80 More Gays Around the World: Part 21) Stage, Screen and Censorship

Last time on “80 More Gays”: Mathematician 55) Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850-1891) is buried in the same cemetery as 56) Mauritz Stiller (1883-1928), who directed several films based on novels by 57) Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940), the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1909 and who nominated the winner of the 1922 prize, 58) Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954).

58) Jacinto Benavente was a leading figure in Spanish theatre in the first decades of the 20th century. His plays were often satirical and humorous, and it was this style which was remarked upon in the citation of his Nobel Prize.

As with Sofya Kovalevskaya, Jacinto’s sexuality is a question of interpretation and opinion. Jacinto himself shrugged off all rumours of his sexuality, but as far as I can tell, he neither confirmed nor denied them. In Spanish theatrical circles he is widely regarded as having been gay.

Spanish theatre was, naturally, centred in the nation’s capital, Madrid. The major theatre in the city at that time was the Teatro de la Princesa – the Princess Theatre. By 1908 the theatre was owned and managed by a renowned actress Maria Guererro. In the first year under her management it premiered one of Jacinto’s plays, and did so again in 1913, 1914 and 1919. In 1931, three years after Maria Guererro’s death, the Princess Theatre was renamed in her honour.

Jacinto Benavente became a reluctant supporter of General Franco’s regime after the Spanish Civil War of 1936-9. He regarded Franco as the lesser of two evils (fascism and socialism). However, Franco imposed strict censorship on the performing arts and Jacinto decided not to write for many years after it was introduced.

Franco set up the National Propaganda Service. One of the new state censors was 59) Luis Escobar Kirkpatrick (1908-1991). On his father’s death in 1954 Luis inherited the title of Marquess de las Marismas del Guadalquivir. Like Jacinto Benavente Luis Escobar would probably have described himself as a liberal monarchist. Neither were very enthusiastic in their support of Franco’s regime. A friend of Luis because Head of the National Propaganda Service and it was he who appointed Luis as Head of the Theatre and Music Department in 1938. However, neither stayed in their position very long. Both were suspected of non-compliance in their duties and dismissed. In his memoirs Luis admitted that he would usually “okay” each page of a submitted script without reading it.

During his year-long stint as a state censor Luis Escobar was also given the task of setting up what became the National Theatre of Spain. He established a core set of plays from what the Spanish termed their Golden Era, which included those of Jacinto Benavente. In 1940 Luis was appointed director of the Maria Guerrero Theatre.

Luis Escobar was also an actor. He appeared in many television dramas and series, and in a handful of films. He also directed several films, including “La Honradez de la Cerradura” by Jacinto Benavente in 1950 which was nominated for the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

Luis wasn’t the only aristocrat to be an actor and director. 60) Nicole Stéphane (1923-2007) was one also. Something else that links the two is a common feature in their coat of arms. Below left is the shield from the coat of arms of Luis Escobar. On the right is the shield from Nicole Stéphane’s.

The common feature isn’t apparent without some knowledge of heraldry. Both coats of arms are what are called allusive. They allude to the owner’s names. Luis Escobar’s ancestors adopted brooms was their arms because the Spanish word for a broom is “escoba”. The allusive nature of Nicole Stéphane’s arms in less apparent until you learn that her full name was Baroness Nicole Mathilde Stéphanie de Rothschild. The name Rothschild translates as “red shield” or “red badge”, and this is alluded to by the little red shield in the centre of their arms.

Nicole Stéphane belonged to the French branch of the Rothschild family. Her father, uncle and cousin were also actors, writers and directors. Nicole was nominated for a Bafta (British Oscar) as Best Actress in a Foreign Film for her second film “Les Enfants Terribles” (1950). Nicole’s last acting role was in “Carve Her Name With Pride” (1958).

A serious car accident left her unable to walk and speak for a while and she never fully recovered. It was for this reason that she turned to film production and direction. Although she made several successful films her dream was to film Marcel Proust’s novel series “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu” (Remembrance of Things Past). She acquired the film rights in 1962 and many in the profession thought it was unfilmable. After many struggles over funding and scripts the first film in the series, “Swann In Love”, was produced in 1984. No others were made.

I had originally thought of continuing this “80 More Gays” sequence with Marcel Proust himself, but before I do that I want to take a little detour.

Through Nicole’s family connections she managed to arrange for part of a future film in her “Remembrance of Things Past” series to be filmed at a family mansion, the Château de Ferrières. This belonged to another branch of Nicole’s family and was built for her 3-times-great-uncle James. One of James’s grandchildren, who was very familiar with the château, was Baroness Hélène de Rothschild, known by her married name of 61) Hélène van Zuylen (1863-1947).

Next time on “80 More Gays”: We race across northern France and soar into the skies with a couple of heroes before landing in Morocco to return to Marcel Proust.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays : Part 36) Mad About the Boy

Previously on “Another 80 Gays”: 75) Gaius Maecenas (68 BC-8 BC) was the patron and lover of 76) Bathyllus (c.60 BC- ?c.2 BC), a performer of Roman pantomime which evolved into British pantomime, in which form “Cinderella” is a popular story, a film version of which earned an Oscar nomination for 77) Angela Morley (1924-2009), musical arranger for the radio series that made a star out of 78) Kenneth Williams (1926-1988).

78) Kenneth Williams was one of the most well-known and popular comedy actors in the UK. He began his acting career during his National Service in the army, performing in army concerts. On leaving the army he went straight into repertory theatre in which actors were required to take on many characters, often in more than one play every week.

Kenneth’s ability to mimic and portray very different characters helped him to develop the many vocal skills that came to the attention of BBC radio. In 1955 he was invited to join the cast for the second series of the radio comedy series “Hancock’s Half Hour” to provide character roles. 77) Angela Morley, who at that time was billed as Wally Stott, had been the musical director of the series since its inception. The eponymous star of the series, Tony Hancock, was an insecure man in private life and after several series in which he believed Kenneth Williams was getting more laughs than himself he asked Kenneth to leave.

By this time Kenneth had a couple of other comedy series which would secure his status as a British comedy legend. Both began in 1958. One was the BBC radio series “Beyond Our Ken”. Despite the title, Kenneth Williams was not the star of the show. That went to another comedy legend, Kenneth Horne.

“Beyond Our Ken” and its rebooted version “Round the Horne” have been favourite radio comedies since my childhood. In the previous “80 Gays” article last week I mentioned how both of Angela Morley’s radio series are being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra. So, too, is “Beyond Our Ken” (celebrating its 60th anniversary).

In 1965 the creator and lead writer of “Beyond Our Ken” left the BBC, taking the rights to the title and characters with him. The BBC decided on an immediate reboot. The cast remained intact but the show was retitled “Round the Horne”. The junior writer of “Beyond Our Ken” was asked to write the new series with new characters in the same format of sketches and spoofs, once again linked together by Kenneth Horne. “Round the Horne” became a bigger success than “Beyond Our Ken”.

Perhaps the most famous, and surprisingly popular, characters was Julian and Sandy. For a look at their significance in radio comedy and gay rights read this article from 2015.

“Round the Horne” ended in 1968 when Kenneth Horne died suddenly. The BBC decided on another reboot, this time with Kenneth Williams in the central role, called “Its Ken Again”. It didn’t work well, and didn’t last long.

But Kenneth Williams didn’t need another radio comedy series because he was by now a regular cast member in the “Carry On” films which began in 1958 with “Carry On Sergeant”. There wasn’t any intention of making a series of films with the title “Carry On” but the first was so successful that another was made, then another, then another, and another, until 30 had been made up to 1978 (in addition to “Carry On Columbus”, made in 1992, one television series, 4 Christmas specials and several stage shows; there are also 4 unofficial films that don’t have the “Carry On” title). There have been several attempts to revive the series but they’ve all failed.

The regular “Carry On” gang numbered in the dozens. There was a core group of lead actors and many regular supporting actors. Sadly, we lost three this year – Liz Fraser, Fenella Fielding and Carole Shelley, who between them appeared 7 “Carry On” films (only one together – “Carry On Regardless” in 1963 [Update 30th December - we lost another, Dame June Whitfield, shortly after this was posted]).

One of the other regular main “Carry On” leading stars was 79) Charles Hawtrey (1914-1988). Charles starred in 23 “Carry On” films (compared to Kenneth Williams’ 26). Sadly, problems with alcoholism dogged Charles in later years and he was often drunk on the set of some “Carry On” films. One of Charles’ best performances is in “Carry On Spying”, the first ever James Bond spoof.

Unlike Kenneth Williams who began acting in the army Charles Hawtrey was a child actor, making his stage debut at the age of 6. In 1931 he joined the cast of the annual “Peter Pan” production at the London Palladium. Below is the cast list from the official 1932 programme. I’ve underlined Charles’s name.

Charles Hawtrey became more widely known when he began appearing in film comedies. He was often a “juvenile” foil (when he was in his 20s) to Will Hay, a popular radio and film comedian. However, once the “Carry On” films took off people began to forget Charles was already an established star.

Let’s go back to that “Peter Pan” cast list above. If you look at the name immediately above Charles you’ll see the name 80) Graham Payn (1918-2005) (spelt wrongly, with "E" on the end). Graham was born in South Africa. He was privately educated in England where he began acting. His stage debut was in the 1931 production of “Peter Pan”, also Charles Hawtrey’s first year.

While he was still only 14 years old Graham appeared in a revue called “Words and Music”. His main role was as a busker outside a cinema during the introduction to the song “Mad About the Boy”, sung by four of the female singers in the show.

Graham appeared in 164 performances of “Words and Music” and went on to appear in many other stage production while the “Mad About the Boy” writer went on to have his own many, many successes. In 1945 the two met again after nearly ten years. This was the start of the relationship that lasted until the death of that songwriter. If you don’t already know who wrote “Mad About the Boy” let me say that my trip “Around the World in Another 80 Gays” ends here, because he was none other than 1) Sir Noël Coward (1899-1973), the man with whom we began our journey back in January. He and Graham Payn remained partners until Sir Noël’s death.

It has given me a great amount of satisfaction to research and write this series. It does not end here. All being well I’ll will write another “80 Gays” series for 2020. I hope you will stay with me through the less frequent 2019 posts to learn more about the many connections the lgbt community has though time and location.

Around the World in Another 80 Gays: Part 35) What a Performance

Previously on “Another 80 Gays” : The English politician 72) John Hervey, Lord Hervey (1696-1743) was satirised as 73) Sporus (c.49-69), the youth married to 74) Emperor Nero (37-68), famous for having watched Rome burn from the gardens of 75) Gaius Maecenas (68 BC-8 BC), an arts patron who fell in love with a pantomime performer called 76) Bathyllus (c.60 BC –c. 2 BC).

75) Gaius Maecenas loved all forms of entertainment and was patron to many writers and performers. In his villa in Rome, from where Nero is said to have watched the city burn, Meacenas built performing areas similar to modern stages.

At this time one form of entertainment was increasing in popularity. It was a poetry and dance act called pantomime performed by a solo artist, usually based on stories from mythology. Different characters were represented by different masks and gestures. There was quite a lot of erotic and lewd content in the performances and as such pantomime was seen as a career for the lower classes. However, pantomime was very popular with all classes.

76) Bathyllus was one of the Maecenas’s slaves before becoming one of the most famous pantomime performers. Whether Maecenas had fallen in love with him while he was his slave is unlikely, but by the time Bathyllus had become a household name several years later the poet Horace (another of Maecenas’s protégés) was writing poems about their love affair. Perhaps Bathyllus was already a talented performer during his slave years and Maecenas recognised a future star in the making, granting him his freedom and became his mentor and lover.

Bathyllus made comedy his speciality. He quickly became a super-celebrity and it was thought at one time that he was the person who actually introduced pantomime into Rome, though it is now known that it existed beforehand.

Bathyllus had his rivals. Just like modern times when, at one time, you were either a Kylie fan or a Madonna fan, in Rome you were either a Bathyllus fan or a Pylades fan. Pylades was another super-celebrity pantomime performer. The two may have met before their careers began, for when Bathyllus was a slave of Maecenas Pylades was a slave of Emperor Augustus, Maecenas’s boss. The rivalry between the Bathyllus fans and the Pylades fans can be likened to that of football fans, or the British Mods and Rockers of the 1960s. Just like the Mods and Rockers, the fans of Bathyllus and Pylades clashed violently in the streets. In fact, Augustus banned Pylades from Rome until the rival gangs calmed down.

We don’t know when Bathyllus died. Pylades produced a pantomime festival in 2BC when he was too old to perform personally. We assume Bathyllus was about the same age and equally too old to perform, if he was still alive by then.

Even though Roman pantomime dropped in popularity in the 7th century elements of it survived in Italian theatre and partly influenced the “commedia dell’arte” of the 17th century. With the development of stock characters such as Harlequin, Columbine, Scaramouche and Pantaloon commedia dell’arte influenced the extremely popular modern form of British pantomime.

At this time of year almost every city, town and village in Britain puts on a pantomime. I’ve been in quite a few myself, dating back to my childhood days. One pantomime regularly tops the list of the most performed in any one year – Cinderella. The popularity of the story has, of course, spread beyond British theatre. The Disney cartoon is perhaps the most famous version. My personal favourite, however, is the 1976 British film “The Slipper and the Rose”. This was a significant film for the lgbt community, not because the Prince was played by (the now openly gay) Richard Chamberlain, but because it was the first film for which a transgender person received an Oscar nomination. That person was 77) Angela Morley (1924-2009).

Apart from the actual songs and main themes all of the music in “The Slipper and the Rose” is Angela’s – composer, arranger, orchestrator and conductor. In 2011 I wrote about Angela’s musical successes which ranged from surreal radio comedy to Holocaust biography.

It’s difficult to explain briefly what an arranger and orchestrator does. Basically and arranger takes the music from a composer and decides arranges the tune to sound like heavy rock, burlesque, romantic ballet music or country and western. The orchestrator decides how many instruments play the finished piece of music and which part of the tune they play. Often the composer is also the arranger and orchestrator.

I can’t do justice to Angela Morley’s massive contribution to television and film music, so I suggest you look at her IMDb page. But here’s a video of famous scene from a famous film in which all the music you hear was composed by Angela Morley based on the main theme of the film written by her most famous regular collaborator, John Williams.

Angela Morley first came to my attention when I was a child listening to his music in BBC radio comedies. I’m still listening to them. Both of her main comedies are currently being repeated on BBC Radio 4 Extra every week. BBC radio was Angela’s big break in music, as it was for a star of one of those radio comedies, “Hancock’s Half Hour”. That other British comedy legend was 78) Kenneth Williams (1926-1988).

Next time : We Carry On with more comedy and end up being Mad About the Boy.

Puppet On (and Off) a String

Top row (left to right) : War Horse; Terri Rogers and Shorty Harris; Big Bird; Elmo; Beaker.

Bottom row (left to right) : Ronnie Burkett with two of his marionettes; one of Jeff Karsner’s marionettes; Wayland Flowers and Madame; Peter Minshall’s giant puppets at the Atlanta Olympic opening ceremony.

Today is World Puppetry Day. Here in Nottingham we are celebrating with a whole week of puppet-related performances and workshops. I have always been interested in puppetry. It’s in my blood. During World War II my mother and her siblings performed in many concerts in their local area to raise funds for the war effort. My mother was 8 years old when war broke out. The driving force behind these concerts was my grandfather’s friend who lived with the family, Uncle Bill Hayes. He was a professional music hall entertainer.

Uncle Bill could tell jokes, sing, do magic, performed comic character acts and operate puppets. My family and other local amateur performers were roped in to help with his concerts (several tricks were performed in the UK for the first time by Uncle Bill and my mother, his magician’s assistant). As I was growing up I heard many stories about those concerts. They gave me a love of puppets, performance and magic. I still have the marionettes my parents bought for me in the 1970s. I even made some “Star Trek” hand puppets in the 1980s for a youth concert.

It is only in past few years that I have realised how many lgbt puppeteers there are. There are organisations and Facebook groups, and puppeteers who specialise in lgbt issues such as coming out and anti-bullying. It would take a long time to go through them all, so I’ll present a selection of lgbt puppeteers to celebrate World Puppetry Day.

I’ll start with something which is high-lighting the puppet festival here in Nottingham and is making its debut in the city. Its one of the most famous of contemporary puppet performances – “War Horse”.

Andrew Kohler and Basil Jones are a married gay couple from South Africa. They met at art college in Botswana and quickly recognised their shared love of puppetry. In 1981 they formed the Handspring Puppet Company. Andrew and Basil created puppet shows for schools and later for adult audiences which also included themes tackling racism and human rights. In 2007 their reputation came to the notice of director Tom Morris who was mounting a theatre adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel “War Horse”. Tom approached Adrian and Basil to create a realistic horse puppet and the other puppets for “War Horse”. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Another talent my Uncle Bill had was for ventriloquism. One of the more distinctive ventriloquists that I remember from British television in the 1970s was a woman called Terri Rogers (1937-1999). At that time there were many ventriloquists on tv and I recall only two of them being women – Shari Lewis and Terri Rogers. Little did I know at the time that Terri Rogers was transgender. As well as being a talented ventriloquist Terri was a magician. She wrote several magic books and developed tricks and illusions for stars like David Copperfield and Paul Daniels.

Perhaps the most famous puppets in popular culture, apart from Punch and Judy, are the Muppets. Throughout the career of Muppet creator Jim Henson he used various types of puppet. An early collaboration was with Kermit Love (1916-2008), an openly gay costume designer and puppeteer who pioneered the use of the full-body costume puppets that made the Muppets famous. Perhaps the most famous is Big Bird from “Sesame Street”, the first and most enduring of the many puppets Kermit Love created. Incidentally, Kermit the Frog is not named after Kermit Love. They are both named after the son of President Teddy Roosevelt, Kermit Roosevelt.

Kermit Love was mentor to another Muppeteer, Kevin Clash. Kevin had a childhood love of puppets and, like myself, was making puppets at the age of 10. In his teenage years Kevin contacted Kermit who in turn put him in contact with Jim Henson. For almost 30 years Kevin Clash was Elmo in “Sesame Street”. This ended with his resignation in 2012 after unfounded allegations of under-age sex were made. However, the incident led to Kevin coming out to the media as a gay man.

Kevin’s reign as Elmo came after the brief tenure of Richard Hunt (1951-1992). Richard came from a show business family and puppetry was an early interest, fuelled by the early Muppet appearances on tv. He began working for Jim Henson in 1969 and was the original puppeteer behind (or underneath) many popular Muppets, including Scooter, Beaker, Statler, Sweetums and several Fraggles. For the year before Kevin Clash’s arrival he was also Elmo. Richard Hunt died of AIDS at the age of 40.

Ronnie Burkett is a Canadian marionetteer. His self-written performances often have adult themes. He founded his own company in 1986 and has toured the world. One of his more recent successes, “Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy”, was a semi-autobiographical piece about a young gay puppeteer. It toured internationally for 2 years.

Jeff Karsner (1961-2012) was a gardener by profession – Head Gardener of the Children’s Garden at the Huntington Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. He was also a board member of the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry. He used inspired imagination in his garden designs and even used plants to create puppets. Other puppets were made out of rubbish, trash, discarded objects and bits and pieces you might find in a cupboard or drawer. Jeff was also a swimmer and won a bronze medal at the 1994 Gay Games in New York. He died accidentally at his home and donations in his memory were made to the International Puppetry Museum in Pasadena.

Wayland Flowers (1939-1988) was a familiar face on television on both sides of the Atlantic. So, too, was his famous creation Madame. In many ways Wayland paved the way for some modern puppeteers and ventriloquists who, like Terri Rogers above, often used outrageous and adult content in their cabaret and club acts which became the staple content for recent popular adult puppet musicals like “Avenue Q”.

Peter Minshall is a Caribbean carnival costume designer. His expertise was used to great effect in the Olympic opening ceremonies of Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996, and the closing ceremony of Salt Lake City 2002. Carnival costumes became giant puppets with his creations of 20-feet-tall stick people. It is said that he is also the inventor of those inflatable dancing figures you often see on car dealer forecourts.

And these are just a few of the lgbt puppeteers and puppet creators who have enlivened many minds of children and adults alike. There are many other areas which I have no space to go into – shadow puppets, Punch and Judy, the puppets of stage shows like “The Lion King”, and children’s tv favourites like Thunderbirds.

Extraordinary Lives : Swashbuckling Across France Part 2

Two weeks ago I wrote about the extraordinary exploits of Julie d’Aubigny (1673-1707) pictured above. Today we continue her story.

After spending several years on the run for kidnapping a nun and burning down a convent Julie arrived in Paris at the age of 18 with a royal pardon and a glorious future as a star of the Paris Opera. She became a celebrity. Composers wrote parts especially for her and high society feted her.

In true celebrity style Julie’s off-stage behaviour continued to attract attention. She fell in love with the lead female singer, the prima donna of the Paris Opera, Marie Le Rochois (c.1658-1728). There was another singer Julie fell for, a rising male star called Franchon Moreau (1668-after 1743). He turned her down and Julie was shattered. She became so depressed, so it is said, that she attempted suicide.

But there’s always someone who wants a bit of the action and is jealous of being left out. A famous tenor at the opera, Louis Gaulard Dumesny (d.1702), had been trying to earn the affection of both Julie and Marie, and just about any other women he thought he had a chance with. When he made a concerted effort to woo Julie she turned him down. Dumesny responded by insulting her. Julie’s response to that was characteristic.

One evening Julie laid in wait for Dumesny in a public square. When he appeared Julie leapt out in front of him and challenged him to a duel. Dumesny didn’t recognise her because he hadn’t seen Julie in her male attire before and turned into a wimp. He refused to fight. Whereupon Julie got out her walking cane and thrashed the living daylights out of him. For good measure she took his watch and snuff box.

The following day Dumesny arrived at the opera covered in bruises. People asked what had happened and he said that he had been attacked by a bunch of ruffians who stole his watch and snuff box. This was Julie’s cue. She called him a liar and a coward and took out the watch and snuff box and threw them back at him. How embarrassed he must have been.

Life at the opera and in society circles continued. One very posh royal ball in 1697 provided more extraordinary behaviour from Julie. She was attending in her finest male attire. One young woman attracted her attention and Julie began chatting her up and flirting. They even danced together. Julie also knew there were three men who were equally vying for the young lady’s attention. There were strict conventions and rules about courtship at public events like this ball where royalty is present, but Julie threw them all out of the window when she kissed the young lady in full view of the other guests. At this point the three would-be suitors challenged Julie to a duel.

There’s no time like the present, they say, and the four of them marched out of the ballroom and into the palace gardens. Julie took on all three of the men, one after the other, and beat them all. The king was not amused. When Julie returned to the ballroom he reminded her that duels were banned. The king’s brother, however, was very amused and persuaded the king to let her off because the ban only applies to men not women.

However, the scandal was a bit too much and Julie felt the urge to travel again. She left Paris and went to Brussels. There she took up a guest role at the Brussels opera. Her tempestuous behaviour wasn’t dampened. At one time she had an argument with the “Duchess of Luxembourg” (there was no such title at the time, so I assume this lady would have been the wife of the Duke of Nassau, Prince of Orange, who ruled the area we now call Luxembourg). Julie threatened to blow the Duchess’s brains out!

Julie’s reputation attracted the attention of Prince Maximilian I Emanuel von Wittelsbach, the Elector of Bavaria. It wasn’t long before the two were having an affair. But Julie proved to be a bit too much for him, especially after seeing her stab herself with a real dagger during one opera performance. To help ease the pain of dumping her he thought a gift of 40,000 livres and a gentle hint to go away might do the trick. It backfired spectacularly after he chose the husband of his new mistress to deliver the money to her. Julie was outraged. She threw the money back at him and chased him out of her house. When he returned to retrieve the money both it and Julie had gone.

Madrid was Julie’s next destination. Perhaps she was trying to keep a low profile there, because she got a job as the maid to a Spanish countess. You just know something is going to happen before too long, and so it did. Julie didn’t like the countess very much. One evening when Julie was getting the countess ready for a grand ball she thought it would be amusing to put radishes in the countess’s hair. The countess went to the ball unaware of her unusual hair adornments. She probably didn’t stay at the grand ball very long, but by the time she got back home Julie was long gone.

Julie returned to Paris and the opera. When her ex-lover Marie Le Rochois retired Julie became her replacement as prima donna. There were a few more altercations with the law, usually involving herself and her old friend the Count d’Albret, and her continual verbal duels with Gabriel-Vincent Théverard, the singer who got her the job at the Paris Opera in the first place.

Life was relatively uneventful after that. In 1703 she met and fell in love with Marie Thérèse de Senneterre de Crussol d’Uzès (1670-1705), wife of the much older Louis, Marques of Florensac. Marie Thérèse was said to be the most beautiful woman in France. The two women became a couple. Marie Thérèse left her 68-year-old husband, and her two young children by him, and went to live with Julie until her death two years later.

Julie was heart-broken. She retired from the opera and from her swashbuckling activities. She may have decided that life wasn’t worth living without Marie Thérèse and set about putting all her affairs in order. This included reconciling herself with her husband. Remember him from Part 1? He was the unfortunate man who was packed off to the south of France to become a tax collector as soon as they had married.

It is ironic that her extraordinary life on an adventure all over France started with her setting fire to a convent, for it is in a convent that she spent the final two years of her life.

Julie d’Aubigny’s reputation during her lifetime not only meant that she was a national celebrity but that stories about her were exaggerated through the years. From recent research undertaken by her biographers who have trawled through the archives to separate fact from fiction it seems that Julie’s life story needed no exaggeration and that on the face of it she did indeed lead an extraordinary life.

Romeo and Charlotte

It’s one of those quirky synchronistic facts that would be difficult to believe if it appeared in a work of fiction, but today we celebrate both the birthday and death of William Shakespeare. What makes it even more quirky is that he was born (as far as we can determine) and died on the national saint’s day of the country in which he lived, the feast day of St. George of England (the UK is still the only country in the world that doesn’t celebrate it’s national day with a public holiday).

On several occasions I’ve written about Shakespeare, particularly here where I explain why I don’t believe any theory that he might have been lgbt. Here I looked at the coat of arms of one of his lgbt namesakes and possible relatives. Today we look at a Shakespearean character and actor.

Many actors have made their names and reputations playing Shakespearean roles. Such great lgbt actors as Lord Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, Sir Ian McKellen and Fiona Shaw have all received plaudits for their roles as leading Shakespearean characters. On a little quirky sideline here, the name Hamlet is forever associated with Shakespeare, but it is an actual name. One of my ancestors was called Hamlet Marshall who was 8 years old when Shakespeare died, and there were others in the family called Hamlet.

In my “Around the World in 80 Gays” series I wrote about Shakespeare’s first tragedy “Titus Andronicus” and how it influenced the modern genre of slasher films. While Titus Andronicus is still a relatively unknown character to most people another is very well known, Romeo.

Just like my “80 Gays” series I’m pulling several different elements together to connect “Romeo and Juliet” with Nottingham and an American actress.

Charlotte Cushman (1816-1876) was one of the most celebrated actresses of her time. As you can see, this is her bicentenary year. In 1845 Charlotte began appearing in “Romeo and Juliet” in London and later went on a national tour, which included two nights in Nottingham in February 1847. Below is the actual bill that was posted up at the theatre. You may not notice it as first, but look who’s playing Romeo. It’s Charlotte Cushman herself. Playing Juliet was her younger sister Susan.

Women taking the leading male Shakespearean role isn’t new. Some recent female actors have played male leads, most notably Fiona Shaw as King Richard II. But even Charlotte wasn’t doing anything new. Sarah Siddons played Hamlet in the 1770s but it was well received. Charlotte Cushman, however, made a huge step forward by not playing a tragedic character. Audiences were more receptive to a woman in a romantic lead, even though Romeo dies in the end. A love story was more acceptable.

Charlotte’s vocal talents helped her to be convincing. She had a wide vocal range, and her “unfeminine appearance”, as one Shakespearean historian puts it, made her portrayal of Romeo very convincing and it was a smash hit. It is said that she brought the character out of its then portrayal as a young love-besotted sop into a more heroic and tragic young man. In a way Charlotte Cushman made it possible for Leonardo di Caprio to portray Romeo without dragging the character down to the level of a soppy drip of a teenager.

A few years later Charlotte followed Sarah Siddons’ lead and took on the role of Hamlet, and her final role was as Lady Macbeth, the role which made her famous in the 1830s. Throughout her life Charlotte sought female companionship, and her last partner, the sculptor Emma Stebbins, looked after her in her finals years of illness.

With celebrations around the UK to commemorate Shakespeare’s 400^th anniversary there seems to be no end to the popularity of England’s premier playwright, and even if most people never read a Shakespeare play his characters remain in our cultural consciousness and will continue to inspire artists, actors and film-makers for generations ahead.

Around the World in 80 Gays : Part 17 - A Spy

LAST TIME : 48) Keith Tomlinson (b.1980) climbed Mount Elbrus in Russia, one of the 7 highest continental mountains (the Seven Summits), a mountaineering challenge completed by 49) Cason Crane (b.1992). A parallel challenge of running a marathon on each continent has been completed by 50) Todd J. Henry, an astronomer who searched for extra-terrestrial intelligence, a subject speculated upon in the 16^th century by 51) Giordano Bruno (1548-1600).

51) Giordano Bruno was one of the leading mathematicians of his age, though his controversial views on the multiple existence of Christ on alien worlds put him in the black books of scientists and the Church alike and led to his execution for heresy.

In 1591 he applied for the vacant professorship of mathematics at Padua University. He was unsuccessful. Instead the position went to an up-and-coming mathematician by the name of Galileo. But then Galileo had influential patrons who campaigned on his behalf him to the university, though they denied it. These patrons were the Del Monte brothers, one of whom was 52) Cardinal Francesco del Monte (1549-1627).

Cardinal del Monte was also an amateur mathematician like his brothers, and it was his eldest brother, the Marchese del Monte, who influenced Galileo’s work on trajectories. The Cardinal is most famous (apart from being the first recorded owner of the Portland vase) as the patron of another rising young star of the Renaissance, the artist Caravaggio, under his patronage he painted “The Cardsharps”.

After failing to get the professorship at Padua Giordano Bruno found himself increasingly at odds with both the Church and the authorities over his views. Very shortly afterwards he became the subject of the heresy trial that led to his execution.

It is Bruno’s two-year stay in England that leads us on to the most intriguing (in more ways than one) period of his life. In 1583 he arrived in London as a guest of the French ambassador to the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The ambassador had made many friends in London, a few of them from the world of the theatre as well as politics. It was probably at one of his many dinners that the ambassador introduced Giordano Bruno to 53) Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593).

I cannot bring Marlowe into the story without mentioning two things about him. The first is his role as a spy, the other we’ll come to later. The French ambassador was no stranger to espionage himself. As ambassador he was able to place French Catholic spies at Elizabeth’s Protestant court and, no doubt, knew who some of Elizabeth’s spies were. Perhaps he knew that Christopher Marlowe was a spy.

Marlowe was just one of many in the pay of Elizabeth’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. He was employed for many years to spy on Catholic sympathisers and plotters. But the French ambassador probably didn’t know there was another spy living under his very nose.

When Giordano Bruno arrived there was a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, invade England from Spain, and put Mary Queen of Scots on the throne. Plans for this were rather carelessly revealed during the after-dinner chat at the French ambassador’s residence. Walsingham was informed and the plotter executed for treason. Walsingham had a double agent working in the ambassador’s house called Henry Fagot. It has been revealed in recent years that Fagot was actually 51) Giordano Bruno.

The other thing to mention about 53) Christopher Marlowe is his often alleged authorship of some (or all) of the works of Shakespeare. While this is a subject of constant discussion and speculation there is evidence that one of Marlowe’s works influenced one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays.

Another famous writer often alleged to have written Shakespeare’s plays, or at least the ones written after Marlowe’s death was Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626). He makes just a cameo appearance today because his brother, 54) Anthony Bacon (1558-1601), also worked in Walsingham’s spy ring. One intriguing theory put forward recently is that Christopher Marlowe faked his own death and that Anthony Bacon helped him to escape to France.

Back to Marlowe’s influence on Shakespeare. “Titus Andronicus” is one of the Bard’s early plays whose authorship has been questioned the most. It isn’t considered one of his best. T. S. Eliot called it “one of the stupidest and most uninspired plays ever written”. In that respect it can be said to have inspired a genre of film that is popular purely because it is just that.

“Titus Andronicus” was partly inspired by several Elizabethan revenge tragedies, one of which was called “Tambourline”, written by Christopher Marlowe. What marks “Titus” out is its violence and gore. It was very popular with Elizabethan audiences, and it still is. A recent production by The Globe even had people fainting in the audience because of the graphic nature of the modern stage effects of rape and mutilation. It’s all very reminiscent of the reports of audience reactions when “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was first released. And that’s the next connection in the chain (pardon the pun).

Modern slasher films and splatter movies are deliberately made to highlight the gore and horror and are not known for their strength of script or depth of character. Most characters are there purely to be disposed of in the most gruesome and entertaining manner possible. T. S. Eliot could have used his above-quoted remark to describe any slasher film. However, it is a genre with a distinguished history going back to “Titus Andronicus” and beyond and remains one of the greatest contributors to modern culture.

Even though there have been many lgbt characters in horror and slasher films over the years (the most famous being Norman Bates in “Psycho”), and there have been many lgbt horror writers, the genre didn’t really get a specifically gay slasher film until 2004 when “Hellbent” was released. The writer and director of that film was 55) Paul Etheredge.

When “80 Gays” returns in a couple of weeks we’ll discover what slasher films have in common with Wimbledon.