Such elaborate gatherings likely were denied to gay men who were not wealthy and white, Prusaczyk said. The only African-Americans in the pool party footage are wearing white uniforms, serving food to the other men. Something else that was kept separate: whites and people of color. “And so that’s how I kept my identity separate.” “If somebody approached me and called me ‘Rich,’ I knew they were associated with the Ladue School District,” Eaton said. To keep track, he only went by “Richard” in his social circle.
In most of his 40 years there, Eaton led a double life. “I didn’t know what he would do with the information.”Įaton worried the doctor might call his employer, the Ladue School District, jeopardizing his job as guidance counselor at Ladue High School. “I went to my new doctor, and one of the first questions he asked me, have I ever had any sexual experiences with other men - and I lied,” Eaton said. This photo shows Richard Eaton at Ladue High School, where he was a counselor for 40 years.
Louis Mayor Slay in 2014, before same-sex marriage was legal. He and John Durnell were among the four couples married by St. He dated women publicly and men, on the side.įor years, Eaton, 78, couldn’t imagine having a partner, much less a husband. Among those is Richard Eaton of Soulard, who grew up in the 1940s and '50s. Several people who aren’t in the home movies can testify to what it was like to be gay in mid-century St. Louis, and what it was like to lead a double life. Richard Eaton talks about being a gay man in mid-century St. “But I don't I don't know if we'll actually find them.” “We naively set out thinking, ‘Oh, these men might be in their mid-90s, they could still be alive,’ and that might be true,” Prusaczyk said. He and co-director Beth Prusaczyk have found several family members besides Seagraves but so far no living pool-party guests. Story began learning about their world when he found Seagraves through a jagged journey to locate anyone who appears in the films, or their relatives. Walton and his partner Sam Micatto were known for their lavish gatherings by the pool on a property owned by the Micatto family. Bry’s nurse Carol and Walton’s partner Sam Micatto. Erwin Bry sits in front of, from left to right, Buddy Walton, Samie Cohen, Mrs.
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“Queens and presidents wives and movie stars - he was always around fancy places and fancy things,” Seagraves said. Louis’ “hairdresser to the stars.”įrom Eleanore Roosevelt to Ethel Merman, whenever celebrities and dignitaries came to town, they all went to Walton’s salon at The Chase, said Walton’s niece Susie Seagraves. It was at the Lindell Boulevard home of the now-deceased Buddy Walton, widely known as St. Story stumbled upon the films in the mid-1990s, a half century after the pool party, at an estate sale. Watch a clip from the 1945 home movies of gay men at a pool party. “I kind of couldn’t believe I was seeing it.” “There was such a beauty in that moment,” Story said. Louis filmmaker Geoff Story has begun weaving the films into a documentary, “Gay Home Movie.” It offers a rare glimpse into a largely invisible world, a time when same-sex relationships were not only looked at as immoral - they were illegal.Īs a gay man, Story is fascinated by the brittle, flickering scenes that include a uniformed World War II soldier kissing another man.