You'll see the 1902 Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church, the 1906 earthquake, the 1917 dedication of the Twin Peaks Tunnel, the 1922 opening of the Castro Theatre and the 1936 first version of Cliff’s Variety.

You'll see Castro Street Fairs, Gay Pride Parades, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the Café Flore, Sylvester, Lily Tomlin, Divine and Ginger Rogers, then the AIDS epidemic and the NAMES Project’s AIDS Quilt.

You'll see Harvey Milk Plaza, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, etc. Harvey Milk was a closeted gay Republican working on Wall St. Then he met Tom O’Horgan, director of Hair, became a hippie and moved to San Francisco, opening Castro Camera with his lover Scott Smith in 1973.

You'll watch Harvey Milk run for public office four times, until he becomes the first openly gay man to hold a major elected public office in the United States.

You'll meet Allan Baird, the Teamster official in charge of the Coors boycott, who became Harvey Milk’s close friend and ally, leading to Harvey’s becoming the first openly gay candidate to be endorsed by the Teamsters, firefighters and constructions workers unions.

On the cover (above) you see Harvey Milk marching from Castro Camera to City Hall to be sworn in as San Francisco Supervisor.

You'll see the spontaneous 40,000-person candlelight march from the Castro to City Hall when Harvey Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by former Supervisor Dan White. You'll see Harvey’s ashes and four of his lovers, the “Milk widows,” sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge to scatter his ashes at sea.

You'll see the riots and burning police cars a year later when Dan White was found guilty only of manslaughter.

You'll see how Most Holy Redeemer Church became, at 80% gay, the gayest Catholic church in the world, outside the Vatican.

And so much more ...

San Francisco Examiner, Bruce Bellingham, 11/25/03: Now that we’re in the Castro his curious self, Strange de Jim, dropped by The Examiner yesterday with a copy of his fascinating new book, San Francisco’s Castro, which is part of the well-known “Images of America” series, published by Arcadia. It’s a 128-page photo history with commentary about the neighborhood from the 1880s to the present.

It hes to be noted that the book comes just before the anniversary of an event that changed San Francisco history. Harvey Milk, who is featured prominently in Strange’s book, and George Moscone were killed 25 years ago this Thanksgiving Day

Milk movie: photos and videos of the making of the film and the subsequent openings, award ceremonies, etc. See http://www.flickr.com/groups/milkmovie/

© 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 , 2009, 2010, 2011 by Ash-Kar Press