Town Bloody Hall

1971
  • On the evening of April 30, 1971, a standing room only audience of local literati and feminists packed New York City’s Town Hall to watch Norman Mailer, who had just written “The Prisoner of Sex,” grapple with a panel of passionate feminists. The subject was Women’s Liberation, an issue on which Mailer seemed like the devil’s own advocate.

     

    There to test him was a fearsome panel of feminist representatives, among them journalist and lesbian spokeswoman Jill Johnston; legendary literary critic Diana Trilling; president of The National Organization of Women (NOW), Jacqueline Ceballos; and possibly his toughest match, the glamorous and razor-tongued author of The Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer.

     

    On the streets it was simply Mailer versus Greer in a knockdown debate on women’s liberation. The event, produced by Shirley Broughton and her ongoing Theater For Ideas, turned into true theater for the celebrity-stuffed audience, who vigorously offered opinions and roared their approval and disdain throughout the raucous affair. It remained the most stimulating and entertaining action to date in the continuing comedy/drama of the war between the sexes and is reverently referred to by writers on the subject.

     

    “Frequently funny, it’s a pleasure to watch. Mailer backpedals and obfuscates like a madman, but what finally makes Town Bloody Hall—so compelling and unsettling—is the impression that such serious, spirited debate is a thing of the past.”

    -— Mark Holcomb, Village Voice

  • A Film by Chris Hegedus and D A Pennebaker 1979, 88 min., color . A Film By CHRIS HEGEDUS & D A PENNEBAKER Starring JACQUELINE CEBALLOS, GERMAINE GREER, JILL JOHNSTON, DIANE TRILLING, & NORMAN MAILER Camera JIM DESMOND, D A PENNEBAKER, & MARK WOODCOCK Sound ROBERT VAN DYKE, KATHY DESMOND, MARY LAMPSON, & KATE TAYLOR Editor CHRIS HEGEDUS Produced By SHIRLEY BROUGHTON & EDITH VAN SLYCK Directed By CHRIS HEGEDUS & D A PENNEBAKER 1979, 88 min., Color © 1979 Pennebaker Hegedus Films, Inc. All rights reserved.