Lisa Ben

In 1945, Lisa Ben, a young secretary from northern California, set out for Los Angeles to escape her overbearing parents. It was there that she first met other women like her, and it was there that she first put her ideas about homosexuality down on paper in her own "magazine" for lesbians, which she produced using sheets of carbon paper on her office typewriter. Beginning in mid-1947, Lisa produced nine editions of Vice Versa, which she distributed to her friends, who, in turn, passed them on to their friends. Although Lisa was able to produce only ten copies of each edition, her publication was almost certainly read by dozens, if not hundreds before it disappeared into history...

This essay is excerpted from Making History: The Struggle for Gay and Lesbian Equal Rights, 1945-1990, An Oral History by Eric Marcus, HarperCollins, 1992.

"Vice Versa" was the first GLBT "magazine" published by Lisa Ben between June, 1947, and January, 1948. "Lisa Ben," a pseudonym for "lesbian," was not actually used in writing "Vice Versa." No names appear in those nine volumes. She started using that name only later, when contributing articles for "The Ladder."

And Lisa Ben is also a hero of mine because she did probably the first gay parodies, done by a gay person. Two of them were issued on a 45 rpm record in 1960 by the Daughters of Bilitis. I wish I owned this record, perhaps the rarest of "gay collecting," but these scans and a copy the recordings were generously given to me by the folks at the One Institute in Los Angeles.

Below are the lyrics for "Frankie & Johnnie," a piece of history, as it's a copy Lisa Ben typed and gave to me, followed by the letter she sent me

[I cut off her signature, as she wishes her real name not be made public}

below, photos of photos, taken at an exhibit at the One Institute

some links with Lisa Ben info:

http://gaytoday.badpuppy.com/garchive/people/090897pe.htm

http://www.queertheory.com/histories/b/ben_lisa.htm

Below is reproduced the entire first volume of "Vice Versa," June, 1947. Subsequent volumes were subtitled "America's Gayest Magazine." Copies were made at The One Institute. They do not have "originals," and these are "copies of copies," hence the poor alignment of some of the pages.