Cross Gender in the Gay Old Days
by Vincent Astor In her early days, Memphis was anything but a sleepy river town. I’ve lived part of the LGBT history of the city, and thanks to the work…
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Posts by author
Vincent Astor
10 posts
Local historian, especially of the GLBT community, a long-time contributor to GLBT community publications.
Original Memphis: Gay River Cruises of the 80s
by Vincent Astor | images courtesy of Vincent Astor 1980 was a very busy year for activism in Memphis. The Tennessee Gay Coalition for Human Rights had a Memphis chapter…
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Bill Kendall: The Man Who Brought Gay Films to Memphis
by Vincent Astor | photos from the Memphis Public Library Collection edited by Joan Allison and Chris Reeder-Young The late William ‘Bill’ Kendall was no stranger to controversy. In the…
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Celebrating Stonewall 50
story and photos by Vincent Astor I’ve been to two of the big anniversaries of the Stonewall Uprising, the 25th in 1994 and the 50th in June. Just as I’ve…
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Journey to Pride with Vincent Astor
Vincent Astor, who’s been an out gay man in Memphis for many years, is reporting from New York City this weekend for the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots and…
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Original Memphis: Enchanted Forest
story by Vincent Astor (above photo an elf from the 1980s, courtesy of the Pink Palace Museum) Goldsmith’s downtown was a wonderful store with numerous departments on several floors. It…
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Hoist and the Memphis Leather Community
by Vincent Astor | photos courtesy of Hoist (Above photo, left to right: Jim Pickens, Vice President; Ken Briggs, Road Captain; Jake Tanner, Sgt. at Arms; Mark Keidaish, President;…
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A PRETTY LITTLE ROOM: Alice Mitchell at Bolivar Asylum: An Opera Scene
story by Vincent Astor This story is an epilogue to the one previously published in Focus Mid-South magazine, Alice & Freda, by Vincent Astor In a city rich with history…
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Alice & Freda: In 1892, Memphis girls’ young love ends tragically, creates national headlines
by Vincent Astor It was one of the saddest days in the history of Grace Episcopal Church. A very young parishioner, 17-year old Frederica Ward, was being laid to rest.…
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Heart Strings: How a 1989 Musical United Memphis & Raised Critical Funds for HIV/AIDS
by Vincent Astor | photos courtesy OUTMemphis, and David Sheppard ©2017 DIFFA According to a Chicago Tribune article from September 7, 1989, Heart Strings was ‘an upbeat musical production…
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