San Francisco Examiner - February 13, 2003
Bill Picture, Of The Examiner Staff

Currie points out, however, that San Francisco wasn't always the gay-friendly place it is today. In fact, prior to the gay rights movement of the mid- to late '70s, homosexuals in The City faced many of the same prejudices as gays in other parts of the country.

"Sure, there were pockets of liberal thinking, but, hell, I grew up in Noe Valley in a very straight-laced Republican family," Currie says. "That was normal, even in San Francisco, for the '50s and '60s."

Currie and the gay rights movement grew side-by-side, which gave the actor-playwright a front row seat for a movement that would transform his hometown into a gay mecca.

"Some really significant cultural history occurred in this place," he says, "and I thought, 'You know what, I have to tell my story.' "

It took nearly 25 years before he reached a place in his life where he felt comfortable looking back, however. In the late '70s, Currie took off his creative hat and buried it way in the back of the closet he'd emerged from a decade earlier, overwhelmed by the tremendous sense of loss at the hands of the new gay epidemic, AIDS.

"My life just sort of came to an end when AIDS hit," he says. "I mean, I was fine, but all around me my friends were dropping like flies."

Currie had studied acting at San Francisco State University, and later at Stanford University. In the late '60s, he even organized his own theater company/hippie commune. But he gave up that part of himself entirely and began studying Chinese medicine, determined to find a way to fight the mysterious disease plaguing his friends.

He spent the better part of the '80s and '90s looking for answers and a way to give something back to his community. Then, a few years ago, he woke up and started writing his memoir.

"It was a completely spontaneous experience," Currie says. "I guess my story had just been building up in my subconscious for all those years, and once I opened the floodgates I couldn't stop. Something was just guiding me along."

The experience was cathartic, he says. During the years he spent being proactive in the fight against AIDS, he hadn't let himself reflect on the tragedies, like the loss of so many friends. Writing gave him that opportunity, and even helped him find humor in those experiences.

When he started, Currie had no intention of writing his complete memoirs. Rather, he scribbled down little snippets from his life and hit The City's open mike and poetry slam circuit to see what kind of reception he would get. He didn't know how young gays and straight audiences would respond to "some old queen's story."

The first of his four CDs, which was released last year, includes a lot of generational gay references, like his obsession with Broadway musicals, which Currie feared might go right over the heads of young people.

But he found that while not everyone in the gay community could relate to the specific '50s and '60s references, they could relate to his experiences -- like when he was sent to his room after donning his mother's white dress and grandma's evening gloves and declaring to his parents that he was Marilyn Monroe. The scenario isn't universal, but getting scolded for overstepping gender boundaries very nearly is.

After cracking up a few audiences, Currie decided to compile the snippets, fill in the blanks and put the whole thing on tape. Releasing his memoirs on audio rather than in print let the story unfold straight from the horse's mouth, which he finds more entertaining than staring at pages of black type.

"It's more colorful this way," he says. "It's almost like I get to relive it -- only I've changed all of the names to protect the guilty."

Currie now is putting the finishing touches on the second CD, due out later this month. He already has recorded the third CD and says he can't wait to go back into the studio and finish the project.

"Who I knew I had so much to talk about?" he teases.

"Ultimately, I guess it's just a story about a kid who wants to live," he says. "We can all relate to that.

"It's a mad romp with some serious moments, and telling it has been a pure, unadulterated joy."

E-mail: bpicture@examiner.com

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