One Night Only: ADVISE & CONSENT in 35mm + Q&A & Book Event
Schedule
Sat Apr 15 2023 at 06:30 pm
Location
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center | Silver Spring, MD
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ADVISE & CONSENT in 35mm plus post-screening Q&A with author James KirchickCopies of James Kirchick's book "Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington" will be available for sale and signing
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1959 novel by Allen Drury, Otto Preminger's 1962 film smashed Hollywood taboos about representing homosexuality on screen, in a gripping tale of political scandal and maneuvering set within the highest levels of Washington, DC, power brokering. A fraught Senate confirmation battle over Robert A. Leffingwell's (Henry Fonda) nomination for Secretary of State leads to intraparty squabbling, coverups and blackmail over secrets from the past. The all-star cast includes Charles Laughton, Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Peter Lawford, Gene Tierney, Paul Ford, George Grizzard, Franchot Tone, Lew Ayres, Burgess Meredith, Eddie Hodges, Will Geer and Betty White.
About "Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington"
A New York Times Bestseller
A New York Times Notable Book of 2022
Named one of Vanity Fair's "Best Books of 2022"
For decades, the specter of homosexuality haunted Washington. The mere suggestion that a person might be gay destroyed reputations, ended careers and ruined lives. At the height of the Cold War, fear of homosexuality became intertwined with the growing threat of international communism, leading to a purge of gay men and lesbians from the federal government. In the fevered atmosphere of political Washington, the secret "too loathsome to mention" held enormous, terrifying power.
Utilizing thousands of pages of declassified documents, interviews with more than a hundred people and material unearthed from presidential libraries and archives around the country, "Secret City" is a chronicle of American politics like no other. Beginning with the tragic story of Sumner Welles, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's brilliant diplomatic advisor and the man at the center of "the greatest national scandal since the existence of the United States," James Kirchick illuminates how homosexuality shaped each successive presidential administration through the end of the 20th century.
Cultural and political anxiety over gay people sparked a decades-long witch hunt impacting everything from the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI to the ascent of Joseph McCarthy, the struggle for Black Civil Rights and the rise of the conservative movement. Among other revelations, Kirchick tells of the World War II-era gay spymaster who pioneered seduction as a tool of American espionage; the devoted aide whom Lyndon Johnson treated as a son yet abandoned once his homosexuality was discovered; and how allegations of a "homosexual ring" controlling Ronald Reagan nearly derailed his 1980 election victory. Magisterial in scope and intimate in detail, "Secret City" will forever transform our understanding of American history.
About James Kirchick
James Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a writer at large for Air Mail and the author of "Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington." A widely published journalist, he has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the Spectator, the Atlantic, the New York Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement, among many other publications. His first book, "The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues and the Coming Dark Age," was published by Yale University Press in 2017.
About Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an American investigative journalist who has worked for the Washington Post, Newsweek and NBC News. He is the author of two New York Times bestsellers, "Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story" and "Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War" (co-written with David Corn). He is a frequent guest on MSNBC, CNN and other TV talk shows. Isikoff is currently the chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News.
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Where is it happening?
AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center, 8633 Colesville Rd,Silver Spring,MD,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
