Liberation: Diaries:1970-1983
Page 128
58 Dunaway (b. 1941) was already a film star—Bonnie and Clyde (1967), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), Little Big Man (1970)—when Williams asked her to play Blanche in this twenty-fifth anniversary revival.
59 The triad of absolute consciousness, absolute existence, absolute joy.
60 Yogaprana’s mother, who lived at the Vedanta Society in old age. Yogaprana, formerly Yogini, became a disciple of Prabhavananda during W.W.II, along with her husband, Walter Brown (Yogi), who later left. They appear in D.1. and Lost Years.
61 The Writers Guild struck against major T.V. and movie producers for the first time since 1960; see Glossary under Writers Guild Strike.
62 Broadway star Joel Grey (b. 1932) won a Tony Award as the Master of Ceremonies in the stage musical Cabaret (1966), and he was about to win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in the film (see below).
63 Jo Wilder, actress and singer from New York, appeared on Broadway and on T.V., including commercials, then ran a gift gallery on Melrose Avenue and later became a real estate agent.
64 It was played by Margaret Leighton.
65 A devotee for many years; in D.1, Isherwood records that she worked as a laundress at the Vedanta Society in the 1940s.
66 The spelling is correct; the name is pronounced Avoya; it means “fearless.”
67 A nickname for Brahmananda given him by Vivekananda for his regal bearing; he is often called Raja Maharaj by Ramakrishna devotees in India, where Maharaj is used generically for most monks in the order.
68 Vietnam veteran and would-be writer from West Virginia, ninth child (b. 1942) of a coal miner; Williams’s companion 1972–1979.
69 Including Best Actress, Liza Minnelli, and Best Director, Bob Fosse. The Godfather won Best Picture.
70 Brando’s Award for Best Actor was refused on his behalf by Sacheen Littlefeather; see Glossary.
71 From “Sunday with Mr. C.: An Audiodocumentary by Andy Warhol Starring Truman Capote,” April 12, 1973, pp. 28–48 and Jann Wenner, “Coda: Another Round with Mr. C.,” in the same issue, pp. 50–54.
72 Peggy Lloyd (1913–2011), actress and T.V. director. She appeared on Broadway in the 1930s, joined Orson Welles’s Mercury Theater Company, and directed T.V. shows for Alfred Hitchcock. Norman Lloyd also worked with Welles and Hitchcock and appeared in Saboteur (1942), Spellbound (1945), Dead Poets Society (1989), and The Age of Innocence (1993).
73 Later a success in the computer business; he married three times and settled near Seattle.
74 American actor (1940–1982), he appeared in Andy Warhol’s film I, a Man (1967) as a last-minute substitute for his friend Jim Morrison of The Doors. He died of a drug overdose.
75 I.e., Steegmuller’s 1972 edition of Flaubert’s travel notes and letters.
76 Radio and T.V. writer; he scripted Burns and Allen in the 1930s, and in the 1950s and 1960s he wrote for “Bonanza,” “Rawhide,” “Combat,” and “Bewitched.”
77 Both were under investigation in connection with the break-in at Democratic headquarters in the Watergate Hotel complex in June 1972; see Watergate in Glossary.
78 Ellsberg and Russo leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press; see Glossary under Pentagon Papers.
79 Who led the break-in; see Glossary.
80 A distinguished physicist; see Glossary.
81 Graphic artist and designer, later an instructor at Miramar Fine Arts College in San Diego.
82 Tom Bradley (1917–1998), lawyer and former policeman, first black mayor of Los Angeles, held the post for twenty years.
83 Sarada was outwardly serene, but Bachardy sensed neurotic disturbances within and, unlike Prabhavananda, was not surprised when she decided not to be a nun.
84 Isherwood’s guess is correct.
85 Porn star Linda Lovelace (1949–2002).
86 American Vedanta nun at the Hollywood Vedanta Society, also known as Sushima, then in her late forties or early fifties, vivacious, a good singer, and a good cook. She left the order around 1980 and died a few years later.
87 Nicole, starring Caron; see below, July 15, and Glossary under Laughlin.
88 German-born stage director (1900–1989); he joined Max Reinhardt in Los Angeles in 1941 and became Professor of Theater Arts, Dean of the School of Fine Arts, and a founder of the Professional Theater Group at UCLA. He was director of the Max Reinhardt Archive at SUNY, Binghamton, New York 1969–1973 and co-author, with Kenneth MacGowan, of The Living Stage: A History of the World Theater (1955) and Golden Ages of the Theater (1959).
89 Der Liebhaber: Erinnerungen seines Sohnes Gottfried Reinhardt an Max Reinhardt published that year in Germany; it later appeared in English as The Genius: A Memoir of Max Reinhardt (1979).
90 I.e., the coin-operated booth which produces instant automatic portraits.
91 Leyland (b. 1940), who emigrated to the U.S. in boyhood, founded the Gay Sunshine Press, also publishing gay erotica and translations. He reprinted the Isherwood interview in his Gay Sunshine Interviews, Vol. 1 (1978), which includes interviews with Allen Ginsberg, John Rechy, Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and others.
92 Seven Upanishads translated by Prabhavananda and Isherwood and read by Isherwood, produced as a double L.P. in 1976.
93 Sudhir was a Hollywood devotee who lived nearby in Vedanta Terrace; he sang in the choir and wrote folk songs. Sat was Jimmy Barnett.
94 Joe Cooper; Nelson is also known as Devadatta. They settled in Santa Barbara.
95 New York drag queen (1944–1974); she starred in Warhol’s Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971), and had bit parts in Klute (1971) and Tennessee Williams’s play Small Craft Warnings (1972).
96 Curtis Opliger, art critic and abstract film maker, then in charge of the gallery.
97 From “Haymaking.”
98 In West Kensington, London, the largest indoor exhibition hall in England when it opened in 1886 as a venue for agricultural shows, circuses, motor, and air shows.
99 Adler (1890–1985), born in Vienna, was Reinhardt’s personal secretary and later worked as a researcher at Warner Brothers. Her memoir, Max Reinhardt, sein Leben, was published in German in 1964. Bachardy recalls that Isherwood possibly had a typescript of an English translation (published later); otherwise, this is Isherwood’s own translation.
100 American cinematographer (1931–1989), his many T.V. and feature films include Save the Tiger (1973), Rhinoceros (1974), Rocky (1976), and The Karate Kid (1984).
101 Reinhardt staged Offenbach’s Tales from Hoffman in Berlin, November 1931–April 1932.
102 Socialite and fundraiser (d. 1987), wife of George Behrendt; she became President of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and later was on the board of the Norton Simon Museum.
103 Bassist, trained at Juilliard; he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1970 and became a Principal Bass late in 1973.
104 In the Prologue to his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963).
105 On September 9.
106 Liza Maugham’s second marriage was to Lord John Hope (1912–1996), 1st Baron Glendevon, the younger of Linlithgow’s twin sons; see Glossary under Maugham.
107 Strong (b. 1935), then Director of the NPG, had purchased Bachardy’s drawing of Auden in 1969. See Glossary under National Portrait Gallery.
108 Auden was buried in Austria; see below, October 7.
109 Lions and Shadows tells how Isherwood was stricken with fever and tonsillitis whenever he met “Hugh Weston,” the Auden character: “these psychological attacks became one of our stock jokes” (pp. 216–217).
110 On October 6, Yom Kippur, Egypt attacked across the Suez Canal and Syria attacked along the Golan Heights trying to recapture territory occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967.
111 In Richard Attenborough’s Young Winston (1972).
112 “While we happen to be on the subject of death, W.H. Auden has also caught it in Austria . . .”
113 Stephanie Spaulding Zimbalist (193[4]–2007), second wife of actor Efrem Zimba
list Jr. (b. 1918) and mother of actress Stephanie Zimbalist (b. 1956).
114 Evidence suggested he had accepted bribes in office, but he was charged only with tax evasion and money laundering for failing to report the income.
115 Portrait of a Marriage (1973), about Nicolson’s parents.
116 They had already met three times: at the Bracketts’ in 1954, as Isherwood records in D.1; again in 1965 when Tennessee Williams introduced them backstage before a preview of the New York opening of The Night of the Iguana; at a recent dinner party at Roddy McDowall’s.
117 Bachardy was the one who set the alarm clock.
118 Good News; see Glossary.
119 Holmes and his nemesis, master criminal Professor Moriarity, reel into the falls fighting in Conan Doyle’s “The Final Problem” (1893).
120 American singer, dancer, and actress (b. 1929); she was a child radio star, a lead in MGM musicals including Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954), and later performed in stage musicals and on T.V.
121 Non-irritating moisturizer.
122 I.e., the National Institute of Arts and Letters; see Glossary.
123 Not her real name.
124 In the spring of 1974, Stoltenberg met the feminist Andrea Dworkin, became her life partner and, like her, an anti-pornography activist. His books include Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice (1989).
125 American conceptual and installation artist (b. 1941); Wilder staged Nauman’s first solo show in 1966, and Nauman rapidly became known for his experiments with sculpture, video, performance, neon, hologram, photography, printmaking, and interactive environments.
126 Filming for an “Arena: Cinema” segment called “Hooray for Hollywood”; see Glossary under Jebb.
127 Coppola, George Lucas and Walter Murch founded American Zoetrope Productions in 1969 to escape the commercial control of the Hollywood studios. Isherwood disliked Coppola and thought his films overpraised. MacMillan later shared three Academy Awards for sound work on The Right Stuff (1983), Speed (1994), and Apollo 13 (1995).
128 Isherwood and Bachardy still slept together, and Bachardy recalls that during his infatuation with Bill Franklin (see below), he and Isherwood had sex several times; see Introduction, p. xxi.
129 Clark worked closely with Schlesinger, beginning with Darling in 1964, and is credited with salvaging Midnight Cowboy although he was not officially the editor. They were then shooting Day of the Locust. He was accompanied by his wife, Laurence, and two daughters.
130 Jewish by background, though not a religious man.
131 He was a builder. Kate Clark, then about eighteen and still a student, married and divorced him; later she married tenor saxophonist Hart McNee and settled in New Orleans.
132 Andrew Raeburn (1933–2010), Cambridge-educated musician and conduct -or; an administrator for the Boston Symphony from 1964 and for Detroit from the mid-1970s. Later, he directed the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth and the Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary.
133 And also his business partner; Schlesinger later split with him.
134 Christ’s words, repeated three times, to Simon Peter in John 21.15–17; Swami published the story in his Eternal Companion: Brahmananda, His Life and Teachings.
135 Arab oil-exporting countries imposed an embargo in retaliation for U.S. involvement in the Arab–Israeli conflict in September. See Glossary under Energy Crisis.
136 Sanskrit and Bengali for Ganges, the river sacred to Hindus.
137 Not his real name.
138 Trone was an aspiring actor; he later changed his name to Buddy Ochoa to take better advantage of his Mexican-American ethnicity. He had a few small T.V. parts in the 1970s and then worked in radio marketing, selling advertising.
139 Mexican-American actress wife of Eddie Albert; see Glossary.
140 Symbolic hand gestures, connecting external actions with spiritual ideas in order to focus the mind on God.
141 Gwendolyn Thomas (1922–2007), born in California, educated at San José State and Julliard, where she studied violin. In New York, she was a devotee of Swami Bodhananda, then she joined the Hollywood convent in 1954, took brahmacharya in 1959, and sannyas in 1965. She performed at Sunday services, directed the women’s choir, and taught Vedanta classes in Spanish. She also helped establish the Vedanta Society in San Diego.
142 “Death is but crossing the world as friends do the seas; they live in one another still.” William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude (1693).
143 For T.V. and Radio Times, promoting the T.V. broadcast of Cabaret; one photo appeared on the cover. The previous year, a month before she won the Academy Award, Minnelli (b. 1946) appeared dressed as Sally Bowles on the February 28 cover of Time and, during the same week, on the cover of Newsweek.
144 November 10, 1812, to Lady Melbourne, Byron’s Letters and Journals, ed. Leslie A. Marchand, Vol. 2, 1810–1812, Famous in My Time (1973).
145 Yves-Marie Hervé, then studying art history at the École du Louvre. Hockney drew him several times.
146 Symbol of Shiva, shaped like a pillar or sometimes rounded like a doorknob, and often set inside a basin to catch offerings. The phallic element embodies the male principle, the container, the female principle.
147 Originally published by Isherwood in 1969.
148 Dominick Dunne (1925–2009), then a film and T.V. producer, later a novelist and contributor to Vanity Fair. Brother of John Gregory Dunne and brother-in-law of Joan Didion.
149 Hollywood costume designer until 1936,when she collaborated with silent screen star Fred Cole to found the bathing suit company Cole of California.
150 Hero of the Ramayana; he was prince of Ayodhya, an incarnation of God, and a perfect model of humanity.
151 Probably Jan von Adlmann, an art critic and curator.
152 Dynia (b. 1944) had been an undergraduate at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and got a Ph.D. in Government from Georgetown in 1973; he had just begun teaching at Loyola.
153 I.e., his green corduroy suit.
154 Dunne became an interior designer and ran a local antique business, Lucullus.
155 The sixth lecture in Isherwood’s UCSB series “A Writer and His World,” given in the autumn of 1960; see D.2.
156 He was preparing a selection of Auden’s work; see Glossary.
157 “Song for St. Cecilia’s Day.”
158 “In Memory of W.B. Yeats.”
159 Spoken by Master and Boatswain in The Sea and the Mirror.
160 See Glossary under Kitty’s birthday.
161 Ramakrishna, Sarada Devi (Holy Mother), Vivekananda (Swamiji), and Brahmananda (Maharaj).
162 Bengali actor, playwright, songwriter, and Ramakrishna devotee (1844– 1912).
163 Meditation and Its Methods; see Glossary under Chetanananda.
164 Ecuador, where he visited with Bill Caskey in November 1947; see The Condor and the Cows.