FTV 037 Stonewall
In the late 1980’s, when legendary Pacifca Radio producer David Isay was 22 years old, he found out his father was gay and had a lover. Shocked by the revelation, he set out to try and understand the secret life his father had been leading. With a grant from the Pacifica National Programming Fund, Isay interviewed veterans of the Stonewall uprising - the 1969 clash between gays and the police which violently began the gay rights movement. From this effort, the documentary Remembering Stonewall was born.
The documentary first aired on Pacifica Radio, and later on National Public Radio, becoming the first of many Isay-produced documentaries to air on multiple radio networks over the years. Remembering Stonewall is a beautiful, elegant, oral history of the people who spoke up and fought for their own rights as well as the rights of millions of other gays and lesbians across the country. For the first half of this week’s episode of From the Vault, we’ll hear this award-winning documentary in its entirety.
In the second half hour, we’ll hear the work of This Way Out: The International Lesbian and Gay Radio Magazine founder Greg Gordon. Gordon’s 1981 documentary A Gay Retrospective is a compelling collection of memories from people who lived through Stonewall, and an excellent example of the diverse audio Pacifica Radio Archives preserves and makes public. We’ll close out the hour with excerpts form an interview with Robbie Rosenberg, who produced the Emmy-winining film Before Stonewall: The Making of a Gay and Lesbian Community.
LISTEN to this episode.
Click here to purchase a copy of this program or learn more about and purchase copies of the historic archival recordings used within this episode. To purchase a CD copy of this program by phone, please call Pacifica Radio Archives at 800.735.0230 x 262.
Click here to send an email to From the Vault.
