As performed live by Liberace, 1983. Somewhere along this same time, I took my mom to see him when he brought his show to our town. I knew she would enjoy it, but didn't think I would get much out of it - Liberace was very old hat by that time . . . and besides, he was more a than a little, um, flamboyant. You know what I mean, fellas? I wasn't comfortable with that. Just keep it to yourself, I thought.
But we went, and both of us had a grand time. He truly was Mr. Showmanship - a consummate entertainer, and from the moment he stepped onto the stage in a glittering sequined suit and fur-lined cape, he enthralled everyone in that huge arena, individually and collectively, and held them spellbound until he played his last note. Virtuosity. Spectacle. Magic.
I've never seen anything like it, before or since. Not a dull moment in the whole show, musically or visually, and the outfits kept getting more and more flamboyant - oh Mary, don't ask! But never a hint of vulgarity, and the audience just begged for more, blue-haired ladies and manly men alike.
So this is for you, my darling red-haired Mama. I miss you so.
There's just something about a man with a cigar . . . Ted Turner, 1977
Ted Turner, the colorful billionaire and philanthropist, 6 feet tall with a rakish mustache and a cocky, Rhett Butler swagger, has died at the age of 87 at his plantation home in northern Florida. A shrewd, talkative businessman full of boyish exubarance, with big dreams and big wins, he was called "The Mouth of the South" for his sometimes outrageous public comments. Among many other accomplishments, he was the father of CNN and Turner Classic Movies, and for some years was the owner of the champion Atlanta Braves baseball team. He wasn't born in the South, but we'll claim him anyway.
I recollect when he started his first TV station in Atlanta, where I was living at the time. Channel 17 was a low-budget start-up that I chiefly remember because it would play Top 40 songs all morning? / afternoon? on Saturday - producing the first music videos, all done in-house by using special effects with the TV cameras - like mirror images, upside-down dancers, a rain of polka dots, and so forth. Primitive, but fascinating at the time. I watched them on my nifty little Sony TV with a 5-inch screen, which was the last word in cool back then.
He was married three times and had five children. His third wife, from 1991 to 2001, was Jane Fonda, who has written this lovely tribute:
He swept into my life, a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate and I’ve never been the same. He needed me. No one had ever let me know they needed me, and this wasn’t your average human being that needed me, this was the creator of CNN, and Turner Classic Movies, who had won the America’s Cup as the world’s greatest sailor . . .
He was a good-looking rascal, but straight as a board, and therefore typically boring: not someone I kept track of; I hadn't thought about him in years. But as far as I know, he wasn't hateful or malicious, nor was he a thief or a rapist, as we hear so much about today. And looking over his obituaries, I am struck by all the many good things he did or tried to do for the country and the world. He actually cared about other people - what a concept - and had a big heart.
If you can spare the time to look at some of these retrospectives, you will see that, unlike some other big-mouthed billionaires, he actively promoted world peace, nuclear disarmament, environmental regulation, wildlife protection, responsible journalism, and other noble causes. He put his money where his big mouth was, too - lots of it.
So I have to say, Good on you, Ted. You used your time on earth wisely and well, and your treasure too. Rest in peace.
TCM:
PBS:
WSB (Atlanta, 1988):
And a 52-minute interview with Charlie Rose from 2004 - it's most interesting to hear Turner's condemnation of Bush's invasion of Iraq, and contrast that with the insane, homicidal ravings of the current occupant of the White House:
P. S. -- Turner was no dummy, either. He wanted to major in classics (Latin/Greek literature and history) in college, until his daddy threw a fit and made him choose something else. In one of the videos above, Turner quotes from memory a famous passage from "Horatio at the Bridge" by Macaulay:
To every man upon this earth, death cometh soon or late;
And how can man die better than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers, and the temples of his Gods . . . .
Screen capture of the speech from the Associated Press broadcast. Queen Camilla, in white, is seated to the King's left.
King Charles III addressed a joint session of Congress yesterday, as his mother had done in 1991. Surveying the whole field of our common heritage from Magna Carta to the present, and displaying a deep understanding of American history and politics, his eloquence and humor went over well with the assembled representatives, who interrupted him with standing ovations a number of times. A lovely speech by a kindly old friend, full of warmth, wisdom, and gentle warning - well worth heeding by those now in power.
If only they would!
The Associated Press transcipt of the speech can be found here.
This gold single by the Righteous Brothers was #1 this week in 1966 on the Billboard charts. It holds up very well, I think. They had a unique sound, a masculine sound that must have appealed to every gay boy and man in America. It certainly appealed to me, just beginning the mysterious ascent to manhood. Enjoy.
From the collection of Harold T. O'Neal, a gay home movie buff who made many films of gay life in California from 1939 to 1989. This one begins with a well-dressed but rather dull garden party, followed by scenes of several beautiful young men splashing about in various states of undress somewhere along the American River. A lovely glimpse of what seems a much more innocent time.
Double-click the screen to go full size; hit escape to exit.
Once again, I state what M.P. says, and he ought to know: if they're only swimming, it's not porn.
This popped up in my YouTube feed the other day: South, a surprisingly early gay drama shown on British television in 1959 - long before there was any such thing in America. Newspaper critics were hostile to the display of "perversion" on the small screen, but the fact that it was shown at all proves that the British were ahead of us in that regard.
The first gay-themed TV movie over here that I recall was That Certain Summer in 1972; Hal Holbrook and Martin Sheen played the lovers. Young people today would not understand the trepidation of watching something so taboo and forbidden. I watched it with fascination - and no little repugnance. I was attending college, but still deep in the closet, and terrified of actually encountering any of those wicked ho-mo-sexshuls. (Oh but I fantasized often . . . then begged God to forgive me . . . over and over again. An absurd agony that blighted all my teenage years.)
The play was written by Julian Green (1900-1998), born to expatriate American Southerners in Paris. (The family home in Savannah is now a museum.) He was a prolific writer, mostly in French, among whose many honors and awards was election to the Olympic heights of the Académie Française in 1971, the first non-French person to be chosen. Besides which, to judge by the contents of his meticulous lifelong diaries - published in 19 volumes after his death - he was, shall we say, rather energetically gay. Perhaps, as a Catholic, he had his own struggles with l'absurdité.
P. S. - I must say, I'm disappointed and a bit shocked that the UK Government has not yet erected some kind of memorial to their late beloved monarch, who served them so long and so well. Shame on them!
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, harmony; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that I may seek not so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.
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We cannot all do great things, but we can do small things with great love.
and welcome to the Blue Truck, a blog for mature gay men with news and views on gay rights, history, art, humor, and whatever comes to mind. Plus a few hot men. The truck's all washed and gassed up, so hop in buddy, let's go.
CAUTION: For mature gay men only beyond this point. Some posts and links may not be suitable for children or the unco guid. You have been warned.
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My Story
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Churches say that the expression of love in a heterosexual monogamous relationship includes the physical, the touching, embracing, kissing, the genital act - the totality of our love makes each of us grow to become increasingly godlike and compassionate. If this is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual?
It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.
If God, as they say, is homophobic, I wouldn't worship that God.
