New Orleans

I decided to set off for New Orleans a day early so that we could stay with Peggy Blades in Covington, for a night and regroup before heading across Lake Pontchatrain to our VRBO rental. (Which, I have discovered, doesn’t have an actual kitchen. They have provided a small refrigerator, a microwave and a coffee maker to make up for it.)

Peggy and I go way back to before I started producing the LGBT TV Show “Just for the Record,” here. She sold sponsorships to local LGBT business owners to support the show and was not afraid of being in front of the camera.

One of the early interviews was with Rita Mae Brown, famous for her book “Rubyfruit Jungle,” - every young lesbian’s first read - and her part in the “Lavender Menace” debacle at the National Organization for Women. She had written a new book about a cat, (to the disappointment of her reading audience) and her agent arranged her interview with us.

Rita had just split up with Martina. Too timid to ask during the interview, we left the camera rolling while we were packing up and managed to get some (unusable obviously) gossip about that!

After the interview, she signed books and Peggy agreed to talk to the camera. In those days we were using very heavy broadcast equipment that included a camera and a separate 20 minute 3/4” tape recorder.

Tomorrow we’ll get settled, charge batteries and generally get prepared for the interviews this week.