memories costs again this year, for which
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years of his life, which ended, I’m sorry to Pr - you find that at the press of a button you can many thanks but there’s still
say, in April of this year. ont hear people reliving moments that have stayed more to find. You can help by
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That appetite for ancestry which drives au in their hearts for years – the first touch, the love coming to our Barn Dance on
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no obvious equivalent in the gay world. nte the lost job, the fight for looking glass into central Brighton, 7.30pm-
pri
But listening to Wallie’s stories, which k), custody, being in custody; wonderland... 11pm. Tickets cost £7.50
sounded like a grandmother’s tales of o.u the joys and jealousies of (£6 concessions) and can
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the Old Country, of a homeland I’d never n. clublife; claiming Brighton’s beaches, streets be bought on the door or reserved in advance
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known, I felt a connectedness, a new cks and homes. by ringing 01273 206655. See you there!
confidence in the survivability of my own erdi All round the walls is traced a line linking you,
desires. I need not die as a miserable and @fras through pictures and stories, with those who’ve Pleased
lonely old poofter as my mother had once o lived in or visited Brighton & Hove over the last We were very pleased with our contribution
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- ominously - predicted. n (i two hundred years - a multitude of lesbians, gay to Winter Pride and LGBT History Month in
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Apart from anything else, Wallie was ks men and bisexual people. February – a show called Promoting Ourselves,
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His impersonation of Hilda Baker was y Fr doing (‘Deeds Not Words’ as the suffragettes to all those who took part by contributing their
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an experience in its own right. He said d proclaimed). The required feasibility study for memories, reading, playing guitar, carrying ban-
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himself he’d never been lucky in love but gn our much-longed-for LGB heritage centre would ners and getting it all sorted out generally. More
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he was endlessly interested in the ups de cost tens of thousands of pounds. For much the from the show on the inside pages. Congratu-
and downs of my own love life and his 08, same price we could rent temporary premises lations go to Abi for staging our Bona Books
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advice was always profoundly wise. I am y 2 and test it out in reality. After all, we already have exhibition at Shoreham Library during LGBT
honoured to have known him and find stor the contents, contributed by literally hundreds of History Month – it attracted a lot of interest.
I am missing him even more than I had Our people over the last twenty years. We think it’s a
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Tom Sargant © shopfitting skills, estate agency skills, fundraising
Betty lOu: a herO OF
the underwOrld
i n recent years a regular sight in the would take them down to the men’s beach,’
Montpelier area of Brighton was an old recalls Michael. ‘All the glitter and sparkle, the
man with thinning hair in a ponytail and sunshine coming down on them, I wonder how
a woollen hat like a teacosy. Tottering along on earth she didn't get blinded.’
clutching a Forfars bag of cake, he looked For many decades Lou had lived in the same
innocuous and a stranger would not have flat in Powis Road, his front room a triumph of
guessed that he had once been the brightest Amateur Regency in swathes of deep red and
star of this town’s twilight world. gold. The elaborate Christmas decorations
Harold Humfryes, known to many as Betty he contrived in his window each year were a
Lou, who died in April of this year, was a drag fixture of the season. An underwater scene
performer of consummate skill. Stories of his complete with a sunken pirate galleon was
doings in Brighton are legion. For a generation particularly admired.
of gay men he was a In the post-war years
all the glitter
figurehead; adored for Montpelier was something
his peerless chutzpah and sparkle... of a gay enclave. Jackie
and, as Michael Smith Godfree then lived with his
remembers, ‘the air of camparaderie she boyfriend on St Michael’s Place and enoyed
created around herself’. occasional private theatrical performance from
The Evening Betty Lou looked immaculate in drag. His Betty Lou. ‘Our kitchen backed onto hers over
Argus ,10 January costumes were industriously assembled from the garden and all of a sudden there'd be all
1910
...and the most unlikely fragments and he repeatedly this screaming and hollering and clashing of
towered above his competitors at the great pans and ‘Don't hit me Bert! Don't hit me Bert!’
twO dusty
drag balls at the Aquarium in Brighton and the She had this huge window in the bedroom and
caMPaigners Vic Wells and Lyceum in London, sweeping she'd appear ten foot up high with black eyes
away with the first prize in cash. Even fifty years where Bert had bashed her up. Of course all
● As every Brightonian knows, The later his appearances - as a peacock with an this was fantasy. Another time she was being
Evening Argus is not a reliable source 11-foot train or an Indian goddess with six strangled by Bert - she had a bonnet on and
of interesting or startling news. How arms on an altar or a butterfly escaping from its was leaning out backwards screaming, ‘I'm
refreshing then to turn to its pages of 5 chrysalis - are remembered. sorry I burnt your eggs on toast.’
January 1910 and see the headline Found! ‘She'd get down to sewing the sequins ‘Oh, she was fabulous,’ remembers Jackie.
Two Women Secreted in Dome Organ. and baubles onto her various outfits and she ‘She really was.’
Plucky Princess Di Herbert Asquith, the Liberal Prime
averts her Minister of the day, who had been drag-
eyes... ging his feet for four years over votes for
women, was in Brighton to address an
evening gathering of the faithful at the
caMPaigners Dome, prior to a General Election. In the
afternoon a suppressed sneeze was heard
from inside the organ. A ladder was called
for and two very dusty suffragettes, who
had been crouching there all night, were
extricated. Miss Eva Bourne explained
F or Winter Pride this year Ourstory whole of the world’s media’s going to be here, going to do this? And then we just did it – we that they had planned to disrupt Asquith’s
staged a show celebrating Brighton’s we’ll do something. And I don’t think we really walked onto the stage and stood there for a speech by shouting through the pipes.
campaign against Section 28 of the thought about it. We could have been killed. We few seconds while the cameras took in the Later there were lamplit protests
Local Government Act 1988. Forbidding the could have been shot. Anyway, we registered message on our placards (Lesbian Mothers outside the men-only meeting and Bessie
‘promotion of homosexuality’ and dismissing as delegates for this conference. We were all Aren’t Pretending) and the audience slowly Newsam, another suffragette dressed in a
gay people with children as ‘pretended family dressed up as respectable as we could manage realised who we were. Then we walked off the man’s overcoat and cap, managed to gain
relationships’, it stayed on the statute book - which was quite hard for some of us. And we other side, having deposited our placards on the and shout out ‘Votes for Women!’ before
for fifteen years – blighting went in. platform table. being bundled outside.
as respectable
the education of an We couldn’t carry It was the scariest thing I’d ever done. But it The Brighton militants were evidently
as we could
entire generation. Right anything in with us - it was fantastic as well. And they didn’t even arrest quite a feisty crew, a dab hand at vandalis-
wing sponsors of the manage... wasn’t proper security like us! They just threw us out! I was all prepared ing pillarboxes and braving the ruckus of
legislation paid a visit to the you have at conferences to be arrested. We did our interviews and then open-air meetings at the Peace Statue in
Brighton Centre in 1990 for their International now, it wasn’t a problem to get in - but we collapsed, shaking into the much-needed hugs, Hove. Many of them were spinsters, but Betty Lou in his
Congress for the Family. In this extract from our didn’t think we could smuggle in any banners kisses, laughter and jubilation of those waiting were they lesbians? We would like to think 1950s zenith
show, Promoting Ourselves, Dani recalls the or anything so we just took in marker pens and outside. We were all over the papers. It was great! so and mean to find out.
campaigners’ response: pieces of paper. And then we went to the loos
Somehow they’d got Princess Di to speak and hastily wrote banners. We sat all through
Call Brighton Ourstory on 01273 206655 or contact us by email on [email protected]
at the opening of their conference and so we Princess Di’s speech, which was actually
thought, well, if she’s going to be here, the quite nice and I was thinking oh my God, am I