Filmmaker Geoff Story is in the process of making a new documentary after discovering a clip at an estate sale in St. Louis, Missouri.
The sale was for the late Buddy Walton who was a famous hairdresser for celebrities in the 40s.
“Queens and president’s wives and movie stars – he was always around fancy places and fancy things,” Susie Seagraves, Walton’s niece, told St. Louis Public Radio. “He had a beautiful life.”
The video depicts a home movie of men dancing in swimsuits, decorating for a party, and kissing by the pool.
“I just knew that it was gold,” Story said of the films. “It was something special.”
After discovering the video of gay life in the 40s, Story felt compelled to create a film around it. Story wants to explore the 40s when being found out as gay could ruin a life. To do that, Story is now putting together home movies with gay themes into one documentary called Gay Home Movie.
In addition to piecing together videos of the time period, Story and his co-director Beth Prusaczyk are trying to find any living members of those parties. While they haven’t found one yet, they have found family members of some of the men.
“We naively set out thinking, ‘Oh, these men might be in their mid-90s, they could still be alive,’ and that might be true,” said Prusaczyk. “But I don’t know if we’ll actually find them.”
The documentary is still a work in progress, but you can watch the clip that started it all down below:
