The History Of The Mattachine Steps And Julian Eltinge Steps In Silver Lake’s LGBTQ Legacy

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MATTACHINE STEPS

While there are exceptions, most of Silver Lake’s (and Los Angeles’s) public stairways have only colloquial names. In 2012, the stairs previously usually referred to as the Cove Avenue Stairs were officially designated the Mattachine Steps. The name was a reference to the Mattachine Foundation. The stairway’s connection to the organization stems from its location next to the former residence of Mattachine Foundation co-founder, Harry Hay. Hay was an English immigrant and Communist organizer who came to Silver Lake in 1942. In 1948, he founded Bachelors Anonymous at his residence at 2328 Cove Avenue. In 1950, the group morphed into the Mattachine Foundation, one of the first gay rights organizations. Its founding members were Hay, Bob Hull, Chuck Rowland, Dale Jennings, James Gruber, Konrad Stevens, and Rudi Gernreich. 

The first Mattachine December Christmas Party, December 1951. James Gruber

In 1953, the FBI opened an internal security investigation of the Mattachine Foundation. As a result, the founding members all resigned. Under new, more conservative leadership, the organization continued as the Mattachine Society. The society began publishing The Mattachine Review in 1955 and Mattachine chapters were formed in several states. The National Mattachine Society relocated their headquarters from Los Angeles to San Francisco around 1957. The San Francisco Mattachine was dissolved in 1967. 

After the Mattachine Society decamped to San Francisco, gay civil rights efforts continued to march forward — with Silver Lake often leading the way. In July 1966, a more radical gay rights group called P.R.I.D.E. (Personal Rights in Defense and Education) formed. In February 1967, P.R.I.D.E. famously organized a protest against police brutality outside of Silver Lake’s Black Cat Tavern. The first permitted Pride Parade took place in Los Angeles on June 28, 1970.

JULIAN ELTINGE STEPS

One staircase over from the Mattachine Steps lived another Silver Lake trailblazer, Julian Eltinge. Eltinge, in the language of the day, a “female impersonator.” Nowadays we might recognize them as America’s first drag superstar. Born William Julian Dalton, Eltinge began performing publicly in drag at the age of ten. Already a star of Vaudeville and Broadway, Eltinge next wanted to enter film. Edendale was then the center of West Coast filmmaking, Eltinge settled there and Eltinge commissioned the architectural firm of Pierpont and Davis to design for him a grand residence at 2327 Fargo Street named Villa Capistrano. He moved into the mansion in 1918 and lived there with his cousin, Edgar, his chauffeur, Adolph, his cook, Frank, an English bulldog given to him by King Edward VII, and his beloved mother, Edna.

Eltinge starred, in drag, in several films: Cousin Lucy (1914), Crinoline Girl (1914), The Countess Charming (1917), The Clever Mrs. Carfax (1917), Her Grace, The Vampire (1917), The Widow’s Might (1918), Princess Martini (1918), An Adventuress (1920), Madame Behave (1925), The Fascinating Widow (1925), and Maid to Order (1931). As Eltinge aged, film roles dried up and Hollywood’s adoption of the Hays Code in 1934 put an end to anything that even hinted at homosexuality or other “deviances.” A bad investment led Eltinge to sell Villa Capistrano in 1939. He was trying to buy it back when he died in 1941. 

Villa Capistrano postcard (Image Marcello Vavala)

FUTURE STAIR-NAMING EFFORTS

In July 2024, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Governing Board will vote on a motion requesting the designation of the Julian Eltinge Steps. [Update: It was approved unanimously]. It additionally requests the installation of a stanchion to inform visitors to the stairway of Julian Eltinge’s significance. If the city follows through, it will be the fourth Silver Lake stairway to receive an official designation — following the designations of the Music Box Steps (1994), the Mattachine Steps (2012), and Esther’s Steps (2015). With over fifty such stair streets in Silver Lake, which would you like to see named, what would you like to see them named, and why?