page 28 Donald: "One or three. I did the complete works of Doris Lessing this week. I've been depressed."
British novelist, best known for
The Golden Notebook, considered a feminist classic that explores the theme of mental breakdown as a means of healing and freeing one's self from illusions.
page 29 Emory: "I'm going to the Club Baths, and I'm not coming out til they announce the departure of TWA on week later."
The Club Baths Chain of the 1970s and early 1980s was among the first of the baths to proudly print their name and insignia on matches, tee shirts, advertisements and other items. With locations in the USA from Akron to Washington D.C. and abroad (including four locations in Canada), the Club Baths Chain was the largest gay bath house chain in the world, and
one of the first openly gay businesses in North America.
The Club Baths of New York City ran a full page ad in the gay rags of the day that went like this, "Get wet in our Olympic size Jacuzzi...Dry off on our sun deck or in The Dome, a large, atrium-like room with comfortable provisions for lounging and relaxing and a glass roof that lets the sun shine in...Warm up in our amazing maze, multitude of mirrors, and exotic, erotic murals...Stay hot with our sauna and steam equipment...Come to the New York Club Bath and join the hottest men in Manhattan...you're all wet if you don't!"
Singer Bette Midler is well known for getting her start at the famous Continental Baths in New York City in the early 1970s, where she earned the nickname Bathhouse Betty. It was there, accompanied by pianist Barry Manilow (who, like the bathhouse patrons, sometimes wore only a white towel) that she created her stage persona "the Divine Miss M."
page 43 Michael: "He looks right out of a William Inge play to me"
pronounced
inj
American playwright and novelist whose works typically feature solitary protagonists encumbered with strained sexual relations. In the early 1950s, Inge had a string of memorable Broadway productions, most notably
Bus Stop and
Picnic, which earned him a Pulitzer Prize. He is also known for the screenplay
Splendor in the Grass, for which he won an Academy Award. With his portraits of small-town life and settings rooted in the American heartland, Inge became known as the "Playwright of the Midwest".
Three of Inge's plays have openly gay characters or address homosexuality directly.
The Boy in the Basement, a one-act play written in the early 1950s, but not published until 1962, is his only play that addresses homosexuality overtly, while Archie in
The Last Pad and Pinky in
Where's Daddy? (1966) are gay characters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Inge
page 61 Michael: "I would like to announce that you have just eaten Sebastian Veneble"
pronounced
ven-uh-bull (like de
pendable or
tenable)
Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams features Catharine Holly, a young woman who seems to go insane after her cousin Sebastian dies on a trip to Europe under mysterious circumstances. Sebastian's mother, Violet Venable, trying to cloud the truth about her son's homosexuality and death, threatens to lobotomize Catharine for her incoherent utterances relating to Sebastian's demise. Finally, under the influence of a truth serum, Catharine tells the gruesome story of Sebastian's death by
cannibalism at the hand of local boys whose sexual favors he sought, using Catharine as a device to attract the young men (as he had earlier used his mother).
page 62 Hank: "Did Edward Albee write that play?"
American playwright best known for
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. A closeted homosexual, Albee was also a personal hero of our playwright, Mart Crowley. They met for lunch in New York when Crowley was shopping around his script of
The Boys in the Band. Albee's Broadway producer of
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf also went on to produce
The Boys in the Band.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Albee
Page 70 Bernard: "What about Likes and Dislikes"
A guessing game. Everyone writes down a short list of things they like and dislike. All the scraps of paper go into a hat. Then we each pull out one scrap. Based on the likes and dislikes, we have to correctly guess who wrote that list.
Page 71 Larry: "We could play B for Botticelli"
Botticelli is a guessing game, similar to 20 Questions. One person or team thinks of a famous person, reveals their initial letter, and then answers yes/no questions to allow other players to guess the identity.
The game takes its name from the Renaissance painter, Sandro Botticelli, who is also the answer to the archetypal question, "Did you paint a picture of Venus rising?", referring to his painting
The Birth of Venus.
page 75 Donald: "I've never been an O'Hara fan myself"
New York School poet Frank O'Hara is known for his collections
Meditations in an Emergency (recently featured on an episode of
Mad Men) and
Lunch Poems. Openly gay, O'Hara's poetry is generally autobiographical, based upon his observations of New York life in the 60s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_O%27Hara
Listen to Frank O'Hara reading his poem
Lana Turner Has Collapsed from the collection
Lunch Poems.
http://www.frankohara.org/fohaudio02/poemlana.html
page 76 Donald: "Nor Thomas Merton"
Thomas Merton was a 20th century Catholic writer. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist and student of comparative religion. However, in 1966 his world was shaken by an unconsummated love affair. While recuperating in a Louisville hospital after spinal surgery, he fell in love with a student nurse, known only as ‘M’. Merton famously commemorated this love in
A Midsummer Diary for M. He ended the relationship, such as it was, and recommitted himself to his vows, dying only 2 years later.
page 99 Harold: "How about a year from Shavuoth"
pronounced shuh-
voo-uhs
A Jewish feast day that celebrates Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai. Coincides with the Christian holiday Pentecost.
