June 1st in Gay History

In the words of Oscar Hammerstein II:

But it's comin' by dawn,

We can feel it come,

You can feel it in your heart

You can see it on the ground

Just because it's June,

June, June!

On this day in 1901, English playwright, director, & screenwriter John van Druten was born. In the early 1930s, he was one of the most successful playwrights in London with star studded West End productions: Diversion, After All, There's Always Juliet, Behold, We Live& Flowers of the Forest. Van Druten moved to the USA where one of his successful plays- Bell, Book, & Candle was made into a rather good movie in 1950 starring Kim Novak & Jimmy Stewart. The original play was about the gay underground in NYC's Greenwich Village, with witches & their magic substituting for gay & special. Bell, Book & Candle is about witches living in the village. They have special 'witch bars,' & they are always worrying about being outed.

Van Druten wrote the very good screenplays for Old Acquaintance, Voice Of The Turtle & Leave Her To Heaven.  His play- I Am A Camera was based on the Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood & was the basis for the musical Cabaret. He was gay & English, always a winning combination in my opinion. 

On this day in 1970, Sexology magazine reported that a study shows that gay men have larger penises than heterosexual men.

On this day in 1994, the Pentagon considered a proposal from the Air Force requesting funds to build a "gay bomb" that would turn enemy troops gay. The proposal came to light in 2007 when the Sunshine Project discovered it through a Freedom of Information Act disclosure. As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested: "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior." I like the idea of the Iraqis & the US soldiers in an orgy of lust... the war would have gone much differently. The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon. They called the new weapon- Poppers. Really.