Police officers rushed in through the aisles, shining flashlights into the audience. Although several miles removed from the earliest gay bars, Ansley's was the only place in town to watch a movie featuring same-sex attraction, according to Drue.Īround 15 minutes into the film, Drue heard a whistle. The theater, which regularly featured edgy indie films that locals maligned as pornographic, was known for its hospitality to the gay community. Tucked inside an open-air shopping mall, Ansley’s Mini-Cinema lay on the border of the wealthy neighborhood Ansley Park, across the park from Atlanta’s main gay haunt at the time, Midtown. Drue, a lesbian, wanted to witness it for herself. Just a few months earlier, the film, a satire of old Hollywood westerns, made waves in the New York Times for its portrait of gay desire.

On the night of August 5, 1969, Abby Drue arrived at the Ansley Mall Mini-Cinema in Atlanta for a screening of Andy Warhol's Lonesome Cowboys.