COLE PORTER, American composer died (b. 1891); American composer and songwriter from Peru, Indiana. His works include the musical comedies Kiss Me Kate (1948) (based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew), Fifty Million Frenchmen and Anything Goes, as well as songs like “Night and Day,” “I Get A Kick Out of You,” and “I’ve Got You Under My Skin.” He was noted for his sophisticated (sometimes ribald) lyrics, clever rhymes, and complex forms. He was one of the greatest contributors to the Great American Songbook. Although Porter was often photographed in the arms of beautiful women and was married for thirty-four years to one wife who conceived and miscarried, it is the current consensus that he was a Gay man (or at least homosexual). The couple separated briefly in the early 1930s when, it is believed, Porter’s sexual orientation became more and more open during their time living in Hollywood.

After Porter was badly injured in a horse riding accident, Linda was reunited with her husband. He had an affair in 1925 with Boris Kochno, a poet and Ballet Russes librettist. He also reportedly had a long relationship with his constant companion, Howard Sturges, a Boston socialite, as well as with architect Ed Tauch (for whom Porter wrote “Easy to Love”), choreographer Nelson Barclift (who inspired “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To”), film director, John Wilson (who later married international society beauty Princess Nathalie Paley), and longtime friend Ray Kelly, whose children still receive half of the childless Porter’s copyright royalties. A review of a recent Porter biography recounts that in his later years, the composer kept “breaking appliances so he could lure cute repairmen into his lair.” When in Hollywood, he was also a regular guest at George Cukor’s trés Gay Sunday pool parties.