FBI Memo 04-20-1972 Gay Activists Alliance Inner Circle Dinner, FBI (Record, April 1972)
Full Text
On Saturday evening, 4/15/72, I attended the captioned dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the New York Hilton Hotel. It was a black-tie affair, at which there were approximately 1600 in attendance. This affair is similar to the Gridiron Dinner which is held annually in Washington, D.C.
During the third intermission of the evening, a group of approximately twenty-five young, crudely dressed individuals, who identified themselves as members of the GAY ACTIVISTS ALLIANCE (GAA), invaded the ballroom and began distributing handbills setting forth protests and complaints about the handling of homosexual stories by the media. The GAA distributed the leaflets and one tried to talk into the microphone on the stage. The curtain was drawn for th intermission and the individual trying to seize the microphone could not be seen from the main part of the ballroom where I was seated. Men in dinner jackets, who appeared to be part of the hotel management ordered the GAA group to leave, which they did.
The next day the newspapers carried a story indicating that two of the members of the GAA had been beaten, one on the escalator outside the ballroom and the other behind the curtain when he attempted to talk over the microphone. The members of the GAA who had been beaten had not been able to identify their alleged assailants. However, one MORTY MANFORD, age 21, head of the "Gay People at Columbia University", and one of the two allegedly beaten, believes that MICHAEL MAYE, President of the Uniformed Fire Fighters Association, was the individual who attacked him on the escalator. MANFORD has sworn out a warrant for the arrest of MAYE. A spokesman for the NYCPD stated that the allegations concerning the incident are being investigated.
Letter to the Director RE: INNER CIRCLE DINNER
On the late afternoon of 4/19/72, MANFORD called the NYO and asked to speak with me. I was out of the office at the time. He advised the person with whom he spoke that he wanted to talk to me and ask me some questions about anything I may have seen at the Inner Circle Dinner. He asked that I call him back. I have no intention of returning the call.
What I actually saw is set forth above. I did not see either of the alleged assaults, nor did anyone seated in the ballroom. According to the newspaper, three witnesses say MAYE beat MANFORD on the escalator but there appear to be no witnesses to what went on behind the stage concerning the individual who tried to take over the microphone.
The foregoing is for the information of the Bureau.
Headers
DATE: 4/20/72
TO: DIRECTOR, FBI
FROM: ASSISTANT DIRECTOR MALONE, NEW YORK
SUBJECT: INNTER CIRCLE DINNER, NEW YORK HILTON HOTEL, 4/15/72
