JEAN LORRAIN, French journalist, born, (d: 1906); born Paul Duval, Lorrain was a French poet and novelist of the Symbolist school. Lorrain was a dedicated disciple of dandyism, and (for the times) openly Gay. Lorrain wrote a number of collections of verse, including La forêt bleue (1833) and L'ombre ardente, (1897).

He is also remembered for his decadent novels and short stories, such as Monsieur de Phocas (1901) and Histoires des masques (1900), as well as for one of his best novels, Sonyeuse, which he links to portraits exhibited by Antonio de la Gandara in 1893.

The once famous journalist worked only because he had to. He preferred to spend his life sleeping with the sailors along the Paris, Nice and Marseilles waterfronts. “Fucking,” he once wrote, “is basically a sport for idle minds. When you work, it’s good-bye ass!” Although his works are largely forgotten today, they should be revived and vigorously pursued. How can one ignore…I mean, ya gotta love!...an author who, in a fashionable Parisian restaurant, once shouted at the top of his lungs the following couplet: “I spent the night between two fellows from the docks, / who took turns, and cured me of the hots!”

Lorrain's work often evokes a seamy urban underworld of sodomy, Lesbianism, drug-addiction, and crime. His best novels appeared in his final years. Monsieur de Bougrelon (1897), Monsieur de Phocas (1901), and Le Vice Errant (1902) center on men mired in decadence, vice, and (implicitly) homosexuality; La Maison Philibert (1904) gives a picture of life in a provincial brothel and a panoramic tour of Parisian prostitution and criminality. Most of Lorrain's income derived from journalism. Beginning in the mid-1880s, he wrote regular columns for a series of mass-circulation newspapers, most notably Le Courrier français, L'Événement, and L'Écho de Paris.

He chronicled Parisian life of the day--the literary, theatrical, and artistic worlds, as well as French society, both high and low--using his savage wit to attack and ridicule many of the era's leading figures. In the process, he made countless enemies. Edmond de Goncourt wondered in 1895, "What's Lorrain's dominant trait? Is it spite or a complete lack of tact?" (Most people thought it the former.) But as Sarah Bernhardt once wrote Lorrain, "inside the abominably depraved being that you are, there beats the heart of a great artist, a genuinely sensitive and tender heart."

HENRY GERBER was among the earliest Gay Rights activists in America and, sadly, remains one of it's unsung heroes (d: 1972). He founded the nation’s first Gay organization and Gay publication. Born Joseph Henry Dittmer in Bavaria, Germany, Gerber moved to Chicago in 1913. From 1920 to 1923, he served in the U.S. Army during the occupation of Germany. While in Germany, he was exposed to the homosexual emancipation movement. Gerber subscribed to Gay publications and was inspired by Magnus Hirschfeld, founder of a German homosexual and science advocacy organization.

After returning to Chicago, Gerber founded the Society for Human Rights, which advocated for Gays and Lesbians. He published the organization’s newsletter, “Friends and Freedom.” Gerber limited membership in the Society for Human Rights to Gay men. Unknown to him, the vice president, Al Weininger, was married with children. In 1925, Weininger’s wife reported the organization’s activities and it was shut down for moral turpitude.

The Chicago police arrested Gerber and tried him three times. Although Gerber was found not guilty, the legal fees cost him his life savings and his job. Gerber moved to New York City and reenlisted in the Army, where he served for eighteen years. He led a correspondence club called Connections, which became a national network for Gay men. Under a pen name, he wrote articles for various publications, arguing the case for Gay Rights. At 80, Gerber died in the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, D.C. In 1992, he was inducted posthumously into the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame. In 2001, the Henry Gerber House was designated a Chicago landmark.

AMANDA DONOHOE, British actress, born; An English actress who first came to attention of the worldwide audience in 1986 when she was cast opposite Oliver Reed as “Lucy Irvine” in Nicolas Roeg’s Castaway (where she appeared nude in some sequences of the movie). She followed this up with roles in two Ken Russell films The Lair of the White Worm, based on a Bram Stoker novel, and The Rainbow, based on a D.H. Lawrence novel.

In 1981, Amanda appeared in the music video for the song, "Stand & Deliver" by Adam & The Ants. She has been open about being bisexual telling Diva magazine "My first sexual experiences were with women and if a woman comes into my life who is absolutely stunning and satisfies me emotionally, intellectually and sexually I'm not going to draw the line and say 'I can't because you're a woman'".

She reminds this writer of a modern day Talullah Bankhead, both physically and in personality. She has been romantically linked to Sandra Bernhard and Jim Carrey.

PIERRE BALMAIN, French fashion designer died (b. 1914); A designer known for sophistication and elegance, Balmain said that "dressmaking is the architecture of movement."

He was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design for Happy New Year (1980). Additional Broadway credits include costumes for Katharine Hepburn in The Millionairess (1952) and Josephine Baker for her eponymous 1964 revue. He also was a costume designer for sixteen films, including the Brigitte Bardot vehicle And God Created Woman, and designed on-screen wardrobes for the actresses Vivien Leigh and Mae West.

Balmain's 1964 autobiography was titled My Years and Seasons. His companion was the Danish designer Erik Mortensen, who worked as a designer at Balmain from 1948 until 1991.

ALLAN CARR, American film producer died (b. 1937); There was never anyone quite like Allan Carr and there hasn't been anyone like him since. Carr was an American film producer and manager of actors and musicians.

Nothing said 1970s hedonism like an Allan Carr production. But then there was nothing else like the very ostentatious, obese, ornate caftan-wearing Carr. He built a fortune by betting on show biz. While still in college, he invested $750 in a Broadway production of The Ziegfeld Follies, starring Tallulah Bankhead. The payoff was handsome and Carr continued to reinvest in hit after hit, making money hand over fist. 

He produced events and premiers, including an infamous formal-dress party hosted by Truman Capote at LA County Jail in 1963.  Allan Carr Enterprises, formed in 1966, managed the careers of: Tony Curtis, Peter Sellers, Rosalind Russell, Dyan Cannon, Nancy Walker, Marvin Hamlisch, Joan Rivers, Peggy Lee, Mama Cass Elliot, Paul Anka, Frankie Valli, George Maharis, and Herb Alpert.  

He personally looked after Ann-Margret, producing a  string of whose TV specials for the star in the 1960s and 1970s, putting her in the film version of Tommy (1975), one of her best roles and an Oscar nomination. Carr produced and promoted the films: Grease (1978) Grease 2 (1982) Where The Boys Are ’84, Tommy (1975), and the original Broadway production of La Cage Aux Folles.

Carr kept busy hosting exclusive extravagant events with guest lists that included most show biz legends and those that loved them. The invitations to the gatherings at his opulent mansion, with nine bars, a disco, and plenty of private rooms where guests could indulge in cocaine & sex, were highly coveted even in the homophobic Hollywood of the 1970s.

He titled his parties like films: the "Roman Polanski Rolodex Party," the "Rudolph Nureyev Mattress Party," the "Mick Jagger Cycle Sluts Party," the "Truman Capote Jailhouse Party". He invited rock stars and Hollywood royalty. At a Carr fete you might rub-up against Elton John, Groucho Marx, or the pool boy. To promote the opening of Tommy, Carr held the opening-night party in the NYC subway.

His reputation for hosting lavish and expensive parties and creating spectacular production numbers led the producers of the 61st Annual Academy Awards to hire him to create the show based on his promise that he would turn it around from the dry, dull show it had been in previous years.

Promising "the antithesis of tacky" it turned out to be the epitome of it, a disaster culminating in the infamous pairing of Snow White (played by Eileen Bowman) and Rob Lowe singing "Proud Mary." The telecast also featured a production number featuring what was introduced as "the youth of Hollywood", with all the participants in their 20s or early 30s. The show became a laughing-stock and has gone down in history one of the worst moments in awards show and television history.

Adding to the misery, The Walt Disney Company sued for illegal use of Snow White's image. Carr's reputation never recovered, although his decision to change the award announcement from "And the winner is..." to "And the Oscar goes to..." has become the norm, not just for the Oscars, but for awards shows in general. He never worked in Hollywood again and at the time of his death, was employed in an office in Brentwood, CA.

The day before LONDON PRIDE, British police were tipped off about a suspicious car parked on Haymarket Street (in London's West End) along the route of the Gay Pride parade. Inside a Mercedes they found gas containers and a large number of nails, unnerving Londoners who planned to attend tomorrow's event. Police described the bomb as similar to those used by Iraqi insurgents.