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A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, and Atlanta's Gay Revolution
*Running Time => 8hrs. and 30mins.*
An electric and intimate story of 1970s gay Atlanta through its bedazzling drag clubs and burgeoning rights activism.
Coursing with a pumped-up beat, gay Atlanta was the South's mecca - a beacon for gays and lesbians growing up in its homophobic towns and cities. There, the Sweet Gum Head was the club for achieving drag stardom.
Martin Padgett evokes the fantabulous disco decade by going deep into the lives of two men who shaped and were shaped by this city: John Greenwell, an Alabama runaway who found himself and his avocation performing as the exquisite Rachel Wells; and Bill Smith, who took to the streets and city hall to change antigay laws. Against this optimism for visibility and rights, gay people lived with daily police harassment and drug dealing and murder in their discos and drag clubs. Conducting interviews with many of the major figures and reading through deteriorating gay archives, Padgett expertly re-creates Atlanta from a time when a vibrant, new queer culture of drag and pride came into being.
©2021 Martin Padgett (P)2021 Random House Audio
An electric and intimate story of 1970s gay Atlanta through its bedazzling drag clubs and burgeoning rights activism.
Coursing with a pumped-up beat, gay Atlanta was the South's mecca - a beacon for gays and lesbians growing up in its homophobic towns and cities. There, the Sweet Gum Head was the club for achieving drag stardom.
Martin Padgett evokes the fantabulous disco decade by going deep into the lives of two men who shaped and were shaped by this city: John Greenwell, an Alabama runaway who found himself and his avocation performing as the exquisite Rachel Wells; and Bill Smith, who took to the streets and city hall to change antigay laws. Against this optimism for visibility and rights, gay people lived with daily police harassment and drug dealing and murder in their discos and drag clubs. Conducting interviews with many of the major figures and reading through deteriorating gay archives, Padgett expertly re-creates Atlanta from a time when a vibrant, new queer culture of drag and pride came into being.
©2021 Martin Padgett (P)2021 Random House Audio
9 pages, Audible Audio
First published June 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews
June 11, 2021
Martin Padgett’s A Night at the Sweet Gum Head is a sometimes funny, sometimes sobering account of gay Atlanta from 1970 to 1981. Padgett wisely intercrosses the drag community with the burgeoning gay pride movement happening in midtown. Padgett, who arrived in gay Atlanta around the same time I did (1996), performed tremendous research and legwork in interviewing the scene players. These individuals still have lucid memories to share about the days when Cheshire Bridge Road was a mecca for homosexuals of all stripes, ran by a cadre of characters. Intersected with these fantastic stories is the birth, growth, and explosion of disco, which eventually painted the drag community into small back rooms. At the same time, the dance movement took over the gay community. Rachel Wells, a beautiful 1970s queen, is the center of the story, along with City Commissioner Billy Wilson, who fights internal – and external – squabbles in building a gay political community, all under the auspices of the political eye of Mayor Maynard Jackson. The Sweet Gum Head, the bar on Cheshire where Wells performed, is the centerpiece of the novel, a nationally known attraction that featured some of the drag community's most polished and talented lights. (The best I can figure it is that the Sweet Gum Head is where the Onyx Dance and Night Club Bar is now, which itself was featured in an episode of FX’s ATL.) Padgett pays the proper respect. The research shows – he has written an essential elegy to a significant bygone era of Gay America with a southern flair. For an extra enjoyable read, spill some poppers on your bookmark.
June 1, 2021
Martin Padgett has written the definitive love letter to a lost gay Atlanta and its fabled queen. Too often, queer history mimics the dry dutifulness of our straightest historians in tweed, when the material is all disco drag and heels. Not here, babies. Fabulously written and exquisitely researched, A Night at the Sweet Gum Head paints the rhinestone portrait of a glittering oasis in the South, which flourished for a divine moment before the plague.
September 24, 2021
Goodreads giveaways. A provocative history into the early drag days of Atlanta,Georgia. The ladies of Sweet Gum Head led brave, interesting, daring and dangerous lives. Their life in the era right before the AIDS epidemic is chronicled. The author loves between people, weaving back and forth to create this time line of the PRIDE movement. I would recommend this book to all allies and gay historians alike.
June 15, 2021
As a Georgia historian I knew I was going to love this book! This book, written in an oral history type style, chronicles the rise and fall of disco and drag at “The Showplace of the South,” The Sweet Gum Head. Featuring a decade of the stories of the drag performers, local and National queer history, politics, and so much more all in 300 pages. This book will be great for someone looking to research Georgia queer history. I also think that it will help continue to change the perception of Atlanta. People think of us as a beacon of the civil rights movement which is true but queer Georgians fought just as hard for their rights and deserve just as much visibility. A few issues that I had with this book is that it chronicles so many people it can be hard to remember who is who. I also think it could have featured more queer people of color. Overall, I think it’s a good addition to the books on queer southern history and I can’t wait to see how this book is used to further more research.
August 3, 2024
"You're born naked and the rest is drag." - RuPaul
A Night at the Sweet Gum Head brings the reader back in time to the 1970s - inside the buzzing Atlanta gay bars and nightclubs that brought drag on the scene.
This book was most enticing to me because it took place where I was born and raised - Atlanta! There was some cool history about the nightlife in familiar neighborhoods like Buckhead, Clairmont Road, and Midtown and I learned more about the people who spawned the origins of what is now @atlantapride.
It was interesting that many of the characters of the book fled their hometowns to come to Atlanta where it was known to be a safer and more welcoming place for them. But at the same time, Atlanta was still very flawed in terms of gay rights and societal discrimination. The author includes informational sections dedicated to this and what Mayor Maynard Jackson's office did (and didn't do) to propel progressive policies protecting gay people in Atlanta.
I think the book got a little bogged down at times in the very specific details of the many many drag performance scenes and I would have liked more sweeping information about the 1970s politics and gay rights movements on a national level (there is some but more would have been appreciated), but overall this was an interesting read - especially if you are an Atlanta resident!
A Night at the Sweet Gum Head brings the reader back in time to the 1970s - inside the buzzing Atlanta gay bars and nightclubs that brought drag on the scene.
This book was most enticing to me because it took place where I was born and raised - Atlanta! There was some cool history about the nightlife in familiar neighborhoods like Buckhead, Clairmont Road, and Midtown and I learned more about the people who spawned the origins of what is now @atlantapride.
It was interesting that many of the characters of the book fled their hometowns to come to Atlanta where it was known to be a safer and more welcoming place for them. But at the same time, Atlanta was still very flawed in terms of gay rights and societal discrimination. The author includes informational sections dedicated to this and what Mayor Maynard Jackson's office did (and didn't do) to propel progressive policies protecting gay people in Atlanta.
I think the book got a little bogged down at times in the very specific details of the many many drag performance scenes and I would have liked more sweeping information about the 1970s politics and gay rights movements on a national level (there is some but more would have been appreciated), but overall this was an interesting read - especially if you are an Atlanta resident!
June 22, 2021
Closer to 4.25/4.5. A fascinating look at queer Atlanta in the 1970's, through the political and nightlife lenses.
November 26, 2021
Books exploring the history of American LGBTQ communities and the struggle for equality are commonly centered around New York and San Francisco, but there’s not a city in the country without tales worth telling. In 2004, Philadelphia got a well-deserved queer chronicle in Marc Stein’s City of Brotherly and Sisterly Love (Temple University Press. $27.95. https://history.sfsu.edu/people/facul...), the Windy City gets its due in St. Sukie de la Croix’s 2012 Chicago Whispers and just published Chicago After Stonewall (Rattling Good Yarns Press. $28.95. www.ratttlinggoodyarns.com). A best-in-breed exemplar of this city-centric subgenre is Martin Padgett’s A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution . It’s a compelling read, whether you’re from Atlanta or not: Padgett is a superb storyteller. One of his smartest strategies is honing in on a short time period—from 1969 to the beginning of the AIDS epidemic and a dynamic duo of central characters—Bill Smith, the overextended political activist who published the city’s first gay newspaper, and John Greenwell, an old-school drag queen whose nom de plumage was Rachel Wells. Padgett weaves in threads of broader stories—Atlanta’s role as an escape hatch for gay men from all over the south, racial tensions in the city and its gay community, an unprecedented boom in urban development—but in keeping his central narrative compact, he’s able to make the book read more like a juicy novel than a dry survey. Studded with song titles from the 1970s, soap operatic romances and bright verbal snapshots of the highly competitive Miss Gay America circuit, the book never fails to entertain as it educates, capturing not just a history, but a spirit.
December 2, 2024
DNF - felt like I got the gist in the first half of the book. I didn’t need a play by play of Rachel Wells’ every performance. Very interesting topic that began really strong, but needed some editing and for a bit boring.
March 29, 2022
Why do I want to go to drag show after reading this book? Because I fell in love with the humans who impacted this book..
July 28, 2021
Much of my childhood was spent in the 1970s. Among my first memories are grim news reports on the Vietnam war, a national frenzy around someone named Patty Hearst, and the Watergate hearings, which interrupted my beloved Sesame Street for weeks.
A couple of years later, I remember hearing the word “gay” used in a new way, one that wasn’t quite the same as “happy”. In movies and sitcoms, people would discuss folks who were “gay” in hushed tones. And the orange juice lady (otherwise known as Anita Bryant) was talking very loudly about how bad “gay” people were. When I finally learned what “gay” meant—on the playground, of course—I thought, “Hmm. That might be me.”
A few years later, of course, AIDS became headline news, and the LGBT community’s march toward equality took several long, painful steps backward. But during the 70s—and this was apparent, even to someone still in elementary school—there was a lot of optimism about the increased visibility of LGBT Americans.
A Night at the Sweet Gum Head captures that moment beautifully. Following a range of characters, from drag artists to gay activists to club owners, Martin Padgett weaves together disparate narratives to give a panoramic snapshot of the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era. Though the story centers on Atlanta, Georgia, its lessons could be applied to burgeoning queer communities from coast to coast.
What’s even more important is that Padgett vividly brings this moment to life. In a chapter or so, the characters of the book were fixed firmly in my head, and I began looking forward to jumping from one point of view to another as the sections rolled by. It’s a great technique to keep the story moving forward, and it also reminds us that our community consists of millions of individuals, each living their queer lives in a different way.
I feel obligated to mention that Martin has been a friend and colleague for many years. However, when I review work authored by friends, I do my best to set all that aside and assess the book as objectively as possible. I can promise that if I hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed A Night at the Sweet Gum Head, I wouldn’t have written this.
A couple of years later, I remember hearing the word “gay” used in a new way, one that wasn’t quite the same as “happy”. In movies and sitcoms, people would discuss folks who were “gay” in hushed tones. And the orange juice lady (otherwise known as Anita Bryant) was talking very loudly about how bad “gay” people were. When I finally learned what “gay” meant—on the playground, of course—I thought, “Hmm. That might be me.”
A few years later, of course, AIDS became headline news, and the LGBT community’s march toward equality took several long, painful steps backward. But during the 70s—and this was apparent, even to someone still in elementary school—there was a lot of optimism about the increased visibility of LGBT Americans.
A Night at the Sweet Gum Head captures that moment beautifully. Following a range of characters, from drag artists to gay activists to club owners, Martin Padgett weaves together disparate narratives to give a panoramic snapshot of the post-Stonewall, pre-AIDS era. Though the story centers on Atlanta, Georgia, its lessons could be applied to burgeoning queer communities from coast to coast.
What’s even more important is that Padgett vividly brings this moment to life. In a chapter or so, the characters of the book were fixed firmly in my head, and I began looking forward to jumping from one point of view to another as the sections rolled by. It’s a great technique to keep the story moving forward, and it also reminds us that our community consists of millions of individuals, each living their queer lives in a different way.
I feel obligated to mention that Martin has been a friend and colleague for many years. However, when I review work authored by friends, I do my best to set all that aside and assess the book as objectively as possible. I can promise that if I hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed A Night at the Sweet Gum Head, I wouldn’t have written this.
December 21, 2021
A good storyteller reels you into a time, place, and people and makes them known. A Night at the Sweet Gum Head introduces the burgeoning drag scene in Atlanta in the 1970s, and Marty Padgett makes known unforgettable characters such as Rachel Wells, Lavita Allen, Satyn DeVille, and my favorite, Hot Chocolate. Disclosure: I work with Marty and I wouldn't have read Sweet Gum Head without that association. I would've missed out on an excellent read.
Performing against the backdrop of the nascent gay rights movement forming in the South, the rise and fall of the scrappy club called Sweet Gum Head epitomizes a decade of progress, repression, disorganization, and identity. It's the singular performers of the Sweet Gum Head and their intimate stories that cast a broader light on the human heart at the center of Padgett's riveting take on a decade in upheaval.
Structured chronologically with chapters that cover a year, A Night at the Sweet Gum Head packs as much narrative drama as the drama taking place in the smoke-filled backstage at the Club. At the onset of the decade, legal and sometimes lethal discrimination prompted the Sweet Gum Head and its drag performers to work in the shadows, initially. By the end of the decade, the Miss Gay America pageant has become a national spectacle but the specter of AIDS haunts whatever fractured progress has been made.
Padgett could've swung wider, beyond anemic protests in Washington D.C. and the terrifying rise and satisfying demise of Anita Bryant, to give a broader understanding in contrast to what was happening in Atlanta, but it would've lacked the character and intimacy. By maintaining the Sweet Gum Head as the narrative home, and using primary interviews, legal documents, reams of newspaper articles ranging from The New York Times and Esquire to the Barb, Atlanta's first LGBTQ newspaper, Padgett transforms the 50-year-old past into a vibrant time and place full of hope, fear, and a will to survive.
Performing against the backdrop of the nascent gay rights movement forming in the South, the rise and fall of the scrappy club called Sweet Gum Head epitomizes a decade of progress, repression, disorganization, and identity. It's the singular performers of the Sweet Gum Head and their intimate stories that cast a broader light on the human heart at the center of Padgett's riveting take on a decade in upheaval.
Structured chronologically with chapters that cover a year, A Night at the Sweet Gum Head packs as much narrative drama as the drama taking place in the smoke-filled backstage at the Club. At the onset of the decade, legal and sometimes lethal discrimination prompted the Sweet Gum Head and its drag performers to work in the shadows, initially. By the end of the decade, the Miss Gay America pageant has become a national spectacle but the specter of AIDS haunts whatever fractured progress has been made.
Padgett could've swung wider, beyond anemic protests in Washington D.C. and the terrifying rise and satisfying demise of Anita Bryant, to give a broader understanding in contrast to what was happening in Atlanta, but it would've lacked the character and intimacy. By maintaining the Sweet Gum Head as the narrative home, and using primary interviews, legal documents, reams of newspaper articles ranging from The New York Times and Esquire to the Barb, Atlanta's first LGBTQ newspaper, Padgett transforms the 50-year-old past into a vibrant time and place full of hope, fear, and a will to survive.
May 4, 2022
some wonderful research of an essential history with keen insights into an era of the South that deserves attention. unfortunately the author has made the decision to break up each section into many parts with subheadings organized by personage (including everyone from Mayor Maynard Jackson and Jimmy Carter; Anita Bryant and Gloria Gaynor; RuPaul and Diamond Lil) rather than crafting a through narrative around his two main characters: Bill and Rachel Wells. the structure creates a stilted story and too many choppy scenes. A great effort, with a few moments of excellent writing, but an editor/agent should have pushed him to craft a better structure to craft a more engaging narrative. the final section "After party" is a heartbreaking coda. now we just need Ryan Murphy or some other producer to adapt this wild tale to a TV series!
May 8, 2022
Not quite an oral history, but chatty and informal like one, this history of gay Atlanta focuses on one drag bar in Atlanta in the 70s.
I love reading this with the internet as a companion, because you can find pictures and videos of the performers and "more to the story" all over the place. (Imagine having such a compelling story you can leave Leslie Jordan out of it.)
Chillingly, though, so much of this book felt like "history" but I have been alive for all of it. Alive for sodomy laws and discrimination and closets. When you're sitting in the midst of history, you don't often recognize it, but my goodness Anita Bryant is still alive! Its too close at our heels.
I love reading this with the internet as a companion, because you can find pictures and videos of the performers and "more to the story" all over the place. (Imagine having such a compelling story you can leave Leslie Jordan out of it.)
Chillingly, though, so much of this book felt like "history" but I have been alive for all of it. Alive for sodomy laws and discrimination and closets. When you're sitting in the midst of history, you don't often recognize it, but my goodness Anita Bryant is still alive! Its too close at our heels.
January 1, 2023
I heard Martin Padgett on a podcasts discuss his book and it sounded interesting. I’m a Canadian and when the book arrived. I thought why did I buy this. I have never been to Atlanta and worried it was so specific to one place it wouldn’t be worth it. But I was wrong! It was moving story of the real people who were part of the LGBT+ community in 70s Atlanta. It’s two protagonists are followed on their parallel lives. One a political activist and one a Southern superstar drag queen. Their stories were moving and fascinating. I highly recommend it. The author is a great storyteller and the Sweet Gum Head is full of stories and people
December 5, 2023
“A Night at the Sweet Gum Head: Drag, Drugs, Disco, Disco and Atlanta’s Gay Revolution” by Martin Padgett gives us a glimpse into the lives and events in Atlanta from 1971-1981. It centers on the Sweet Gum Head bar and the lives Bill Smith, an early Gay Rights pioneer, and Rachel Wells, a drag superstar who walked away from it all.
This book had a lot of history and I got to learn some of the back stories of people I knew in Atlanta in the early 1980's. Unfortunately, the book is a bit on the dry side as the author didn't embellish the facts to make a novel style read. I still enjoyed it.
This book had a lot of history and I got to learn some of the back stories of people I knew in Atlanta in the early 1980's. Unfortunately, the book is a bit on the dry side as the author didn't embellish the facts to make a novel style read. I still enjoyed it.
September 12, 2023
This is a beautiful, thoughtful, and detail rich memoir of Atlanta’s coming of age LGBTQ history. I’m grateful this was written and soaked up the details of roads and names I’ve known yet not known the significance. The stories told her are lush, not the dry, just the facts approach of a historian, but an emotive display of an observer who cares about the subject and cared how it was shared. I wish this was required reading in APS schools as it tells our city’s story, and invites the reader to continue searching for more of their own truths.
February 4, 2023
I’m probably more partial to this book because I’m from Georgia, but Martin did a wonderful job reporting and chronicling the lives of the people who were formative in building Atlanta’s gay culture. It’s also a pleasure to read. Martin has a wonderful style. None of these people will ever be in a history book but they were important in their time and had an impact on the people around them. It’s lovely that someone cared enough to tell their story.
July 7, 2021
I enjoyed reading about friends and acquaintances. The research and interviews were well placed. I appreciated the chapter style. I know diamond lil would have loved what was written about her. Overall, I did not care for the overly florid mucho mas metaphors. Descriptions sometimes were overdrawn and “novelish”.
January 3, 2023
my only con is that the narrative structure was slightly hard to follow at points but otherwise a very well done & important telling of the not-so-long ago past. Love that the author assembled this piece of gay history for others to learn about.
also want to take a moment and say a big ol FUCK YOU to the demons named Anita Bryant, Ronald Regan, and Jimmy Carter
also want to take a moment and say a big ol FUCK YOU to the demons named Anita Bryant, Ronald Regan, and Jimmy Carter
October 12, 2023
Although this is not a perfect book, I still felt it was worth a five star rating because of its lyricism, poignancy, and excellent research and historical context. Overall, Inloved the unique structure as well, even if there were a few jarring transitions. I learned a great deal and connected with the people and places of this transitional moment in Atlanta’s history.
July 21, 2021
This was an excellent read about the 1970s gay scene in Atlanta focusing on the drag scene and the ongoing fight for equality. I have read widely on gay history but never on what happened in Atlanta. It opened a new world to me.
August 3, 2021
Essential reading for any lgbt+ Atlantan, and more broadly a very illuminating read for anyone interested in local history, culture, and politics (not to mention music and drag). The literal bookload of perspectives offer an invaluable link to a tragically short-lived but fascinating time period.
August 1, 2023
This was a very good chronicle of the life of people in the Drag scene and LGBQT+ movement in Atlanta in the seventies. The people are described in great depth and feeling. The book could have done more to put this into context of the larger movement.
August 18, 2023
Martin Padgett’s illustration of the early gay scene in Atlanta captivated my mind so much to the point that I found myself getting emotional reading the final chapters, depicting the end of an empowering era.
June 28, 2024
This was such a fun, entertaining, but also educational read. How are more people not singing the praises of Rachel Wells? She is fabulous. A new favorite queen. This book really managed to balance the tragedies of the gay liberation with the fun and oftentimes fabulous times.
June 25, 2021
4.5 rounded up
June 29, 2021
Magnificent
March 19, 2023
I am not surprised we are still fighting the same battles against the same rhetoric from 50+ years ago. Very informative. I really enjoyed it.
October 23, 2025
Indispensable Atlanta history book!
August 11, 2024
Padgett creates a vibrant portrait of 1970s gay Atlanta, bringing the decade between Stonewall and the onset of the AIDS crisis alive through the personal stories and experiences of drag queens and gay rights activists at a fascinating time in queer history.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 32 reviews