Liberation: Diaries:1970-1983

by Christopher Isherwood

  Prince, Hal (b. 1928). American theatrical producer and director; born in New York, educated at the University of Pennsylvania; winner of more than twenty Tony Awards for his many Broadway hits. He expressed an interest in 1959 in an Auden-Isherwood-Kallman musical based on Goodbye to Berlin, but the project didn’t progress. In 1966, he produced and directed the spectacularly successful version which he commissioned from Joe Masteroff (book), Fred Ebb (lyrics), and John Kander (music). In his diary entry for December 27, 1972, Isherwood mentions his “offended feelings about Cabaret”; he was offended that Prince never consulted him or made contact with him about it. Isherwood did not approve of the stage musical, but he was grateful for the income it brought him.

  Procktor, Patrick (1936–2003). Dublin-born painter, especially of watercolors. He studied at the Slade from 1958 to 1962, had his first exhibition at the Redfern Gallery in 1963, travelled widely, taught at the Camberwell School of Art and the Royal College of Art, and designed for the stage, including two productions at The Royal Court in the late 1960s. He was a close friend of David Hockney, with whom he visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1965, and Hockney, early in his career, drew and painted him. Bachardy met Procktor in 1961 while studying at the Slade, and Procktor also sat for Bachardy once. They slept together when Procktor arrived in Los Angeles, but Bachardy never genuinely returned Procktor’s interest. Procktor married Kirsten Andersen Benson (1939–1984), Danish-born widow of James Benson, in 1973; she had a son and daughter from her first marriage, and they had another son, Nicholas (b. 1974), and then divorced. Procktor’s friend, Ole Glaesner, whom Isherwood mentions, was evidently a sexual partner but not a longterm companion. Procktor lived and painted in a flat in Manchester Street which had previously belonged to one of his teachers, William Coldstream. He became an alcoholic, and, late in his career, the flat burned down, destroying much of his work and many of his possessions.

  Prosser, Lee (1944–2011). American author, painter, musician, Vedanta devotee, student of ancient religions, shamanism, witchcraft, and Wicca. He composed “The Ramakrishna Waltz” and wrote a memoir, Isherwood, Bowles, Vedanta, Wicca, and Me (2001). He married three times: first to Mary, from whom he was divorced in 1970, then to Grace, with whom he had two daughters, and, much later, to Debra. He appears in D.2.

  Prouting, Norman (1924–1983). Isherwood’s London landlord during the spring of 1970. Prouting lived in Moore Street, north of the King’s Road in Chelsea, and let Isherwood a small flat in his house. Bill Harris was a friend of Prouting and also lodged in the house when he was in London. Prouting was a real estate expert, methodically researching neighborhoods he bought into. He was also a train buff and worked on several commercial film shorts about British transport.

  puja. Hindu ceremony of worship, a watch or vigil; usually offerings—flowers, incense, food—are made to the object of devotion, and other ritual, symbolic acts are carried out depending upon the occasion.

  Quinn, Joan. Arts journalist and curator. She was West Coast Correspondent for Interview magazine from 1978 to 1989, contributed to many other publications, and later had an arts interview show on private access cable T.V.

  Rabb, Ellis (1930–1998). American actor, director, and producer, from Memphis, Tennessee. He appeared in and directed Shakespeare, Chekhov, Shaw, Pirandello, and contemporary drama, including Tennessee Williams. In 1959, he founded a group called the Association of Producing Artists (APA) of which he was Artistic Director. The APA worked in affiliation with the Phoenix Repertory Company, and many of their productions had Broadway runs in the 1960s, usually as a group of plays in repertory, including You Can’t Take It With You, Right You Are If You Think You Are, The Wild Duck, War and Peace, The Show Off, The Cherry Orchard, Pantagleize, The Cocktail Party, The Misanthrope, and Private Lives. Rabb starred in some of the productions. His wife from 1960 to 1967, actress Rosemary Harris, was also in the company. The APA-Phoenix lasted until 1969. Rabb continued to act and direct, and he won a Tony Award for his 1975 production of The Royal Family. He appears in D.2.

  rajas. See guna.

  Ramakrishna (1836–1886). The Hindu holy man whose life and teachings were central to the modern renaissance of Vedanta. He was widely regarded as an incarna tion of God. Ramakrishna, originally named Gadadhar Chattopadhyaya, was born in a Bengali village sixty miles from Calcutta. He was a devout Hindu from boyhood, practised spiritual disciplines such as meditation, and served as a priest. He was a mystic and teacher, and in 1861 he was declared an avatar: a divine incarnation sent to reestablish the truths of religion and to show by his example how to ascend towards Brahman. Ramakrishna was also initiated into Islam, and he had a vision of Christ. His behavior was sometimes highly unconventional, in keeping with his beliefs and with the extreme spiritual practices which he undertook. For instance, in youth, he put his tongue to the flesh of a rotting corpse as part of his Tantric discipline, and in order to emulate the gopis, he undertook madhura bhava, identifying himself as a female devotee of Krishna, assuming a feminine attitude, and actually dressing in women’s clothes. He several times danced with drunkards because their reeling reminded him of his own when he was in religious ecstasy. His followers gathered around him at Dakshineswar and later at Cossipore. His closest disciples, trained by him, later formed the nucleus of the Ramakrishna Math and Mission, now the largest monastic order in India. Ramakrishna was worshipped as God in his lifetime; he was conscious of his mission, and he was able to transmit divine knowledge by a touch, look, or wish. Isherwood’s biography, Ramakrishna and His Disciples (1964), was written with the help and encouragement of Swamis Prabhavananda and Madhavananda.

  Ram Nam. A sung service of ancient Hindu prayers which invoke the divinities Rama, his wife Sita, and the leader of Rama’s army, the monkey god, Hanuman. In Ramakrishna practice, Ram Nam is sung on Ekadashi, the eleventh day after the new or full moon, generally observed with worship, meditation, and fasting.

  Rampling, Charlotte (b. 1945). British actress, educated in Paris and at English boarding school. Her father, an Olympic swimming gold medallist, was an army officer serving with NATO; her mother was a painter. Her only sister committed suicide as a young woman. Her films include Georgy Girl (1966), The Damned (1969), Zardoz (1974), Farewell, My Lovely (1975), Foxtrot / The Other Side of Paradise (1976), Stardust Memories (1980), The Verdict (1982), Max, Mon Amour (1986), The Wings of the Dove (1997), The Swimming Pool (2003), and Never Let Me Go (2010). When Isherwood met her in 1976, she was married to Bryan Southcombe, an aspiring actor and writer from New Zealand with whom she had one son, Barnaby (b. 1972). She left Southcombe that year for the French composer Jean-Michel Jarre whom she married two years later, and with whom she had another son, David. She divorced Jarre in 1997.

  Rappaport, Michelle. American movie producer. Her films include Old Boyfriends (1979) with Talia Shire, White Men Can’t Jump (1992) with Woody Harrelson, and, for T.V., “Something about Amelia” (1984) and “Paper Dolls” (1984).

  Rassine, Alexis (1919–1992). Ballet dancer; his real name was Alec Raysman. He was born in Lithuania of Russian parents and from about ten years old was brought up in South Africa. He studied ballet there and in Paris, joined the Ballet Rambert in 1938, and danced with several other companies before, in 1942, joining the Sadler’s Wells Ballet, where he became a principal and a star. He shared John Lehmann’s house for many years, living in his own self-contained flat. He appears in D.1 and in Lost Years.

  Rauch, Doug. A high-school friend of Jim Gates; he graduated from Continuation School after being expelled with him. Later, he became president of Trader Joe’s, the specialty grocery chain. He married an ex-Catholic nun, Mikele, and they had three children; Mikele became a psychoanalyst.

  Rauschenberg, Robert (1925–2008). American artist; born in Texas, trained at the Kansas City Art Institute, the Académie Julian in Paris, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and the Art Students League in New York. Some of his early work was conceptual, and he became
famous in the 1950s for his Combines, in which he attached found objects and collage to his canvases. In the 1960s, he turned to silkscreen and photography, and, in 1964, he was the first American to win the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale. Later, he experimented with performance art, and he collaborated on set design, choreography, and projects bridging between art and engineering. He worked in Florida from 1970 onward.

  Reagan assassination attempt. As Reagan was leaving the Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. on March 30, 1981, John Hinckley, Jr., fired six shots from a .22-caliber revolver loaded with exploding bullets. One entered Reagan’s left lung, failed to explode, and was removed during surgery. Vice President George Bush flew back from Austin, Texas, and while he was in the air, Secretary of State Alexander Haig—a West Point graduate, heavily decorated veteran of Korea and Vietnam, and four-star general—asserted on national T.V. that he was in charge at the White House, incorrectly citing the Constitution on succession of power and presidential incapacity.

  recession. The 1969–1970 recession was associated with closing the budget deficit created by the Vietnam War. Isherwood refers several times to the much more severe recession which began in 1971 and lasted until 1975, with stagflation (in which the economy did not grow but prices rose rapidly) as well as high unemployment. The dollar weakened, as he seemed to be aware, and the Energy Crisis dramatically worsened the situation from late 1973. See also Energy Crisis.

  Rechy, John (b. 1934). American writer; born in El Paso, educated at the University of Texas and then at the New School for Social Research in New York. He served in the U.S. Army in Germany and for many years taught creative writing at the University of Southern California. His novels about the homosexual communities of New York and Los Angeles generally explore marginal themes of violence, drugs, and crime. City of Night (1963), tells about his experiences as a hustler. Later novels are Numbers (1967), with thinly disguised portraits of Isherwood, Bachardy, and Gavin Lambert, This Day’s Death (1970), The Vampires (1971), The Fourth Angel (1973), Rushes (1979), Bodies and Souls (1983), Marilyn’s Daughter (1988), and The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gómez (1991). Rechy also wrote The Sexual Outlaw (1977), a documentary study of urban homosexual sexual practices. He appears in D.2. He teaches writing from his home in Los Angeles.

  Redgrave, Corin (1939–2010). British actor, brother of Vanessa. Educated at Cambridge, where he appeared in amateur theatricals before his professional stage debut in 1963. In 1998 he won an Olivier award for his role in Not About Nightingales. His films include A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), David Copperfield (1969), Four Weddings and a Funeral (1993), Enigma (2001), and Enduring Love (2004). He married twice, the second time to actress Kika Markham. One daughter, Jemma (b. 1965), is also an actress.

  Redgrave, Vanessa (b. 1937). English star of stage and screen; from the celebrated acting family, which includes her father Michael, her mother Rachel Kempson, her brother Corin, and sister Lynn Redgrave. She trained at London’s Central School of Speech and Drama, made her stage debut in 1957, and established her reputation with the Royal Shakespeare Company in the early 1960s. Her films include Morgan (1966, Academy Award nomination), Blow-Up (1966), A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967), Camelot (1967), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Isadora (1968; Academy Award nomination), Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971; Academy Award nomina tion), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Julia (1977, Academy Award), The Bostonians (1984; Academy Award nomination), Prick Up Your Ears (1987), The Ballad of the Sad Café (1991), Howards End (1992), Mission Impossible (1996), Mrs. Dalloway (1998), Girl, Interrupted (1999), The Cradle Will Rock (1999), Running with Scissors (2006), and Atonement (2007). Her stage roles are too numerous to name, and she has often appeared on T.V. Much of her work during the 1960s was for Tony Richardson, whom she married in 1962 and with whom she had two daughters, actresses Natasha Richardson (1963–2009) and Joely Richardson (b. 1965), before divorcing in 1967. In 1969, she had a son with actor Franco Nero, whom she married in 2007. She is well known for her leftist political activism and has unsuccessfully run for Parliament as a member of the Workers’ Revolutionary Party. She appears in D.2.

  Regester, James Robert (Bob) (19[32]–1987). American theatrical producer and advertising executive, from Bloomington, Indiana. He met Tony Richardson in Los Angeles in the 1960s and worked for him in Europe as a member of the production team for Mademoiselle (1966) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967). He became a longtime companion of Neil Hartley, and they shared a house in Maida Avenue. With financial backing from a friend, Louis Miano, he co-produced Design for Living with Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Brett, and John Stride at the Phoenix Theatre in 1973; The Seagull, in 1985, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson; Gerald Moon’s Corpse, with Keith Baxter and Milo O’Shea in 1984; and Legends, starring Mary Martin and Carol Channing, which toured in the U.S. in the mid-1980s. He died of AIDS. He appears in D.2.

  Reinhardt, Gottfried (1911–1994). Austrian-born film producer. He emigrated to the U.S. with his father, Max Reinhardt, and became assistant to Walter Wanger. Afterwards he worked as a producer for MGM from 1940 to 1954 and later directed his own films in the United States and Europe; his name is attached to many well-known films, including Garbo’s Two-Faced Woman which he produced in 1941 and The Red Badge of Courage which he produced in 1951. He was Salka Viertel’s lover for nearly a decade before his marriage to his wife, Silvia, in 1944. Through Salka and Berthold Viertel, Reinhardt gave Isherwood his second Hollywood film job in 1940, and he remained Isherwood’s favorite Hollywood boss. During the war, he enlisted and wrote scenarios for films on building latrines, preventing venereal disease, cleaning rifles, etc. Reinhardt and his wife eventually returned to Germany and settled near Salzburg. He appears in D.1, D.2, and Lost Years.

  Reinhardt, Max (1873–1943). Austrian theatrical producer, born Max Goldman. He became world-famous as the director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin with his 1905 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He is remembered for his extravagant showmanship, though his work included serious classical theater from the Greeks to Shakespeare, Molière, Ibsen, and Shaw. He directed a few films in Germany and one later in Hollywood. Reinhardt’s European empire ended when Hitler annexed Austria. He eventually opened an acting and theater school on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood—the Workshop for Stage, Screen, and Radio—with his second wife, German actress Helene Thimig. He appears in D.1.

  Reinhardt, Wolfgang (1908–1979). Film producer and writer; son of Max Reinhardt, brother of Gottfried Reinhardt. He produced My Love Come Back (1940), The Male Animal (1942), Three Strangers (1946), Caught (1948), and Freud (1962), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award as co-writer. Isherwood probably met Wolfgang Reinhardt through Gottfried soon after arriving in Hollywood, and as he records in D.1 and in Lost Years, he and Wolfgang tried to work together several times during the 1940s when Wolfgang was a producer at Warner Brothers. With Aldous Huxley in 1944, they discussed making The Miracle, a film version of the play produced by Max Reinhardt in the 1920s, and in 1945 Wolfgang hired Isherwood to work on Maugham’s 1941 novel Up at the Villa, but neither film was made by him. Much later, in June 1960, Wolfgang approached Isherwood to write a screenplay based on Felix Dahn’s four-volume 1876 novel, Ein Kampf um Rom (A Struggle for Rome), about the decline and fall of the Ostrogoth empire in Italy in the sixth century, but Isherwood turned the project down. Wolfgang’s wife was called Lally. He also appears in D.2.

  Renate. See Druks, Renate.

  Richard. See Isherwood, Richard Graham Bradshaw.

  Richardson, Tony (1928–1991). British stage and film director; educated at Oxford where he was president of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. During the 1950s, he was a T.V. producer for the BBC, wrote about film for Sight and Sound, and was a founder of the Free Cinema movement, collaborating with Karel Reisz on a short, Momma Don’t Allow (1955). He co-f
ounded The English Stage Company with British actor and director George Devine (1910–1966) and under its auspices directed John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger at the Royal Court in 1956. Then he and Osborne formed a film company, Woodfall, and Richardson went on to make movies, many adapted from his stage productions. In 1960, when Isherwood first mentions him in D.1 (he also appears in Lost Years and D.2), Richardson was involved with Wyatt Cooper, then a young actor, and he was directing for screen and stage virtually simultaneously. He was filming Sanctuary (1961)—amalgamated from Faulkner’s Sanctuary (1931) and its sequel, Requiem for a Nun (1951), which he had already staged separately at the Royal Court in London in 1957—and he was also directing Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey in New York with a mostly English cast brought over from London. As Isherwood tells in D.2, he worked for Richardson on film scripts of Evelyn Waugh’s 1948 novel The Loved One (1965), Carson McCuller’s Reflections in a Golden Eye (later directed by John Huston with a different script), The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967) based on Marguerite Duras’ novel, and, with Don Bachardy, adaptations of Robert Graves’s I, Claudius and Claudius, the God, though much of the work was never used. Richardson’s other films include The Entertainer (1960), A Taste of Honey (1961), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Tom Jones (1963, Academy Award), The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968), Hamlet (1969), Ned Kelly (1970), Joseph Andrews (1977), The Hotel New Hampshire (1984), and Blue Sky (released posthumously, 1994). He was married to Vanessa Redgrave from 1962 to 1967 and had two daughters with her, and he had a long affair with Grizelda Grimond, producing a third daughter in 1973. In 1974, Isherwood mentions that Richardson resigned as director of Mahogany (1975) starring Diana Ross; in fact, Richardson made Berry Gordon fire him over a disagreement about casting a minor character so he could collect his full salary; Gordon, founder of Motown, directed the film himself. Richardson died of AIDS.