Born On This Day- May 31st... Rainer Werner Fassbinder

"It isn't easy to accept that suffering can also be beautiful ...it's difficult. It's something you can only understand if you dig deeply into yourself."

I am not really a fan of Teutonic art, music, theatre & film. I don’t need to sit through a piece by Brecht or listen to Wagner, but the Germans do invade the Poland of my senses on occasion: Kurt Weil, Kraftwerk, Marlene Dietrich, Heidi Klum, a certain German prison porn film.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder was a German filmmaker who enjoyed international fame, a flamboyant lifestyle filled with fervent fierceness, filthy sex, & flamboyant generosity. He was obsessed by the movies, making 35 feature films in just 13 years. He was openly homosexual, married twice, once with his boyfriend as best man, & supported a 30-grams-a-day cocaine habit by demanding his salaries in cash.

Fassbinder’s goal was win the Oscar for Best Director & "to be ugly" on the cover of Time magazine. He almost got his wish. In1982, after finishing work on the controversial film- Querelle, Fassbinder died from a combination of cocaine, barbiturates, alcohol & an agenda consisting of overworking & over-consuming.

Fassbinder surrounded himself with talented & overwrought  artists & performers, manipulated & loved them. They loved & hated him. He was vilified by the political Left & Right. Film critics & film goers abhorred & adored his work. He was a cultural icon who was discarded as a washout.

At the apex of his career, Fassbinder was a household name in Europe. His work was shown regularly on German TV. He won top awards at major film festivals. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1978) broke box office records in Germany & an enormous international hit.

The first Fassbinder film I encountered was Fox & His Friends in 1975. It is a cruel, churlish cruel film in which gay characters were placed at the center, but one in which homosexuality is simply taken for granted. An illiterate, down on his luck circus worker- Franz, played by Fassbinder, wins a fortune in a lottery & then loses it all when his rich boyfriend has him invest in his family’s failing business. Poor once more, Franz is deserted by the boyfriend & ODs on sleeping pills in a subway station.

Oddly, I loved Fox & His Friends & I was captivated by flamboyant Fassbinder, always in his worn leather jacket & fedora, shocking the status quo, the bad boy of cinema. I liked bad boys back in the 1970s.

But I wasn’t to see another of his films until 1982’s Querelle, with Brad Davis based on Jean Genet's brutal & erotic stories. The imagery from Querelle haunts me to this day. I had the film’s poster, torn from Interview magazine, on my fridge until it yellowed, turned brittle & fell apart, just as I would eventually.

Researching Fassbinder, he seemed to have been paranoid, vicious to his lovers; a shy young boy in a grownup, grotesque, giant body, a thoughtless user of his fellow artists’ talents & emotions, & a sort of genius who overindulged in drugs, alcohol, food & sex. Fassbinder was unable & unwilling to escape the things that were consuming him, the things he loved the most. Who of us has not?

"Homosexuals have been very self-pitying, & also most of them are dominated by a sense of shame, which the Jews haven’t had. The Jews have never been ashamed of being Jews, whereas homosexuals have been stupid enough to be ashamed of their homosexuality."

Born On This Day- May 31st... Denholm Elliot

Denholm Mitchell Elliott was a distinguished British character actor, well known for his stage, film & television work. He specialized in playing slightly sleazy/slightly eccentric & flawed upper middle class English gentlemen. His career spanned nearly 40 years, becoming a well-known face both in UK & the USA.

Denholm Elliott was born in London & made his film debut in 1949. He went on to play a large range of parts in films as diverse as Alfie, Trading Places, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Brimstone & Treacle, Maurice, & my favorite film of all time- A Room with a View. He was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his role as Mr.Emerson in my favorite film.


Although gay, Elliott was married 2 times (the first time to the British actress, Virginia McKenna) & starting in 1962, he had an open marriage to actress Susan Robinson, with whom he had 2 children.


Susan had long since become reconciled to her husband's boyfriends, & seldom felt jealous.On one occasion when he brought one of them, a young Moroccan, home to London; as a gesture of defiance she enjoyed an affair with a famous French actor while on vacation on Ibeza, & was reassured to find herself still attractive & desirable, & with no feeling of guilt. Her own sex life with her husband remained active. Susan Elliot:"Between us, he was always 100 percent masculine, both in bed & in taking decisions in our home life."

For his part, Denholm Elliott never inhibited Susan's own affairs ("as long as you don't fall in love & as long as you don't have anyone else's baby"), mainly because, as explained, it made him feel less guilty about his own indiscretions.


The assignations increased in number & frequency as the years passed until, as Susan noted in her biography- Denholm Elliott, Quest For Love, her husband's promiscuity became "almost a psychological disorder". Denholm Elliott was diagnosed with HIV in 1987, & died in 1992 of AIDS-related tuberculosis at his home on Ibiza, Spain. He was cremated. His widow set up a charity, the Denholm Elliott Project, in a hotel complex on Ibiza called Can Bufi, where people who are HIV positive could enjoy a free holiday.


Susan Elliott died in a fire at her home in London on April 12, 2007.

Considering Walt Whitman On His 193rd Birthday

When I write about individuals from history that were homosexual, I avoid using the term- GAY, because for me, there was no GAY before the 20th century, until I consider Walt Whitman on this, the day of his birth. Whitman was GAY, using the 20th/21st century definition.

Has there ever been a poet so thoroughly a man of this nation than Walt Whitman?  Whitman’s book of poetry- Leaves of Grass, holds the essence of being an American. It also reflects the ways in which America ideals have been sacrificed. Walt Whitman's personal life suffered much at the hands of the American taboo against sex.

Whitman is this country’s greatest embarrassment, if what he says about democracy is true, the American ideal of universal equality must embrace homosexuals, & same sex love. Whitman is a subversive & radical poet & American school children for the past 50 years have been carefully protected from exposure to America's greatest poet. I have always been an avid reader, & I did not read Whitman until I was finished with college, when my mother, of all people, gave me a volume of Leaves Of Grass as a gift.

A leaf for hand in hand;

You natural persons old and young!

You on the Mississippi and on all the branches & bayous of the Mississippi!

You friendly boatmen and mechanics! You roughs!

You twain! & all processions moving along the streets!

I wish to infuse myself among you till I see it common for you to walk hand in hand.

Walt Whitman was a true bohemian. He never gave into having a regular job occupation, & he was a singularly solitary man, probably not by choice. In 1819, Whitman was born in Long Island, NY. He did the usual things until he was 11, when he quit school. He ran errands for a lawyer & doctor, & then became an apprentice typesetter for a Brooklyn paper.

He taught school in several small villages in NY, & contributed articles to newspapers. In 1841 he left country life for the big city. In NYC he worked for newspapers as typesetter, reporter, feature writer & editor. Whitman took a life of theatre, cafes & nightclubs.

He went to art exhibitions, museums, the opera, watch the ships, & walked among the masses in the great city. His favorite activity was to sit near the hot, young, rugged carriage drivers, & cross back & forth on the Brooklyn ferry to mingle with the rough deck hands.  Because he was repressing his sexuality, he was a loner in a crowd, a spectator rather than a participant.

Sometime after 1855, when Leaves of Grass was first published, he experienced some sort of emotional crisis that transformed him from journalist to poet. In the manner so many gay men in NYC & San Francisco of late 1970s, he gave up being a dandy & became a hyper masculine clone.

Crowds of men & women attired in the usual costumes, how curious you are to me.

On the ferry-boats the hundreds & hundreds that cross, returning home, are more curious to me than you suppose

& you that shall cross from shore to shore years hence are more to me, & more in my meditations, than you might suppose . . .

I was one with the rest, the days and haps of the rest,

Was call'd by my nighest name by clear loud voices of young men as they saw me approaching or passing,

Felt their arms on my neck as I stood, or the negligent leaning of their flesh against me as I sat,

Saw many I loved in the street or ferry-boat or public assembly, yet never told them a word.
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry

Once I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture, customs, tradition,

Yet now of all that city I remember only a man I casually met there who detained me for love of me,

Day by day & night by night we were together — all else has long been forgotten by me,

I remember I saw only that man who passionately clung to me,

 Again we wander, we love, we separate again,

Again he holds me by the hand, I must not go,

I see him close beside me with silent lips sad & tremulous.
Once I Pass'd Through A Populous City

Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son,

Turbulent, fleshy, sensual, eating, drinking & breeding,

No sentimentalist, no stander above men & women or apart from them,

No more modest than immodest.

Unscrew the locks from the doors!

Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!

Whoever degrades another degrades me,

& whatever is done or said returns at last to me.

Through me the afflatus surging & surging, through me the current & index.

I speak the pass-word primeval, I give the song of democracy,

By God! I will accept nothing which all cannot have their counterpart of on the same terms.
Song Of Myself

When Whitman is taught in school as part of the canon of American literature, there is still much resistance to identifying him as gay, despite some fairly well documented evidence.

I share the midnight orgies of young men . . .

I pick out some low person for my dearest friend,


He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate, he shall be condemned by others for deeds done,


I will play a part no longer, why should I exile myself from my companions?

Whitman's notebooks of this period are filled with descriptions of bus drivers, boat men, & other "rude, illiterate" men that he picked up is really in the streets of Manhattan, & "slept with," often keeping notes of their home addresses. Excerpts from his Notebooks have been collected in Charley Shively's Calamus Lovers: Walt Whitman's Working Class Camerados:

Peter — large, strong-boned young fellow, driver. . . . I liked his refreshing wickedness, as it would be called by the orthodox.

George Fitch — Yankee boy — Driver . . . Good looking, tall, curly haired, black-eyed fellow

Saturday night Mike Ellis — wandering at the corner of Lexington av. & 32d st. — took him home to 150 37th street, — 4th story back room — bitter cold night

Wm Culver, boy in bath, aged 18

Dan'l Spencer . . . somewhat feminine . . . slept with me Sept 3d

Theodore M Carr — came to the house with me

James Sloan (night of Sept 18 '62) 23rd year of age — plain homely, American

John McNelly night Oct 7 young man, drunk, walk'd up Fulton & High st. home

David Wilson — night of Oct. 11 '62, walking up from Middagh — slept with me

Horace Ostrander Oct. 22 '62 — about 28 yr's of age — slept with him Dec 4th '62

October 9, 1863, Jerry Taylor, (NJ.) of 2d dist reg't slept with me last night weather soft, cool enough, warm enough, heavenly.

This is the 19^th century version of John Rechy’s Numbers!



As I have been noting the protests of the right wing & religious fundamentalists to the recent legislation adding references to gay people in history to the curriculum in public schools of California, I consider how liberating it will be for young gay people to acknowledge that the most American of poets was not just a homosexual, he was gay.


I recommend the excellent & very readable- Walt Whitman: A Gay Life by Gary Schmidgall.

On This Day In Portland History- May 30th... Vanport

I enjoy riding the MAX train. The bus always seems to have the odor of diesel, sweat & a slight hint of wet wool, & the MAX train is electrically powered & clean. I find the sound of the train pleasing. There is an on-going fantasy that I live in Westchester County & work in Manhattan, with the wife & kids picking me up at the station, in reality the wife is a husband & the kids are canine & except for the whiskey, my life is not Mad Men.

Living a life with low grade Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is not for the faint hearted. I feel a driving need to have “my seat” on the MAX: right hand side, very front behind the driver, the only single seat on the train. If I don’t get this spot I can become grouchier than usual. I start my trip in either direction just one stop from the beginning of the line; I stand a good chance of securing my favorite place. 


On a cool, rainy, spring weekday, I boarded the train & found my seat occupied by a hipster. I took a moment to center myself & breath, & then sat close to my favorite place in case it should become vacant.  I was joined in my seat at the next stop by a beautiful African-American woman of an indecipherable age, chic in her hat & gloves. 

With my nose in my book so that I would not have to engage in conversation, this woman dared to ask me: “What is that you are reading?”  I showed her the cover of Just Kids by Patti Smith & prayed that this elegant lady would not ask me to explain Robert Mapplethorpe & Patti Smith.

I have always held that everyone’s story is interesting if you can get them to open up. I told my seat partner how lovely she looked. She introduced herself as Coral.


10 year old Coral moved to Portland, from Texas, with her parents in 1945. They lived in Vanport, at the time, the largest public housing project in the USA. It was home to 40,000 people, mostly African-American, who worked in the Kaiser Shipyards. In a dramatic parallel to Hurricane Katrina & New Orleans, on May 30, 1948, at 4:05pm, a dyke holding back the Columbia River collapsed during a flood, killing 15. The city was underwater by nightfall leaving its inhabitants homeless. Like Katrina, the government misled the population into believing that the damage would be slight. Many have attributed the poor response, in both cases, to the racist attitudes of officials, who neglected to respond appropriately to the destruction of a mostly black community. Amazingly, I now live in walking distance of what was once Vanport, now named Delta Park. 

Vanport before & after the flood

Coral spent 4 days searching for her parents. She was eventually reunited with her mother & father at a church shelter in NE Portland's Mississippi neighborhood. They settled in that part of Portland,  still a stubbornly segregated city. 

Coral would eventually graduate from high school & attend beauty college. She found employment at a downtown Portland salon that catered to colored ladies. She worked her way up to manager & when the owner retired in 1965, Coral bought the place & gave it the name- Coral’s House Of Hair.  

Even more impressive in racist Portland of the late 1960s, Coral & The House Of Hair became illustrious enough that she was approached to have her own 15 minute local TV show giving beauty tips to women of color. True Colors Of Beauty aired at 3:15pm, Monday- Thursday on KPTV. The show lasted 5 years. 

I was close to my stop. I told Coral that I had not expected to have such an enchanting & engaging ride into downtown. I gave her my card & offered to buy her lunch sometime. She has yet to take me up on the offer, but on the Max train yesterday, I glanced up from my book & outside of the window, & there was Coral, chic in hat & gloves. She smiled & gave me a wave. 

Downtown Kenton... A Film By David Lynch

This post is a repeat, but I am having a day low on imagination, famous gay people having birthdays or even new music. Will you please forgive me, dear readers? 

I am off to a meeting of The Kenton Neighborhood Association, of which I am seated on the board, a small step on my way to world domination.

Coming home, I get off the MAX train at my neighborhood stop- Denver Avenue/Kenton.  The first thing I encounter, & I mean, this is right at the train station, is Dancin’ Bare, the neighborhood strip joint. Portland has more strips clubs, per capita, than any other American city. I am proud of that statistic. It is a great that a young girl with right charms can make a living while practicing her art.

The sign is special to me because, not only does this business have a name based on a not so clever pun (like so many of Portland’s Thai joints & nail salons), but they spell out the joke for you on the sign? Twice. Funny, huh?


As I cross the street where North Interstate Avenue & North Denver Avenue meet, I am greeted by a giant Paul Bunyon (recently added to the Nation Register of Historic Roadside Landmarks). He was built for a 1959 Lumber Expo held in the neighborhood. I think he is hot. He was recently given a new paint job as part of a new neighborhood street improvement in Kenton’s little downtown, which includes widened sidewalks, a bike lane, street art & new trees & plants.

Miss Darlene

I then cross North Denver Avenue to 7 Bucks a Whack. The Husband & I both get our hair cut here by Darlene. Miss Darlene is in her 70s, with bleached blond hair piled high on her head. She wears a great deal of makeup, painted on brows & wears a satin black tube top & hot pants.

Darlene cuts hair with a cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth. As she puts on your apron she will announce in a deep cig & beer voice- “…what’ll it be baby? A number 1 buzz cut? You sure got a lot of hair for a bald guy.”  Darlene lives nearby on a houseboat & has been in the neighborhood forever. She will give you a running commentary on the politics in the Kenton neighborhood. Her little dog– Elvis hangs out in the shop & is dressed up in a variety of outfits, including full biker gear. She told the Husband that she likes to have lunch at Dancin' Bare because- "Baby, they got a delicious French Dip for just $5!". I somehow have trouble with Au Jus & stripper poles together. Darleen does my hair, goatee & eyebrows, plus the floor show…. all this for $7(I always give her $15)!

 Other neighborhood highlights include a Victorian mansion that is lit up with outdoor lights all year round, but not at Christmas & the lovely Laundro Mat & The World Famous Kenton Club.

The World Famous Kenton Club with a special claim to fame: a scene from 1970s Roller Derby film- Kansas City Bomber was filmed at the spot.

The Historic Kenton Firehouse

Downtown Kenton had one bar & one cafe- Kenton Station & many boarded up store fronts form the 1920s-1950s when we moved into the neighborhood a decade ago. But the neighborhood now boasts: the MAX line,  BOYS' FORT, a breakfast cafe, a Thai spot, a soul food joint, a coffee shop for mommies & babies, a flower shop, a terrific architectual salvage store, a world class bamboo nursery & bamboo objects emporium, a home brewing outfit, a paper/art supply store, a head shop, liquor store & police station at the same intersection, & an historic firehouse that is now the neighborhood community center & tool library. I even have my own favorite watering hole where I am greeted by name & my cocktail is delivered wiithout having to order- Pizza Fino.

I am including a few other choice pieces of signs, graffiti & a note I found posted at the MAX stop. When I get off the train, I think: “ah, it is great to be home”.

Born On This Day- May 29th... Beatrice Lillie

I feel heavy hearted that the baby queers & even the Gen Xers don't know about, or care about many of the personalities that engaged the gay people that came before them. I recently mentioned Mae West & Raquel Welch in the same sentence & a small group of 20-something gay boys looked at me with totally blank faces. It was as if I had been speaking in Hebrew.

Beatrice Lillie was an incomparable artist: comedienne, actress, & known in the 1920s- 1950s as "the funniest woman in the world. " She was born Constance Sylvia Gladys Munston, in Canada. She began her stage career in London in 1914 & she became famous for her performances in music hall & in intimate revues.

Lillie made her American debut in 1932 where she developed her own TV series during the 1950s. She appeared in films including On Approval (1944) & Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), although she worked primarily on the stage. In 1952, she created her own show; incorporating her greatest bits in An Evening with Beatrice Lillie which opened on Broadway. This show received rave reviews & she toured with it across the globe 3 times. She won a Special Tony Award for her performance in 1953. She starred on Broadway in High Spirits & replaced Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame. Lillie wrote her autobiography Every Other Inch a Lady in 1972 before a suffering stroke in 1974.

After her death, Sir John Gielgud stated: "She was The Mistress of the Absurd, I remember Bea standing dramatically against a pillar dressed in a flowing gown which she lifted suddenly to reveal her feet shod in roller skates on which she gravely skidded across the stage".

With her trademark cropped hair style with a smart hat, holding a long cigarette holder, she was a true original, an enemy of pomposity, & the sentimental. Fortunately, many of her satirical & surrealistic comic songs: There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden, Weary Of It All, Wind Round My Heart, & my favorite- This Is My First Affair ("so please be kind & please be quick"), are preserved on record.

In the first half of the 20th century, Lillie was one of the most sought after celebrities, the darling of the social set, & the toast of two continents. Cole Porter wrote his "story of a nightmare weekend"- Thank You So Much, Mrs. Lowsborough-Goodby, for her, & Noel Coward wrote the delightfully gossipy I've Been To A Marvellous Party just or her. She gave the first public performance of Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

In 1920 she was married to Sir Robert Peel, making her Lady Peel, a name she used at social affairs. She eventually separated from her husband (but never divorced him). Lillie had love affairs with many women, including actresses: Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Gertrude Lawrence & Judith Anderson.



"Did I ever give you a lift after a party at Joan Crawford's?"

Born On This Day- May 29th... Melissa Etheridge

"We gays are a sweet group of people who just really want to love & dance. We want to work & decorate our homes & fix up our houses. For us to have to fight for our equal rights for that is really strange."
Melissa Etheridge

Born On This Day- May 29th... Rupert James Hector Everett

We were already big fans of his good looks & his talent. In the early 1980s,The Husband waited on Rupert Everett & his entourage, in town for the Seattle International Film Festival showing of Another Country, at the then quite famous gay dining spot- The Ritz Café on Capitol Hill in Seattle. The Husband came home with the sordid tale of Everett’s bad behavior, culminating in his passing out, face first into a plate of food. I somehow loved the actor even more.

At 15 years old, Rupert Everett ran away from boarding school & went to London to become an actor. He starred opposite Kenneth Brannagh in the play Another Country when he was 23. He did the film version, based on the life of the  gay spy Guy Burgess, with Colin Firth when he was 25. He came out when he was 29 & the offers dried up. He gave interesting & deft performances in Pret-a-Porter & The Madness of King George, but when he starred opposite Julia Roberts in My Best Friend’s Wedding, the industry was abuzz with the idea of the “gay best friend” as an asset for a story line. It was unique to have a gay character who is happily partnered, not a victim, not dying, or not a sissy. He carried the film with the charm of Cary Grant.

That charm followed with roles as gay Christopher Marlowe in Shakespeare in Love, An Ideal Husband, Inspector Gadget, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Next Best Thing, The Importance of Being Earnest, & the overlooked- Stage Beauty. He is the voice of Prince Charming in the money making Shrek franchise, disproving his own theory that out actors can’t get work.

Everett has written 2 novels & a memoir, in which he included the fact that for a time he was a rent boy. I very much enjoyed reading Rupert's memoir- Red Carpets & Other Banana Skins. He names names, something I admire in a memoir. He is honest, hugely funny & deeply wise about human nature, particularly his own. His beautiful face, his lovely manners, all his attractive qualities seemed to be worth the cash to me.

Rupert Everett has been urging gay stars not to come out & to keep their sexuality a secret as it could end their film career. He came out as gay 25 years ago & admitted that since then, he has been given only supporting roles.

Everett is now suggesting that aspiring actors stay in the closet as it could harm their career: “It's not that advisable to be honest. It's not very easy, &, honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his career, to come out... The fact is that you could not be, & still cannot be, a 25 year old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn't work & you're going to hit a brick wall at some point. You're going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure, they'll cut you right off. I'm sick of saying: ‘Yes, it's probably my own fault.’ Because I've always tried to make it work & when it stops working somewhere, I try to make it work somewhere else. But the fact of the matter is, & I don't care who disagrees, it doesn't work if you're gay.”

Everett added that he does believe he is happier than those other major stars who are keeping their sexuality a secret: “I think, all in all, I'm probably much happier than they are. I may not be as rich or successful, but at least I'm vaguely free to be myself.”


John Schlesinger was a great director, responsible for Midnight Cowboy & Sunday, Bloody Sunday, ground breaking gay themed films. But, I think The Next Best Thing is one of the worst movies I have ever had to sit through. Drek, not Shrek. I managed to get through it for Mr. Everett. Everett can currently be seen in the just released- Hysteria along with Felicity Jones, Maggie Gyllenhaal, & the delectable Hugh Dancy. The film, set in the Victorian era, is about the invention of the vibrator. I think I was aqcuainted with a vibrator named Rupert back in the early 1990s. The film's title refers to the once common medical diagnosis of female hysteria. I can’t wait.

Everett turns 53 years old today & is really looking his age. I would still do him... but then like Everett, I can be very shallow.

Born On This Day- May 29th... English Writer T.H. White

During the 4 decades that I was an actor, I had a tendency to immerse myself in research, of which only the tiniest touch would be timely & valuable. 

In 1969. I was cast as Merlin in the musical- Camelot at my high school. In school & university, I was often cast as older characters because I had the talent to pull it off, & well, I have always looked older than my years. Being cast as the wizard guide of King Arthur sent me on a journey through the books of T.H White’s Arthurian world: The Once & Future King, The Sword & The Stone, The Queen Of Air & Darkness, The Ill-Made Knight, Candle In The Wind, & The Book Of Merlin. By the time I played Arthur's bastard son- Mordred, a rare age appropriate role, I was fairly well versed in the legends surrounding, Arthur, Lancelot, Guinevere & the Knights Of The Round Table.

T.H. White wrote many books for adults & children, but he is most famous for writing writing The Once & Future King, & a series of novels based on Sir Thomas Malory's 15th Century romantic- Le Mortte D'Arthur reinterpreting the legend of King Arthur. The Broadway musical Camelot & the Disney film The Sword in the Stone are both based on The Once and Future King. Much of our historical knowledge of Arthur is owed to White's work.

White was a closeted homosexual & sorrowful, solitary, & sorry man who turning first to psychotherapy & then alcohol to deal with his perceived problem. He eventually retired to one of the Channel Islands, Julie Andrews & her husband, set designer-Tony Walton were 2 of the few who visited him. Julie Andrews: "I believe Tim to have been an unfulfilled homosexual, & he suffered a lot because of it."

White died at 57 years old, in 1964, from heart failure on a ship in Greece.

J K Rowling has acknowledged the influence of White's work on her Harry Potter novels.

 

The Golden Gate Bridge Turns 75 On This Day- May 28th

Another of my favorite structures on the planet is, of course, The openly gay Golden Gate Bridge is a technical masterpiece & a bridge of exceptional design artistry. When the bridge opened to the public, 75 years ago today- May 28^th, The Golden Gate was the world's longest & tallest suspension bridge. But above all this masterly example of engineering is a magnificent monument set against a beautiful backdrop.

Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge started in 1933. The bridge, which was designed by engineer Joseph Strauss (who designed Portland's Broadway Bridge) was built to connect San Francisco with Marin County across the 5000+ foot wide strait known as the Golden Gate which connects the San Francisco Bay with the Pacific Ocean.

The construction was a colossal task. At the time many people did not believe it was technically possible to span the Golden Gate. But despite the disbelief, opposition & the Great Depression, Joseph Strauss was able to find sufficient support & financial backing to go ahead with the project. It would take thousands of workers, 4 years & 35 million dollars to complete the structure. 21 men died in accidents during the construction.

The dimensions of the bridge defied all imagination. The total length of the bridge is 8,981feet. The main span between the 2 enormous towers is 4,200 feet long, making the Golden Gate Bridge the world's largest suspension bridge, a record that would stand until 1964 when the Verrazano-Narrows bridge in NYC was completed.

The pair of magnifecnt Art Deco towers are almost 740 feet tall. The 6 lanes of road is an amazing 220 above the water level. The bridge is supported by enormous cables, anchored in hundreds of bars locked into concrete blocks. The 2 cables are woven from 27,572 threads of steel with a total length that equals 3 times the earth's circumference.

From last night's 75th Birthday celebration of concerts, speeches, parties & fireworks

The Golden Gate Bridge has always been painted orange vermilion, named- "International Orange."  The distinctive orange color blends well with the span's natural setting as it is a warm color consistent with the warm colors of the surrounding land & distinct from the cool colors of the sky & sea. It also provides enhanced visibility for passing ships.

A revered & rugged group of of 16 ironworkers and 3 pusher ironworkers, 33 painters, 5 painter laborers, & a chief bridge painter battle wind, sea air & fog, often suspended high above the Gate, to repair corroding steel & keep the bridge looking pretty.

In September 1971, I walked across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was quite a challenge. Not only is it a long trip, but it is a breathtaking. In extreme circumstances the bridge can sway almost 28 feet. This makes the bridge less pleasant during strong winds or an earthquake. The views, however, were amazing. The Golden Gate Bridge has a major role, playing itself, in my favorite Hitchcock film- Vertigo.

The Chrysler Building Turns 81 On This Day- May 28th

I am zany about architecture & design, & certain buildings & structures really grab my attention & move me, among them (these are structures that I have actually visted): the Woolworth's Building (NYC), the Duomo in Sienna, the Space Needle, the Hollywood Sign, the Boston Public Library, the Brooklyn Bridge, Chateau de Versailles, Church of San Spirito (Florence) The Cliff Dwellings of Mesa Verde, the Eiffel Tower, the Empire State Building, The Flatiron Building, Freeway Park (Seattle), The Golden Gate Bridge, the Customs House (Portland), Leaning Tower of Pisa, Lovejoy Fountain Plaza (Portland), Lovell House (L.A.), Mount Vernon (Virginia), MOMA (NYC), Paris Metro Entrances, Piazza del Campo(Sienna), Piazza of San Marco (Venice), Rockefeller Center, Santa Maria Novella (Florence), San Simeon (California), San Stefano (Venice), Sears Tower (Chicago), Seattle Public Library, Seagram Building (NYC), Saint Mark’s (Venice), Statue of Liberty, Stonehenge, the Louvre, the White House, Transamerica Pyramid (SF), the Custom House (Venice,), Washington Monument, Watts Towers (L.A.), Capitol Records Building (Hollywood), Shaker Barns, Covered Brudges, Tuscan Farmhouses, Yurts, Fairie Structures at Collin’s Beach- Sauvie Isalnd, & St. Johns Bridge (Portland).

My favorite man-made structure in the world is The Chrysler Buliding in NYC. At the beginning of the 20th century, the race for the tallest building in the world was on & the Chrysler Building was the first building to top the then tallest structure, the Eiffel Tower.

The Chrysler Building was in a race with the Bank of Manhattan (40 Wall Street) for the distinction of being tallest building in the world. It seemed certain that the Bank of Manhattan would win the race, with an expected height of 927ft against 755ft for the Chrysler building, but the spire of the Chrysler building was constructed in secret inside the tower.

Just a week after the Bank of Manhattan had reached its top, the spire of the Chrysler Building was put in place, making it 318 meter (1045ft) high, thus beating the Bank of Manhattan as the tallest building in the world. It would not keep this title for long, a year later the Empire State Building was erected.

The Art Deco Chrysler Building features gargoyles that depict Chrysler car ornaments & the spire is modeled on a radiator grille. The building's Art Deco interior is even more magnificent than its exterior. The marble floors & the Art Deco patterns on the stylish elevator doors make the Chrysler Building one of New York's most beautiful towers.

Annie Leibovitz attempting to get that perfect shot

When I lived in Manhattan in the mid-1970s, I never grew tired of looking up & I never was less then thrilled when I caught a glimse of this stunning tower. Like most of the structures on my list, viewing them was made more special by watching the Husband’s reaction to expereincing these wonders of design.

Born On This Day- May 28th... Chris Colfer

At just 19, Christopher Paul Colfer of Clovis, Calif., a small town near Fresno, rose to TV stardom playing Glee's Kurt Hummel, at the time, one of the rare, realistic gay characters in prime time… & he can really sing. With no professional training, Colfer so impressed Glee creator Ryan Murphy during initial auditions that the character was written specifically for him.

A graduate of Clovis East High School, Colfer was a 3 time speech & debate champion, president of the writer’s club, & wrote & directed a musical spoof of Sweeney Todd called “Shirley Todd.” His closest friends in school were the lunch room ladies because he preferred to stay home to write than to go out with friends. He also took care of his sister, Hannah, who suffers from epilepsy that has kept her in and out of hospitals all of her life.

Colfer: “I was made fun of a lot in high school because of the way I sound & the way I was. I was a lone duck in a swan filled pond who criticized everyone. So I think everyone might be going, ‘Oh, he’s playing the gay character. Figures.’ Just because that’s how they perceived me.” Between the ages of 9 &14, Colfer performed in local plays 4 nights a week. He landed a Hollywood agent & began traveling the 8 hours round trip to LA for auditions with his mother. He tried out for about 30 roles before he was cast on Glee.

I have remained fan of Glee through the end of the just concluded 3rd season, & I am encouraged by the range of gay characters portrayed on the show. On TV, at last, gays are not drawn in non-stereotypical fashion as strictly victims, tragedies, predators or sissies. We now have characters that embrace who they are & are in loving, fulfilling relationships In this way, Kurt Hummel is bound to become a role model for teens in the midst of discovering who they are & also for adults who have been in Kurt’s shoes.

On Glee this spring, a transgender character named Unique is competing in a sing-off. On Grey’s Anatomy, a show I have never viewed, a lesbian couple is adjusting to married life, having been pronounced “wife & wife” last season.

The cultural battlefield of TV has changed since the 1980s with the very neutered portrayal of Tony Randall’s Sidney Schorr on NBC’s Love, Sidney or in the 1990s, when the Religious Right objected to Ellen coming out & Will & Grace coming on.

Today, there is very little complaining about shows like Modern Family, the #1 sitcom or Post Apocalyptic Bohemia favorite- Smash, which has 5 openly gay characters, or the refreshing sitcom-Happy Endings, which, against stereotype, has a husky & lazy gay male character, possibly based on me. Mitt Romney is known to be a fan of Modern Family.

Next season NBC has a new show from Glee creator- Ryan Murphy that features a gay couple trying to have a child & their surrogate, titled The New Normal.

Vice President Biden stated that Will & Grace: “probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody’s ever done so far.” When that sitcom began on NBC, conservatives claimed that would make homosexuality seem desirable. They were correct.

On Ellen, Ellen DeGeneres, came out on the show & in real life in 1997. DeGeneres threatened to quit a year later when ABC preceded an episode that showed her jokingly kissing a friend with a message that warned: “Due to adult content, parental discretion is advised.” Can you imagine such a notice on Modern Family or Glee?

Smash aired a funny & sweet scene of a pair of men in bed, one a Republican, after an evening of bad sex. Now, that is realism.

Steven Levitan, a co-creator of Modern Family: “We thought that when the show started, the inclusion of Cameron & Mitchell would limit our success a bit, because it will perhaps alienate a certain segment of the population.In fact, it’s turned out to be quite the opposite.”

Media watchdogs like the Parents Television Council, one of the most active conservative media groups, do occasionally speak out against TV programming, & the religious fanatics have not been silent & Glee has been scrutinized. The Media Research Center stated: “Glee merely pretends to be a show for young people while actually serving as an assault on our traditional values.”

Colfer: “I don’t personally feel a responsibility to be a role model, but as the actor, I do.” On one of the most the powerful moments to ever air on TV, Glee’s Kurt Hummel came out to his father, played by the always excellent- Mike O’Malley, in a scene that  the show’s creator. Ryan Murphy took verbatim from his life.

Murphy: “The show is about making you feel good in the end. It’s about happy endings & optimism & the power of your personal journey & making you feel that the weird thing about me is the great thing about me. I’ve done other shows with gay characters, & I will say that in many of those cases, the gay characters didn’t have a happy ending, & I thought you know what? Enough.”

Last year Colfer was named to Time Magazine's list of The 100 Most Influential Americans.

This summer, Colfer will star in Struck by Lightning, for which he wrote the screenplay. The plot revolves around a character, who is struck & killed by a bolt of lightning, & looks back on his exploits as he blackmails his fellow senior classmates into contributing to a literary magazine he is publishing.

Colfer turns 22 years old today. Times have really changed, at 22 years old, I would never have dared to be an out & proud actor. Colfer & his creation of the character of Kurt on Glee make him a hero to me.

Born On This Day- May 28th... Party Animal Allen Carr

I have a certain amount of camp sensibilities; I am zany for a really good bad movie: Valley Of The Dolls, Battlefield Earth, Roadhouse, Terror In Tiny Town, Ishtar, The Oscar, Mommy Dearest. Showgirls is my #1 Good Bad Movie, but Can’t Stop The Music is right behind it, nipping at it’s ass.

The 1980 musical epic was the only time The Village People starred in a film, proof that it takes a village. He cast it with a lot of ex-boyfriends, but on the set they got out of hand & Allan Carr issued an edict: “Anyone caught having sex on the set will be fired!”

Nothing says 1970s hedonism like an Allan Carr production. But then there was nothing else like very ostentacious, obese, ornate caftan-wearing Allan Carr.

Carr produced & promoted the films Grease, Grease 2, Where The Boys Are ’84, Tommy, & Broadway’s La Cage aux Folles. Carr kept was also busy hosting exclusive & extravagant events with guest lists that included most show biz legends & those that loved them. The invitations to the gatherings at his opulent mansion, with bars, a disco, & plenty of private rooms where guests could indulge in cocaine & sex, were highly coveted. Even in homophobic Hollywood of the 1970s.

He titled his parties like movies: the Roman Polanski Rolodex Party, the Rudolph Nureyev Mattress Party, the Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party, the Truman Capote Jailhouse Party. He invited rock stars & Hollywood royalty. You could rub up to Elton John, Groucho Marx, or the pool boy. To promote the movie Tommy, he held the opening-night party in the New York subway.

Carr’s fall from grace was as dramatic as his rise to the top. He was banned from the Academy Awards after producing what is remembered as the worst Oscar broadcast of all time, with a tone deaf Rob Lowe & Snow White singing Proud Mary. Stars like Gregory Peck, Julie Andrews & Paul Newman signed a petition banning Carr from the Oscars. Disney sued the Oscars for copyright infringement of their Snow White character. The Breakout Superstars of Tomorrow segment in the program’s second half featured 12 minutes of young actors like Christian Slater & Patrick Dempsey writhing around a giant Oscar as if it was the golden calf.

Soon after, the Hollywood establishment shunned the sizzling scandals, sex & sordid lifestyle of the flamboyantly gay Allan Carr. Grease may have been the word, but nothing lubed Carr like pretty parties, pretty caftans, pretty drugs & pretty boys.

In 1999, Carr died of Liver Cancer. His ashes were scattered in the Pacific by Ann Margret in front of his former Diamond Head Estate in Oahu, Hawaii.