Confidential

UNCENSORED AND OFF THE RECORD

Phraseology is all. Use the right words and you can simultaneously say anything you wish and avoid law suits. There's nothing to it. The April issue of CONFIDENTIAL asks "Is It True What They Say About Johnnie Ray?" The article which "answers" the question actually says nothing directly in affirmation of whether Johnnie is or isn't. However, upon finishing it, the reader finds himself in possession of a host of strange rumors, suggestions, hints and quotations of "certain well-known" people all of which sum up to one answer. The writer tries to excuse his exhaustive treatment of a subject that could be termed nobody's business but Johnnie's, by concluding the vicious muckracking with, "Put in Broadway's terms, Johnnie's just like a lot of us only more so. Dry those tears and you've wiped away a million-dollar showman." This came at the end of several hundreds of words which suggested that the milliondollar showman himself be wiped away. On another page of this same issue, a past-master of spite describes the "nance" who runs a male brothel in New York. The writer gives names, addresses and phone numbers. He also has a hard time trying to seem more indignant than intrigued.

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The July issue of CONFIDENTIAL is particularly meaty with filth and character assassination. On page 12 is the Duke of Windsor in "drag" with happy notation that attempts to suppress these pictures was unsuccessful. Shortly after is "The Lavender Skeletons in TV's Closet!" or "Video Pioneer Blames Incompetents and Queers for Poor Plays on TV." The article is vindictive, short and supplies very few facts to substantiate its charges. It merely repeats several times that fairies and bad TV are synonymous, as well as fairies and crime, and fairy-hating and stupidity. The writer concludes on a hopeful note: ""A program is now in operation which the hairy-chested males of TV earnestly hope will drive the 'cup-cakes' from their industry. A private detective agency has been assigned to investigate and get the goods on the more obvious deviates. When the evidence piles high enough, the fairy is presented with his own unlovely picture and reminded that homosexuality is a crime in New York. He's asked to go quietly or risk having the information passed on to citizens who'll get him pinched. So far, the system has pushed three once powerful directors out of the business." Please note the tone of pride in this account of OVERT CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. This is the same

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