1990’s – Brian Ferrari's Blog

Remembering Michael Kearns (1950-2026)

Michael Kearns had nine lives. The actor, activist, author, and teacher was born January 8, 1950, in St. Louis, Missouri and passed away on October 5, 2026 at 76 years old. Among the many notices online, the BoyCulture site posted an exhaustive tribute, while political reporter Karen Ocamb shared personal stories about their unlikely friendship.

Here are some photos and interviews in the gay press from the 1970’s & 1980’s to illustrate the importance of Michael Kearns’ voice in the gay community at the time. He was an unapologetic trailblazer who sometimes made mistakes but wasn’t afraid to talk about them.

Although he had been acting since childhood, Kearns’ breakthrough was a starring role was in the L.A. production of the infamous Tom Eyen / Jeff Barry musical revue The Dirtiest Show In Town. Kearns later said, “Suddenly I found myself on stage with my clothes off, playing gay and straight characters in sort of sketch material. Then I sort of got this reaction in the gay press and also about that time I became, simultaneously, a party boy.”

Fast-forward a couple of years: Kearns’ “roommate” is erotic fiction author Thom Recina. He writes a book to cash in on the success of Xaviera Hollander’s The Happy Hooker. Kearns is paid $250 to pose as fictional author Grant Tracy Saxon for the cover photos of The Happy Hustler. The publisher decides to take it a step further and have Kearns portray this person for interviews, talk shows and live appearances.

The feature below from the June, 1975 issue of In Touch magazine is an interesting read, with elements of Kearns’ life interwoven with the fictional Saxon. While he may not have actually been the hustler that he was pretending to be, he would move further in that direction as the 1970’s wore on.

“The first time I saw Betty White… she was just walking around behind the theatre and she had the remains of a hot dog, and she was feeding all the birds. Then, we would sort of share in that exercise of feeding the birds. And she became very motherly… and I was always sort of looking for that motherly affection, and she was very maternal and very sweet.”

“Everyone wants to assume that there were problems between Calvin (Culver, aka Casey Donovan) and me. There were never problems… We got along really fabulously, in spite of what anyone might say.”

*Kearns with Jack Wrangler in* Mandate magazine (June, 1976)

In his memoir The Truth Is Bad Enough, Kearns did not mince words in his recollections of working onstage with Jack Wrangler, describing him as ” a monster of duplicitous self-creation.”

A fan letter and a Kenn Duncan photo shoot (After Dark, 1976)

In Touch Magazine #35 (May/June 1978):

In 1979, Kearns made a memorable appearance in the gay adult film classic L.A. Tool and Die. “I was sort of this outlaw and this gay liberationist without knowing I was. Because I can look back at L.A. Tool and Die, and what I can say for fact is that I was loaded and there were many negatives about the film, but the positive was that I once and for all said to the world, ‘I’m a faggot. There’s no turning back now, no matter what.'”

In the 1980’s he became one of the first actors to publicly acknowledge that he was HIV positive while still garnering work in film and television.

Interview in the October, 1988 issue of Mandate:

*Publicity still for the play* Dream Man (1988)

“I’m happy I made the movie, not that I would go back, and that people know me from that and the book, but there’s so much more to me, and I’m disappointed when I meet someone who wants to keep the communication on that level.”

Kearns overall commitment to the gay community is to help people understand that you can be what you want to be on your own terms, and survive and be gay, even if you have to create your own career and reinvent yourself. “I’ve really done it by never compromising.”

Tony Ward In Touch Magazine (1985)

Madonna’s triumphant return to the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards contained many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameos during her performance of “Danceteria.” One of those was her ex-boyfriend and music video co-star Tony Ward.

*Ward & Madonna, 1990 (photo: Herb Ritts)*

I had just recently revisited Ward’s cover photo & layout in the March, 1985 issue of In Touch For Men. (The featured John Waters interview will be posted at a later date). Credited by his full name, baby-faced Anthony Borden Ward was 21 years old when the issue hit the newsstands. He already had four years of modeling experience under his belt, working with photographer Herb Ritts and modeling for Calvin Klein. (Although his socks are not visible in the photos, they are credited to CK.)

Ward also appeared in promotional shots for In Touch later that year:

*An outtake from the original photo shoot later appeared in the January, 1990 issue of* In Touch.

Ward went on to appear in Madonna’s videos for “Cherish” (1989, directed by Herb Ritts), “Justify My Love”(1990) and “Erotica” (1992). He also appeared in Madonna’s 1992 book Sex. He starred in Bruce LaBruce’s movie Hustler White (1996), the 1998 documentary Sex/Life In L.A, and dozen other films and music videos.

Besides his work in front of the camera, Tony Ward is also a painter and photographer. He lives in Palm Springs, CA.

Bindle Zine #11 is Here!

It’s been a minute since I last contributed to Bindle zine. The new Autumn, 2026 issue features my poem “Medora, North Dakota, 1997” along with a link to hear a spoken word version in the electronica track Under The Stars by Fox Ferrari. This is a collaboration with my husband, Tobias Fox Ferrari, who also contributed artwork for the issue.

“Medora, North Dakota, 1997” is dedicated to Jennifer Kay, my dance partner for that summer in Medora. She passed away suddenly in June, 2026.

Medora, North Dakota, 1997

There was that moment of elation when we became stars under the stars
as the fireworks flew and 2000 sold out seats snapped closed like clams:
The audience leapt to their feet with cheers and applause
that washed over us like those warm summer winds.
Our smiles as wide and gen-u-ine as that North Dakota sky.

We recited our cornball jokes between the knife-thrower and the dog act.
Exit stage left for a quick switch to the clog shoes and back onstage again.
I landed that double pirouette every time and we did our lifts
and cartwheels and flips and nobody dropped a girl.

In our dressing rooms under the stage, the horses clattered overhead.
We kept our boots upright so no critters crawled in again.
Looking for a temporary home, just like us, like the show dogs and ponies.
We found our place there, if only for a time.

We sit in the audience now—watching disinterested boys
with halfhearted smiles lifting leaden buffalo gals.
We reluctantly stand in our snake-free shoes and join the customary ovation,
wishing we had just one more chance to give our 110%
and bask in that well-earned breeze.

You can get a real, paper copy of Bindle for free! Send your mailing address to subscribe@bindlezine.com, or fill out the form at bindlezine.com/subscribe. Thanks as always to Jonathan Russell for making Bindle happen.

bin•dle (noun): a bundle of clothes or bedding, stereotypically carried on a stick by runaway children and transients.

“We all wander through our lives, and we collect memories, possessions, and relationships. Bundle them all together, and you have yourself a bindle. Our zine represents a collection of writing and art and photography – a bindle of creativity that we send across America, a tramp in search of a mailbox.”

Dolly Parton Ephemera

Ephemera: collectible printed or written items that were originally meant to be used for a short time and discarded.

I love the word. Would it surprise anyone to know that I have a file cabinet full of clippings on my favorite female singers & girl groups of the past… uh… century? Clearly, I do not find ephemera to be ephemeral.

What more can be said about dearly departed Dolly Parton? Plenty have eulogized her since her passing. Here I offer random tidbits from my Dolly Parton file along with a few paragraphs I contributed to an article in The Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger.

First, we have some clippings from Billboard magazine in 1965. Monument records was promoting her latest single – a cover of Margo Sylvia & The Tuneweavers’ “Happy Happy Birthday Baby.” Produced by Ray Stevens, Dolly’s version peaked at #108 – bubbling under the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

Her follow-up single, Busy Signal did not chart.

*Belgian 45 picture sleeve for Dolly Parton’s* “Busy Signal” *(1965)*

In August 1982, the Mandate magazine featured an article on Dolly’s latest LP, Heartbreak Express:

Dolly featured in the July 1997 Out magazine cover feature:

Earlier this month, I recounted Dolly Parton’s 2016 show at Forest Hills Stadium for Michael Perlman’s article in the Forest Hills Times / Queens Ledger:

Dusting Off The Holiday Favorites (2025)

*Volunteer Santas, NYC (1977) photo: Susan Meiselas*

I know I am not alone when I say that I take comfort in the annual repetition of the holidays: revisiting holiday-themed music, films, television shows… and now internet posts. Dave Holmes’ account of Patti LaBelle’s disastrous performance at the 1996 National Christmas Tree lighting is worth an annual revisit. Trust me.

Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.

While we’re mining the past and dusting off our chestnuts, here’s the intro to the 1999 holiday episode of Bri-Guy’s Media Surf, an NYC Public Access show that featured yours truly lip-syncing a little Esquivel:

Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.

I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at the top of the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.

*Gabe Pressman (left) with Marilyn Monroe (1956)*

I used to look forward to the annual Christmas Eve tradition on NBC New York’s evening news when reporter Gabe Pressman would read “Yes Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus.” I taped it in 2011, knowing that the tradition wouldn’t last forever. The self-described “little Jewish kid from the Bronx” was 87 years old at the time and continued to work at NBC until his death at age 93.

NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.

But wait! There’s more: My other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge.

I recently updated Your Guide To Gay Disposable Holiday Movies, highlighting 16 of the gayest Lifetime/Hallmark/Netflix movies of the past few years:

We now have four 60 Degrees Girl Group Christmas playlists! These have been running each week this month on East Village Radio. Click here for streaming:

11/30/2025 Christmas Show #1: Holiday 60’s chicks and girl groups featuring lots of songs about snow and snowmen, winters warm and cold, blue holidays and Christmas trees.

12/7/2025 Christmas Show #2: The Classic Christmas Episode – our first holiday show from 2008. Featuring Darlene Love, Carla Thomas, The Supremes, Honey & The Bees and more.

12/14/2025 Christmas Show #3: British singers, obscure soul Christmas tracks, favorites from the Spector stable of artists, Motown and more!

12/21/2025 – Christmas Show #4: Featuring soul divas, duets, a boogie woogie Christmas, country ladies, Chess gospel soul and some ladies that really want a Beatle for Christmas.

I recently posted about Truman Capote’s classic short story A Christmas Memory, which includes the entire text, Capote’s 1959 reading of the story, and a link to watch the Emmy Award-winning 1966 television version starring Geraldine Page. Highly Recommended.

There’s a new Motown Christmas Special this year that has already aired in prime time this month, featuring Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and The Temptations. Here is my take on the 1987 Motown Christmas Special – which featured very few Motown acts.

Here are 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film.

My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.

Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? After years of speculation, last year I was able to identify the actress as Daisy Bufford.

The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” a 2024 Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.

Also – would you like to hear my Spotify holiday playlist?

Way back in 2002, when Limewire was a thing and people listened to music on silvery discs, I started creating Christmas CD mixes that I would mail out or give to people. These were received with a heartwarming combination of feigned delight, veiled indifference and deafening silence. None of these CDs had a pressing of more than 20 copies. I’d like to call them “much sought after” – but no, that’s not really the case, although every once in a while, someone really got into them and would ask for copies of other volumes.

And so, I’m offering this simple playlist…. for kids from 1 to 92. Unfortunately some of the tracks on these dozen CDs are not on Spotify, but I keep adding songs that would be on the current CD volume… if there was one. And now the playlist is over 18 hours of holiday tunes. I recommend listening on shuffle – there’s something to irritate everyone. Enjoy!

Here’s one more nugget to stuff in your stocking: This vid went viral in 2011. Choreographed and performed by Alex Karigan & Zac Hammer of the Amy Marshall Dance Company, it was filmed in one continuous take at the New 42nd St. Dance Studios. There’s something infectious about it: the joy, the corniness, the celebratory queerness of it all. It makes me want to dust off my jazz shoes. Once a year.

Remembering Bob Harrington

While doing research for my previous post about a 1990 tour of gay Greenwich Village, I found a December 1991 clipping from Bob Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” column tucked into my journal. Harrington’s column was a regular feature in the performing arts publication Back Stage. In pre-internet days, performers would buy this print weekly for the audition listings. “Bistro Bits” was a column highlighting the cabaret scene. It was here that the annual Bistro Awards began in 1985 – created by Harrington to honor excellence in cabaret .

Another prominent feature in Back Stage at the time were the obituaries. Every week there would be death notices for entertainment industry professionals – usually young men dying far too young of “undisclosed causes.” This was at the height of the AIDS crisis and the stigma surrounding it may be lost on those too young to remember. “AIDS complications” were seldom cited in obituaries and listing it as a cause of death could be considered slander. That said, some men began to request its inclusion in their eventual obit: a final act of defiance in a world that was dragging its feet to find a cure.

I mention this to give some context to the level of courage it took for Harrington to write this column.

Robert William Harrington was born on October 2, 1950 in Richmond Hill, Queens and grew up in East Meadow on Long Island. Harrington graduated from East Meadow High School in 1968. He was just a couple of years younger than both of my parents, who graduated from W.T. Clarke, East Meadow district’s other high school. He then went on to study at SUNY Oneonta, where he graduated in 1972.

Harrington honed his writing skills while working as a bartender and became known as an expert on the cabaret scene. In 1982, he began writing a column for the Long Island monthly magazine NightLife. He continued writing for the publication when they moved to New York City in 1984 and also launched his “Bistro Bits” column in Back Stage. In 1986, he began contributing reviews for the New York Post, and was an occasional guest on Joe Franklin’s local television talk show.

Harrington was a driving force behind the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs and also very active with Hearts & Voices, an organization that brought music to AIDS patients.

A few months after his announcement in Back Stage, Harrington was quoted as saying; “I’ve gotten tons of letters from people who have survived five, ten years with AIDS. This is the ’90s. We don’t have to die, we’re gonna make it.”

Bob Harrington died on October 19, 1992. He was 42 years old and was survived by his mother and three brothers.

A tribute was held at Caroline’s on November 12, 1992. The show was hosted by Jamie deRoy with performances by Julie Halston, Nancy Lamott, Jim Caruso, Margaret Whiting and Karen Saunders. All proceeds went to Hearts & Voices.

Another tribute took place the following month:

The following year, The Bistro Awards named Rosemary Clooney as the first recipient of their highest honor: The Bob Harrington Lifetime Achievement Award.

Back Stage editor-in-chief Sherry Eaker spent several years compiling Harrington’s “Bistro Bits” columns into a book. The Cabaret Artist’s Handbook: Creating Your Own Act in Today’s Liveliest Theater Setting was published in 2000.

In Touch For Men: A Tour of Gay Greenwich Village (1990)

I recently found myself perusing (as one does) the January, 1990 issue of In Touch For Men. An article titled “Touring Around The Village” caught my eye. Wesley Allen took a walking tour of Greenwich Village, writing about the gay bars, shops, and restaurants.

This was the New York City that I fell in love with – the one I would visit on day trips from Long Island and was finally able to move to the following year. (See The Lion In The Emerald City and 1991: Homo Alone for more on that. ) These were the shops I frequented and a couple of the bars, too.

Of the 26 businesses mentioned here, four of them still exist at the same locations: The Monster, Ty’s, Marie’s Crisis, and Julius. Around the time that this magazine hit the stands, The Duplex, which originally opened in 1951 at 55 Grove Street, moved to its current spot at 61 Christopher Street.

In 1991, I moved into a 5th floor walkup on East 6th Street between First Avenue and Avenue A. Tunnel Bar was my neighborhood spot, just around the corner on First Avenue at 7th Street. On slow nights, the bespectacled bald barback would sit cross-legged on the far end of the bar, absentmindedly clicking his tongue ring on his teeth like some sort of queer lizard. I couldn’t decide if it was creepy or adorable.

A few years after Tunnel Bar went out of business, Saifee, the hardware store next door expanded into the space. I would reminisce about what it used to be whenever I would go in to buy plant dirt and screws.

I used to joke that the bar I frequented the most was Uncle Charlie’s, but it was just so I could hold my friends’ coats while they cruised the preppy boys. I was invisible there – never quite handsome or stylish enough for the clientele.

*Postcard for the 56 Greenwich Avenue location of Uncle Charlie’s, which closed in September, 1997.*

The Bar on Second Avenue was another neighborhood spot that I frequented, followed by The Boiler Room, which opened right around the corner on East 4th street in 1994. The Bar went straight a few years later, undergoing many hetero iterations and name changes in the ensuing years. The Boiler Room remained its gay seedy self until the Fall of 2024, when it moved to 45 Second Avenue.

Another item of interest in this issue of In Touch: A very nice photo of Madonna paramour / model Tony Ward.

Keith Haring In Heat Magazine (1992)

I was recently perusing (as one does) the June 1992 issue of Heat, a short-lived gay men’s magazine. Amongst the pictorials of cover boy Rob Cryston and fellow gay porn stars Karl Thomas and Sam Abdul is an article titled “The Life and Loves of Keith Haring” by Jack Ricardo.

Keith Haring photographed by Don Herron (1982)

Bill T. Jones painted by Keith Haring (1983)

Keith Haring photographed by Andy Warhol, Montauk (8/22/84)

Keith Haring photographed by Annie Leibovitz (1986)

This article was published just two years after Haring’s death. In 2019, Gil Vazquez became Executive Director of the Keith Haring Foundation, a role he held for 6 years.

*Keith Haring photographed by Patrick McMullan, NYC (8/14/84)*

So Jill Sobule

Last month, when the NYC lounge Barracuda announced its closing after 30 years, I posted a couple of photos on social media from a May 5, 1997 appearance by singer/songwriter Jill Sobule. She was interviewed onstage by nightlife icon Candis Cayne, sang a couple of songs, screened the music video for “Bitter” and then met with fans.

That was 28 years ago this week. 30 years ago this same week, Jill’s single “I Kissed A Girl” was released. And now just days before both anniversaries comes the news that Jill has perished in a house fire. It’s a shocking end for such a talented individual, beloved by fans and fellow musicians.

Until the advent of YouTube, the screening of “Bitter” at Barracuda back in 1997 was the only time I ever saw the music video. MTV and VH1 certainly weren’t playing it. Her Happy Town CD had only been out for two months, but it was pretty clear that it wasn’t going to be as successful as her 1995 breakthrough LP – the one with her two hits: “I Kissed A Girl” and “Supermodel”. She would be dropped by Atlantic records by the end of 1997.

When I stepped up to meet Jill that night, I blathered on like the breathless fan that I was, telling her that the album was great and that her fans appreciated her music whether she sold 20 or 20 million copies. She seemed to be touched, gave me a hug and said “Oh, thank you so much.”

Jill sang a song at Barracuda that she had just written called “Money Shot” – a little ditty about a troubled porn star who couldn’t finish the job. She trusted that her audience at this gay club would appreciate it and the song went over well.

The following night, Jill was on the bill as part of a songwriters series at the Bottom Line in Greenwich Village. In the middle of her set, she asked the audience for song requests. I’d had a few cocktails by that point and called out “MONEY SHOT!”

I immediately regretted it.

Her wide eyes got even wider. She looked mortified as she said “Oh no.”

What had been a fun idea at a performance for gay fans in a Chelsea lounge didn’t fly in mixed company at The Bottom Line.

Five years later, I was briefly in a folk trio called The Wormwoods. We shared the bill with Jill and a dozen other singers at Joe’s Pub for two Dusty Springfield tribute concerts. She performed the classic Dusty In Memphis track “Just A Little Lovin’.”

Fast forward to August, 2011: Jill is opening for Fountains of Wayne at Bowery Ballroom on the Lower East Side. At first glance, this might appear to be an ill fit: The “I Kissed A Girl” girl and the “Stacey’s Mom” guys. Their fans can tell you that dismissing either act as a one-hit wonder is an oversight of many albums worth of smart, funny storytelling. Jill won over the Fountains of Wayne audience in no time.

Jill was at the merch table at intermission. “I think you made some new fans tonight,” I said.

She was pleasantly surprised. “They really seemed to like it, didn’t they?”

Songwriters of North America CEO Michelle Lewis called Jill Sobule “a singer/songwriter’s singer/songwriter.” I have similarly called her a musician’s musician. She often performed with just the smallest guitar and played with such intricacy that her audience could forget that it was her only accompaniment. I saw her onstage once with a small children’s keyboard that she had just picked up at a garage sale. Again, she found a way to make it sound like it was all the instrumentation that she needed.

Her song “Mexican Wrestler” epitomized her genius: heartbreakingly funny songwriting and a brilliantly nuanced performance.

Two weeks ago when Jill was opening for The Fixx on tour, she posted online about a concertgoer who took offense at her song “JD Vance is a C**t.” After the show, the woman shoved her and spewed some MAGA bile in her direction.

Jill’s response? She couldn’t wait until her next show – so that she could sing that song again.

I hate the idea of facing the next four years without her take on the unraveling of this administration. I can’t quite grasp that she won’t be here to sing “Underdog Victorious” when we are all on the other side of it.

Some of the many tributes to Jill that have popped up on social media:

Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Go’s posted a link to “So Jill,” a song she co-wrote and performed with bandmate Charlotte Caffey and Lloyd Cole after meeting Jill at a songwriters retreat in 1997.

*Photo: Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage Archive, Oct 8, 1995*

The last 25 minutes of the May 4th episode of 60 Degrees with Brian Ferrari on East Village Radio is a tribute to Jill, with her songs about Joey Heatherton and Bobbie Gentry alongside covers of “Just A Little Lovin’,” “Stone Soul Picnic” and “Que Sera Sera.” Click to have a listen – the tribute starts at 1:35.

Dusting Off The Holiday Favorites (2024)

Not to get meta or anything, but the post you are currently reading has been reworked and updated each year since 2020.

Whenever the song pops up on my holiday playlist, I still do this.

I find it interesting that we immerse ourselves in certain pop culture favorites for exactly 6 weeks of the year and then pack them up in mothballs with the ornaments until next year. I mean, Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree” is currently at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Burl Ives, Bobby Helms and Andy Williams are also in the top 10. Are any of them on your 4th of July playlist? They aren’t on mine.

NBC New York reporter Gabe Pressman’s annual segment on Virginia O’Hanlon’s 1897 letter to the New York Sun Newspaper.

In keeping with this revisit, my other blog posts of Christmas past are back to haunt you like A Christmas Carol, Mr. Scrooge:

Last year I posted Your Guide To Gay Disposable Holiday Movies, highlighting the 10 gayest Lifetime/Hallmark/Netflix movies of the past few years:

Copyright issues kept my 60 Degrees Girl Group Christmas playlists out of commission but now they are back! They have been running each week on the resurrected East Village Radio all month. Click here for streaming:
12/1/2024 – from 2008
12/8/2024 – from 2009
12/15/2024 – from 2012

And here’s a new one:

There’s a new Motown Christmas Special this year that has already aired in prime time several times this month, featuring Smokey Robinson, Gladys Knight, Martha Reeves and The Temptations. Here is my take on the 1987 Motown Christmas Special – which featured very few Motown acts.

Here are 10 Things You May Not Know About March of The Wooden Soldiers, the Laurel & Hardy classic holiday film.

My Canine Christmas Tail is a true story about my dog Sunshine, a basset hound with an appetite for tinsel.

Have you watched Christmas In Connecticut yet this year? How about that delivery woman? This year I was able to update my 2019 post, identifying Daisy Bufford as the actress who played the unbilled role.

The original version of “¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?” is featured in “Llamacita,” this year’s Amazon Prime holiday commercial. Here’s a little backstory on the song & Augie Rios, who sang the original version.