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) (94 page)

Months later, Gore claimed that his times with Hudson fell into two different periods: “pre-
Giant
and
après-Giant.”

“We made it together several times before his trip to Texas, but it never happened after his return, although I made repeated calls to him,” Gore said. “We never argued. He just drifted off, as he was faced with incredible temptation. One night at another party at Elizabeth’s home, I ran into Rock again. This time he seemed locked into an affair with Troy Donahue, the hot new blonde-haired sensation.”

Later that night, both Rock and I shared the toilet bowl in Elizabeth’s bathroom. We had to take a leak. He whipped it out for me, the last I ever saw of such splendid equipment. He also confided a secret to me.”

“Troy Donahue is one of Hollywood’s great cocksuckers. But there’s not much down there between his legs.”

***

That Saturday night, Tom Drake showed up at Haggart’s home in Laurel Canyon. As was his custom, Haggart had assembled his usual coven of current and faded stars, some from RKO, where he’d worked as an extra in the 1930s.

On this occasion, there were no women present, only men, all of whom were actors, most of them has-beens. Guests included Alan Ladd, Ramon Novarro, Jon Hall, William Haines, Francis Lederer, and Eric Linden.

At this point, Drake’s movie career was in decline. As he said himself, “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen
The White Cliffs of Dover,”
a reference to a movie he’d made in 1944.

He was, however, finding acting jobs in television series, notably NBC’s
Cimarron City
and CBS’s
Perry Mason
.

Drake had told Gore and Haggart, “The membership in my fan clubs from the 1940s has dwindled down to just three loyal members. My bobbysoxers have all moved to the suburbs and are married with children.”

That night, after the actors retreated from Haggart’s party, Gore and Drake remained. Before retiring to the main house with Jon Hall, Haggart delivered a chilled bottle of champagne to his guest cottage.

Haggart didn’t see Gore and Drake again until one o’clock the following afternoon. He assumed that their mating had been successful.

But after breakfast, Drake pulled off his swimming trunks and went for a nude swim. Haggart was eager to know what had happened the previous night.

“We’re very compatible,” Gore told him. “Tom’s a great bottom, just like I prefer ‘em.”

“My cottage is always open to you guys,” Haggart promised.

“You’re going to have to change those chartreuse sheets a lot for us,” Gore said. “That one’s ass, as you can see for yourself, is in need of pounding. No wonder Peter Lawford dumped him. He’s more into passive sodomy than he is into active fellatio, Peter’s favorite pastime.”

In the years ahead, both Gore and Haggart were saddened to see Drake’s film and TV work dry up.

He ended up selling used cars. The last time he ran into Haggart, he told him, “I’m heading for oblivion.”

Drake died of lung cancer in 1982.

***

In May of 1955, Gore previewed a television play called
Visit to a Small Planet
, which he later reworked for the Broadway stage. It made its debut on the Great White Way in February of 1957 and ran for 388 performances. It starred Cyril Ritchard, who also directed. Eddie Mayehoff was his co-star, and both actors were nominated for a Tony Award for their performances.

In a nutshell, Gore had written a satire on post war paranoia in the United States, as spearheaded (disastrously) by the notorious senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy.

The play is the story of Kreton (Ritchard), a time traveler who has arrived on earth from a distant planet with the intention of witnessing the American Civil War of the 1860s. En route, he made a miscalculation and lands on Earth a century later than he wanted.

In 1960, to Gore’s dismay, Paramount adapted his play into a movie starring Jerry Lewis as Kreton, the alien from outer space.
The New York Times
wryly observed, “Having run short of stratospheric monsters, the movie people have recruited Jerry Lewis as the latest arrival from Outer Space.”

The review was an attack, defining Lewis as “a jazzy intruder from above who flabbergasts and heckles a rather dim-witted Southern family, performs some pratfalls and magic tricks warmed over from
The Invisible Man
, and finally streaks away in his space ship. Naturally, Lewis is hanging on by his fingernails and yelling his head off.”

When the play had originally been adapted for television, a young actor, Indiana-born Dick York, had showed up for an audition. Gore had already seen him perform with his friend, Joanne Woodward, in live television broadcasts. He’d also appeared in such Broadway hits as
Tea and Sympathy
and in William Inge’s
Bus Stop
, which had been seen by Gore.

He liked York and immediately bonded with him. As he later told Woodward, “Dick and I sent the right signals to each other, and not from Outer Space.”

Even though York had married Joan Alt in 1951, a relationship that would last until his death in 1992, Gore knew that York was a homosexual.

After dinner on their first night together, Dick and Gore ended up in the writer’s apartment. “He was very submissive,” Gore later told Haggart, who had returned to New York to occupy his Greenwich Village townhouse. “Unlike the hustlers I rent, I didn’t have to pay Dick. He’s very willing and very passive in all the right ways. It’s not much of an affair, but the kid appeals to me in some way.”
[Although he called York a kid, he was only three years younger than Gore.]

The on-again, off-again affair lasted until 1958, when York suffered a back injury that would prove permanently disabling. He was filming a movie with Tab Hunter, Gary Cooper, and Rita Hayworth entitled
They Came to Cordura
. Astunt backfired, and York suffered a back injury that would cause him pain for the rest of his life.

Even so, although in great pain, York starred with Elizabeth Montgomery and Agnes Moorehead in the hit TV sitcom,
Bewitched
, in the 1960s.

At one point in the series, York became so ill, he could no longer perform. From that point until the series ended in 1972, Dick Sargent played the role of Darrin Stephens. Ironically, Sargent had originally been offered the part in 1964, but turned it down for another sitcom that failed.

Largely bedridden, York battled pain for the rest of his life, becoming at one point addicted to pain killers.

Gore Vidal was but a distant memory when he died on February 20, 1992.

***

“Gore’s screwing around with movie stars definitely lasted through the 1950s,” said Haggart. “Often, these liaisons took place in my guest cottage in Hollywood, or in my townhouse on Leroy Street in Manhattan. After that, they became very rare.”

“With a notable exception here and there, Gore’s sexual involvements were mostly with hustlers until the end of his life. Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, Tom Drake, and Robert Francis belonged to his glorious youth. He still preferred handsome, well-built men, but they were hardly movie stars, and not likely to become such in their futures. Also, except for Nureyev, Gore’s sideline as a balletomane also dimmed.”

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“I don’t care what the magazines say
,
I am the sexiest man alive!” So proclaimed Rudolf Nureyev: “Just ask Lee Radziwill
.
Just ask Tab Hunter. Just ask Jackie Kennedy. Nobody in the world can resist me. Everyone who has ever gone to bed with me has fallen madly in love with me!”