From 1975 to 1982, Jim Stewart rejoiced in life as a wild young leatherman in San Francisco. Folsom Street Blues is a collection of his memories of “the gay man’s paradise, the leatherman’s Valhalla” that flourished along Folsom Street. Bringing life to sexual fantasies that shifted into performance art was his specialty. So was taking sexy photos of hot young men, some of which appear in this volume (including several self-portraits). Initially selling his pictures through the mail, Stewart went on to have five one-person gallery shows during this period and saw his photographs published frequently in San Francisco’s long-running Drummer magazine. Carpentry was another specialty. He built bars, restraint structures, meat racks, and a life-size cross for one popular establishment, which promptly hired him as a bartender.
Friendships blossomed — with Chuck Arnett, “master artist of the leather scene,” writer Jack Fritscher, and gallery owner and photographer Robert Opel — the man who streaked the Academy Awards. Harvey Milk, the still-unknown Robert Mapplethorpe, and Raymond Burr also crossed Stewart’s path. So did many who are lost to history, like Tom the Boulevardier and the widow with a thing for firemen.
By 1982, a new disease called Gay-Related Immune Deficiency was the topic on everyone’s lips and Harvey Milk had been dead for years. With middle-age approaching, Stewart’s thoughts turned to stability and the advantages of health insurance and a pension. He departed for library school at Western Michigan University.
In a touching epilogue, Stewart returns to San Francisco with his partner of twenty-five years, having become head of the history department at the Chicago Public Library before retiring. He says that now is the time for telling secrets, and he has done so with humor and panache. (He likens one acquaintance who wore gold hoops in both ears and both nipples to a chest of drawers by Salvador Dali.)
Jim Stewart is currently writing a mystery novel. I can’t wait to read it.
Includes 38 black and white photographs.
Recommended for libraries with any interest in GLBT history.
Reviewer: Joyce Meggett
Division Chief for Humanities, Chicago Public Library