Film: The Sons of Tennessee Williams

TNG Founder Ben submitted this post.

From Tim Wolff, director/producer of The Sons of Tennessee Williams:

The Sons of Tennessee Williams is the story of the gay men of New Orleans who created a vast and fantastic culture of "drag balls" starting in the late 1950s. These men worked with the traditions of Mardi Gras to bring gay culture into public settings in the early 1960s. By 1969, there were four gay Mardi Gras krewes, legally chartered by the state of Louisiana, throwing yearly extravaganzas at civic venues around the city. "Society matrons begged for ball tickets from their hairdressers".

They succeeded in bringing down the “Jim Crow” laws that targeted gay people for offenses such as public assembly, same-sex dancing and cross-dressing. They staged a flamboyant costumed revolution without politics and won freedoms during a time, as now, when laws and people fought against them.

When I was in college at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, I had the honor of pulling floats for the Krewe of Apollo at their annual Mardi Gras Ball in Lafayette, LA. Apollo is one of two gay Krewes in the Acadiana region of Louisiana, where I was raised, and the experience of serving their court was unforgettable. After the procession of royalty (many outfits cost tens of thousands of dollars each) me and my friend Chris, both dressed in tuxedos, dragged the costumed titans of Apollo around the floor of the Cajundome while 12,000 drunk straight people dressed in their finest formal attire screamed their approval.

In the center of the floor, dozens of tables were set for the members of the Krewe and their honored guests. I remember sitting at my table prior to the promenade, looking around and above me at the stacked tiers of well dressed heterosexuals bristling with excitement and revelry as they settled in to their top dollar seats in anticipation for the show. I had been out of the closet for only a couple of years, but the expression of my sexuality was limited to well defined parameters of a life lived in shadows. Being on stage (in a sense) that night and seeing the way that straight people in my own community were drawn to what these gay men had created opened a door on my limited notions of gay acceptance. I've never related to drag culture or worn a dress, but I'm grateful to all those men wearing heels who provided me in grand fashion the experience of not feeling judged by any standard except a fabulous one. It was my first real sense of gay power.

Tim Wolff, the director of this documentary, asks that you consider being a financial sponsor of this history project. All donations qualify for a federal tax exemption, and the production “has been conceived and produced entirely in the city of New Orleans, by people who have loved this place and lost because of it.” If you care to make a small donation, you can contact Tim at timwolffhouse@yahoo.com. As I understand it, the film will be released this spring.

Here's a little lagniapppe: Videos of a recent Krewe of Apollo Ball (at the Cajundome):