Peter Wildeblood (May 19, 1923 – November 14, 1999)

Peter Wildeblood (19 May 1923 – 14 November 1999) was a British-Canadian journalist, novelist, playwright, and gay rights campaigner. He was one of the first men in the UK to publicly declare his homosexuality.

Peter Wildeblood was born in Alassio, on the Italian Riviera, in 1923. He was the only child of Henry Seddon Wildeblood (b. 1863), a retired engineer from the Indian Public Works Department, and his much younger second wife, Winifred Isabel, née Evans, the daughter of a sheep rancher in Argentina. He was brought up in his parents' cottage near Ashdown Forest. His mother was considerably younger than his father, and Wildeblood later wondered if the fact had affected his development.

Wildeblood won a scholarship to Radley College and then went to Trinity College, Oxford in 1941, but almost immediately volunteered for the Royal Air Force during World War II and trained as a pilot in Rhodesia, However, after a series of crashes he was grounded and instead became an RAF meteorologist, still in Rhodesia. After the war he resumed his place at Trinity College where he gravitated towards a homosexual circle in the theatre and arts.

After Oxford Wildeblood turned to journalism, writing for the Daily Mail's regional office in Leeds, then in Fleet Street itself, first as the royal correspondent, then as its diplomatic correspondent. At this time Wildeblood began a passionate affair with an RAF corporal called Edward NcNally and had written him a series of passionate love letters. It was these letters which proved a crucial part of the evidence leading to Wildeblood's later conviction for conspiracy to incite acts of gross indecency.

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wildeblood

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Spencer Henderson III (1949 - November 14, 1993)

Spencer Henderson III was a Broadway dancer and choreographer. Credits include Steel Magnolias, Footloose, and TV's The Love Boat. He died on November 14, 1993, at his family's home in Fort Worth. He was 44. (Picture: Spencer Henderson (left) with Kevin Bacon during the filming of Footloose (1983). Photo: courtesy Betty Alvarello)

The cause was AIDS, said Harold Fairbanks, a friend.

Mr. Henderson danced on Broadway in "Promises, Promises" and "Jesus Christ, Superstar" and in the national company of "Zorba." He performed in "Liza" at the Winter Garden and in nightclub acts with Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera. He also danced on many television programs, including the "Tonight" Show and "The Merv Griffin Show" as well as a number of awards specials.

He choreographed the stage show "David Copperfield IV" and the film "Steel Magnolias," and was the assistant choreographer for "Footloose," "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and the television series "The Love Boat."

Spencer Henderson trained at the Joffrey and Harkness schools in New York and graduated from the National Ballet Academic School in Washington, D.C. in 1967. He danced on Broadway with the Theater Dance Collection and toured with Liza Minnelli, Shirley MacLaine, and Chita Rivera before moving to California to work on film choreography.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/18/obituaries/spencer-henderson-3d-dancer-is-dead-at-44.html

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Scott Chambliss & Tom Villard

Thomas Louis "Tom" Villard (November 19, 1953 – November 14, 1994) was an American actor. He is best known for his leading role in the 1980s series We Got it Made as Jay Bostwick (about the adventures and mishaps of two young, presumably gay men sharing an apartment in the big city. Villard himself was openly gay), as well as roles in feature films One Crazy Summer, Heartbreak Ridge, My Girl, and Popcorn.

In a late 1994 interview with POZ Magazine, after acknowledging that he was gay, that he had AIDS, Villard said he counted on his friends, including the man he referred to as his "genius whiz kid husband," Scott Chambliss, a Los Angeles-based production designer on movies. "I asked him at the beginning, 'Are you sure you want to get into this because I have this to deal with and you don't?' He's always been right there. He's a wise old soul and I have a swarm of angels at any given time."

Villard was born in Waipahu, Hawaii and grew up in Spencerport, New York. He attended Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, before moving to New York City to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute and the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in the early 1970s. In 1980 Villard moved to Los Angeles and soon started landing roles on television and in movies. He also continued performing on stage until the end of his career.

Villard appeared throughout his career on television, in feature films, and on stage around the country. He was featured in situation comedies, episodic TV series, and had leading roles in lower and mid-range budgeted features. At the peak of his career Villard was given featured supporting roles in big-budget studio fare, such as Clint Eastwood's Heartbreak Ridge, and My Girl (with Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis). One of his final roles was on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

Toward the end of his life, Villard became one of the few actors in Hollywood in the early 1990s who chose to be open about his homosexuality, and the challenge of living with HIV and AIDS.


AIDS quilt

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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Villard

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Wendy Carlos (born November 14, 1939)

Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos in Pawtucket, Rhode Island on 14 November 1939) is an American composer and electronic musician.

Carlos first came to prominence in 1968 with Switched-On Bach, a recording of music by J.S. Bach painstakingly assembled, phrase-by-phrase, on the Moog synthesizer, at the time a relatively new and unknown instrument. The album earned three Grammy Awards in 1969. Other classical recordings followed. Carlos later began releasing original compositions, including the first-ever album of synthesized environmental sounds, Sonic Seasonings (1972) and an album exploring alternate tunings Beauty in the Beast (1986). She has also worked in film music, notably writing and performing scores for two Stanley Kubrick movies, A Clockwork Orange (1971) and The Shining (1980), as well as Walt Disney's Tron.

Carlos was born Walter Carlos in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A musical prodigy, she started piano lessons at six, and at ten composed "A Trio for Clarinet, Accordion, and Piano." In 1953 (age 14) she won a Westinghouse Science Fair scholarship for a home built computer, well before "computer" was a household word. Carlos earned a B.A. in music and physics at Brown University (1962) and a master's degree in composition from Columbia University (1966). She studied with Vladimir Ussachevsky, a pioneer in electronic music, as well as Otto Luening and Jack Beeson, working in the famed Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.



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Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendy_Carlos

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Rainbow Awards pre-party and 7th anniversary (Day 14)

November 2013 marks the 7th anniversary since I opened my first journal (and yes, I have an itch, but I will scratch it!), on LJ, and the 5th anniversary of the Rainbow Awards. So, of course I decided for a big bash party. 188 authors, all of them in the 2013 Rainbow Awards, have donated or an ebook, or a print book, and I will use them for a Treasure Hunt. Every day, for all November, I will post 6 excerpts (a random page of the book). No reference to title, or author, or publisher. You have to match it with the book ;-) comment on the blog (do not leave anonymous comments, if you post as anonymous, leave a contact email (comments are screened)), you can comment 1 time for more matchings (you can even try for all 6 books if you like, so 6 chances to win every day). Until the end I will not say which matching is right, so you will have ALL month to try. No limit on how many books you can win, the more you try the better chance you have to win. End of November, among the right matchings, I will draw the winners. So now? let the game start!

Be aware that these previous excerpts: 11, 23, 25 have not yet been matched, so if you go back there is good chance to win them!

The books are (Author - Title - Format of prize):

( The books are (Author - Title - Format of prize) )

Previous Post: http://reviews-and-ramblings.dreamwidth.org/3925232.html

Today excerpts are:

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Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation Announces Winners of 2013 LGBT Play Competition

Brooklyn, NY, November 14, 2013 – The board of the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation is pleased to announce the results of its 2013 playwriting competition. Congratulations go out to the following winners:

First Prize ($3,000):
Donald Jolly, for "bonded"

Second Prize ($1,500):
Christina Hulen, for "Sweetwater"

Honorable Mentions ($500 each):
Eric Anderson, for "Back Porch"
Philip Gerson, for "Jumping Blind"
Dipika Guha, for "Herculine and Lola"
Chris Payne, for "Somebody’s Son"
Topher Payne, for "Perfect Arrangement"

The foundation’s 2013 awards were given for full-length plays and screenplays that have LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) themes and that are based on, or inspired by, a historical person, culture, event, or work of art. The 2013 competition drew more than 130 submissions; the field was narrowed down to 18 finalists from which the winners were chosen.

“I am absolutely thrilled that the foundation selected ‘bonded’ for the 2013 playwriting award,” said the first-prize winner, Los Angeles–based writer Donald Jolly. “I am grateful that there is a foundation whose primary mission is to support and honor stories about LGBT people that present us in a positive manner. With ‘bonded’ I am attempting to historicize the queer and to queer the historic. This is a project grown out of my desire for historical affirmation as a gay person of color. I hope that ‘bonded’ will stand as a worthy tribute to those who have been too often pushed to the margins of—and sometimes completely erased from—the historical record.”

Established in 1994 by gay filmmaker, photographer, playwright, and director Arch Brown (pseudonym of Arnold Krueger, 1936–2012), the Arch and Bruce Brown Foundation sponsors an annual literary competition and operates a year-round program providing funding for LGBT-themed productions in the performing arts. For more information on the work of the foundation, visit aabbfoundation.org. Guidelines for the 2014 playwriting competition will be posted on the website in January.

For more information, contact: Julia Willis, jwaabb26124@gmail.com