Pink Triangle: The Feuds and Private Lives of Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, Truman Capote, and Famous Members of Their Entourages (Blood Moon's Babylon Series) (93 page)

Gore shared some of Lawford’s sexual secrets with Haggart, asserting that Lawford’s interest in oral sex began when his governess fellated him when he was only ten years old. Lawford claimed that he’d climaxed. He also told Gore that his first experience with male sex also came when he was ten. A famous American correspondent in London encountered him in a hotel corridor, forced him into his bedroom, and raped him.

“Surely, it wasn’t Edward R. Murrow?” Gore wanted to know. “During one of his visits to London?”

Lawford chose not to reveal the name of the journalist, adding, tantalizingly, “I’m sure you were a daily reader of his column.”

“Cukor had already told me what a lousy lay Peter was,” Gore told Haggart, “and Truman Capote goes around spreading the word about what a lousy lay I am. So there were no great combustions between Peter and myself.”

In the future, Gore and Lawford would be nodding acquaintances at parties, but hardly intimate friends. “Sal Mineo, in time, told me that he and Peter became hot-to-trot lovers,” Gore said. He remembered Lawford in his memoirs, not writing of their sexual link, but referring to him as “Jack’s plenipotentiary to the girls of Hollywood. Jack asked both Peter and me on separate occasions endless questions about the availability of this or that star. He was particularly interested to know if Shirley MacLaine had a red pussy.”

***

Before she flew to Texas to film scenes for
Giant
(released in 1956), Elizabeth Taylor threw a party at her home, inviting some of her co-workers from her past at MGM. She also included some of the cast members of her upcoming film based on the massive Edna Ferber saga. Her party’s guest of honor was the film’s director, George Stevens. Cast members from
Giant
included her co-stars, Rock Hudson and James Dean, who would be living in the same house in Mafra, Texas.

Gore had known Elizabeth at MGM, and he was invited. Later in his involvement in Hollywood, he would write the screenplay for one of her most famous movies,
Suddenly Last Summer
(1959), based on a Tennessee Williams play.

Gore was very anxious to meet Hudson, who at that time was the most talked-about actor in gay Hollywood. Almost every day, there was a story about him in the press, often speculating about the type of girl who he would one day marry. Only the other day, Gore had read an entire magazine article speculating about whether Hudson slept in the nude.

Everybody seemingly gossiped about Hudson behind his back. John Wayne had said, “What a waste of a face on a queer. You know what I could have done with that face?”

Much of the gossip about Hudson intrigued Gore. Unlike most young Hollywood males, Hudson had been known to extend “mercy fucks” to such Golden Age icons as Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead or Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power. During the making of
Giant
, he’d have affairs with Sal Mineo, with Elizabeth herself, and with James Dean before those two highly competitive male co-stars launched a famous feud.

Of all the available men at the party, Hudson approached pint-sized Mickey Rooney, who had long been identified with his hostess, Elizabeth, since the days when they were both child stars at MGM.

Rooney later told people at the party, “Rock sent a male friend over to invite me to his house, because he was having some gay guys over. I turned down the invitation. I thought Rock knew I liked girls.”

From across the expanse of Elizabeth’s living room, Gore took in the sight of Hudson surrounded by three young men. He’d have to wait his turn for an introduction, as he wanted to get to know this tall, handsome, muscular actor noted for his easy going charm and sexual allure.

Gore had heard that Jane Wyman had fallen madly in love with him during their recent filming of
Magnificent Obsession
(1954). “I bet he showed her a hotter time than Ronald Reagan,” Gore told Elizabeth.

“Oh, Ronnie’s not so bad,” she answered. “He’s a forty-minute man, unlike Senator Kennedy, who’s a two-minute man.”

That Hudson was one of the best-endowed actors in Hollywood was common gossip. The blonde-haired actress, Mamie van Doren, a Marilyn Monroe clone, had said, “The boulder his agent
[Henry Willson]
named him after must have been a big one. Rock is very well-endowed.”

When Gore finally got to talk to Hudson, he found he was without airs and pretensions, and he spoke with an honesty and candor about his life in Hollywood. After Elizabeth’s party, he invited Gore to his home for a midnight swim. The invitation rejected by Rooney was accepted by Gore.

Hudson admitted that, “I’m living with this hot guy who right now is visiting his parents in San Diego. It’s always good to have prime beef at home, but even more exciting is to capture something outside on the hoof.”

Hudson excused himself “to work the room,” as he called it, but agreed to leave at midnight. Gore was instructed to follow in his own car.

Before deserting Gore at the party, Hudson introduced him to Roddy McDowall, a longtime friend of Elizabeth’s.

“I never made it with Roddy,” Gore later confessed to Haggart. “But every male star at MGM had, or so I heard.

As Gore soon learned, Roddy knew more about the secrets of Hollywood stars than any other actor around—the cover-ups, the blackmail, the abortions, the furtive affairs, especially among married stars, the closeted homosexuals, the back alley deals, even the penis size of every popular male star, gay or straight. Although Hudson surfaced near the top on the penile chart, Clark Gable was near the bottom.

Roddy showed no sexual interest in Gore, but introduced him to Tom Drake, a handsome young actor he’d known from his days at MGM. Before meeting Drake, Roddy warned Gore, “He’s still carrying a torch for Peter Lawford, but he’s available.”

Drake was scheduled to play Elizabeth’s brother in another upcoming film,
Raintree County
(1957). He’d also be cast almost decade later in her film,
The Sandpiper
(1965).

Gore told Roddy, “I think I fell in love with Tom when he appeared as “the boy next door” with Judy Garland in
Meet Me in St. Louis
(1944).

Gore liked Drake right away. Even though about eight years older, the Brooklyn-born actor still retained his good looks and quiet charm. Haggart was throwing a late Saturday night bash for his Hollywood friends, and Gore invited Drake to drive over to Laurel Canyon to attend. Drake said he’d be delighted.

“Don’t bring an escort,” Gore cautioned. “I’ll be your escort.”

“I was hoping you’d say that,” Drake answered.

***

After midnight, at Hudson’s pool party, Gore counted at least thirty-five young men in various states of dress or undress. Some wore the skimpiest of swimwear, including flimsy
caches-sexes
, as they were known on the French Riviera. Others were completely nude.

For the occasion, Hudson himself appeared in conventional bathing trunks, the kind he’d wear in an upcoming picture with Doris Day. He introduced Gore to actor George Nader, who seemed as well-built as Hudson.

Gore also met the talent scout and theatrical agent, Henry Willson, who was sloppy, fat, and known for auditioning the hottest hunks in Hollywood, including Guy Madison and Rory Calhoun. Gore looked for either of them at the party, but they weren’t there.

“Mr. Willson,” Gore said. “Your reputation has preceded you.”

“Don’t believe those rumors that I’m a lecherous, dirty old queen,” Willson said. “I take a bath every day—never alone, of course, so you can strike ‘dirty’ from my list of credits.”

Gore cast a skeptical eye at Willson, with his hawkish nose that evoked a bird of prey sniffing out his next meal, plus a protruding lower lip that implied a deep capacity for petulance. He noted that he was a chinless wonder, with feminine hips and sloping shoulders, along with legs shorter than those of Elizabeth Taylor.

Sensing that Gore was evaluating him critically, Willson said, “I don’t need male beauty to seduce a boy, gay or straight. In Hollywood, all you need is power. If you’ve got that, you can have virtually any actor, even if straight. You’d be surprised at how many straight boys drop their pants for me and show it hard if I can get them a role in a movie.”

Before meeting Willson that night, Roddy had warned Gore that “Willson is like slime that oozes from under a rock you don’t want to turn over. Henry operates the busiest gay casting couch in the history of Hollywood.”

The highlight of the evening came when someone began broadcasting a recording of Rosemary Clooney singing a duet with Marlene Dietrich. From the pool house emerged Hudson and George Nader, each wearing only a pink bow tie with cherry-red polka dots.

“My God,” Gore later recalled. “I couldn’t believe those two. There was meat there for the poor.”

At two o’clock that morning, Gore was invited up to Hudson’s bedroom.

“I didn’t know if we’d make it or not,” Gore later reported to Haggart. “But I knew one thing. He wasn’t going to put that club in me. If he had, I’d surely have to be rushed to the hospital. Holy shit! As it turned out, he liked to get fucked. He shot off while I was in the driver’s seat. We had a great old time, and set up future dates with each other.”