I didn't know much about Richard Halliburton, except for his amazing adventures:
Crossing the Alps on an elephant, like Hannibal.
Swimming naked in a pool outside the Taj Mahal at midnight.
Swimming across the Panama Canal.
Exploring a secret room beneath Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
Receiving a gift of shrunken heads from a Dayak chief
Sort of like Donald Duck and his nephews jetting off with their Uncle Scrooge to find King Solomon's Mines or explore a lost city in the Himalayas!
Except Donald always had to return to Duckburg, where Daisy was waiting to "civilize" him with afternoon teas and shopping trips, and marriage and children and despair.
How did Richard Halliburton manage to have all of those adventures, and avoid the mind-control drone of "what girl do you like?"
Many years later, I discovered that Richard Halliburton (1900-1938) was the last of the old-style adventurers, thrilling the Jazz Age with his exploits through speaking engagements, radio broadcasts, a syndicated column, magazine articles, and a dozen books: The Royal Road to Romance, The Glorious Adventure, New Worlds to Conquer, Seven League Boots
And he was gay. He knew gay rights pioneer Harry Hay, he was romantically linked to silent film star Ramon Novarro, and he had a long-term domestic relationship with journalist Paul Mooney. In 1937 they had an idiosyncratic house built in Laguna Beach, called Hangover House because it was hanging off a cliff.
There is no hint of Halliburton's same-sex romances in any of his writings, and evidently he kept them secret from almost everyone in his private life, including his parents.
Following the footsteps of Richard Halliburton, I've lived in five countries (including the U.S.) and visited 26. It's not exactly swimming across the Panama Canal, but it's a start.
See also: The Disappearance of Sean Flynn; The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller.
Except Donald always had to return to Duckburg, where Daisy was waiting to "civilize" him with afternoon teas and shopping trips, and marriage and children and despair.
How did Richard Halliburton manage to have all of those adventures, and avoid the mind-control drone of "what girl do you like?"
And he was gay. He knew gay rights pioneer Harry Hay, he was romantically linked to silent film star Ramon Novarro, and he had a long-term domestic relationship with journalist Paul Mooney. In 1937 they had an idiosyncratic house built in Laguna Beach, called Hangover House because it was hanging off a cliff.
There is no hint of Halliburton's same-sex romances in any of his writings, and evidently he kept them secret from almost everyone in his private life, including his parents.
Following the footsteps of Richard Halliburton, I've lived in five countries (including the U.S.) and visited 26. It's not exactly swimming across the Panama Canal, but it's a start.
See also: The Disappearance of Sean Flynn; The Disappearance of Michael Rockefeller.
Harry Hay certainly became aware of Halliburton but he was better acquainted with Paul Mooney and Bill Levy Alexander, architect of Halliburton’s famed “Hangover House” in Laguna Beach. Alexander was a friend of Paul who introduced him to Halliburton at the Barbizon theater in New York where Alexander and friend Charles Wolfson went to see Salome.
ReplyDeleteHalliburton was very close to his parents and corresponded faithfully and frequently with them throughout his many travels but there is nothing in his letters to indicate they knew he was gay. However, there is a tip - off that at least his father knew or may have suspected. It lies in the fact that when his father edited Richard’s letters for the posthumous book, Richard Halliburton, His Story of His Life’s Adventures, Bobbs-Merrill, 1940, he deleted many references to Paul Mooney in the original letters and sometimes crossed out “Paul” and substituted “Peter.”
Further details of the interactions of Halliburton, Alexander and Mooney can be found in my thoroughly researched book, “A Shooting Star Meets the Well of Death, Why and How Richard Halliburton Conquered the World,” Moonshine Cove Publications, 2014.
Harry Hay knew everyone. I know he at least claimed to have known Wovoka as a boy, and Wovoka said he had a destiny, the story goes.
DeleteI have a theory about the "domesticating influence of woman" trope.
Ah, yes, "What girl do you like?" Obviously bisexuals have an answer, but we also get some variant of how we don't exist. Or bi women exist (and in fact are all women) but bi men don't and which frat boy wrote this with his left hand while his right was elsewhere?
He sounds like a great character for a movie- Navarro who was a gorgeous silent era movie star did not age well and had a tragic end - killed at the hands of two hustlers.
ReplyDelete