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) Read Free
Author: Darwin Porter
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clustered around him as he told a most outrageous story:
Truman claimed that he’d been informed by the British actress Elsa Lanchester that “Noël Coward eats shit. Certain young boys are recruited in London to deposit their loads, and they’re put on a strict diet one week before they perform that service. When they’re squatted in position over Coward’s face, they are instructed to very slowly begin their bowel movement, allowing Coward time to taste and savor.”
“Truman didn’t stop there,” Gore later recalled. “He also claimed that that beautiful man, Tyrone Power, also ate shit.”
Paul Cadmus
What made that story believable was that this in-the-know group was already aware that Power and Coward at one time had been lovers. The accusation of shit eating, as relayed by Truman, originated with Elsa Lanchester, who was married to Charles Laughton, another alleged shit-eater. As bizarre as it seems, handsome Ty had seduced toad-like Laughton.
In reference to this incident, when Gore published his memoir, Palimpsest , in 1993, he claimed that to his horror, he later heard from several people that “ I had been transformed into the source of this truly sick invention that will be grist to the satanic mills of Capotes yet unborn.”
The Fleet’s In was so controversial that the painting was suppressed for decades.
When Truman got around to actually talking to Gore, and not performing for the rest of the guests, he found they had certain similarities. “Both of our mothers were named Nina, and both of them were alcoholics,” Truman said. “We were both unloved as children. Both of us were amusing and bright, and fond of our own sex…at least in bed. And both of us were so terribly, terribly young, filled with such hopes and dreams that life had not destroyed for us, or made us cynical.”
“I wanted to be the firecracker of American writers. And Gore wanted that for himself. He also wanted to be President of the United States and the American version in letters of W. Somerset Maugham. Regrettably, he never found his literary voice except for his vinegary essays. His copy, unlike mine, lacked my sensitivity.”
During her “after-party analysis” with Gore, Anaïs claimed that “Truman wants to become one of my loved ones. But I’m already surrounded by enough childlike men, and I can’t take on another person. Truman reminds me of a Venus’s flytrap. I once saw one along the coast of South Carolina. Truman is exotic like that flower, but also devouring. He will feed on you, but give nothing in return.”
Gore met the following night with his closest friend at the time, interior designer Stanley Mills Haggart. Gore told him: “Capote gives homosexuality a bad name, and Anaïs does the same for self-love.”
An Ex-Con from San Quentin On Parole at the Everard Baths
Truman and Gore were not physically attracted to each other, but they began to “date” after the party at the apartment of Anaïs Nin. These dates were not romantic, at least not with each other. When they set out to explore underground New York, it was with the understanding that if either of them were able to pick up a trick, they’d be free to run off into the night with the object of their desire, with no questions asked the next day.
Truman Capote was accused of “spreading the most vile gossip” about Noël Coward (left) , Tyrone Power (center) , and Charles Laughton (right) . However, some latter-day biographers have suggested that his shocking revelations may indeed have been true.
On their first date, Gore invited Truman to join him at the infamous Astor Bar at 7 th Avenue and 45 th Street, near Times Square. “Wear a red tie,” Gore instructed. “That will signal your sexual preference to the initiated.”
Gore later wrote that the Astor Bar was “the city’s most exciting place for meeting soldiers, sailors, and Marines on the prowl. No woman ever dared intrude into these male mysteries. After all, we
Truman claimed that he’d been informed by the British actress Elsa Lanchester that “Noël Coward eats shit. Certain young boys are recruited in London to deposit their loads, and they’re put on a strict diet one week before they perform that service. When they’re squatted in position over Coward’s face, they are instructed to very slowly begin their bowel movement, allowing Coward time to taste and savor.”
“Truman didn’t stop there,” Gore later recalled. “He also claimed that that beautiful man, Tyrone Power, also ate shit.”
Paul Cadmus
What made that story believable was that this in-the-know group was already aware that Power and Coward at one time had been lovers. The accusation of shit eating, as relayed by Truman, originated with Elsa Lanchester, who was married to Charles Laughton, another alleged shit-eater. As bizarre as it seems, handsome Ty had seduced toad-like Laughton.
In reference to this incident, when Gore published his memoir, Palimpsest , in 1993, he claimed that to his horror, he later heard from several people that “ I had been transformed into the source of this truly sick invention that will be grist to the satanic mills of Capotes yet unborn.”
The Fleet’s In was so controversial that the painting was suppressed for decades.
When Truman got around to actually talking to Gore, and not performing for the rest of the guests, he found they had certain similarities. “Both of our mothers were named Nina, and both of them were alcoholics,” Truman said. “We were both unloved as children. Both of us were amusing and bright, and fond of our own sex…at least in bed. And both of us were so terribly, terribly young, filled with such hopes and dreams that life had not destroyed for us, or made us cynical.”
“I wanted to be the firecracker of American writers. And Gore wanted that for himself. He also wanted to be President of the United States and the American version in letters of W. Somerset Maugham. Regrettably, he never found his literary voice except for his vinegary essays. His copy, unlike mine, lacked my sensitivity.”
During her “after-party analysis” with Gore, Anaïs claimed that “Truman wants to become one of my loved ones. But I’m already surrounded by enough childlike men, and I can’t take on another person. Truman reminds me of a Venus’s flytrap. I once saw one along the coast of South Carolina. Truman is exotic like that flower, but also devouring. He will feed on you, but give nothing in return.”
Gore met the following night with his closest friend at the time, interior designer Stanley Mills Haggart. Gore told him: “Capote gives homosexuality a bad name, and Anaïs does the same for self-love.”
An Ex-Con from San Quentin On Parole at the Everard Baths
Truman and Gore were not physically attracted to each other, but they began to “date” after the party at the apartment of Anaïs Nin. These dates were not romantic, at least not with each other. When they set out to explore underground New York, it was with the understanding that if either of them were able to pick up a trick, they’d be free to run off into the night with the object of their desire, with no questions asked the next day.
Truman Capote was accused of “spreading the most vile gossip” about Noël Coward (left) , Tyrone Power (center) , and Charles Laughton (right) . However, some latter-day biographers have suggested that his shocking revelations may indeed have been true.
On their first date, Gore invited Truman to join him at the infamous Astor Bar at 7 th Avenue and 45 th Street, near Times Square. “Wear a red tie,” Gore instructed. “That will signal your sexual preference to the initiated.”
Gore later wrote that the Astor Bar was “the city’s most exciting place for meeting soldiers, sailors, and Marines on the prowl. No woman ever dared intrude into these male mysteries. After all, we
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