Born On This Day- August 12th... Alfred Lunt

I have always been absorbed by these types, the glamorous theatre & film personalities of the 1920s-1960s. “The Lunts” ruled the American theater scene during that era, with their dazzling partnership. Their careers flourished at a time when even the biggest stars would do national tours & successful actors worked exclusively year-round on the stage. Their friends included other glamorous theater people: Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman & Laurence Olivier.

There was never a question of their devotion, but the offstage union of Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne was a marriage between a gay man & a Lesbian. Their presentation of themselves as the ideal couple may have been their most skillful performance.

When prodded by best buddy- Noel Coward, the couple would sometimes teasingly hint about their private lives. Their scandalous 1933 hit- Design for Living allowed the Coward & his co-stars to romp through a 3 way implying that there was sex between the 2 male characters. Design for Living remains one of my favorite plays. I remain fascinated by the ups, downs & pitfalls of a 3 way relationship .The production showcased the flawless comic gifts for which the Lunts were most admired, but they also excelled at dramatic pieces too, but the Lunts will always be known for the light comedy & the amazing chemistry.

When relaxing, they retreated in high style to their country manor- 10 Chimneys, in Lunt's home state, Wisconsin (home of presumptive VP nominee, Paul Ryan), where he could cook & redecorate while she sewed her chic clothing. The Lunts were my kind of couple; they ate off an orange crate, siting on Biedermeier chairs. The Lunts were Post Apocalyptic Bohemians, for certain. The theater was life for them, & their life was a piece of theater. Their dwellings were theatrical sets, their parties were stage shows, everyone who socialized with them was turned into audience. It was remarked that they knew next to nothing about what was going on in the world, had largely theatrical friends, usually acted together & rehearsed their parts in taxis, even in bed.

There are all sorts of marriages, I should know. Unlike in other show biz marriages, the spouses were equal stars; equally glamorous to the world & to each other, not much reason for jealousy. Passion was what they enacted on the stage. Fontanne : ''We were friends right away. . . . I loved him utterly. We were in the same profession. We were like twins. When we were acting, I always thought of him as another person. . . . I had a new lover every night, and so had he.'' '' Hmmm… sexual passion?

The Lunts had a design for living to suit them both: There would be deep devotion. . . . There would be close friendships, particularly the triangle kind that Lynn preferred: Lynn, Alfred & a gay male, kindness, courtesy, loyalty & generosity. There would be passionate, total commitment to their work.

After Lunt's death, Fontanne toasted him with a glass of champagne, saying simply, "To Alfred." We will probably not see their likes again.

Born On This Day- July 4th... Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen

Gertrude Lawrence had hordes of adoring audiences in both Britain & the USA. She was the first true international superstar, a cockney who conquered adoring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lawrence’s appeal went far beyond the sophisticated international elite, she lived in the USA through most of her career, & toured the country so widely as to be a front-page celebrity from coast to coast. The Gershwins wrote Oh, Kay!,for her, where she was the first to sing Someone To Watch Over Me. Noel Coward wrote Private Lives, one of the greatest comedies of the 20^th century for her, & together they created the sparkling characters of Elyot & Amanda. Kurt Weill & Moss Hart wrote Lady in the Dark for her; Rogers & Hammerstein wrote The King & I for her, & most theater people agree that Joe Mankiewicz wrote the movie All About Eve, about her.

But by the time of her early death at the age of 54, she had made only a handful of films, now seldom seen, in which the camera failed to capture her allure. Those who never saw her magic light up a stage are left with only the recordings of her haunting & precarious singing voice as proof to her greatness.

She was Noel Coward’s best buddy for 40 years. Coward, who met her when they worked together on stage when she was 14, describes her face as “far from pretty, but tremendously alive”. Lawrence was lifelong friends & a frequent collaborator with lesbian & comic genius-  Beatrice Lillie.

Without her theatrical make-up, she was quite plain, one reason, perhaps, why her success was confined to the stage & never repeated on screen. When the curtain went up, a strange transformation would occur. Coward: “Sometimes, in Private Lives, I would look at her across the stage & she would simply take my breath away.”

At their first meeting, Lawrence told the 13-year-old Coward a few 'mildly dirty stories' & later took him into a bedroom and introduced him to the facts of life. It has been suggested that Lawrence may have been the homosexual Coward's only heterosexual experience. Coward denied this vehemently & told Gore Vidal that he had never had sex with a woman.

Vidal: “Not even with Gertie Lawrence?”

Coward: “Particularly not with Miss Lawrence.”

Lawrence had one short-lived marriage & there was a long succession of lovers, male & female, including the married actor/manager Sir Gerald du Maurier. His daughter, novelist Daphne du Maurier, bitterly resented Lawrence's role in her father's life because of the distress it caused her mother & extracted a sort of revenge by becoming Lawrence's lover.

Another love affair was with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Fairbanks: “She was very temperamental, very jealous, could be exhausting, moody, difficult - but also enchanting & alive & very funny.”

But the most controversial relationship of all was her fling with the Prince of Wales - the future Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor. Their affair infuriated his mother, Queen Mary, who disapproved of Lawrence for ever after.

By the peak of her fame in the 1930s, Lawrence was massively in debt. Her NYC lawyer observed that she spent money “like an entire fleet of drunken sailors”. To the amazement of her friends, she married the wealthy American impresario & theatre owner, Richard Aldrich.

Coward disliked him, but cabled with his customary wit: “Dear Mrs A, Hooray Hooray. At last you are deflowered. On this as every other day I love you. Noel Coward.”

Like other friends, he doubted she really loved Aldrich, but the marriage gave her financial security. Lawrence continued to have affairs with members of both sexes while a married lady.

One of her last lovers was Yul Brynner, 35 & married, was virtually unknown when he was cast in The King & I, with the 52 year old Lawrence’s name above the title & his below it.

Throughout rehearsals, there were many complaints from Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein about her singing flat. She became increasingly temperamental, & the director, the very gayJohn Van Druten, was not tough enough to handle her.

Brynner exuded masculine authority & sexual magnetism. When he spoke, Lawrence listened. Largely due to his influence, the show became a hit. But the complaints about Lawrence’s singing increased. Rodgers & Hammerstein wanted her out of the show.

Lawrence, who was in love with Brynner, had no intention of quitting, but 18 months into the run, during the heat of a NYC summer, she collapsed. She was dying from cancer of the liver. 

She told her lawyer from her hospital bed: “I don't think I'm going to get out of this place. See that Yul gets star billing. He has earned it.” She wasn't just talking about his acting.

When Lawrence died on September 6, 1952, they dimmed the lights on Broadway & in London's West End.

When Oscar Hammerstein told Brynner he would now receive top billing, he started to cry. Hammerstein : “He told me, & I believed him, that losing Lawrence was a tremendous price to pay for advancement. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.”

There is a rather good film based on Lawrence’s life that is filled with first rate musical numbers- Star!,with Julie Andrews as Lawrence. The 1968 film, directed by Robert Wise, mostly gets it right.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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



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

Mad At The Boy

I feel quite certain that some gay person, born on this very day, contributed in a directive & positive way to our civilization… but damn, if my research could drag one out of the past to from a post for you.

I felt that empty place deep inside me & I wasn’t feeling confident that I had a post for today. After some consideration & several glasses of Pinot Grigio, it came to me that I could, perhaps, let you dear readers just have a little peek at the Bohemian Life.

During my new life as a stay-at-home-mom, the rhythm goes rather like this:

I awake each day between 6 & 6:30am. Early, you are thinking? Well, for me it is sleeping in, reasonably, if you have been awakening at 3:45am, as I have for more than half a decade.

I feed & water the canines- Lulu & Junior, plus the pussy- Henry, & make tea for The Husband & myself. At 6:50am, I rouse The Husband & turn on the TV to catch the local weather followed by the first half hour of The Today Show, a tradition in this family since the amiable J. Fred Muggs in 1952, & we both check our Emails. The Husband makes oatmeal, the best oatmeal… the long way… with berries.

Lulu, Junior & I then go for a walk, for at least a ½ hour. This time is not just for dogs to pee & poop, but also the time that I use to settle the sounds in my head & sort out my feelings, rather like meditation/ therapy/ picking up life’s poops.

Off to the gym for a ½ hour of cardio, a ½ hour of weights, followed by an hour of senior circuit training class. In the circuit training class, I am the youngest person & the only male. The old broads look on me with pity & pride. Tuesday & Fridays include a yoga class.

When I return, the time should be Post Apocalyptic Bohemian time, with equal space for writing, reading & working in the garden. Dishes, laundry, picking up & vacuuming are a given.

Because I so very much value time just for myself, the universe has always tried to thwart the possibility of a peaceful & productive day. So much shit can be tossed my way, but of late it has been Dan, the Red Neck Neighbor & Spencer, the Red Hot Hottie, who are crushing my spirit.

Red Neck Dan is my nearest neighbor. He almost has some sort of corpse, sometimes an elk, sometimes a salmon, often it is mystery meat, that he shoves in his smoker on his back patio, a mere 15 feet from our bathroom window. Dan has 4 children from 5 different women. His property is abuzz with kids in the yard, in an above ground pool & adults drinking, screaming & fighting. Yesterday, Dan used a pressure washer powered by the world’s loudest generator for 12 hours. I suppose he was hosing down his house, his boat, his children, & the dead deer on the patio.

I have lived with neighbor Dan for over decade. I am used to it & strangely, we are cordial to each other. My dog- Larry & Dan’s dog- Buddy were lifelong enemies, each snarling on the other side of a fence. When they coincidentally died hours apart, Dan & shared a beer & a cry.

Of late, my new life as a stay-at-home mom is being compromised by the new neighbor in the house behind Post Apocalyptic Bohemia. The very young, hot, tight bodied, gay Spencer has moved in to the rental behind us with his 2 large Shepard mix dogs, a brood of chickens & his sidekick lesbian- Olivia. The Husband recently inquired: “Have you seen the guy who lives behind us? I caught a glimpse of him mowing his lawn. He was wearing just the tiniest of short shorts & he has the mightiest thighs I have ever theen!”  Leave it to The Husband to see the bright side when I have asked for it.

Spencer plays his music, with speakers in the windows aimed at his back yard. The volume is so pounding that it might as well be originating in my own house.  For one so young & gay, Spencer has fairly good taste in music, or I might go mad, but I still might have opted for silence on a nice afternoon. The problem with young Spencer is not his thighs, music volume, or chickens. You readers know that I love canines more than people, but Spencer’s dogs bark constantly when Spencer & the sidekick are away from their house. I don’t how they do it, but the dogs actually yap & cry without interruption for 4, 6, sometimes 10 hours, all this, just 15 feet from what would be the best spot in the back garden for reading, meditating, medicating or napping.

I delivered a witty, buzzy note about the situation to young Spencer. I explained that I was home during the day & on sabbatical, loving nothing more than spending time in my garden abutting the set for The Grapes Of Wrath that he calls a backyard. He has answered with louder music & additional barking. Apparently, he does not understand who he is dealing with.

My thoughts were drawn this afternoon, to my idol- Sir Noel Coward. Why, I do not know, except that after loving him for 45+ years, Coward continues to inspire & amuse. I was somehow brought back to this anecdote:

Coward had invited a boy to come up to his apartment. When the elevator doors closed, Coward moved quickly across the floor & kissed the boy full on the mouth. Once upstairs, he changed into a smoking jacket, poured some white wine, lit a cigarette, placed it in a holder, & coquettishly stood at the mantel.

The young man mustered up the courage & said: “Mr. Coward, I am afraid I must tell you before we go any farther, I am not gay.”

Coward took a deep drag of his cigarette, looked deep into his eyes & said: “Yes. I knew it when I kissed you.”

Born On This Day- January 15th.... Ivor Novello

"Lovemaking is an art which must be studied & practiced."

Jeremy Northam as Novello

I love this film & after seeing Robert Altman's brilliant Best Picture nominated film- Gosford Park for the 4th time, I had to explain to a friend that the character of Ivor Novello was not from the imagination of screenwriters Bob Balaban & Mr. Altman. Jeremy Northam's portrayal of the matinee idol was so effortless & elegant that it's easy to believe him to be just another one of Altman's brilliant creations. But Ivor Novello was, in fact, a major & important celebrity in the 1st half of the 20th century, the kind Cole Porter & Noel Coward personified & loved to write about: the smoking jacket wearing, martini drinking, man-about-town, & what a big surprise… Ivor Novello was gay!

He was born David Ivor Davies on this day- January 15th, 1893 in Wales.

Ivor Novello did it all, working on the stage to the silent screen in D.W. Griffith's The White Rose & the early Hitchcock thriller- The Lodger. He wrote popular plays such as The Rat & movies- Tarzan the Ape Man ("Me Tarzan, you Jane" was the invention of Novello). He gave Vivien Leigh her stage name, & wrote the popular British patriotic song Keep the Home Fires Burning. He was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of the 1930s & 1940s, composing lush, romantic musicals- Glamorous Night & Perchance to Dream.

He was as versatile & prolific as his friend & rival Noel Coward. Critics fell all over themselves trying to describe his romantic appeal, which proved to be as powerful to many male theatre & moviegoers as to the legions of Novello's swooning female fans. Coward himself would admit Novello could be "violently glamorous" but also "a little vulgar too”. I think that was the secret of his appeal.

In 1916, Novello met 21 year old actor Robert Andrews. They became lovers & remained together for 35 years. They appeared together in many of Ivor Novello's plays & musicals. Novello bought a house in Jamaica, near Noel Coward’s, where he & Andrews spent time together. They were devoted to each other until Novello’s death & were rarely seen without the other. In 1951, Andrews was with Ivor Novello when he died at their London flat. 10,000+ fans lined the streets of London to say good-bye, & the service was broadcast live.

Noel Coward: "Ivor & Bobby are beguiling, but they also ramble on ad nauseam about 1 topic- the month Novello spent in prison in 1944 for misusing wartime petrol coupons. They forever lamented the ‘injustice’ of it all”. On Novello’s passing Coward wrote in his diary: "Another landmark swept away. Poor, poor Bobby…he will be utterly devastated.”

The Ivor Novello Awards have been given annually, since 1956, to British songwriters & music publishers. Past recipients of "Ivors" include Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Sting & Paul McCartney. Last year the fab song Pass Out by Tinie Tempah won best song.

Novello, 1950

In an era before there was such a thing as "openly gay," Ivor Novello lived an unapologized for life of authenticity & openness. How great is it that his last play, staged in 1951, would be titled- Gay's the Word?

If Love Were All

Coward by Loomis Dean, 1964

Here is something that I very much enjoy, since readers have asked: sitting by a roaring fire in the fireplace, nursing a whiskey while I give a listen to 20th Century Blues, a compilation album of Noel Coward songs by current artists. Pet Shop Boys do a cover of my favorite Noel Coward song- If Love Were All that is perfectly recast as a Pet Shop Boy's style song.

I believe in doing what I can

Crying when I must,

& laughing when I choose

Hey ho, if love were all

I would be lonely

I believe the more you love a man

The more you put your trust,

the more you're bound to lose

Although, when shadows fall,

I think if only somebody splendid

really needed me

Someone affectionate & dear

Cares would be ended if I knew that he wanted to have me near

But I believe that since my life began

The most I've had is just
 A talent to amuse

Hey ho, if love were all

Coward

1929

A Talent To Amuse

I am not able to recall why or how as a youth, that I came to know & understand that Noël Coward was gay. I do know that as I came out to myself at around age 12, I researched everything I could find about homosexuality, & the news was never good. At the public library, all the information & listings included the words “invert” & “perversion”.

As a young teen, I latched onto the idea that Noël Coward would be a fine role model for dealing with the realization that I was going to be gay. He was after all: fascinating, fabulous, famous, well loved & moved in a circle with the most talented artists of the day. I would read everything by & about him, an avocation that lasts to this day.

I eventually would go on to play Elyot in Private Lives in college. The director of that piece told me recently on Facebook, that I reminded her of “a young Peter O’Toole” at the time we were doing this play. God, I hope that was true. Unfortunately, I would go on to ape many of Mr. O’Toole’s behaviors later in life. I loved doing Private Lives, which I think is a nearly perfect piece of theatre, with not a wasted bit of dialogue or a false moment. I have seen it several times & my favorite production was directed by John Gielgud, with Maggie Smith & Robert Stephens in L.A. in 1975.

In the summer of 1978, I had the good fortune to play Simon in an amazing, impressive & beautiful production of Hay Fever, which was designed (sets, lights & costumes!) & directed by the man that would eventually become my Husband (at the time we were simply theatre colleagues). The entire cast was dressed in different shades of whites. It was a very happy summer living in Noel Coward’s witty, wicked world, but I was starting to fall in love with my director. Sir Noel Coward has been a major player in my life & helped shaped the man I would become.

Known for his wit & elegance, Noel Coward defined the post-World War I era. Although regarded as a gay icon today, Coward was never open about his homosexuality during his lifetime. Coward had his first sexual experience, with another boy actor, at age 13, but his closest friends were girls, including his lifelong friend, fellow child actor Gertrude Lawrence. By 15, Coward was already a well known actor & had begun writing & composing. He produced & starred in his first full length play- I Leave It To You, at age 21. 4 years later The Vortex, his controversial work about sexual encounters & drug abuse among the upper class, was a smash hit & made the young Noel a celebrity.

By his mid-30s Coward had written & produced some of his best known plays, including Hay Fever, Private Lives, & Cavalcade. During the course of his career he wrote more than 50 plays & 300 songs & starred in 25 films. Coward once said that to create successful work, an artist must "consider the public. Coax it, charm it, interest it, shock it now & then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, make it think, but above all never, never, never bore the living hell out of it."

World War II brought major changes in Coward's life. He briefly worked as an undercover intelligence agent, a job for which he proved to be too well known. He then devoted himself to entertaining troops around the globe. After the war, he continued to write & perform, but his style fell out of favor & his work was criticized as frivolous & outdated.

In the 1950s he reinvented himself as a cabaret performer, achieving popular acclaim in Las Vegas. Escaping England's high taxes, Coward lived in Jamaica & Switzerland. He was friends with many famous artists: Cole Porter, Laurence Olivier, Errol Flynn, Alfred Lunt, Daphne du Maurier, Spencer Tracy, & Katharine Hepburn.

Coward had sexual & romantic relationships with men throughout his life. Jack Wilson, an American stockbroker, was his lover & business manager for a decade beginning in the mid-1920s. After World War II Coward fell in love with South African actor Graham Payne; the pair were together until Coward's death. But Coward was always circumspect about his same sex relationships, as were many other gay men of that era, a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain.

Although never publicly adopting a gay identity, Coward sometimes addressed homosexuality metaphorically in his work, which often dealt with hidden longing, society's hypocrisy, & the battle against conventional moral restrictions. Design For Living, depicting a bisexual ménage a trois between 2 men & a woman (starring Coward's famous friends- Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontaine, both of whom had same sex affairs), sold out every night of its Broadway run. In 1966 Coward wrote & starred in Song At Twilight, the story of an ageing gay author who fears he will be exposed. This is his only work to deal explicitly with homosexuality.

Coward was knighted by The Queen in 1970. In January 1973 he appeared with longtime friend Marlene Dietrich at a performance of the off-Broadway revue of his work, Oh Coward! It would be his last public appearance; he died at his home in Jamaica in March of that year. In 1984 a memorial stone was unveiled in Westminster Abbey bearing words from one of his songs: "I believe that since my life began, the most I've had is just a talent to amuse."

I still love to pick up my volume of The Collected Letters of Noël Coward & open it to a random page. Having just done so, this is what I found. In 1949, Coward wrote to his childhood friend- Esme Wynne, who was trying to get him to find God:
"My philosophy is as simple as ever. I love smoking, drinking, moderate sexual intercourse on a diminishing scale, reading & writing (not arithmetic). I have a selfless absorption in the well-being & achievements of Noël Coward… In spite of my unregenerate spiritual attitude, I am jolly kind to everybody & still attentive & devoted to my dear old Mother."

He wrote many furiously funny rants to his friends about the problems of dealing with actresses but, when writing to them, he was tact personified, as in this missive to Elaine Stritch when she was starring in his musical Sail Away in 1961:
"Darling Stritchie, I hope that you are well; that your cold is better; that you are singing divinely; that you are putting on weight; that you are not belting too much; that your skin is clear & free from spots & other blemishes; that you are delivering my brilliant material to the public in the manner in which it SHOULD be delivered; that you are not making too many God-damned suggestions; that your breath is relatively free from the sinful taint of alcohol; that you are singing the verse of Come To Me more quickly; that you are going regularly to confession & everywhere else that is necessary to go regularly."

Noël Coward was named for the holiday so close to his birth. He would have been 112 on this day.

Born On This Day- August 12th... Alfred Lunt

I have always been absorbed by these types, the theatre & film personalities of the 1920s- 1960s. “The Lunts” ruled the American theater scene during that era, with their dazzling partnership. Their careers flourished at a time when even the biggest stars would do national tours & successful actors worked exclusively year-round on the stage. Their friends included other glamorous theater people: Noel Coward, Gertrude Lawrence, Helen Hayes, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman & Laurence Olivier.

There was never a question of their devotion, but the offstage union of Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontanne was a marriage between a gay man & a Lesbian. Their presentation of themselves as the ideal couple may have been their most skillful performance.

When prodded by best buddy- Noel Coward, the couple would sometimes teasingly hint about their private lives. Their scandalous 1933 hit- Design for Living allowed the Coward & his co-stars to romp through a 3 way implying that there was sex between the 2 male characters. Design for Living remains one of my favorite plays. I remain fascinated by the ups, downs & pitfalls of a 3 way relationship .The production showcased the flawless comic gifts for which the Lunts were most admired, but they also excelled at dramatic pieces too, but the Lunts will always be known for the light comedy & the amazing chemistry.

When relaxing, they retreated in high style to their country manor in Lunt's home state, Wisconsin, where he could cook & redecorate while she sewed her chic clothing. The Lunts were my kind of couple; they ate off an orange crate, siting on Biedermeier chairs. The Lunts were Post Apocalyptic Bohemians, for certain. The theater was life for them, & their life was a piece of theater. Their dwellings were theatrical sets, their parties were stage shows, everyone who socialized with them was turned into audience. It was remarked that they knew next to nothing about what was going on in the world, had largely theatrical friends, usually acted together & rehearsed their parts in taxis, even in bed.

There are all sorts of marriages, I should know. Unlike in other show biz marriages, the spouses were equal stars; equally glamorous to the world & to each other, not much reason for jealousy. Passion was what they enacted on the stage. Fontanne : ''We were friends right away. . . . I loved him utterly. We were in the same profession. We were like twins. When we were acting, I always thought of him as another person. . . . I had a new lover every night, and so had he.'' '' Hmmm… sexual passion?

The Lunts had a design for living to suit them both: There would be deep devotion. . . . There would be close friendships, particularly the triangle kind that Lynn preferred: Lynn, Alfred & a gay male, kindness, courtesy, loyalty & generosity. There would be passionate, total commitment to their work.

After Lunt's death, Fontanne toasted him with a glass of champagne, saying simply, "To Alfred." We will probably not see their likes again.

She's a Gas

Tuesday Taylor Trailer Trash

Girlfriends

Ethel Merman, Mae West and Judy Garland

Irene Dunne and Barbara Stanwyck

Susan Hayward and Ingrid Bergman

Dorothy Lamour, Gracie Allen and Betty Hutton

Jane Powell, Noel Coward and Zsa Zsa Gabor

Present Laughter

"If she had a neck, I would wring it." - Noel Coward on Claudette Colbert

Three's a Crowd...

...Talu's a party!

Born On This Day- January 15th... Gay Icon Ivor Novello

"Lovemaking is an art which must be studied & practiced."





I love this film & after seeing Robert Altman's brilliant Best Picture nominated film- Gosford Park for the 4th time, I had to explain to a friend that the character of Ivor Novello was not from the imagination of screenwriters Bob Balaban & Mr. Altman. Jeremy Northam's portrayal of the matinee idol was so effortless & elegant that it's easy to believe him to be just another one of Altman's brilliant creations. But Ivor Novello was, in fact, a major & important celebrity in the 1st half of the 20th century, the kind Cole Porter & Noel Coward personified & loved to write about: the smoking jacket wearing, martini drinking, man-about-town, & what a big surprise… Ivor Novello was gay!

He was born David Ivor Davies January 15th, 1893 in Cardiff, Wales.

Ivor Novello did it all, working on the stage to the silent screen in D.W. Griffith's The White Rose & the early Hitchcock thriller- The Lodger. He wrote popular plays such as The Rat & movies- Tarzan the Ape Man ("Me Tarzan, you Jane" was the invention of Novello). He gave Vivien Leigh her stage name, & wrote the patriotic song Keep the Home Fires Burning. He was the Andrew Lloyd Webber of the '30s & '40s, composing lush, romantic musicals- like Glamorous Night & Perchance to Dream.

He was as versatile & prolific as his friend & rival Noel Coward. Critics fell all over themselves trying to describe his romantic appeal, which proved to be as powerful to many male theatre & moviegoers as to the legions of Novello's swooning female fans. Coward himself would admit Novello could be "violently glamorous" but also "a little vulgar too”. I think that was the secret of his appeal.

In 1916, Novello met 21 year old actor Robert Andrews. They became lovers & remained together for 35 years. They appeared together in many of Ivor Novello's plays & musicals. Novello bought a house in Jamaica, near Noel Coward’s, where he & Andrews spent time together. They were devoted to each other until Novello’s death & were rarely seen without the other. In 1951, Andrews was with Ivor Novello when he died at their London flat. 10,000+ fans lined the streets of London to say good-bye, & the service was broadcast live. Noel Coward: "Ivor & Bobby are beguiling, but they also ramble on ad nauseam about 1 topic- the month Novello spent in prison in 1944 for misusing wartime petrol coupons. They forever lamented the ‘injustice’ of it all”. On Novello’s passing Coward wrote in his diary: "Another landmark swept away. Poor, poor Bobby…he will be utterly devastated.”

The Ivor Novello Awards have been given annually, since 1956, to British songwriters & music publishers. Past recipients of "Ivors" include Peter Gabriel, Elton John, Sting & Paul McCartney. Last year the fab song The Fear by Lily Allen won for best song.

In an era before there was such a thing as "openly gay," Ivor Novello lived an unapologized for life of authenticity & openness. How great is it that his last play, staged in 1951, would be titled- Gay's the Word?

Because The Original Wasn't Gay Enough

I don't know why I am doing a mind riff on this song, but I just can't shake it. Mad About The Boy deals with the theme of unrequited love for a film star. It was written to be sung by a female, but Coward also wrote a version with lyrics bent to the risqué topic of homosexual love:

Mad about the boy
I know it’s silly
But I’m mad about the boy
& even Dr Freud cannot explain
Those vexing dreams
I’ve had about the boy


When I told my wife
She said “I never heard such nonsense in my life!”
Her lack of sympathy
Embarrassed me
& made me frankly glad about the boy.


My doctor can’t advise me
He’d help me if he could
3 times he’s tried to psychoanalayse me
But it’s just no good


People I employ
Have the impertinence
To call me Myrna Loy
I rise above it
Frankly love it
‘Cos I’m absolutely
Mad about the boy

The song gained new popularity when Dinah Washington's rendition was used in the Levi's television advertisement " The Swimmer", directed by Tarsem Singh. In the commercial, which is homage to the1968 Burt Lancaster film The Swimmer, a young man runs through an American suburban neighborhood stripping down to only his jeans, invades private gardens & dives into a series of swimming pools in order to shrink his jeans. Washington's recording was re-released by Mercury as a tie-in in with the advertising campaign, & the cover art featured a shot of the topless male emerging from a swimming pool & bore the Levi's logo. The single made the Top 50 in the UK singles chart.



Other Notable Cover versions by:
Georgia Brown
Blossom Dearie
Marianne Faithfull
Frances Faye
Helen Forrest
Jackie Gleason
Lena Horne
Cleo Laine
Gertrude Lawrence
Beatrice Lillie
Julie London
Billy May
Carmen McRae
Anita O'Day
Eartha Kitt
Elaine Paige < Tom Robinson
Dinah Shore
Maxine Sullivan
Miss Piggy (as Mad About the Frog)

Lord Knows I'm Not A School Girl

This clip reminds me so much of my own life in the late 1960s. Oh, the parties that I attended! We have Yul Brynner in drag, in The Magic Christian (1969), singing, even better... lip-synching Peter Seller's voice, doing Noël Coward's Mad About The Boy. Can you spot all the celebs in this clip?

I'm mad about the boy
I know it's stupid to be mad about the boy
I'm so ashamed of it,
But must admit the sleepless nights I've had
About the boy

On the silverscreen
He melts my foolish heart in every single scene
Although I'm quite aware that here & there are traces of the cad
About the boy

Lord knows I'm not a fool girl, I really shouldn't care
Lord knows I'm not a school girl
In the fury of her first affair

Will it ever cloy
This odd diversity of misery & joy
I'm feeling quite insane & young again
& all because I'm mad about the boy

Mad about the boy,
It's pretty funny
But I'm mad about the boy.
He has a gay appeal that makes me feel
There's maybe something sad about the boy.


If I could employ
A little magic that will finally destroy
This dream that pains me & enchains me
But I can't because I'm mad...
I'm mad about the boy!

Noel Coward
1932

Normal

"Very few people are completely normal really, deep down in their private lives. It all depends on a combination of circumstances. If all the various cosmic thingummys fuse at the same moment, & the right spark is struck, there's no knowing what one mightn't do."

Amanda
From Private Lives
By Noel Coward
1930

Born On This Day... Noel Coward

I am not able to recall why or how, as a youth, that I came to know & understand that Noel Coward was gay. I do know that as I came out to myself at around age 13, I researched everything I could find about homosexuality, & the news was never good. At the public library, all the information & listings included the words “invert” & “perversion”.


I latched onto the idea that Noel Coward would be a fine role model for dealing with the realization that I was gay. He was after all, fabulous, famous, well loved & moved in a circle with the most talented artists of the day. I would read everything by & about him, an avocation that lasts to this day.


I eventually would go on to play Elyot in Private Lives in college. The director of that piece told me recently on Facebook, that I reminded her of “a young Peter O’Toole” at the time we were doing this play. Unfortunately, I would go on to ape many of Mr. O’Toole’s behaviors later in life. I loved doing Private Lives, which I think is a nearly perfect piece of theatre, with not a wasted bit of dialogue or a false moment.


In the summer of 1978, I had the good fortune to play Simon in an amazing, impressive & beautiful production of Hay Fever, which was designed (sets, lights & costumes!) & directed by the man that would eventually become my Husband. The entire cast was dressed in different shades of whites. It was a very happy summer living in Noel Coward’s witty, wicked world, but I was starting to fall in love with my director. Sir Noel Coward has been a major player in my life & helped shaped the man I would become.

Known for his wit & elegance, Noel Coward defined the post-World War I era. Although regarded as a gay icon today, Coward was never open about his homosexuality during his lifetime. Coward had his first sexual experience, with another boy actor, at age 13, but his closest friends were girls, including his lifelong friend, fellow child actor Gertrude Lawrence. By 15, Coward was already a well known actor & had begun writing & composing. He produced & starred in his first full length play- I Leave It To You, at age 21. 4 years later The Vortex, his controversial work about sexual encounters & drug abuse among the upper class, was a smash hit & made the young Noel a celebrity. By his mid-30s Coward had written & produced some of his best known plays, including Hay Fever, Private Lives, & Cavalcade. During the course of his career he wrote more than 50 plays & 300 songs & starred in 25 films. Coward once said that to create successful work, an artist must "consider the public. Coax it, charm it, interest it, shock it now & then if you must, make it laugh, make it cry, make it think, but above all never, never, never bore the living hell out of it."


World War II brought major changes in Coward's life. He briefly worked as an undercover intelligence agent, a job for which he proved to be too well known. He then devoted himself to entertaining troops around the globe. After the war, he continued to write & perform, but his style fell out of favor & his work was criticized as frivolous & outdated.

In the 1950s he became a cabaret performer, achieving popular acclaim in Las Vegas. Escaping England's high taxes, Coward lived in Jamaica & Switzerland. He was friends with many famous artists, including Laurence Olivier, Errol Flynn, Daphne du Maurier, Spencer Tracy, & Katharine Hepburn.

Coward had sexual & romantic relationships with men throughout his life. Jack Wilson, an American stockbroker, was his lover & business manager for a decade beginning in the mid-1920s. After World War II Coward fell in love with South African actor Graham Payne; the pair were together until Coward's death. But Coward was always circumspect about his same sex relationships, as were many other gay men of that era, a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Britain.

Although never publicly adopting a gay identity, Coward sometimes addressed homosexuality metaphorically in his work, which often dealt with hidden longing, society's hypocrisy, & the battle against conventional moral restrictions. Design For Living, depicting a bisexual ménage a trois between 2 men & a woman (starring the famous Alfred Lunt & Lynn Fontaine. Both of whom had same sex affairs), sold out every night of its Broadway run. In 1966 Coward wrote & starred in Song At Twilight, the story of an ageing gay author who fears he will be exposed. This is his only work to deal explicitly with homosexuality.

Coward was knighted by The Queen in 1970. In January 1973 he appeared with longtime friend Marlene Dietrich at a performance of the off-Broadway revue of his work, Oh Coward! It would be his last public appearance; he died at his home in Jamaica in March of that year. In 1984 a memorial stone was unveiled in Westminster Abbey bearing words from one of his songs: "I believe that since my life began, the most I've had is just a talent to amuse."