By Dr. Bill Lipsky–
Theirs was one of the great romances of the golden age of the silent screen. The movie-going public, however, who then wanted to know everything about the stars, never learned about it. Had Hollywood publicist and widely popular fan magazine correspondent Herbert Howe written of his ongoing affair with Ramón Novarro, one of the era’s most celebrated and desired film personalities, he would have had the biggest scoop of his career. He also would have ended both their professional lives.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Howe not only wrote about the stars, but he also appeared in stories others filed. He was a major Hollywood personality himself, who “knows everybody worth knowing in pictures.” Readers regularly learned about his imaginary girlfriends and his invented romances with some of the most famous leading ladies of the time. He was, according to Adela Rogers St. Johns in a 1923 article in
Oscar Wilde s visit to San Francisco sent the city into a bitter, clamoring frenzy
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Oscar Wilde, Irish writer, wit and playwright, 1882.Heritage Images/Getty Images
San Francisco today is a city passionately divided on many issues, from the naming of schools to whether the Ferris wheel in Golden Gate Park should keep spinning. But in 1882, the city s chief cause of furor was the arrival of a 28-year-old Irish dandy.
More than a century before gay marriage was legalized in the city, Oscar Wilde visited in lavender pants and seal fur cuffs and wowed the city with his biting wit and ivory cane, though many tried to tear him down from the moment his Italian brogues stepped foot off the ferry.
Lesbians and Gays Depicted on Currency
By Dr. Bill Lipsky–
Not too long ago, the Bank of England made a surprising, but welcome, announcement. “The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street,” as the institution is affectionately called, had chosen to honor Alan Turing (1912–1954) on its new £50 notes. Wanting to recognize a leading scientist, the Bank asked the public for suggestions. In six weeks it received 227,299 nominations for 989 eligible names. From a short list of 12, the final choice was made by the Bank’s governor, Mark Carney.
One of the most brilliant and original minds of the last hundred years, Turing “was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today,” Carney explained. “As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a war hero, [his] contributions were far-ranging and path breaking.” Among others, he detailed the design of a stored-program computer, invented a method to solv
By Dr. Bill Lipsky–
Had he wanted the attention, Michael Dillon could have become one of the world’s most famous physicians not for developing a new medical procedure or discovering an unknown scientific principle, but for being the first person to use plastic surgery to change his outward physical appearance as a woman to correspond with his self-knowledge and emotional awareness as a man. Instead, he sought anonymity and the right to live his life as himself, without any glaring notoriety or mocking curiosity seekers.
The second child of the heir to the baronetcy of Lismullen, Ireland, and christened Laura Maud, Dillon was born 1915. Growing up, he sensed that he was “a man trapped in a woman’s body,” but in the early decades of the 20th century, terms like transsexual and transgender did not exist; there was no information that explained his feelings, no professional support or role models. Until he graduated from St. Anne’s College at Oxford University in 1938, Dill