Arch Brown papers

Born and raised in Chicago, Arch Brown attended Northwestern University where he studied under the legendary Alvina Krause and was graduated with a B.S. in Theatre and Television. Almost immediately after graduation, he was invited to move to New York City to join the staff of The Circle in the Square Theatre where he became the Design and Technical Assistant on Children of Darkness, The Quare Fellow and Our Town. During his early years in New York he also designed several musical revues at The Duplex, The Showplace and Upstairs at the Downstairs. He has also worked as a steel warehouse foreman, an insurance adjuster and a model. In retailing he was a display director, a fashion coordinator and a merchandise manager. He was the designer for the D'Arni-Gould Sportswear line. With his life-partner, Bruce Allen Brown, he was a real estate investor in New York City and owner/manager of Sea Park St. Croix, a hotel in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Arch Brown's still photographs and collages have appeared in Mandate, Honcho, The Village Voice, Michael's Thing and The Union Seminary Quarterly Review and at The Underground Gallery. His essays and reviews have appeared in The Advocate, The Villager, Manhattan G.A.Z.E. and he had a regular column on "Television and Society" in the New York Native. He was the founder of G-MAN, The Gay Men's Arts Network and, in memory of Bruce Brown who died in 1993 of a brain hemorrhage, he sponsored The Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation which gives grants to gay-positive arts projects based on history. Arch Brown's double biography of his life with Bruce was published in Longtime Companions by Haworth Press. Brown first came to broad public attention through his films. During gay liberation's closet-busting first decade, Brown's homoerotic films (including Four Letters, Pier Groups, The Super, Trips, Harley's Angels, Longjohns, The Tool Man, After the Fall, The Leather Bond, Dynamite!, All Tied Up, Rough Idea, and Woodshole achieved an international following and superb reviews. His film "The Night Before" was on Variety's 50 top-grossing films in the nation for 5 weeks. Brown's film Tuesday was the only gay film included by the First New York Erotic Film Festival in its nation-wide release of winning films. The distributors were charged with promoting obscenity. His film "Sunday" won first prize in the Park Miller Eros Competition. Brown also has directed several documentary films on art and culture including a series on English as a Second Language for New York University. In 1979, at the suggestion of a friend who recognized the wit in his films, Brown turned to playwriting. His first play, News Boy, was produced later that year by The GLINES, went on to a full Off-Broadway mounting at the Player's Theatre and had nine productions across the country over the next 15 years. Brown's play, FREEZE! won the 1998 Eric Bentley Playwriting Prize. Other published and/or produced plays include; Two Married Men, Samson, Sex Symbols, Brut Farce, Seeing Red, Breakfast with Ferkin and Frank, Doubletalk and Ships That Piss in the Night. Arch Brown died peacefully at his home in Palm Springs on September 3, 2012. Taken from the Arch Brown website http://www.archbrown.com/bio.html, accessed on September 2014.