Stepping Out and Back to The Past

Today's planned visit to Flushing Meadows Park has been postponed, as the U.S. Open is just a few hundred feet away from the museum, which means that not only is one of the major reasons for the journey closed, but the park will be a madhouse for today's final match of the tournament.  Instead I'm going to take book I picked up online a while ago, and be a tourist in my own city, exploring some of the historic LGBT spots in the East Village.  How do I plan to do that you may ask?  Why, with Stepping Out: Nine Walks Through New York City's Gay and Lesbian Past, of course. I found this on the bookshelf of someone I had a couple of dates with, and ended up purchasing it. I have barely opened the book in the six months I've had it, but often think about using it to walk the city, and today is the day to put it to good use!

I will report back, but in the meantime, I leave you with this little film about the 1939 World's Fair, which also took place at Flushing Meados Park, and which has the the catchy title The Middleton Family At the New York World's Fair. Yes, it is hopelessly cornball, very dated in its mindset, and blatant in its motives, but I also find it rather charming at moments. And if that Jim Treadwell isn't a dream walking, I don't know what is!

"Where in the World Can I Find the Camp Classic 'Stepping Out'?"

It's a rhetorical question, because I already know that the deliciously hokey and heartwarming 1991 comedy about a former Broadway dancer named Mavis Turner (Liza, but of course, looking and sounding lovely) and her rag tag bunch of tappers, is available in its entirety on Youtube.  This doesn't mean I'm going to get rid of the VHS copy my best friend and I got from E-bay, but it does mean I will be watching this shit in all its grainy glory, again and again on-line!

Rounding out the cast are Julie Walters as the compulsive cleaner in the class, Ellen Greene as the slightly slutty Maxine, Jane Krakowski looking surprisingly fresh, Bill Irwin, Andrea Martin, and Shelley Winters!!  What?  Yes, it's true!  They DID get that many amazing talents in one film and it is somehow not available on DVD.  Trust me, you will laugh at the film more than you laugh with it (watching Liza Minnelli try to play "edge" is almost as funny as watching Jessica Chastain do "punk" in the horror film Mama) but like the amateur tappers at it's center, this film just oozes heart and the desire to please and if you aren't crying little sequined tears at the end, you might have a cold, cold soul.

ALSO- check out Nora Dunn playing a biatch as only she can, and Dean McDermott (yep, Tori's husband) as "young man at bar".  I know you've been panting for the link, so here it is...