The 10% Show was a monthly Chicago-based cable access news magazine that ran 20 episodes between 1989-1991. It presented the wide spectrum of LGBTQ life in Chicago and has preserved historical record of the important events and issues as well as the activities and entertainment of that time period.

Newly Added

Episode 20a, January 1991

Cointents: Discussion with Pam McDonald on dismantling racism in the gay and lesbian community; Family Feud at Roscoe’s; Interview with gold metal winning bodybuilder and poet Kitty Tsui.

Episode 20b, March 1991

Contents: Mirth and Girth World Wide Convergence; Controversy over same-sex dancing at Baja Beach Club; Interview with Lee Kay the creator of Bubbleheads which were displayed in the Roscoe’s cafe window.

From Previous Weeks

Episode 3, May 1989

Contents: Performance of scenes from Diamond’s are a Dyke’s Best Friend at Mountain Moving Coffee House; Interview with Lynn Lavner; Highlights from the 1989 Lesbian Patchwork Conference; Interview with members of Image Plus, a support group for young black gay men.

Episode 4, May 1989

Contents: Interviews and contest footage of International Mr. Leather 1989 in Chicago; Person-On-The-Street interviews at Broadway and Melrose; Profile of Horizon’s Youth Group; ACT-UP Chicago Demonstration addressing Chicago Transit Authority policy against displaying sex-positive safe sex advertising on Chicago’s buses and trains. And from New York: review of the film The Virgin Machine; a scene from the play/cabaret act Champagne Lady, and interviews with the playwright and actors; gay stand-up comedian; Sybil Bruncheon entertainment feature. A clip of part of a performance by Bronski Beat at International Mr. Leather was cut due to copyright concerns.

Episode 5, August 1989

Contents: The 1989 Gay & Lesbian Pride Parade. Featuring interviews with Mayor Richard M. Daley, Rick Garcia and Laurie Dittman from the “Gang of Four” who helped pass the Human Rights Ordinance in the City of Chicago, 44th Ward Alderman Bernie Hansen, 29th Ward Alderman Danny Davis, ACT-UP Chicago members at their float, and Al-Wardell of the Illinois Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Episode 6, September 1989

Contents: Interview with Alix Dobkin, lesbian musician and philosopher (with her lover) at Mountain Moving Coffee House; Horizons’ “Dancing with Pride” benefit featuring interviews & performances of chanteuse Linda Clifford & The Weather Girls; Interviews with the director of Horizons, the director of Horizon’s Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, the director of the Gay & Lesbian Switchboard, and the director of Horizons’ Youth Group.

Episode 7, November 1989:

Contents: Interview of local lesbian artist K.B. Lane- featuring her installation at the ARC Gallery; International Gay & Lesbian Jewish Conference; Northalsted Street Market Days street festival; interview with publisher of Quarterly Interchange, resurrected from Black & White Men Together (BWMT) magazine for men interested in interracial relationships; Ambiente Latino segment; host Alfredo Gonzalez interviews director of the Hispanic AIDS Network; interview with and performance by Rudy de la Mor, entertainer extraordinaire, at the Gentry night club.

Episode 9, January 1990

Contents: Opening of the third Chicago House; Circus Vargas AIDS benefit; Howard Brown Health Clinic 15th Anniversary benefit; Drag Queen Wrestling at Bistro Too.

Episode 10, March 1990

Contents: Meeting with Mayor Richard M. Daley and the Mayor’s Committee on Gay and Lesbian Issues, and many other organizations in the Gay & Lesbian Community to address controversial issues about Chicago’s Gay & Lesbian Community in its relations with the Daley administration. Daley and his entourage stormed out of the meeting; Interviews afterwards with various community leaders, including Marie Kuda, Jon-Henri Damski, Danny Sotomayor, Rick Garcia, Joanne Trapani); ACT-UP demonstration the day after the meeting, held at Daley Plaza, and flowing into city hall, where ACT-UP demonstrators were arrested. Includes segment from WMAQ-TV.

Episode 11, April 1990

Contents: Coverage of “Judy’s Place”, an art event at Randolph Street Gallery, creating a women’s space with a western honky-tonk motif in celebration of Judy & Calucci’s 15th year together; The 9th Annual Gay and Lesbian Film Festival featuring interviews with film makers and clips from their films, including: Greg Araki, director of Weekend O’Despair; Mark Huestis, director of Men In Love; and Suzie Silver, director of Peccatum Mutum and You Know Something; Profile of Gay Chicago Magazine staff: interviews with Editor/Publisher Ralph Paul Gebhart; Photographer Spike King; Manager; Linda Henderson, Advertising Manager; and Columnist Alfredo Gonzalez.

Episode 12, May 1990:

Contents: Segment from play Intimacies and interview with the playwright and actor Michael Kearns; Interview with Heather McAdams, film maker and cartoonist, clips from her film “Meet…Bradley Harrison Pickleshimer” about her drag queen friend in Lexington, Kentucky; Interview with Marie Kuda, literary activist, at her 50th birthday celebration/Lesbian Writer’s Conference celebration; Backstage at the Ms. Continental Competition at the Baton show lounge; Interview with self-proclaimed Jewish Lesbian Folk Singer Phranc; First installment of the nationally distributed gay and lesbian soap opera “Secret Passions” produced in southern California.

Episode 13, June 1990

Contents: Profile of Team Chicago, the Chicago contingent that will travel to Vancouver, Canada for the 1990 Gay Games. Featured are the bowling team, the Smelts swim team, the Frontrunners running group, and interview with Team Chicago promoter Peg Gray; Interview with publishers of Thing magazine, a black, gay, literary/fun magazine distributed nationally and produced in Chicago; Short featurette of the film Long Time Companion; ACT-UP national demonstration, starting at overnight vigil in front of Cook County Hospital addressing the lack of accessibility for women to the Cook county AIDS ward due to lack of staffing, although there are 15 empty beds in the ward. The next day, coverage of demonstrations starting at the Prudential Insurance building, walking across the Chicago River to the American Medical Association headquarters, and parading back over the river to the MONY Insurance building, and then to City Hall where approximately 128 demonstrators were arrested; all to protest insurance companies’ non-payment of health insurance policy claims to people who live in “gay” zip codes; Second installment of the soap opera Secret Passions.

Episode 14, July 1990

Contents: Interview with Jon Henri-Damski, long time Chicago gay community newspaper fixture and columnist with The Windy City Times; Interview and presentation coverage of Sonja Johnson, writer and philosopher, at Mountain Moving Coffee House; Profile of cartoonist Alison Bechdel, creator of the nationally syndicated “Dykes To Watch Out”; Third installment of nationally syndicated gay & lesbian soap opera, “Secret Passions”

Episode 15, August 1990

Contents: Coverage of the 1990 Chicago Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade, featuring the new route beginning on Halsted Street. Also featured are interviews with individuals at parade, the rally in Lincoln Park, and at Paris Dance and Roscoe’s.

Episode 16, August 1990

Contents: The final performance at the Mountain Moving Coffee House at their original space on School Street, before moving to a new space on Morse Ave. Interviews with Coffee House members, including performance clips of Paula Walowitz; Lesbian Kiss-in front of Water Tower Place on the Magnificent Mile to address Lesbian invisibility in society and the media.

Episode 17, September 1991:

Contents: Profile of PFLAG (Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays); Discussion with cast of and scenes from Vampire Lesbians of Sodom; Interview with Gabrielle Antolovich, International Ms Leather 1990 and highlights from her Women & Leather workshop; a new Gordon Thomas music video.