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Lisa
Ben (1921 - )
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 Completely
Queer : The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia by
Steve Hogan, Lee Hudson
Approximately 600 articles arranged in
alphabetical format attempt to "encircle" Queerness,
focusing primarily on the accomplishments of Western,
self-identified gays and lesbians in the 1970s-1990s, with forays
into the pre-Stonewall past. Entries feature Jimmy Somerville,
Emily Dickinson, June Jordan, Bill T. Jones--it's impossible to
provide a representative sample here. The breadth of the topic
makes for some interesting juxtapositions--entries on major
religions abide in bizarre proximity to Baths/Bathhouses, Beaches,
and Bears.
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Ben, Lisa (Edith Eyde) (1921- )
Eyde, Lisa Ben was her pseudonym as writer, was
born and raised in Northern California. In the mid 40s she moved
to Los Angeles, where she worked in a movie studio and began to
write and edit a monthly gay magazine. From June 1947 to February
1948 she published nine issues of Vice Versa, sending them
to friends and asking them to pass the copies around. In the 50s
she adopted the Lisa Ben pseudonym as a writer for the lesbian
magazine The Ladder.
Also in the 50s, Eyde began to pursue a
childhood interest in music and began performing "lesbian-ized"
parodies of popular songs in local clubs. In 1960 the Los Angeles
chapter of Daughters of Bilitis released a recording of some of
her songs, calling her the first gay folk singer.
Related Resources:
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by Kate Brandt
Republished from the San Francisco Bay Area Gay
& Lesbian Historical Society Newsletter Volume 4, Number 1
(September 1988).
Excerpt:
Lesbians and gay men in the 1980s, especially
those of us who live in large cities, can take a lot for
granted—culturally, if not politically. We have a wide range of
lesbian and gay periodicals for our pleasure and information:
local "bar rags" and national newspapers, old-favorite
magazines like The Advocate and new ones like Out/Look.
And music by and about openly gay male and (most notably) lesbian
performers is available on record and in concert, in mainstream as
well as community venues.
Such was not the case forty years ago. Lesbian
and gay culture was an underground phenomenon, a world of private
parties and pseudonymous creativity. One of the most prolific and
talented members of that "secret society" was a woman
named Lisa Ben—or, more accurately, a woman not named
Lisa Ben, but rather Edythe Eyde...
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By Kate Brandt
We modern-day lesbians are spoiled. In many
cities, we can join our choice of political committees, social
clubs, athletic teams, professional organizations, all of which we
can read about in any one of a number of openly available
publications.
Forty years ago, the options for lesbians were
much fewer, to say the least. Some women accepted the limitations
of the times, often believing that they were the only ones in the
world who were "that way." Others, like Lisa Ben, knew
better, and took matters into their own hands--quite literally, in
Lisa's case.
Now, if the name "Lisa Ben" is
unfamiliar to you, that's not surprising--but it is sad, because
it shows how much we've lost of our own lesbian past (thanks to
the destructive power of sexism and homophobia)...
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By Eric Marcus
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. Eric Marcus'
most recent book is Icebreaker:
The Autobiography of Rudy Galindo, Pocket Books, 1997.
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