If he was heckled, he sliced the heckler up with a razor-sharp wit.'

He became a bit of a hero at the time for many gay men: he was completely out there as a pansy entertainer but he wouldn't take abuse. He started out as a female impersonator but by the time he was hired as the emcee at one of the top clubs in Times Square, in the early 30s, he was no longer doing drag.' Chauncey continued: 'Malin was a very big guy, and could take care of himself physically. 'One of these real-life entertainers who I think Chauncey Miles is based on,' Professor Chauncey said, 'is Jean Malin. And in the late 1920s and early 1930s, there was a 'pansy craze,' in which performers who acted stereotypically gay appeared at New York nightspots. White audiences, for example, flocked to Harlem to see African-American entertainers. People became more interested in exploring new things.' It pushed all of nightlife underground.' There was, he continued, 'a popular revolt against the moral order imposed by Prohibition.

'Prohibition brought visibility to gay life. He replied that Prohibition, which lasted from 1919 to 1933, was an important factor. I asked Professor Chauncey, after whom Nathan Lane's character in the play, Chauncey Miles, is named, why gay life in New York had been visible during the 1920s and early 1930s, but had become less so by 1937, when 'The Nance' takes place. Last week, I posted a few thoughts about one of Douglas Carter Beane's inspirations for 'The Nance': a book called 'Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940.' Wanting to know more about it, I arranged an interview with its author, George Chauncey, who is chair of the history department at Yale.

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