EDGE Rewind: Inside the Queer World of 'American Horror Story: NYC'

EDGE is reaching into its archive and sharing some of our favorite stories from the past.

Ryan Murphy has pumped up the queer content on the latest season of "American Horror Story" to new heights. Set in New York City in 1981, which gives the show its catchy abbreviated title -- "AHS:NYC", the show is filled with cultural references of the series from the period, from the Robin Byrd Show (the popular public access show starring the porn star) and West Side leather bars to prominent figures on the scene, including artist Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, and Klaus Nomi. It even stars two show business icons from the period -- Patti LuPone and Sandra Bernhard.

The Clubs

The narrative follows the hunt for a leather-clad serial killer known as "Big Daddy," who is finding his victims in the West Side leather bars and public cruising areas such as The Ramble and the docks along the Hudson. At the time, the area, west of Chelsea, was a warehouse district and abandoned at night, which made it ideal for these out-of-the-way clubs, most of which allowed sex on the premises. The best-known were The Anvil, a dance club with a lively back room scene that also hosted entertainments. It was often the home of celebrity sitings. Both musicians Lou Reed and Freddie Mercury were frequent visitors while in New York, but the most infamous siting was said to be Jackie Kennedy, who was rumored to have visited it and watched a demonstration of someone being fisted. For a glimpse of what The Anvil was like, watch William Friedkin's "Cruising." He shot location footage there.

Near The Anvil were a number of bars clustered around an 19th century, triangular-shaped building that was something of a landmark in the Meatpacking District. The clubs included "J's Hangout," "The Vault," "The Hellfire Club," and "Manhole," each part of late night crawl for those into BDSM. The Hellfire Club was famous for catering to both straights and gays, as well as celebrities. John Waters recalls one night when Angela Lansbury visited the club.

The last spot on the crawl was likely The Mineshaft, which existed in the neighborhood from 1876 - 1985 when it was closed down by the city for a number of reasons, including concerns about AIDS. The club's downstairs area included a number of specialized areas, including a police cell, dungeons, the back of a truck, and room filled with bathtubs. At its height, it became a "cause celebre," attracting celebrities such as Vincente Minnelli, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rock Hudson, and Michel Foucault. Mick Jagger and Rudolf Nureyev were turned away, perhaps because they violated the club's strict "no cologne" policy. It also was said to have inspired Friedkin to make "Cruising."

The Crime

As mentioned, "AHS: NYC" follows the hunt for a killer known as "Big Daddy," which is fiction, but can be derived from a number off sources, which include Village Voice journalist Arthur Bell, whose reporting on a murder of his friend, Variety reporter Addison Verrill, helped locate the killer. Bell went on to write about unsolved murders of gay men in New York City for the Voice, and was also said to be an inspiration for "Cruising," William Friedkin's 1980 thriller about a serial killer targeting New York gay men that filmed sequences in the clubs, such as The Anvil. But upon reading the film's screenplay, he was critical of it for presenting a negative and stereotypical view of gay men, and led protests against the film when it opened.

Whether or not the Native reporter played by Joe Mantello is modeled after Bell is unclear. There is also some question about the murderer -- or murderers themselves since there appear to be a pair of killers on the loose. One is nicknamed the Ma Tai Killer because he buys his victims the drink before killing them. Rolling Stone writes this narrative thread is derived from the Last Call Killer, a real-life murderer who preyed on gay men in the 1980s and 1990s. The story was told Elon Green's "Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York." The murderer was Richard Rogers, a surgical nurse at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, who was finally arrested in May of 2001 for the murders of Thomas Mulcahy and Anthony Marrero, whose dismembered bodies were found in New Jersey. Green and the authorities believe he killed more, but he was only convicted for these murders and is serving consecutive life sentences at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

Culture

In the opening episode of "AHS:NYC," Patti LuPone appears as a cabaret performer at the Neptune Baths, a stand-in for the Continental Baths, an uptown venue that famously introduced Bette Midler when she performed there. LuPone turns out to be a more crucial player in the Leather District's nightlife when confronted by Mantello in the fourth episode. In real life, LuPone was already a major Broadway star in 1981, having won the Best Actress in a musical for "Evita." And the idea of a cabaret singer performing in a bath house was used by Terrence McNally in his 1975 Broadway farce "The Ritz" in which Rita Moreno strangled cabaret performance in her Tony-winning turn as chanteuse Googie Gomez.

Another familiar face from the period is Sandra Bernhard, who has become a Ryan Murphy regular for her roles on previous versions of "AHS" and "Pose." In 1981, she had made her name in stand-up and theater, having written and starred in "Without You, I'm Nothing," both off-Broadway and in the film version. She would go onto co-star in Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy" in 1993.

There is no artist more linked with the West Side Leather scene of the 1970s/1980s than photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. In the 1970s, his mentor/lover was art curator Sam Wagstaff, a relationship suggested on "AHS:NYC" with one between Theo Graves (Isaac Powell) and Sam (Zachary Quinto). In real-life Mapplethorpe was hardly the innocent Powell plays. At the time, he was in a relationship with the publisher of Drummer, a leather publication, who introduced him to the Mineshaft, where he often took photographs that shaped his image as a the most dangerous artist of his time. Mapplethorpe died of AIDS in at the age of 42 in 1989; soon after his death, his photography became the center of a national controversy regarding artists' funding by the government.

Conspiracy Theories

It was in July, 1981 that the New York Times first reported on a mysterious illness affecting gay men.
On the third episode, Sandra Bernhard, playing a lesbian activist, unloads an incendiary theory relating to the unexplained illnesses that are turning up in New York hospitals mostly amongst gay men. She claims that the Federal government experimented with a dangerous virus with gay men that has somehow found its way onto the sheep on Fire Island, which are all killed, but it may be too late: the virus has spread. :This time around, the theory at this season's center is the belief that the CIA knowingly and intentionally injected homosexual and Black communities with the AIDS virus to harm and eliminate these communities," Decider writes. "This is a theory that the government has actively tried to dispel. But there is at least one case where a member of the LGBTQ+ community was experimented on using state money." But, as Time Magazine reports, the theory has been dismissed by experts, but has a number of high profile believers.