1977 San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade and Celebration

It was the year of Harvey Milk, Anita Bryant, The Briggs Initiative, and Robert Hillsborough. We were dancing at Oil Can Harry's, Buzzby's, The I-Beam, and The Trocadero. Ritch Street and Eighth and Howard were packed. Look for a few seconds of Sylvester in the parade. Does anyone else remember Pearl Heart? This film was thirty years old and some of the original sound was pretty scratchy or you could have heard Pearl sounding so much like Janis Joplin. I couldn't find anything on the internet about him except his performance with Sylvester as two drag queens in Bette Midler's "The Rose." He used to play in the Rainbow Cattle Company and I lived in a TEN DOLLAR a WEEK hotel room above the bar with my 16 year old brother. I wish I had some film of the transvestites and other characters that lived in that hotel and shared bathrooms and a kitchen. It is interesting to see the long hair of gay hippies, mustaches, and Castro clones. It so different from the conservative looks of today.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• parade
• gay
• lgbt
• 1970's
• Pearl
• Sylvester
• queer
• Milk
• San Francisco
• hippies

[beegbolt]

I believe this is actually the year 1978. "You make me feel (mighty real)" by Sylvester wasn't released until 78', and it was a huge hit that summer....obviously the pride anthem then! Classic.

[sylvanro]

You are probably right about Sylvester's song which was added later to the soundtrack to tie it all together. The original super-8 film sat in a garage for about thirty years and the original sound was extremely damaged. I was especially disappointed to have lost the sound of Pearl Hart because, other than Bette Midler's movie "The Rose," I don't think much sound of him exists. He was one of the SF icons at the time.

[knucklehead66]

Wow.

This footage is stunning, especially at 4:36

and is that Grace Jones at  9:57?

Thanks so much for posting

[sylvanro]

I do think that is Grace Jones but wouldn't swear to it. I know we went and saw Grace Jones in Brook Hall one year after the parade--- I think Etta James was there too that year but not sure if this was the same year... my memory is a little foggy... maybe somebody else remembers better... I wish the sound had come out better of Pearl... anyone know whatever happened to him???

[gaykernow]

Very brave people in 1977 going openly on a parade. We all have a great debt to them for our freedoms.

[saorik]

Thank you for sharing!!  What an amazing footage!!

[ebony38ish]

Nice to see all the people coming out for their pride. In just two years later majority of those people became sick and died from AIDS. Now they had to have demostrations for the cause of a proper medical care!!

[SkeeterVT]

The 1977 parade is notable in three respects:

1) This was the gay community's first real response to Anita Bryant's successful campaign against Miami's ordinance banning anti-gay discrimination,

2) It was the last gay parade before the introduction the following year of Gilbert Baker's now-globally-recognized Rainbow Flag,

3) Ihe influence of the hippies -- in terms of hairstyles and clothing -- was still very much in evidence, until the rise of the Village People.

[SouLoveReal]

1977? Sylvester's "Mighty Real" was not released until the summer

of 1978.

I cna't stant "condensed" (it-went-something-like-that) history.

[supermandisco]

I was one of the first DJ's to play Grace's That's The Trouble/ Sorry 12", when they didn't know who the heck that was. Funny, I also played Madonna when they didn't know her either.

[MamaMario13]

so glad society has moved on since then

[bertskoi]

it's wonderful but you may want to eventually re-process the films via DIGITAL scan in 1080p. most super-8 to video processors use home 'videocams' - 200 to 300 lines of resolution [blurry]; 1080p is HD & over 1,000 lines of brilliant, frame-per-frame scanning of hi-res digital reproduction. depending on the calibre & professionality of the service U pick, U may even be able to save the soundtrack that U referred to as damaged.

[cobolsaurus]

That's DEFINITELY Grace Jones at 10:00

[carrotjuse]

Wow. Those were the days. Everybody was still alive and having fun. I think I even saw myself for a half-second. San Francisco changed on November 27 of '78. Thanks for the memories.

[c9593]

Wow! I don't know the children appear in the gay pride!! FANTASTIC!! NOW WE STILL SAVE THE CHILDREN FRON THE HATE & RACISM IN THE WORLD!! YUPIEEE!

[vegasbaby92]

@gaykernow - yes we do, indeed we do