Let’s close this week of 1970s Los Angeles heritage with this quite interesting news segment focusing on the then newly out gay community of West Hollywood. ‘Two on the Town,” was a local Los Angeles series broadcast by KCBS-TV hosted by Steve Edwards and Connie Chung. In this 1980 piece, West Hollywood is profiled as the place where the gay community–for years hidden, whispered about but not seen–had now finally found an open acceptance (more or less). The segment is a period piece and it’s easy to mock or wince at the rather patronizing explanations of life in the West Hollywood ‘gay ghetto’ (as the narrator refers to it). But there’s another way to look at it; the fact that a local network program was finally able to air a segment about the subject not tied to scandal, murder or morality of any sort, is something to be admired. Plus there are great shots of ridiculous clothing and hair styles. Also remember this is almost a decade before AIDS arrived and decimated freshly de-stigmatized areas and communities like this. This makes the freedom, happiness and pride evident in the people being interviewed almost unbearably poignant and sad. And on that happy note…