A collection of photographs of a gay wedding in 1957 have been found and researchers are trying to find out who the men are.
“We have put in months and months and months investigating who these guys are,” said Neal Baer, who is on the board of the ONE Archives Foundation in Los Angeles, where the pictures are being kept.
He and Michael Wolfe, a writer and former academic who is an expert at retelling life stories, and P.J. Palmer, a filmmaker, are in the midst of assembling the backstory on where exactly the photos came from.
Their research so far is documented on their site OurOneStory.com. The photographs were printed at a drugstore in Philadelphia and they seem to capture a gay wedding ceremony. The photos capture an exchange of rings in front of witnesses, the first kiss, dancing, gifts, cutting of cake and so on.
The photos were not returned to the men who went to the drugstore to have them printed, as the printer deemed them ‘inappropriate’ and refused to give them back to the grooms.
Reflecting on the first time he saw the photos, Wolfe said “We just left pretty stunned. We were a little bright-eyed about, ‘Oh, we’ll just go and find the guys in these photos,’ but it’s turned into a long-term project.”
Baer said “Does anybody recognise them? We’d love to know that.” Baer has written for television shows such as ER and Law & Order SVU.
The unknown grooms would likely be in their 80s or 90s if still alive.
“What would be a huge help is just getting these photos in front of a bunch of 80 and 90-year-olds,” said Baer.
“We are hopeful that in the connected age that we could spread them fairly widely and get more eyes on them,” said Wolfe. “There are too many recognizable faces among the set that we couldn’t find a match.”
Got a lead? Contact ouronestory.com.
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