CAMILLE O'GRADY: THIS IS THE END

san franciso legend camille o'grady passed away this morning amidst  world  collapse.

camille was an incredible singer, poet and visual artist. she became lovers with robert opel in the mid 70s. together they presented 

fey way studios: the first fetish- glbtq art gallery- ever!

fey way presented tom of finland, robert mapplethope, rex, the hun, entienne, and many fetish artists to the public for the first time.

camille was the only woman allowed at the leather bars/sex clubs throughout the 70s. mainly because she passed as a leatherman.  camille was present when robert opel was murdered at the gallery. the authorities called it a robbery gone wrong. camille and friends knew it was political retaliation from a police state era which was unhappy with the burgeoning gay scene and the blaming of  fellow cop dan white
 for harvey milk's murder.
camille went into hiding for many years after robert's murder. in the early 2000's camille took me to the original location of fey way studios. like an omen the space was open and availble for rent. camille was reunited with the guy that saved her life. an upstairs neighbor. 
yes, i have it all on film!

camille o'grady was an original spirit with original ideas. a truly one-of-a-kind person-

 rip  dear sorceress~

THE DEATH OF DIANE WHIPPLE

CAMILLE O'GRADY AS "JACK SAVAGE"

Camille O'grady as ‘Jack Savage’ 

"my male alter, created in the early 70’s; NYC...

this photo by Ed Gallucci appeared in ´Hard Corps’a book published in 1976.
Jack placed 3rd as SF Mr Leather in 1979. 

Everytime I became Jack, ( I did performances as him) was a revelation.
My best friends ( except for those in on it at a given time)didn’t have a clue it was me, and it was fascinating to interact with strangers and people I knew well as this male character.

Everyone who can should experience being the ‘other".

-camille o'grady

MEMORIES OF A STREAKER

Yesterday’s Crimes: The Murder of the Man Who Streaked at the Oscars

Artist and nudist Robert Opel was murdered in his SoMa art gallery five years after running on stage nude at the Oscars.

• Bob Calhoun
• Wed May 10th, 2017 10:25am

• 
  

Host David Niven gets a surprise while introducing Elizabeth Taylor at the 46th Academy Awards.

David Niven struck a serious tone as he took the podium at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles during the 1974 Academy Awards ceremony. 

“If one reads the newspapers or listens to the news, it is quite obvious that the whole world is having a nervous breakdown,” the London-born star of  “The Guns of Navarone” observed. A moment later, artist Robert Opel streaked across the stage buck-naked as if to prove Niven right.

Opel, his shaggy hair and mustache making him look like the most 1974 thing ever, flashed a peace sign as he ran through the TV camera frame, his junk bouncing up and down with each stride. The live audience both gasped and laughed, the band struck up a couple of bars of “That’s Entertainment,” and Niven recovered by making a quip about “shortcomings.” The show went on, and “The Sting” won Best Picture.

Instead of being taken to jail, Opel was whisked off backstage for a press conference. 

“People shouldn’t be ashamed of being nude in public,” Opel remarked, standing in front of a towering Oscar statue. “Besides — it’s a hell of a way to launch a career.”

That career didn’t have much time left, however. Just five years later, Robert Opel was gunned down in his San Francisco art studio.

Opel moved to San Francisco from Los Angles after serving four months in county lockup for stripping naked in front of LA Police Chief Ed Davis, to protest the closing of nude beaches.

“The climate appears more conducive to civilized behavior,” Opel said about his new S.F. home. He opened Fey Way Studios at 1287 Howard St. in March 1978. With its exhibitions of works by Tom of Finland and Robert Mapplethorpe, Fey Way was an out gay art studio at a time when gay art was only shown in gay bars — even in San Francisco.  Opel’s gallery was dismissed as “a sex shop” by mainstream newspapers, when it was mentioned at all.

Opel also published a sex zine called “Finger,” and produced a play titled “The Heartbreak of Psoriasis” starring Divine. Ever the provocateur, he staged a mock execution of Harvey Milk assassin Dan White at UN Plaza during the Gay Freedom Day Parade on June 24, 1979 despite being reportedly warned not to by the S.F. police. 

Around 9 p.m. on Sunday, July 8, 1979, Opel was entertaining friends  Anthony Rogers and Camille O’Grady at Fey Way when a pair of men armed with a handgun and a sawed-off shotgun showed up demanding drugs and money. Opel was known to supplement his artist’s income by selling amphetamines and PCP, but he didn’t have any drugs in the studio that night. 

“Get out of my space,” Opel said, standing his ground.

“I’m gonna blow your head off,” the man with the pistol said.

“You’re going to have to,” Opel replied. “There’s no money here.”

O’Grady and Rogers, who were being held in a backroom by the man with the shotgun, then heard a shot followed by the thud of Opel’s body hitting the floor. Opel had taken a bullet to the head. He was pronounced dead at 10:40 p.m.

After the shooting, the bandits fled as other tenants in the building started coming down the stairs to see what was going on. The men made off with only $5 and a camera. 

O’Grady, an artist herself as well as “The Leather Queen of Folsom,” drew sketches of the robbers and handed them over to police along with some other information told to her by a musician friend of Opel’s. Working from this and other tips, homicide inspectors soon identified the hold-up men as Maurice J. Keenan and Robert Kelly. The duo was arrested along with Keenan’s wife, Linda Holt, at SFO on July 10 as the suspects were trying to flee to Miami.

Keenan, who had beaten up and shot (but not killed) another man during a meth binge only three days before killing Opel, escaped from jail three times before the close of his murder trial. This has fueled speculation that Opel was killed as a part of a police conspiracy, however, Bay Area county jails experienced a wave of escapes at the time. Keenan was one of 12 inmates who broke out of San Francisco’s Hall of Justice at gunpoint on April 29, 1980. Of those 12, five including Keenan had escaped before.

As the triggerman, Keenan was given the death penalty, but the sentence was overturned on appeal in 2000. Keenan is now serving a life sentence. 

But Robert Opel lives on, as the go-to image of 70s craziness in TV news segments.
READ MORE- 

DURING FEBRUARY 2014- ANTEBELLUM HOLLYWOOD HOSTED THE ORIGINAL ARTWORKS OF ROBERT OPEL AND FEY WAY STUDIOS- 

LOMBARD STREET

Lombard Street 
  San Francisco, California - famous for a steep, one-block section with eight hairpin turns.  
The famous one-block section, claimed as "the most crooked street in the world".

CHARLES GATEWOOD IS IN CRITICAL CONDIDTION

CHARLES GATEWOOOD is a well known photographer in the fetish world. he created groundbreaking images of the san francisco sex scene during the late 60s, 70s & 80s. i had the pleasure of being in a show with charles back in the 90s at the RITA DEAN gallery in san diego. the gallery eventually closed ,moved to hollywood and became the museum of death. as a dedication to charles i am reposted this announcement from annie sprinkle-  (UPDATE- sadly charles passed on 4/28/16).. he will be missed- his iconic photography will live on))

Very sad news today. I know that many of you, my dear friends, will know Charles Gatewood and/or his incredible photography and video work. 

Sorry to say this morning, "Chaz" went off the third story balcony of his apartment on Bernal Hill (San Francisco) and is "in critical condition." He is also "stabilized"-- intubated and unconscious at this time. 

I was at the hospital today for about 5 hours with his girlfriend Eva, his past girlfriend Tiana, longtime friends Michael Rosen, Tim, and Ron Turner. Five of us got to go into Charle's ICU room and be with him for a little while and give him our love and speak to him. Eva and I felt that Chaz could hear us, but he did not respond. 

As Charles is in very critical condition, I will go ahead and post some details so you can know more. There isn't time to waste and word is of course traveling fast through our communities. Please send him some love. I do think he can feel your good thoughts and well wishes. Love is real and feels good. 

No one knows exactly what happened, however it was possibly a suicide attempt (he had been talking to friends about such things) since having a lot of back pain for a long time and some brain issues. From the fall he has two broken ankles and a broken pelvic bone. He has internal bleeding, and they said he got a lot of blood transfusions.
He actually looked quite good, and peaceful, even with all the tubes.

If you want to visit, you can private message me and I'll give you the information. Meanwhile, big group hug. I'm sure Charles would totally appreciate some morbid humor in my post but am just not feeling it. Charles was a very important person to me in the 1980s, my photography mentor, an occasional lover, collaborator, and dear valued friend. While we haven't been close in the past two decades, we have kept in touch. I do hope he will not suffer. 

It's a very good thing that Charles' invaluable, remarkable archive was bought by UC Berkley over a year ago, and they will take good care of it and it will be available for research. 

I was grateful to be there with him and his lovely chosen family today. He has many friends. His only blood family is his sister, and they have not been close. She was contacted. Chaz is 73 years old. 

Photo of Charles Gatewood (L), Spider Webb (R) and I circa 1980s,- ANNIE SPRINKLE

NELLY QUEEN: THE LIFE & TIMES OF JOSE SARRIA~

DONATE TO FINISH THIS BITCH

DOREY ALLEY~ CIRCA 2002

ANTHONY DE FRANGE

Anthony De Frange was an active member of the lively San Francisco Gay Community during important and formative years of the 60's and 70's. 

He showed at the Geary Gallery and his work appeared in many venues including the cover of "California Scene." His work is currently in the collection of the Leslie/Lohman Gallery in New York. His paintings are a visual legacy of a culture, generation and era fundamental to queer history and identity. Antebellum Hollywood has one orginial De Frange oil painting circa~ 1967.. very rare...come by and check it out

antebellum@earthlink.net

 

TODAY IS HARVEY MILK DAY!

URBAN WATERFALL

FAGGOTS ARE FANTASTIC

FAGGOTS ARE FANTASTIC

is a photo shot by DANNY NICOLETTA during the castro street fair circa 1978.

the babes in the photo are ANTHONY ROGERS AKA HARMODIOUS & his friend HOTI.

anthony rogers was the boyfriend of ROBERT OPEL when he first opened

 FEY WAY STUDIOS during march 1978.

 

this male nude was shot by ROBERT OPEL for 

THE ADVOCATE MAGAZINE circa 1977.

robert worked as a freelance photographer in los angeles during 

1973 thru 1978.

this vintage print of artist~ THE HUN was featured @ FEY WAY STUDIOS during 1979.

this original artwork was created by artist~ ZACH way back in 1977 and was featured @

 FEY WAY STUDIOS during 1978.

this cute vintage poster by R. CRUMB~circa 1972 was  prominitely featured @

 FEYWAY STUDIOS TOILET.

these 70s gems and many others will be on display during february 14th thru march 22nd @

ROBERT OPEL: THE RES~ERECTION OF FEY WAY STUDIOS

opening night~ february 14th

6pm till 9pm

$10 cover

THE WHITE NIGHT RIOTS OF 1979

The White Night riots were a series of violent events sparked by an announcement of the lenient sentencing of Dan White, for the assassinations of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk. The events took place on the night of May 21, 1979 (the night before what would have been Milk's 49th birthday) in San Francisco. Earlier that day, White had been convicted of voluntary manslaughter, the lightest possible conviction for his actions.  As absurd as it sounds, Dan White's denfense team claimed that because of his junk food diet and ingestion of twinkies, he was not of rational mind.

The gay community of San Francisco had a longstanding conflict with the San Francisco Police Department. White's status as a former police officer intensified the community's anger at the SFPD. Initial demonstrations took place as a peaceful march through the Castro district of San Francisco. After the crowd arrived at the San Francisco City Hall, violence began. The events caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of property damage to City Hall and the surrounding area, as well as injuries to police officers and rioters.

Several hours after the riot had been broken up, police made a retaliatory raid on a gay bar in San Francisco's Castro District. Many patrons were beaten by police in riot gear. Two dozen arrests were made during the course of the raid, and several people later sued the SFPD.

After nearly three hours of shouts from the angry crowd, officers moved in to quell the riot. Police reportedly covered their badges with black tape—preventing any identification—and attacked rioters. Dozens of police officers swept into the crowd, using tear gas to force protesters away from the building. Police were surprised at the resistance they faced from the protesters, who attempted to push them back using tree branches, chrome torn off city buses, and asphalt ripped from the street, as weapons. As one man ignited the last police car he shouted to a reporter "Make sure you put in the paper that I ate too many Twinkies." Sixty officers were injured, and about two dozen arrests were made.

(dan white gets away with murder using the "twinkie defense")

The second stage of the violence was a police raid/riot hours later in the predominantly gay Castro neighborhood, which vandalized the Elephant Walk bar and injured many of its occupants.  After order was restored at City Hall, SFPD cars carrying dozens of officers headed into the Castro District. Officers entered a gay bar called the Elephant Walk, despite their orders not to do so. They shouted "dirty cock suckers" and "sick faggots", shattered the large plate glass windows of the bar, and attacked patrons. After 15 minutes police withdrew from the bar and joined other officers who were indiscriminately attacking gays on the street. The incident lasted nearly two hours.

When Police Chief Charles Gain heard about the unauthorized Elephant Walk raid, he immediately went to the location and ordered his men to leave. Later that night, freelance reporter Michael Weiss saw a group of police officers celebrating at a downtown bar. "We were at City Hall the day [the killings] happened and we were smiling then," one officer explained. "We were there tonight and we're still smiling."

At least 61 police officers and an estimated 100 members of the public were hospitalized in the course of the riot. A civil grand jury convened to find out who ordered the attack, but it ended inconclusively with a settlement covering personal injury claims and damage

In the following days, gay leaders refused to apologize for the events of that night. This led to increased political power in the gay community, which culminated in the election of Mayor Dianne Feinstein to a full term, the following November. In response to a campaign promise, Feinstein appointed a pro-gay Chief of Police, which increased recruitment of gay people in the police force and eased tensions.

Deeply affected by the Milk/Moscone murders and the light sentence given to Dan White, Robert Oppel staged a  play entitled AMERICA BUSTED.

premireing on july 4th, 1979, the play had music, satire and costumes deploring the verdicts and the "twinkie defense."

He also did a parody mock trial called THE EXECUTION OF DAN WHITE
 depicting himself as Dan White asking the question~

"what would happen to a queer~gay~homosexual~pervert~cock sucker~faggot who shot and killed an ex-cop? would he get away with murder?" 

Two days later robert opel was murdered at his gallery~ FEY WAY.

READ MORE

View these original artworks and many more from ROBERT OPEL & FEY WAY STUDIOS 
circa 1978 & 79 @                   
                                                           ANTEBELLUM HOLLYWOOD.

OPENING NITE~ VALENTINE'S DAY~ FEBRUARY 14TH~ 

6PM TILL 9PM

$10 COVER