December 10, 2024 The Newspaper Serving LGBT Los Angeles

Vice Versa: America’s First Lesbian Magazine, Made in Los Angeles

America’s first Lesbian magazine was created on the lot of RKO Studios by a very bored stenographer in 1947. The woman known as Lisa Ben (a brilliant anagram for “lesbian”) was actually the amazingly-named Edythe D. Eyde, a 25-year old secretary who’d only come out as gay a year before. “Vice Versa,” the product of long days at RKO with not enough work to do and carbon copies to spare, was a kind of proto-zine about lesbian art and culture around Los Angeles. Written entirely by Eyde and enjoying an extremely limited distribution (12 copies per issue,) “Vice Versa” was, to Eyde, a truly “homemade” effort, the product of a woman in search of a community.

In the 1940s, before second wave feminism made women’s bookstores a reality, finding high-minded content produced by and for women was a tall order. In the post-war atmosphere of the late ‘40s, women in America were experiencing an uncomfortable social transition. During the war, it had not only been acceptable to women to join the workforce, it had been encouraged, giving women both widespread financial independence and an ability to form social groups completely independent of men. For gay and straight women alike, this was a radical change from the pre-war environment of the early ‘40s, when marriage and domesticity were the only things society allowed women to aspire to.

When the war ended, things were expected to snap back to what they’d been before. For Eyde and others, this wasn’t a welcome change. As a newly-out woman in the workforce and living in Los Angeles, Eyde sensed the potential for a new community: a group of women she could speak to, for, and with. “Vice Versa” was truly a labor of love, painstakingly written and thoughtfully rendered, featuring film, theater, and book reviews each issues, with discussions of the (very few) pieces of American media dealing with lesbian and queer subject matter that were being produced at the time. For the first issue of “Vice Versa,” Eyde dedicated her magazine “to those of us who will never quite be able to adapt ourselves to the iron-bound rules of Convention.” In the space of only eight pages, Eyde covered “Vice Versa’s” place in the magazine market, the merits of a (since lost) 1937 film adaptation of Radclyffe Hall’s “The Well of Loneliness,” and a play called “College for Scandal” presented by a small LA theater group featuring a “constant undertone of possible lesbian relationships between characters.”

Edythe Eyde in 1975, from the Lisa Ben papers, ONE
Archives at USC Libraries
RKO Studios: USC Digital Archive

Of the nine issues of “Vice Versa,” this would be standard. Reviews of lesbian-adjacent entertainment took center stage, while readers were encouraged to submit their writing and criticism in order to make the magazine grow and change with the LA lesbian community. The kind of excitement “Vice Versa” created in that world was apparent from its first issue onward, as readers wrote in with suggestions to make the magazine larger and increase its readership. In the “Whatchama Column” for reader letters, one writer (named “Sympathizer”) wrote in:

“While at the present time I realize VV is for circulation in the “Uranian Underground” only, as it were, I feel the day may come when it may enjoy a wider distribution as a medium of propaganda for this lost cause. Who was it? – Gary Cooper, I believe, in “Mr. Smith Does Good Deeds” – who once said, “It is only the Lose Causes that are worth fighting for.”

“Vice Versa” would put out its final issue in 1948, after Eyde sensed its distribution had become too risky. Under the Comstock Act, the distribution of publications with explicitly gay or lesbian content was a punishable offense by law.

“Vice Versa,” of course, was not the end of the matter. When “The Ladder,” the first nationally-distributed lesbian magazine, first hit stands in 1950, Eyde was one its contributors. She kept working and writing in Southern California until her death in 2015. At that time, “Lisa Ben” was still an anonymous pen name, per Eyde’s request. It was only after her death that Eyde and Ben were revealed to be one and the same, her legacy finally revealed.

Related Posts

WeHo Commemorates Transgender Day of Remembrance 2021

November 30, 2021

November 30, 2021

The City of West Hollywood commemorated Transgender Day of Rememberance through a virtual event.  Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is...

WeHo Approves Resolution Recognizing November As Native American Heritage Month

November 10, 2021

November 10, 2021

The City of West Hollywood City Council has approved a Resolution recognizing November as Native American Heritage Month. The Resolution...

New Documentary Pays Tribute to Transgender ‘AIDS diva’ Connie Norman

October 26, 2021

October 26, 2021

A new documentary titled “AIDS Diva: The Legend of Connie Norman,” will pay tribute to the transgender leader in AIDS...

WeHo Asking For Community Input On Naming Request to Rename the West Hollywood Library

July 26, 2021

July 26, 2021

The City of West Hollywood is conducting a community survey to solicit public input about a naming request to rename...

Patrick O’Connell, AIDS Activist, Dead At 67

May 6, 2021

May 6, 2021

Patrick O’Connell, a venerable AIDS activist and creator of the iconic red ribbon creating awareness about the disease, has died...

Ivy Bottini – WeHo Icon & LGBTQ Advocate Dies

March 14, 2021

March 14, 2021

Ivy Bottini an artist, mother and a legendary activist, devoting over 50 years to the feminist & LGBTQ  struggle for...

Black History Month: Celebrating Bayard Rustin

January 31, 2021

January 31, 2021

Bayard Rustin was an American leader in social movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Due to criticism...

WeHo Will Commemorate MLK Jr. Day With Virtual Donation Drive

January 17, 2021

January 17, 2021

In January 2021, the City of West Hollywood will continue its tradition of joining hundreds of communities across the country...

City Of WeHo Celebrates Veterans Day 2020

November 8, 2020

November 8, 2020

The City of West Hollywood will honor veterans and active members of the United States Armed Forces during a virtual...

USC One Archives to Host Screening of Film on Black Trans Woman to Honor Black History Month

February 1, 2020

February 1, 2020

Meet Mary Jones, a black transgender woman born in New York in 1803. Described as a “man-monster” in the press. ...

VIDEO: South Coast Chorale’s Tribute to Gay & Civil Rights Activist

January 24, 2020

January 24, 2020

67 years ago, openly gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin was arrested on a discriminatory, anti-gay “lewd conduct” charge for...

Honoring Gay Rights & Civil Rights Activist Bayard Rustin

January 21, 2020

January 21, 2020

On this day in history 67 years ago, gay civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin was arrested on a discriminatory, anti-gay...

GAY LA: When Catherine Opie Ruled LA

November 14, 2019

November 14, 2019

By Henry Giardina In the first season of the original “L Word,” art plays a bizarrely large role. For a...

Documentary Honors Los Angeles’ LGBTQ+ Vets for Veterans Day

November 11, 2019

November 11, 2019

In honor of Veterans Day, some LGBT Senior Veterans at the Los Angeles LGBT Center shared their stories and experiences...

GAY LA – When Drag Was All the Rage (But Queerness Wasn’t)

August 6, 2019

August 6, 2019

Today, it’s not hard to find drag culture wherever you are. From VH1, to Netflix, to Twitter, the language of...