- unitid
-
{"value"=>"24575", "type"=>"local_mss"}
{"value"=>"23127742", "type"=>"local_b"}
{"value"=>"MssCol 24575", "type"=>"local_call"}
- unitdate
-
{"value"=>"1940s-2018", "type"=>"inclusive", "normal"=>"1940/2018"}
- unittitle
-
{"value"=>"Dick Leitsch papers"}
- physdesc
-
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"84 boxes, 1 oversize folder", "unit"=>"containers"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"36.76 linear feet", "unit"=>"linear_feet"}]}
{"format"=>"structured", "physdesc_components"=>[{"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"1027 computer files", "unit"=>"computer_files"}, {"name"=>"extent", "value"=>"4.3 gigabytes", "unit"=>"gigabytes"}]}
- repository
-
{"value"=>"<span class=\"corpname\">Manuscripts and Archives</span>"}
- abstract
-
{"value"=>"Dick Leitsch (1935-2018) was an American gay rights activist and author. Leitsch, who served as president of the Mattachine Society of New York from 1965 through 1971, is best known for organizing Mattachine's \"Sip-in\" protest of 1966. The Dick Leitsch papers, which date from the 1940s to 2018, reveal his activist efforts, writing career, and personal pursuits through journals, correspondence, manuscripts and published articles, research files, photographs, clippings, and ephemera."}
- langmaterial
-
{"value"=>"Multiple languages"}
{"value"=>"The bulk of the material is in English. Some material is in German."}
- origination
-
{"value"=>"Leitsch, Dick", "type"=>"persname"}
- bioghist
-
{"value"=>"<p>Dick Leitsch was an American gay rights activist and author. Born Richard Joseph Leitsch in 1935 in Louisville, Kentucky to Joseph Leitsch, a tobacco wholesaler, and Ann (Moran) Leitsch, he was the eldest of four siblings. He attended Bellarmine College in Louisville, but did not graduate.</p> <p>Dick Leitsch moved to New York City in 1959. Leitsch served as president of the Mattachine Society of New York (MSNY) from 1965 to 1971 and was best known for his \"Sip-in\" protest at Julius' Bar in Greenwich Village in 1966. Modeling their protest after Civil Rights lunch counter sit-ins of the early 1960s, Leitsch and three other Mattachine members attempted to order drinks at the bar while declaring themselves to be gay and orderly. Until that time, an arcane New York State Liquor Authority regulation forbidding bars from serving to \"disorderly\" customers combined with bigoted assumptions that all homosexuals were inherently disorderly allowed police to harass gay customers and raid gay bars. Many proprietors, fearing the loss of liquor licenses, in turn frequently refused service to gay people. The resulting photographs of the Mattachine activists being refused service taken by <span class=\"title\">Village Voice</span> photographer Fred W. McDarrah attracted publicity as intended and allowed MSNY to mount a legal challenge to the State Liquor Authority. The \"Sip-in\" protest led to the eventual easing of restrictions on gay bars and served as an early important public stand taken on behalf of gay rights.</p> <p>The Mattachine Society was a gay rights organization founded in California in 1950. Local chapters of Mattachine formed throughout the United States, including in Washington, D.C. and New York City. Mattachine Society chapters published newsletters, monitored legal cases affecting gay men and advocated on their behalf. As president of MSNY, Dick Leitsch closely watched numerous court cases, especially those regarding blackmail and entrapment. Leitsch also wrote a substantial portion of the articles appearing in MSNY newsletters during his tenure, notably including a first-person eyewitness account of the 1969 Stonewall uprising, which was reprinted in <span class=\"title\">The Advocate</span>.</p> <p>Leitsch was publicly open about his identity at a time when few people felt free to admit being gay. He acted as an early spokesperson on behalf of gay liberation by speaking on the topic at various public events and on radio and television programs in the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <p>In the early 1970s, Leitsch stepped back from activism, continuing to be involved in the gay community as a bartender and manager at various gay bars and clubs in the 1970s and 1980s. He continued to pursue a writing career, sporadically publishing essays and short stories, sometimes under pseudonyms, in a wide range of magazines while working as a waiter or at other odd jobs through the 2000s. Leitsch survived his longtime partner, Timothy Scofield, who died of complications from AIDS in 1989.</p> <p>In later years, Leitsch was interviewed by gay historians and authors writing about gay liberation including George Chauncey, David Carter, Paul Cain, Esther Newton, Eric Marcus, and Linda Hirshman. He also spoke about his activist days at various public events in the 2000s and 2010s. Leitsch died of cancer in 2018.</p>"}
- scopecontent
-
{"value"=>"<p>The Dick Leitsch papers, which date from the 1940s through 2018, are the extant personal records of the author and pre-Stonewall era gay rights leader. Significant overlap among Leitsch's personal interests, his professional curiosities, and his activist concerns is evident throughout the collection. The collection reflects Leitsch's time as a gay rights activist and leader; his creative process and output as an author; his experiences working as bartender, waiter, and at odd jobs, as well as his private life. The collection is arranged in the following series: Research; Writing; Mattachine Society of New York; Journals; Correspondence; Other Employment and Household Concerns; Speaking Engagements and Media Appearance; and Personal.</p>"}
{"value"=>"<p class='list-head'>The Dick Leitsch papers are arranged in eight series:</p>\n<ul class='arrangement series-descriptions'>\n<li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1715617'>Series I: Research</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1950s-2017</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Research series reflects Leitsch's diligent observation of popular culture and current events, as well as his interest in a wide range of historical topics and gay themes. Some, but not all, of the Research files relate directly to Leitsch's journalistic work. Research subseries include Articles, Clippings, and Magazines; Name Files; Notes and Notebooks; and Subject Files.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1715984'>Series II: Writing</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1960s-2018</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Writing series includes published and unpublished work. Leitsch's journalistic output in the late 1960s and 1970s is well represented through manuscripts and published versions of Leitch's recurring <span class=\"title\">Gay</span> magazine column in the early 1970s; <span class=\"title\">The American Bicentennial Gay Guide</span>, a travel guide that Leitsch edited; and other essays, articles, and short stories by Leitsch. Leitsch published a considerable volume of straight erotic short stories under pseudonyms in the 1970s. Drafts and published clippings of these are included in this section. Several interviews with Leitsch, as well as those conducted by Leitsch, notably an early interview with a then-unknown Bette Midler, are also present. An incomplete memoir manuscript from the early 1990s and other book project ideas and fragments are present. Researchers searching for Leitsch's Mattachine Society of New York newsletter columns and other writings penned in his capacity as MSNY president will find them in Series III: Mattachine Society of New York.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716115'>Series III: Mattachine Society of New York</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1950s-1992</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>This series encompasses files that Leitsch retained from his tenure as president of the Mattachine Society of New York (MSNY) from 1965 to 1971. It includes administrative files, correspondence, publicity files, and reference material. A near complete run of MSNY newsletters dating from 1964 to 1974, including many articles written by Leitsch but often unsigned, is present, as are newsletters of other Mattachine chapters and sibling organizations. Also contained in this series is a set of files on legal cases involving gay people and related issues, usually centering around discrimination, police entrapment, or obscenity. MSNY correspondence is between Leitsch and other MSNY officers and members. Also of note is a set of pamphlets about homosexuality apparently kept as a reference resource by MSNY. A file of newsclippings from later decades mentioning MSNY is present.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716286'>Series IV: Journals</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1955-2010</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Journals reflect both Leitsch's professional activities and personal life. Journals from the mid-1960s through 1971 reference Leitsch's official Mattachine activities. A datebook from 1966 notes the day of the \"Sip-in\" protest at Julius' Bar as well as specific dates of police entrapment of gay men around that time. Detailed typed journals from the late 1980s through the early 1990s show a slice of gay male life in New York City during the AIDS epidemic, including Leitsch's account of the illness and death of his partner Timothy Scofield.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716305'>Series V: Correspondence</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1958-2018</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The bulk of correspondence files are arranged alphabetically by correspondent name. A run of letters and drafts of letters in electronic form for which recipients are unclear precedes the alphabetical run. These electronic records are unsorted except by year. Dick Leitsch wrote many letters. He usually kept copies of his letters, which tended to be lengthy, sometimes serving as testing grounds for new ideas and written work. Leitsch's friends <span class=\"name\">Jack Nichols</span> and <span class=\"name\">Ed Yeatts</span> were his most frequent correspondents. Nichols was Leitsch's counterpart president of the Mattachine Society of Washington, D.C., as well as his editor at <span class=\"title\">Gay</span> magazine and <span class=\"title\">GayToday.com</span>. Nichols's and Yeatts's correspondence files each span several decades and contain samples of their own published writings. Notable LGBTQ+ authors who appear among Leitsch's correspondence, include <span class=\"name\">Esther Newton</span>, <span class=\"name\">George Chauncey</span>, <span class=\"name\">David Carter</span>, <span class=\"name\">Paul Cain</span>, and <span class=\"name\">Eric Marcus</span>. After his cancer diagnosis, Leitsch received letters of appreciation for his youthful activism from Bill and <span class=\"name\">Hillary Clinton</span> and <span class=\"name\">Barack Obama</span>.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716396'>Series VI: Other Employment and Household Concerns</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1970-2008</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Files in the Other Employment and Household Concerns series pertain to non-activist, non-writing paid work Leitsch performed to pay personal expenses and to supplement often unpaid volunteer roles he held over the course of his life. This series is a testament to the diminished earning potential that publicly out LGBTQ+ people of this time period faced and its specific impact upon Leitsch's life. Files hold resumes; job application cover letters; a bartending school diploma; menus and bar supply lists; material on a gay club Leitsch managed in the late 1970s called Warehouse Pier 51; and correspondence documenting occasional personal financial turmoil and disputes with the landlord of his longtime residence on the Upper West Side.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716440'>Series VII: Speaking Engagements and Media Appearances</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1966-2016</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>The Speaking Engagements and Media Appearances series includes a file on Leitsch's testimony before the New York State Assembly during their 1971 hearings on homosexuality and his television appearances on <span class=\"title\">The David Susskind Show</span>, <span class=\"title\">The Dick Cavett Show</span>, and <span class=\"title\">The Phil Donahue Show</span>. A file relating to later public appearances from 2000 to the 2010s is also present.</p></div></li><li><div class='series-title'><a href='/mss/24575#c1716458'>Series VIII: Personal</a></div>\n<div class='series-date'>1940s-2018</div>\n<div class='series-description'><p>Series VIII contains primarily personal materials that document Leitsch's early life and family through photographs; Pride celebration programs; religion files; travel files; and ephemera and miscellaneous files. This series shows evidence of Leitsch's wide-ranging interests and includes personal effects such as address books and mementos of his school days. Also included is a group of files on drag performer Billie (Billy) Kamp.</p></div></li></ul>\n", "type"=>"arrangement"}
- acqinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Donated by <span class=\"name\">Dick Leitsch</span> in <span class=\"date\">2018</span>.</p>"}
- processinfo
-
{"value"=>"<p>Processed by <span class=\"name\">Heather Halliday</span> in <span class=\"date\">2023</span>.</p>"}
- accessrestrict
-
{"value"=>"<p>Contact the Manuscripts and Archives division (manuscripts@nypl.org) with questions regarding access to audio and moving image materials.</p>"}
- relatedmaterial
-
{"value"=>"<p>Mattachine Society, Inc. of New York Records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library</p>"}
- date_start
-
1940
- keydate
-
1940
- date_end
-
2018
- date_inclusive_start
-
1940
- date_inclusive_end
-
2018
- extent_statement
-
36.76 linear feet (84 boxes, 1 oversize folder). 4.3 gigabytes (1027 computer files)
- prefercite
-
{"value"=>"Dick Leitsch papers, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library"}