Murdach, Naomi [née Clinton E[dward] Tutt] (1932–2019). Photographic archive of gay theatricals and pageants in San Francisco, chiefly 1970–1972. Seven (7) photo albums and scrapbooks containing over 175 pages of material including hundreds of original snapshots, polaroids and 8 x 10 photographs in black and white and color, along with newspapers clippings, flyers, and related ephemera. Also included are a group of loose photographs, three (3) trophies, a plaque, and a personalized pinback. Materials generally in very good to fine condition. Housed in two bankers boxes.

Naomi Murdach, 2005 (San Francisco Chronicle)

Born Clinton Tutt, Naomi Murdach (who used he/him pronouns) was a vivacious mainstay of San Francisco’s gay pageant scene, sometimes appearing as Nurse Naomi. A veteran of the Korean War, he moved to San Francisco in the late 1950s and in 1973 opened Naomi’s Antiques to Go, a shop specializing in vintage teapots on 1817 Polk Street; Murdach lived in an apartment above the store. Although Murdach kept his knave name for official purposes – Clinton Tutt appears in city directories and his published obituary – he preferred to be called Naomi even in professional contexts, as evidenced by a profile and occasional notices published in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Naomi and Lance, 1971

This archive, which complements a group of Murdach’s negatives now housed at the Bancroft Library, offers a compelling visual record of gay pageantry in San Francisco chiefly in 1971 and 1972. An extensive collection of photographs documents such events as: the Chuck Largent Revue at Latex Lilly's Saloon (September 12, 1971); the Dowager Empress Mardi Gras Ball (November 14, 1971); the Grande Czarina Peninsula Ball (November 21, 1971); Mr. Gay San Francisco Finals (January 25, 1972); a pre-Circus-Circus party at the Peke Palace (May 2, 1972); the S.l.R Auction at Wilde Oscar (June 5, 1972); the Cinder Fella Ball (June 24, 1972); and an Evening with Lori Shannon (1972). 

One album is devoted to the coronation of John Valle as Absolute Empress VII Jonni de San Francisco on 10 January 1972. His election came as a surprise, as the odd-on favorite was Lorelei -- the maiden name of Paul Bentley, one of the founders of the Bay Area Reporter.

Imperial royalty of San Francisco, l to r: José Sarria (Absolute Empress I de San Francisco, 1965-66); John Valle (Empress VII Jonni, 1972-73); Russ Higginbotham (Emperor II, 1973-74) [we think -- he usually sported a distinctive Shenandoah]; and Bob Cramer (Emperor II, 1974-75).

Frolicking at the imperial court

Other photo grouping document a “Coitilion,” all-male productions of Mame and Wonderful Town, and the 1972 Mr. Gayzette pageant at the Mint, where none of the contestants was overdressed. One scrapbook album is focused on an all-male production by the City Players of Moss Hart’s Light Up the Sky, for which Murdach served as assistant director, stage manager, advertising sales manager, and photographer. Another collects over 80 original photographs of the 1972 Empress de San Francisco Coronation Ball. The scrapbooks are accompanied by a group of loose photographs, some framed, others mounted.

Many of the images are labeled. This one includes the pioneering activists José Sarria (in white dress), and Bob Ross (Emperor VII, 1978-79), whose many signal accomplishments include founding the Society for Individual Rights, the Tavern Guild of San Francisco, and the Bay Area Reporter.

Finally, there are three trophies, including one bestowing upon Murdach the title of Miss Lithuania awarded at the Gangway bar in 1973, and a plaque awarded to Murdach for seventeen years of leadership in the Great Tricycle Race – a gleefully ridiculous annual event that led participants in drag from bar to bar ending at the Mint on Market Street, the proceeds going to various charitable causes. 

As many historians have noted, performances, pageants and events played a vital role during these early years of gay liberation. They served both as exuberant celebrations where people could express their sexual identities without fear of censure, and as a form of collective action as men abandoned the confines of the closet to claim the city as their own. Naomi Murdach, who shocked the bourgeoisie daily by confounding the traditional binaries, was at the heart of it.

Naomi, 1972

Selected References

• Naomi Murdach collection of San Francisco gay pageant photographs, BANC PIC 2016.089, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
• [obituary], San Francisco Chronicle, 21 January 2019
• [obituary], Legacy.com. https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/clinton-tutt-obituary?id=1962562
• Armstrong, Elizabeth. Forging gay identities: organizing sexuality in San Francisco, 1950-1994 (University of Chicago Press, 2002)
• Gagnon, Jerome. “A passion for pottery,” San Francisco Chronicle 6 April 2005, p. G7. Online at https://www.sfgate.com/homeandgarden/article/A-passion-for-pottery-Store-owner-devotes-2717686.php
• Stryker, Susan and Jim Van Buskirk, Gay by the bay: a history of queer culture in the San Francisco Bay area (Chronicle Books, 1996)