Talk:Dale Olson

Incorrect citations?

The paragraph about "In 1954, he became the first man to appear on television in the United States and self-identify as homosexual, albeit using a pseudonym with his face obscured" cites LA Times, BBC News, and Hollywood Reporter obituaries as well as a book "Up from Invisibility", however none of the obituaries mention that, and I haven't been able to find the book yet. I suspect the true source is this Tumblr post https://www.tumblr.com/is-the-post-reliable/687062231905665024/im-watching-that-documentary-before-stonewall, however until I find the book I cannot verify this. Salvadorp2001 (talk) 14:35, 16 September 2025 (UTC)

@Salvadorp2001

I visited this article after seeing this post on Bluesky and being somewhat skeptical as it had all the hallmarks of a typical 'Tumblr Unsung Secret Hero' type story.

I looked up the book on the Internet Archive and page 37 does not mention this TV appearance, therefore none of the citations here are legitimate. Netverk (talk) 07:31, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

The current reference to this 2018 World Queerstory blog post does include the Curtis White story. That post is copy-pasted from this 2018 Facebook post, but that only has vague citations to a friend of the poster and a documentary Stonewall & Beyond (which the poster hasn't seen - presumably also via the friend). I can't find any documentary by that name; there's a 5-minute YouTube video from 2017 and a 2018 NYPL blog post, but neither have the story.

It could be referring to Smithsonian Time Capsule: Beyond Stonewall, which IMDb says had two episodes (May 2018 and June 2019), but that looks like an IMDb glitch: the 2018 episode was about 1968, not Stonewall or related topics, and the 2019 episode (which I think is the video on the Smithsonian YouTube channel (video ID 3G1wZPeZZTQ) called Beyond Stonewall: Exploring LGBTQ+ History Through the Smithsonian Archives, posted June 2024, but the copyright date at the end of the video is 2019) doesn't mention the Curtis White appearance. Also it's a year too recent!

It's possible it's referring to Before Stonewall, a 1984 documentary - I don't know if Curtis White is mentioned in that? 82.71.6.116 (talk) 10:46, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

Just checked - there is an audio clip of the Curtis White interview at ~1h15m in Before Stonewall, but it doesn't say his real name was Dale Olson (or even that Curtis White was a pseudonym). The clip is on YouTube (video ID nASaXl4lhLU), uploaded by the LGBTQ historian Steven Capsuto; its description gives Dale Olson as White's real name, and in the comments Capsuto seems to confirm that it's the same Dale Olson as Rock Hudson's spokesperson. 82.71.6.116 (talk) 11:35, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

We have no article on Capsuto (perhaps we should..?), but several other articles (around 50, on a quick scan) cite his work; he seems to be regarded as a reliable commentator. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:34, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

"The gay magazine “ONE: The Homosexual Magazine” covered the interview in an issue in 1954"—We need to track down a copy of that. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:10, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

It looks like the magazine is fully archived on archive.org. Going through them now. Fiddlecub1 (talk) 20:31, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

An article on the Curtis White appearance is written in the May, 1954 edition of ONE: The Homosexual Magazine. It makes no mention of Dale Olson. Still making my way through the remainder of 1954. Fiddlecub1 (talk) 20:46, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

In the July, 1954 edition, ONE printed a letter from Curtis White in response to the prior month's article. Again, no mention of Dale Olson. Fiddlecub1 (talk) 20:52, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

My final contribution: the December 1954 edition of ONE includes an index of all names appearing in the magazine that year. Curtis White is indexed, but no one by the name of Olson. If Curtis White is a pseudonym of Dale Olson, there is no evidence of it in ONE: The Homosexual Magazine. Fiddlecub1 (talk) 20:58, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

A pity. Thanks for checking. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 21:25, 28 September 2025 (UTC)

I discussed this with Steven Capsuto in a BlueSky thread starting here; he confirms the ID and says of his book Alternate Channels:

The account of Olson's appearance on "Confidential File" is on pages 22-23 of the revised (2020) edition. The information source (my 1991 oral history interview with Jim Kepner) is cited in the endnotes, on page 496... I didn't use Olson's real name in the body of the book (since he was still alive when I wrote the first edition), but for the revised edition, I linked the two names in the subject index.

-- Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 15:05, 5 November 2025 (UTC)