And that's a good thing...

Rest in Peace Michael Jackson

Isn't that just dandy...

Being a sometime dandy myself I thought I'd post this link to
a fairly new on-line men's accessories shop called Fine And Dandy.
(Rudolph Valentino shown above)

Working with Jerry Hall

Macy's "the largest department store in the world" asked me to create the hair and makeup for a new ad they were shooting. And I was especially excited because the model was to be Jerry Hall.


The industry was abuzz with the story that Jerry had been discovered in Paris while on vacation from Texas by the amazing fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez. She was said to be ultra sexy... six feet tall with waist length blond hair. I couldn't wait to work with her. (Antonio & Jerry by Norman Parkinson)

She arrived at the location in the dead of winter wearing a fur cocoon type coat over a short dress with pink marabou trimmed bedroom slippers...in the snow! And she spoke with a Texas drawl so thick you could cut it with a knife. I loved her! The photo shoot went great and when we were finished I escorted her through the snow to her waiting car. As I helped her inside I complemented the wrist watch she was wearing. It was gold with a dark blue watch face surrounded by diamonds. She replied "Why thank you. Antonio gave it to me and there are 18 diamonds, one for each year I was born."


We worked together fairly often after that. I learned that she wanted me to do her makeup a certain way...a shiny gold shadow on her eyelid with dark eyeliner and false eyelashes on the outside of the top lid only. And of course with that long hair there wasn't all that much you could do with it, thankfully Jerry really knew how to work that mane of hers.

She preferred to be the star and was often accused of upstaging the other models. Particularly when she had to pose with girl's in what is called a double or triple shot. She would drape her long locks over her arm as she held it up behind her head and many times that would block the other girls face...or at least make her struggle to work around it.


Jerry was very much in demand all over the world as a model and as a party girl. She fell in love with singer Bryan Ferry after posing as a mermaid for the cover of his album "Siren".


But it wasn't long before the gossip media carried the story that she was breaking off her engagement to the Roxy Music crooner to go off and live with Mick Jagger...who she eventually married. It was for the best...if she had wed Bryan her married name would have been Jerry Ferry. Jerry Jagger has a better ring to it...don't you think?

Reposted from MakeupBeat.com

Must be a rabid Gary Cooper fan...

Anonymous said on May 3, 2009 @ 3:03 PM

"This faggot's web site is built on his sick fetishes and fantatsies. Look you old fudge packer quit your lies or face what could be some bad shit. You won't post this because your a queen and a coward."



The above comment was posted in regard to my post about Gary Cooper.

Anyone one can do as I did and find several posts on Google about Gary Cooper being bi-sexual. Therefore I didn't lie and I doubt Anonymous knows enough about this "faggot" to say I have "sick fetishes and fantatsies" (you misspelled fantasies by the way) much less to have used them to build my website with. ha!

The "old fudge packer" (how quaint) has no idea what you mean by "face what could be some bad shit". This queen has already faced some pretty "bad shit", as you say, and could care less about being called a coward by some anonymous asshat commenter.

Personally I believe that as humans we are all sexual beings and anything is possible given the right time and place.

I myself at the age of 20 had an affair that lasted for several months with a lovely young lady that I enjoyed sex with very much. I have been out as a gay man since the age of 16 and have never had sex with another woman since then. But I'm not ashamed to admit that, although I prefer men, I am glad I had the experience I did.

Who is to say that the same thing might not have happened to Gary Cooper? Can you prove that he did not have sex with both men and women? No you can not. Therefore I will concede that as far as I know personally, Gary Cooper was an "alleged" bi-sexual.

I will say this because....

to quote Tallulah Bankhead, "He never sucked my dick!"

Diamonds (and Grace Jones) are Forever...

Grace Jones eats diamonds by Harry Winston for breakfast.
Photograph by Gordon Munro.

I first met Grace at Le Club Sept in Paris. Upon my arrival to the club I ran into my friend the very beautiful model Danielle Guerra. I was just headed downstairs to the bar and dance area when Dani grabbed me and said "Quick...stay with me, Grace is after me!"


Our next meeting was when I designed the makeup for TER ET BANTINE's Spring-Summer show and Ms Jones was one of the models. (Shown in photo above with designer Azzedine Alaia)


It wasn't until some time later that I went to see Grace Jones starring at the WHISKEY A'GO GO on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood. She opened the show in a hooded satin robe with the hood pulled low over her face so all that showed were her full lips as her deep voice sang into the microphone the beginning of her current disco hit, "La Vie En Rose". Tossing off the robe to reveal herself in full boxer gear with her hands taped and everything, hair short and square, dancing around taking jabs and shadow boxing as if doing a boxers workout. The crowd went wild!


Next the darkened stage slowly came to light only to discover Grace inside a cage on all fours clawing and snarling like a black Panther, escaping from the cage into the audience. Singing "I Need A Man" as she literally clawed at the crowd...afterwards I noticed she drew blood by scratching my hand. Was it pay back for protecting Danielle years before? Who cares, I was clawed by Grace Jones!


It was an electric performance and so exciting, I have to admit, I'm not sure now which song she sang with what costume. I can only tell you that I would imagine it couldn't have been any more exciting then when Josephine Baker took Paris by storm in the 1920s.

The thrill of it all will never leave my memory. The Amazing Grace Jones.

Farewell Bea...

Bea Arthur...You were a real trooper.

JAHEEM HERRERA WILL BE MISSED

It was reported that 11 year old Jaheem Herrera asked his best friend the day he took his own life that "If I were dead, do you think I would be missed?"

The answer is, yes, more then you will ever know Jaheem. It's so unfair what you were put through. I, and too many others, know this to be true, first hand.

Because this is not a new or recent problem. I had to deal with some form of harassment or threat throughout my school years. In fact, one of the reasons I choose not to go to college to become an interior designer, was the 4 year school requirement. Not realizing it might have been different, I just felt I couldn't take another four years of what I'd been through.

Cosmetology school on the other hand was only a 9 month commitment. But would you believe, even there I was threatened. I was the only male in the school and there were some tough ass girls there. Ha! Even my beauty school teachers were not that encouraging back then.

In my case it gave me all the more reason to prove to them, my parents, and the world, that I was talented and valuable. And for me it worked.

Others are not so lucky. Like Jaheem and Carl and so many more kids we never hear about. I only hope that they haven't died in vain and that the schools will start taking the responsibility to put an end to this cruel behavior.

When I think back to my childhood and teen years the only real problems I had were because I was different. I stood out and therefore became a target.

My Father's advice was to just punch them "right in the nose" while my Mother said "just smile and act like you don't hear them". I chose my Mother's advice. To this day I can't imagine hitting someone. It's just not me.

It's amazing how serious school life is for a young person. Looking back on it now, I wish I had been able to call the bullies bluff sometimes.

Of course these days you could get shot.

While researching for this post I came across a blog written by a young person named Justice, and here is his quote "Mom, Dad, older siblings, I'm sorry, but I don't like the world that you've handed over to me and my younger brothers and sisters, and I am respectfully relieving you of duty. I'm sorry, but I no longer want you speaking for me, or deciding the moral climate of this country. Your divisiveness, separateness, religiousness; your capitalism, greed, and competitiveness; your intolerance, and hatefulness has created an environment where we attack a child for being the person he is, and leave no room in his world for hope, love and life. You should learn from your mistakes and look into the eyes of the child you have had a part in killing."

That's What Friends Are For...

Have you read what the NY TIMES had to say about friendship?

Vincent Price

One of my favs. Thank you SissyDude.

Johnny Harden aka Gene Carrier

OK, my first intro to Johnny Harden the 70's porn star was in a still photo series of him wearing a black leather motorcycle cap and jacket while doing his own thing, so to speak. (I wish I could have found those photos).


Later came some hard-core movies of Johnny solo, playing top buddy with a couple different guys, and also several full on scenes with girls.

From the look of things I'd say Johnny was possibly Straight or Bi. But mainly you could tell that he was in love with himself, and didn't mind taking a shot to his face or in his own mouth, if you know what I mean.


Then an issue of PLAYGIRL came out and the centerfold was a guy named Gene Carrier (get it) but there was no mistaking the unique characteristic that screamed Johnny!

It just so happened that he had placed an ad in a Los Angeles gay rag as Johnny Harden with a phone number. I called and asked if that was his photo spread in Playgirl and if he would mind autographing it for me. He seemed flattered and gave me his address so I could come over. We met outside in the garage behind the house he was staying at not far from where I was living in Hollywood. I handed him the magazine and asked if he would please sign as Johnny Harden. He did so happily and I was merrily on my way.

Go here for more uncensored Playgirl photos.


Some time later in New York I heard that Gene Carrier aka Johnny Harden had gone legit as a male fashion model and was doing very well in Europe. That was about it until I started researching for this post, which lead me to this. Scroll down at the original post to get to the comment section where I found the following.

A series of comments from a Gene Carrier written on a blog, part of which is copied below (spelling corrected by me) :

"I have had two separate people trying to help me with my claim to being the father of Athina Onassis. My next step is to make a legal stand in this matter .

I am not interested in the money and only want to know if she is indeed the child from my affair with Christina. The best would be if we could be friends, I realise it is too late to be her father, and after what she went through with someone else being a father to her, I am sure her trust level is not too high in people .

I was the worlds most handsome man of 1984 and I had 32 pages of campaigns from Gianfranco Ferre in all the fashion mags. I had more campaigns then any other model in the history of fashion . I also did all the shows for Versace and Verri Uomo Christian Dior. There was a question I always had as to why all of my modeling assignments did not reach me through my agents at First Model Agency Paris. I used to tell my friend that the female Booker's at the agency were sleeping with models and they were giving all the bookings to their boyfriend models that were sleeping with them.

Meaning as well that I never fell into that kind of trap that can happen to models. Its like sleeping with older woman for money. (a bit hypocritical here Gene dear).

There was another theory since my coming to this awakening in my life and now it makes more sense that I was run out of Paris by forces, Lets Say, forces that wanted me out of Paris since I had full filled my purpose.

How could it be that a model that took Italy by storm not have succeeded in Paris?
I have other proof as well as to what went on in Paris .

It is very clear to me now since I have read the Christina Onassis book "All The Pain That Money Can Buy" that there was a lot of deception in Christina’s world and that she could not see it and it was right in front of her."

Sincerely,
Gene Carrier

Along with this rather tortured looking photo is the story of how Thierry Roussel the owner of First Model Agency in Paris in 1984 had a party for the then newly thin Christina Onassis. "She was the only female there at this party along with 25 male models from Thierry’s agency … In particular was one male model that connected with Christina Onassis at that party. I believe that this male model is the real father of Athina Onassis and not Thierry Roussel. That male model was me, Gene Carrier".

Now are these just the ramblings of a burned out ex- drug addict hustler/model? Or could there be some truth to his story?
I doubt we will ever know.

Never Enough Beckham

Soccer star David Beckham goes sci-fi for his latest ad campaign for Motorola's 'Aura' phone.

When will this kind of abuse stop?

Email I received today from a friend:

"Around 30 minutes ago, as I sat eating breakfast at the counter of my favorite diner and editing the text for the Spring issue of On Makeup Magazine, a news story on CNN broke through my focus. Within minutes, the next news story fading out in the background and with tears welling up in my eyes, I headed out to write this email.

This past Monday, on the heels of Easter Sunday, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hung himself with electrical cord on the second floor his mother's Springfield, Massachusetts home.

Carl was 11 year old. This Friday would have been his 12th birthday.

Over the past year, Carl endured excessive bullying at his new school, The New Leadership Charter School. There were daily taunts of being gay - called a faggot, queer and constantly physically threatened. The week before his suicide he was even threatened with death by a female classmate.

Despite his mother's weekly pleas to school administrators to address the problem, and the school's clearly defined anti-bullying policy, nothing changed.

Without a constant support system - including one in place at school - where one can share the difficulties and pain of growing up "different", life can be full of pain and eventually became too much to bear. When you feel alone and hated for who you are, the simplest parts of your daily life can be fraught with stress. The bus ride to school. Lunch in the cafeteria. Gym glass. All so painful that the thought of leaving it all behind can not only enter ones mind - but can become the only option they see in front of them.

Let's be clear here - we don't even know if Carl was, in fact, gay, but the perception and accusation were clearly devastating enough on their own to do serious damage to his sense of self-worth and desire to live.

Growing up gay was certainly not easy back in the '70s and '80s when myself and so many others that in my life were the same age as Carl. One would hope that with the advances over the past 20 years in visibility and in the creation of equal rights laws for gay men and women, bisexual and transgendered persons, we would be at a place in our history where such a tragedy could not happen. It can. It does. It did.

We as a society, even the gay society, can quickly forget or overlook that pain. For many of us, we were young and gay at a time when the world saw being gay very differently. Even the most obvious homosexuality in our culture was looked to with an oversight of don't-ask, don't-tell: Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Liberace and The Village People all clearly gay, but with barely a nod to their sexuality back in the day.

Popular culture has embraced so many things "gay" - Will & Grace, Ellen, a gay wedding on All My Children, Lance Bass, Ricky Martin (yes he's gay and out - enough already), gay contestants featured on American Idol and so many other examples that they are too numerous to list - that one would hope that the times of tip-toeing around the issue in public places - like school - would be over with for good. Clearly they are not.

With the passing of Vermont and Iowa laws allowing the union of same-sex partners - joining the ranks of Connecticut and Massachusetts, along with Governor David Patterson's plan to introduce a gay marriage bill in New York State, and President Obama formerly endorsing a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality (a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign - no surprise there), I hope that we are on our way to a more accepting and tolerant world.

But with the passing of Prop 8 in California, a new Archbishop in NYC who is strongly in support of preserving the sanctity of marriage, and similar political and religious groups pushing hard to keep gays in their place - not necessarily the closet but at least not in a wedding chapel - we have a long way to go. And for the record - we don't want to get married in your church - so get over it and move on.

Maybe if those who oppose any aspect of homosexuality, for whatever reason, would keep their gay-negative thoughts to themselves and not share them at the dinner table, or even express a positive live-and-let-live message instead of one filled with fear or revulsion, Carl's mother might be celebrating her little boy's birthday this Friday and not a memorial in his honor.

Carl wanted to become president so he could change the world.
I for one am devastated that he will never have the chance.

Teach tolerance not hatred.
Teach acceptance not rejection.
Celebrate diversity."

Proudly gay,
Michael DeVellis
Executive Director, The Powder Group

I didn't really know what to say but this was my reply:

Dear Michael
Thank you for sending this message.

I too don't know what it will take for gay people to be treated fairly in this world, but I guess it starts with each one of us taking a stand as you have and saying we are proud to be who we are and that we care about others like the young Carl in this story.

I grew up before the word gay or homosexual was even spoken in public. School was a place of torture for me. Recess, gym class, the school bus and student lounges were places especially dangerous for me that I had to avoid at all costs.

Some how I made it to graduation (it was my duty to graduate high school as no other member of my immediate family ever had). I didn't go to my Prom and almost didn't take part in my Graduation service until the last minute because I thought why should I, I hate all those kids.

It's hard to believe that in 2009 things are still so unbearable for young school age children like Carl that they only want to make the pain go away, even if it means taking their own life.

I stand with you as a proud gay person and am willing to fight for the lives of children like Carl, that their future, and the future of all people that are different then the majority, can live a life of peace and happiness.

David Frank Ray

HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!

Don't forget there is some candy you want to
keep wrapped.

Elevator Girls Release Party "Going up or down?"

Elevator Girls In Bondage DVD release parties. Come join Cockette Rumi Missabu and friends @ the following events:

Wednesday April 15th, 8 PM
DVD release party and screening of the rarely shown 1972 cult film, "Elevator Girls in Bondage", in which Rumi Missabu stars as the rebellious elevator girl Maxine.
A live "freak show" hosted by original Cockette Rumi, with performances by Glenn Marla, Joseph Keckler, Darlinda, Robert Oppel, Max Steele, Donna Persona, Rose Wood, Don PV, Pearl and She Dick
Rumi will be available to autograph the Elevator Girl DVDs and the evening will include a silent auction of rare original Cockette memorabilia from the 1970s as well as Cockette-inspired wearable art and wall sculptures by famed artist Bill Bowers.
Bleecker Theatre, 45 Bleecker St. (btwn Lafayette and Mott), 212-260-8250, free admission

Friday April 17th, 8 PM and 10:30 PM (2 shows)
DVD release party and screening of the rarely shown 1972 cult film, Elevator Girls in Bondage, in which Rumi Missabu stars as the rebellious elevator girl Maxine.
A live "freak show" hosted by original Cockette Rumi, with performances by Tigger, The Dazzle Dancers, Darlinda, Donna Persona, Sequinette, Rose Wood, Pearl, She Dick and a sneak peek of Robert Oppel's upcoming docu-drama "Uncle Bob".
Rumi will be available to autograph the Elevator Girl DVDs and the evening will include a silent auction of rare original Cockette memorabilia from the 1970s as well as Cockette-inspired wearable art and wall sculptures by famed artist Bill Bowers.
Monkeytown, 58 North Third Street, Williamsburg Bklyn (Bedford stop) , 718-384- 1369, dinner reservations are encouraged, but admission is free.

Ah yes...my wicked past catches up to me once again. Rumi is one of the original fabulous Cockettes from my San Francisco daze. My friend Pretty Johnny co-stars but unfortunately will not be there. Elevator Girls is a campy short film that at the time we were all amazed they could get it together enough to film!

Wake Up Refreshed

My thanks to Kevin for the photo.

The Fast and the Bi-Curious

FOCUS

"Put your attention on what you want to happen,
not on what you fear will or will not happen."

Photo of David Barton....Quote by Khalil Gibran

"One day you will ask me which is more important, my life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life"
Khalil Gibran (this photo and quote don't work together...or do they?)

Think Spring!

Water Lily Pond by Claude Monet.

My friend Tod photographed in France at the same location... amazing, no?

Arrest in George Weber Murder...

I was afraid this might be the case. Be careful on these hook-up sites.
Don't allow your physical needs to take over from your brains. So sad.
This is a photo of the confessed suspect go here for details.

Errol Flynn

Check out his Grandson Luke the face of Nautica's new fragrance, Oceans .

Queen of Hearts

Juice Newton...Queen of Hearts video (live version).

Their in the Money...

Created by my friend Phillip.

President Obama on Church and State

"President Obama has been without a pastor or a home church ever since he cut his ties to the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. in the heat of the presidential campaign. But he has quietly cultivated a handful of evangelical pastors for private prayer sessions on the telephone and for discussions on the role of religion in politics."

"None of these pastors are affiliated with the religious right, though several are quite conservative theologically. One of them, the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, the pastor of a conservative mega church in Florida, was branded a turncoat by some leaders of the Christian right when he began to speak out on the need to stop global warming.

But as a group they can hardly be characterized as part of the religious left either. Most, like Mr. Wallis, do not take traditionally liberal positions on abortion or homosexuality. Three of the ministers said their introduction to the president was through Joshua DuBois, who led religious outreach for the Obama presidential campaign and now heads the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Mr. DuBois, who declined to comment, is himself a Pentecostal pastor.

Mr. Hunter, who leads a church in Longwood, Fla., said he was approached by Mr. DuBois in 2007 — a few months after he left his new post as head of the Christian Coalition, the conservative advocacy group, because the board did not want to enlarge its agenda to include environmental issues like global warming. He has since written a book, “A New Kind of Conservative: Cooperation Without Compromise,” and gave an invocation at the Democratic National Convention in Denver last year.

"The Obama administration has reached out to hundreds of religious leaders across the country to mobilize support and to seek advice on policy. These five pastors, however, have been brought into a more intimate inner circle. Their names were gleaned from interviews with people who know the president and religious leaders who work in Washington. Their role could change if Mr. Obama joins a church in Washington, but that could take some time because of the logistical challenges in finding a church that can accommodate the kind of crowd the Obamas would attract.

"The pastor in the circle who has known Mr. Obama the longest is Mr. Wallis, president and chief executive of Sojourners, a liberal magazine and movement based in Washington. In contrast to the other four, his contact with the president has been focused more on policy than prayer. Mr. Wallis has recently joined conservatives in pressing the president’s office of faith-based initiatives to continue to allow government financing for religious social service groups that hire only employees of their own faith."

"Presidents through the ages have leaned on pastors for spiritual support, policy advice and political cover. The Rev. Billy Graham was a counselor to at least five (Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George Bush), and tapes from the Nixon White House reveal that their talks veered beyond religion to political and social topics that later proved regretful."

Read the entire article @ The New York Times.

I personally believe ones spiritual or religious beliefs, or lack there of, are of a very personal and private nature.

If what the Rev. Otis Moss Jr., Bishop T. D. Jakes, Rev. Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, the Rev. Jim Wallis, and the Rev. Joel C. Hunter, say they share with the president is the "conviction that faith is the foundation in the fight against economic inequality and social injustice" then how can any of them be against equality for same sex loving people and families, to say nothing of global warming?


Bishop AJ Bixby and Pastor Donnie McClurkin.


Ex-gay Gospel singer Donnie McClurkin.


The Right Reverend V. Gene Robinson and his husband Mark Andrew.


Senior Pastor of Saddleback Church Rick Warren.


The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr.

James Dean Kisses Sal Mineo...

And then the porcelain...

Double Date

Charlton Heston, Judy Garland, Eartha Kitt, and Marlon Brando.

Kunstavsstellvng Secession

ANDY WARHOL

As a teenager I went to a 'Happening" at the Detroit Fair Grounds where Andy Warhol appeared with the Velvet Underground & Nico. I think there were Mylar balloons too.

I even got a Campbell's can of soup signed by Andy which I promptly devalued by taking it off the can and framing it to hang on my bedroom wall. Among all my framed magazine photos of Twiggy (Vogue cover of the Twig wearing a flower printed pastel fur coat backwards with a matching flower painted over one eye) and Veruschka ( skin stained bronze with a tiny yellow flower in her mouth).

I foolishly left that Warhol can with my parents when I moved away to live in Calif. Some how they lost it, with other stuff I valued, when they made their big move to Florida.

I did save my Peter Max belt though. It was an elastic belt, red and white striped with a big navy enameled buckle that had a silver planet Saturn surrounded by little stars on it. To wear with my hip-hugger bell bottom jeans, of course. I may still have that belt...I know I saved it for years.

From things I've now read in The Andy Warhol Diaries, that might have been a Andy Warhol look alike I saw that day in Michigan. One would be sent out to do many of his promotions back then and with the white wig and dark sunglasses who would know. Doesn't matter, the memory will always remain as an exciting preview of the life I hoped to one day live.

Years later, after I moved to New York, (I just missed the silver foil days of the Factory Super Stars) I got an autographed issue of his magazine, Interview. I managed to keep that for a long time but it too was lost eventually.

However, I did make it to Max's Kansas City, the restaurant/club where the Andy Warhol gang used to hang out.

Sylvester was performing Upstairs. I think he opened for Jane County the Trans punk rock singer. I can't believe Jane is still around but Sylvester is not.

I remember I ran into Fayette of the Cockettes and she invited me to come see John Flowers at some old theater on the Bowery. John did his infamous "Devil with the Blue Dress On" number. Going through the audience on his way up to the stage in blue drag plus little devil horns. The crowd went wild!

I was well into my makeup artist career by then and wore my hair short with a trim beard so I wasn't recognizable as my Zazu persona from the San Francisco daze.

I did see Fayette another time after that. She was working at a photo shop and said she was doing some photography of her own.

Didn't see any more of the Cockettes until many many years later when the documentary film came out.

Look....No Hands!

Memoir: Part V - Hollywood Take Two...

I returned to Hollywood...older and wiser.

I purchased a Nikon camera before leaving New York, with a special beauty lens recommended by my friend the late great photographer Art Kane, planning to try my hand at my own beauty photography. Feeling very silly (alright, maybe I was just older) when I realized I couldn't even open the damn camera. Perhaps I should take a photography class?

While enjoying some veggies on the patio of The Source Restaurant (for years the best vegetarian place on Sunset Blvd.) I noticed a poster on the wall advertising The Tripod School of Photography.

I called the number and they informed me it was a two week photography course, to start the following week. I explained that I must return to New York for some work (I'm bi-coastal now) and asked if I might take the first week and then return in a month for the second week of the course.

The guy on the phone gave me a real hard time (years later I learned it was because he was desperate for the money), but then suggested I come to his studio to meet with him and talk it over.

His name is Douglas Dubler and his studio was located in a warehouse area of Culver City. The place was huge with a very unique dressing room/makeup area. Octagon shaped with a silk parachute covering the open ceiling above. Dramatic...and of course impressive, compared to the hovels they called dressing rooms that I was used to in New York.

Douglas was a tall muscular ex-gymnast. A natural blond, kinda hippie looking, around my age, with a beard and a curly mop of hair. His assistant, Michael, introduces us and I notice the pupils of Doug's green eyes expand when he greets me. I had just read that this was a sign someone is receptive to you. I could tell he was quite impressed when I showed him my little FX-70 Polaroid portfolio that I was carrying around with me. And he should have been impressed too. It was filled with beauty shots I'd taken of every super star model I'd worked with in New York City. Well, the pupils never lie, and we worked out a deal. I could take his course in two parts.

I soon learned that most of the people in L.A. were impressed with anyone that had worked in the fashion world of New York. After all, it is one of the fashion capitals of the world. You know the old song, "if you can make it there you can make it any where"! It didn't hurt that my main portfolio was filled with editorials from Paris and Milan either.

So the first part of the photography class was all technical stuff (yes, I did learn how to open the camera). And when I came back for the second part of the course it was much more fun. We were asked to go out and take our own pictures for our teacher to critic.

At a dance club called The Factory (the In place for all the movie industry people, later a gay club called Studio One) I met a beautiful young girl that was willing to model for me. I went out and bought a cheap photo spot light and rigged it up in the bedroom of the little house I was renting so I could try my hand at some indoor beauty shots. My first time model brought wardrobe with her but I ended up having her wear a black plastic trash bag as a top, for that Punk Chic look. Later she put on a Fiorucci shirt of mine and we went outdoors to try some natural light stuff. I remembered that around three p.m. was the best time of day for beauty photography, and was surprised at how smoothly everything went.

I could hardly wait to get the film back from the lab. The moment of truth.

I was shocked...I couldn't believe I took these pictures! Douglas my teacher was really impressed too. He kept asking me about the light I used and what aperture I shot at. He even projected my 35mm slides up on a big screen for all the photography class to see and kept exclaiming "these are his first photos ever".

I just thought, well I've been working in the business over five years now. I should have learned something from all the great photographers I've worked with.

But Douglas had something different in mind. Instead of encouraging me to shoot more pictures of my own, he asked if I could do the makeup and hair for a beauty test he had planned to do to show the publicity department of a near by movie studio to try to get some work. And so I said sure, I'd help him out.

Those first shots weren't very good, so I told him how he could make them better. Pretty soon I was bringing models in that I worked with during the day on cosmetic jobs with other photographers. I also became the fashion stylist by getting fabulous clothing from my friend that worked in the Norma Kamali boutique at Neiman Marcus (Kamali is still one of the the most original of the American designers, in my opinion).

All this ended up producing exciting new beauty photos for Dubler's portfolio. He really had nothing in his book before as almost all of his previous work had been as a still life photographer.

I enjoyed being in control and seeing my creative ideas come to life. Plus with a little of my help Douglas's beauty lighting kept getting better and better...so much so that I agreed to introduce him to a couple art directors I knew at Max Factor.

In the mean time, the European fashion collections were coming up and I was making plans to go to Paris and work for a couple of months.

I decided I would let the Venice Beach house I was renting go, and Douglas was kind enough to let me store my stuff in his warehouse space.

Before heading over to France I wanted to visit a friend of mine from my old San Francisco days, Eva Rene. She was an art student when I met her...but was now hanging out with the trendy club kids of London. Names like, Steve Strange and his then little known friend Boy George.

I was so inspired by the kids and punks of London that I went to a beauty salon and had my hair bleached out almost white.

I must say I was a little surprised that Londoner's on the streets took notice of me. Especially seeing how they had already seen so many freaks on their King's Row. But I really wasn't prepared for the reaction my hair color would cause once I arrived in Paris.

Paris truly is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I had the good fortune to stay in the apartment of a friend who lived on Avenue Foch (which is the equivalent of Park Ave in the States). I noticed gendarmes gave me a hard once over as I exited the apartment building each day, but I just wrote that off to the chi-chi neighborhood.

However, things became even more disturbing to me on the streets of the Left Bank. People would turn around on the Blvd St. Germain, not just turn their heads mind you, but totally stop and spin around as I walked by. Cars driving by would stop to take my picture...it was really all a bit much!

I kept thinking THIS IS PARIS THE FASHION CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Shouldn't they be more sophisticated then this.

Oh well...all the fashion shows were great and the people there didn't act quite so shocked. I was still being stared at, but from a distance. A year or so later the designer Jean-Paul Gautier bleached his hair and I couldn't help but think...I did it first.

Thank gawd I was able to go and dance with my friends to reduce the stress . I went to La Palace and Le Bain Douche with Toukie Smith, Debbie Dickinson and Jane Thorvaldson. These were the Paris night spots all the Fashionistas went to and we never had to wait in line to get in.

Soon I had all my appointments set to go see the magazine editors at Elle and Vogue. That's when I got a urgent call from L.A. It was Douglas Dubler the photographer begging me to come back to L.A. Seems my contacts had payed off and he got his first job shooting for Max Factor. And he needed me!

I explained I had come all this way to get some new editorial for my portfolio and was just about to get started. He insisted that he couldn't do it without me and so I very regretfully boarded a jet back to L.A.

I did manage to stop over in New York for a couple days en route and was pleased, relieved actually, to see that New Yorkers were as blase as ever, in spite of my hair. Which I had now tinted lavender to match my new Thierry Mugler leather jacket.

I even went on a date with one of my idols, an illustrator named Mel Odom, who turned out to be a super funny guy as well as an amazing artist and we are still friends now (he is well- known for the fashion doll he created named "Gene" after the 1940's movie star, Gene Tierney).

I had to drag myself away to get on the plane to make it back to L.A. I was having such a good time.

Anyway, we shot some wonderful ads for the MAXIE campaign. Max Factor's line for the hip younger girl. One of the models we used was a Brazilian girl I had discovered earlier named Marjorie Andrade. She had the perfect face for beauty, dark thick hair, a small nose, full lips and those huge sea green/blue eyes found only in Brazil.

Even though she was only five feet four inches tall she went on to do amazingly well in the business specializing in cosmetic advertising with The Zoli agency of NY.

It seemed like Douglas and I had taken over the beauty business in L.A. and even started shooting for Italian and British editorials. I now realize we also helped another local cosmetic company Redken establish their brand image, to one day be sold and become a major player, thanks to all the amazing beauty photos we were doing for them. Their art director was basically a housewife from the San Fernando Valley that knew little about fashion or beauty. So she wisely left it in my hands to cast the right models, style the clothing, hair and makeup, while Dubler shot his beautiful photography.

This was a bit upsetting to many of the other photographers in town, Matthew Ralston and Phillip Dixon were a couple I had worked with. But they just didn't give me the creative freedom I had with Douglas. With him I was really the Creative Director, and that was very fulfilling.

Unfortunately at some point Doug's girlfriend dumped him (everyone thought Douglas and I must have been lovers, not true) and he ran off to New York to be with his sister, Diane, and mend his broken heart.

But by this time I had set myself up in a cute little Hollywood bungalow and began producing fashion editorials of my own. One story I produced was about then new up and coming fashion designers. Among them were Anna Sui, Richard Tyler and Diane Pernet.

Now Diane Pernet is the hip fashion critic/journalist of Paris writing her blog
"A Shaded View on Fashion" and I think you may know that the other two names went on to be very successful fashion designers today. So I guess you might say I have an eye for talent. Oh, I forgot to mention that I was also working with many of the movie stars in town (that's the big difference between working in Hollywood and New York).

One of my biggest thrills was being booked to do Natalie Wood for a national jewelry ad photographed by Gary Bernstein. I was asked to go to her home to do the makeup and hair and then we would both travel to the photo studio together.

I was surprised when Robert Wagner (the actor she married twice and also a big star), answered the door to their Beverly Hills mansion himself. He then escorted me upstairs to Natalie's sitting room where I was to wait for her. A half hour and then an hour went by before she made her entrance...and when she did... she was already made up!

I guess she was worried that she hadn't worked with me before, and being a pro, she could do her own makeup very well.

So we put some curlers in her hair and headed off to the studio. Once we got started she relaxed. And after styling her hair she let me re-do her makeup. She was so beautiful and very sweet, letting me take my own Polaroid of her before she left.

Little did I know then, that the world was to soon lose her in such a terribly tragic accident.

Villa Leopolda

The French Riviera home called the Villa Leopolda, built by King Leopold II of Belgium in 1902, has sold for $750 million to a Russian oligarch. However, when changing his mind meant forfeiting a deposit of £37 million, Russia's richest man couldn't help but wince just a little.

Mikhail Prokhorov, 43, was widely reported to have bought the Villa Leopolda on the Cote d'Azur, thought to be the world's most expensive private residence, last summer.

But now, having lost half of his £10 billion fortune as a result of the global banking crisis, he has pulled out of the deal – and incurred the eye-watering penalty fee.

Under French property law, any deposit paid up to a maximum of 10 per cent of the sale price does not have to be returned. And the current owner, Lily Safra, widow of Lebanese-Jewish banking billionaire Edmond Safra, has told the oligarch she's keeping his deposit.

Mr Prokhorov is now understood to be considering slashing his offer to buy the villa – on the exclusive Cap Ferrat between Monaco and Nice – to £200 million in a bid to claw back his deposit. However, estate agents – who have been helping super-rich Russians acquire large properties at Cap Ferrat, Cap d'Antibes and Saint-Tropez – say he will have to come up with a better offer. One estate agent said: "Six months ago, (Mr Prokhorov] was ready to blow half a billion euros on the house. Now he's quibbling about a measly £40 million.

"The Villa Leopolda, with 19 bedrooms, is the most stunning house in France and the most expensive private residence in the world. Property prices on the riviera may have fallen, but not by that much. If he wants it, he'll need to pay a decent price."

Mr Prokhorov earned billions by offloading his real estate and banking assets, as well as a one-quarter stake in NorilskNickel, the Arctic mining firm that supplies 20 per cent of the world's nickel.

A keen skier and kickboxer, Mr Prokhorov – seen by many as Russia's most eligible bachelor – owns the Onexim company, which is an investment fund for technology and mining projects. His spokesman said earlier this week that his boss did not want to live in France as he was still furious at French authorities for arresting him in a prostitution probe two years ago in the ski resort of Courchevel. He was released without charge. But the spokesman refused to say if this was the reason for pulling out of the purchase of the Villa Leopolda.

* This may just be my new summer home after all.

Fun fact: The villa was used as the location of Lermontov's villa in The Red Shoes. The heroine climbs the steps to the villa thinking that she's been invited to dinner when really she is going to be given the starring role in the new ballet.

Man Handle Me...

...just a little bit now and then, Alain.

Christie's to auction Yves Saint Laurent collection...

A large Roman marble athlete's torso, first to second century A.D. (Photo:Christie's)
"There's a real Saint Laurent taste that will remain Saint Laurent, It's a collection made with a lot of instinct, it's the nectar of each thing in its domain."
Check this out.

Dirk Bogarde

Read this.

Helmut Berger

Helmut Berger (whose real name is Helmut Steinberger) was born in Bad Ischl, Austria, into a family of hoteliers. He initially trained and worked in this area, but at the age of 18, he moved to London, where he did odd-jobs while taking acting classes. Later moving to Rome.


In 1964, he met Luchino Visconti, with whom he later had a relationship. Visconti gave him his first acting role in the movie Le Streghe (1967) , but he attained international fame playing the amoral Martin von Essenbeck in Visconti's The Damned (1969). In The Damned, in what is perhaps his best known scene, he mimics Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel. In Visconti's Ludwig, Berger portrays Ludwig II of Bavaria from his blooming youth, to his dissolute final years.


Visconti's death in 1976 plunged Berger into a deep personal crisis. Visconti's will, in which Berger was apparently named as heir, could not be found. Berger attempted suicide on the first anniversary of Visconti's death.

Berger has worked in television, most notably in the role of Peter De Vilbis on Dynasty, which he did only for money (he would later call it "crying on the way to the set but laughing on the way to the bank".) This was his last appearance in a TV series. See my post @ MakeupBeat.com

In 1969, Berger was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in The Damned, and in 1973 he won the European Oscar "David di Donatello" for his performance in Ludwig. In 2007, he received a Special Teddy award at the Berlin Film Festival for his overall professional achievements.

In Berger's latest film Iron Cross he plays Shrager, an aging character believed to be an old SS commander responsible for murdering Jews during World War II. Currently, the film is in post-production and set to be released in summer 2009??

This leads to this. But at least he is still here, thankfully, to tell the tale.

Helmut Berger and Fabio Testi.

Peak-a-boo...

I see you!
Photograph by Helmut Newton.

Belated Valentines Wishes

Art by Mel Odom

"Just being ourselves is the biggest fear of humans. We have learned to live our life trying to satisfy other people's demands. We have learned to live by other people's points of view because of the fear of not being accepted and of not being good enough for someone else." Don Miguel Ruiz

Always keep the jewelry darling...

Something to keep in mind with the advent of gay marriage.

Heart breaking...

Watch the video and sign the petition...please.
HERE

A Most Handsome Cary Grant Photo

Of the ever so handsome Archie Leach.
With thanks to my friend TJB.

Memoir: Part IV - Off to find my Fame and Fortune in New York City...

Once I got my show biz fantasy of being a singer out of my system in San Francisco California....I realized it was time to get serious about my future career plans.

I knew I had a real talent for hair and makeup. I graduated from cosmetology school right after high school and then worked briefly in my home town as a salon hair stylist. Plus I had plenty of practice applying makeup during my time with the Cockettes, gluing rhinestones and feathers on my eyes. And once even helped Bobbi Venus apply makeup on the infamous Divine.

My main career inspiration was the work of makeup artist Way Bandy and the hair stylist Ara Gallant. The two of them were the first artists to receive their name credit along side their work in the pages of Vogue magazine. I saw this Vogue shoot by Avedon of the two of them primping Lauren Hutton and Karen Graham. You could see them working and the lighting umbrellas...just everything it took behind the scenes to make it all happen. I was so inspired they truly amazed me.

So of course that's what I wanted to do too...work for the magazines. I thought where should I go to do that? I read that Vogue was published in New York so OK...that's where I needed to be.


First I sold off most of my drag, I mean vintage costumes, to singer and former Cockette, Sylvester. Syl ended up being photographed wearing one of my black sequined jackets for his first album cover.

Then I decided I would drive by myself to the Big Apple. I had driven cross country once before by traveling the southern route but this time I went north straight through the Rockie Mountains. It was very cold and snowy and my car barely made it sometimes. My little Datsun didn't have snow tires.

On my way to New York I planned to stop off in my home state Michigan and visit my sister and her family for a while. As fate would have it, my parents had traveled up from Florida and were visiting my sister too. So it turned into a bit of a family reunion with some horrific revelations that I'll cover in another chapter.

Soon I toddled off again on my way East...even though I didn't know a soul in New York City. All I had was a telephone number for someone named Taylor Mead, which was given to me by one of the Cockette groupies. This poor girl told me a wild story about her having once been a model in New York and then being drugged and sold into sex slavery on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. I couldn't believe that was true and don't remember how she said she ended up in San Francisco but her story was tragic and sadly I now know this kind of thing happens more then anyone realizes. But I was still determined to follow my dreams.

Turns out Taylor Mead was one of Andy Warhol's Super stars, a poet/actor that sounded even wackier then the Cockette crowd I'd just left. So regretfully I never did meet him. I got a room at the "Young Men's Christian Association"(which is now the uber chic gym David Barton) on W.23rd St. Yes, the same organization that The Village People sang about in their hit song Y.M.C.A. The Y's were notorious through out the U.S.A. among gay folk as the place to stay on the cheap where you could be certain to "hook up" with the other guys staying there. Which wasn't my intention but sometimes a fun perk for a lonely boy new in town. But what a dump, to quote Bette Davis. And the people that worked at the reception desk were really mean and rude. I never would have stayed there if I had had any idea of where else to go. Plus as I said it was pretty cheap.

Fortunately I soon learned of a apartment sublet from someone I met while hanging out on the stairs of the Y.M.C.A. one night. I moved into a studio apartment, a fourth floor walk-up on E.54 St. between Third and Second Ave.



Next I would need a job, so I found my way to the corner of 5th Ave. and 57th St. home of the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman (which even I had heard of before). It just so happened they were hiring people to work in their new salon "The B.G. Cut Away". A little salon just for hair cuts and blow dry styling separate from their main full service salon. They hired me and then trained me in the "Glemby Method" their own style of cutting hair. The training classes took place at a store in Brooklyn so I had to take the subway every day for a month, and it was one long procession of tragic looking panhandlers each one worse looking then the the other. Depressing really but still it was all very exciting......I was in NEW YORK CITY!



It didn't take me long to learn about the Manhattan night life from the other hair stylists at the salon. Some how I got an invitation to the opening night of a new club called "Studio 54". I'll never forget that night. I wore my new navy Pierre Cardin three piece suit with a large pink African daisy in the lapel...which managed to get me photographed by Oliviero Toscani who was there shooting for Vogue Italia's party pages. Later that night The Alvin Ailey Dancers performed for the likes of Halston, Warhol, Liza and little old me!

That same night I met the man that would help get my career headed in the direction I had dreamed about. Abelardo Menendez was the Assoc. Art director of Cosmopolitan Magazine. We became lovers (more on that later) and moved in together getting a two bedroom apartment on W.15 St. with a partial view of the Empire State Building. Fun fact: our building Superintendent was Amos Poe who went on to become a successful filmmaker.

Then Abelardo suggested I do the hair and makeup for the models in the small pictures that illustrated the articles at the front of the magazine. Normally the girls would just do their own hair and makeup for these little photos.

This opportunity gave me the experience of working on professional photo shoots which were very different than doing Salon work. For one thing you didn't have to worry about the back of the hair..just make it look good from the camera's viewpoint. This work paid very little money but I was able to get photos for my portfolio, model and photographer contacts, plus my name credit printed in the magazine. Which, as they now say, was priceless. I even got to style the Editor Helen Gurley Brown's hair and makeup a couple times for special events.



In a short time I got the idea to upgrade my day job and so I took my new little portfolio further down the street to the famous "Red Door Salon" at Elizabeth Arden on 5th Ave. and 54th St. To my surprise they hired me to work in the main salon...but what I was most interested in was checking out the work of Pablo Manzoni, their in-house makeup star. Pablo was some kind of Italian Count, who's work appeared in Harper's Bazaar and Town and Country Magazine all the time. He was also famous for giving Sophia Loren her distinctive "look".

I worked there about six months while still doing my editorial jobs on the side. Then I was able to go on my own as a free lance hair and makeup artist.

Before my departure from Arden, they asked me to do the makeup and hair for one of their new T.V. commercials. I had the pleasure of making up two models that day. Jessica Lange (who later starred in "King Kong") and Julie Hagerty (who would one day be hilarious in the movie "Airplane"). I also had the duty of mopping the sweat from all the hot lights off the brow of Pablo Manzoni himself. Loved it!

Although I was on my own and work was going pretty well, I needed to do what was called "test shoots" with new photographers to continue to build my portfolio.

One of my early tests was with a photographer, who's name I can't remember, and a new model a girl named Janice Dickinson. While making her up she poured out her heart to me about how she couldn't get any work because no one knew what to do with her. Janice was exotic looking with olive skin, black hair, and full pouty lips. And seeing how the current stars were girls like Cheryl Tiegs and Christy Brinkley, thin lipped, blond girl next door types, the industry just didn't know what to make of a girl like Janice. She was shocked that people kept asking her if she were Black.

Well, I loved her look and we did some crazy stylized photos of her topless as a boxer in the fighting ring wearing boxing gloves but with false eyelashes and red lips to match her trunks, natch. They weren't going to help either one of our careers... but were great fun. Actually thinking back on it maybe they did help Janice because later, she made her way to Europe where she became the darling of Italian Vogue and French Elle. With these prestigious covers in her portfolio upon returning to New York, Janice had no problem conquering the American market.

I went on to work with many of the top beauty photog's of the day and made my own name in cosmetic advertising, which was the cream of the crop for a makeup artist.

After about five years had passed, I made plans to return to L.A. for a Christmas visit to stay with some of my old friends.

Just before I left town, Marco Glaviano, a photographer I worked with, gave me a book about this extreme health regime, that intrigued me. It was a strict vegetarian diet that also advocated having high colonics...among other things.

Well, of course La-La land was perfect for this type of life style, and so I felt it necessary to remain in the "City of Angels" for a while.
Now I would be bi-coastal.

Elton Blings iPod for AIDS Foundation

A must have. EJAF

Yves Saint Laurent - M7

This was the cut version of their mens fragrance ad.
Go here for the un-cut version.

Tony the Tiger says...

and Gay is Grrreat!

The Goateesaver...Do I Need This?

Does any one?
And did this guy use the eyebrow saver that is yet to be marketed?

Matt Alber brings back romance...

Out gay singer Matt Alber's new work. The dance scene towards the end is a must see...wait for it.

My sweet little Kobey-Rose

Today was my first FRENCH BULLDOG NYC event (the Meet-up group I've organized the past four and a half years because of her) since she died.
I will continue the group in Kobey's honor. There were so many cute Frenchies there today. My little girl was loved and will be missed by many.
Most of all me.

Welcome to...

Buh-bye!

Bussssh!