Bike Boys, Drag Queens, & Superstars

"This comprehensive, insightful study demonstrates that 1960s New York underground film fused 'artistic innovation and the exploration of everyday life' and distinctively interacted with mass culture.'" -- Choice"... thoroughly researched [and] engaging text... " -- Library Journal"This is a very timely and welcome book.... intervenes very effectively to to rewrite the history of the 1960s American underground cinema." -- UTS ReviewAt the confluence of experimental art and the gay subculture of early 1960s New York, Juan Suárez discovers a postmodern, gay-influenced aesthetic that "recycles" popular culture. Filmmakers Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and Andy Warhol epitomize this sensibility, combining the influences of European avant-garde movements, comic books, rock 'n' roll, camp, film cults, drag performances, fashion, and urban street cultures.

Introduction Chapter 1. Avant-Garde and Mass Culture: Mapping the Dialectic Chapter 2. The American Underground as a Cultural Formation: Practices, Institutions, and Ideologies Chapter 3. The 1960s Underground as Political Postmodernism: From the New Sensibility to Cultural Activism Chapter 4. Pop, Queer, or Fascist: The Ambiguity of Mass Culture in Kenneth AngerOtilde;s Scorpio Rising (1963) Chapter 5. Drag, Rubble, and Ograve;Secret FlixOacute;: Jack SmithOtilde;s Avant-Garde Against the Lucky-Landlord Empire Chapter 6: The Artist as Advertiser: Stardom, Style, and Commodification in Andy WarholOtilde;s Underground Films Conclusions Filmography Bibliography Index