(TIME Warp) 45 Years after Mike Wallace's 'The Homosexuals' Broke Ground!

Mike Wallace, late of CBS's 60 Minutes, died last night at age 93. He perished in an assisted care facility near New Canaan, CT. 

Over 45 Years ago, Wallace Hosted Television's First glimpse of Homosexuality,  Given the era in which it was produced, it's admirably open-minded: gay folk, at least male ones, are allowed to speak their pieces freely and at length. (I was especially interested in the weird hand-wringing about the possibility of a "gay mafia" ruling pop art and fashion, which seems rather incidental to the segment's central question: Is it desirable to legislate against private sexual behavior? On this question, at least, it seems Wallace wished to alight gently on the side of history.)Within 2 Years, Gay Liberation Happened.

(Politics WEEKLY) ROMNEY'S VP; JACKIE; WALLACE!

• SUPERSTAR: Top 5 Picks for Romney Running Mate! 

• LET IT BE SO: Rumors Grow Santorum Will Drop Out! 

• LEZBO: Phyllis Schlafly Warns Men: Don't Date Feminists! 

• SELECTIVE: At GOP Convention, Squirt Guns Banned, Real Guns OK! 

• DUMB-ASS: Romney Could Have a 'Dan Quayle Problem'! 

• BONE COLLECTOR: Jackie Tried to Save Piece of JFK's Skull! 

• FAILING: George McGovern Hospitalized! 

• RESPECTED: 60 Minutes icon Mike Wallace dies at 93!

(POP NEWS) SMASH; Groff; Adele: 'Too Fat'; Uggie's Health; Madonna and Gaga Tours; Oscar Scandal!

HIT: Smash Opens to Rave Reviews

TAKEN: Jonathan Groff lands new TV role!

Karl Lagerfeld: Adele 'Too Fat'?

PITY VOTE: Artist Star Uggie Has Mystery Syndrome!

DENIED: No Songs at the 84th Oscars!

SNUBBED: Snobby Oscars Never Liked Potter!

BEAUTIFUL TRIBUTE: Chuck Prophet's New Music Video!

"White Night, Big City", singer-songwriter Chuck Prophet's new music video, is inspired by the riots that ensued after Supervisor Dan White's manslaughter conviction for the assassination of Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone following his infamous "Twinkie defense".

The track is the first single from Prophet's new album, Temple Beautiful.

SOCK IT TO ME? New Book Alleges Richard Nixon Had Longterm Gay Relationship!

UK tabloid Daily Mail is reporting on a new biography of Richard Nixon by journalist Don Fulsom which suggests former President Richard Nixon had a drinking problem, beat his wife, and had deep ties to the Mafia and a long-term affair with Cuban-American businessman Bebe Rebozo: Yet the most extraordinary claim is that the homophobic Nixon may have been gay himself. If true, it would provide a fascinating insight into the motivation and behaviour of a notoriously secretive politician.

Fulsom argues that Nixon may have had an affair with his best friend and confidant, a Mafia‑connected Florida wheeler-dealer named Charles 'Bebe' Rebozo who was even more crooked than Nixon.

The book, Nixon's Darkest Secrets, is out next month — by coincidence at the same time as the UK release of a new film directed by Clint Eastwood about another supposed closet gay among Washington's 20th-century hard men.

HISTORIC: Traditional Navy Homecoming Kiss is Gay in Historic First!

The dock landing ship Oak Hill, deployed for three months in Central America, returned home today. As part of Navy tradition, one person is chosen to be the first off the boat to kiss a loved one. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta was chosen, and her girlfriend, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell, was waiting.  

The Virginian-Pilot reports: As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship’s family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 - which is actually fewer than many people buy, she said, so she was surprised Monday to find out she'd won.

REUNITED: 'West Side Story” stars George Chakiris, Rita Moreno and Russ Tamblyn reunite at Grauman’s!

Members of the original cast of the 1961 movie version of West Side Story gathered in Hollywood  Tuesday to be immortalized with a hand-and-footprint ceremony at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.


It’s same theater at which the award-winning film originally debuted 1961. From left: George Chakiris (Bernado), Rita Moreno (Anita), and Russ Tamblyn (Riff). They were in Hollywood Tuesday to promote the release of the West Side Story: 50th Anniversary Edition on Blu-ray DVD.

LANDMARK: Home of Frank Kameny Now Listed in National Historic Register

The home of pioneering LGBT rights activist Frank Kameny, which in February 2009 was declared a District of Columbia Historic Landmark, has now been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, according to an announcement from the National Park Service:

In 1961 Kameny co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington, an organization committed, through activism to achieving equal social and legal rights for homosexuals. Through lobbying of government officials, testifying before congressional committees, bringing court challenges, and picketing the White House, Kameny and his allies pressured the U.S. Civil Service Commission to eventually abandon its policy of denying homosexuals federal employment. Kameny led efforts to remove homosexuality as a basis for denying government security clearances. He was also involved in the first legal challenge to the U.S. military’s policy of discharging gay and lesbian service members, including the much-publicized case of gay Air Force Sergeant Leonard Matlovich. Kameny played a leading role in attacking the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) definition of homosexuality as a mental illness. In 1973, the APA voted to remove homosexuality from its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatric Disorders. In 1998, President Clinton signed an Executive Order banning discrimination in federal employment based upon sexual orientation.

VICTORY: Bid to Repeal Gay History Law in California Fails!

A win for gay rights advocates in California: Opponents hoped to repeal a new law that requires public schools to teach about the contributions of gay people, but they failed to get enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, reports the San Francisco Chronicle. That means the law will take effect as planned in January.

Still, gay rights groups expect a bigger battle against the law to be waged for the November 2012 ballot. "In the end, 90 days was too short a time to accomplish such a large task," the Stop SB48 group told supporters in an email today, the deadline for signatures. "While we did not overturn this very bad law, we built a small army of dedicated volunteers that collected an incredible amount of signatures. There will be a next battle." The SDGLN site has the full email.

DUMMY: Perry Puts US Revolution in Wrong Century!

George Washington must be rolling over in his grave: Rick Perry blew into a Dartmouth frat house after the debate yesterday and launched into an explanation of his view that the founding fathers fought for state rights during the American Revolution—in the 16th century, notes ABC News. He was only off by two centuries ... unless he was talking about some other American Revolution.

Fortunately for Perry, he didn't make the blooper during the debate. And as for debates, he admitted, he could probably always do better. “I just try to get up every day and do my job, and you know debates are not my strong suit, but you know, we get up and do them and we just try to let people see our passion, and I think that’s what we did,” he said.

The WHIZ: How Edison Differed From Steve Jobs?

The death of Steve Jobs brought no end of Thomas Edison comparisons, but given that Randall Stross has written books on both men, he's probably in a better position than most to weigh in. The two inventors had much in common—less formal schooling than their peers, incredible vision, nasty tempers—but they differed in key ways, Stross writes in the New York Times.

One of them: Edison seemed to get caught up in the myth of himself as "wizard" later in life and felt the need to weigh in on all kinds of subjects ("rice-eating nations never progress") he probably should have left alone. Jobs, on the other hand, stayed grounded and focused on what he knew, the better to take full advantage of a life he knew would be cut short. The tributes to both men after their deaths "were similar, but only superficially," writes Stross. "With Edison, the public thought of the Wizard, an outsize persona, through which it was impossible to see an actual person. But with Mr. Jobs, the tributes were to a fellow mortal, exactly our own height, just as vulnerable as we all are to the random strike of a life-ending catastrophe." Read the full piece here.

PEACE: Civil Rights Hero Fred Shuttlesworth Dead at 89!

Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, one of the most dynamic leaders of the civil rights movement, died yesterday at the age of 89, reports the Washington Post. Shuttlesworth survived bombing attempts, beatings, and dozens of arrests in his attempts to end segregation in the South, and was key in making nonviolence a central tenet of the movement.

In the early '60s, harsh images of Shuttlesworth and other protesters being attacked in Birmingham, Alabama, by police with fire hoses, dogs, and truncheons shocked America and help spur an end to segregation. “He was one of the most courageous men that I have ever known," said Rev. Joseph Lowery, who co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Shuttlesworth and Martin Luther King Jr. "I don’t know of anyone else that could have led the movement in Birmingham." Shuttlesworth was beaten unconscious by a Ku Klux Klan mob when he tried to enroll his children in a white school in 1957. The year before, he suffered only minor injuries when 15 sticks of dynamite exploded beneath his bedroom window on Christmas Day. “I believe I was almost at death’s door at least 20 times,” Shuttlesworth recalled in 2001. “But when the first bomb went off, it took all fear from my mind. I knew God was with me like he was with Daniel in the lions’ den."

PAYING THE PIPER: Germany Reopens Hundreds of Nazi Investigations!!

Now that John Demjanjuk has been convicted of war crimes, Germany has reopened investigations into hundreds of other former Nazi death camp guards, looking for ones who might share his profile. Demjanjuk's conviction sets a precedent that could allow others to be charged, prosecutors say, although they are waiting until his appeals process finishes to actually file charges.

The investigations, however, have already begun, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center's head Nazi hunter will start tracking down war criminals in the next two months, the Guardian reports. Demjanjuk became the first person to be convicted in a Nazi-era case without direct evidence he took part in a specific murder—prosecutors argued that proving he was a guard at a camp whose sole purpose was killing people was enough. Even the very narrowest scenario—estimating that of about 4,000 possible suspects, 2% are still alive, and 50% of those people are healthy enough to stand trial—still allows for an estimated 40 people to be prosecuted, says the head of the Nazi war crimes division of the German prosecutor's office, "so there is incredible potential."

HONOR: 70 Years After 'Undesirable' Discharge For Being Gay, Navy Changes WWII Vet's to 'Honorable' !

Melvin Dwork, a World War II veteran discharged in 1944 after the Navy discovered he was gay, has had his discharge changed from "undesirable" to "honorable", the AP reports: The decision to amend his discharge papers was made by the Board for Corrections of Naval Records in Washington.

In its Aug. 17 proceedings, obtained by The Associated Press, the board noted that the Navy has undergone a “radical departure” from the outright ban on gays that was in place in 1944. The board pointed out Dwork’s “exemplary period of active duty” and said that changing the terms of his discharge was done “in the interest of justice.”

Dwork had been outed by his boyfriend at the time of his discharge, a fact that he only discovered last year, when the Navy unsealed his records. The former corpsman, now 89, "will now be eligible for the benefits he had long been denied, including medical care and a military burial."

REVEALED: Jackie O Had Cruel Words for Presidents, Other VIPs!

More details—and more barbs—are trickling out from the new book of 47-year-old interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, which hits shelves Wednesday. From the New York Times:

• On French president Charles DeGaulle: "That egomaniac."
• On future Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi: "A real prune—bitter, kind of pushy, horrible woman."
• JFK’s thoughts on Franklin D. Roosevelt: "Charlatan is an unfair word," but "he did an awful lot for effect."
• On former Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson: "Violently liberal women in politics" liked him more than JFK because they "were scared of sex," Jackie theorized.

DON'T CRY: Did Eva Peron Help Nazis, Hide Jewish Treasure?

A new book is giving Argentina a new reason not to cry for Eva Peron: She helped a number of Nazis who fled Europe after World War II, and was rumored to have harbored treasures taken from their Jewish victims. The accusations come from The Politically Incorrect Guide to Latin America, a controversial new book that aims to dredge up dirt on the region’s most beloved leftist leaders, the Telegraph reports. 

Among those Peron allegedly helped: Adolf Eichmann and Josef Mengele. Peron isn’t the book’s only target. It also alleges that Simon Bolivar’s “greatest fear was that blacks, Indians, and those of mixed race would take power.” Salvador Allende, meanwhile, is accused of installing a “project of socialist doctrination in schools,” and of considering a Nazi-inspired sterilization program. The book has sparked much controversy, with critics saying it lacks historical context. “It is not a historical guide,” co-author Leandro Narloch counters. “We only show the unpleasant side of history’s heroes.”

CHANEL-ED: New Bio Claims Coco Chanel Spied for Nazis!

Fashion maven Coco Chanel was an anti-Semitic Nazi spy who recruited agents with her then-boyfriend, a German officer, according to a new biography. Sleeping With the Enemy: Coco Chanel's Secret War charts her alleged espionage career with lover Hans Gunther von Dincklage, and draws on international archives to support claims that the pair went on secret missions in Berlin and Madrid, Reuters reports. 

The Chanel fashion house, however, seems unconvinced. "What's certain is that she had a relationship with a German aristocrat during the war," says a representative. The Chanel house also dismissed allegations of anti-Semitism, saying the French fashion icon had Jewish friends and business ties to the Rothschild family. Written by a Paris-based American journalist, the book also claims that Chanel's German code name was "Westminster"—after another one of her lovers, the Duke of Westminster.

BENDER: UK Spies Plotted to Feed Hitler Estrogen!

In one of the British forces' wackier schemes to rid the world of Adolph Hitler's violence, secret agents plotted to slip estrogen in the fuhrer's food in a bid to tame his aggression, according to a new book. The estrogen would be tasteless and the transformation gradual as Hitler changed from a "herr" to a "her," as the Daily Mail quips. 

It's not clear if the plot was launched, but it was seriously considered by the government, according to the book Secret Weapons: Technology, Science and the Race to Win World War II, written by Cardiff University Professor Brian Ford. "Research had shown the importance of sex hormones; they were beginning to be used in sex therapy in London," says Ford. "The Allies hoped to smuggle estrogen into Hitler's food and change his sex so he would become more feminine and less aggressive. Hitler had testers who tasted his meals so there was not mileage in putting poison in his food because they would immediately fall victim to it. Sex hormones were a different matter." The Nazis had their own digestive plots. If they lost the war, they planned to leave poisoned sausages, chocolate, and Nescafe behind for the Allied troops to find, according to Ford.

RETRO: The '90s Are Totally Back!

From the return of scrunchies to an attempted Saved by the Bell reunion, there’s no doubt about it: The ’90s are back in a big way. The New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys have teamed up, Pop-Up Video is returning, and Nickelodeon is bringing back a whole slew of shows including Clarissa Explains It All and Doug. Why now? “It takes 15 or 20 years for something to seem cool again,” writes Claire Suddath in Time.

But there’s something different about this latest retro craze. Teenagers wearing ‘60s outfits is one thing. But this new wave of nostalgia is “hitting the very people who lived through it the first time,” Suddath notes. “The generation who grew up with these old Nickelodeon shows are the exact same people who asked us to bring them back,” says a Nickelodeon rep; millions of fans clamored for the old shows on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. But we can’t really recreate the decade, Suddath writes, because we don't want to give up the conveniences and advances of modern life. Instead, we’ll “pick and choose our pop culture mementos and toss the rest. I will watch Clarissa but I will never wear another scrunchie.”

OBIT: Last Known 'Pink Triangle' Holocaust Survivor, Has Died at 98!

Rudolf Brazda, the last known survivor of the 'Pink Triangles', deported by the Nazis for homosexuality, has died at the age of 98, AFP reports: "Rudolf was sleeping peacefully in his sleep at dawn on August 3, he resided since last June in a hospital for the dependent elderly in Bantry (Haut-Rhin)," according to his entourage. The funeral of the man of Czech origin naturalized French in 1960 will be held Monday in Mulhouse, said the funeral.

"In accordance with his will, his remains will be cremated and his ashes placed alongside those of his life partner of more than 50 years, Edward Mayer, who died in 2003 in Mulhouse," add friends.