Women in the Inner Circle

Prior to 1973, women were not permitted to join the Inner Circle or take part in the show, and female guests were relegated to the balcony. Dorothy Schiff, owner and publisher of the New York Post, refused to attend in protest, and Mayor Lindsay's wife Mary would flick peanuts from her balcony table at the men seated below.

In 1972, the Inner Circle held a meeting to discuss whether or not they should permit women to join. George Douris, of the Long Island Press, and Mickey Carroll argued in favor of admitting women. Two Daily News newsmen, Eddie O'Neill and Owen Fitzgerald, argued against. The meeting concluded with a decision that a vote would be conducted by mail. The mailed-in vote was 69-to-15 in favor of the motion, and it was decided that the four new members for the 1973 show would be women. The first women to be admitted to the Inner Circle were Edith Evans Asbury of The New York Times, Marcia Chambers of the Associated Press, Jean Crafton of the Daily News, and Maureen O'Neill of Newsday. The show began with the following announcement: "... the Inner Circle, 50 years old and they've just learned about girls". This was followed by the first four female members singing the Maurice Chevalier song, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls".^[3]

The 1972 debacle

On April 15, 1972, the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA) used the annual show to hand out leaflets to raise awareness about gay rights issues. The leaflets accused the news media and New York City government of discriminating against gay people. The GAA expected the Inner Circle audience to be largely made up of journalists and members of the press. However, the journalists were backstage, preparing for the show, and the actual audience consisted mostly of politicians, judges and labor union people. Several fights broke out between people in the audience and the activists: as the judge would comment in a resulting trial, testimony varied and left the origin of the scuffle unclear. One activist, Morty Manford, was injured and taken to the hospital. Mickey Maye, the leader of the firefighter's union at the time and a former Golden Gloves boxer, was arrested and charged with harassment:^[4] he was later acquitted.^[5] Inner Circle members did not find out about this until it was written about in the news. This incident led to the founding of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays by Manford's mother, Jeanne Manford.^[6]

Mayoral rebuttals

A screenshot of footage from the Mayor's Inner Circle Press Roast, depicting Rudy Giuliani, dressed in drag, flirting with Donald Trump.

For the first few decades of the Inner Circle, the incumbent New York Mayor would deliver a rebuttal to the show in the form of a humorous speech. This changed in 1966, when Mayor John Lindsay instead performed a song-and-dance routine with actress Florence Henderson,^[17] setting a precedent which continues into the present day.

• Ed Koch emerged from the mouth of a man-eating plant from the Broadway show Little Shop of Horrors. In 1984, then-Mayor Koch appeared in drag, in a gold lamé bodysuit with a mechanical pigeon on his head.^[18]
• Mayor David Dinkins put on a comedic newscast with Mary Tyler Moore and Gregory Hines.
• In 1997, Rudy Giuliani's appeared in a pink gown, blond wig, high heels and makeup, calling himself "Rudia", and proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" in falsetto.^[18] Later, in 2000, he was dressed on stage in male disco garb, spoofing John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever, but also appeared as Rudia in taped video clips, in which he flirted with real estate mogul Donald Trump, then later had an exchange with Joan Rivers about Hillary Clinton.
• Mayor Michael Bloomberg has appeared with the casts of the Broadway shows Chicago, Spamalot,^[19] Mary Poppins,^[20] and Mamma Mia!.^[21] He has also been accompanied by Caroline Kennedy^[22] and quarterback Eli Manning,^[23] and once made his exit astride a donkey which he dubbed "The Burro of Manhattan". In 2010, the Mayor, in full hippie regalia, performed in "Mair", a sendoff of Hair.^[24]