As you may or may not know, one of the greatest pleasures in my life is to sort things into piles and create lists. Make of that what you will.
So when I recently came across those ticket stubs from the early 70s that I wrote about in one of my posts from Sydney, I got excited because it gave me a reason to create another list!
And here it is. A chronologically ordered list of my Sydney ticket stubs from February 1972 to May 1973 – those crucially important 16 months of my life.
What strikes me is how many dances, parties, new and old films and live theatre, not to forget a Rolling Stones concert, that I actually got to! My new friends, lovers and mentors in Sydney took me under their wing and I saw many things that I would not have seen if it hadn’t been for them.
Thanks to them, I learned so much about how to be a proper homo!
Here’s the key to the ticket stubs:
- Film – with its year of production
- Bold – Live Theatre
- Italics – Dance/Party
BTW, if you’re viewing this table on a mobile device, you’ll have to scroll across.
| DATE | WHAT | WHERE | WITH | COST |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 19 ’72 | The Boy Friend (’72) | Barclay | $1.75 | |
| Feb 27 | Carnal Knowledge (’71) | Regent | $2 | |
| Mar 3 | Aquarius Dance | Jewish House | Steve Golde | |
| Mar 8 | Klute (’71) | Darion New, Michael and Steven | $2 | |
| Mar 14 | Evening Students’ Party | Student Union Cellar, U. of Sydney | ||
| Mar 21 | Sunday, Bloody Sunday (’71) | Mayfair | $1.40 | |
| Mar 25 | CAMP Inc Dance | 393 Darling St, Balmain | ||
| Apr 2 | X, Y and Zee (Zee & Co.) (’72) | Bob Donaugh | ||
| Apr 18 | Love’s Labour’s Lost | Theatre Royal | Anna Lovett (my landlady), Tony, Alistair | |
| Apr 23 | The French Connection (’71) | Plaza | Steve Golde | $2.25 |
| Apr 25 | The Diary of a Mad Housewife (’70) | Paramount | Dave Schofield | |
| May 6 | Jesus Christ, Superstar | Capitol | Barry Prothero | |
| May 9 | Boys in the Band (’70) | Forum | Chuck Meakin | $2 |
| May 27 | CAMP Inc Dance | 393 Darling St, Balmain | Roger & Paul, Tony, Rex Wright, Chuck Meakin | |
| Jun 23 | The Last Picture Show (’71) | Gala | Paul Shaw | |
| July 5 | The Concert for Bangladesh (’72) | Henry Tunbridge & Gaye | $1 | |
| Jul 8 | Sydney Gay Liberation Fundraising Dance | 393 Darling St, Balmain | ||
| Jul 29 | Marx Bros (’33) + Laurel & Hardy (’32) | Student Union Theatre, U. of Sydney | My pupils from St. Mary’s School | |
| Sep 4 | City Bus Excursion | City of Brisbane | ||
| Sep 4 | The Revolutionary Group (Band?) | Queensland Uni dance | Peter | |
| Sep 22 | Godspell | Dianne Reggett, Jenny, Jan and John | ||
| Sep 22 | Sydney Gay Liberation Fundraising Dance | Upper Floor, Manning House, U. of Sydney | ||
| Sep 29 | Cabaret (’72) | Mayfair | Terry Sanders | |
| Oct 30 | Ferry | from Palm Beach to Bobbin Head | 4th, 5th & 6th Years from St. Mary’s | |
| Nov 11 | What’s Up Doc? (’72) | Lyceum | Terry Sanders | |
| Dec 9 | Harold & Maude (’71) | Theatre Crow’s Nest | Robert Tucker | $1.60 |
| Dec 15 | Pub/Club | Midas Club, Parramatta Rd, Petersham | Terry, Robert, John | |
| Jan 27 ’73 | Citizen Kane (’41) | Ritz Randwick | Robert Tucker | |
| Feb 9 | Cabaret (again!) | Mayfair | John Storey | |
| Feb 26 | Rolling Stones Live | Randwick Racecourse | Henry Tunbridge | |
| Mar 12 | Borsalino (’70) & The Conformist (’70) | Penthouse (?) | Robert Tucker | $1 |
| Mar 18 | The Blue Angel (’30) & Tristana (’70) | Mosman Classic | John, Terry, Robert & Leigh | $2 |
| Mar 30 | Travels with my Aunt (’72) | Bruce Jones | $1 | |
| Mar 31 | Harold & Maude (again!) | Wintergarden | Bruce Jones | $1.70 |
| Apr 15 | Rail Ticket | Visiting Bruce’s Nana, Nollie and Aunt Liz in Leura in the Blue Mountains | Bruce Jones | |
| Apr 17 | Rail Ticket | My last day teaching at de la Salle School, Marrickville | ||
| Apr 26 | Two Gentlemen of Verona | Her Majesty’s, Melbourne | Michael Sullivan & Bernadette | |
| Apr 27 | Gay Lib Dance, “Gender Confusion” | In Melbourne | With Melbourne Gay Libbers | |
| May 5 | Sydney Gay Lib Dance | Paddo Town Hall | “Everyone was there!” My last night in Sydney |
Where do queer/trans archives belong and how should they be handled?
After having used my old queer archives and other ephemera to write these posts of mine, I have sent much of it off to various institutions and independent queer archives in different cities around the world, including Toronto, Montreal, London, Sydney and Melbourne. I can say more about that whole process another time but what I want to say now is that, by making those donations, many questions have arisen in my head about queer archiving. Such as:
- Who is best able to care for them, promote them, update them and make them available?
- Independent/community-based archives or large, publicly-funded institutions?
- Are archives better kept locally or centralized in the capital cities?
- Should archives be digitized or kept as hard copies?
- Are the archives mainly for academic researchers or should they be more broadly accessible?
- As for individuals’ collections:
- Should an individual’s archives be kept all in one place as a “Collection” or spread out across different archives?
- Should an individual’s queer and non-queer archives be kept in the same place or kept separate?
- What counts as queer anyway?
- How do we ensure that diverse communities are engaged and feel safe with queer/trans archiving collections to guarantee that collections are broadened beyond older, white, cisgender gay men’s collections like mine!
There are not necessarily right or wrong answers to these questions. In fact, many “proper” archivists are studying these questions and coming up with all kinds of thoughts and solutions. I’d like to write more about all this another time.
In the meantime, here’s one final glance at those tickets. In colour.
