A Pair Of Gay Birthdays On June 22nd

"Style is primarily a matter of instinct.”

William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters.

Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.

At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.

He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.

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Pears on the left & Britten on the right.

For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough.

Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945).

For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973).

In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company in NYC, in the first American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house?

Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.

Considering Harry Nilsson On His Birthday

His name was Dodge & he seemed to be impossibly old, maybe even 24 years old. He looked like James Taylor & he lived in bohemian digs in Browne’s Addition, the closest thing Spokane had to a gay neighborhood. Dodge’s sitting room, draped in Indian print bedspreads, was a turret in a Queen Anne style mansion that had been broken up in to small apartments.  I never saw his bedroom, try as I might.

Dodge was my pot dealer from 1969-1972, & I loved him for his long limbed, gangly body & sweet hippy disposition & of course, for the plant materials he provided for sale. During that epoch, Mary Jane was sold by the “lid” & was measured by finger widths. I would buy a “3 finger lid” for $15 from Dodge & lounge around the turret room after the transaction, listening to music, getting stoned & trying to seduce Dodge.

Dodge introduced me to the amazing music of Harry Nillson. It was the album- Harry in 1969, Nilsson Schmilsson & The Point in 1971, & Son of Schmilsson just 8 months later. Singers from that era sometimes released more than one album a year. Nilsson’s songs would receive plenty of listening by me for the next 40+ years. His music spoke to me with the unique blend of 2 genres that I hold dear- Tin Pan Alley & Rock n’ Roll.

In October of 1979, I declared my romantic inclinations to a married, impossibly beautiful set designer, who would eventually become my husband, as A Little Touch of Schmilsson In The Night played on the stereo in the background. Nilsson’s version of Irving Berlin’s What’ll I Do? would become “our song”. 30 years later I would weep while playing Without You on repeat when I assumed that we were about to divorce.

Nilsson deserves to be grouped with Gershwin, Cole Porter, Berlin, & Lennon/McCartney as the great songwriters of 20th century standards. He was considered a peer by all 4 members of the Beatles, who all called him a 5th Beatle, & one on the same wavelength as themselves.

Nilsson refused to tour, so Baby Boomers don't remember him, & those born after his apex are unaware of who he was. This is tragic. Everyone should have the opportunity to be exposed to this wonderful talent.

Nilsson spent the last 15 years of his relatively short life with a vocation for self-destruction. He died at 52, overweight & dissipated, of heart disease, after a decades long rampage of non-stop overindulgence in alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, cocaine, hard partying, & flagrant misuse of his special vocal instrument.

Yet he had perhaps the most gifted pop singing ability of his generation; he was financially & artistically successful, was held with industry acclaim, won a Grammy, an Oscar, an unusually good recording contract with a top label, & recorded at least 2 perfect  albums - Nilsson Schmilsson, all originals, & A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night, all standards recorded with a live studio orchestra.

Brooklyn born Nilsson’s bestselling song was his rendition of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talkin', featured in the film Midnight Cowboy.  His own submission for the film’s title song, the rejected- I Guess The Lord Must Be In New York City is one of my favorite songs about my favorite city.

Nilsson's produced & wrote a charming & captivating animated film- The Point!, broadcast on ABC in February,1971, as an ABC Movie of the Week. Nilsson's self-produced album of songs from The Point!includes the enchanting single, Me & My Arrow, my favorite song about dogs.

Nilsson chose producer Richard Perry to record his very best album- Nilsson Schmilsson, yielded 3 very stylistically different hit singles. The first was a cover of Badfinger's song Without You, by Pete Ham & Tom Evans, featuring a highly emotional arrangement & soaring vocals, recorded, according to Perry, in a single take. This song still stirs my senses.

The second single is Coconut, a favorite of my father, which makes me love it more. Coconut is a novelty number with a calypso beat featuring 4 characters: a narrator, a brother, a sister, & the doctor) all sung in different voices by Nilsson. The song is remembered for using just a single chord- C 7th & for the chorus lyric, "Put de lime in de coconut, & drink 'em both up." The third single- Jump into the Fire, is raucous, ranting Rock n’ Roll.

Nilsson’s music has informed my life for the past 4 decades. I still discover tracks that sound as if they could be listened to fresh today. I have recently re-discovered the off-beat charm of his songs & score for Robert Altman's musical film- Popeye. I am listening to him as I compose this post. Nilsson would have been celebrating his 71st birthday with his pal John Lennon today, if they had both made it.

Born On This Day- May 26th... Peggy Lee

It seems just perfect to me that a little redheaded 15 year old boy would be obsessed with a song filled with existentialist angst, a half spoken, half sung opus to disillusionment with life, even when the events are exceptional. The singer suggested that I "break out the booze & have a ball… if that's all …there is". I decided to take the singer’s advice. She also let me know that suicide was not an option, for even that would be a disappointment.


Lady & The Tramp was my favorite childhood Disney movie, & I especially loved singing the songs from the movie into the bathroom mirror as a tot. My parents suggested that I might also enjoy the recordings of Miss Peggy Lee, who had written the songs for the Disney movie, & had voiced several of the characters.

As a kid, I totally got into her albums: Black Coffee, Dream Street, & I Like Men!. But as I became a fan of The Beatles, The Supremes, & The Kinks, I forgot my parental unit's album collection & favored my own. I heard Is That All There Is? on the radio in 1969 & was entranced. I bought the single & played it over & over, sometimes stealing little sips of my father’s whiskey from the forbidden liquor cabinet. I was back to listening to Peggy Lee.

Peggy Lee was a singer, a songwriter, an actress & an innovator. Her popular music is a map to the best of jazz, blues, swing, Latin, & rock. She & recorded over 650 songs & released 60+ albums. Best known for her smooth, sultry 1958 cover of the R&B hit- Fever, in spring 2010, Peggy Lee is back on the Billboard Top 100 album chart for the first time since 1970 with the release of the Starbucks compilation- Come Rain or Come Shine. The album is # 51 on the pop charts, #2 on the jazz charts.


Peggy Lee was one of the few of the traditional pop singers to embrace the songs of the Beatles, Randy Newman ( the arranger & conductor of Is That All There Is?), Carole King, & James Taylor. From 1957 until her final recording in 1993, she routinely released 2 albums a year including standards, her own compositions, & material from new artists.


Lee was nominated for 12 Grammy Awards, winning Best Contemporary Vocal Performance for Is That All There Is? In 1995 she was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Peggy Lee was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress for her work in Pete Kelly's Blues.


Is she already a Gay Idol? If not, I hereby nominate Miss Peggy Lee. She left us in 2002. Lee would have been 92 today. Is That All There Is?

Born On This Day- April 28th... Cabaret Great Blossom Dearie

I am going to become a recluse. I can feel it coming on. Under the new austerity program, I have to diminish my participation in 2 of my favorite activities: cocktail sipping & shopping, & I look so damn feeble, I figure… why not just stay home? I think I am going to spend the summer at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia, receiving only the occasional guest, although I would love for any of you stop by for a glass of wine or a libation in the garden.


On the positive side, I am taking on the monumental project of dealing with my CD collection. The husband recently moved an extraordinary piece- a 15 foot long merchant's table with 20 drawers, European pine from the early 19th century, from the den to his studio. This major piece of furniture has long been the home to my music collection. I have decided that since I deal with mostly downloads in the new century, I would move the CDs into storage in my dressing room & free up the many drawers for his art supplies & found objects.


I like to look at each CD & think about why it is the collection & what it means to me, why the artists matters, & what moved me about the music in the first place... or else it goes.


Today is the birthday of a wonderful artist from my collection that was famous for being a bit of a recluse & guarding her privacy. I saw her perform at NYC's Danny’s Skylight Lounge, a number of times in the mid-1970s, at the very apex of her talent.

Singer, pianist & songwriter with an independent spirit, Blossom Dearie had a career that blurred the line between jazz & cabaret. An interpretive minimalist with caviar taste in songs, she rarely raised her sly voice, & she confided song lyrics in a playful style with layers of insinuation. But, just under her fey mask was a needling wit. It brought a breezy sophistication to all of her songs. If you listen closely, you can hear the caustic contempt she brings to her signature song- I’m Hip by Portland’s very own- Dave Frishberg. Mr. Frishberg wrote another of her classics- Peel Me a Grape.




All 6 of her albums on Verve- Blossom Dearie (1956), Give Him the Ooh-La-La (1957), Once Upon a Summertime (1958), Sings Comden & Green (1959), My Gentleman Friend (1959) & Soubrette Sings Broadway Hit Songs(1960) are cult classics. Check out the Vereve remix albums with the Brazylian Girls remix Blossom Dearie - doing Just One of Those Things. The last song Ms. Dearie recorded was -It’s All Right to Be Afraid, a comforting ballad dedicated to the victims & survivors of 9/11.


The jazz pixie with a little girl voice with a bit squeakiness & pageboy haircut was a fixture in New York for decades, she died in 2009 in her Greenwich Village apartment of 50 years. She was 84 years old.