The diminutive creator of Peter Pan, JAMES M. BARRIE, whose whimsical fairy-tale play kept Maude Adams, Jean Arthur and Mary Martin gainfully employed for many years, was also responsible for other popular plays and novels, including The Admirable Crichton, Dear Brutus, and The Little Minister. He once wrote a play called What Every Woman Knows, which is decidedly not what almost every woman wants.

Like Mrs. J.M. Barrie for example. Her marriage was never consummated and she wasn’t particularly happy about it. But then, Barrie never consummated any relationship with anyone, including his strange friendship with the three Davies boys, whose guardian he became after their parents died. The great love of Barrie’s life, George Davies, was only five years old when the playwright met him one day while walking his dog. The precocious child took him home, and the remainder of this bizarre story is superbly told in J.M. Barrie and The Lost Boys. It is one of the oddest closet stories ever told.

American rent-boy, socialite and literary muse, DENHAM FOUTS was born on this date (d: 1948); Fouts was a socialite at best, a hanger-on at worst and arguably the most influential hustler of the last century. He’s appeared in books by CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD, GORE VIDAL and TRUMAN CAPOTE, and popped up in the memoirs of countless artists, writers and royals. He sat for famed photographer GEORGE PLATT LYNES, and apparently lay down with the French actor, JEAN MARAIS.

Mr. Isherwood, one of his closest friends, referred to him as, ‘the most expensive male prostitute in the world,’ and ‘the last of the professional tapettes,’ with ‘a lean hungry-looking tanned face,’ his ‘eyes set on different levels, as in a Picasso painting…’ Mr. Vidal described him as “good looking in a cadaverous way.’ Whatever the case, no one can deny the sheer force of his ability to inspire in others what he was unable to achieve himself. He was a hell of a hustler.

But at least he was ill-mannered and a bit of a brat. One might even call him a mooch, at least in his later life, when the tools of his trade were no longer of any use. There were many lovers, mostly quite a bit older than him. However, contrary to his typical couplings, he was a bit of a pederast — taking on lovers half his age, if not younger. His life as an international party boy and prostitute to the stars started in the late 1920s or early 1930s. While at work at his father’s bakery in Jacksonville, Florida, a German Baron — a cosmetics tycoon, according to Mr. Capote — discovered the young beauty and whisked him away to Berlin. He was 16, and probably did not look anything like ‘Dorian Gray emerging from the tomb’ — a description repeated in both Mr. Isherwood’s Diaries and his autobiographical novel Down There on a Visit.

After the Baron, he snagged a Greek shipping magnate, whom he robbed with the help of a sailor. He and the seaman then shacked up at a fancy hotel on Capri, where they ran through the small fortune they lifted from the Greek. Once the money ran out, Denham was arrested, but saved by his beauty when Evan Morgan (the Lord Tredegar) took him on. He spent some time with the Lord before bedding a Prince, Prince Paul, eventually KING PAUL OF GREECE. Denham wasn’t part of the plan when the Prince became the King, but it wasn’t the end of the road for the intrepid hustler. He was soon after coupled with Peter Watson, margarine millionaire, publisher of Horizon — a literary magazine edited by Cyril Connolly — and collector of modern art. When WWII came around, Watson sent his young lover, along with Connolly’s wife, Jean, to the US for safe keeping, but not before giving him an astounding parting gift — Picasso’s Girl Reading.

Once in the US, Mrs. Connolly and her friend Tony Bower introduced the inspiring young slut to the novelist Christopher Isherwood, who took Denham on as somewhat of a pet project. The two lived in Mr. Isherwood’s home in L.A. in a non-sexual-tea-totaling-vegetarian-meditation-driven roommate arrangement. That lasted until Denham was sent off to a Civilian Public Service camp for draft dodging, where he picked up a dog that would later follow him to Paris. While at the camp, Denham took up the company of a group of young black workers, which somehow led to the claim that he fucked songbird Lena Horne. Around the same time he picked up a high school diploma and began studying medicine at UCLA. Relations between Denham and Mr. Isherwood subsequently cooled, as his new lover, photographer Bill Caskey, was no fan of the illustrious harlot.

It was time for Denham to move on.

Bored with the U.S., he returned to Paris, by way of Asia, where he studied archery — leading to the story that he once shot flaming arrows at the Champs Élysées, from the window of his room on the Rue du Bac. That room would later be described by Mr. Vidal in his short story, ‘Pages from an Abandoned Journal,’ and in George Plimpton’s biography of Mr. Capote. According to Gore Vidal, the room was only furnished with six Venetian chairs and a bed with ‘a magnificent Tchelitchew painting hanging over it.’ This was the setting for the peculiar courtship of Mr. Capote, who was drawn to Denham’s bed-side sometime in the late 40s, after Denham, who’d fallen in love with a dust jacket photograph of the impish author, sent him a blank check, marked simply with the word ‘Come.’ He did, only to find the notorious lothario impotent and addicted to opium.

It was a pity, Gore Vidal once remarked, that Denham Fouts never wrote a memoir. Vidal described Denny as “un homme fatal”.

Truman Capote found that “to watch him walk into a room was an experience. He was beyond being good-looking; he was the single most charming-looking person I’ve ever seen.” Capote loved to conjecture that “had Denham Fouts yielded to Hitler’s advances there would have been no World War Two”.

Jimmie Daniels, the nightclub singer who performed at his own Harlem club that bore his name, thought Denny “was about the most beautiful boy anybody had ever seen. His skin always looked as if it had just been scrubbed; it seemed to have no pores at all, it was so smooth.”

To King Paul of Greece he was “my dear Denham” or “Darling Denham”, and the King’s telegrams to Denny from the Royal Palace always were signed “love Paul”.

Peter Watson, the wealthy financial backer of the popular British literary magazine Horizon, had an erection whenever he was in the same room with Denny.

The artist Michael Wishart met Denny for the first time at a party in Paris and realized instantly he was in love and that “the only place in the world I wanted to be was in Denham’s bedroom”.

Author Glenway Wescott thought Denny “absolutely enchanting and ridiculously good-looking. . . . He had the most delicious body odor; I once swiped one of his handkerchiefs.”

Lord Tredegar, one of the largest landowners in Great Britain, saw Denny being led by the police through the lobby of an expensive hotel on Capri, convinced the police to let him pay the bills Denny owed, and then took Denny to accompany him and his wife as they continued on their tour of the world.

Christopher Isherwood, who Denny considered his best friend, called him “the most expensive male prostitute in the world”.

As the story goes, Denham was busted for drugs soon after and left for Rome, where he died in a bathroom from a malformed heart. When he was finally laid to rest at the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France his grave showed none of the extravagances afforded him in life. Instead, according to Mr. Isherwood’s longtime lover, Don Bachardy, there stands only a simple reminder of a marvelous man — a bronze plaque that reads:

Denham Fouts

May 1914 — December 1948

ALAN BENNETT was born on this date. The English author, actor, and Tony Award-winning playwright is best known for his plays, both made into movies, "The Madness of King George" and "The History Boys." In 1998 Bennett refused an honorary doctorate from Oxford University, in protest at its accepting funding for a named chair in honor of press baron Rupert Murdoch. He also declined a CBE in 1988 and a knighthood in 1996. Bennett has lived in Camden Town in London for thirty years, and shares his home with Rupert Thomas, his partner for the last fourteen years.

MERCEDES DE ACOSTA (b: 1893) died on this date. De Acosta was a Cuban-American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite best known for her lesbian affairs with Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Alla Nazimova, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Katharine Cornell, Edith Wharton, Amy Lowell, Maude Adams, Ona Munson ("Belle Watling" in the film Gone with the Wind), Adele Astaire, and others. It was a reputation not appreciated by everyone. As Alice B. Toklas, the lover of Gertrude Stein, wrote to a disapproving friend, Anita Loos:

"...you can't dispose of Mercedes lightly — she has had the two most important women in the US — Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich."

De Acosta was involved with married Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina throughout her life, after their first meeting in 1920. The two were as much friends as they were lovers, and Karsavina was one of the few who continued to be friendly toward de Acosta following the controversial autobiography released by the latter, exposing many of her relationships to the public.

Her memoir, Here Lies the Heart, was published in 1960 because Mercedes was seriously ill with a brain tumor and in need of money. Its revelations, though highly sanitized and supported as fact, resulted in the severing of numerous friendships of famous women who preferred their sexuality remain private, including that of the mercurial Garbo. Eva Le Gallienne in particular was furious, and completely did away with anything reminding her of de Acosta. Many denounced her as a liar, stating that she invented these stories for fame. This is unlikely, as most of the affairs have been confirmed through personal correspondence, and many of the affairs were known to Hollywood insiders, but were kept out of the headlines for the sake of the actresses' careers. She found herself cut off from many of her friends and increasingly in financial straits. De Acosta died at age 75 in relative poverty and obscurity. Four of her plays were produced, and she published a novel and three volumes of poetry.

In England, GABRIEL LAWRENCE, WILLIAM GRIFFIN and THOMAS WRIGHT were hanged after a trial of five men arrested during a raid on Margaret Brown's “molly house,” a meeting place for homosexual men. George Kedger, another man who had been sentenced to death, was spared when a judge overturned his conviction.

The Scottish Minorities Group originated in a meeting of about half a dozen men in 1969 in the drawing room of Ian Dunn's parents' house in Glasgow. The 1967 Sexual Offences Act in England and Wales, that involved the partial decriminalization of homosexual relations between men (over 21 in private), did not apply in Scotland or Northern Ireland. The term 'minorities' was chosen to avoid the dangers of explicit reference to homosexuality.

A first-hand account of the Scottish Minorities Group, which in 1978 became the Scottish Homosexual Rights Group, has been written by a member of OurStory Scotland. He writes of the Glasgow Gay Centre, which opened in 1977 as a result of the efforts of the Scottish Minorities Group.

A women-only dance, organized by RADICALESBIANS, was held in New York City. The organization was formed by a group of women who were frustrated with the predominantly male events of the Gay Liberation Front.

Andy Warhol's play Pork opened. The cast included a sixteen-year-old drag queen named HARVEY FIERSTEIN. 

Andy Warhol contacted Tony Ingrassia and told him he wanted to do a play from all the tapes he'd been making of his private telephone conversations with the Factory crowd, people like Brigid Polk and Viva. He turned all these incredible tapes over to Tony, who had to transcribe them and put them into play form. Warhol thought Tony was the perfect person to do it... and he wanted me and Jaime DeCarlo Lotts and Tony Zanetta to be in it.

It would be Andy Warhol's first stage production, and basically it was just all of the Factory people portrayed on stage in an exaggerated, ridiculous way. Brigid Polk was turned into a character called Amanda Pork, played by Cleve Roller. My character was based on Viva, but the name was changed to Vulva Lips. When Viva heard about it she was not amused. She used to ring up the Factory and scream at Andy and Paul Morrissey, 'At least Brigid is being played by a woman!' she said.

Other characters in the play included the "Pepsodent Twins" who, according to Jayne, represented Warhol's boyfriend Jed Johnson and his twin brother, Jay. According to a later review of the London production, "[Amanda] Pork is estranged from her husband and attended by the Pepsodent twins, two boys alike only in their nudity and their pastel powdered genitals." 

Voters in Wichita, Kansas, as part of the Rolling Orange Juice Queen Anita Bryant Fear and Loathing Tour repealed a gay rights ordinance by a margin of five to one. We stopped her cold in California.

Nancy Schaefer, president of "Citizens for Public Awareness" in Atlanta, Georgia, announced the group would raise $160,000 to sponsor a ballot initiative to remove Atlanta's Gay Rights ordinance. She goes on to become a Georgia State Senator and President of the "Eagle Forum", Phyllis Schlafly's reactionary organization. These days she's moved on to pedophilia.  Nancy...I'm sure you know Judge Moore. Both of them fought for displaying the Ten Commandments in public schools and courthouses.

Schaefer was found dead at her home in Turnerville, Georgia in Habersham County in March 2010 with a single gunshot wound to her back along with her husband of 52 years, Bruce Schaefer who was found with a single gunshot wound to his chest. Police concluded the deaths to have been a murder-suicide perpetrated by her husband. Bye Felicia!