tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9843174702660504242024-03-18T13:10:26.230-04:00Gay InfluenceGay & Bisexual Men of ImportanceTerryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.comBlogger494125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-85169417119570606302024-02-26T11:28:00.002-05:002024-02-26T15:19:33.576-05:00Couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;">UPDATED POST: Your blogger first learned of Cristóbal</span> <span style="font-size: medium;">Balenciaga (1895-1972) from a pamphlet at the San Sebastian (Spain) tourist office. In a list of famous people who had made San Sebastian their home, he was in the second position, right behind the Queen of Spain. My female traveling companion, speaking in reverent tones, informed me that he is regarded as one of the greatest couturiers of the twentieth century. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Counted among his clients were the de Rothschilds, Bunny Mellon, Helena Rubinstein, the Duchess of Windsor, Countess Mona Bismark, Doris Duke, Marella Agnelli and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Jackie upset John F. Kennedy for buying Balenciaga's ultra expensive creations while he was President, because he feared that the American public might think the purchases too lavish; her haute couture bills were discreetly paid by her father-in-law, Joseph Kennedy. While Dior dressed the rich, Balenciaga dressed the very rich. During the 1950s, it was said that a woman “graduated” from Dior to Balenciaga.<br /></span>
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Balenciaga, who had quit school to go to work for a local tailor at age 13, opened his first shop in San Sebastián, Spain, at age 19, and by the age of 24 he had his own couture house, which later expanded to branches in Madrid and Barcelona. All three were called <i><b>Eisa</b></i>, after his seamstress mother. He learned every aspect of the couture business. While apprenticed to the San Sebastián tailor, he learned the skill of cutting, an art few dress designers possess. <br /></span>
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At seventeen he went to Biarritz, across the border, to learn the French language and their clothes-making techniques. By the age of eighteen, he was learning the women’s wear trade back in San Sebastián, in a luxury shop, <i>Louvre</i>, where he became adept at fitting ladies and finding gowns for their personal requirements. His clients loved him and followed him when he opened his own fashion house in the Basque capital at age 24. Among his clients was the Spanish Queen Mother, <b>Maria Cristina</b>, for whom San Sebastián’s great luxury hotel is named. His business was run with the help of his sister, brother and other relatives, and was very much a family firm, though on a substantial scale; 250 people worked in the Madrid house alone, plus an additional 100 or so in Barcelona.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The Spanish royal family and the aristocracy wore his designs, but when the Spanish Civil War forced him to close his stores in 1931, he fled first to London, then to Paris in 1936, eventually opening a couture house on Avenue George V in 1937. His success was immediate. Customers risked their safety to travel to Europe during World War II to see Balenciaga's designs.</span><br />
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Below: A Balenciaga design from 1951. <br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">It was in Paris that he met the lover of his life, <b>Vladzio Zawrorowski d'Attainville</b>, who was also his business associate. At the time he partnered with Cristóbal, Vladzio was a Franco-Russian milliner. Balenciaga was devastated when he died in 1948, to the point that he considered closing down his business. While Balenciaga had affairs with other men after Vladzio's death, he remained an intensely private man, rarely socializing.<br /></span>
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Several designers who worked for Balenciaga would go on to open their own successful couture houses, notably Oscar de la Renta, Emanuel Ungaro and Hubert de Givenchy. Balenciaga’s influence on these men cannot be overstated</span>.<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">His greatest period of innovation and influence was from just after WW II until he closed his couture house in 1968, four years before his death. His “sack dress” created a sensation in 1957 and was even parodied on an episode of “I Love Lucy”. Unlike other couture houses, Balenciaga never produced a ready-to-wear line: "I will not prostitute my talent." Tapping the deep roots of his Spanish heritage, Balenciaga found inspiration in flamenco and Velázquez paintings, clerical vestments and bullfighters’ boleros. Later, in designs that re-envisioned the female silhouette with gestures that flouted the traditional waistline, he created his unfitted middy blouse and tunic dress, the barrel-line jacket and balloon dress. In 1960 Balenciaga received the Légion d’honneur for services to the French fashion industry.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">When Balenciaga died in his native Spain in 1972, Women’s Wear Daily declared, “The King is Dead”. He died a very rich man, with houses and apartments in Paris, at La Reynerie near Orléans, in Madrid, in Barcelona, and in Iguelda in his native Basque country. Although his couture house remained dormant from 1968 until 1986, in 1992, for the summer Olympic Games, the rejuvenated House of Balenciaga designed the French team's clothes to give them a more sophisticated look. <br /></span>
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The Balenciaga name is best known to young people today as the label for men's and women's shoes and sought-after handbags and accessories. Balenciaga, headquartered in Paris, is now owned by the French-based Kering Company, which includes Gucci, YSL, Bottega Veneta and other luxury brands. In recent times Kim Kardashian has been the Balenciaga brand's official ambassador. Even more controversial was a 2022 holiday ad campaign featuring children holding plush teddy bears embellished with BDSM accessories. Public backlash was swift, and the outcome was an unnecessary blemish on the reputation of a fashion house once at the very pinnacle of respectability.</span><br />
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Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-14227146660209474492024-01-08T06:25:00.000-05:002024-01-08T06:25:11.084-05:00Leonard Bernstein<p><b>*UPDATED January 7, 2024 to include mention of the 2023 bio-film MAESTRO.<br /></b></p><p><b> </b></p><p><b>a gay man who dabbled in the straight world</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">Bernstein photographed in 1988 at home in Connecticut.</span></span><br />
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<b>Leonard Bernstein*</b> (1918-1990) was a celebrity American conductor and composer. As principal conductor and music director of the New York Philharmonic, he was without peer, so much so that the orchestra had a difficult time recovering when he departed the podium. He composed music for the concert hall, cinema and the theater, making him the most celebrated American composer since George Gershwin.<br />
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*He pronounced his surname BURN-stine, not BURN-steen. <br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">In the green room at Carnegie Hall 1951, with sister Shirley</span>.<br />
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His personal life, however, was one of deception. Bernstein’s homosexual proclivities were undisputed and well documented. Because he married and had children, many people assume he was bisexual. But Arthur Laurents, who collaborated with Bernstein on <b>West Side Story</b>, related that Bernstein was simply "a gay man who got married. He wasn't conflicted about his sexual orientation at all. He was just gay." Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Robbins, Arthur Laurents and Stephen Sondheim were the four gay Jewish men, all working at the very top of their craft, who created <b>West Side Story</b>, one of the most enduring musicals of the 20th century. Like many gay men of his generation, Bernstein appeared to be a devoted husband and father in public while carrying on a promiscuous homosexual life behind the scenes.<br />
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While still a student at Harvard, Bernstein had an affair with his mentor, famed conductor <b>Dimitri Mitropoulos</b>, and after a sexual dalliance he became close to gay composer <b>Aaron Copland</b>. Many say that Bernstein chose to marry to dispel rumors about his homosexual activity, which would have made it difficult to secure a major conducting appointment, given the conservative nature of orchestra boards. Bernstein had an on-again, off-again relationship with his future wife Felicia, a Chilean actress, but Bernstein broke off their engagement, telling Felicia that he was homosexual. In spite of this, she continued to pursue him. Their arrangement was such that, so long as he did not embarrass her publicly, he was free to pursue his homosexual affairs. <br />
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<i>With wife Felicia and children 1956.</i><br />
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A major event in Bernstein's personal life was his decision that he could no longer repress his homosexuality; he left his wife in 1976 to live with <b>Tom Cothran</b>, his male lover at the time. Bernstein was going to Paris to spend half a year with Cothran, whom Felicia detested. At the Carnegie Hall holiday concert of <i>Peter and the Wolf</i> that year, Lenny conducted and Felicia narrated. The two had been booked long in advance of their personal turmoil, but there was no question of the Bernsteins not fulfilling their obligation. When Bernstein took the podium, the audience went wild. At the end of the concert, an assistant brought a hundred red roses to him. Lenny walked across the stage to hand the roses to Felicia, but as he did so, she pivoted on her heel and stormed offstage. The giant bouquet fell to the floor with a <i>thwump</i>, and the audience gasped. Afterward, Bernstein was disconsolate, but went through with his plan to join Cothran in Paris. The next year Felicia was diagnosed with lung cancer, and Bernstein moved back in to care for her until she died in 1978 (Bernstein himself was to die of progressive lung failure). Most biographies of Bernstein relate that his lifestyle became more excessive and his homosexual activities cruder and less discrete after her death. Cothran died of AIDS in 1981.<br />
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Just three years before his marriage, Bernstein visited Israel (1948) and had an affair with <b>Azariah Rapoport</b>, a stunning young Israeli soldier who was his guide. Bernstein was madly in love: "I can't quite believe that I should have found all the things I've wanted rolled into one. It's a hell of an experience – nerve-racking and guts-tearing and wonderful. It's changed everything."</p><p>*In late 2023 Netflix released <b>MAESTRO</b>, a biographical film starring Bradley Cooper (with a prosthetic nose) as Bernstein. The screenplay focused on Bernstein's relationship with his wife Felicia and the impact his dalliances with men (often his younger students), alcohol and drug abuse had on their marriage. Cooper directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay.<br />
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Professionally, however, Bernstein felt that his homosexuality was a curse. He underwent psycho-analysis with Hungarian-born Dr. Sandor Rado, whose specialty was "curing" homosexual men of their "inversion". Bernstein felt marriage could “save” him from a homosexual life style. (<i>A personal comment here: homosexuality is not a life style. “Preppy” is a life style; homosexuality is a sexual orientation</i>)<br />
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A friend of the Bernsteins who was visiting their home recalled finding Bernstein in a hallway making out with a beautiful twenty-year old boy while his wife was sitting by herself in the living room. His wife also suffered the humiliation of receiving phone calls and discovering love letters from her husband's many boyfriends. Shortly after 1973, when Bernstein met the young Tom Cothran (musical director of Radio KKHI-FM in Denver), he became so infatuated with the boy that he allowed his wife to catch them in bed together. <br />
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<i>With young gay conductor </i><br />
<i>Michael Tilson Thomas 1974</i><br />
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After his wife died Bernstein abandoned all caution. By this time addicted to alcohol and drugs, he became open and crude about his homosexual activity. Pianist <b>William Huckaby</b>, after performing at a White House recital, was talking with President Carter when he "felt these hands clamped on my shoulders.” He was whirled around and forced into a deep French kiss right in front of the President, who walked away in astonishment and embarrassment. During his sixties and seventies, Bernstein surrounded himself with an entourage of beautiful boys, each one as intoxicated and obnoxious as his patron.<br />
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Many who knew him suggest that Bernstein became frustrated and cantankerous in his later years because he had never able to match the brilliance and popularity of <b>West Side Story</b> (1957), composed when he was in his late thirties. He was forever chasing and trying (unsuccessfully) to live up to his own fame. He also became increasingly intolerant of being called "Lenny" by those outside his inner circle and forever corrected those who pronounced his last name Burn-steen; he pronounced his name closer to the German way, BURN-stine. Bernstein means "amber" in German. In truth, Bernstein had changed his first name to Leonard when he was fifteen years old; he had been born Louis Bernstein.<br />
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After Felicia's death, Bernstein dealt with much guilt over how his homosexual activity adversely affected her. Some of this guilt and conflict was expressed in his 1983 opera, <b>A Quiet Place</b>, which tackled issues close to Bernstein’s life. Its story is one of suffering the loss of a loved one and a father’s acceptance of a gay son. <br />
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Bernstein's obituary in the New York Times (1990) made clear mention of his homosexuality. Since then many fans still visit his grave at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.<br />
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Photo<i>: Bernstein at the piano in 1944 at age 26. </i><br />
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Most of the information in this post comes from Meryle Secrest’s “<i>Leonard Bernstein: A Life</i>” and Charles Kaiser's “<i>The Gay Metropolis</i>.”<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Note: </i>Bisexuality is a thorny label. Do we call Bernstein bisexual because he married and fathered three children? The recently deceased Arthur Laurents did not think we should. He said Bernstein was a "gay man who married." I go about it this way. If a person has sexual relations regularly with both men and women, then I call that person bisexual. Bernstein's sexual relations before, during and after his marriage were overwhelmingly homosexual, so I agree with Laurents' assessment. The same with actor Anthony Perkins, who did not have a sexual experience with a female until he was 39 years old (he was so closeted and paranoid prior to that time that he insisted on parking blocks away from the homes of his male lovers and arrived at events and restaurants well before or after his boyfriends). Those who knew Perkins said that he'd let nothing stand in the way of his career, and getting married served his career goals. Once he sampled married life, he was so relieved that the gay rumors and suspicions no longer haunted him that he at last settled into a zone comfortable for him. If the gay rumors about George Gershwin proved true, I'd label him bisexual, because he was known to have regular sexual relations with women. Pete Townshend? I call him bisexual, too. Bernstein? Not so much.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">And to those many responses in the comments section (below) who tell me that it is not my business to mention Bernstein's sexuality, I draw your attention to the first paragraph at the top of this blog, which I created to give encouragement to young men who were bullied, discriminated against, and/or shunned by their teachers or parents. You can succeed in realizing your life goals -- and it really does get better with age. May you be inspired by the life stories of the men feature here.</span><br />
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<br />Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com30tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-84764214430355638112023-10-27T11:26:00.003-04:002023-10-27T12:47:39.707-04:00Alexander Hamilton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_1xtiOWDnmwDINqkq5rooov-N3raWDScHrdDphwngrHK9jE4oQGROtTCxlUEWYNwgurFR9qa0OU6y34ekngy_AN9FztwPGxPmUw9U6isFhks-X6qgyK0t160DIt6ZuIEmBrAKqMMFlUD/s1600/Alexander_Hamilton.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp_1xtiOWDnmwDINqkq5rooov-N3raWDScHrdDphwngrHK9jE4oQGROtTCxlUEWYNwgurFR9qa0OU6y34ekngy_AN9FztwPGxPmUw9U6isFhks-X6qgyK0t160DIt6ZuIEmBrAKqMMFlUD/s400/Alexander_Hamilton.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i><u>Updated</u></i> </b>to include reference to Hamilton in the book and movie <b>"Red, White and Royal Blue" </b>(see end of post).<b><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Alexander Hamilton</b> was a United States Founding Father, soldier, economist, political philosopher, one of America's first constitutional lawyers and the first United States Secretary of the Treasury. As Treasury Secretary, Hamilton was the primary author of the economic policies of George Washington’s administration – specifically the funding of state debts by the Federal government, the establishment of a national bank, a system of tariffs and friendly trade relations with England. He became the leader of the Federalist Party, created largely in support of his views.<br />
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On March 3, 1777, forty-five year old George Washington hired twenty-two year old Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804) to be his personal secretary and aide-de-camp, subsequently promoting him to lieutenant colonel. Of illegitimate birth and raised in the West Indies, Hamilton was educated in New York, where he lived with a 32-year old bachelor male haberdasher, Hercules Mulligan. After his studies, Hamilton was elected to the Continental Congress from that state. He resigned to practice law and subsequently founded the Bank of New York. In 1789, after Hamilton returned from further military service, Washington appointed Hamilton as the first ever Treasury Secretary of the United States. Many researchers suggest that Washington, who was in a life-long childless marriage, and Hamilton likely had an intimate relationship, as well (Hamilton was known to have intimate relations with both men and women). Washington’s otherwise warm relations with Hamilton turned somewhat frosty after Hamilton married a woman following the death of the object of Hamilton’s devotion, <b>John Laurens</b> (1754-1782). <br />
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Hamilton and Laurens had an intense, intimate relationship and often compared each other to <b>Damon and Pythias*</b> (!), a euphemism used to denote a devoted gay couple. In 1779, chiding Laurens for not corresponding as often as he would have liked, Hamilton wrote, "like a jealous lover, when I thought you slighted my caresses, my affection was alarmed and my vanity piqued." In 1781 Hamilton requested a transfer from Washington’s staff to be able to serve in combat with Laurens, and the request was granted. Hamilton and Laurens engaged in several military campaigns together, but Laurens was tragically killed in a skirmish in 1782. Hamilton was completely devastated.</span><br />
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<span>*In Greek mythology, Pythias, who had been condemned to death by Dionysius, wanted to return home first to put his affairs in order. Damon agreed to be put to death in his friend’s stead, should Pythias not return to face his execution. Pythias returned as promised, sparing Damon’s life. Dionysius was so impressed by the friends’ devotion to each other that he pardoned Pythias and asked to be friends with the two lovers.</span><br />
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Four months prior to John Laurens’s death on the battlefield, Hamilton wrote to Laurens playfully suggesting that Laurens find a wife for him, offering an exaggerated and amusing description of the ideal candidate’s appearance, personality and financial standing ("as to fortune, the larger stock of that the better"). Hamilton then withdrew the suggestion, writing, "Do I want a wife? No – I have plagues enough without desiring to add to the number that greatest of all."</span><br />
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Bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton outside Hamilton Hall, overlooking Hamilton Lawn at his alma mater, Columbia University in New York City.<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Yet Hamilton did marry late the following year, entering into a union with the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in New York City, where Hamilton resumed his law practice. After the war he participated in the Constitutional Convention of 1787. When he became president, Washington appointed Hamilton the nation’s first ever Secretary of the Treasury in 1789. However, Hamilton left the poorly-paid Treasury position in 1795 to resume his more lucrative law practice, but he remained a valued adviser to the president and a leader of the Federalist Party.<br />
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When the contentious presidential race of 1800 ended in an Electoral College tie, the House of Representatives was charged with resolving the impasse. Hamilton famously put the good of his young nation above party loyalty. Because he believed the Federalist candidate, Aaron Burr, would be a disastrous president, Hamilton went on a campaign to urge his fellow party members to vote instead for his longtime political adversary, Thomas Jefferson. Aaron Burr, who received the second highest number of votes, became Vice President, but he never forgave Hamilton for his defeat. When Burr ran for governor in New York State in 1804, Hamilton's influence in his home state was strong enough to prevent a Burr victory. Taking offense at some of Hamilton's comments, Burr challenged him to a duel in July, 1804, and wounded Hamilton, who died of his injuries shortly thereafter.<br />
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Although Hamilton had a fruitful marriage (and eight children), researchers and biographers deem that Hamilton’s relationship with Laurens was the most important romantic and emotional bond of his life. Earlier biographers edited out the most embarrassing and damning paragraphs from Hamilton’s effusive letters to Laurens, but a 1902 biography relates that Laurens "took Hamilton by storm, capturing judgement as well as heart, and loving him as ardently in return." In describing Hamilton's reaction to the death of Laurens, "Hamilton mourned him passionately, and never ceased to regret him. Betsey [Schuyler Hamilton, his wife] consoled, diverted, and bewitched him, but there were times when he would have exchanged her for Laurens." She added, with some regret, "The perfect friendship of two men is the deepest and highest sentiment of which the finite mind is capable; women miss the best in life." Hamilton's grandson, Allen McLane Hamilton, wrote that many of his grandfather's male friends were attracted to his "almost feminine traits." So there you have it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The memory of Alexander Hamilton and John Laurens lives on in San Francisco at the Alexander Hamilton Post 448 of the American Legion, the organization’s only branch comprised primarily of GLBTQ veterans. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Hamilton and Laurens are depicted standing together on the "Surrender of Cornwallis" commemorative U.S. postage stamp released in October of 1981. The stamp was based on a painting (at right) of the same name commissioned by the U.S. Government in 1817 from painter John Trumbull. In the extreme right of the painting, Hamilton, with hands clasped in front of him, stands in the front row immediately to the right of the ash colored horse with the prominent neck; the similarly dressed John Laurens stands next to him (click to enlarge). This painting hangs in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol building.</span></p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Hamilton</i></b> (the musical) is a biographical Broadway musical with
music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda, based on a 2004 biography by Ron
Chernow. Premiered in 2015, the show's music draws heavily from hip-hop,
R&B, pop, soul and traditional-style show tunes. It casts non-white actors
as Founding Fathers and historical figures. From its opening, the show received
near-universal acclaim and extraordinary box office sales. It won 11 Tony
awards, including Best Musical. It also received the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for
Drama. A filmed version of the Broadway production was released in 2020. As of
this posting, it is still running on Broadway at the Richard Rodgers Theater
eight years later. There have also been three successful touring productions,
and a separate Chicago production ran for more than three years (September 2016
through January 2020) at the PrivateBank Theater.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OuYRcKxtmHo" width="320" youtube-src-id="OuYRcKxtmHo"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> </span><p></p>
<p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>In May of 2019 a less-than subtle reference to Hamilton's sexuality</b> was included in the publishing of "Red, White and Royal Blue" by American novelist Casey McQuiston. There is a set-up in the book in which the two male romantic protagonists engage in a steamy kissing scene under a portrait of Hamilton in the White House Red Room. One of the gentlemen is the son of the U.S. President, the other a British prince. A bit of fact checking discloses that, indeed, Hamilton's portrait by John Trumbull hangs to this day in the Red Room, exactly as depicted in the novel. That scene was brought to life in the August 2023 release of the gay rom-com film version, also titled "Red, White and Royal Blue". The movie was spectacularly popular and received high praise from critics. Click on the link below:<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hftTlyO7QIs ">Red Room kissing scene</a><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And of course, Hamilton’s image graces the U.S. ten-dollar bill in commemoration of the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury.</span><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6TmqqxnWpcfoD93LCDjHIpBrbX9jL346-pV9GppVaNbSaG8OJyNqyk5rI9HkW3R2oefAf_fBnRS3h-RRoN1bj_g6C1wLnGkLVA8QWIprgZnvO4W-jTDp8o3b1VqnqaRcWeSmQs7mJsVE8/s1600/Alexander_Hamilton-$10bill.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6TmqqxnWpcfoD93LCDjHIpBrbX9jL346-pV9GppVaNbSaG8OJyNqyk5rI9HkW3R2oefAf_fBnRS3h-RRoN1bj_g6C1wLnGkLVA8QWIprgZnvO4W-jTDp8o3b1VqnqaRcWeSmQs7mJsVE8/s400/Alexander_Hamilton-$10bill.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-53044372980504125642023-08-25T07:52:00.002-04:002023-08-25T07:52:09.453-04:00Edgars Rinkēvičs, President of Latvia<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Rinkēvičs Sworn In as President of Latvia</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7_AquC8Hap6mY93IF5dvOqsgRJEBm_PwyNjTRPfmI1IC6NiVVUPbGdc-UJrchiVPI37yF_qQAVzlszq_cHI2x5wsY6quM_b6azf6w9fqPF6N2vZ96Dg9mVgYcsY_0Ba6akGq49zGv_-3lnR37ndxjhVsTzmA8V72IdzqN3mfDmV-jAkDBwAsFuRcpyA/s1265/Edgars%20Rink%C4%93vi%C4%8Ds%20-%20President%20Latvia.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="1265" height="402" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid7_AquC8Hap6mY93IF5dvOqsgRJEBm_PwyNjTRPfmI1IC6NiVVUPbGdc-UJrchiVPI37yF_qQAVzlszq_cHI2x5wsY6quM_b6azf6w9fqPF6N2vZ96Dg9mVgYcsY_0Ba6akGq49zGv_-3lnR37ndxjhVsTzmA8V72IdzqN3mfDmV-jAkDBwAsFuRcpyA/w640-h402/Edgars%20Rink%C4%93vi%C4%8Ds%20-%20President%20Latvia.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>This July (2023) 49-year-old Edgars Rinkēvičs took office as President of
Latvia, becoming the first openly gay head of state in a European Union
country. He won the national election in May. Your blogger is more than
weary of bad news, so this lifts his spirits all the more, because East
European countries are generally more conservative and less accepting of
gays (Hungary and Turkey, for example). Rinkēvičs was already involved
in Latvian politics when he announced he was gay on Twitter in 2014. He
speaks fluent English and earned a masters degree from the U.S. National
Defense University in Washington DC in the year 2000. <br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Latvia,
located on the Baltic Sea, is a member of both NATO and the EU and
supports Ukraine's efforts to stave off Russian aggression. As well,
Latvia is a member of the IMF and United Nations. Latvia, once forcibly
incorporated into the Soviet Union, regained its independence in 1991.
It is noteworthy that Latvia borders both Russia and Belarus.</span></span></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-19103893020483147852023-08-21T13:53:00.000-04:002023-08-21T13:53:47.493-04:00Gifford Joins Biden Reelection Campaign<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXeHZDBhSuZbtnV2Hsn04fJFew-uOXlvsnmG1AzbmOiIrzCfzmz7Rv2frJJ8y10EGaRMG5WpZvIASklGEl26omdtcpAbgkeWKBPWDBeO569TfrCWe24WebaeAcPPRONbVY_i8zlw9k1Cp/s1200/Rufus-Gifford.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1200" height="351" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLXeHZDBhSuZbtnV2Hsn04fJFew-uOXlvsnmG1AzbmOiIrzCfzmz7Rv2frJJ8y10EGaRMG5WpZvIASklGEl26omdtcpAbgkeWKBPWDBeO569TfrCWe24WebaeAcPPRONbVY_i8zlw9k1Cp/w400-h351/Rufus-Gifford.jpg" width="400" /></a></i></span></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><br />UPDATE:</i> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Rufus Gifford, the highest-ranking "openly gay" official at the U.S. State Department,
is leaving his post as chief of protocol to become finance chair for
President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In 2021 President Biden had tapped former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark <b>Rufus Gifford</b> to serve as the State Department's new chief of protocol. <br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As chief of protocol, Gifford retained the rank of ambassador. He assisted President Biden and other top U.S. leaders with proper diplomatic protocols
when visiting or receiving foreign dignitaries. Gifford also scheduled itineraries for visiting officials from abroad. He had previously served as Deputy Campaign Manager for Biden's 2020 presidential campaign.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>This is my original post from October, 2016: </i><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">My regular blog readers may recall a post from 2015
reporting the marriage of Rufus Gifford, the U.S. Ambassador to Denmark,
to his partner, a veterinarian named Stephen DeVincent, at Copenhagen’s
city hall. Among the wedding guests were </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, who had become close friends. Rufus and Stephen were married by the Lord Mayor of Copenhagen. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjXkaw5U1TAmqyLswnK-57Jm4jqZbY6ClBZ9Wsc_llOKNr4d1k-ybjXOj5OLwb-x-EtTEr8TeEDuk9xGzCyMrk3Je2sdJns1TI28k51pJudz4K9sWCCflROiMy3rg-Z0tUmMBShEwSuCk/s1600/I-Am-the-Ambassador2.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXjXkaw5U1TAmqyLswnK-57Jm4jqZbY6ClBZ9Wsc_llOKNr4d1k-ybjXOj5OLwb-x-EtTEr8TeEDuk9xGzCyMrk3Je2sdJns1TI28k51pJudz4K9sWCCflROiMy3rg-Z0tUmMBShEwSuCk/s640/I-Am-the-Ambassador2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;">The front page of the Wall Street Journal, however, carried a
feature article reporting the viral sensation of the ambassador’s
reality TV show, “Jeg er ambassadøren fra Amerika” (<i>I Am the Ambassador from America</i>),
which averaged about 200,000 viewers per episode. There were 10 installments. Ambassador Gifford won the Danish equivalent of an
Emmy for his role, in which he mused about being a gay ambassador and
his regrets at not seeing more of his husband, who spent long stretches
of time stateside to attend to his job. <br />
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Contributing to the success of the show was that fact that Gifford, 42 years old
and Hollywood handsome, made sharp, witty comments about what is
essentially a boring job – because there is virtually no strife between the two
nations. The show followed him around the grand ambassador’s
residence, traveling home to Boston to see his parents, making sojourns
to Greenland, celebrating a birthday, even spending a night with the
elite Danish Frogmen Corps. In the series Gifford steps into his limousine, he steps
out of his limousine, he goes to the gym, etc. The series culminated
with the ambassador’s wedding to his male partner. A 35-year-old Danish
female fan of the show said she wasn’t looking for false drama, like that
of other reality shows, but that she savored the scenes when Gifford was
at home with Mr. DeVincent and their dog, Argos. But there was that one
time when Gifford stripped down to his Calvins to change into a SWAT suit
(not disappointing).<br />
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As a result of this show, Gifford’s celebrity in Denmark was such that
people on the streets shouted, “Hey, Rufus!” and asked him to stop for a
selfie, completely forsaking the honorific of his office. And that’s the
way he liked it. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6JIwq0w2S6udQCKdz6AUqB0ydEggJqvZOmJiQSeRSkhtq7RCqgaA0Irzro-L6YGhEiHYMRf-qIyEuZTwFNPAnMie8hos8i7QTrC1R9OhipNk4uLsGFBPMQQhyphenhyphens5n9QPGWM_loZ2vO315m/s1600/I-Am-the-Ambassador.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6JIwq0w2S6udQCKdz6AUqB0ydEggJqvZOmJiQSeRSkhtq7RCqgaA0Irzro-L6YGhEiHYMRf-qIyEuZTwFNPAnMie8hos8i7QTrC1R9OhipNk4uLsGFBPMQQhyphenhyphens5n9QPGWM_loZ2vO315m/s400/I-Am-the-Ambassador.jpg" width="285" /></a></div><p>
<i>All 10 episodes were available for streaming on Netflix: “I Am the
Ambassador”. Note from your blogger: Ambassador Gifford is charming
beyond description.</i><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">*Note: In 2015 six gay male ambassadors represented our
country. They gathered for an event at D.C.’s Newseum: Ambassador to Australia
John Berry, Ambassador to the Dominican Republic James Brewster,
Ambassador to Denmark Rufus Gifford, Ambassador to the Organization for
Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Daniel Baer, Ambassador to
Spain James Costos and Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius. All were
appointed by President Obama and approved by congress. Amazing, since
homosexuality was until recent times grounds for dismissal from foreign
service. When President Bill Clinton nominated openly gay James Hormel
for ambassador to Luxembourg in 1997, Hormel was strongly opposed by
some Republican members of congress for his sexual orientation, and the
appointment was thus stalled. Clinton then used a recess appointment to
install Hormel as ambassador in 1999, making him the first openly gay
ambassador to represent the U.S. </span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Newlyweds Rufus (right) and Stephen leave Copenhagen's city hall: </span></i></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvVWAuylgfrJHsbrXMGcqnDE8pveijf6b9QCO34gE0AWuu8wfwum3aXsOpns-_jMiVSRLzt-GJTdHFovrpTgq4_JC2REx4-eiW7Q45Gixy7-0nzHNt_GeCNOUWmUQmvu1ahDA1Mmhdl2FD/s659/RufusGifford-wedding.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="439" data-original-width="659" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvVWAuylgfrJHsbrXMGcqnDE8pveijf6b9QCO34gE0AWuu8wfwum3aXsOpns-_jMiVSRLzt-GJTdHFovrpTgq4_JC2REx4-eiW7Q45Gixy7-0nzHNt_GeCNOUWmUQmvu1ahDA1Mmhdl2FD/w640-h426/RufusGifford-wedding.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-30727398821976093032023-07-14T05:57:00.001-04:002023-07-14T06:00:09.151-04:00Yul Brynner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr_xtkSfVQoQzrxXY9wfudl4v-07YVZuGycPlNmGu4m3UWincMq4SsERf9wCIMZbq5P8q6kskHq7x1yQK-VTUMhlPDOoP9FSaspU-Cpc_WFGBX7J2DCebEq7sY1_-aZ_kCE04IJS_RX5-/s1600/YulBrynner.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvr_xtkSfVQoQzrxXY9wfudl4v-07YVZuGycPlNmGu4m3UWincMq4SsERf9wCIMZbq5P8q6kskHq7x1yQK-VTUMhlPDOoP9FSaspU-Cpc_WFGBX7J2DCebEq7sY1_-aZ_kCE04IJS_RX5-/s400/YulBrynner.jpg" width="308" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><i>This is an update of a controversial post from 2012. Be sure to read the shit storm of four dozen reader comments at the end.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Bisexual Russian-born actor <b>Yul Brynner</b> (1920-1985) began his career playing guitar and singing gypsy songs among Russian immigrants in Parisian nightclubs. His fluency in Russian and French enabled him to build up a following with the Czarist expatriates in Paris. After a brief stint as a trapeze artist with the famed Cirque D'Hiver company in France, he started acting with a touring company in the early 1940s. He was soon on his way to becoming the first ever bald stage and movie idol.<br /></span>
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In 1941 Yul Brynner traveled to the U.S., where he began an affair with American actor <b>Hurd Hatfield </b>(1918-1998), best known for playing the title role in the 1945 film <i><b>The Picture of Dorian Gray</b></i>. Both men were enrolled at the <b>Michael Chekhov Theatre Studio</b> in Ridgefield, Connecticut, and many of their classmates have since confirmed the affair. Michael Chekhov (1891-1955, nephew of Anton), mentored performers such as Marilyn Monroe, Jack Palance, Patricia Neal, Ingrid Bergman, Gregory Peck, Leslie Caron, Gary Cooper, Clint Eastwood, Anthony Quinn, Jennifer Jones, Robert Vaughn and many others.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-l2ysr4Vg-BxHWEpS4oRnAzmwDBhUSUAgobMK37KKymwrWi0Aqu4wMo7LyW6nL0CVJyMIK9wt0WJpEglMkAes3e5OnIJC3H6M_NH9YBCz2aJpbnHbfE6f3FV5dTPC89IWtHhCSko6yu-/s1600/yul_brynner_lynes.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR-l2ysr4Vg-BxHWEpS4oRnAzmwDBhUSUAgobMK37KKymwrWi0Aqu4wMo7LyW6nL0CVJyMIK9wt0WJpEglMkAes3e5OnIJC3H6M_NH9YBCz2aJpbnHbfE6f3FV5dTPC89IWtHhCSko6yu-/s400/yul_brynner_lynes.jpg" width="315" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;">A year later, twenty-two year old Brynner (before he shaved his head) posed in full-frontal nude positions (photo at right) for noted gay photographer <b>George Platt Lynes</b>. Those who would like to view those uncropped photographs should avail themselves of Google search (<i>you know you want to</i>). You'll have a better understanding of what all the excitement was about.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Two decades later, at age 43, Brynner appeared wearing only slightly more in the campy film <i><b>Kings of the Sun</b></i> (1963, below), his youthful body betraying not a single passing year.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjOAsFRNg2HvHLQ2iPWozS-l-5QToNaT0i2vRLZF_1ajs_56XlfdxI52nWj4ww6gSOb5gePuSyvNA4yDuBKWlH-eaJCysVBVvYlq_d7HJXOcLzWhmFflPyERfTh_4b2WERKQVCz4w8N0P1/s1600/Yul-KingsOfTheSun.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjOAsFRNg2HvHLQ2iPWozS-l-5QToNaT0i2vRLZF_1ajs_56XlfdxI52nWj4ww6gSOb5gePuSyvNA4yDuBKWlH-eaJCysVBVvYlq_d7HJXOcLzWhmFflPyERfTh_4b2WERKQVCz4w8N0P1/s400/Yul-KingsOfTheSun.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">After several years of regional acting, Brynner was hired by the Office of War Information as announcer for their French radio service. He made his Broadway debut with Mary Martin in<i><b> Lute Song</b></i> in 1946, but he began playing his most famous role, the King of Siam, in <i><b>The King and I</b></i> in the Broadway production of the Oscar and Hammerstein musical in 1951 (photo at top of post). Mary Martin had recommended him for this role. At his first meeting with Irene Sharaff, <i>The King and I</i>’s costume designer, Brynner asked what he was to do about his mere “fringe” of hair. When told he was to shave it, he was horror-struck and refused, convinced he would look terrible. He finally gave in during tryouts and put dark makeup on his shaved head. The effect was so well-received that it became Brynner's trademark.<br /></span>
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After more than three years and 1,246 performances, he starred in the screen version in 1956, winning an Oscar for Best Actor. He then returned to the stage for an additional 3,379 stage performances that stretched all the way to 1985. Brynner, 35 years old and married, was virtually unknown when he was cast in The King and I, and 52- year-old Gertrude Lawrence’s name appeared above his. Yul and Gertrude were having an affair at the time. Rodgers and Hammerstein often told the story that when Lawrence died during the run of the show, Brynner finally got top billing, and he burst into tears at the news (of his getting top billing – not the news of Lawrence’s death).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC2N-1jdD7Uy1zV9V9NX7dzE4gn8ACU-S4-85p0NFu_6SqJBE1csB2xSWQpXCtQ6hG_T1YTvk7MosDlPGzX4wQ6JT7W6b62rQnx1E6tCPdlhLDNfwsPtptWEvq70zn0WGbABtYbZWp4bJ/s1600/yul-brynner-10commandments.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHC2N-1jdD7Uy1zV9V9NX7dzE4gn8ACU-S4-85p0NFu_6SqJBE1csB2xSWQpXCtQ6hG_T1YTvk7MosDlPGzX4wQ6JT7W6b62rQnx1E6tCPdlhLDNfwsPtptWEvq70zn0WGbABtYbZWp4bJ/s400/yul-brynner-10commandments.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Cecil B. DeMille, impressed by Brynner's performance in <i><b>The King and I</b></i>, cast the actor as the Pharoah Rameses in the multi-million dollar blockbuster <i><b>The Ten Commandments </b></i>(1956, dressing room photo above). Along the way, Brynner also starred in such classic films as <i><b>Anastasia </b></i>(1956), <i>The Brothers Karamazov</i> (1958), and <i><b>The Magnificent Seven</b></i> (1960).<br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Brynner was also a talented published photographer and author of two books, <i>Bring Forth the Children: A Journey to the Forgotten People of Europe and the Middle East</i> and <i>The Yul Brynner Cookbook: Food Fit for the King and You</i>. I’m not making this up.<br /></span>
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Brynner's romantic life included throngs of women, as well as men. He had four wives – actress Viriginia Gilmor, Chilean model Doris Kleiner, Jacqueline Thion de la Chaume, ballerina Kathy Lee – in addition to numerous affairs with such stars as Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland, Joan Crawford, and Ingrid Bergman.<br /></span>
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Brynner was possessed of a massive, nearly uncontrollable ego. In the mid-1960s, while filming <i><b>Morituri</b></i> aboard a freighter with co-star Marlon Brando, Brynner demanded in his contract that a landing pad be built on the ship so he could get a private helicopter to take him ashore after each day's shoot. He got his way, as usual.<br /></span>
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According to Frank Langella’s recent memoir, no actor ever talked about himself so much as Brynner, whom Langella described as “never far from a full-length mirror.” Brynner explained how he’d had a special lift – big enough to fit a car – installed in the Broadway theater where he was starring in <i><b>The King And I</b></i>. His chauffeur could thus drive straight in and spare the star from having to “deal with the public.”<br /></span>
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Brynner's last major film role was in the sci-fi thriller <i><b>Westworld</b></i> (1973) as a murderously malfunctioning robot, dressed in Western garb reminiscent of Brynner's wardrobe in <i><b>The Magnificent Seven</b></i>. What could have been campy or ludicrous became a chilling characterization in Brynner's hands; his steady, steely-eyed automaton glare as he approached his human victims was one of the more enjoyably frightening film-going experiences of the 1970s.<br /></span>
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Yul Brynner died of lung cancer on October 10, 1985, in New York City at age sixty-five – on the same day as Orson Welles. When he developed lung cancer in the mid-1980s, he left a powerful public service announcement denouncing smoking as the cause, for broadcast after his death. <b>The Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation</b> was established in his memory.</span></p><p><b>Update July 14, 2023</b>: <span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: medium;">His final performance (his 4,625th) of "The King and I" came on June 30, 1985, less than four months before he died of cancer. His lungs were so damaged that he had to use an oxygen tank to soldier through his last performances.</span></span></p><p> </p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-88654183090973349812023-07-04T03:42:00.000-04:002023-07-04T03:42:15.866-04:00Richard Halliburton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgqJqc0xlinMkW_H24ERiAi1B-Q97JzssmXHNeRsMcVsaj1I6ay9wKgQfiqHUpIPdVRz1vQyYNV2pmxoYvGJmlC7iegPAxYDm_V6c8sjYszZ4pyx9-bCPvD2hXqMMiQjfvFQyK_3pCfWnTJ-athagqF_kYNTWsCR36CcFu1LYsBlm5LIDt7W2HAQ_HLyl/s1171/halliburton_portrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1171" data-original-width="864" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcgqJqc0xlinMkW_H24ERiAi1B-Q97JzssmXHNeRsMcVsaj1I6ay9wKgQfiqHUpIPdVRz1vQyYNV2pmxoYvGJmlC7iegPAxYDm_V6c8sjYszZ4pyx9-bCPvD2hXqMMiQjfvFQyK_3pCfWnTJ-athagqF_kYNTWsCR36CcFu1LYsBlm5LIDt7W2HAQ_HLyl/w472-h640/halliburton_portrait.jpg" width="472" /></a></div><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Renowned thrill-seeker and global adventure writer <b>Richard Halliburton</b> (1900-1939) went rogue in his private, as well as professional life. Richard’s partner was his ghostwriter, <b>Paul Mooney</b> (1903-1939), but neither of them gave even a fleeting thought to fidelity. Mooney had another lover, <b>William Alexander Levy</b> (1909-1997), a twenty-something architect and interior designer. Movie-star handsome Halliburton commissioned a house from William to be built high on a cliff above Laguna Beach, CA, with three master bedrooms, one for each of the men – a cozy, if somewhat offbeat arrangement. The result was a stunning cantilevered Modernist structure of concrete, glass and steel dubbed Hangover House, built for $36,000 – a huge sum for 1937. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Halliburton, while forgotten today, was a household name during the 1920s and 1930s, as famous as Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh. He was the idol of every schoolboy, and his popular radio broadcasts supplemented his adventure books, such as the <i><b>Book of Marvels</b></i>, which fueled the imaginations of countless youths. The <i>Book of Marvels</i> was published in two volumes (The Occident 1937, the Orient 1938), each filled with photographs and text that hooked armchair travelers who grew up in the days before Indiana Jones.<br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Raised in Tennessee as a small, sickly boy, Halliburton over-compensated as an adult with an action packed life of extreme adventures. In 1931 the whole world followed with interest his circumnavigation of the globe in an open cockpit single engine plane dubbed the Flying Carpet, the title of his fourth book. In it he described his outsized feats during that adventure, such as flying upside down over the Taj Mahal, photographing Mt. Everest and encountering head hunters in Borneo.<br /></span>
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Always lusting after fame and fortune, Halliburton was aware that his high public profile required a heterosexual emphasis, so he embellished his writings with entirely fabricated female love interests. Nevertheless, his travel narratives included lingering accounts of male beauty, and his private letters were explicitly gay.<br /></span>
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Halliburton was not above breaking the law or stretching the truth to achieve his goals. Just months after his graduation from Princeton in 1921, Richard climbed the Matterhorn. His wanderlust took him to Paris and on to the Rock of Gibraltar, where taking photographs of defense weapon emplacements landed him in jail; nevertheless, he published a dozen of his forbidden photos along with a breathless account of the escapade.<br /></span>
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Richard continued to Egypt, sleeping on top of a pyramid and swimming the Nile. He hid himself on the grounds of the Taj Mahal, so that he could swim in its pools by moonlight. Traveling through the Malay peninsula, he steamed to Singapore as a stowaway, survived an attack by pirates, and trekked through Manchuria. When he reached Japan, he climbed Mt. Fuji in winter. Halliburton's books achieved enormous popularity, and he became one of the highest paid celebrity authors to appear on the lecture circuit between the two world wars.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwiNisR1KjAjxF0U-ZRKfXZc_UmpC42BIiEPhBK8bwKxSK6BURbaaNqcyJl42kvvLdy2z862uXw8Kh6B2Yo2UpcFIKhyphenhyphenRUgXzbQp7qVK-8C5nDQ5lp4_OsTu1peVqj68K23bUvVmG9OST4/s1600/halliburton6.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwiNisR1KjAjxF0U-ZRKfXZc_UmpC42BIiEPhBK8bwKxSK6BURbaaNqcyJl42kvvLdy2z862uXw8Kh6B2Yo2UpcFIKhyphenhyphenRUgXzbQp7qVK-8C5nDQ5lp4_OsTu1peVqj68K23bUvVmG9OST4/s640/halliburton6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;">A master of publicity and self-promotion, Halliburton shrewdly exploited his escapades in order to increase interest in his books and lectures. In one such stunt, he registered himself as a ship, paid a toll of 36 cents, based on his weight of 140 pounds, and swam the Panama Canal. He remains the only person to have swum all 48 miles of the waterway.<br /></span>
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In March 1939, the famous Halliburton-Mooney duo and their experienced crew left Hong Kong in a commissioned Chinese junk, the Sea Dragon, to sail eastward for the San Francisco Golden Gate International Expo. Three weeks into the journey they encountered a typhoon and perished; their bodies were never recovered.<br /></span>
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In a letter written to his father, Halliburton expressed his <i>carpe diem</i> philosophy:<br /></span>
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“And when my time comes to die, I’ll be able to die happy, for I will have done and seen and heard and experienced all the joy, pain and thrills – any emotion that any human ever had – and I’ll be especially happy if I am spared a stupid, common death in bed...”</span><br />Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-34628472225791193482023-06-08T11:20:00.001-04:002023-06-08T11:32:04.471-04:00Cecil Rhodes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mDaJJCAAcTm5h1JtSqtfnC6uQBpsOE5dTZwSnMMZXbhkpiqayyjr6VV1sje9-x5RQ6Eknj5QJ0_gwfgyr7yS61aJATjnxqwSY_dq04z0gQ12lZv6NGnlowvisDemkyIOSO_kMqhU-Qf08Ae942JC17CYP0vGkpN7W-d_wciAB574QsEhRqOubJ3Cgw/s723/Cecil_Rhodes.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="480" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mDaJJCAAcTm5h1JtSqtfnC6uQBpsOE5dTZwSnMMZXbhkpiqayyjr6VV1sje9-x5RQ6Eknj5QJ0_gwfgyr7yS61aJATjnxqwSY_dq04z0gQ12lZv6NGnlowvisDemkyIOSO_kMqhU-Qf08Ae942JC17CYP0vGkpN7W-d_wciAB574QsEhRqOubJ3Cgw/w265-h400/Cecil_Rhodes.jpg" width="265" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Cecil Rhodes</b> (1853-1902) was an English-born South African who was a co-founder of the <b>De Beers</b> diamond company as well as the honored namesake of the southern African country of <b>Rhodesia</b> (today’s Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia). Notably, upon his death he bequeathed funding to establish the <b>Rhodes Scholarship</b> program, which to this day is endowed by his estate. During his short life he was active as a businessman, politician and philanthropist who lived and dreamed on a grand scale.<br /></span>
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Rhodes moved from England to South Africa while still a teenager in hopes that a better climate would ease his asthma. He was frail and also suffered heart problems. His brother Herbert lived there, having made a failed attempt at farming cotton. Moving on, with outside partners they bought up southern African diamond and gold deposits and formed the De Beers company in 1888. Rhodes was named chairman of the new enterprise.<br /></span>
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Cecil was a British Imperialist who thought the United States would eventually rejoin Britain (!). He believed that in the near future the United Kingdom (including Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Cape Colony), the USA, and Germany together would dominate the world and ensure peace. He wrote of the British, “I contend that we are the finest race in the world, and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race...to be born English is to win first prize in the lottery of life.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">He was a friend of Jan Hofmeyr, leader of the Afrikaner Bond, and it was largely because of Afrikaner support that Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896), a British controlled area of southern Africa. Rhodes was also president of the British South Africa Company. Politically, Rhodes advocated greater self-government for the Cape Colony, in line with his preference for the empire to be controlled by local settlers and politicians rather than by London. Rhodes was also a racist, an early architect of apartheid, the separation of blacks and whites.<br /></span>
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As for his private life, Rhodes employed a number of robust young male companions, ostensibly as bodyguards and secretaries. He did not have relationships with any member of the opposite sex, platonic or otherwise. Neville Pickering, the first secretary of the De Beers company, has been singled out as Rhodes's first significant male lover. When Pickering – young, fit and extraordinarily handsome – turned 25, Rhodes returned from serious business negotiations for Pickering's birthday in 1882. On that occasion, Rhodes drew up a new will leaving his estate to Pickering; the new will read simply: “I, C.J. Rhodes, being of sound mind, leave my worldly wealth to N.E. Pickering.” When Pickering later suffered a riding accident, Rhodes nursed him faithfully for six weeks, refusing even to answer telegrams concerning his business interests. Pickering died in Rhodes's arms, and at his funeral, Rhodes was said to have wept “with fervor”. Rhodes had passed up a deal worth millions to be at his companion’s bedside during his final days.<br /></span>
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Pickering was replaced by Henry Latham Currey, who had become Rhodes's private secretary in 1884. When Currey became engaged to be married in 1894, Rhodes was mortified, outraged and immediately ended their relationship. Over the years Rhodes accumulated a shifting entourage of fit young men, known as “Rhodes’s lambs,” almost always blonde haired and blue-eyed athletic types.<br /></span>
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Rhodes later maintained a significant relationship with Scotsman Sir Leander Starr Jameson (a Baronet known as “Dr. Jim”), British administrator of the lands constituting present-day Zimbabwe, who ended up nursing Cecil Rhodes during his final illness. Jameson was a trustee of his estate and residuary beneficiary of his will, which allowed him to continue living in Rhodes's mansion after his death. Although Jameson died in England in 1917, after the conclusion if WW I his body was transferred to a mountaintop grave in 1920 beside that of Rhodes in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Tellingly, Cecil Square is today one of the main gay cruising areas of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Rhodes had died from heart failure in Cape Town at age 48. Upon his death he was one of the wealthiest men in the world, and his will established the Rhodes Scholarship, the world’s first international study scholarship, enabling male students to study at Oxford University. Rhodes's aims were to promote leadership marked by public spirit and good character, and to "render war impossible" by promoting friendship between the great powers. According to Rhodes’s will, applicants were restricted to men only – it was not until 1976 that women were allowed to apply, which went against Rhodes’s wishes. According to Rhodes’s guidelines for scholarship selection, “candidates must display a fondness for success in manly outdoor sports, such as football and cricket.” Of course.</span><br />
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Sources: </p><p>(update) Robert Calderisi - <span style="font-size: small;"><span class="a-size-extra-large" id="productTitle"><b>Cecil Rhodes and Other Statues</b>: Dealing Plainly with the Past </span><span class="a-size-large a-color-secondary" id="productSubtitle">(2021)</span></span></p><p>Dean McCleland – <b>The Casual Observer</b> (2015)<br />
Keith Stern – <b>Queers in History: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Historical Gays, Lesbians and Bisexuals</b> (2009)<br />
Wayne Dynes – <b>Encyclopedia of Homosexuality</b> (1990)</p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-26907053708236507022023-06-01T21:37:00.000-04:002023-06-01T21:37:28.087-04:00Baron von Steuben<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">I’ve written about gay king Frederick the Great of Prussia. However, I just learned that a former aide of his had to flee Prussia amid allegations of taking familiarities with young boys. <b>Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben</b>, an experienced military officer, made his way to America with the aid of <b>Benjamin Franklin</b>, who was based in Paris at the time, trying to convince the French to come to our aid in fighting the British. <b>George Washington</b> asked for the Baron’s assistance in bringing order to the tattered Continental troops serving in the Revolutionary War. General Washington sent him to Valley Forge in February, 1778.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">The soldiers were unaccustomed to the Baron’s – well, let’s call it "style". Von Steuben showed up in a grandiose sleigh (sporting 24 jingling bells) pulled by black Percheron draft horses. The Baron was wearing a robe of silk trimmed with fur, all the while petting his miniature greyhound, Azor, who was curled up on his lap. Behind him were his retinue of African servants, a French chef, his French aide-de-camp<b> Louis de Pontière</b> and the Baron’s 17-year-old lover/secretary <b>Pierre-Étienne du Ponceau</b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Impressive, if not entirely appropriate.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">However, von Steuben proved his worth and soon shaped a hundred soldiers into a model company that, in turn, trained others in Prussian military tactics. He was a mere captain, but was so invaluable to Washington, that he was promoted to Major General. In 1781, he served under the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia when the British General Charles Cornwallis invaded. He also served at the siege of Yorktown, where he commanded one of the three divisions of Washington's army.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Steuben spoke little English, and he often yelled to his translator, "Hey! Come over here and swear for me!" Steuben punctuated the screaming of his translator with fierce-sounding shouts in German and French. In an effort to codify training, Steuben wrote a <i><b>Revolutionary War Drill Manual</b></i>, which became the standard method for training army troops for over thirty years. It addresses the arms and accoutrements of officers and soldiers, formation and exercise of a company, instruction of recruits, formation and marching, inspection, etc., etc.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Steuben became an American citizen by act of the Pennsylvania legislature in March 1784. In 1790, Congress gave him a pension of $2,500 a year, which he received until his death, and an estate near Utica, NY, granted to him for his military service to our nation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">But wait, that’s not all. Steuben legally adopted two handsome soldiers (one of them, <b>William North</b>, became a U.S. Senator). A third young man,<b> John Mulligan</b>, considered himself a member of the stable of Steuben’s “sons.” Before moving in with Steuben, Mulligan had been living with <b>Charles Adams*</b>, the son of then-Vice President John Adams. Adams was concerned about the intense “closeness” between his son and Mulligan, insisting that they split up, so Mulligan wrote to Von Steuben with his tale of despair. Actually, Von Steuben offered to take both men into his <strike>arms</strike> home. Charles Adams, the handsomest son of one president and brother of another (John Quincy), resided with Von Steuben and Mulligan for a while. The 19-year-old Mulligan received – how shall we say – a very warm welcome. Von Steuben was a 62-year-old bachelor at the time. Hmmm.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Adams left the cozy love nest after a short while, but Mulligan stayed on for several years, serving as Von Steuben’s “secretary” until the Baron’s death. Mulligan inherited von Steuben’s library, maps and $2,500 cash, a considerable amount at the time, especially considering that the Baron was not a wealthy man.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Every year since 1958 the<b> German-American Steuben Parade </b>has been held in New York City. It is one of the city’s largest parades and is traditionally followed by an Oktoberfest celebration in Central Park. Similar events take place in Chicago and Philadelphia. Chicago’s Steuben Day Parade was featured in the movie <i><b>Ferris Bueller's Day Off</b></i>. To further honor von Steuben, the <b>Steuben Society</b> was founded in 1919 as an educational, fraternal, and patriotic organization of American citizens of German background. In the difficult post-WW I years the Society helped the German-American community reorganize.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Steubenville, Ohio</b>, is named in the Baron’s honor. As well, numerous submarines, warships and ocean liners were named after him. A statue of the Baron stands in Lafayette Square opposite the White House in Washington, DC*. Even one of the cadet barracks buildings at <b>Valley Forge Military Academy and College</b> is named after Von Steuben. Really.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Steuben was cited by Randy Shilts in his book, <i><b>Conduct Unbecoming</b></i>, as an early example of a valuable homosexual in the military.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">*I traipsed over to Lafayette Park yesterday afternoon to inspect the statue of Baron von Steuben. It’s a tall bronze life-size statue placed upon a high stone pedestal. The statue shows von Steuben in military dress uniform surveying the troops at Valley Forge. The monument, which stands opposite the White House, was erected in 1911 and sculpted by <b>Albert Jaegers</b>. At the rear of the pedestal is a medallion with the images of von Steuben's adopted aides-de-camp, William North and Benjamin Walker, facing one another. It says: "Colonel William North - Major Benjamin Walker - Aides and Friends of von Steuben". On each side of the pedestal are bronze Roman soldiers. Above the carved words “military instruction” on one side is a seated, helmeted Roman soldier “instructing” a naked youth (photo at left). Appropriate, no?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Check it out the next time you come to Washington DC.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">*In 1796 <b>Charles Adams</b> was one of a group of men who frequented the theater in New York City and wrote critiques of what they saw for further distribution. Others in the group, called the <b>Friendly Club</b>, were John Wells, Elias Hicks, Samuel Jones, William Cutting and Peter Irving. This is noted in William Dunlap's "<i>History of the American Theatre</i>," published in 1832 (p. 193). Adams, whose father vowed never to see him again after Charles abandoned his wife and two daughters, drank himself to death in 1800, succumbing to alcoholism at the tender age of 30. Some scholars believe this was caused by his inability to deal with his homosexual leanings. Charles Adams, who streaked naked across the campus of Harvard during his student days, had a reputation as a rogue and renegade, and his family's wall of silence after his death may support that theory. Charles certainly spent much time in the company of men who engaged in homosexual activity. In researching this post, I enjoyed a cheap smile over the fact that the law office of young Adams was located on Little Queen Street (since renamed Cedar St. in the financial district).</span>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-2902642215963757952023-05-22T01:56:00.006-04:002023-07-28T12:25:50.429-04:00Walter P. Chrysler Jr.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdP6zb8Vlq6JcetTNtOMykx-ccnxUXwMLYMZrP3Q7Pb_QLMlFT1kscZaNPPUMk2ZAEv4pE3Nx-mIGKnK6r-U4n7UOkjVppWqU8DdeBNdF_dn3tZPrQ02cDXW-Ir6y3gOCmEauWy-SYpUl/s1600/WalterChryslerJr-1970.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdP6zb8Vlq6JcetTNtOMykx-ccnxUXwMLYMZrP3Q7Pb_QLMlFT1kscZaNPPUMk2ZAEv4pE3Nx-mIGKnK6r-U4n7UOkjVppWqU8DdeBNdF_dn3tZPrQ02cDXW-Ir6y3gOCmEauWy-SYpUl/w316-h400/WalterChryslerJr-1970.jpg" width="316" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Automotive industry heir <b>Walter P. Chrysler Jr.</b> (1909-1988) was the son of a man who had amassed a great fortune in founding the Chrysler Corporation. Walter Jr., knowing that he would inherit vast sums of money, could thus indulge his passion for collecting art, an obsession that resulted in transforming a minor provincial museum in Norfolk, Va., into one of the nation’s best, the <b>Chrysler Museum of Art</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Walter Jr., who was a theatrical producer*, hung out in locations that had strong ties to the homosexual community. Although throughout his life he attempted to appear as a straight man, he had a home in Key West and displayed his growing art collection in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a 19th-century church building he bought from the Methodists. The museum was nicknamed by locals as “The First Church of Chrysler” or “St. Walter’s”. The structure today serves as the Provincetown library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">*Among many others, he produced <i>New Faces of 1952</i>, which launched the careers of Eartha Kitt, Paul Lynde and Carol Lawrence. Chrysler also produced the film "The Joe Louis Story." </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">In 1956, Chrysler retired from business to devote his full-time attention to the arts. Soon thereafter an article appeared in <i>Confidential</i> magazine that exposed his homosexual activity, and there had been persistent reports that he had been discharged from the Navy because “he was found to be homosexual.” It was extraordinary for a healthy man to be discharged from the military during wartime.* Again, according to Earle, “That Chrysler led something of a double life was widely acknowledged. The fact that he was gay was noted by many of those who knew him professionally and personally." </span></p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">*Peggy Earle, “<i>Legacy, Walter Chrysler Jr. and the Untold Story of Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum of Art</i>.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In Andrew Lownie's recent biography of King Edward VIII (Duke of Windsor) "Traitor King" (2021) he mentions that Chrysler and the Duke had a sexual affair, in spite of the fact that both men were married to women. Lownie revealed that in 1944 Chrysler Jr had been forced to resign from the Navy after 16 enlisted
men had signed affidavits that Walter had sex with them, a crime at
the time. Another detail from Lownie's book is that during the Second World War, Chrysler Jr and the Duke had thrown a sex party for 1,000 sailors on a Navy ship docked in Jacksonville, Florida.</span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: medium;">Lownie's book states that Walter and David (as the Duke was known) "sucked so much cock that their lips were chapped for a week". Ahem. The Navy Intelligence investigation files related to Chrysler have somehow "disappeared".</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">In "Full Service" by Scotty Bowers (2012), Mr. Bowers claims that he procured partners of both sexes for both the Duke and Duchess. Fun times for all, it seems. </span><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">As Chrysler biographer Vincent Cursio mentioned, ‘...in 1938 there was enormous social pressure on gay men to marry and give the appearance of living a normal life.’ ” Walter Jr. married twice, but there were no children. His first wife, Peggy Sykes, whose marriage to Chrysler lasted less than two years, left a man with few friends. She noted that the major love of his life was "art collecting." Peggy stopped inviting people to their home for socializing, because Chrysler would usually freeze out everyone, often refusing even to speak to their guests. Further alienation arose from his tendency to pay bills late, or not at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">While a 14-year-old boy attending prep school, Walter Jr. purchased his first painting, a watercolor nude, with $350 in birthday money from his father. A dorm master considered the piece lewd and destroyed it – a Renoir! Undeterred, he continued to collect art, but there were scandals along the way. Many of the artworks he purchased and displayed were called out as fakes. For that reason, Newport, RI, refused to accept the gift of his collection, which had outgrown its home in Provincetown. In spite of such notoriety, Walter Jr. had impressive credentials – he had been a key figure in the creation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. However, much of his personal collection had to be stored in warehouses and lent out to museums across the country.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Walter Jr.’s second wife was from Norfolk, and he had himself been a Navy man stationed there, so he ultimately found success in 1971 when he presented Norfolk, Va., with his impressive collection of 10,000 art objects, to be housed in the Norfolk Academy of Arts and Sciences, which had been built in 1932. A condition of the gift was that the academy be renamed the Chrysler Museum of Art. As New York Times art critic John Russell said, "It would be difficult to spend time in the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, and not come away convinced that the most underrated American art collector of the past 50 years and more was the late Walter P. Chrysler, Jr." Chrysler's collection is especially strong in art glass and incorporates a large body of Tiffany lamps. Louis Comfort Tiffany had been his neighbor when Walter Jr. was growing up on Long Island.<br />
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<a href="http://www.chrysler.org/">www.chrysler.org</a><br />
<br />Your blogger recommends that you read the comments at the end of this post. Many are from friends/employees who knew the man and his same-sex proclivities. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Walter P. Chrysler Jr. enjoying a light-hearted moment with artist Andy Warhol:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Update:</span> <span style="font-size: medium;">New photos of of the North Wales estate have become available, so I added them to this previous post.<br />
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Your blogger’s determined effort to enjoy a glorious fall day resulted in a drive to Warrenton, VA, a sleepy town in the center of fox hunting country. A brief conversation with locals informed me that North Wales, the current name of the estate formerly owned by Walter P. Chrysler Jr., had been sold recently. This morning I enjoyed researching the estate’s history to provide an update to this blog post about Mr. Chrysler.<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">In 1941, one year after his father’s death, Walter P. Chrysler Jr. used a portion of his recent inheritance to buy North Wales Farm (above), a fabled estate just outside Warrenton, Va., 45 miles west of Washington, DC (and a mere 30 miles from the home of your blogger). With a purchase price of $175,000, the property soon saw further expansion and improvements. The recently divorced Chrysler spent an additional $7.5 million on the estate, expanding the property to 4,200 acres. At the epicenter was a 56-room stone mansion (38,500 sq. ft. including 22 bedrooms, 17 baths and 16 fireplaces), formal gardens, tennis courts, ponds, bridges, fountains, not to mention miles of stone and board fences enclosing an estate that boasted more than 35 out-buildings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The oldest part of the house, dating back to 1776, was a mere 5-bay two-story stone manor house (above) built for William Allason. In 1914 North Wales was bought by Edward M. Weld of New York. In 1930 <i>Fortune </i>magazine noted that Weld "stretched the house to 37 rooms, built a riding stable of 40 stalls and a six furlong race track, stocked the cellar with $50,000 worth of liquors and went broke." North Wales was then converted to an exclusive private club for the fox hunting and horse breeding set. In 1941 Chrysler returned the mansion and estate grounds to private use. At the time of Chrysler's residency the expanded mansion numbered more than 50 rooms, providing plenty of space for Chrysler to display highlights of his vast art collection of Monets, Picassos, Rodins, Braques, Matisses and the like. He then set about constructing more than 35 miles of internal, paved roads while adding a conservatory to the mansion (for his mother’s orchids), a swimming pool, an arcaded entrance to the equestrian center and a brick isolation barn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Under Chrysler’s ownership, North Wales, with sweeping views of the Blue Ridge mountains, essentially functioned as its own community, home to a commercial poultry operation and various agricultural enterprises. Although he also raised cattle and sheep, Chrysler ensured that the estate retained its fame as a center for fox hunting and thoroughbred horse breeding. The splendidly furnished mansion was the site of many lavish charity events. Chrysler remarried in 1945, and his new bride used North Wales Farm as a center for raising champion long-haired Chihuahuas. However, in 1957 Chrysler sold North Wales Farm, a year after he retired from business in order to devote himself full time to the arts. The following year he opened the Chrysler Museum of Art in Provincetown, Massachusetts, in a former church. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Now reduced to 1,470 acres, North Wales was purchased in 2014 by former Goldman Sachs partner David B. Ford of Greenwich, CT, for $21 million. The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Mr. Ford had made headlines eight years earlier when he purchased the 30,000 sq. ft. French neoclassical-style Miramar mansion in Newport, RI, built in 1915 for the widow of Philadelphia mogul George Widener. Ford currently owns both mansions, all the better to avoid a cramped lifestyle (38,500 + 30,000 = 68,500 sq. ft. of luxe living). Impressive. Ford is also Director of the Philadelphia Orchestra Association and Chairman of the National Audubon Society. Now six years later, he has listed the estate for sale, so don't miss your chance.<br /></span>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-11157235893382980462023-05-18T03:39:00.001-04:002023-05-18T03:43:18.788-04:00Billy Strayhorn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b>Out & Gay in the Jazz World</b><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Billy Strayhorn (1915-1967) attended high school in Pittsburgh, while studying classical music on the side. His trio played daily on a local radio station, and he wrote a musical for his high school. He also wrote "Chelsea Bridge", "Take the A-Train", "Lotus Blossum" and “Lush Life,” all of which have become jazz classics. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">He started composing both words and music for "Lush Life" at age 16, which became a prophetic anthem for his life. He did indeed get to Paris, become a socialite and suffer from alcoholism. That such a world-weary lyric could come from the pen of a teenager is astounding.<br /></span>
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At 23 his life changed completely when he met Duke Ellington (above left), who was performing in Pittsburgh in 1938. Ellington was so impressed that he took him into his household, where he lived as part of the family. Ellington's nickname for Billy was "Sweet Pea." Strayhorn worked for Ellington for the next 29 years as an arranger, composer, pianist and collaborator until his early death from esophageal cancer, the result of a lifetime of cigarette use. As Ellington described him, “Billy Strayhorn was my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine.”<br /></span>
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Strayhorn was openly gay, but his association with Ellington helped protect him from discrimination. Until age 33 Strayhorn lived with his partner Aaron Bridgers, a jazz pianist and composer who moved to Paris in 1948. Until his death, Strayhorn then maintained a relationship with his subsequent partner, Bill Grove, who was Caucasian; however, they kept separate apartments, likely as the result of Strayhorn's higher profile and interracial prejudices of the day.<br /></span>
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Strayhorn significantly influenced the career of Lena Horne, who recorded many of his songs. Strayhorn’s compositions are known for the bittersweet sentiment and classically infused harmonies that set him apart from Ellington.<br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Strayhorn to the rescue:</i><br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">In a dispute over royalties in late 1940, ASCAP forbid its members from broadcasting any of their compositions over the radio. But Ellington, one of ASCAP’S most celebrated composers, needed radio broadcasts to promote record sales, which paid his orchestra’s salaries. Strayhorn rallied to save the day. During a hurried cross-country train ride to join Ellington in Los Angeles, Strayhorn (not an ASCAP member), got almost no sleep for six straight days, writing song after song after song. Strayhorn’s prolific, engaging new works kept the Ellington Orchestra afloat for months. When it was time for a new radio theme (Ellington’s own “Sepia Panorama” was still forbidden on the airwaves), Ellington chose Strayhorn’s “Take the A Train,” premiering it in early 1941. The rest is jazz history.</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
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Queen Latifah (who lives in the Hollywood Hills with her partner Eboni Nichols) sings “Lush Life,” written when Strayhorn was a young, unseasoned song writer. Most performers say it’s difficult to sing and sounds like no other song in the standard repertoire.</span><br />
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<embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="340" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/VMoelYEqgYQ?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-19021530525554941302023-04-15T02:37:00.000-04:002023-04-15T02:37:27.220-04:00Bill Tilden, Tennis Champion<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">In 1920 Bill Tilden, who made no effort to hide his homosexuality, won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon. He was the first American to compete at Wimbledon and went on to win two more Wimbledon titles, in addition to seven U.S. championships. As well, he led U.S. teams to seven Davis Cup victories. From 1920 to 1934, Tilden was generally considered the world's greatest tennis player. In 1925, Tilden won an astonishing 57 matches in a row. Although Tilden lost part of his finger in an accident in 1922, he simply modified his grip and continued to play at the same level as before the injury. He won the moniker “Big Bill Tilden,” since he was tall and had a vast reach. His extraordinary serve was so powerful it was often compared to a cannonball.<br /></span>
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A 1950 survey of sportswriters named Tilden the greatest tennis player of the half-century. Historically he is generally considered above the caliber of later champions such as Björn Borg, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.<br /></span>
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There was also an aura of scandal around Tilden, because of his sexual orientation. In Vladimir Nabokov’s novel “Lolita,’ Tilden is depicted as a has-been tennis champion with “a harem of ball boys,” whom Humbert Humbert hires to coach Lolita, knowing that the coach will not try to seduce her, due to his homosexuality. Nabokov told editor Alfred Appel that the novel’s anonymous tennis coach was actually a real person who had won three Wimbledon championships, was born in 1893, and died in 1953. Tilden is the only person who fits this description. The name of Nabokov's character is "Ned Litam", which is “Ma Tilden” spelled backwards.<br /></span>
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Tilden incurred two scandalous arrests for sexual misbehavior with teenage boys in the late 1940s, and his career suffered because of it. He began traveling with hand-picked teenaged ball boys, and many clubs would not allow him on the courts. However, in 1945 Tilden and long-time doubles partner Vinnie Richards won the professional doubles championship; Tilden was 52 years old at the time.<br /></span>
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Tilden was a devout believer in sportsmanship above all other aspects of the game, including the final score; he would readily (and dramatically) cede points to his opponent if he thought the umpire had miscalled a shot in Tilden's favor. He still remains the only known professional tennis player (perhaps the only professional at any sport) to have refunded money to a promoter when the gate was not as good as it should have been and it appeared the promoter was going to lose money.<br /></span>
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He loved the glamour of movie stars. Tilden moved to Hollywood and coached Greta Garbo, Katharine Hepburn, and Tallulah Bankhead. He also became a good friend of Charlie Chaplin. Tilden played at Chaplin’s tennis parties, where he coached Errol Flynn, Joseph Cotten, Montgomery Clift, Spencer Tracy, and Olivia deHavilland.<br /></span>
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He fashioned himself a master of genres outside the world of sports, never to successful ends. He wrote short stories and novels about misunderstood but sportsman-like tennis players, and dreamed of being a star on Broadway and in Hollywood. He appeared on stage as well as off, as a producer. Much of his vast earnings were invested in these pursuits, with failure the invariable result. He was also a contract bridge champ, musicologist and playwright. He was once quoted as saying. "If I had to choose between music and tennis, I'd choose music."<br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
In 1953 he was preparing to leave Los Angeles for the U.S. Professional Championship tournament in Cleveland, Ohio, when he died of a stroke at age 60. He was buried at Ivy Hill Cemetery in his home town of Philadelphia, where he had been born into wealth and privilege. At the time of his death Tilden was living in a rented apartment in Hollywood with $288 in the bank, a tragic end to a great life. Tilden was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1959.<br /></span>
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In 2004, a play titled “Big Bill,” based on the life of Bill Tilden, played at Lincoln Center in NYC. The playwright was acclaimed dramatist A. R. Gurney. Frank Deford's biography, "Big Bill Tilden: the Triumphs and the Tragedy" has been optioned for a film.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Fashion note:</i></b> During the early part of the 20th century male tennis players dressed virtually indistinguishably from cricket players. Men wore cuffed white flannel trousers and white shirts, sometimes with v-neck or cable-knit sweaters to add an element of style. Bill Tilden is generally regarded as having been the first male tennis fashion icon, transforming the image of men’s tennis from a sport played by wealthy, leisured young men unable to handle the physical demands of team sports, into a man’s game played by the toughest athletes. Tilden’s enormous fame led many to emulate his style of dress, which included long shirts rolled up to the elbows, cuffed trousers and a selection of elegant sweaters.</span>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-52266101160183642432023-03-10T07:46:00.004-05:002023-03-10T07:58:29.224-05:00Ferdinand I of Bulgaria - Part 1<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Prince Ferdinand</b> of Bulgaria was a tough sell. His mother, the
daughter of a French king, had set him up with a suitable prospect for a
wife, in this instance an Austrian Arch-Duchess. Doing as he was told,
Ferdinand declared his love and proposed marriage while seated on a park
bench. The Arch-Duchess could see through the fog of insincerity and
nearly laughed in Ferdinand’s face. This effeminate, preening,
sybaritic, self absorbed monarch in resplendent clothes, jacket adorned
with bejeweled stickpins, could be interested in only one thing –
improvement of his status as a European Prince. She rightly guessed
that, for romantic interest, his attentions were set on young men, and
not a woman, Arch-Duchess or otherwise. Perhaps it was the painted
fingernails that gave it away. Or the custom made fine chamois leather
gloves he wore – indoors. At any rate, Ferdinand struck out. Big time. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Although <b>Ferdinand I </b>(1861-1948) eventually entered into a
marriage of convenience with a rich Italian princess (Maria Louisa of
Bourbon-Parma, who bore him four children), his penchant for young men
was well-known throughout his life. Ferdinand's regular holidays on the
Italian island of Capri, then a famous haunt for wealthy gay men, were
common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe.<br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
Ferdinand was born in the opulent <b>Palais Coburg</b>* (photos at end
of post) in Vienna, Austria, as the Duke of Saxony. He later became
Prince of the Koháry (Hungarian) branch of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a ruling
house dynasty of central Europe. You may recall that Prince Albert,
husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, was born into this
family. Ferdinand, from an immensely wealthy and well-connected noble
heritage, was the grandson of King Louis Philippe I of France, the
nephew of Ferdinand II of Portugal, cousin of both Queen Victoria and
Leopold II of Belgium and second cousin of King Edward VII of Britain –
not to mention being the nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria. <br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
Ferdinand was given a military upbringing, but showed no aptitude for
it. He was much more literary, interested in jewels, clothes and,
indeed, those young blond men. Queen Victoria, his most prominent
relative, greeted his 1887 accession as Prince Regent of Bulgaria with
disbelief. She stated to her Prime Minister, “<i>He is totally unfit, delicate, eccentric and effeminate ... he should be stopped at once</i>.” <br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria was no fan, either. When Bulgaria and
Russia affected a reconciliation in 1896, Ferdinand’s infant son Boris
was converted from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity,
the dominant religion in Bulgaria and Russia. In fact, the Bulgarian
constitution required it (not to mention that Russian Tsar Nicholas II
was the godfather of Boris). Franz Joseph was outraged and successfully
petitioned the Pope to excommunicate Ferdinand. Ferdinand's wife, who
was not consulted in the matter, was so horrified that she left Bulgaria
and returned to her father in Italy, but she got no sympathy there,
either. Her father ordered her to return to Bulgaria to her loveless
marriage and ever domineering mother-in-law, who detested her.<br /></span>
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Well, there you have it. One big happy family.<br /></span>
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Sofia’s population was a paltry 11,649 at the time it was taken by
Russian forces during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). Sofia was
declared the capital of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria in 1879,
and by the time Ferdinand arrived eight years later, the population had
increased to nearly 19,000. Things were tough in Bulgaria in 1886.
Twenty-nine year old Alexander I of Battenberg, the first non-Ottoman
ruler of the newly autonomous state, had just been forced to abdicate at
gunpoint in Sofia and was exiled to Austria. When the Bulgarian
delegation set out to find a new leader for their country, it was no
easy task. Their country was young, poor and stunted by difficult if not
impossible political complications. They courted Ferdinand mostly
because he was from a well-connected ruling house that would mean, if he
were put on the throne, their fledgling nation would be tied to nearly
every crown dynasty of Europe – plus he was available. <br />
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Ferdinand’s imagination started spinning out of control as he dreamed of
a triumphal entry onto Bulgarian soil dressed as a dashing monarch.
This idea was sparked by the arrival of a splendid military uniform
replete with medals, epaulets, sashes and effusive gold trim, delivered
to Ferdinand by the Bulgarian delegation in Vienna, playing deftly to
Ferdinand’s lifelong bent for ostentation, pomp and show. The guy loved
his clothes.<br />
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Bear in mind that Ferdinand was not the first choice as Prince Regent of
Bulgaria. Not even close. He was a rather effeminate 25-year-old
bachelor who obsessed over fashion, jewelry and flowers (violets were
his favorites) – with no experience as a soldier, ruler or diplomat.
However, every other European prince, duke, and assorted noble who was
approached wanted no part of their political intrigues and turned it
down, even the neighboring King of Romania. Ferdinand mulled it over and
stalled, awaiting the approval of Europe’s great powers, but the
impatient Bulgarian National Assembly went ahead and elected him<i> in absentia</i>
– and Ferdinand ultimately accepted their call. Bulgaria had its giant
neighbor Russia breathing down its neck and needed a man on its vacant
throne post haste. As it played out, Central Europe would never be the
same.<br />
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Ferdinand's handsome eldest son Boris (right), who would eventually succeed him at age twenty-four, as <b>Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria</b>.<br />
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To the amazement of his initial detractors, Ferdinand made a success of
his reign until the political complexities leading up to WWI. Ferdinand
ruled over Bulgaria for 33 years (1887-1918), first as Prince Regent,
then as Tsar, after Bulgaria secured its complete independence from the
Ottoman Empire in 1908. He re-established the royal dynasty of Bulgaria
with legitimacy, since he could trace his ancestry back to medieval
rulers of Bulgaria, who used the term Tsar instead of King. Thus
Ferdinand's son Boris became the first Bulgarian monarch born on
Bulgarian soil in a thousand years. On October 5, 1908, Ferdinand
declared Bulgaria's independence while proclaiming himself Tsar (see
above photo taken on proclamation day). He then went on a building
spree, ordering the construction of many prominent and architecturally
distinguished buildings still seen in Sofia today.<br />
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His ambitious and very rich mother, Princess Clementine of
Bourbon-Orléans, was both the daughter of a king (Louis Philippe of
France) and the mother of one. She set about making over the rather
tatty nation her son was ruling. She built hospitals, orphanages, and
the like as proof of filial affection. For her son’s birthday, she built
a railway line connecting Bulgaria to the rest of Europe. She was a
force of nature who completely dominated her husband and children.
Ferdinand was her favorite son, and she habitually spoiled him rotten. <br />
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During Ferdinand's state visit to Paris in 1910, his first as Tsar of
Bulgaria, the Parisians were effusive in their welcome. The president,
prime minister and other leaders greeted the arrival of his train with a
royal gun salute and loud cheers from the crowds lining the route from
the station to his quarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where
his apartment was furnished for the occasion with items from the palaces
of the former French kings, notably Louis XIV and Louis XV. Every item
in his bedroom had belonged to his grandfather, King Louis Philippe,
including a vase with the portrait of his mother as young Princess
Clémentine. At a speech in Ferdinand's honor at the Hôtel de Ville (city
hall), the royal connection was illuminated by the words, "While we bow
respectfully before the Tsar of Bulgaria, we also honor in his person
the gallant son of our beloved France." Ferdinand swooned. When he drove
through the grand boulevards of Paris, enthusiastic crowds cheered,
"Long live the King!" It almost seemed as if the monarchy had been
restored to France.<br />
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Ferdinand, however, turned out to be a genius at politics, playing the
Great Powers against each other for almost 20 years, earning him the
moniker “Foxy Ferdinand”. At the same time, he played arbiter to his
country’s parliament and essentially did as he pleased, despite being
merely a constitutional monarch. He even managed to gay up negotiations
in the years prior to the First World War. As he expertly courted both
major blocs, each of them included in their delegations a strapping
young blond chauffeur who would take the Prince out for a drive into the
woods between all these tiresome negotiations. Similarly, they
invariably engaged their youngest, handsomest representative when they
were seeking favors or concessions from Ferdinand. Worked like a charm.<br />
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In Proust's great novel <i>A la Recherche du Temps Perdu</i>, the author
incorporated his impressions of Ferdinand during the time of the Tsar's
triumph in Paris. When a duchess was asked by Ferdinand if she was ever
jealous, she replied, "Yes, sir, of your bracelets." In the same book
it is explained that the turnaround in relations between arch enemies
Kaiser Willem and Tsar Ferdinand to forging an alliance in WW I was due
to the fact that they shared strong homosexual* proclivities.<br />
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*In 1895 a newspaper interview given by the embittered former Prime
Minister, Stefan Stambolov (who had worked to place Ferdinand on the
Bulgarian throne), created a nine-day scandal across Europe, when
Stambolov focused on his personal witness of Ferdinand’s homosexual
activity. Ferdinand, who considered Stambolov an obstacle to his
authority, had forced Stambolov’s resignation in 1894, and Stambolov's
“interview” with the press the following year was blatant retribution.
However, Stambolov was assassinated in a brutal street assault in Sofia
shortly after the interview appeared in print. Hmmm.... <br />
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Ferdinand’s first missteps emerged when he championed the 1912 formation
of the Balkan League, consisting of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and
Montenegro, with a goal of dismembering Turkey. Thus the First Balkan
War of 1912 came about. Despite finishing up on the winning side,
Ferdinand's territorial ambitions were stunted when his allies could not
agree on sharing the Turkish spoils in Bulgaria’s favor. Thus an
alliance was formed by Greece and Serbia against Bulgaria, and later
Turkey and Romania joined them. From this atmosphere the Second Balkan
War arose in 1913, with disastrous results for Bulgaria. Ferdinand’s
people suffered a ruinous humiliation. Worse, when a young Bosnian Serb
assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 as payback for Austria’s
annexation of Bosnia six years earlier, the stage was set for WWI.<br />
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Bulgaria tried to maintain neutrality but ended up a member of the
Central Powers, consisting of members of the Austria-Hungarian and
Ottoman Empires and Germany. In 1915 Bulgaria declared war on Serbia;
days later the U.K., Montenegro, France, Italy and Russia declared war
on Bulgaria. Unfortunately, this put Bulgaria on the losing side of the
war. WWI shattered the monarchies of the Central Powers, overthrowing
Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans alike. When it was all over, only one
throne was left standing – and to preserve it Ferdinand abdicated to his
24-year-old son, who became empowered as Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria on
October 3, 1918.<br />
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Fortunately, Ferdinand had other pursuits to fall back on. A true
polymath, he distinguished himself as an author, botanist, entomologist
and philatelist – and a world class homosexual philanderer. But we need
to back up a bit. When his first wife died giving birth to their
fourth child, Ferdinand's indomitable mother stepped in to raise the
children. After his mother died, to satisfy dynastic obligations and to
provide his children with another mother figure, Ferdinand married
Eleonore Caroline Gasparine Louise (in photo at right), an East German
Princess, on February 28, 1908. It was another marriage of convenience,
and she knew what sort of relationship she was getting into. Most
assume the marriage was never consummated. Ferdinand even demanded
separate bedrooms for himself and Eleonore during their honeymoon as
guests of King Carol I of Romania. It was no surprise that Eleonore
remained neglected by Ferdinand throughout their marriage.<br />
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Ferdinand was ever the master of ostentation and self promotion.
Addicted to luxury motorcars, he ordered a Mercedes that took the
factory three years to build. Known as the <i>Royal Mercedes</i>, it
boasted an interior of rosewood and mahogany set with inlaid floral
designs of ivory and gold. This Mercedes was the first car ever built
with an ashtray, which Ferdinand had requested, and it was considered
the most expensive automobile ever built at the time. Note the custom
radiator cap fashioned in the shape of his Bulgarian royal crown.<br />
<br />
Ferdinand was known for his pugnacious behavior. When visiting German
Emperor Wilhelm II, his second cousin, in 1909, Ferdinand was leaning
out the window of the palace in Potsdam when the Emperor came up behind
him and slapped him on the bottom. Ferdinand demanded an apology, and
the Emperor complied; however, Ferdinand exacted revenge by awarding a
valuable arms contract he had intended to give to the Krupp's factory in
Germany to a French arms manufacturer instead. Industrialist Friedrich
"Fritz" Krupp had often crossed paths with Ferdinand on the isle of
Capri, where both men pursued underage males for sexual gratification.
On a happier note, during a visit to Belgium in 1910 Ferdinand became
the first head of state to fly in an airplane, making sure photographers
were there to record the event. But I digress.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
On his journey to the funeral of his second cousin, British King Edward
VII in 1910, a dispute over protocol erupted about the placement of
Ferdinand’s private railroad car (above) in relation to that of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Archduke won
out, having his carriage positioned directly behind the engine, with
Ferdinand's placed second. The dining car was the third coach from the
front, and Ferdinand stubbornly refused the Archduke access through his
own carriage to the dining car. Ferdinand wore a flamboyant silk turban
on the day of Edward VII’s funeral, while other assembled crowned heads
shared their disdain at Ferdinand’s ostentation in calling himself a
Tsar. As well they gossiped about the fact that he kept a Byzantine
Emperor’s full regalia, designed by a Parisian theatrical costumer,
against the day when he might reassemble the Byzantine dominions beneath
his scepter. The man loved his clothes! Nine kings, Ferdinand among
them, led the funeral procession. After them came five heirs apparent,
forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens and a scattering
of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Former President
Theodore Roosevelt attended as a special envoy of the United States.
Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of
royalty and rank ever gathered in one place, and the last of its kind.<br />
<br />
In the video below, King Ferdinand can be seen in a display of temper at
the 1932 wedding of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, to
Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (future parents of King Charles
XVI of Sweden) in Coburg. Victoria Melita, Grand Duchess of Russia (and
granddaughter of Queen Victoria) was among the first guests to exit the
church at the conclusion of the ceremony. After the bride and groom’s
car had departed, as Grand Duchess Victoria was about to climb into the
car that brought her, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria appeared behind her,
ready to leave as well. The king kicked up a fuss that it was against
protocol and unacceptable that the grand Duchess leave before him, since
he “outranked” her, even as a deposed king – she was, after all, a mere
Grand Duchess. Ferdinand prevailed, marching toward the car between an
insulted and confused Grand Duchess and her 23-year-old daughter,
Princess Kira, who had served as a bridesmaid. The onlookers were
shocked by the king’s fiery displeasure.<br />
<br />
<br />
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After his forced abdication in 1918, Ferdinand lived a life of luxurious
exile in Coburg, Germany. He commented, “The main thing in life is to
support any condition of bodily or spiritual exile with dignity. If one
sups with sorrow, one need not invite the world to see you eat.” He was
pleased that the throne had passed to his son, and Ferdinand was not
made despondent by exile, spending most of his time devoted to pleasant
artistic endeavors, gardening, travel and natural history. He died of
natural causes at age 87 in 1948 at the Bürglaß-Schlösschen ("little
palace", photo above), a dynastic residence of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
ruling house in Coburg, thirty years after abdicating his throne to his
son. Tsar Ferdinand I's unusually long life spanned important world
events, from the U.S. Civil War to the French commune of 1871 and on
through two devastating world wars. Ferdinand’s 18th-century “little
palace” still stands opposite the State Theatre in modern day Coburg,
but is today used as a municipal building where weddings take place.
The rear garden is the largest and most popular Biergarten in Coburg.<br />
<br />
Tragically, Ferdinand outlived both his sons. His eldest son and
successor, Boris III, died under mysterious circumstances*** after
returning from a visit to Hitler in Germany in 1943. Boris III's son,
Simeon II, succeeded him as Tsar (at age 6) only to be deposed by the
Soviets in 1946, ending the Bulgarian monarchy that Ferdinand had
re-established. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was succeeded by the People's
Republic of Bulgaria, under which Ferdinand’s sole surviving son, Kyril,
was executed. Amazingly, after the fall of the Soviet Union,
Ferdinand's grandson Simeon II returned from exile in Spain in 1998 and
resumed the role of leader of the nation upon taking office as Prime
Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria. During his time in power, from
July 2001 until August 2005, Bulgaria joined NATO and the European
Community (full membership in the EU did not occur until 2007). The
royal Vrana Palace buildings and grounds on the outskirts of Sofia were
returned to Simeon and his sister in 1998. Simeon and his wife, who
donated most of the acreage back to the city for use as a public park,
to this day reside in the hunting lodge on the property. At age 74
Simeon is today one of the last living heads of state from the World War
II-era, the only living person who has borne the Bulgarian title
"Tsar", and one of the few monarchs in history to have become a head of
government through democratic election. <i>Update:</i> In early 2012
Simeon ceded his rights as head of the princely house of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha-Koháry to his sister, Princess Marie Louise of
Bulgaria.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">***Conspiracy theories abound, since
Boris III had defied Hitler’s demand to send Bulgaria’s 50,000 Jews to
concentration camps. </span> <span style="font-size: x-small;">Under
Tsar Boris III, Bulgaria was the only nation in Europe to save its
entire Jewish population during the Holocaust, and Boris was the only
world leader to defy Hitler face to face during the war</span>. <span style="font-size: x-small;">Two
weeks after the acrimonious meeting between Boris and Hitler, Boris
died after his return to Bulgaria, officially from heart failure. His
two private doctors determined that Boris had died from a slow working
poison that takes several weeks to kill its victim, the same sort of
poison that had killed the Greek Prime Minister two years earlier. After
the end of the war, when the king’s body was disinterred for
examination, it was discovered that Communist forces had removed his
coffin to a secret location, which remains unknown to this day. Only the
king’s heart was found in the grave where he had been buried. In 1994
the United States Congress proclaimed King Boris III the savior of fifty
thousand Bulgarian Jews, and King Boris III was posthumously awarded
the Jewish National Fund's Medal of the Legion of Honor, the first
non-Jew to receive the award, considered one of the Jewish community's
highest honors.</span> <br />
<br />
Trivia: The one and only time I visited Bulgaria (the country is favored
by a beautiful, mountainous landscape), I was astonished that the head
movements for "yes" and "no" are the reverse of what the rest of us
use. If you ask someone's permission to take a photo and he moves his
head from left to right, you're in the clear. The same goes for Greece,
and it trips me up every time. True, I swear.<br />
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<br />
*<b>Palais Coburg</b> (above), Ferdinand’s boyhood home in Vienna, is
now a luxury hotel where, for a high price, it is possible to soak up
the aura of Ferdinand and his ancestors. The Palais faces the
Ringstrasse, opposite the Stadtpark in downtown Vienna. It’s wicked
expensive, so the closest I’ve come is a drink at the bar (also at a
ruinous price); the hotel restaurant is popular with Vienna’s elite.
There are just 35 rooms, each a suite. If you’re feeling flush, room
rates are €670-€860 per night (converted to U.S. dollars = $885-$1,135).
Photo below shows the opulent interior; the parquet floors are
exceptional.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.palais-coburg.com/_en/">www.palais-coburg.com/_en/</a><br />
<br />
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<h4>3 comments:</h4>
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<div class="comment-thread toplevel-thread"><ol id="top-ra"><li class="comment" id="c1791146207295218085"><div class="avatar-image-container"><img alt="" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png" /></div><div class="comment-block"><div class="comment-header"><cite class="user"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/00662972117915897306" rel="nofollow">Silas Ashmore</a></cite><span class="icon user"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text"><a href="https://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2012/02/ferdinand-i-of-bulgaria.html?showComment=1504729459541#c1791146207295218085" rel="nofollow">September 6, 2017 at 4:24 PM</a></span></div><p class="comment-content">Very
good article but in a footnote about Boris III being assassinated for
not sending Jews to concentration camps could you change it from "Polish
Concentration Camps" to "German Concentration Camps", as it is at the
moment historically inaccurate and unfair. Concentration camps were on
polish territory but belonged to Nazi Germany so should be referred as
such.</p><span class="comment-actions secondary-text"><a class="comment-reply" data-comment-id="1791146207295218085" target="_self">Reply</a></span></div><div class="comment-replies"></div><div class="comment-replybox-single" id="c1791146207295218085-ce"></div></li><li class="comment" id="c2029734722488219594"><div class="avatar-image-container"><img alt="" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png" /></div><div class="comment-block"><div class="comment-header"><cite class="user"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/14291291951112652812" rel="nofollow">Unknown</a></cite><span class="icon user"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text"><a href="https://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2012/02/ferdinand-i-of-bulgaria.html?showComment=1509698359588#c2029734722488219594" rel="nofollow">November 3, 2017 at 4:39 AM</a></span></div><p class="comment-content">Thank you very much for your scintillating article on Foxy Ferdinand.<br /><br />He
was He was cryptically referred to several times in Simon C bag
Montefiore the Romanovs. Your informative article filled in a lot of
gaps. <br />Bien fait!</p><span class="comment-actions secondary-text"><a class="comment-reply" data-comment-id="2029734722488219594" target="_self">Reply</a></span></div><div class="comment-replies"></div><div class="comment-replybox-single" id="c2029734722488219594-ce"></div></li><li class="comment" id="c4104173398026176429"><div class="avatar-image-container"><img alt="" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blogger_logo_round_35.png" /></div><div class="comment-block"><div class="comment-header"><cite class="user"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/profile/15909152556240137915" rel="nofollow">patrick j. mullins</a></cite><span class="icon user"></span><span class="datetime secondary-text"><a href="https://gayinfluence.blogspot.com/2012/02/ferdinand-i-of-bulgaria.html?showComment=1549754102100#c4104173398026176429" rel="nofollow">February 9, 2019 at 6:15 PM</a></span></div><p class="comment-content">Fantastic
history, which I like reading more than anything now. I didn't know
any of this. What a character, and unlike some of the effeminate rulers
that Gibbon so decries, he was actually effective (most of the Roman
ones like Elagobalus were not), and seems to have discovered strengths
beyond flowers, costume, and jewelry, surprisingly rising to the
occasion. Although as a constitutional monarch, his sybaritic nature
was more likely to flourish with less likelihood of assassination than
an actual Roman emperor with absolute power (supposed to have it--didn't
nearly always work as well as with Marcus Aurelius, as proved again by
his son Commodus, who was definitely bisexual, but also even more
murderous and appalling than Caligula or Nero.) All sorts of opposing
moments in this history, whether Boris's nobility in WWII, or the
artistry of Ferdinand. Quite a few cuts above Raymond Chandler's
'pansey decorators' in Old Hollywood.<br /><br />I'm annoyed I don't
remember the passage in Proust with 'the duchess'. Oriane, the Duchesse
de Guermantes, was the most enjoyable character--maybe 100 pages at her
salon and dinner with poulet a la financiere--but this duchess with
Ferdinand must have been in the final volume, because I don't think WWI
had been mentioned till then. I did read all the volumes, but some not
as closely as others, and was bored out of my skull with Albertine.
Loved Morel's hotness and fucking the Prince de Guermantes, while Basin
went for ladies of pleasure at his opera box, as I recall. Morel is the
more typical type of 'casting couch' talent, not like adorable Ralph
Hall, whose love letters I found last night, and they are among the most
touching things I've ever read.<br /><br />You have put Bulgaria on the map
for me, even though I've got a niece married, since divorcedf, to a
Bulgarian. From some of the really opulent palaces you've shown,
including those of Princess Gloria, I see that I don't have the
requisite knowledge (by a mile) to make that much difference between one
ultra-luxury domicile and another. I do find them all attractive,
quite, though, and appreciate your putting up shots of some of the
lesser-known palaces. Hard to surpass the Viennese, though. </p><span class="comment-actions secondary-text"><a class="comment-reply" data-comment-id="4104173398026176429" target="_self">Reply</a></span></div></li></ol></div></div></div></div>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-25940052092260334722023-03-10T07:44:00.001-05:002023-03-10T07:47:13.049-05:00Ferdinand I of Bulgaria - Part 2<p> <span style="font-size: x-large;">Fancy Uniforms, Palaces, Lavender Walls<br />
And a Stable of Blond, Blue-Eyed Chauffeurs</span><br />
<br />
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When <b>Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha</b> became Prince of Bulgaria in
1887 at age 26, he found himself ruler of a rag-tag country struggling
to be taken seriously by the rest of Europe. Though he was bowled over
by the country’s picturesque landscape and captivating antiquities,
there was little else to enchant a spoiled young Prince. The
centuries-old monasteries, mosques and churches, monuments to the
successive Thracian, Roman and Byzantine civilizations that had thrived
in the lands of Bulgaria, were all well and good, but Ferdinand needed a
place to live that was suited to his lifestyle, which tilted toward
grand opera, formal French etiquette and other bastions of luxury,
particularly fine cuisine and wine.<br />
<br />
<br />
A modest, leaky, unfinished “palace” awaited him in downtown Sofia**,
whose citizens had to navigate muddy, rutted unlit streets with no
drainage and few trees. Ferdinand (1861-1948), the bisexual subject of
today’s post, had grown up in the lap of luxury at his parent’s palace
in downtown Vienna, which then had a population approaching 2 million.
When he arrived in Sofia, he took one look around that Balkan backwater
and realized he needed to take drastic, immediate action.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">**<b>Sofia</b> (pronounced <i>SOH-fee-uh</i>, accent on the first syllable) has a population today of 1.2 million, quite a growth spurt from 19,000 residents in 1887. </span><br />
<br />
It was fortunate that his fantastically wealthy mother, herself the
daughter of a French king, wanted to help out. In fact, she dedicated
the rest of her life working to get her son established on a European
throne (unfortunately she died one year shy of Ferdinand's elevating
himself from Prince to Tsar of Bulgaria, thus re-establishing the
country's monarchy). You may recall from an earlier post that, as a
birthday gift, she gave her son a railroad connecting Bulgaria to the
rest of Europe. He essentially set out to create a world capital from
scratch. Over the next twenty years Ferdinand had to create departments
for nearly everything found lacking when he first arrived in Sofia in
1887: for administration, police, finance, army, public education,
commerce and industry.<br />
<br />
Ferdinand rolled up his sleeves and got to work. In 1888 he founded both
a zoo and a university, the first-ever institution of higher learning
in all of Bulgaria. The following year he established a National Museum
of Natural History along with opera and ballet companies, then charged
on to commission a fine building for the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
(1893), which he had founded earlier. He continued to seek recognition
by world leaders; in 1903 he established diplomatic relations with the
United States. Ferdinand founded a National Archeological Museum in
1905, housing it inside a former Ottoman mosque built in 1474.<br />
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Ferdinand established a <b>National Theater</b> and dedicated its magnificent new neoclassical building in 1907 (photo above).<br />
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When Ferdinand first took up residence in Sofia, the great and ancient
sixth-century basilica of Hagia Sophia lay in ruins, abandoned after
suffering damage from two earthquakes. Ferdinand oversaw restoration
work on Hagia Sophia while simultaneously witnessing construction of the
adjacent Alexander Nevsky Eastern Orthodox cathedral, which was
dedicated in 1912 in his presence. This enormous gold-domed
neo-Byzantine cathedral (photo below) has become the principal tourist
attraction in Bulgaria.<br />
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Sofia had been famous for its mineral springs. In 1911 Ferdinand oversaw the opening of a grand <b>Public Mineral Bath House and Spa</b>
(left) built in Vienna-Secessionist architectural style with noted
embellishment of majolica tile work inside and out; at present a section
of this magnificent edifice is being converted for use as the Museum of
Sofia. Also in 1911 the great Central Market Hall complex of 170 shops
and stalls opened, occupying an entire city block; this
Renaissance/Neo-Byzantine complex was recently restored to its original
function and appearance. The façade bears a bas-relief of the coat of
arms of Sofia above the main entrance.<br />
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Among the ways Ferdinand countered Bulgaria’s inferior international
standing was to wear imposing, extravagant military uniforms; the other
was to build/renovate a collection of castles, palaces and country homes
furnished with the same sorts of chandeliers, carpets and table
settings that were found in the great palaces of Europe. When he hosted
foreign dignitaries, Ferdinand put on quite a show, and no detail was
too insignificant to involve his direct oversight.<br />
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Guests would arrive at the official Sofia palace (above) to find
bodyguards placed on every step, handsomely clad in splendid scarlet
uniforms embellished with silver-braid. They were led into welcoming
chambers that had been scented with pine. Violet and mauve, Ferdinand’s
favorite colors, were represented in silk wall coverings, fabrics and
elaborate floral displays. Crystal chandeliers, fine French china and
porcelains, uniformed servants, rare Oriental carpets, extravagant
silver services and the finest cutlery wowed his visitors. He took pains
to place quartets of musicians behind upholstered screens, so that
their sound was not so loud as to disrupt conversation. Here Ferdinand
hosted private theatricals, fancy balls, dinners and parties that were
over the top in pomp and luxury. Ferdinand himself chose the menus,
music, flowers, entertainments and dinnerware.<br />
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Before you knew it, Ferdinand could chose among a growing collection of
fine official residences. The city-center palace in Sofia (now housing
the <b>National Art Gallery</b>) had been so woefully inadequate that he
more than doubled its size just after moving in. The photo above shows
the wing Ferdinand added to house his private apartments. As well, he
planted hundreds of trees and established a garden surrounding the
residence.<br />
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Ferdinand next purchased a vast tract of land twenty miles southeast of
Sofia to build Vrana Palace (1906), set in a large park with a hunting
lodge. This became Ferdinand’s favorite residence and the place where
his family spent most of its time. Ferdinand indulged his horticultural
interests to great effect there and kept three elephants, bison and
antelope on the vast grounds. Vrana Palace was much larger than his
in-town official palace in Sofia. Still not satisfied, Ferdinand kept
royal apartments in monasteries, numerous country houses and hunting
lodges*. Not to mention purpose-built chalets and cottages in the Rila
mountains, for which he had to build access roads. Once his son Boris
converted from Roman Catholicism to the Greek Orthodox church, rooms
were kept for the royal family in the 10th-century Greek Orthodox
monastery in Rila, where today Tsar Boris III lies buried.<br />
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*<b>Tsarska Bistritsa</b>, in the Rila mountain town of Borovets, is a
very large, fanciful hunting lodge built by Ferdinand along a course of
cascading waterfalls. It was recently returned to the royal family of
Tsar Simeon II, and in 2002 the wedding of Princes Kalina, Simeon’s
daughter, took place there.<br />
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About five miles from the Black Sea resort of Varna, visible only from
the sea, sat Euxinograd, which Ferdinand developed into a splendid royal
summer residence surrounded by exotic flowers, fountains, shrubbery,
trees and vineyards. This palace was built from scratch and reflected
Ferdinand’s most idiosyncratic tastes, so I will make a more elaborate
description of it.<br />
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Shielded from the main coastal road by a small woodland, Euxinograd
palace was built as a replica of the right hand wing of France’s royal
Chateau de Saint-Cloud. It would have pleased Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria
to know that since 2007 this palace has hosted the annual opera
festival, Operosa. Ferdinand was an accomplished musician who habitually
played piano arrangements of his favorite opera excerpts by Gluck and
Wagner before retiring to bed, and he saw to it that each of his many
palaces and country homes had a music room. The spacious music chamber
in his palace in Sofia, for instance, was outfitted with a pipe organ,
harp and three pianos.<br />
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Euxinograd was constructed in French château style, a reminder to all
that Ferdinand was the grandson of a French king. Boasting a high
metal-edged mansard roof, figured brickwork and a clock tower, this
summer palace was the scene of splendid royal dinners and
entertainments. A disused monastery on the property was transformed into
a summer dining room. Jutting out over a cliff, the structure afforded
guests the impression of floating in mid-air out over the sea.<br />
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As always, there was on staff a veritable stable of blond haired,
blue-eyed male chauffeurs to drive Ferdinand around the magnificent
landscape surrounding Varna in his ever-expanding collection of fine
motorcars. He spent a lot of quality time in the company of his
chauffeurs, if you get my drift. Cabinet ministers and affairs of state
often had to wait until Ferdinand and his chauffeurs returned from their
long "drives" through the forests.<br />
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Through his French mother, Ferdinand had acquired a part of the ruined
Chateau de Saint-Cloud, located outside Paris. The palace had been
burned by the Prussian armies in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War and
was subsequently pulled down. Ferdinand had surviving architectural
elements of the French palace incorporated into his new seaside summer
home. He loved pointing out to guests the main pediment of Saint-Cloud
palace, now embedded into the wall supporting Euxinograd’s main terrace.
Depicting the French royal coat-of-arms (above), these architectural
remnants had been transported stone by stone from Paris to the Black Sea
on the Orient Express railway coaches. <br />
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The palace, sited on a promontory jutting into the Black Sea, can be
visited today. It still contains the walnut and mahogany furniture from
Ferdinand’s family, and a sundial, a gift from Queen Victoria, adorns
the grounds. An enormous chandelier sporting gilded lilies and a royal
crown still illuminates a reception room; it had been a present from the
French royal house of Bourbon, from which Ferdinand’s mother was
descended. Every door handle in the palace is engraved with Tsar
Ferdinand’s coat of arms, including those leading to the toilets. <br />
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The palace boasts an underground wine cellar that covers two floors.
Constructed in 1891 to house an extensive collection of wine for royal
consumption, a scandal erupted in 2002, when it was discovered that
extraordinarily valuable vintage bottles (left), some dating from
Bulgaria's 1878 liberation from the Ottoman empire, were missing from
the Palace's cellar. Three French wines, well-preserved and each worth
thousands of dollars, were among 137 bottles that disappeared. Last seen
in April, 2002, the 124-year-old French wines had been a gift to
Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I and his son, Tsar Boris III. The wine master
was immediately dismissed, amidst scandalous charges. The Euxinograd
estate grounds are surrounded by vineyards, which still produce white
wine and brandy that are among the best in the country. The root stocks
were selected and brought here by Ferdinand himself, who was an avid and
expert naturalist. Today’s Euxinograd Chardonnay is world famous.<br />
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The palace grounds lead down directly to the Black Sea. It took several
decades to complete the gardens, and today they are home to more than
300 species of plants from Asia, Latin America, North Africa and the
South of France. Ferdinand ordered 50,000 trees from Marseille and
planted them in especially rich soil transported from the mouth of
Bulgaria’s Kamchiya River. Coniferous shrubs and evergreens were brought
to the estate from Europe, Syria and Algeria, each species chosen by
the Tsar himself. The palace gardens are a most pleasing fusion of
French and English design devised by noted French landscape architect
Edouard André. The grounds include two ornate bridges (one of which is
made to look like a fallen tree) under which flows the Kestrichka Bara
River. Embellishments include French bronzes, a statue of Neptune
(above) and a lake filled with water lilies. Not to mention a Japanese
garden. And a butterfly garden.<br />
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Ferdinand’s second wife Eleonore Reuss-Kostritz died at Euxinograd in
1917, and the next year, at the close of WW I, Ferdinand abdicated to
his son Boris, in order to preserve the crown. When the Bulgarian
monarchy was abolished after WW II, the palace became a summer home for
Communist party bigwigs. When the Communist regime fell in 1989, the
palace was used as a presidential residence, and during the summer,
cabinet meetings are still held there.<br />
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Palace building was apparently in the blood of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas.
When Ferdinand’s son, Tsar Boris III, visited the town of Banya in
southern Bulgaria in 1925, he was captivated by the climate and local
curative mineral springs. He built a large residence there in 1929, and
subsequently supplied the village with electricity and had it connected
to the Plovdiv-Karlovo railway line. After the fall of the Communist
regime in 1989, Banya Palace was eventually returned to Boris’s son, the
deposed Tsar Simeon II (born in this palace in 1937), who emerged from
exile in Spain to serve as Bulgaria’s Prime Minister from 2001 through
2005. Simeon, who became Tsar at age six, has never renounced his
throne. <br />
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As well, Tsar Ferdinand had ancestral palaces in Germany, Austria and
Hungary. He was the last occupant of St. Anthony Castle (photo at left),
a well-preserved Baroque palace (1749) in a mountain setting near
Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia, in what was then Hungary.<br />
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Today’s visitors admire its famous Chinese Parlor (photo below).
Ferdinand delighted in the manor house’s quirky “year” symbolism, with 4
wings for each of the 4 seasons, 12 chimneys for 12 months, 52 rooms
for 52 weeks, 7 arcades for 7 days in a week and 365 windows for the
number of days in a year. Well honestly.<br />
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After Ferdinand’s abdication in 1918, he retired to Coburg, Germany,
cradle of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty, where he had a spare palace,
Bürglaß-Schlösschen, in reserve. Stll in possession of his vast fortune,
he lived the remaining thirty years of his life there as a bachelor,
indulging his interests in horticulture, travel and male companionship.
Ferdinand continued his month-long visits to the Italian island of
Capri, in the Bay of Naples, infamous as a hang out for wealthy
homosexuals in pursuit of young men. As well, he sustained his interest
in fine motorcars and the young blond men who drove them. <br />
Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-45626256686709377082023-01-11T01:40:00.012-05:002023-01-19T13:06:35.402-05:00Archduke Ludwig Viktor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOoL7iZpD5DrjAzsM3gwVYjmKULdeMwbV2Km5mNj9kKMwscX2-1gOUJU4gsw0u3-fpXUsrF4mLozhd-tQKY-lXLiL2B4mSChEYQOKEvee2pGw9fAos8YigCYOGayyJ8pVOBTWkDVY9Ww1bHASaVfv7wTLUVoV3yo1JP8kGe79IzK-7qqnBUcuReS3ckA/s900/LuziWuzi-Ludwig_Viktor_von_%C3%96sterreich.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="576" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOoL7iZpD5DrjAzsM3gwVYjmKULdeMwbV2Km5mNj9kKMwscX2-1gOUJU4gsw0u3-fpXUsrF4mLozhd-tQKY-lXLiL2B4mSChEYQOKEvee2pGw9fAos8YigCYOGayyJ8pVOBTWkDVY9Ww1bHASaVfv7wTLUVoV3yo1JP8kGe79IzK-7qqnBUcuReS3ckA/w410-h640/LuziWuzi-Ludwig_Viktor_von_%C3%96sterreich.jpg" width="410" /></a></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> </span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The Habsburg dynasty had a consequential problem with inbreeding, resulting in a family that, how shall we say, lacked handsome physical attributes. <b>Archduke Ludwig Viktor</b> was no exception. His only advantage was the fact that his older brother, <b>Franz Josef</b>, was the Emperor of Austria-Hungary. <br />
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The archduke (1842-1919) had a face only a mother could love (evidence at left). After having produced three male heirs, Ludwig’s mother ignored the fact that he wasn’t the girl she had wanted and dressed him like one. It didn’t help that everyone called him<i><b> Luzi-Wuzi</b></i> (pronounced Loot-see Voot-see). He was an impetuous, openly homosexual pleasure-seeker whose life revolved around the theatre and collecting art and antiques. He wore women’s clothing (photo below), kvetched and gossiped incessantly and couldn’t be trusted with a secret from anyone. His über-vain sister-in-law Sissi (Empress Elizabeth), adored by the Austrians as an antidote to their dull, stuffy emperor, was initially kindly disposed toward Ludwig Viktor, until things she told him in confidence got back to her. It got so bad that she eventually refused to have a conversation with him unless a third party was present to verify what transpired. Incredibly, Sissi’s favorite sister Sophie was singled out as a possible bride for Ludwig Viktor, but she rejected him, only to become engaged to and then dumped by another gay royal, the King of Bavaria, Ludwig II, of Neuschwanstein fame.</span><br />
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Trivia: In related tragic family news, another of Ludwig Viktor’s brothers, Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico (emperors seemed to run in the family), was executed by firing squad while in Mexico City in 1867. Maximilian and Ludwig looked so much alike (unfortunately) they could have been twins. To be a Habsburg royal was a big deal. From the early thirteenth century to 1918 this dynasty controlled vast properties in which more than a dozen languages were spoken, and not just in Europe. A Habsburg was Emperor of Mexico, and another the Empress of Brazil. In addition to Austria and Hungary, the Habsburg dynasty at one time ruled over major portions of Spain, Slovenia, Serbia, Switzerland, Croatia, Poland, Italy, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Slovakia and Romania. Impressive.<br />
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bkyYx5yIEWYLSV2sW6UzQ_KQntUb04J-fDbGJdyk3f-U-gqO-76mTSkaljzGkgpJd3xYfayLxH3u8vQgjsVlFwHxEJSS3v-4UAd4Y0IwpZlvLD_jzG1VBOAZuhQjXdsmVJADXpa9EAm6/s1600/ludwig_drag.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-bkyYx5yIEWYLSV2sW6UzQ_KQntUb04J-fDbGJdyk3f-U-gqO-76mTSkaljzGkgpJd3xYfayLxH3u8vQgjsVlFwHxEJSS3v-4UAd4Y0IwpZlvLD_jzG1VBOAZuhQjXdsmVJADXpa9EAm6/w287-h320/ludwig_drag.jpg" width="287" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;">Photo at right. Just who you think it is. <br />
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But I digress. At age 21, the archduke needed new digs to host his notorious and extravagant “stag” parties, so he built an Italian Renaissance palace on the new Ringstraße, the grand boulevard encircling central Vienna sited along the path of the recently razed city walls. Built on Schwarzenbergplatz just two blocks from the State Opera House, Ludwig Viktor’s city palace, designed by famed architect Heinrich von Ferstel, had a glaring deficiency – it had no swimming pool. This oversight gave the archduke reason to patronize a nearby public establishment, the Centralbad, Vienna's "largest and finest bathhouse." The archduke, a frequent visitor, went there regularly for “Turkish baths.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Ludwig Viktor’s homosexuality was an open secret. Even his brother Franz Josef joked about it. But in 1906, the archduke was slapped and knocked to the ground by one of the young Centralbad* patrons, an athletic middle-class man, apparently as the result of an unwanted advance by the archduke. Ludwig Viktor used his family ties to have the young man arrested, but it was determined that the man’s actions were warranted, and he was released from jail. When informed of his brother’s scandalous behavior, Emperor Franz Joseph became disgusted and banished Ludwig Viktor to the archduke’s summer palace, Schloss Kleßheim, a former residence of the Archbishops of Salzburg, and ordered him not to return to Vienna during his brother's lifetime. Ludwig Viktor was also forced to resign his patronages, and most of his staff was moved to other positions.</span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzPxIUzja6dhGtc8-SLnlsCVA7t8JYvFnJKmTH2ld9LVen5VH9DVt3COLvAQZPFjohlqxHdQKfa_ZXPcQJgoBylfGIiDNnBp8OFO20vBocnEI41aiP_sh9GqpvBKv0eDFdSreoVbKs4nZ/s1600/kaiserbruendl.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIzPxIUzja6dhGtc8-SLnlsCVA7t8JYvFnJKmTH2ld9LVen5VH9DVt3COLvAQZPFjohlqxHdQKfa_ZXPcQJgoBylfGIiDNnBp8OFO20vBocnEI41aiP_sh9GqpvBKv0eDFdSreoVbKs4nZ/w226-h320/kaiserbruendl.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>*Trivia: the Centralbad is now the Kaiserbründl, one of Europe’s most luxurious gay male saunas, complete with chandeliers, erotic frescos, marble columns, restaurants and bars. Kaiserbründl means "Emperor's Spring." <br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">At Schloss Kleßheim (above) Ludwig Viktor had a grand blue and white swimming pool installed. He invited army officers to use it, but could never seem to find swimsuits for them to wear. As a result, Austrian soldiers were subsequently forbidden to go there. In Salzburg the archduke eventually won the hearts of the locals for his charitable efforts, and by an amazing coincidence, outlived the Habsburg empire, dying on January 18, 1919, on the first day of the post-WW I conference in Versailles, which would abolish all royal orders. He is buried just a mile or so south of Schloss Kleßheim in the cemetery of the local Pfarrkirche in Siezenheim. Notice the "LV" on the pedestal supporting the cross.
It is noteworthy that he was not buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, along with all his other family members.</span><br />
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was used as a dance school in the 1920s, but the Nazis later took it
over as a guest house. Hitler and Mussolini held meetings here, and the palace was notoriously riddled with listening
devices. During the Cold War, the neutral Austrian government used
Schloss Kleßheim to hold conferences and host international guests,
among them U.S. President Richard Nixon, who met here with Austrian Chancellor
Bruno Kreisky on his way to Moscow in 1972. The palace now serves as Salzburg’s
main gambling casino and features glamorous bars and restaurants.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXDlqgmzd68OCWKNCfZB4-ucpADnQkOBV2GQ-gLqkoxOfqI_X_B7RG7jGBvc-BF6_CyN0GsT2Dlt0iiZxxbJzorZKKO4s-97uDV_-Jz7LVjawNS4PXjKnuM_bqxAhcarUFDipMvZOEoMF/s1600/Palais_Erzherzog_Ludwig_Viktor.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="427" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqXDlqgmzd68OCWKNCfZB4-ucpADnQkOBV2GQ-gLqkoxOfqI_X_B7RG7jGBvc-BF6_CyN0GsT2Dlt0iiZxxbJzorZKKO4s-97uDV_-Jz7LVjawNS4PXjKnuM_bqxAhcarUFDipMvZOEoMF/w640-h427/Palais_Erzherzog_Ludwig_Viktor.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p><br />
<span style="font-size: medium;">As for Ludwig's downtown Vienna palace on Schwarzenbergplatz (above), the military used it as an officer’s casino before the First World War. Ludwig Viktor would turn over in his grave if he saw the TGI Friday’s restaurant on the ground floor, but he’d take more kindly to the fact that today, the palace’s great hall functions both as a rehearsal space for the Burgtheater and an alternative venue for the theater’s smaller productions. Fortunately, the restaurant and theater entrances are around the corner from each other. With only two hundred seats, “Burgtheater im Kasino,” as it is known, offers a small and intimate setting for one of Vienna’s best theater companies.</span></p><p>Sources: James Conway (Strange Flowers), Wikipedia<br />
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</p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-37004243638479088022022-12-22T10:54:00.000-05:002022-12-22T10:54:46.591-05:00Sir Ian McKellen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">English born <b>Sir Ian McKellen</b> (b. 1939) is perhaps the most famous openly gay actor who has played more straight than gay characters. His work is known to generations of movie, TV and theater-goers. During the 1960s he began his career as a classical actor specializing in Shakespeare. Six decades later, he was playing <i>King Lear</i> during the 2017 season of the Chichester Festival Theatre. <br /><br />Although he began a modest film career in 1969, it was not until he appeared in several Hollywood blockbusters that he was introduced to an entirely new generation of movie-goers. The <i>X-Men</i> (as Magneto) and <i>Lord of the Rings</i> (as Gandalf) franchises of the early 2000s and the more recent <i>Hobbit</i> films have brought world-wide fame and recognition. Recently he was seen in the live-action film version of <i>Beauty and the Beast</i>, in which he portrayed Cogsworth. As well, his December 2016 London stage performance of Harold Pinter’s <i>No Man’s Land</i> with Patrick Stewart was broadcast to movie theaters worldwide as part of the National Theatre Live <i>Encore</i> series.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Sir Ian came out publicly on BBC television in 1988, just shy of his fiftieth birthday. Since then, he has been involved as an activist for multiple LBGT rights issues. He freely uses his name recognition to advance international causes that could use a boost. <br /><br />McKellen was knighted twice. In 1991 he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (which granted him the use of the title “Sir”) and again in 2008 for services to the performing arts, becoming a part of the Order of the Companions as Companion of Honor (CH).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><a href="http://mckellen.com/">Mckellen.com</a><br />Sir Ian’s official web page, launched in 1997, contains an in-depth look at his enduring career. There are hundreds of photographs, both personal and professional biographies, essays and links to his blog and the many causes he champions. <br /><br />He has received a Tony award, a Golden Globe award, a SAG award, two Oscar nominations, five Emmy Award nominations and four BAFTA nominations – as well as every major theatrical award in the UK.<br /><br />McKellen’s performance as Gandalf the Grey in <i>The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring</i> brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award. He received his first Academy Award nomination, for Best Actor, for his portrayal of gay film director James Whale, in <i>Gods and Monsters</i> (1998). McKellen starred as Richard III (1995) in his own screen-adaptation of Shakespeare's play, which he also produced. Other film credits include <i>Six Degrees of Separation, Cold Comfort Farm, Bent</i> and <i>The Da Vinci Code</i>.<br /><br />McKellen has also been honored for his extensive television work, from the miniseries <i>The Prisoner</i> to his monumental performance in <i>King Lear</i>, from his reincarnation of Tsar Nicholas II in the tele-film <i>Rasputin</i>, to his classic guesting as himself in HBO's Extras. He co-starred with Derek Jacobi and Frances de la Tour in two seasons of ITV's series <i>Vicious</i>, which aired on PBS in the US. On the first night of Channel 4 in the UK, McKellen played a mentally handicapped man in Stephen Frears' <i>Walter</i>. He delighted everyone with his 10 episodes in Britain’s longest running soap, <i>Coronation Street</i>. <br /><br />Sir Ian is also a co-founder of Stonewall UK, which lobbies for legal and social equality for gay people.</span><br />
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Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-16469835558947148682022-11-21T14:30:00.001-05:002022-11-21T14:35:41.575-05:00Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns: 1835-1921<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><i>NOTE:</i> Your blogger recently performed an organ work by </span><span style="font-size: small;">Saint-Saëns, so this post has been expanded and updated.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">When his father died when he was only three months old, <b>Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns</b> was raised by his mother in Paris and continued to live with her until her death. He became one of the world’s most famous composers in his day, and he was a homosexual possessed of a complicated private life, which often revealed his dark side.<br />
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Saint-Saëns was a child prodigy (on the level of Mozart), and made his debut as a concert pianist in 1846, before his eleventh birthday. As an encore, Saint-Saëns offered to play any of Beethoven's 32 piano sonatas from memory. Word of this incredible experience spread across Europe and as far as the United States, where it was mentioned in an article in a Boston newspaper. Having all 32 of Beethoven’s sonatas in ones fingers, ready for concert performance, was an unheard-of feat (then as now), all the more astonishing when offered by a ten year old.<br />
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By the age of 13, Saint-Saëns was attending the Paris Conservatory. He soon gained recognition among his peers as an organ virtuoso, eventually attaining the highly coveted position of chief organist at the Madeleine Church in Paris, a post he held from 1858, at the age of 23, until he was 42 years old. His weekly organ improvisations captured the attention of all Paris. As a composer, he was highly versatile, writing operas, symphonies, concertos, much chamber music, masses and other choral works, songs and solo literature for organ and piano. His opera <b><i>Samson et Dalila</i></b> still ranks among the standard repertoire of opera houses all over the world. His music was wildly popular during his lifetime, and he was well-connected with other composers, particularly <b>Hector Berlioz</b> and <b>Franz Liszt</b>. <b>Gabriel Fauré</b>, who was Saint-Saëns's favorite pupil, soon became his closest friend.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">His now popular <i><b>Le Carnaval des animaux</b></i> (The Carnival of the Animals, 1886), for two pianos and orchestra, was intended as a private entertainment for friends, and Saint-Saëns forbade its public performance during his lifetime. The part of the narrator, now frequently included during performance, was added by others after his death. It is a little-known fact that Saint-Saëns had the distinction of being the first noted composer to write a musical score for a motion picture, <i><b>The Assassination of the Duke of Guise</b></i> (L'assassinat du duc de Guise, 1908), featuring actors of the <b>Comédie Française</b> in Paris.<br />
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Once called a second Mozart, Saint-Saëns soon made many enemies, who were envious of his stellar success and disdainful of his biting sarcasm. Later in life he was declared to be a “composer of bad music well written.” In old age he came to be mocked for his rabid conservatism, his dislike of modern music, the campaigns he mounted against French composers <b>Claude Debussy</b> and <b>Cesar Franck</b>, his shocked disapproval of Stravinsky's <b><i>Rite of Spring</i></b> (allegedly infuriated over what he considered the misuse of the bassoon in the ballet's opening bars) and his insistence, during World War I, that all German music be suppressed. He was never shy with opinion.<br />
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Saint-Saëns was a true polymath. In addition to conquering the world of music as composer, conductor, critic, teacher and concert organist and pianist, he excelled in the fields of geology, archaeology, botany, mathematics and lepidoptery. He held discussions with Europe's finest scientists and wrote scholarly articles on acoustics, occult sciences, ancient theatre decoration, and early musical instruments. Saint-Saëns wrote a philosophical work that spoke of science and art replacing religion, and his pessimistic and atheistic ideas foreshadowed Existentialism. Other literary achievements included poetry and a successful farcical play. He was also a member of the<b> Astronomical Society of France,</b> giving lectures on mirages; he had a telescope made to his own specifications and planned concerts to correspond to astronomical events, such as solar eclipses.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">The private life of Camille Saint-Saëns was filled with turmoil. He was homosexual but realized how much marrying would bolster his reputation. Understandably, he showed little outward sign of wanting to marry. However in 1875, at the age of almost 40, he began an affair with nineteen year old <b>Marie-Laure Truffot</b>, which led to marriage. Immediately after their wedding, Saint-Saëns declared that he was too busy for a honeymoon and took Marie straight home to live with his mother. Thereafter the composer treated his wife with deep disdain, until the arrival of children brought out a more sympathetic side. But tragedy intervened when both children died within six weeks of each other in 1878. André, aged two, fell from a fourth floor window, and soon afterward his baby brother Jean became ill and died. Saint-Saëns blamed Marie for the children's deaths, and a short time later he walked out on her in the middle of a holiday trip. Though there was no divorce, Marie never saw him again.<br />
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Saint-Saëns was solitary and secretive, prone to disappearing for weeks at a time. He could also be a remarkable host, often entertaining friends lavishly at his Paris home, where his performances in drag were well-known among his circle, particularly his impersonation of Marguerite, the female soprano lead in Charles Gounod's opera <i><b>Faust</b></i>. He is reputed to have danced in ballerina tutus for the entertainment of fellow gay composer, <b>Tchaikovsky</b>.<br />
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After abandoning his wife, Saint-Saëns traveled extensively. He began spending winters in French-speaking Algeria, which became a favored holiday spot for European homosexuals who enjoyed the adolescent male companionship easily available there. He was quoted as saying, "I am not a homosexual, I am a pederast." Saint-Saëns died of pneumonia in Algiers, at the age of 86, on December 16, 1921.<br />
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Have a listen to his hugely popular orchestral work, <i><b>Danse Macabre</b></i>. I’m sure you’ll recognize it.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<i><span>Trivia: Pianist Franz Liszt made an astonishing piano solo transcription of this piece.</span></i></span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-LupmmElMoI?rel=0" width="420"></iframe></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-76566941777599261202022-11-12T17:53:00.001-05:002023-04-28T04:17:17.863-04:00Don Lemon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>UPDATE April 24 2023: </i></b>Don Lemon was fired from his job at CNN.<b><i><br /></i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>UPDATE November 2022:</i></b> On September 15, 2022, it was announced that Don Lemon will co-anchor a new CNN morning show with Kaitlin Collins and Poppy Harlow. On October 12, 2022, it was announced that the morning show will be named <b><i>CNN This Morning.</i></b></span> <br /></p><p>In 2009, Don Lemon (b. 1966) made <i>Ebony</i> magazine’s list of 150 Most Influential African-Americans. When he came out in 2011, the CNN news anchor jested that he was “a double minority,” being both black and gay. Born in Louisiana, Lemon found his first on-air work in Chicago as a co-anchor at NBC5 News and as a correspondent for <i>The Today Show</i> and <i>The NBC Nightly News</i>. Joining CNN as a reporter six years ago, he covered the 2008 presidential election and the accusations of child molestation against Bishop Eddie Long, during which Lemon revealed that he himself had been molested as a child. As well, he hosted a panel on transgender representations on <i>The Joy Behar Show</i>.<br />
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Currently a network correspondent and weekend anchor for CNN Newsroom, Lemon has won the <b>Edward R. Murrow Award</b> for covering the Washington DC sniper’s capture. As well he won an <b>Emmy Award</b> for a special report on the real estate market in Chicago. <br />
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Lemon stands out for his willingness to challenge public figures and his own industry. He tackled his own demons in his memoir, <i><b>Transparent </b></i>(2011), revealing the difficulties of being both black and gay. In the book he discussed racism in the black community, homophobia, and the sexual abuse that he suffered as a child. Lemon also publicly condemned the “pray the gay away” therapy. <br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Lemon has become an eager spokesperson for the LGBT community, speaking at events for the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD, and he has received honors from the Anti-Violence Project and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalism Association<br />
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“I abhor hypocrisy,” Lemon stated in a recent interview. “I think if you’re going to be in the news business and telling people the truth..., then you’ve got to be honest. You’ve got to have the same rules for yourself as you do for everyone else… I think it would be great if everybody could be out. I think if I had seen more people like me who are out and proud, it wouldn’t have taken me 45 years to say it.”</span>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-5929580293618357812022-10-24T11:22:00.004-04:002022-10-24T11:45:11.279-04:00Actor Luke Macfarlane
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HLluyJszNnNpFMvORdpio9XZD5kaxRhgeb9bFxo77TTH_1Udha4Czc8VN7pMJZtQUgDMV1rCQd2gcyuITEIE0cm1cbGQO6RJAhZUcL-FQ8fGj7o_3WJV3vV2P5Lu9zOTDCt9RwjAg77n/s693/LukeMacfarlane-Killjoys.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="693" data-original-width="520" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2HLluyJszNnNpFMvORdpio9XZD5kaxRhgeb9bFxo77TTH_1Udha4Czc8VN7pMJZtQUgDMV1rCQd2gcyuITEIE0cm1cbGQO6RJAhZUcL-FQ8fGj7o_3WJV3vV2P5Lu9zOTDCt9RwjAg77n/w480-h640/LukeMacfarlane-Killjoys.webp" width="480" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Update October 2022:</i> 42-year-old Canadian actor <b>Luke Macfarlane</b> (b. 1980), is starring in the movie "Bros", a gay rom-com that is playing to many. many empty seats in theaters nationwide. Your blogger has seen it, and the problem is not the cast. The problem is the script. As a surprise to no one, straight audiences do not want to see a movie in which Mr. MacFarlane's purported love interest is a bitchy, pushy uber-queer.</span></p><p><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 107%; margin-bottom: 8pt; mso-layout-grid-align: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; text-autospace: ideograph-numeric ideograph-other;"><span style="font-size: large;">A major disappointment.</span><br /></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">All that off toward one side, Mr. MacFarlane is perhaps best known for his portrayal of a gay man on ABC’s TV series <i><b>Brothers & Sisters</b></i> (2006-2011), is out in real life. The actor, in the role of Scotty Wandell on the drama, went public with his sexual orientation in 2008 in a newspaper interview in which he revealed that his family and friends were all aware of his sexual orientation.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">He said, “There is this desire in L.A. to wonder about who you are, and what’s been blaring for me for the last three years is how I can be most authentic to myself, so this is the first time I am speaking about (my sexual orientation) in this way.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">In a May 2008 episode of <i><b>Brothers & Sisters</b></i> (photo and video clip below), McFarlane’s character wed his gay lover, Kevin Walker (played by straight Welsh actor Matthew Rhys), and he hoped the plot would help viewers overcome anti-gay prejudices.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Macfarlane adds, “We’re saying that this can be part of the cultural fabric now, because it was two series regulars, two people whom you invited into your home and saw every week.” The popular and highly praised<i><b> Brothers & Sisters</b></i> television series (2006-2011) won four GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. Veteran actress Sally Field, who headed the ensemble cast, won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her portrayal as the matriarch of the Walker family.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBXqZmMfWE8yWqHil3NAwQ9tEtXqDJepq5gIhupYUl_xdqGTIkw2fgf-0mvgiuLmpo26Ku98mSVpQ923O9YzNUTuyz1N2fxeZNpUUoaaONIxaN4WF1adNnI540rMAVsiUdSVy_1xaCxC3/s1600/macfarlane.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrBXqZmMfWE8yWqHil3NAwQ9tEtXqDJepq5gIhupYUl_xdqGTIkw2fgf-0mvgiuLmpo26Ku98mSVpQ923O9YzNUTuyz1N2fxeZNpUUoaaONIxaN4WF1adNnI540rMAVsiUdSVy_1xaCxC3/s400/macfarlane.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Macfarlane, also a classical cellist and trumpeter, was the lead singer and songwriter for the band <b>Fellow Nameless</b>, which produced an underground album.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">As well, Luke has enjoyed both stage and film careers since 2003. Although he appeared in the acclaimed 2011 Broadway premiere of Larry Kramer's <i><b>The Normal Heart,</b></i> he has been most active in television productions. Since 2014 he has made prominent appearances in <b>The Night Shift</b> (NBC), <b>Killjoys</b> (SyFy) and <b>Mercy Street </b>(PBS), as well as thirteen Hallmark Channel movies (not a typo). In the near future is a major role in "Platonic" an Apple TV+ comedy series (10 half-hour episodes ordered so far).<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">In 2018 Luke was made a naturalized U.S. citizen. </span><br />
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</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Luke in "Killjoys":</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37_1dDFbOFzuY0gYsow90UKMWqWqU5ZbJnVpDY0ZZw8xEL0wgyw6rzmjY7Oxi5XqHauhTTg4OIyPREBYYhJrUHdnEbsdpoRIaCHV6-4PLcgubvFFoIfBSrDn6a0VXstva2Yhq5jYv-0P4/s450/LukeMacfarlane-Killjoys.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="300" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh37_1dDFbOFzuY0gYsow90UKMWqWqU5ZbJnVpDY0ZZw8xEL0wgyw6rzmjY7Oxi5XqHauhTTg4OIyPREBYYhJrUHdnEbsdpoRIaCHV6-4PLcgubvFFoIfBSrDn6a0VXstva2Yhq5jYv-0P4/w426-h640/LukeMacfarlane-Killjoys.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><p><br /><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Luke plays the cello:</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzu86vRpzgC8-hSSM8nW_9nxZBtoXyAJpMX2A5UvmM4BBfaHGPYQo-u9EXwcea6Axb-pvC4MbgdAQvUGNoELQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: large;"></span><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-57156180648081318402022-10-13T05:32:00.001-04:002022-10-13T11:41:00.023-04:00Jack Cole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpiFGfTP_mdtAIAM0ExhGxTai1k5ZqoNVLfgO3ltlCNMtCvB5EU7236Rr_0ulXnE9O55tWSgqokhbZuSfQjUA8_LbU1AHfJ9Z0iqOmfboKIRy06lIJUHAMYGbMLnK10KYYSdLMYvmdMuz/s340/Jack_Cole_dance.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpiFGfTP_mdtAIAM0ExhGxTai1k5ZqoNVLfgO3ltlCNMtCvB5EU7236Rr_0ulXnE9O55tWSgqokhbZuSfQjUA8_LbU1AHfJ9Z0iqOmfboKIRy06lIJUHAMYGbMLnK10KYYSdLMYvmdMuz/s400/Jack_Cole_dance.jpg" width="395" /></a></div><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Jack Cole</b> (1911-1974) was the most influential choreographer you’ve never heard of. As a dancer, choreographer and director, Cole’s relative obscurity today belies the major influence he had on stage and cinema musicals of the 1940s-50s and -60s. Considered the father of modern jazz dance, his many disciples became much more famous than their muse – Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse, Jerome Robbins, Tommy Tune, Matt Mattox, and Alvin Ailey, among others. According to Agnes de Mille, “They all stole from Cole,” a sentiment shared by his greatest interpreter, the sassy redhead Gwen Verdon – Cole’s protégée.<br />
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A New Jersey native, Cole ventured far beyond his modern-dance roots. Entranced by the Asian influences of the Denishawn Dance Company, he studied <i>bharata nātyam</i> with master instructor Uday Shankar (Ravi's uncle). As a dynamic, powerhouse solo dancer, Cole projected tough masculine energy. Photos show the elegant, muscular young Cole striking sphinx-like poses dressed in harem pants and jewels, captivating audiences at NYC’s Rainbow Room with exotic, weird, entrancing movements. In many ways, he was America’s Nijinsky. He was also homosexual, but he remained closeted during his entire career. Even though the field of choreography is not exactly overly populated by heterosexuals, such were the times. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5EjwRWWW6m_OMWxdx6zhLx4kClRSjdVnHZWYFzOBljoQHVY8CSe1WEqUwThJ25MzHct34Hzla4elEml7mCRxOvfEC1QYtdSaqHbg_EwOP5v0fdP3yCkaelLKPIwpGNpeWXiaXyQVDzpg/s820/JackCole.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5EjwRWWW6m_OMWxdx6zhLx4kClRSjdVnHZWYFzOBljoQHVY8CSe1WEqUwThJ25MzHct34Hzla4elEml7mCRxOvfEC1QYtdSaqHbg_EwOP5v0fdP3yCkaelLKPIwpGNpeWXiaXyQVDzpg/s320/JackCole.jpg" width="243" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;">Entering the Manhattan nightclub scene, he infused Afro-Caribbean, Spanish and Asian dance motifs into floor shows. During the late 1930s the<b> Jack Cole Dancers</b> headlined at leading nightclubs, including regular stints at NYC’s<i> Rainbow Room</i> and <i>Ciro's</i> on the Sunset Strip in L.A. He then became a master choreographer for Broadway. stage. Among his many hits were <i>Kismet</i> (1953), <i>A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum</i> (1962), and <i>Man of La Mancha</i> (1965).<br />
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His greatest fame came from his work in nearly 30 films. Miraculously, he was able to coach stellar performances from untrained dance novices: Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth and, most notably, Marilyn Monroe. He made Rita Hayworth sizzle in “Put the Blame on Mame” in <i>Gilda</i> (1946). Cole was responsible for Grable’s astonishing “No Talent Joe” number in <i>Meet Me After the Show</i> (1951). Perhaps his greatest triumph was “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend,” a show-stopping performance by Marilyn Monroe in <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i> (1953). That was the role that made her a famous sex symbol, and Cole was responsible for every shimmy, strut, arm gesture, shoulder shrug and hip bump. Monroe, a complete dance novice at the time, was so impressed by his coaching that she insisted he work with her on five more of her film projects.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend</b></span> (YouTube)<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">This production number made Marilyn Monroe a star. Her every gesture is Cole’s creation; he was even responsible for her breathy singing delivery. Knowing her limitations, he made a showcase number out of her available talents.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /><b>Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love</b></span><br />
(Jane Russell – Gentlemen Prefer Blondes)<br />
Can there be any question that it was a gay man who choreographed this number?</p><p><span style="font-size: x-small;">20th-Century Fox does not allow embedding, so you’ll have to click the link below to see this production number.</span> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxDbvtqcNxs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxDbvtqcNxs</a><br /></div><br /><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;">"Marilyn and I had never danced before; we were a pair of klutzes," Russell told Cole biographer Glenn Meredith Loney of <i>Dance</i> magazine. "Jack was horrible to his own dancers, but with us, the two broads, he had the patience of Job. He would show us and show us and then turn us over to Gwen Verdon." Russell said she fled several sessions in exhaustion, while Monroe begged Cole and Verdon to continue into the night. Cole not only choreographed the <i>Gentlemen Prefer Blondes</i> dance numbers, he directed them, as well. Russell revealed that “Gentlemen” director Howard Hawks was not even on the set when the dance sequences were being shot.<br />
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Much of Cole's choreography reflected the hip, cool-Daddy flavor of the Beat generation. His infamous knee glides were a trademark, but famously hard on the knees of the dancers. Cole was a slave driver, notoriously demanding of his dancers. He was a known terror in the dance studio, a force to be respected and feared. He cussed a blue steak, sparing no one, and his technique classes were brutal. When a female dancer fainted in rehearsal, others were afraid to stop, hopping awkwardly over her body. He harangued bandleaders who didn't swing and scolded chatting customers during his nightclub performances. Wearing harem pants and sporting a bare chest, he once chased a belligerent client down Wilshire Boulevard wielding a kitchen knife.<br />
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In his 1984 Cole biography, "Unsung Genius,"<i> Dance</i> magazine writer Glenn Meredith Loney relates that, although Cole purported to loathe Los Angeles (keeping a Manhattan pied-a-terre for Broadway work), his primary residence was in an isolated location in the Hollywood Hills, way up on Kew Drive on a precipice reachable only by a dangerous, narrow twisting road, barely wide enough for one car. This was the perfect place for a closeted gay man to hang out, and Cole lived here from 1943 until his death from cancer at 62 in 1974. In his last two years of life, he was a treasured UCLA dance instructor and a scholar with an impressive private dance library.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Jack Cole: Jazz Dancing</span><br />
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</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-83640992122008679292022-09-30T12:46:00.005-04:002023-05-29T13:47:39.951-04:00George Maharis<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzo68WVDFwJVgSl_rA1GXp8MPRulryF8LYYaSy3UeHaX7YWQSAwc1lbAB-M_Ymu5tBBb7HIaoMavv8dpgnjvRvsfvVz2jgsC3CsF7B5Ts9Y_JfARn2nbBxfWejgFckbwKaHKLDEm__bG9z/s1600/GeoMaharisTux.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzo68WVDFwJVgSl_rA1GXp8MPRulryF8LYYaSy3UeHaX7YWQSAwc1lbAB-M_Ymu5tBBb7HIaoMavv8dpgnjvRvsfvVz2jgsC3CsF7B5Ts9Y_JfARn2nbBxfWejgFckbwKaHKLDEm__bG9z/s400/GeoMaharisTux.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>
<span style="font-size: medium;">UPDATED BLOG POST: </span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>George Maharis died at home in Beverly Hills on May 24, 2023. He was 94 years old.<br /></b></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Hollywood actor George Maharis (b. 1928) was arrested November 21, 1974 and charged with committing a sex act with a male hairdresser in the men's room of a gas station in Los Angeles. 46 years old at the time, Maharis was booked on a sex perversion charge and released on $500 bail. Six years earlier Maharis had been arrested by a vice squad officer for lewd conduct in the restroom of a Hollywood restaurant; the officer said Maharis made a pass at him.<br />
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Well, now that we have that out of the way...<br />
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Best known for his role as Buz Murdock on the hit 1960s CBS television series <i><b>Route 66</b></i>, Maharis had just posed nude for <i>Playgirl </i>magazine the year before his 1974 arrest. Route 66 was a 1960-1964 series about two guys and a Corvette who roamed the country together – often dressed in coats and ties, for no apparent reason. I kid you not. Maharis received an Emmy nomination for this role in 1962. However, Maharis left the wildly popular show before it ended its run, and there has been much speculation as to why.<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Maharis told the story that he had contracted infectious hepatitis in 1962, and that the shoots were so grueling that to continue would risk his health. He asked the producers to give him a less arduous schedule, but they refused, and he left the show, to be replaced by Glenn Corbett in the role of Lincoln Case. However, others relate a different scenario. <i><b>Route 66</b></i> producer Herbert B. Leonard found out that Maharis was gay and was having a hard time keeping his star’s sexual activities away from the press. Maharis also used the illness, Leonard said, as an excuse to break his contract so that he could get into movies. Co-star Martin Milner (in the role of Tod) and a <i><b>Route 66</b></i> writer-producer confirm this version. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglY8cX7mZ47vxEeOGO3S4tfXvbKBgjWhalBbDs4BQHuJzx18NG7wA5lvjfpo3yMYBwov7bMxtwigy_db11N-kq9xooLawLs78YGvdvh84iqAAOH-bElLIMfxAdEpniaJKu3BdZz_X7I-vD8w5LMrKljNHNyf10hlAAcxd-QtZBWTbuJ5RYvGjXfp1vQw/s720/GeorgeMaharis-MartinMilner.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="594" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglY8cX7mZ47vxEeOGO3S4tfXvbKBgjWhalBbDs4BQHuJzx18NG7wA5lvjfpo3yMYBwov7bMxtwigy_db11N-kq9xooLawLs78YGvdvh84iqAAOH-bElLIMfxAdEpniaJKu3BdZz_X7I-vD8w5LMrKljNHNyf10hlAAcxd-QtZBWTbuJ5RYvGjXfp1vQw/w528-h640/GeorgeMaharis-MartinMilner.jpg" width="528" /></a></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">George Maharis & Martin Milner</span><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Maharis eventually did break into movies, but they were all forgettable B-grade films. Maharis also played stage roles, but nothing ever matched his success as Buz on <i><b>Route 66</b></i>, and the TV show never recovered from Maharis’s departure.<br />
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According to Karen Blocher, who is working on a book about Maharis and has interviewed him for the project, the reality of why Maharis left <i><b>Route 66</b></i> is a combination of the two. She writes, “The producers felt betrayed and duped when they learned of Maharis's sexual orientation, and never trusted him again. Maharis, for his part, started to feel that he was carrying the show and was going unappreciated. So when he got sick, and came back, and started griping about the working conditions, the producers assumed it was all a ploy to either get more money or else get out of his contract and go make movies. In a less homophobic era, they might have communicated better, and worked things out instead of letting each other down.”<br />
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Maharis also had a singing career, releasing seven albums between the years 1962 and 1966, a time period that overlapped his appearance on <i><b>Route 66</b></i>. Maharis regularly appeared in Las Vegas nightclubs during the 1980s. Video below.<br /></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RyxJULopx_M" width="320" youtube-src-id="RyxJULopx_M"></iframe></span></div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /> </span><br />
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Here’s a complete <b>Route 66</b> one-hour episode from early 1962.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/eGgeKPsmiuc?rel=0" width="480"></iframe><p></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com83tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-73908748994720468802022-09-28T15:38:00.000-04:002022-09-28T15:38:35.229-04:00Steel Magnate Friedrich Alfred Krupp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIPHdV5H952HBviZaFhR45iGUBN03BYNxO3GtFg1lq9dunpnHAAr-DDa1tFl1XflUQ_lqP9Gy8r7lGHr1JRn1xJHAgQM6Tn9sLXspuQc1sDwqbfYqFAd8Vs3loacjSIjsfDmyyG4wzPYZ/s1600/FritzKrupp.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXIPHdV5H952HBviZaFhR45iGUBN03BYNxO3GtFg1lq9dunpnHAAr-DDa1tFl1XflUQ_lqP9Gy8r7lGHr1JRn1xJHAgQM6Tn9sLXspuQc1sDwqbfYqFAd8Vs3loacjSIjsfDmyyG4wzPYZ/w300-h400/FritzKrupp.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;">The multimillionaire German steel industrialist <b>F. A. Krupp</b> (1854-1902) loved the Italian island of Capri, off the coast of Naples, where he resided for several months each year at the <i><b>Hotel Quisisana</b></i>*. He kept two yachts there, Maya and Puritan, from which he entertained and pursued his hobby of oceanography. He could well afford to, since his father – Alfred, the Cannon King – had amassed the largest personal fortune in Germany. Alfred's power was so great that crowned heads negotiated directly with him.<br />
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While on the island, Krupp (known all his life as Fritz) indulged his homosexual leanings in a big way. He set up a lavish private pleasure club in a grotto, where he entertained underage Italian boys, mostly the sons of local fishermen. Man on man sex was performed to the accompaniment of a live string quartet, and orgasms were celebrated with bursts of fireworks. Solid gold pins shaped like artillery shells or two crossed forks, both designed by Krupp, were given to the boys if they performed well. I'm not making this up.<br />
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When Krupp's wife, back home in Germany, heard rumors of what was going on, she went straight to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who promptly had her committed to an insane asylum in Jena. The thinking was that the Krupp industrialist empire (steel and arms manufacturing) was too vital to German national security to be compromised, even if such lurid stories were deemed true. Besides, Fritz was an important philanthropist who advanced the study of eugenics, which was later to become associated with the Nazis. The company lives on today as <b>Thyssen-Krupp AG</b>, the result of a controversial merger completed in 1999. The new company operates worldwide in steel manufacture, capital goods (elevators and industrial equipment) and services (specialty materials, environmental services, mechanical engineering, and scaffolding services).</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">But I digress. Krupp’s homosexual tastes predated his holidays on Capri. Conrad Uhl, proprietor of the Hotel Bristol in Berlin, related that he was charged with supplying Fritz with young boys when he stayed there. However, the German press eventually found out about Krupp's illicit private affairs, and printed the whole story, complete with damning photographs taken by Krupp himself inside the grotto on Capri. On November 15, 1902, the Social Democratic magazine <i><b>Vorwärts</b></i> reported that <b>Friedrich Alfred Krupp</b> was homosexual, that he had a number of liaisons with local boys and men, and that his principal attachment was to <b>Adolfo Schiano</b>, an 18-year-old barber and amateur musician who lived on Capri. A week later, Krupp requested a meeting with his close friend, <b>Kaiser Wilhelm II</b>, whose circle of friends included many prominent gay men. On the day he was to meet the emperor, November 22, 1902, Krupp was found dead in his home. Rather than face disgrace, Krupp had committed suicide; he was 48 years old at the time.<br />
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The suicide was covered up, and his body was concealed in a casket with no autopsy, even though law required it. No one, not even close relatives, was allowed to see the body. After three days, Germany had a great memorial ceremony involving the Kaiser, who was closely allied to the family. When Fritz was laid to rest in the Krupp family cemetery in Essen, his tomb was guarded day and night.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Ten years ago, when I first visited <b>Capri</b>**, I looked down in wonder from the <i><b>Gardens of Augustus</b></i> to the switchback paved footpath known as the <b>Via Krupp</b>, a scenic walkway constructed by Fritz in 1900. Ostensibly Via Krupp was a connection for Fritz between his rooms at the Hotel Quisisana and <b>Marina Piccola</b>, the small port where his marine biology research ship (ironically named the <b>Puritan</b>) lay at anchor. Secretly, however, this path conveyed him to <i><b>Grotta di Fra’ Felice</b></i>, the grotto where sex orgies with local boys took place. When the scandal surfaced, Krupp was asked to leave Italy in 1902, and a week after his return to Germany his life was over.<br />
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*The <b>Grand Hotel Quisisana</b> is today a member of Leading Hotels of the World.<br />
<a href="http://www.quisisana.com/en/index">www.quisisana.com/en/index</a><br />
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**At the time I had no knowledge of this lurid tale. Today there is a small family-run three star hotel called <b>Villa Krupp </b>on Capri which many people mistakenly believe was built by Fritz Krupp. However, this structure was built as a private villa in 1900 by <b>Eduardo Settanni</b>. By the way, Capri was then known as the gay capital of Europe, hosting hordes of lesbians and gay men, who could pursue their interests openly.<i><b> Tip: </b></i>remember to pronounce Capri with the accent on the first syllable (KAH-pree).<br />
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The <b>Via Krupp</b> descends 300 feet from the Gardens of Augustus to Marina Piccola, where Fritz hosted all male sex orgies in the nearby <b>Grotta di Fra’ Felice</b>. The iron gate pictured below leads to the grotto. He referred to this grotto as the "holy place of a secret fraternity," and he gave out golden keys to the private gate to waiters and fisherman. He wasn’t even trying to be discrete. This stone path, which had been closed for thirty years because of the danger of falling rocks, was reopened to foot traffic in 2009.</span><br />
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Photo below: <i>On Capri Fritz Krupp satisfies his "needs," which leads to disaster</i> (Auf Capri geht Fritz Krupp den Bedürfnissen nach, die ihm schließlich zum Verhängnis werden) – a scene from the 2009 three-part German TV miniseries, <i><b>Krupp – Eine Deutsche Familie</b></i>. In this scene Krupp (center) brings one of the local boys back to his hotel to "satisfy his needs."<br />
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Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-72866767498228605442022-09-13T16:45:00.002-04:002022-11-03T18:00:18.169-04:00Tsar Alexander I of Russia<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">Alexander I (1777-1825), emperor of Russia from 1801 to 1825, was born in St. Petersburg, where he was raised by his grandmother, Catherine the Great. He was the first Russian King of Poland (1815 to 1825) and also the first Russian Grand Duke of Finland and Lithuania. At age 24 Alexander ascended to the Russian throne after the assassination of his father, Tsar Paul I. For Alexander’s indirect involvement in the plot to kill his father, he suffered from guilt the rest of his life.<br />
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Rumors of Alexander’s homosexuality began soon after his coronation in 1801. His companion and aide was Prince Peter Volkonsky, who served the Tsar as Chief of Staff and Imperial Minister, going on to become one of the most decorated officers in the Russian army. Prince Volkonsky was, according to K. K. Rotikov, “partial to a fair few of his fellow officers.” Alexander was so smitten that he once tearfully proposed that he and Volkonsky “retire together to a villa on the Black Sea.” It should be mentioned that Prince Volkonsky had also participated in the plot to remove Tsar Paul I from the throne.<br />
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Well, there you have it.</span><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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The dashing Prince Peter Volkonsky:</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">During the early part of his rule, Alexander relied on four of his young male companions for political guidance and support. Whatever Alexander reaped from his relationship with those four lads, it was definitely not astute political advice. Alexander spent the first years of his reign fighting Napoleon, who defeated him at the Battle of Austerlitz (it was Prince Volkonsky who commanded the Russian troops). Forced to sign the humiliating Treaty of Tilsit in 1807, which among other things brought the Holy Roman Empire to an end, Alexander made a comeback in 1812 by defeating the French – cue Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture” while dusting off Tolstoy’s ”War and Peace”. For a brief time Alexander became a hero across the continent. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-size: large;">All that off to one side, the tsar had two daughters with his wife and four other children by two mistresses. It appears he was a quite active bisexual.<br />
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After the Congress of Vienna in 1815, however, Alexander’s mental state deteriorated, and he turned to religious mysticism. He had hoped to establish a new Christian order in Europe through a Holy Alliance with Austria and Prussia, but he ended his reign as a recluse.<br />
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Napoleon said of Alexander I, "He was the slyest and handsomest of all the Greeks!*" <br />
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*At the time of Napoleon’s comment, “Greek” meant “homosexual male.”</span></p><p><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Sources: </span></i></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Queers in History (2012)<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"> <br /></span></p>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-8750815168740662122022-08-20T17:35:00.003-04:002022-08-20T18:50:58.255-04:00Siegfried Wagner's Homosexual Circle<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Siegfried Wagner</b> (1869-1930), son of the great German opera composer <b>Richard Wagner</b> (father and son in photo at right), displayed a feminine demeanor while growing up and was greatly attached to his mother. During his student days he often dressed up as a ballerina, and he had affairs with several of his fellow male students.<br />
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Siegfried, who was also the grandson of pianist/composer <b>Franz Liszt</b>, became part of a circle of high-profile closeted homosexual men, including English composer <b>Clement Harris</b>, tenor <b>Max Lorenz</b>, writer <b>Oscar Wilde</b>, illustrator<b> Franz Stassen</b> and <b>Prince Philipp of Eulenburg</b>. In 1892 Clement Harris and 23-year-old Siegfried set off on an around-the-world tour together, and the two fell deeply in love. Wagner kept a portrait of Harris on his desk for the rest of his life. <br />
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When journalist <b>Maximilian Harden</b> later accused Prince Philipp of Eulenburg and others close to Kaiser Wilhelm II of homosexuality (<i>Harden-Eulenburg Affair</i>), Siegfried either had to get married or be exposed for what he was. So it was that in 1915 at the age of 46, after strong prodding from his mother, Siegfried Wagner married an 18-year-old Englishwoman named <b>Winifred Klindworth</b>, with whom he had four children, thus providing heirs for the continuation of the Wagner dynasty. His sexual orientation, however, became the source of both scandal and concerted attempts to erase it from the history of the Wagner family.<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Siegfried Wagner in his twenties (left).<br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">When the Wagner dynasty’s papers were bequeathed to Bayreuth’s Richard Wagner Foundation in 1973, Winifred Wagner included Siegfried’s musical scores but withheld her husband's correspondence. This was consistent with the family’s notorious stalling and purging of any revelations that would taint the legacy of Richard Wagner. <br />
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In response to Harden’s insinuations about his sexual nature, Siegfried replied, “There was ugly gossip about Frederick the Great, too, the greatest king of all time – and he made Prussia great and strong! So don't worry. I won't defile the House of the Festival.” The irony in that statement is that all the rumors and gossip about Frederick the Great were true.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Siegfried did not give up social and sexual relations with homosexuals, however, and he and Franz Stassen (1869-1949), a gay artist who had served as the best man at Siegfried’s wedding, continued a social and artistic relationship that lasted for decades. Stassen (at left) was a noted Art Nouveau painter and illustrator who also married. Siegfried introduced Stassen to Wagnerian tenor Max Lorenz (1901-1975), much admired by Hitler, even though Lorenz was a gay man married to a Jewish woman. For a time Stassen and Lorenz were involved in an affair. When Hitler, who was a financial supporter of the Bayreuth Festival, could no longer publicly endorse Lorenz, it was Siegfried’s wife Winifred who used her influence to rescue Bayreuth’s star heldentenor from public disgrace, exile and possible imprisonment over a charge of homosexuality.<br />
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Most historians concede that Hitler and Winnifred (below) carried on an affair after Siegfried’s death in 1930; there were even rumors of a possible marriage. Although Winifred was proud of her association with Hitler, when he visited her at Bayreuth, she took pains to conceal the connection. Hitler would register at the Hotel Bube in nearby Bad Berneck, and Winnifred would send her own car to pick him up, so that Hitler's ostentatious Mercedes would not be seen pulling into the driveway at Wahnfried, the Wagner family's villa built for Richard Wagner by King Ludwig II of Bavaria.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Following in his father’s footsteps, Siegfried Wagner was also a composer, but his operas, although popular during his lifetime, never entered the standard repertoire. In 1896 Siegfried began conducting at the Bayreuth Festival and from 1906-1930 was the festival’s sole artistic director. In Siegfried’s controversial 1930 staging of his father’s opera Tannhäuser, he boldly embellished several scenes with scantily clad male teenagers. In the opening Venusberg bacchanal scene their costume consisted of ballet slippers and loincloths -- nothing else. Don't believe me? There is archival video on YouTube.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Siegfried dedicated one of his eighteen operas to Franz Stassen, who designed stunning illustrations for the programs for Wagnerian opera productions at Bayreuth (example at right). Franz also published homoerotic drawings and paintings and went on to become a major player in the Teutonic Art Nouveau style. During the last decade of his life Stassen wrote recollections about his male "soul mate", thus publicly hinting at his own homosexuality. An aside -- Stassen was adept at illustrating male posteriors, most often naked, in a fashion we would describe these days as "perfect bubble butts".<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">
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In the previous decade Stassen had also become associated with the Nazi Party. He created four important tapestries for Hitler's Reich Chancellery in Berlin that illustrated motifs of the Germanic Edda sagas. In gratitude, Hitler awarded him the title of professor in 1939.<br />
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After 1941 Franz lived openly with his male partner and professed his homosexual orientation, but the Third Reich generously overlooked and ignored this declaration. In the final phase of World War II, Hitler included Stassen in the Gottbegnadeten (Gifted by God) list of important artists most crucial to Nazi culture.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Wagnerian tenor <b>Max Lorenz</b> (right) was homosexual as well, but in 1932 he married Lotte Appel, a Jewish singer who was aware of his sexual orientation going into the marriage. Max’s homosexuality was tolerated by the Nazis as a well-known secret, because Lorenz was a favorite of Hitler. When Lorenz was dragged into court because of an affair with a young man, Hitler advised Winifred Wagner, the director of the Bayreuth Festival after Siegfried’s death in 1930, that Lorenz would not be suitable for the Festival. She replied that in that case she would have to close the Festival, because, “...without Lorenz, there can be no Bayreuth.” Lorenz was thus retained.<br />
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As for his Jewish wife Lotte, Max insisted on being open about his marriage of convenience, which was taken as a provocation by the Nazis. Once when Lorenz was away from his house, the SS burst in and tried to take Lotte and her mother away. At the last moment Lotte Lorenz was able to make a phone call to Hermann Göring’s sister, and the SS was ordered to leave their residence and not bother the women. Göring stated in a letter dated March 21, 1943, that Lorenz was under his personal protection, and that no action should be taken against him, his wife, or her mother.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Siegfried Wagner -- <b>Violin Concerto in One Movement</b> (1915):</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: medium;">Second Movement (1927) of Siegfried Wagner’s <b>Symphony in C</b> (in the earlier 1925 first version of the symphony, the slow movement was recycled from the prelude to <i>Der Friedensengel</i>, an opera written in 1914):</span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HnE8HVweDrg?rel=0" width="480"></iframe>Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-984317470266050424.post-53578412699796375142022-08-05T04:59:00.007-04:002022-12-06T09:50:36.366-05:00Sal Mineo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1_97IssZ3WdJ-_1gAW0dOs2dKMZdOdBt4rMkuCit21issCe8zXCB9MIC-QRsIdOxj6K3wPZGe4Mm-c1avmY5Dudl_rHYjxHlsQhAEOJfLUhB0bbyUhtCTmQWV0GhxsbzUhkYZyDqL4Eua/s1600/SalMineo-BW.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVK_NWAZgBFiS-2CK67puxEfWfbnJUPCIscdj4UNO9MVG-75pjCu-M6URBHMtYkfpZMTTbnqERfqC_4sksEY0uwG3UlHKMA48sh-B04mMRilsfSYkre_4fczOEkaifEr7s-0xc1g_0YjSao7qi0XrohNJr7n-iw2EC7_dvL-R0Gq2Kn5MA8cM7J3ptA/s607/SalMineo-Biography.jpeg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="607" data-original-width="385" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcVK_NWAZgBFiS-2CK67puxEfWfbnJUPCIscdj4UNO9MVG-75pjCu-M6URBHMtYkfpZMTTbnqERfqC_4sksEY0uwG3UlHKMA48sh-B04mMRilsfSYkre_4fczOEkaifEr7s-0xc1g_0YjSao7qi0XrohNJr7n-iw2EC7_dvL-R0Gq2Kn5MA8cM7J3ptA/w254-h400/SalMineo-Biography.jpeg" width="254" /></a></div><br />Bisexual actor Sal Mineo (1939-1976) was defined by two things: his unforgettable Academy Award–nominated role opposite James Dean in the film <i><b>Rebel Without a Cause</b></i> (at age 15), and his murder in Hollywood at the age of 37.<br />
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Nevertheless, the Bronx-born actor of Italian heritage appeared in 22 films, directed stage plays and operas and made many television appearances. While still a youth he was mentored by Yul Brynner in the stage musical <i><b>The King and I</b></i>, Mineo had taken over the role of the young Prince Chulalongkorn three months into the show's initial run.<br />
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Sal Mineo was so convincing as Plato in <i><b>Rebel Without a Cause</b></i>* that he was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, leading to his being forever typecast as a troubled youth. It was difficult for him to sustain an acting career when he became too old for such parts. A welcome exception came with the role of a Jewish emigrant in Otto Preminger’s film <i><b>Exodus</b></i> (1960), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and received a second Academy Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Another escape from typecasting was his star turn as drummer Gene Krupa in <b><i>The Gene Krupa Story</i></b> (1959).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIEmV8-NiGyvBLHHX34U40HmNuHGvm5Unl2L5M9cB9qa51HRCNXhYtzv0qhl-80jueM7ubUoop6nihwfGpv9XHoX_6ILNxbQBN0I1UMP7MdLOCs8TMK3TdvWVWTul2RaIBJed8YWtotitV/s1600/SalMineo-RWAC1955.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIEmV8-NiGyvBLHHX34U40HmNuHGvm5Unl2L5M9cB9qa51HRCNXhYtzv0qhl-80jueM7ubUoop6nihwfGpv9XHoX_6ILNxbQBN0I1UMP7MdLOCs8TMK3TdvWVWTul2RaIBJed8YWtotitV/s400/SalMineo-RWAC1955.png" width="280" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: medium;">*<b><i>Rebel Without a Cause</i></b> also starred Natalie Wood. All three of the leads – James Dean, Sal Mineo (photo still from the film at left) and Natalie Wood – met with tragic, untimely deaths.<br />
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His mother, a quintessential stage mother, acted as his manager and spent his fortune faster than he could make it, leading to a series of financial crises, especially as his career tapered off. <br />
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In 1976 Mineo was stabbed to death in an alley next to his apartment building in West Hollywood by an unknown assailant. A year later actress Christa Helm was killed in the same neighborhood and in a similar fashion, and a pizza deliveryman by the name of Lionel Ray Williams was charged and convicted of that crime. Police had overheard him admitting to the murder of Sal Mineo, stating that at the time of the stabbing he did not know that his victim was Sal Mineo. <br />
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In <b>“Sal Mineo: A Biography”</b> (2010) by author Michael Gregg Michaud*, several rumors and speculations about Mineo’s private life are cleared up. British actress Jill Haworth, to whom Mineo was once engaged to be married, was not just a “beard” to mask a homosexual orientation. Although Sal Mineo idolized his bisexual film star James Dean, the two did not engage in sexual relations. The same with actor Don Johnson, who co-starred with Mineo in a stage production of <i>Fortune and Men’s Eyes</i> (1969), a play with a homosexual theme; Johnson and Mineo had once been roommates. At the time Mineo was murdered, he had been in a six-year relationship with male actor Courtney Burr III.</span><br />
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*From a book review by Gerry Burnie:<br />
<i>This exhaustive biography is not
only a tribute to Sal Mineo, a talented and misunderstood individual
who lived life to the fullest – no matter what he did – it is also a
tribute to the author’s unrelenting dedication. For example, the writing
of “Sal Mineo: A Biography” took Michaud ten years and three years of
research to complete. Moreover, numerous interviews were conducted, most
particularly with Jill Haworth and Courtney Burr (both were Sal Mineo’s
lovers), to give it a personal insight beyond the written record...Full
of details and previously undisclosed anecdotes, the biography captures
a career of ups and downs and a private life of sexual impulses.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDybnQSvKhg_6LI1lByuCwtTAgQuq5cHyUoJo5IPBXbj075PNeX6Kl1mKuUz0dkwfgERyscOrAfdHYvJb4cxpWyscn570vF5Ew-xK4d1NOgxAXoV-9brapOiNes07CcmaUJwSC0dntp6g/s1600/SalMineo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEDybnQSvKhg_6LI1lByuCwtTAgQuq5cHyUoJo5IPBXbj075PNeX6Kl1mKuUz0dkwfgERyscOrAfdHYvJb4cxpWyscn570vF5Ew-xK4d1NOgxAXoV-9brapOiNes07CcmaUJwSC0dntp6g/s640/SalMineo.jpg" width="454" /></a></div><p>
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</p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">It's a little-known fact that Sal Mineo was the model for <i><b>The New Adam</b></i>,
a colossal 8-foot-tall by 39-foot-long male nude painting (1962),
precisely and sensually rendered in full frontal anatomical detail over
nine linen panels by artist Harold Stevenson (1929-2018).</span>
</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2iUOqlWffNVmGB-jR_dav1ZVaz-A_kd-h4nSJPxwoEC8w6hGMBD7272J5tStCC2EANw5sdJgmhyHxIvLcUvgzDJdkqjCRku6bdP4J1y1W9tXoEl04OsjIQydRTvfiYwuFHE6lQRILaJTVL_t8edWRrdxPTLxqqhjjmAeftnA7U4txtb6nkWAE6DgK5g/s1200/HaroldStevenson-TheNewAdam.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2iUOqlWffNVmGB-jR_dav1ZVaz-A_kd-h4nSJPxwoEC8w6hGMBD7272J5tStCC2EANw5sdJgmhyHxIvLcUvgzDJdkqjCRku6bdP4J1y1W9tXoEl04OsjIQydRTvfiYwuFHE6lQRILaJTVL_t8edWRrdxPTLxqqhjjmAeftnA7U4txtb6nkWAE6DgK5g/w640-h320/HaroldStevenson-TheNewAdam.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /> <span style="font-size: medium;"> Since 2005 the painting (panels separated, above) has been part of the permanent collection of the New York City Guggenheim Museum, as shown in the image below. <i>Note: </i>currently not on display.</span><br />
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<br /><br />Terryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18219632588063153768noreply@blogger.com3