Famous is as Famous Does: October 2016

Sunday, October 30, 2016

Anton Walbrook, on stage in the early 1930s.

Walbrook was born in Vienna, Austria, as Adolf Wohlbrück. He was the son of Gisela Rosa (Cohn) and Adolf Ferdinand Bernhard Hermann Wohlbrück. He was descended from ten generations of actors, though his father broke with tradition and was a circus clown. Walbrook studied with the director Max Reinhardt and built up a career in Austrian theatre and cinema.

In 1936, he went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the multinational The Soldier and the Lady (1937) and in the process changed his name from Adolf to Anton. Instead of returning to Austria, Walbrook, who was gay and classified under the Nuremberg Laws as "half-Jewish" (his mother was Jewish), settled in England and continued working as a film actor, making a speciality of playing continental Europeans.

Producer-director Herbert Wilcox cast him as Prince Albert in Victoria the Great (1937) and Walbrook also appeared in the sequel, Sixty Glorious Years the following year. He was in director Thorold Dickinson's version of Gaslight (1940), in the role played by Charles Boyer in the later Hollywood remake. In Dangerous Moonlight (1941), a romantic melodrama, he was a Polish pianist torn over whether to return home. For the Powell and Pressburger team in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) he played the role of the dashing, intense "good German" officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, and the tyrannical impresario Lermontov in The Red Shoes (1948). One of his most unusual films, reuniting him with Dickinson, is The Queen of Spades (1949), a Gothic thriller based on the Alexander Pushkin short story, in which he co-starred with Edith Evans. For Max Ophüls he was the ringmaster in La Ronde (1950) and Ludwig I, King of Bavaria in Lola Montès.

His Red Shoes co-star Moira Shearer recalled Walbrook was a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses and eating alone. He retired from films at the end of the 1950s and in later years appeared on the European stage and television.

Walbrook died of a heart attack in Garatshausen, Bavaria, Germany in 1967. His ashes were interred in the churchyard of St. John's Church, Hampstead, London, as he had wished in his testament.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Ningwei Chuang (Taiwan) Dancer

Yankee heartthrob Mickey Mantle.

Thomas Eakins (1880′s)

Nino Cesarini

Nino Cesarini, Italian lover of the painter Jaques d'Adelswärd-Fersen and photographed on his terrace at the Villa Lysis in Capri, around 1905.

Walt Whitman

Believed by many, including at least one Whitman museum, to be Walt Whitman photographed by Thomas Eakins. Eakins did several portrait photos of Whitman and his lover Bill.

Sunday, October 23, 2016

Anderson Cooper

Friday, October 21, 2016

Why Cary Grant was happy to be called gay

The English-born star held sway over the golden age of movies, from thrillers to comedies in such classics as North By Northwest and Notorious to His Girl Friday and An Affair To Remember. Onscreen his lovers included some of the world’s most beautiful women – from Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn to Rosalind Russell and Sophia Loren. Off screen, he was married five times. Yet away from the cameras Grant developed a very different reputation – as Hollywood gossip suggested he was secretly gay. Now the actor’s only child, his daughter Jennifer Grant by his marriage to actress Dyan Cannon, has revealed that her father actively encouraged this rumour that he was privately homosexual because it helped him seduce his leading ladies. “Dad somewhat enjoyed being called gay,” says actress Jennifer, 45, who has written the memoir Good Stuff: A Reminiscence Of My Father, Cary Grant, published in America on May 3. “He said it made women want to prove the assertion wrong.” And Grant did not flatly reject homosexual advances, she recalls. “Can’t blame men for wanting him and wouldn’t be surprised if dad even mildly flirted back,” she writes. “When the question arises, it generally speaks more about the person asking.” Grant died in 1986 at 82, having retired from movies 20 years earlier, but with his enduring cool élan and elegant sartorial savoir faire it is hardly surprising that he has become an icon to gay fans worldwide. Yet it is hard to imagine that the handsome 6ft 2in Grant needed to pretend to be gay to conquer any woman he might choose. Grant’s lovers are reputed to have also included dancer Ginger Rogers, King Kong’s infatuation Fay Wray and heiress Doris Duke, once the richest woman in America. His 1957 affair with Sophia Loren, 31 years his junior, was considered one of the most passionate romances of his life, and many friends expected them to wed. Few remember that Thirties’ sex siren Mae West selected newcomer Grant to star opposite her in the 1933 movie She Done Him Wrong in which she delivers to Grant the immortal line: “Come up some time and see me.” His sexual virility was so commanding she invited him back later that year to co-star in I’m No Angel. Audiences imagined it would take a man who was supremely confident of his heterosexuality to star in the 1949 comedy I Was A Male War Bride. In the film Grant plays a French army captain who falls in love with a female US army lieutenant and finds that at the end of the Second World War he can only enter America under the War Bride Act, which ultimately leads him to dress up in drag. But if Grant enjoyed flirting with a gay reputation behind closed doors, he was determined not to have it undermine his image as a heterosexual leading man on screen. In public he mounted an often ferocious defence against the merest suggestion that he was gay. “I have nothing against gays,” he assured people in 1980. “I’m just not one myself.” But that year he was outraged when comedian Chevy Chase, star of the National Lampoon’s Vacation film series, outed him on national TV. “I understand he’s a homo,” Chase said on NBC’s Tomorrow show and added: “What a gal.” Grant fired off a $10million slander suit against Chase, which was settled out of court. Jennifer Grant’s memoir sheds light on the sex life of an actor who chose not to write an autobiography. “I will leave that to others,” Grant said five years before his death. “I’m sure they will turn me into a homosexual or a Nazi spy or something else.” Perhaps Grant was prescient or simply knew the bawdy tales that were widespread behind the scenes in gay Hollywood. But since his demise, reports of Grant’s alleged homosexual liaisons have been gaining currency in Tinseltown’s gossipy circles. When Grant first came to Hollywood, he shared a home with Noel Coward, the flamboyantly homosexual actor, singer, songwriter and playwright. After he became a box office star he shared a house with fellow Hollywood leading man Randolph Scott who sometimes jokingly referred to himself as “Cary Grant’s wife”. Their friendship grew so close that studio chiefs insisted that Grant find a home of his own before gay gossip became headlines. Friends also noted that Grant grew extremely close to maverick millionaire aviation tycoon and film producer Howard Hughes. “The debate still rages over Grant’s sexual preference but he was clearly bisexual,” says celebrity biographer Darwin Porter, who catalogues the actor’s alleged gay liaisons in his salacious book Hollywood Babylon Strikes Again! co-authored with Danforth Prince. “He had long-enduring affairs with both Randolph Scott and Howard Hughes.” Grant was linked with former costar Marlene Dietrich but she insisted that there was no romance, reportedly telling her friends: “I had no feelings for him – he was a homosexual.” And even Mae West, who had helped to establish his reputation as a virile leading man, reportedly said in private: “He never came up to see me, not even some time.” According to Darwin Porter, Grant’s other gay lovers encompassed the biggest stars and most talented creative minds in Hollywood. He allegedly bedded Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper, playwrights Clifford Odets and Moss Hart and the composer Cole Porter. Grant was born Archibald Leach in Bristol, on January 18, 1904, the only child of Elsie and Elias, a garment factory presser. His family was “lower middle-class”, Grant recalled, and his mother deserted the family when he was still a boy. She ended up in a mental institution. He left home at 15 to join an acrobatic troupe, an adventure which took him to New York in 1920 where he moved on to appearing in vaudeville and then Broadway. He went to Hollywood for a screen test and with a name change, Cary Grant was born. He made 72 movies, never won an Oscar, experimented with LSD and made millions. But at the age of 62 Grant retired, deciding to devote more time to his family and only child Jennifer. He had divorced Dyan Cannon when their daughter was only one but remained an attentive, loving parent who was determined to be a part of her life. He picked Jennifer up from school, read to her and saved every photo, scrap and souvenir that they shared in their 20 years together before he died. “Dad home-schooled me in life, seven days a week,” she says, recalling growing up in the plush enclaves of Beverly Hills and Malibu, travelling the world with her famous father and playing board games with Princess Stephanie in Monaco. “I had a crush on dad,” Jennifer admits. “OK, more than a little crush on dad.” She also tries to debunk her father’s reputation as a cheapskate. “In my experience, dad was neither cheap nor excessive,” she writes. “Which for a wealthy man is remarkable.” Yet she recalls that he refused to buy her expensive designer jeans after learning that cheaper denims came from the same manufacturing plant. Whatever her father’s sexuality, Jennifer saw him indulge his heterosexual appetites in a series of romances and his final marriage to Barbara Harris. Even at 79 Grant longed to have another child, confessing: “I’m capable, sperm-wise.” Perhaps living a double life came naturally to a man who transformed himself from a West Country school drop-out into an urbane mid-Atlantic sophisticate. He confessed: “I have spent the greater part of my life fluctuating between Archie Leach and Cary Grant, unsure of each, suspecting each.” Perhaps he enjoyed the best of both worlds. “If someone wants to say I’m gay, what can I do?” he once mused. “I think it’s probably said about every man who’s been known to do well with women. I don’t let that sort of thing bother me. What matters to me is that I know who I am.”

Thursday, October 20, 2016

F. Scott Fitzgerald

In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway claimed that Zelda taunted Fitzgerald over the size of his penis. After examining it in a public restroom, Hemingway told Fitzgerald "You're perfectly fine," assuring him that it was larger than those of statues at the Louvre. One of the most serious rifts occurred when Zelda told him that their sex life had declined because he was "a fairy" and was likely having a homosexual affair with Hemingway. There is no evidence that either was homosexual, but Fitzgerald nonetheless decided to have sex with a prostitute to prove his heterosexuality. Zelda found condoms that he had purchased before any encounter occurred, and a bitter fight ensued, resulting in lingering jealousy. She later threw herself down a flight of marble stairs at a party because Fitzgerald, engrossed in talking to Isadora Duncan, was ignoring her. In September 1924, Zelda overdosed on sleeping pills. The couple never spoke of the incident and refused to discuss whether it was a suicide attempt. The episode propelled Fitzgerald to write in his notebook, "That September 1924, I knew something had happened that could never be repaired." This breakdown of their relationship worsened Fitzgerald's alcoholism.

In France, Fitzgerald became close friends with writer Ernest Hemingway.

Bright young things

Stephen Tennant, William Walton, Georgia Sitwell, Zita Jungman, Rex Whistler and Cecil Beaton at Wilsford, 1927

The Bright Young Things, or Bright Young People, was a nickname given by the tabloid press to a group of bohemian young aristocrats and socialites in 1920s London. They threw elaborate fancy dress parties, went on elaborate treasure hunts through nighttime London, drank heavily and used drugs—all of which was enthusiastically covered by journalists such as Tom Driberg. They inspired a number of writers, including Nancy Mitford (Highland Fling), Anthony Powell (A Dance to the Music of Time), Henry Green (Party Going) and the poet John Betjeman (A Subaltern's Love Song). Evelyn Waugh's 1930 novel Vile Bodies, adapted as the 2003 film Bright Young Things, is a satirical look at this scene. Cecil Beaton began his career in photography by documenting this set, of which he was a member.

Sir Harold Mario Mitchell Acton CBE (5 July 1904 – 27 February 1994) was a British writer, scholar, and dilettante. Acton was born at Villa La Pietra, near Florence, Italy. His father was a successful art collector and dealer, and his prominent Anglo-Italian family included the historian Lord Acton, and, more distantly, Sir John Acton, Commodore and prime minister of Naples under Ferdinand IV.

John Patrick Douglas Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross (1904–1976) was a Scottish historian and writer noted for his biography of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and other works on Islamic history.

Robert Byron (26 February 1905 – 24 February 1941) was a British travel writer, best known for his travelogue The Road to Oxiana. He was also a noted writer, art critic and historian.

The Honourable (Ralph) Edward Gathorne-Hardy (4 June 1901 – 18 June 1978) was a British Bohemian socialite.

The third son of Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 3rd Earl of Cranbrook by his wife Lady Dorothy Boyle, the daughter of David Boyle, 7th Earl of Glasgow, he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford. One of the group designated by the press the 'Bright Young People' in the 1920s, he shared a flat at 39 Maddox Street in London with Brian Howard, which was so run-down that fungus grew on the dilapidated staircase. Although he was a respected antiquarian, specialising in 18th century literature, and worked for the booksellers Elkin Mathews, he remained impecunious, largely living off his elder brother, Lord Cranbrook. He also worked at various colleges and for the British Council After 1935, he lived in Athens, Cairo and Lebanon, returning to England in the late 1960s in poor health. He died aged 77 on 18 June 1978.

(Alexander) Gavin Henderson, 2nd Baron Faringdon (20 March 1902 – 29 January 1977) was a British Labour politician.
Described by David Cargill as a "roaring pansy", Henderson was known for his effeminate demeanour, once opening a speech in the House of Lords with the words "My dears" instead of "My Lords".

Brian Christian de Claiborne Howard (13 March 1905 – 15 January 1958) was an English poet and later a writer for the New Statesman.

Arthur Tilden Jeffress (born 1905, Brentford, Middlesex; died 1961) was colorful and influential gallery owner, collector, and patron of the arts in post war Britain.^[1] In the pre-war years he was one of Britain's Bright Young Things. He died in 1961 and left his art collection to the Tate and Southampton City Art Gallery.

Oliver Hilary Sambourne Messel (13 January 1904 – 13 July 1978) was an English artist and one of the foremost stage designers of the 20th century.

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet (6 December 1892 – 4 May 1969) was an English writer. His elder sister was Edith Sitwell and his younger brother was Sacheverell Sitwell; Just like his siblings, he devoted his life to art and literature.

Stephen James Napier Tennant (21 April 1906 – 28 February 1987) was a British socialite known for his decadent lifestyle. He was called "the brightest" of the "Bright Young People".

Reginald John "Rex" Whistler (24 June 1905 – 18 July 1944) was a British artist, designer and illustrator.

Denham Fouts

Denham Fouts (9 May 1914 – 16 December 1948) was an American male prostitute, socialite and literary muse. He served as the inspiration for characters by Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood and Gavin Lambert. The son of Edwin Fouts and Mary E. Denham (1890-1970). Denham Fouts has been referenced in literary works by Christopher Isherwood, Truman Capote, and Gore Vidal. He was also a friend of George Platt Lynes, who photographed him. Isherwood described him as a mythic figure, "the most expensive male prostitute in the world." Fouts died in 1948, at the Pensione Foggetti, in Rome, at the age of 35. Interment details from the American Foreign Service from "Report of the Death of an American Citizen." The following information was provided by Vero DiSpirito: "Fouts died... of a 'hypoplastic aorta and hypertrophy of left ventricle.' His body was buried in the first zone, 11th row, of the city's Protestant Cemetery. A friend, John Goodwin, told Christopher Isherwood that Fouts was found dead in his bathroom."

In 1926, 12-year-old Fouts submitted a letter to Time Magazine, protesting the abuse of animals in the making of movies. In his teens, Fouts worked as a clerk at an ice-cream company in Jacksonville. Later he was sent north by his father to Washington, D.C., having asked a relative, who was the president of Safeway Inc., to give him a job. Fouts left for Manhattan, working for a time as a stock boy and attracting a good deal of attention for his looks, which were described as "thin as a hieroglyph, he had dark hair, light brown eyes, and a cleft chin." Writer Glenway Wescott considered him "absolutely enchanting and ridiculously good-looking."

He was taken up by a series of wealthy male and female patrons. His friends, who called him Denny, included Christopher Isherwood, Brion Gysin, Glenway Wescott, Truman Capote, George Platt Lynes, Jane and Paul Bowles, Jean and Cyril Connolly and Michael Wishart. Isherwood described him as a mythic figure, "the most expensive male prostitute in the world" and Capote considered him the "Best-Kept Boy in the World". Fouts was at one time the boyfriend of artist Peter Watson, however, they separated because of Fouts' opium addiction. In 1938, Fouts introduced Brion Gysin to Paul and Jane Bowles, later shocking them by "shooting flaming arrows from his hotel window onto the busy Champs Élysées below", having spent some time in Tibet, learning archery. Fouts' occasionally outrageous behavior made some uncomfortable. Michael Shelden remarked that Fouts' "'Deep South' charm masked a volatile, sometimes nasty temper. There were rumours about his past and tales of erratic, dangerous behavior." During World War II, Watson sent Fouts to the US for his safety. He met Isherwood in Hollywood in August 1940. Isherwood's guru, Swami Prabhavananda, refused to accept Fouts as a disciple despite his interest in Vedanta. Isherwood, nonetheless, had Fouts move in with him in the summer of 1941 to "lead a life of meditation". This period is described in Isherwood's Down There on a Visit, where Fouts is represented as the character Paul. Some time into the war, Fouts, who was a conscientious objector, was drafted for the Civilian Public Service Camp. He later completed his high school diploma, studied medicine at UCLA and then settled in Europe. While in Paris, he sent a blank check to Truman Capote with only the word "come" written on it, after becoming enamored of the Harold Halma photograph of Capote on the original back dust jacket of Other Voices, Other Rooms. Capote rejected the check, but accepted his offer to visit, and would spend hours with Fouts in his dark apartment on the Rue de Bac, talking and listening to Fouts' stories.

Fouts was allegedly the lover of numerous notable figures, including Prince Paul of Greece (later King), and French actor Jean Marais. Another of his lovers was Evan Morgan, 2nd Viscount Tredegar. Capote, in exaggeration of his prowess, claimed that "had Denham Fouts yielded to Hitler's advances there would have been no World War Two." Katherine Bucknell, the editor of Christopher Isherwood's diaries, noted "Myth surrounds Denham Fouts", and one of his friends, John B. L. Goodwin said of Fouts, "He invented himself. If people didn't know his background he would make it up." Fouts spent much of his later life dissolute, spending time "in bed like a corpse, sheet to his chin, a cigarette between his lips turning to ash. His lover [Anthony Watson-Gandy (1919–1952), a writer and translator] would remove the cigarette just before it burned his lips." Fouts died in 1948, at the Pensione Foggetti, in Rome, at the age of 34 of a "hypoplastic aorta and hypertrophy of left ventricle". His body was buried in the first zone, 11th row, of the city's Protestant Cemetery. A friend, John Goodwin, told Christopher Isherwood that Fouts was found dead in his bathroom.