radio electronics. After high school, Pitts was briefly confined in a psychiatric unit at Gowanda State Hospital, related to his homosexuality. After emerging from the hospital, he began to publicly acknowledge his sexuality to his family and others. Early career In the early 1960s, Pitts attended Jamestown Community College and worked at WJTN, the town's local radio station. He later studied at Alleghany College in Meadville, PA, where he hosted the college's program on a local radio station. Before moving to New York City, he held positions at several commercial radio stations around the state, including Rochester, Salamanca, and Olean. From 1965 to 1967 he worked for Cine Magnetics in Mamaroneck, NY, where he recorded audio soundtracks for sales presentations and teaching aids on 8-millimeter film, before moving to Manhattan. Move to New York City In the mid-1960s, Pitts decided to move to New York City. A major impetus for his relocation was to seek treatment from psychotherapist C.A. Tripp, whose perspective that homosexuality constituted “a difference rather than an illness” promised a route towards a more affirming self-understanding. Tripp had worked under Dr. Alfred Kinsey studying human sexuality at the Kinsey Institute, became an advisor to the New York Mattachine Society, and would gain prominence as the author of The Homosexual Matrix, a controversial but influential 1975 book critiquing psychoanalytic perspectives on homosexuality and arguing in favor of social acceptance of homosexuals. Upon arriving in Manhattan, Pitts met with Tripp, joined a therapy group of other gay men led by Wardell Pomeroy, and soon “developed a strong and positive gay identity and a deep anger at the cultural standards that for so long had kept him guilty and unhappy.” While exploring the city's gay world, Pitts also became an active participant in hippie and countercultural circles. During his early years in New York City, Pitts worked as a freelance sound engineer for a range of companies, including recording radio programs and commercials for Cinema Sound, Ltd. And museum and historical site tours for the Acoustiguide Corporation. He performed location dialog recording for various film projects, including the movies Greetings (1968), The Projectionist (1970), and Love and Kisses (1971). He also attended the Woodstock Festival in August 1969, where he worked as a sound engineer with a film crew documenting the performances. Their work would be released in the 1970 documentary film Woodstock; in addition to winning an Academy Award