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thecoleopterawithana · 4 years

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The next night Elliot [Mintz] took us out with a friend of his, Sal Mineo, and we all went to a gay cabaret/discotheque. John was oblivious to the gay ambience. He was curious about everyone's sexuality and liked to gossip about who was sleeping with whom, whether they were gay or straight. John made no judgements about homosexuality but was really curious about who was and who wasn't gay. He knew that his appearance at a gay club might start rumors about his own sexuality, and it made him laugh. He told me that there had been rumors about him and his first manager, Brian Epstein, and that he usually didn't deny them. He liked the fact that people could be titillated by having suspicions about his masculinity. Then I was the one who was laughing. "How could anyone believe a man who likes women as much as you do is gay?" I told him. After the show we went back to Mineo's apartment. I was thirsty, and Mineo told me to look in the refrigerator. There was nothing in it but one big bottle of amyl nitrite. Mineo told John that he knew Ava Gardner. "I'm a real fan of hers. I love Ava," John replied excitedly. Mineo went to the phone, called London, woke Gardner up, and told her that John wanted to speak to her. John took the phone. "Ava, is that you? Ava, I think you're beautiful. I've seen all your movies. Christ, is it really you?" They spoke for five minutes, then a thrilled John handed the phone back to Mineo.

In May Pang’s Loving John (1983).

[Once again, a million thanks to @eppysboys for sending over passages of interest.]

Elliot Mintz (born February 16, 1945) is an American consultant. In the 1960s and early 1970s Mintz was an underground radio DJ and host. In the 1970s he became a spokesperson for John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and took on other musicians and actors as clients as a publicist, including Bob Dylan. [...]

Though not in a professional capacity, since the death of Lennon, Mintz has acted as a spokesperson for the Lennon estate. In addition, while sifting through Lennon's belongings, he discovered hundreds of unreleased tape recordings including half-finished new songs, early versions of famous hits, and idle thoughts. Beginning in 1988, he hosted a weekly syndicated radio series based upon these recordings called The Lost Lennon Tapes, which was broadcast for about four years. After the show came to an end, Mintz began hosting the spinoff radio program The Beatle Years. Mintz has appeared in feature documentaries about Lennon and Yoko Ono, including The U.S. vs. John Lennon, Imagine: John Lennon and The Real Yoko Ono. In 1985 he was a technical advisor on the television film John and Yoko: A Love Story. He also authored an essay about his relationship with them published in 2005 in a book entitled Memories of John Lennon. [Source]

Salvatore Mineo Jr. (January 10, 1939 – February 12, 1976) was an American actor, singer and director. Mineo is best known for his Academy Award-nominated performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Mineo also received a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in Exodus (1960). A 1950s teen idol, Mineo's acting career declined in his adult years. He was murdered in 1976. [...]

By the early 1960s, Mineo was becoming too old to play the type of role that had made him famous, and his rumoured homosexuality led to his being considered inappropriate for leading roles. [...] In 1969, Mineo returned to the stage to direct a Los Angeles production of the LGBT-themed play Fortune and Men's Eyes (1967), featuring then-unknown Don Johnson as Smitty and himself as Rocky. The production received positive reviews, although its expanded prison rape scene was criticized as excessive and gratuitous. [...] By 1976, Mineo's career had begun to turn around. While playing the role of a bisexual burglar in a series of stage performances of the comedy P.S. Your Cat Is Dead in San Francisco, Mineo received substantial publicity from many positive reviews; he moved to Los Angeles along with the play.

Mineo met English-born actress Jill Haworth on the set of the film Exodus in 1960, in which they portrayed young lovers. Mineo and Haworth were together on-and-off for many years. They were engaged to be married at one point. According to Mineo biographer Michael Gregg Michaud, Haworth cancelled the engagement after she caught Mineo engaging in sexual relations with another man. The two did remain very close friends until Mineo's death. [...] While some have described Haworth as being nothing but a close friend and a "beard" to Mineo to conceal his same-sex partners, Michaud casts doubt upon this claim; he asserts that Mineo and Haworth's relationship was genuine, that Mineo fell in love with Haworth, and that Mineo regarded her as one of the important people in his life. [Source]

“Portrait of a Marriage really disturbed [John]. The book was an account of the fifty-year marriage of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson, both of whom were bisexual and continually unfaithful to each other, yet were able to evolve a relationship of great depth and longevity despite the incompleteness of their marriage. John was very distressed by the theme of sexual incompatibility in the midst of great emotional attraction and the fact that no matter how hard one tries, a marriage may always remain incomplete.”

In a 1972 interview with Boze Hadleigh, Mineo discussed his bisexuality. At the time of his death, he was in a six-year relationship with male actor Courtney Burr III. [Source]

BH: Who are those two girls you mentioned, for a double date?

SM: (Laughs.) Are you kidding? I got a girl in every port- and a couple of guys in every port, too.

BH: Do you think rumors about being bi have hurt you in your career?

SM: Maybe. . . Nah, I doubt it. Everyone's got those rumors following him around, whether it's true or not. Everyone's supposed to be bi, starting way back with Gary Cooper and on through Brando and Clift and Dean and Newman and . . . you want me to stop?

BH: Did you resent the rumors?

SM: Well, no. Because what's wrong with being bi? Maybe most people are, deep down.

BH: Shirley MacLaine has publicly said that.

SM: I think she's right- got a good noodle, Shirl does. But anyhow, the rumor about me, from what I hear, was usually that I'm gay. Where, like, with Monty Clift or Brando, the rumor was that they're bi. [Brando later publicly admitted to bisexuality.]

— Boze Hadleigh’s interview with Sal Mineo (1972).

“John and I had a big talk about it, saying, basically, all of us must be bisexual. And we were sort of in a situation of thinking that we’re not [bisexual] because of society. So we are hiding the other side of ourselves, which is less acceptable. But I don’t have a strong sexual desire towards another woman.”

Have you ever? “Not really, not sexually.”

One online satire imagined an affair between Ono and Hillary Clinton.

“It’s great,” Ono laughs. “I mean, both John and I thought it was good that people think we were bisexual, or homosexual.” She laughs again.

What about that old rumor that Lennon had sex with Beatles manager Brian Epstein (which was also the subject of the 1991 film, The Hours and The Times)?

Lennon himself said: “Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship.” Later, Lennon’s friend Pete Shotton said Lennon had told him that he had allowed Epstein to “toss [wank] him off.”

“Uh, well, the story I was told was a very explicit story, and from that I think they didn’t have it [sex],” Ono tells me.

— in Yoko Ono: I Still Fear John’s Killer by Tim Teeman for the Daily Beast (13 October 2015).

Q. Have you ever fucked a guy?

A. Not yet, I thought I’d save it til I was 40, life begins at 40 you know, tho I never noticed it.

Q. It is trendy to be bisexual and you’re usually ‘keeping up with the Jones’, haven’t you ever… there was talk about you and PAUL…

A. Oh, I thought it was about me and Brian Epstein… anyway, I’m saving all the juice for my own version of THE REAL FAB FOUR BEATLES STORY etc.. etc..

Q. It seems like you’re saving quite a lot for when you’re 40…

A. Yes, there might be nothing better to do, tho I don’t believe it.

— John Lennon, interview conducted by/on John Lennon, and/or Dr Winston O’boogie, for Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine (November 1974).

John: [...] I was trying to put it 'round that I was gay, you know– I thought that would throw them off… dancing at all the gay clubs in Los Angeles, flirting with the boys… but it never got off the ground.

Q: I think I’ve only heard that lately about Paul.

John: Oh, I’ve had him, he’s no good. [Laughter]

— John Lennon, interviewed by Lisa Robinson for Hit Parader: A conversation with John Lennon (December 1975).

Like other alkyl nitrites, amyl nitrite is bioactive in mammals, being a vasodilator, which is the basis of its use as a prescription medicine. As an inhalant, it also has a psychoactive effect, which has led to its recreational use with its smell being described as that of old socks or dirty feet. It is also referred to as banapple gas. [Source]

Popper is a slang term given broadly to drugs of the chemical class called alkyl nitrites that are inhaled. [...] Popper use has a relaxation effect on involuntary smooth muscles, such as those in the throat and anus. It is used for practical purposes to facilitate anal sex by increasing blood flow and relaxing sphincter muscles, initially within the gay community.

"If you trace the bottle of amyl (a type of alkyl nitrite) through late 20th century history, you trace the legacies of gay culture on popular culture in the 20th century”

The drug is also used or for recreational drug purposes, typically for the "high" or "rush" that the drug can create.

Poppers were part of club culture from the mid-1970s disco scene and returned to popularity in the 1980s and 1990s rave scene. [Source]

“A cable had arrived for him that very morning stating the obvious: ‘Come too quickly. Stop. Try again. Stop. Am waiting in Paris. Stop me if you’ve heard it. Stop. Stuff yourself with artichokes and live. Stop. Don’t stop. Stop.’ He knew it was from Amie L'Nitrate.”

— in John Lennon’s unfinished story about a sudden rendezvous in Paris. Published in “Skywriting By Word Of Mouth”.

Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress and singer. [...] Gardner appeared in several high-profile films from the 1940s to 1970s [...] She is listed 25th among the American Film Institute's 25 Greatest Female Stars of Classic Hollywood Cinema.

Answered asks about:

John’s sexuality

Yoko and his sister Julia’s public statements about John’s sexuality

John "trying to put it ‘round that” he was gay

The Bob Wooler Episode

The Tony Manero Story

[Disclaimer: The answer to these asks represent my personal opinion at the time, which is liable to have evolved since then.]

#John Lennon #May Pang #Elliot Mintz #Sal Mineo #Brian Epstein #Ava Gardner #i'm not a homosexual or we could have had a homosexual relationship #it's only love and that is all #He could be a real soft sweetie #the lost weekend #johnny #1974 #quote #compilation #my stuff #(I added the links to other asks about his sexuality because it apparently is a topic of great interest)#(As exemplified by the number of asks I received about it)#(Ft. notions about sexuality being tied to masculinity and May not considering the option of bisexuality)#(And an emphasis put on John's curiosity about who was and wasn't gay)

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chicago-geniza · 3 years

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ok so my favorite part of dubnow's account of his first meeting with an-sky--which tracks with SO many other accounts of an-sky's, uh, empfindlichkeit--is how shloymele professes to have been "tronut azh do slyoz," literally moved to tears, by passages of dubnow's piece, yet ideologically compelled to Fight Him anyway; this tendency in him is often interpreted as "paradox" or, to invoke that old Russia Cliche, "a man of contrasts," a la the "land of contrasts." i don't think that's quite the case: an-sky is, as virginia woof wrote to vita sackville-west, very often "washed with the most violent waves of emotion," & although his politics are chaotic, he is able to disentangle his 'universal' sympathies from his focused, 'particular,' engaged goals & convictions. like--lol--to put it in Meme Terms his most Cis Dude trait is being able to see & sympathize with Both Sides of every issue, but he's not going to play devil's advocate, y'know. or, to put it in Therapy Terms, “feelings are not instructions” :P

#shloymele #i LOVE my SON and i have so many THOUGHTS about how people UNDERSTAND him #he's just sensitive lmao

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squaliban · 6 years

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all romance qs :))

are you currently crushing on someone?

uh yeah, my gf.

is anyone currently crushing on you?

god, i hope it’s my gf.

have you ever been in a long term relationship?

yes.

have you ever been asked out?

yes

have you ever asked someone out?

also yes

have you ever kissed someone?

yes

have you ever been kissed?

yes

do you think your crush likes you back?

i sure hope so

when was the last time someone broke your heart?

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh you know that time

what are your go-to love songs?

what i have in your playlists

are you more of a flirt or a hopeless romantic?

hopeless romantic

what would be your ideal date?

aquarium and/or museum

do you have a crush on the person you last kissed?

not at all. considering he’s both a man and my ex.

have you ever confessed your feelings knowing they were unrequited?

yes

have you ever written a poem/song about someone you had feelings for?

yes

if the person you like/love was with you right now, what would you say/do?

i mean i’m currently dating you so that. eventually marry you.

are you currently single or taken?

taken

have you ever broken up with someone?

yes

have you ever been broken up with?

also yes

is there someone in your life you have been trying to get over?

nope

what is your favorite quote or lyric about love?

“I am reduced to a thing that wants Virginia. I composed a beautiful letter to you in the sleepless nightmare hours of the night, and it has all gone: I just miss you, in a quite simple desperate human way. [...] I miss you even more than I could have believed; and I was prepared to miss you a good deal. [...] It is incredible how essential to me you have become. I suppose you are accustomed to people saying these things. Damn you, spoilt creature; I shan’t make you love me any the more by giving myself away like this--But oh my dear, I can’t be clever and stand-offish with you: I love you too much for that.” -Vita Sackville-West in a letter to Virginia Woolf

do you believe in love at first sight?

somewhat

does the person you have feelings for know about that?

i hope you do

what is your favorite rom com?

you, me, & him

if you could date a celebrity, who would it be?

cate blanchett

do you like cuddling?

yes, but only with specific people and if i’m the big spoon

have you ever used an online dating site or app to find dates?

nope

what is the sun sign of your crush/significant other?

capricorn

have you ever had romantic feelings for a best friend?

i currently do, angelfish

what’s your type in a potential romantic partner?

tiny women who look like fairies or tall, elegant women

#asks #thank you!#tea princess tag #lucypunch #long post

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red-hot-moon · 4 years

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I’m working on an essay about Virginia Woolf and her exploration of the streets of London in an all women’s society building close to Bloomsbury where the floors have been named after her, Vanessa Bell and Vita Sackville-West so uh. Blessed day

#I love her!!!!!#personal #my friend is a member of this society and I would never in my life join a fancy place like this but I love the Woolf connection

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squaliban · 6 years

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1-21 for the wlw asks

1. describe a dream date!

going to an art museum with my gf

2. what does your dream gay future consist of!

moving to england, marrying my gf, getting my doctorate, having a daughter, and never contacting my mother again.

3. do you have a dream gay wedding?

it’d be at smith college’s botanical garden.

4. what are some of your favorite pieces of gay media? (books, movies, tv)

the price of salt, tipping the velvet, fun home, are you my mother?, orlando, and the picture of dorian grey

5. what are some gay songs you like?

i’ve grown accustomed to her face by marlene dietrich, i only want to be with you by alix dobkin, beautiful by me’shell n’degocello, and she’s so lovely by the butchies

6. who are some of your favorite lgbt artists?

literal artist is alison bechdel. musical artists are tegan and sara, marlene dietrich, and k.d. lang.

7. who are some of your favorite lgbt writers?

virginia woolf, emily dickinson, sappho, sarah waters, andrea gibson, oscar wilde, blythe baird, and tennessee williams

8. at what age did you realize you weren’t straight?

around 15?

9. do you have a favorite gay poem/quote?

honey by andrea gibson. it reminds me of my gf.

10. favorite lgbt historial figures?

virginia woolf, vita sackville-west, oscar wilde, and tennessee williams

11. do you like to learn about gay history?

yes!

12. have you been to pride?

sadly, no

13. favorite pieces of gay fashion?

flannels, doc martens, and skinny jeans

14. do you have a crush?

on my gf, yes

15. are there any characters you headcanon as wlw?

the list is extensive

16. do you have any lgbt friends online? in real life?

yes and yes

17. pitch a gay movie!

gay guy and trans lesbian have been best friends since they were kids. they go on a cross-country road trip to cross off as many items on their bucket lists as possible. stops include the world’s biggest ball of yarn, a huge ceramic dinosaur in the middle of the desert, and nyc’s greenwich village. there’s a mandatory karaoke scene. it’s a comedy.

18. are there any celebrities you think might be lgbt?

i tend to avoid theorizing about real people.

19. did you know any gay/bi women growing up?

uh i knew of my one uncle and when dad married his last ex, she had a lesbian cousin

20. do you have any gay relatives/ancestors?

yes

21. what is your favorite thing about being wlw?

that i get to spend my life with another woman, specifically my gf

#asks #anonymous #tea princess tag #thank you!

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