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World Traveler

High School Dropout

Computer Geek

Pole-Dancer Girlfriend

Dubbed A “Traitor” By Dick Cheney

Bossy Bottom

Most Famous Person Of The Moment

Taco Bell Club Card Holder

Fashion Icon

Once Married To Princess Margaret

He Made It Through The Rain To Sing The Songs The Whole World Sings On His Birthday.

Today is the 70th birthday of Barry Alan Pincus of Brooklyn NY. He wrote a whole bunch of songs & along the way sold over 400 million records as writer, producer, arranger or conductor, up there with Streisand, Sinatra, Springsteen, & Michael Jackson.

Maybe Barry Manilow will never be ready to take a chance again. During a 2004 concert in NYC, just as he started to sing a duet with Broadway star, Brian d’Arcy James, Manilow joked to the audience: “Of course, we're not going to sing it to each other—that would be creepy.”

His own website diminishes the fact that he began his career in a gay bathhouse, despite the fact that he’s admitted ripping off his tuxedo & jumping into the bathhouse’s pool with lots of nude gay men. He blamed losing his inhibitions on the drinks & joints that had been passed to him. Manilow: “That’s such a bit of misinformation. There was just the single bathhouse called the Continental Bathhouse & I worked there for 2 weekends with Bette Midler & that was it. I accompanied her for 2 weekends there & then we went on to a lot of nightclubs around NYC, Chicago & L.A. & she exploded like a year later. So it really wasn’t ‘gay bathhouses.’ I don't know where that came from.”

On the plus side, Manilow canceled an appearance on The View because of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s ultra-conservative stances. Manilow: “I strongly disagree with her views, I think she's dangerous & offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her.” When Manilow was being honored in Palm Springs for his AIDS awareness efforts, he stated: “I've had 4 personal assistants in my career since the 1970s, & 3 out of the 4 have died of AIDS. My personal assistants have always become my best friends. They are my brothers.”

Manilow once complained that when the Reagans became his neighbors in Bel-Air: "I thought it was pretty hot, but the secret service was all over the place. I always know when they are coming home because of all the helicopters. If I am out there sunbathing in the nude, I go, shit, the Reagans are coming home.”

When Elizabeth Taylor asked him the early 1980s for help raising money to fight the disease he was there. Manilow: “Her friend, Rock Hudson, had died. She was the first one to try to make the public aware of this disease that was infecting everybody, & she was throwing a big dinner party. She called her entertainer friends, & they all turned her down. I don't know why. But I got the call & said, ‘Of course.’ But my band wasn't around. I just went there & played piano & sang for a good hour. It was the first one she had, & it was the first time I had ever done anything like that.”

I have never been, nor do I suspect that I will ever be a Fanalow. Even with my egalitarian & all-encompassing musical tastes, I never did find myself on the Manilow journey. The closest to an exception was when I was working for ASCAP in NYC, circa mid-1970s. I was engaged in listening to 6 hours of commercial radio play & entrusted to identify all the music recorded: commercials, bridges, lead-ins, cues & songs. I would not listen to songs all the way through. I was paid a bonus for finishing more than the 6 hour tape. Yet, I was very taken with a certain radio hit. I knew the song in the first 3 notes, but I would listen all the way through. I began to think it would be an effective ballad in my own act. The song was Weekend In New England sung by Barry Manilow.

I think it is unfortunate that Manilow suffers from the same fear of fan rejection that Liberace did. It would have been fun to have him be an out & proud gay man. For 25+ years, Manilow has lived with his "manager" Garry Kief in homes they share in NYC, Bel Air & Palm Springs. Could It Be Magic?

The Trouble With Harry

His name was Dodge & he seemed to me to be impossibly old, maybe even 24 years old. He looked like James Taylor & he lived in bohemian digs in Browne’s Addition, the closest thing Spokane had to a gay neighborhood. Dodge’s sitting room, draped in Indian print bedspreads, was a turret in a Queen Anne style mansion that had been broken up in to small apartments.  I never saw his bedroom, try as I might.

Dodge was my pot dealer from 1969-1972, & I loved him for his long limbed, gangly body & sweet hippy disposition & of course, for the plant materials he provided for sale. During that epoch, Mary Jane was sold by the “lid” & was measured by finger widths. I would buy a “3 finger lid” for $15 from Dodge &then lounge around the turret room after the transaction, listening to music, getting stoned & trying to seduce Dodge.

Dodge introduced me to the amazing music of Harry Nillson. It was the album- Harry in 1969, then Nilsson Schmilsson & The Point in 1971, & Son Of Schmilsson just 8 months later. Hard to believe, musicians from that era sometimes released more than one album a year. Nilsson’s songs would receive plenty of listening by me for the next 40+ years. His music spoke to me with the unique blend of 2 genres that I hold dear; Tin Pan Alley & Rock n’ Roll.

In October of 1979, I declared my romantic inclinations to a married, impossibly beautiful set designer, who would eventually become my husband. I said the words: “I have fallen in love with you” as A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night played on the stereo in the background. Nilsson’s version of Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do? would become “our song”. 30 years later I would weep while playing Nilsson’s Without You on repeat when I assumed that we were about to divorce.

Nilsson deserves to be grouped with Gershwin, Cole Porter, Berlin, & Lennon/McCartney as one the great songwriters of 20th century standards. He was considered a peer by all 4 members of the Beatles, who all called him a 5th Beatle, & someone on the same wavelength as themselves.

Nilsson refused to tour, so Baby Boomers don't remember him, & those born after his apex are unaware of who he even was. This is tragic. Everyone should have the opportunity to be exposed to this wonderful talent.

Nilsson spent the last 15 years of his relatively short life with a vocation for self-destruction. He died at 52, overweight & dissipated, of heart disease, after a decades long rampage of non-stop overindulgence in alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, hard partying, & flagrant misuse of his special vocal instrument.

Yet, he had perhaps the most gifted pop singing ability of his generation; he was financially & artistically successful, was held with industry acclaim, won a Grammy, an Oscar, an unusually good recording contract with a top label, & recorded at least 2 perfect  albums - Nilsson Schmilsson, all originals, & A Little Touch Of Schmilsson In The Night, all standards recorded with a live studio orchestra.

Brooklyn born Nilsson’s bestselling song was his rendition of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talkin', featured in the film Midnight Cowboy.  His own submission for the film’s title song, the rejected- I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City is one of my favorite songs about my favorite city.

Nilsson's produced & wrote a charming & captivating animated film- The Point!, broadcast on ABC in February,1971, as an ABC Movie of the Week. Nilsson's self-produced album of songs from The Point! includes the enchanting single, Me & My Arrow, my favorite song about dogs.

Nilsson chose producer Richard Perry to record his very best album- Nilsson Schmilsson. It yielded 3 very stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song Without You, featuring a highly emotional arrangement & soaring vocals, recorded, according to Perry, in a single take. This song still stirs my senses.

The second single is Coconut, a favorite of my father, which makes me love it even more. Coconut is a novelty number with a calypso beat featuring 4 characters: a narrator, a brother, a sister, & the doctor, all sung in different voices by Nilsson. The song is remembered for using just a single chord- C7th & for the chorus lyric, "Put de lime in de coconut, & drink 'em both up." The third single- Jump Into The Fire, is raucous, ranting Rock n’ Roll.

Nilsson’s music has informed my life for the past 5 decades. I still discover tracks that sound as if they could be listened to fresh today. I have recently re-discovered the off-beat charm of his songs & score for Robert Altman's musical film- Popeye. I am listening to him as I compose this post. Nilsson would have been celebrating his 72nd birthday with his best pal- John Lennon today, if they had both made it.

Born On This Day- June 14th... George Alan O'Dowd

Who amongst us has not restrained a rent boy to a radiator? I mean you can’t trust them to be left alone in the room. What is a pop star supposed to do?

At the height of his fame, before the bruising blows of pop star failure, drug addiction, & tabloid infamy, Boy George was the embodiment of fantasy escapism. The Karma Chameleon who blurred boundaries of sexuality & gender, he was a figure of wish fulfillment of the desire to be able to transcend our physical limitations & be something other than whom & what we are. Using bewitchment, beauty, & disguise, Boy George showed that you could be anything & anyone & achieve acclaim.

Boy George: British gay soul singer, lyricist, DJ, sexually ambiguous gender-bending superstar of the 1980s, trendsetter, fashion model, autobiographer, gay rights campaigner, anti-racism & animal rights activist. During the years of Culture Club he had international success as a media celebrity until revelations about his secret hard drug problem hit the tabloids. At the end of the 1980s he began to rehabilitate & reinvent himself from being an outsider, freak, &victim to respectable celebrity.  He also turned to Buddhism which brought together his pacifist beliefs & vegetarianism.

In the new century, Boy George continues to record music, DJ & make the tabloids. He has been involved in a series of scandals, drug arrests & peculiar behavior, but who else can carry off an ankle monitor with such finesse?  This year marks Boy George's 52nd year & the 32nd anniversary of Culture Club.

Born On This Day- June 13th... Paul Edward Lynde

My favorite Paul Lynde anecdote:

In the early 1960s, Lynde was on trans-continental flight. A child was not being supervised by her parents & was running up & down the aisle making noise & annoying the other passengers. The mother obviously thought this behavior was precious. When Lynde could take no more of the child's shenanigans, he rose from his seat &approached the mother & emphatically stated: "Madam, if you don't control your child this instant, I will have to fuck her."

Lynde was one of the first personalities that I identified as gay when I was a child. I thought his way with a salty one liner & his unique delivery was just too funny. I loved him in the film of Bye Bye Birdie, in a role he originated on Broadway. He was only just barely a closet case with his camp & snarky demeanor & delivery.

In 1965, Lynde was involved in an accident in which his 24 year old lover, fell 8 stories to his death from the window of their hotel room in San Francisco's Sir Francis Drake Hotel after a night of drinking games. The event was witnessed by a pair of policemen, but the story was largely kept out of the press.

In 1976, a People magazine article on Lynde featured him with Stan Finesmith, his “chauffeur/bodyguard.”  In 1978, Lynde was arrested outside of a gay bar in Salt Lake City. After the arrest, he lost his guest starring role on The Donny & Marie Show.

Peter Marshall: “Paul, why do Hell's Angels wear leather?”

Paul Lynde: “Because chiffon wrinkles too easily.”

Peter Marshall: “What's the one thing you should never do in bed?”

Paul Lynde: “Point & laugh!”

Peter Marshall: "In The Wizard Of Oz, the Tin Man wanted a heart & the Lion wanted courage. What did the Straw Man want?”

Paul Lynde: “He wanted the Tin Man to notice him.”

Peter Marshall: “At a recent hearing, opponents of fluoridated water claim that when it is in in a person's system it can cause an uncontrollable desire for sex.”

Paul Lynde: “HEY, CULLIGAN MAN!”

Peter Marshall: “Paul, any good sailor knows that when a man falls off a ship you yell 'Man overboard!' What should you shout if a woman falls overboard?”

Paul Lynde: “Full speed ahead!”

Peter Marshall: “What is said to be wasted on the young?”

Paul Lynde: “A whipping.”

Lynde was club performer, director, recording artist, actor on Broadway, films, TV, cartoons & summer stock. He was one of Hollywood's finest chefs & hosts. Lynde: “I can't even get 3 weeks off to have cosmetic surgery!”

Lynde spent a lifetime engaged in ongoing personal struggles in his private life, as the tabloids occasionally reported, but he remained appreciated by those in his profession, friends & fans. He was perhaps most famous just for being Paul Lynde.The enigmatic Lynde:  “I don't know who the hell Paul Lynde is, or why he's funny, & I prefer it to be a mystery to me. An actor shouldn't undergo psychoanalysis, because there are a lot of things you're better off not knowing.”

Lynde was found dead in his Beverly Hills home by his friend Paul Barresi on Monday, January 11, 1982. He was just 55 years old. Lynde enjoyed a precarious life of men, drinking & partying.

Born On This Day- June 12th... James Thurston Nabors

For more than 50 years in show biz, he squandered his considerable intelligence, talent & beautiful baritone, to play a hillbilly. Jim Nabors denied his gayness for the sake of his career, even partying with the Reagans. Hard to forgive?

In early January, with just a simple exchange of rings in front of a judge in a Seattle hotel room, Nabors married Stan Cadwallader, his partner of 38 years. Nabors met Cadwallader, a former firefighter in Honolulu, in 1975.

Nabors: “We had no rights as a couple before we  were married, yet when you’ve been together 38 years, I think something’s got to happen there, you’ve got to solidify something, & at my age, it’s probably the best thing to do.”

Nabors, who was born & raised in Sylacauga, Alabama. He originated the character of the hapless but loveable gas-station attendant Gomer Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, & reprised the role in 5 seasons of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. on which the goofball character was perpetually making trouble for his military superiors. My insider sources tell me that Nabors was quite popular in the industry & the ultimate professional on the set. He was a regular guest on The Carol Burnett Show, The Dean Martin Show, The Muppet Show, & his own variety series, The Jim Nabors Hour.

Nabors had always been open about his sexuality to his co-workers in the biz, but claims that he never wished to get involved in the national debate over gay rights. Nabors: “I haven’t ever made a public spectacle of it. Well, I’ve known since I was a child, so, come on. It’s not that kind of a thing. I’ve never made a huge secret of it at all.”

The happy couple lives in Hawaii. Nabors turns 83 years old on this day.

50 Years Ago Today

50 years ago today- June 11, 1963,  Thích Quảng Đức sat down in lotus position at a busy intersection in Saigon, doused himself in gasoline, lit a match & burned to death. This spectacular public act of self-immolation in protest against the South Vietnamese government’s persecution of Buddhists sent shockwaves throughout the Western world, despite the American government’s assurances that all was going well with the Vietnam War. The burning body of Thích Quảng Đức continues to be one of the most vivid & iconic photographic images of the 20th century.

European colonists supported French- Indochina’s minority Roman Catholic population & had passed several punitive laws discriminating against Buddhists. In the wake of France’s withdrawal, the Buddhist position worsened under South Vietnam’s first president, Ngô Đình Diệm – a devout Roman Catholic despot & an American puppet. A crisis was sparked in May 1963 in the central city of Huế by the shootings of 9 unarmed civilians protesting a national ban of the Buddhist flag. Diệm blamed the deaths on communist terrorists.

Buddhist leaders demanded an end to religious oppression. Diệm refused. On June 10^th,  a spokesperson for the Buddhists privately informed US journalists that “something important” would happen the next day on the road outside the Cambodian embassy in Saigon. The few reporters who showed up witness an elaborate ceremony as 350 Buddhist monks & nuns marched carrying protest banners. Thích Quảng Đức placed a cushion on the road. As the marchers formed a circle around him, Quảng Đức chanted a prayer to the Buddha before striking a match. He remained composed amid the flames.

The unprecedented TV coverage of the Vietnam War brought the brutal realities of war into the world’s living rooms for the first time & terrible fights at my family’s dinner table. But few images would shock the world more than Thích Quảng Đức’s suicide-protest. My mother begged me to stop studying it. JFK stated that “no news picture in history has generated so much emotion around the world as that one.” Many Americans viewed Thích Quảng Đức’s act as proof that Vietnam lacked the most cherished of American liberties: freedom of religion. The world’s outrage forced USA officials to fear that it would lead to the end of their hand-picked regime’s reign & the USA’s effort to combat communism in Asia.

But the world’s displeasure could not compel Diệm to end his persecution or even meet with the Buddhists. In August, Diệm used troops to arrest & imprison several thousand Buddhists in Hue & Saigon. Protests spread, & Quảng Đức’self-immolation was followed by similar acts. People around the world began to question a regime that would oppress peaceful Buddhists & provoke such shocking sacrifice. Our government found it increasingly difficult to continue to support the man they had placed in power. JFK demanded that Diệm end the protests. Diệm refused, outrageously claiming yet again that communist infiltration lay behind the Buddhist protests. The American people lost patience. On November 1st 1963, the CIA orchestrated a coup against a no-longer-useful Diệm. He was assassinated the very next day.

Thích Quảng Đức was deemed a Bodhisattva, an enlightened being who delays nirvana to help those in need. His heroic act precipitated the end of Diệm’s oppressive reign, & the regimes that came after, even the Communists, pledged to accommodate the Buddhists.

Thích Quảng Đức’s heart, which miraculously survived the immolation intact, is held as a holy relic.

Photograph by Malcolm Browne. Browne, a NY Quaker, would win a Pulitzer. He died last summer of complications from Parkinson’s.

Born On This Day- June 10th... Terence Rattigan

He would become a success at just 25 years old with a light farce- French Without Tears (1936), but Terence Rattigan wanted to be considered a serious writer. His next piece was a satirical drama After The Dance (1939), attacking the cynical generation of Bright Young Things for their failure to stop another war. Success brought more success, & his very well received plays: The Winslow Boy, The Browning Version, The Deep Blue Sea, & Separate Tables, were all made into even more popular films. He served as the writer of the screenplays of most of his plays & by the 1960s he was Hollywood’s best paid writer.

He was nominated for 2 Oscars. But just as his works struck out with the younger generation, in 1956, John Osborne's Look Back In Anger knocked cold the archetype of the Rattigan generation: the collected, composed, chastened, creaky characters that held back emotions. Rattigan fell deeply out of favor with the critics who had championed him, just as he was hitting his best notes.

In 1957 he wrote his first play that directly addressed his homosexuality, Variation On A Theme, & it was not well received. Rattigan learned to keep his own relationships well hidden, perhaps to the point of being emotionally cut off even from his partners.

Rattigan enjoyed plenty of lovers but no long-term partners. His work is essentially autobiographical, containing coded references to his sexuality, which he kept secret from all but his closest friends.

Rattigan alternated between comedies & dramas, all works of understated emotions, & craftsmanship. When seemingly overnight his sort of theatre fell into disfavor, Rattigan responded with bitterness. His churlish remarks only confirmed that he had no sympathy or understanding of the new, more modern world. Yet, his later plays from this era: Ross, Man & Boy, In Praise Of Love, & Cause Célèbre, showed no decline in his considerable talent.

No longer feeling at home in the swinging, mod London of the 1960s, Rattigan made his home in Bermuda, where he continued to write. He lived off the proceeds from lucrative screenplays including The V.I.P.s & The Yellow Rolls-Royce.

He was diagnosed as having leukemia in 1962 but recovered 2 years later, but fell ill again in 1968. Rattigan died of leukemia in his beloved Bermuda in 1977, at 66 years of age.

Rattigan was knighted in1971 for services to the theatre, being only the 4th playwright to be knighted in the 20th century (after William Gilbert in 1907, Arthur Wing Pinero in 1909 & Noël Coward in 1970).

Rattigan’s plays have enjoyed a renaissance in the 21st century. I love his work & I hold him as one of the last century's finest playwrights, an expert elicitor of emotion, & an anatomist of human emotional pain. A string of successful stage revivals & films in the past decade include a West End production of The Winslow Boy, Ross, Man & Boy on Broadway with Frank Langella, In Praise Of Love & Separate Tables at the Royal Shakespere, A Bequest To The Nation, starring Janet McTeer & Kenneth Branagh, After The Dance at London's Royal National Theatre, & Cause Célèbre at The Old Vic last season.

One of my favorite films of 2011 was the new version of The Deep Blue Sea starring Rachel Weisz.

I highly recommend the 1958 film version of Separate Tables with Deborah Kerr, Rita Hayworth, Windy Hiller, winner of the best Supporting Actress for the role, Burt Lancaster & David Niven, who won the Oscar for Best Actor. I also very much enjoyed 2000’s The Winslow Boy with Jeremy Northam, & the 1994 film version of The Browning Version with Albert Finney.

Born On This Day- June 10th... Gay Icon Francis Ethel Gumm

How can I come up with a gay connection to Judy Garland? Let’s see… her father was gay, 2 of her husbands were gay, the man she handpicked as a husband for her daughter was gay, her gay fans remained her most steadfast fans through the drugs & the booze, the ups &downs, the fruit of her loins was Liza Minnelli & then there is that little film- The Wizard Of Oz.

44 years after her death, Judy Garland remains the very definition of gay icon. Her failed relationships, her self-doubt, & her battle with substance abuse are aspects of a life that most of us can identify with, while her live performances reflect a truth & freedom that are desired by anyone that has wasted time hiding their own emotions.

Gay culture can't escape Garland's influence. The Stonewall Riots have been attributed to the anger & grief felt on Garland's funeral that day. The term- "Friend of Dorothy," is from our coded identification with Garland's most famous role.

Garland's 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall is a landmark in Show Biz. 2 years earlier, she had been advised to retire from performing after being diagnosed with hepatitis, but instead she took on a series of concerts in Europe & the USA that reestablished her reputation as the top entertainer of all time. The Carnegie Hall show is regarded as the greatest evening in show biz history. The live recording of that concert spent more than a year on the Billboard charts & won 7 Grammys, including Album of the Year.

My dear friend-  Walter Kennedy & I once stayed up late into the night watching CDs of her TV show from the early 1960s. I was entranced by her presence & horrified by the histrionics. Sometimes when listening to her recordings, I am put off by the feeling that she sings every single song as if it were her last. Her over the top interpretations of the great standards push me away. But, then I hear the original version or her late in life version of Over The Rainbow & I end up crying. Judy Garland loved her fans & they loved her back. I love her for that.

Born On This Day- June 10th... Maurice Bernard Sendak

I am not certain how the tradition started, but sometime in my late teens, I would give my mother a gift of a classic children’s’ book on her birthday. The very first one I presented her with was Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are.  She had given me a copy for Christmas 1963. I traveled with my copy to Boston, LA, & NYC. I am not sure at what point it was lost, but I hope some child, or child at heart loved having my copy.

 Maurice Sendak has inspired the imagination of readers young & old for more than 55 years. A prolific author & illustrator of children’s books, he has published over 100 works of fiction. Sendak has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Caldecott Medal, the National Book Award & the National Medal of Arts.

Born in Brooklyn, to Jewish immigrants, Sendak’s early childhood was plagued with illness. He spent most of his time indoors where he satisfied his imagination with books. Having discovered his creative voice at a young age, Sendak found the perfect expression in drawing & illustration.  At the age of 12, after seeing Disney’s Fantasia, an awestruck Sendak decided to become an illustrator. Growing up, Sendak developed from other influences, starting with Mickey Mouse. Sendak & Mickey Mouse were born in the same year & Sendak described Mickey as a source of joy & pleasure while growing up. Sendak: "My gods are Herman Melville, Emily Dickinson, Mozart. I believe in them with all my heart."  He explained that reading Emily Dickinson's works helps him to remain calm in an otherwise hectic world: "& I have a little tiny Emily Dickinson so big that I carry in my pocket everywhere. & I just read 3 poems. She is so brave. She is so strong. She is such a passionate little woman. I feel better." Of Mozart, he said: "When Mozart is playing in my room, I am in conjunction with something I can't explain.  I don't need to. I know that if there's a purpose for life, it was for me to hear Mozart."

One of Sendak’s first professional jobs was creating window displays for the toy store F.A.O. Schwarz. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics For The Millions by Dr. Maxwell Leigh Eidinoff. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children’s books, before beginning to write his own stories. Sendak also illustrated Else Holmelund Minarik’s famous Little Bear series of books, which are based on my life.

 His best known book- Where the Wild Things Are has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In 2009, it was adapted into a critically acclaimed film directed by Spike Jonze.

Sendak’s work has often generated controversy. In The Night Kitchen, published in 1970s, features a young boy prancing naked around his house. It has been censored in many states. In The Night Kitchen remains on the American Library Association’s list of frequently challenged books. It was listed #11 on the 100 Most Banned Books of 2012.

Where The Wild Things Are has been condemned by conservatives who claim the book involves witchcraft & supernatural elements. Sendak: "I thought my career was over, the kids saved me. They loved the books because they are not afraid of life.”

In addition to writing & illustrating, Sendak has created award-winning set designs for dance, opera & theater, including his beloved Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Prokofiev’s Love For 3 Oranges &Tchaikovsky’s ballet The Nutcracker for PNW Ballet. The sets were stored a few blocks from our cottage in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle & I would see stacks of huge toy soldiers & rats stacked up against an outdoor wall in my dog walks.

In the 1970’s, Sendak donated nearly 10,000 works of art, photographs, manuscripts & books to the Rosenbach Museum & Library in Philadelphia, including rare sketches for unpublished editions of stories such as Tolkien’s The Hobbit & Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, & other illustrating projects.

Until he was 80 years old, Sendak hid his gayness from the public fearing it would ruin his career. Sendak: “All I wanted was to be straight so my parents could be happy. They never, never, never knew.” In a terrific 2008 interview with the NY Times, Sendak opened up about his private life & revealed his 50+ year relationship with psychoanalyst Eugene Glynn, who passed away the previous year.

He had not published a new book in 30 years, but in 2011, his Bumble-Ardy, the story of a pig party was published, again based on an incident in my life.

Maurice once told Newsweek magazine that parents could “go to hell” if they felt the movie Where The Wild Things Are was too scary for children.

Coming out of the closet is an important step to finding happiness, even if you wait until you are 80. My hope is that Sendak found happiness in his golden years, despite the tragic loss of his life partner.  After his partner's death, Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family & Children's Services in memory of Glynn who had treated young people there. The gift named a clinic for Glynn.

Sendak was an atheist, & stated in a September 2011 interview on NPR that he didn't believe in God: "Religion & belief in God must have made life much easier for some religious people, if harder for us non-believers.”

Sendak left this world last spring. We celebrate his 85^th birthday today. Take a look at today’s Google Doodle in his honor.

Born On This Day- June 9th... Cole Porter

At a very young age, I was so enamored of the songs of Cole Porter & the story of his life & friendships, that my parents gave me huge “coffee table” book about this great American songwriter for Christmas when I was just 11 years old, & then followed it up with another big book of his collected lyrics for my birthday the next week. I still have both books.

Born in Peru, Indiana in 1891, Porter studied music from an early age, & began composing as a teenager. After high school he attended Yale University, where he was voted “most entertaining man.” He went on to law school at Harvard University, but his interest remained in music. At Harvard he continued to write songs, & a some of his pieces were used in Broadway revues.

In 1916, his first full score was performed. The musical- See America First was a flop & closed after only 15 performances. Bruised by the experience, Porter began to travel around Europe & got an apartment in Paris. This was the beginning of his lifelong affection for the city, which he would return to in songs- You Don’t Know Paree & I Love Paris. During his time in Europe, Porter contributed material to many musicals, but until his song- Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall In Love appeared in the 1928 musical Paris, he had not had a big hit. Paris was a place Cole flourished socially. He attended parties with his pal Noel Coward. The parties of the era were elaborate & fabulous, attended by the upper crust. His own parties were marked by gay & bisexual activity, cross-dressing, international musicians & actors, & a large surplus of recreational drugs. I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era, the very theme of Woody Allen’s terrific 2011 film- Midnight In Paris.

Porter started spending time with American divorcee- Linda Thomas, & they became close friends quickly. Their financial & social status made them prefect as a married couple. The fact that Linda's ex-husband was abusive & Cole was gay made the arrangement even more perfect. Linda was always one of Porter's staunch supporters & being married increased his chance of success. Being married to Porter allowed Linda to keep high status in society for the rest of her life. They married in 1919 & lived in a happy arrangement, a successful public relationship, but a sexless marriage, until Linda's death in 1954.

Porter was happy with a life in Hollywood in the 1930s, including working in a more liberal movie industry where Porter enjoyed increasingly open sexual adventures. At the time, it was somewhat more acceptable to be an eccentric gay artist, but Linda feared for Porter’s reputation & career. Her social standing was threatened by his activities & the rumors in upper-crust social circles.

Despite a horseback riding accident in 1937 that crippled him for life, Porter produced much of his best work in the 1940s & 1950s. He wrote 100s of songs for Broadway shows, movie musicals, & TV specials. His most successful musical- Kiss Me Kate opened in 1948 & ran for over a 1000 performances.

 A recluse in his later years, Porter died in California in 1964.

In 1945 the film Night & Day was made with Cary Grant, allegedly about the life of Cole Porter. This movie has almost nothing to do with the actual life of the songwriter. Night & Day leaves out the important elements of his gay life & his sexless marriage of convenience.

The 1990 album- Red, Hot, & Blue features Cole Porter songs sung by popular musicians of the 1980s & early1990s. It remains a favorite of mine. The dismal, dreary 2004 movie- De-Lovely, with an improbable Kevin Kline as Porter, came a tiny bit closer to the true story & featured beautiful sets, major actors, famous current musicians, & a strong Hollywood marketing campaign for the movie & the soundtrack. But for me, this movie is a miserable mess.

The songs of Cole Porter remain very important to me. This is my favorite:

Born On This Day- June 6th... Harvey Fierstein

“If you don't look, you don't know.”

Harvey Fierstein

Well, first of all, there is that voice. I always think of my distinctive voice, made possible by decades of pot smoking & whiskey drinking, but Harvey Fierstein brings it all to a whole new level, a 300-pound man who sounds like he's been chain-smoking since the age of 3.

Fierstein grew up in Bensonhurst, the son of a handkerchief manufacturer & a school librarian. He attended Pratt & began his career in the mid-1970s performing in drag bars under the name Virginia Hamm. It was Fierstein's collection of interconnected, semi-autobiographical one-act plays in the late 1970s- Torch Song Trilogy, that eventually brought him to Broadway. (He also starred in the big screen adaptation.). He has the distinction of winning Tony Awards for both writing & playing the lead role in his long-running play about a gay drag performer & his quest for true love & family.

Fierstein has since effectively become a celebrity spokesperson & champion for gay civil rights. He describes himself as a "first real, live, out-of-the-closet queer on Broadway". He wrote the book for the musical La Cage Aux Folles & he has been nominated for 11 Tony Awards. Fierstein has been featured in the films Bullets Over Broadway, Mrs. Doubtfire, Death to Smoochy, & Independence Day.

Fierstein's turn as Edna Turnblatt in the musical Hairspray earned him a Tony award in 2003. Fierstein virtually owned the role, but he was ultimately turned down for movie version of Hairspray. Closet case, John Travolta, was cast instead.

He played Tevye in a recent revival of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway & then toured the country in the iconic role. His brave, unlikely & open portrayal of a straight father of 3 daughters in the Jewish The Sound Of Music earned him rave reviews all over the country. My first professional role was as Motel the tailor in Fiddler On The Roof in 1971. I have a soft spot for this show & I think it would have been nifty to have played Grandma Tzeitel in Harvey’s production. He appeared in the 2011 season's popular revival of La Cage Aux Folles, replacing Douglas Hodges as Albine/Zaza. Fierstein wrote the book for last year’s Broadway hit- Newsies. The terrific film- Kinky Boots was begging for adaption into a stage musical & Fierstein did it. Kinky Boots with music & lyrics by Cyndi Lauper is currently playing at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre on Broadway, where it was nominated for thirteen 2013 Tony Awards & has received rave reviews.

I really like & admire Harvey Fierstein. He has been a vocal gay rights activist, speaking out for gay people, queer theater, & AIDS causes. He has been a spokesman for the Services Legal Defense Fund, a group that advocates for the rights of gays & lesbians in the military. Fierstein: "Time will tell us what we did & didn't do. The way that I look at it, the only thing that I will definitely take credit for is that Torch Song & La Cage Aux Folles, 2 of my shows, were the first ever gay themed shows to make money on Broadway. I think that counts more than anything."

Harvey Fierstein Turns 61 years old today.  The Tony Awards broadcast is part of the High Holy Days at this house & the award show is this Sunday. I will be there. Fierstein lives on 7 acres in Connecticut. I would welcome the opportunity to have cocktails & a chat.

Born On This Day- June 6th... Sandra Bernhard

I am just crazy for her. I have seen Sandra Bernhard perform live 6 times (that I remember), including a non-concert question & answer session at the University of Washington in the mid-1990s... & she never disappointed.

Bernhard: “My father was a proctologist & my mother was an abstract artist, so that's how I view the world."

Bernhard gives us hysterical insights & outspoken & hilarious diatribes on the state of modern culture with a smart Rock N’ Roll attitude, fresh, crazy & real. She inspires & invigorates.

Bernhard has staying power. 30 years after she broke out with her off-Broadway show- Without You I'm Nothing, Bernhard stays with me. Mouthy, obnoxious & a rumored former lover of Madonna, I have loved her since her stint as Nancy Bartletto on Roseanne.  The NY Times: "…a living, breathing bonfire." Critic Camille Paglia : “While many of her peers pander to the mainstream, Sandra Bernhard challenges fans & critics alike with her knife-edged satire, insightful observations of pop culture, & emotive performances.”

Her accomplishments include comedy, film, TV, music & books. Bernhard has crafted a unique agenda of social commentary, biting humor & satire, mixed in with some music.

Bernhard toured nationwide in her shows- Without You I'm Nothing & Giving Till It Hurts. She is also a bestselling author, May I Kiss You On The Lips Miss Sandra ?, her 3rd book.  I own all her books including a signed copy of Without You... She has also written articles for Vanity Fair, People, Rolling Stone, Elle, & Spin.

Bernhard received raves for her performance in my favorite Scorcese flick- King Of Comedy. She has been seen in such films as Track 29, Hudson Hawk,& Unzipped, & on TV on Will &Grace, The Sopranos, & Ally McBeal. From 1991-1996 she played the fiercely independent & always outspoken Nancy on Roseanne.

A year ago this weekend, I caught Bernhard’s show- Sandrology, a hybrid of vocals, cabaret, burlesque, political & social commentary, & stream of consciousness. Sandrology was a big old-school show with an amazing rock band & great songs about what is happening in society, politics, pop culture, & her life.

Fierce, tender, confrontational, yet vulnerable,  funny, philosophical & always controversial, I love her. I want Sandra & Harvey Fierstein to come for cocktails in the Boys’ Fort this summer. That would be a whole bunch of big Jewish Gay fun!

Bernhard celebrates her 57^th birthday today. She lives in LA & NYC with her long-time partner Sara Switzer.

"At some point, the pride has to be a part of the whole day-to-day oeuvre. It's part of who you are & doesn't need to be discussed anymore."

Can You Hear Me Now?

 The media are abuzz with this story & at last, it seems to be a bi-partisan issue, with Republicans defending the action & Republicans decrying the policy. Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein claims it has already saved American lives & Oregon’s own Ron Wyden stated: “I am barred by Senate rules from commenting on some of the details at this time. However, I believe that when law-abiding Americans call their friends, who they call, when they call, & where they call from is private information.  Collecting this data about every single phone call that every American makes every day would be a massive invasion of Americans’ privacy.” 

The administration has been quietly collecting millions of telephone records from U.S. Verizon customers under a top-secret court order first obtained in late April, according to British newspaper The Guardian.

A copy of the classified order, posted Wednesday on the newspaper's website, reveals that Verizon has been required to provide to the National Security Agency on an "ongoing, daily basis" information on all phone calls made through its systems.

Personally, I do not see what the big deal is. If you are not doing anything illegal or immoral than you have nothing to fear. Verizon is my carrier & except for their messages to me about my bill being overdue & my “data use is over-extended”, I do not care if Attorney General Eric Holder has a look at my calls. In fact I have long held a fantasy of being spanked by him.

Like most Americans, I am more than willing to give up all of my civil liberties if it will keep me safe from Islamic Fundamentalists. I just do not want the NSA knowing that my DVR is heavy with shows on Bravo. 

Born On This Day- June 5th... Allen Ginsberg

Have you ever spent time with a book you loved so much, you didn’t want it to end? I started to slow down my pace with Just Kids, Patti Smith’s recollection of her time with Robert Mapplethorpe, when they were young, inseparable, perfectly bohemian, & completely unknown, just to have it linger.

Smith recounts that when a couple of tourists in Washington Square Park spotted them on an autumn day in 1967 & argued if they warranted a snapshot. The woman thought they looked like artists. The man dismissed: “They’re just kids.”

Smith & Mapplethorpe walk through a snow storm to Times Square on New Year's Eve 1969 to witness a huge John & Yoko peace billboard. Later, on her own, she runs into Allen Ginsberg at the automat, where he helps her buy a sandwich after mistaking her for a boy. They became lifelong friends & he was a profound influence on her work & future.

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born on this day- June 5th in1926.  Like Patti Smith, he was raised in New Jersey. His father, Louis, was a successful poet who walked around the house reciting poetry. His mother suffered from paranoia & was in & out of mental hospitals her adult life. 3 years after her death in 1958, Ginsberg wrote the poem- Kaddish for Naomi Ginsberg.

Allen Ginsberg was a social revolutionary, a protest poet & a longtime & committed activist. He beat the drum for the Beat Movement, lauding nonconformity & a new kind of poetry. Ginsberg’s works captured this anti-establishment groundswell & helped serve social change.

Ginsberg was tried & acquitted of obscenity charges related to his most celebrated poem 1956’s- Howl & its homoerotic content. A federal judge found that the poem did have "redeeming social importance. Howl became a reference case for free speech cases in the1960s &1970s.

Ginsberg gave us the term "flower power," which encouraged protesters to engage in nonviolent rebellion. He was kicked out of Cuba for saying Che Guevara was "cute”. His frank writing about homosexuality made an important contribution to gay rights.

In 1954, Ginsberg met the man who would become his life partner, poet Peter Orlovsky. The relationship lasted 43 years, until Ginsberg’s death in 1997.

Ginsberg received: the National Book Award, a Robert Frost Medal for distinguished poetic achievement & an American Book Award for contributions to literary excellence. In 1993, the French minister of culture awarded Ginsberg the Order of Arts & Letters.

Born On This Day- June 5th... John Maynard Keynes

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone."

John Maynard Keynes

I have never had much interest in economics. Those who know me would not be surprised. I think I could choose to comprehend global economics, political economics, recessions, depressions, macroeconomics, business cycles, social liberalism, & Keynesian thought if I really applied myself. I just go with my instincts, which are almost always wrong.

 What I do knowing about a certain economist, one of the most important figures of the 20th century, is that John Maynard Keynes kept a written record of all his sexual encounters, even the assignations where he was alone, from his days at Cambridge until his death. I don’t know why I admire this idea. Steve's Sex Diary might generate some publishing interests & possibly a film with Bradley Cooper, but who can remember the details?

Keynes moved with the Bloomsbury Group, of which I have done plenty of posts about. A member of that noted literary & artist circle was his longtime lover, artist- Duncan Grant. The pair remained friends long after the romance was over.  For much of their time together Grant was also involved with Leonard Strachey.

Grant & Strachey set up households with women, while they both continued to have sex with men. Keynes soon followed, marrying Lydia Lopokpva, a ballet start in Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. They seem to have had satisfying partnership.

On the good side: Keynes spent his life working energetically for the benefit of mankind & he was considered to a fine & generous friend. On the bad side: he was most certainly a racist & a supporter of the movement that supported enforced "racial hygiene", human experimentation, & the extermination of "undesired" population groups.

Keynes died of a heart attack at age 62, in 1948, at his farm in England. Both of his parents, John Neville Keynes, also an economist & Florence Ada Keynes, one of the first women to graduate from Cambridge & later the mayor of that city, outlived him. Lydia Lopokpva lived into the early 1980s.

Born On This Day- June 5th... Chad Allen

In the terrific & engaging 1980s TV series- St. Elsewhere, one of the main characters has a young son who was autistic. In the series finale- The Last One, it is revealed that all the storylines occurred inside the head of the young autistic boy. That boy was played by Chad Allen Lazarri. As a child actor, Allen went on to work on TV series- Our House, My Two Dads, & Dr. Quinn- Medicine Woman, none of which I have ever seen, although My Two Dads is a title that might work well for my porn career.

In 1996, at age 21, Chad Allen was outed in The Globe which published photos (sold to the paper by his then boyfriend) of him kissing another man in a hot tub at a party. He was pushed from the closet, but since that time Allen has been a leading & outspoken advocate of gay rights.

I was especially taken with his strong work in the film- Save Me(2007) opposite Stephen Lange, Judith Light & Robert Gant. Developed & produced by Allen himself, Save Me explores the life of a young gay sex & drug addicted man who is forced into a Christian-run ministry in an attempt to cure him of his "gay affliction", where instead he is faced with the truth in his heart & spirit. The film does not take the easy way out & avoids clichés. Stephen Lang is excellent, & Judith Light gives an astonishing performance of understated depth & nuance. Gant & Allen play very moving & complicated characters, plus they have their shirts off in several scenes.

Since 2005's Third Man Out, Allen portrays lead character Donald Strachey, a gay private detective in a partnered relationship, in a series of TV movies based on novels by Richard Stevenson.

Allen is in a 5 year relationship with actor Jeremy Glazer, who he met on the set of Save Me.  Allen is the best friend of one of my most favorite people- the delicious Philip of the fabulous Felix In Hollywood. Check out his little spot on the Internet & when you are in LA, take his tour. Felix Knows his Hollywood History!

Allen turns 38 years old today. I admire his talent, activism & good looks.

Born On This Day- May 5th... Suze Orman

What were the chances that John Maynard Keynes & Susan Lynn Orman would share a birthday? Is there something about June 5th that is telling of people being smart about money? Do Geminis think a great deal about finances?

Suze Orman is a famous financial advisor, author, motivational speaker, TV host, & the anti-Stephen. I have a feeling that she just wouldn’t be that fun to shop with. What, with all that saving money philosophy.

Orman is the host of The Suze Orman Show on CNBC. She has written 7 consecutive NY Times Best Sellers; has written, co-produced, & hosted 6 PBS specials, & is the most successful fundraiser in the history of public TV.

In 2004 & 2006, Orman won 2 daytime Emmy Awards for her PBS specials. Over her TV career, she has won 6 Gracie Allen Awards (rewarding the achievements of women in radio & TV), more than anyone in the 35-year history of the awards.

In July 2009 Forbes named Orman 18th on their list of The Most Influential Women In Media. She was selected by Time magazine as one of the TIME 100: The World's Most Influential People. In 2009 she was honored by Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation with the Vito Russo Media Award. In April 2008 Orman was presented with the Amelia Earhart Award for her message of financial empowerment for women. She is regularly spoofed on Saturday Night Live, the biggest compliment possible.

In 2007, Suze Orman revealed to the NY Times, that she is a Gay & had been with her partner, Kathy Travis, for 7 years. During the interview, she was asked if she is married. Orman: "K.T. is my life partner. K.T. stands for Kathy Travis. We're going on 7 years. I have never been with a man in my whole life. I'm still a 55-year-old virgin. Both of us have millions of dollars in our name; it’s killing me that upon my death, K.T. is going to lose 50 percent of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa."

Orman has a net worth of approximately $25 million (with $7 million more in real estate), but she didn't start out wealthy. Orman grew up in Chicago 's South Side & worked part-time at her father's take-out store. After completing her B.A. in social work, she moved to Berkeley & worked at the Buttercup Bakery for 7 years. Orman started working as an account executive at Merrill Lynch, where she remained for 3 years before becoming vice-president of investments at Prudential Bache Securities. In 1987, Orman had founded her own business- the Suze Orman Financial Group.

To me, it is interesting that since her announcement that she was gay, there has been little focus on Orman's sexual orientation. The focus is on why it makes good financial sense to get married, & her inability to do so because she is in a same-sex relationship. Suzy is looking good as she turns 62 years old today.