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(GAY NEWYORK)
Mini-archive of photographs and ephemera relating to transvestism and gay rights in New York
City in the early 1970s. The visual and printed materials pertain to the very public lives of Lee
Brewster (“the style guru for the world’s cross-dressers”) and Avery Willard (a.k.a. Bruce King, a
photographer, filmmaker, publisher, performer, and gay activist).With 17 remarkable photographs
and 2 contact sheets of Willard in drag that were apparently taken by him. Silver prints, each 7
1
/
4
inches (18.4 cm.) square. 1970s
[800/1,200]
WITH
—
18 photographs of contestants atWigstock (1973), more than 60 photographs of the NYC Gay
Pride parade (in 1974) and 18 photographs of the Queens Liberation Front parade (1973); each measuring
3x4
1
/
2
inches (7.6x11.4 cm.), b&w negatives, and 3 contact sheets depicting a gay pride parade.With
assorted ephemera, including “Lee G. Brewster’s Mardi Gras Ball” (illustrated), and vol. 1 no. 1 of “From
the Queens Liberation Front” (an organization serving the cross-dressing community), and a printed
pamphlet published by Playboy magazine about “Homosexuality” (published in 1971). 1971-1974.
Avery Willard (1921-1999) was a commercial photographer known for his theatrical portraits of
Broadway’s leading stars. In the 1970s, he began photographing the “gay scene,” and published a
newspaper of the same name.The pictures in this group are self-portraits in which he is dressed in historic
and contemporary costumes.
Lee G. Brewster’s (1943-2000) Greenwich Village boutique was legendary in the transvestite world.
He staged elaborate balls for cross-dressers, both gay and straight and, according to the NY Times,
“financed a successful legal challenge to overturn a NYC ordinance that allowed people to be removed
from public places for being gay.”
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