In my childhood bookcase was a line of volumes titile Book Of Marvels by Richard Halliburton. I loved them for the color plates of sexy shirtless, exotic men.
During the first half of the 20th century, 3 names came to mind when considering adventure & travel: Lindbergh, Earhart, & Halliburton. Even now, we know about the first 2, but have you known the story of Richard Halliburton?
Halliburton traveled the globe, pushing himself to the limit, all the while writing about his exotic exploits in books that thrilled readers living a less exciting life. He was Indiana Jones crossed with Auntie Mame. The likely reason he isn't part of our history is because this adventurous "man's man" was... a homo
Halliburton: "Realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days. Let those who wish have their respectability, I wanted freedom, freedom to indulge in whatever caprice struck my fancy. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you. Be afraid of nothing. The romantic… that was what I wanted."
In his prime, Halliburton was a daredevil who accomplished feats others only could dream of. He climbed the Matterhorn, swam the 48 mile Panama Canal in 1928, & flew over 50,000 miles around the world in his own airplane. He shot the first aerial photos of Mt. Everest, & hid in the Taj Mahal, where he swam in the pools in the moonlight. He hid from the guards in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia. In spirited stories, Halliburton fought off pirates off Macao, spent a week in Bali, snuck onto trains in India, avoiding the railway inspectors, joined the French Foreign Legion in Algeria, explored the road from Cairo to Damascus, & arrested for taking photos of the guns at Gibraltar. He slept atop an Egyptian pyramid. He took Iraq’s impetuous Prince Ghazi on a flight over Baghdad & nearly missed the stern curfew of his father, the king. He also rode an elephant, in the manner of Hannibal, across the Alps.
Halliburton starred in his own documentary films & gave many public appearances & speeches. He was daring in the face of danger, enthralling his public, but Halliburton not only kept his sexuality secret from his adoring fans, he went to great lengths to suggest otherwise. His adventure stories were filled with adoring women, leading readers to assume that his conquests continued in his bedroom.
Halliburton was gay. He had a special fondness staying on YMCA's, & it was an open secret that he had a romance with Hollywood heartthrob Ramon Navarro. Halliburton was smitten with Hollywood & was approached by Fox Studios in 1933 about making films based on his adventures. He idolized Rudolph Valentino for his good looks & desired a friendship with Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. He knew & admired Amelia Earhart, & they both were in high demand on the lecture circuit.
Halliburton settled down with another "bachelor"- Paul Mooney, his editor & co-writer. He commissioned a modernist-style house in Laguna Beach from Mooney’s other lover, 27 year old architect- William Alexander Levy. The 3 men lived together in a thoroughly modern relationship. The house was named “Hangover House,” reflecting his witty sensibility.
Halliburton in a letter to his father: “Dad, you hit the wrong target when you write that you wish I were at Princeton living ‘in the even tenor of my way.’ I hate that expression & as far as I am able I intend to avoid that condition. When impulse and spontaneity fail to make my 'way' as uneven as possible then I shall sit up nights inventing means of making life as conglomerate & vivid as possible. Those who live in the even tenor of their way simply exist until death ends their monotonous tranquility. No, there's going to be no even tenor with me. The more uneven it is the happier I shall be. When my time comes to die, I'll be able to die happy, for I will have done & seen & heard & experienced all the joy, pain, thrills, every emotion that any human ever had. I'll be especially happy if I am spared a stupid, common death in bed. So, Dad, I'm afraid your wish will always come to naught, for my way is to be ever changing, but always swift, acute & leaping from peak to peak instead of following the rest of the herd, shackled in conventionalities, along the monotonous narrow path in the valley. The dead have reached perfection when it comes to even tenor!”
With the financial success of his books & popular speaking engagements, Halliburton built a Chinese junk named the Sea Dragon. In 1939, he & Mooney set out to sail it from Hong Kong to San Francisco. His last contact was by radio from the Sea Gragon: “Southerly gales, squalls, lee rail under water, wet bunks, hard tack, bully beef, wish you were here, instead of me.”
I believe his story is ready for a movie treatment with Ryan Gosling starring, & me as Paul Mooney.
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