Arthur Bell

Arthur Bell (November 6, 1939 – June 2, 1984) was an American journalist, author and LGBT rights activist.

Early life

Bell was born in Brooklyn to Samuel Bell, a manufacturer of children's clothing, and, Claire Bodan Bell, a designer. Bell returned to New York City in 1960 and found a job writing jacket copy for children's books. On August 13, 1970, the Village Voice published Bell's debut article, "Gay Is Political and Democrats Agree," marking the start of his career as a Voice journalist. He also worked for a time for The Emerald City on Channel J.

After Variety reporter Addison Verrill, an acquaintance of Bell's, was killed in his apartment in 1977, Bell wrote about the case in the Voice. In response he received a telephone call from someone claiming to have been the killer who, while generally appreciative of the piece, objected to being characterized as a "psychopath". The caller left some clues to his identity, and after Bell informed the police, they went to his apartment to wait in case the caller called again. A second caller identified the first to Bell as Paul Bateson, and police went to Bateson's apartment in Greenwich Village and arrested him. Bateson was later convicted of second-degree murder and served almost a quarter-century in prison.

In connection with the case, Bell wrote a series of columns about a string of unsolved murders of gay men; these columns, along with the novel Cruising by Gerald Walker, were the inspiration behind the William Friedkin film Cruising. Bell wrote additional columns condemning Friedkin and Cruising after reading a leaked early screenplay, deploring what he viewed as its negative depiction of gay people and claiming that it would inspire violence against homosexuals. At Bell's urging, gay activists disrupted the filming of Cruising and demonstrated at theatres where the film was playing.

Personal life

Bell met author Arthur Evans, at the time a film distributor, and the two entered into a relationship in 1964. His last conversations were preserved by publisher Charles Ortleb of the New York Native.

Legacy Playwright Doric Wilson based a character in his play The West Street Gang on Bell.