The Infectious Myth - Scott Austin, Back to the Early Days of AIDS - 09/23/14

AIDS hit the entertainment industry hard in the 1980s and early 1990s, and motivated starts like Elton John and Elizabeth Taylor to start raising money for new drugs, starting with AZT in 1987. Scott Austin was a dancer back then, and has been in the entertainment industry for a long time. Unlike many male dancers he was heterosexual.

 

This meant that he was both an insider, to a relatively small, tightly knit community, and an outsider. He observed gay friends dying, but also observed that the promised/threatened epidemic among heterosexuals was not occurring, despite the many heterosexual relationships involving his female dancer colleagues.

 

Scott’s discussion with David is a fascinating look back at the theatrical origins of this massive health fiasco, that is still with us today, and still often presented through a theatrical, dramatic lense.