National
“Girls Town” is released. The movie opens with a young woman fending off an attempted rape. In the process the would-be rapist accidentally falls off a cliff to his death. Circumstantial evidence places 16-year-old delinquent Silver at the scene and she is sent to Girls Town, a rehabilitation village run by a group of nuns. There she lives with Serafina and some tough chicks. Trouble and misunderstandings ensue. Troublemaker Fred saw the cliff incident from a distance and realizes it was actually Silver's sister, Mary Lee, who was there. Fred blackmails Mary Lee into being his partner in deadly "hands-off drag racing," then prepares to take her to Tijuana to sell her into the slave trade. Silver finally wins the respect of her Girls Town friends, but can they rescue Mary Lee?
A subplot involves Serafina swooning over famous singer Jimmy. During the film he sings "Lonely Boy", "It's Time to Cry", "Girls Town Blues", and "Ave Maria". A scene set in a nightclub features The Platters singing "Wish It Were Me".
When Girls Town was first released in Italy in 1960 the Committee for the Theatrical Review of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities imposed the removal of the scene in which Silver is showering while singing "Hey Mama" because it was considered to be offensive to decency.
Michigan
Singer Johnnie Ray is arrested for solicitation at the Brass Rail in Detroit.
United States LGBT History for 1959
National
Advise and Consent is published. The book spent 102 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. One major plot of the book involves a character named Brigham Anderson, a Mormon senator from Utah and a closeted gay man. The book is made into a film in 1962. The film features a young Betty White in one of her first major roles.
President Dwight Eisenhower
Harold Lloyd Jr.
Utah
The Executive committee of the Mormon Church Board of Education discusses “the growing problem in our society of homosexuality.” Spencer W. Kimball reports that David O. McKay had said “that in his view homosexuality was worse than heterosexual immorality; that it is a filthy and unnatural habit.”
State equality and discrimination bills
National
Harold Lloyd Jr. an actor in the Bing Crosby era was open about being gay. He appeared in “Girls Town” and a lineup of movies in his career. His personal life was the subject of interrelationship controversy. His father openly accepted his son’s sexuality, but Harold didn’t. He often found himself in abusive relationships and would go home bruised and battered to his father. He tried multiple times to marry women, but his friends and acquaintances stepped in. He died when he was 40, three weeks after his father.
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