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April 14, 2021 2560 × 1707 Ruth-Benediict-1

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Gay Wisdom – Today in Gay History

Born

1875 -

REYNALDO HAHN, Venezuelan composer, born (d: 1947); One rarely hears the name of Reynaldo Hahn today, although, as a student of Massenet, he became one of the most popular composers in turn-of-the-century Paris. Because of his popularity, Diaghilev commissioned him to create, with the young Jean Cocteau, the ballet Le Dieu Bleu (1912), one of the few failures of the Ballets Russes.

As interest in this period of cultural history increases, Hahn is seen more and more in books (about Diaghilev, about Cocteau, about Proust) as a figure of some importance. He was a key member of the Paris Gay set, which included, among others, Diaghilev, Lucien Daudet, Marcel Proust, and the young Jean Cocteau. He was a student and a close friend of Saint-Saens, himself homosexual, and was Proust's first lover.

It is said, in fact, that the musical battles of Hahn and Proust – Hahn championed the traditional Saint Saëns and Proust favored the radical Debussy – led eventually to their separation. Had Hahn’s musical tastes been those of his lover, the chances are that he might not have gone out of fashion so very soon.

1899 -

PAMELA LYNDON TRAVERS, OBE more widely known as P.L. Travers, was born. Her birth name was Helen Lyndon Goff. (d: 1996), The Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist and author of a series of children’s novels about the mystical and magical English nanny, Mary Poppins. In 1924, she emigrated to England where she wrote under the pen name P. L. Travers. During the Second World War, while working for the British Ministry of Information, she travelled to New York where Roy Disney first contacted her about selling the Mary Poppins character to the Disney studio for film use.

Though Travers had numerous fleeting relationships with men throughout her life, she lived for more than a decade with Madge Burnand, daughter of Sir Francis Burnand, a playwright and the former editor of the satirical publication, Punch. They shared a London flat from 1927 to 1934, then moved to a thatched cottage in Sussex, where Travers published the first of the Mary Poppins books; while on holiday in Italy, Burnand photographed Travers topless on the beach. Their friendship, in the words of one biographer, was “intense,” but also equally ambiguous.

At the age of 40, two years after moving out on her own, Travers adopted a baby boy from Ireland whom she named Camillus Travers Hone. He was the grandchild of Joseph Hones, W.B. Yeats’ first biographer, who was raising his seven grandchildren with his wife. Camillus had a twin brother named Anthony, but Travers chose only Camillus, based on advice from her astrologer. Camillus was unaware of his true parentage or the existence of any siblings until the age of 17, when Anthony came to London and knocked on the door of Travers' house. He had been drinking and demanded to see his brother. Travers refused to allow it and threatened to call the police. Anthony left but soon after, Camillus, after arguing with Travers, went looking for his brother and found him in a pub on Kings Road.

Travers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977. She lived into advanced old age, but her health was declining toward the end of her life. Travers died in London on April 23, 1996 at the age of 96. According to her grandchildren, Travers "died loving no one and with no one loving her." Her son Camillus died in London in November 2011.

1900 -

CHARLES FARRELL was born today (d: 1990); Farrell was an American film actor of the 1920s silent era and into the 1930s, and later a television actor. Farrell is probably best recalled for his onscreen romances with gay actress Janet Gaynor in more than a dozen films, including 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Lucky Star.

Later in life he starred on TV in the 1950s sitcoms My Little Margie and playing himself in The Charles Farrell Show. He was active in business and civic affairs in Palm Springs, California, serving for a time as mayor.

1926 -

Author and adviser to Harvey Milk, FRANK M. ROBINSON was born on this date. Robinson moved from Chicago to San Francisco in 1973 to work with a friend and fellow writer, Thomas N. Scortia, on a novel about a skyscraper fire. While working on that book, he became friends with Harvey Milk, who ran a camera store in the neighborhood. The novel, The Glass Inferno, along with two other books, became the basis for the script of The Towering Inferno. All three authors received screen credit and payment for their portions of the story.

Robinson used his money to settle in San Francisco and to help Harvey to become the first openly Gay man to be elected to public office in the country. Prior to his books, he had made his living writing for men's magazines, including Rogue, Gallery and Playboy. At Playboy he ghost write The Playboy Advisor, a colloquium of sex and lifestyle advice for straight men.

His reputation as a science fiction writer was established with a 1956 novel, The Power about a man with advanced mental powers that became a television special starring Theodore Bikel and in 1968 as a film starring George Hamilton and Suzanne Pleshette. In the 1970s and 1980s Robinson collaborated with Mr. Scortia on several projects including The Prometheus Crisis (1975) The Nightmare Factor (1978) and The Gold Crew, a nuclear-nightmare thriller. His novel The Dark Beyond the Stars (1991) was selected as one of the New York Times notable books of the year.

Robinson had a small part in Milk, Gus Van Sant's 2008 bio-pic of Harvey Milk, standing in a window shouting "I'll tell you my brothers!"

He died of heart disease and pneumonia on June 30, 2014 in San Francisco.

1963 -

WHITNEY HOUSTON was an American singer and actress born on this date. She was certified as the most awarded female artist of all time by Guinness World Records and is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston released seven studio albums and two soundtrack albums, all of which have been certified diamond, multi-platinum, platinum, or gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She is regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. Her crossover appeal on the popular music charts as well as her prominence on MTV influenced several African-American female artists. She was the daughter of ex-Army serviceman and Newark city administrator John Russell Houston Jr. and gospel singer Emily "Cissy" (Drinkard) Houston. Her elder brother Michael is a songwriter, and her elder half-brother is former basketball player and singer Gary Garland. Her parents were both African-American. Through her mother, Houston was a first cousin of singers Dionne Warwick and Dee Dee Warwick. Her godmother was Darlene Love and her honorary aunt was Aretha Franklin, whom she met at age eight or nine when her mother took her to a recording studio. Houston was raised a Baptist, but was also exposed to the Pentecostal church. After the 1967 Newark riots, the family moved to a middle-class area in East Orange, New Jersey, when she was four. Her parents later divorced.

At age 11, Houston started performing as a soloist in the junior gospel choir at the New Hope Baptist Church in Newark, where she also learned to play the piano. Her first solo performance in the church was "Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah".

While Houston was still in school, her mother, Cissy, continued to teach her how to sing. Cissy was a member of the group The Sweet Inspirations which also opened for and sang backup for Elvis Presley. Houston spent some of her teens touring nightclubs where Cissy was performing, and she would occasionally get onstage and perform with her. Houston was also exposed to the music of Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, and Roberta Flack, most of whom would have an influence on her as a singer and performer. In 1977, at age 14, she became a backup singer on the Michael Zager Band's single "Life's a Party". In 1978, at 15, Houston sang background vocals for Chaka Khan and Lou Rawls.

Houston attended a Catholic girls' high school in Caldwell, New Jersey; she graduated in 1981. During her teens, Houston met Robyn Crawford, who she described as the "sister she never had". Crawford went on to become Houston's best friend, roommate, and executive assistant. After Houston rose to stardom, she and Crawford were rumored to be lovers, which they both denied in 1987. In 2019, several years after Houston's death, Crawford stated that their early relationship had included sexual activity, but that Houston ended this for fear of others' reactions.

Houston renewed her contract with Arista for $100 million. However, her personal struggles began overshadowing her career, and the album Just Whitney received mixed reviews. Her drug use and a tumultuous marriage to singer Bobby Brown received widespread media coverage. After a six-year break from recording, Houston returned to the top of the Billboard 200 chart with her final studio album, I Look to You. On February 11, 2012, Houston was found dead at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California. The coroner's report showed that she had accidentally drowned in the bathtub, with heart disease and cocaine use as contributing factors. News of her death coincided with the 2012 Grammy Awards and was featured prominently in international media. Houston was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2020.

Died

1967 -

JOE ORTON, English writer died (b. 1933) a satirical modern playwright. In a short but prolific career from 1964 until his death, Orton shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. “Ortonesque” became a recognized term for "outrageously macabre". Orton met Kenneth Halliwell at RADA in 1951, moving into a flat with him and two other students in June of that year. Halliwell was seven years older than Orton and of independent means, having a substantial inheritance. They quickly formed a strong relationship and became lovers, despite Orton's claims of sexual incompatibility. His plays include: Entertaining Mr. Sloane (first performance 1964) Loot (first performance 1965) The Erpinham Camp (first performance 1966) The Good and Faithful Servant (first performance 1967) Funeral Games (first performance 1968) What The Butler Saw (first performance 1969) Up Against It.

Pranksters, Orton and Halliwell would amuse themselves with pranks and hoaxes. Orton created "Edna Welthorpe," an elderly 'outraged of' whom he would later revive to stir controversy over his plays. Orton coined the term as an allusion to Terence Rattigan's "Aunt Edna", Rattigan's archetypal playgoer.

In another brilliant episode, Orton and Halliwell stole books from the local library, and would subtly modify the cover art or the blurbs before returning them to the library. A volume of poems by John Betjeman, for example, was returned to the library with a new dust jacket featuring a photograph of a nearly naked, heavily tattooed middle-aged man. The couple took many of the prints to decorate their flat. They were eventually discovered and prosecuted for this in May, 1962.

The incident was reported in the national newspaper the Daily Mirror as "Gorilla in the Roses". They were charged with five counts of theft and malicious damage, admitted damaging more than seventy books, and were jailed for six months and fined about $500/ £262. The books that Orton and Halliwell vandalized have since become the most valued of the Islington Library service collection.

Halliwell was suicidal, popping “purple hearts,” a combined amphetamine-barbiturate marketed as an antidepressant to tired housewives. He complained to Orton of tightness in his chest, likely caused by anxiety, and lashed out at him in front of other people. Friends of Orton’s later said he wanted to leave Halliwell and had met someone else.

On the morning of August 9, 1967, a chauffeur coming to collect Orton and bring him out for lunch with a film producer found the two men’s bodies locked in their flat.

In a frenzy, Halliwell had plowed a hammer repeatedly into Orton’s head, until blood splattered onto his chest. A later inquest found that Halliwell had taken 22 barbiturates, washed down with grapefruit juice from a tin. Halliwell was completely nude, Orton wearing just a pajama top. He did not appear to have fought off the attacks.