Born On This Day- April 20th... Andrew Tobias

Andrew Tobias is the author of The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need, which if you know me, & you should, is not a tome that I have picked up yet. Indeed, when it comes to finances, I fly by the seat of pants, having lived most of my life paycheck to paycheck. In the late 1980s- early 1990s, I was rather flush. I had a national commercial, an international commercial & a national voice-over on the air, resulting in 18 months of $500+ residual checks every week. I was very smart with that money. I bought books, music, clothing & I took The Husband on a journey to Northern Italy. A year later I was broke again.

At the start of the new century, Tobias was treasurer of the Democratic National Committee, the DNC’s highest ranking openly gay official.

In 1973, under the name John Reid, he published one of the first gay novels I had read- The Best Little Boy In The World. From that semi-autobiographical tale: ''I think my own loneliest moment may have been on a winter evening senior year in college with my roommates up at Killington, in Vermont. . . . What got me was trying to negotiate the 'apres-ski' that night, scoping out chicks at the dance bar, & having to pretend I was loving it, man… loving it! In fact, I was hating it. I was inadequate, I didn't fit in, my life was a complete deception . . . As I crunched back through the cold crisp air, under the stars, feeling so left out, I realized that my life was absolutely, completely hopeless. I sat down in the snow, alone, & cried.''

Tobias grew up on NYC’s 5 Avenue & spent weekends at the family's country house in Westchester County. His father was an advertising executive; his mother adored him. Tobias went to Horace Mann & Harvard, where he was better at making money than going to class. By the time he graduated in 1968, he had put the Let's Go Guides, then slender Harvard Student Agencies guides to Europe, into the black.

He became a writer for New York magazine,& then a financial columnist for Esquire, Playboy, Time & Parade. The Best Little Boy In The World became a classic among gay men. I remember that it was in the bookshelves of most of my tricks in the 1970s, at least I think it was, I was often upside down while checking out the reading materials of my new buddies. 25 years later it was re-issued, this time with Tobias's name & photograph on the cover. The Best Little Boy in the World Grows Up was published simultaneously by Random House.

Tobias came out to his parents & friends in the 1970's, but did not come out publicly until the early 1990's. His partner of 16 year was designer Charles Nolan, who passed away last year. Nolan was also a mover & shaker in the Democratic Party. Tobias turns 65 years old today, making him The Best Little Senior In The World.