Denham Fouts
May 1914 – December 1948
Occupation: Prostitute
“…if Fouts had slept with Hitler, as Hitler wished, he could have saved the world from the Second World War…” – Ned Rorem recounting a quote by Truman Capote in George Plimpton’s Truman Capote
Denham Fouts was a socialite at best, a hanger-on at worst and undeniably the most influential hustler of the last century. He’s appeared in books by Christopher Isherwood, Gore Vidal and Truman Capote, and popped up in the memoirs of countless artists, writers and royals. He sat for famed photographer George Platt Lynes, and apparently lay down with the French actor, Jean Marais. Mr. Isherwood, one of his closest friends, referred to him as, ‘the most expensive male prostitute in the world,’ and ‘the last of the professional tapettes,’ with ‘a lean hungry-looking tanned face,’ his ‘eyes set on different levels, as in a Picasso painting…’ Mr. Vidal described him as “good looking in a cadaverous way.’ Whatever the case, no one can deny the sheer force of his ability to inspire in others what he was unable to achieve himself.
He was ill mannered and a bit of a brat. One might even call him a mooch, at least in his later life, when the tools of his trade were no longer of any use. There were many lovers, mostly quite a bit older than him. However, contrary to his typical couplings, he was a bit of a pederast – taking on lovers half his age, if not younger. His life as an international party boy and prostitute to the stars started in the late 1920s or early 1930s. While at work at his father’s bakery in Jacksonville, Florida, a German Baron – a cosmetics tycoon, according to Mr. Capote – discovered the young beauty and whisked him away to Berlin. He was 16, and probably did not look anything like ‘Dorian Gray emerging from the tomb’ – a description repeated in both Mr. Isherwood’s Diaries and his autobiographical novel Down There on a Visit.
After the Baron, he snagged a Greek shipping magnate, whom he robbed with the help of a sailor. He and the seaman then shacked up at a fancy hotel on Capri, where they ran through the small fortune they lifted from the Greek. Once the money ran out, Denham was arrested, but saved by his beauty when Evan Morgan (the Lord Tredegar) took him on. He spent some time with the Lord before bedding a Prince, Prince Paul, eventually King Paul of Greece. Denham wasn’t part of the plan when the Prince became the King, but it wasn’t the end of the road for the intrepid hustler. He was soon after coupled with Peter Watson, margarine millionaire, publisher of Horizon – a literary magazine edited by Cyril Connolly – and collector of modern art. When WWII came around, Watson sent his young lover, along with Connolly’s wife, Jean, to the US for safe keeping, but not before giving him an astounding parting gift – Picasso’s Girl Reading.
Once in the US, Mrs. Connolly and her friend Tony Bower introduced the inspiring young slut to the novelist Christopher Isherwood, who took Denham on as somewhat of a pet project. The two lived in Mr. Isherwood’s home in LA in a non-sexual-tea-totaling-vegetarian-meditation-driven roommate arrangement. That lasted until Denham was sent off to a Civilian Public Service camp for draft dodging, where he picked up a dog that would later follow him to Paris. While at the camp, Denham took up the company of a group of young black workers, which somehow led to the claim that he fucked songbird Lena Horne. Around the same time he picked up a high school diploma and began studying medicine at UCLA. Relations between Denham and Mr. Isherwood subsequently cooled, as his new lover, photographer Bill Caskey, was no fan of the illustrious harlot.
It was time for Denham to move on.
Bored with the US, he returned to Paris, by way of Asia, where he studied archery – leading to the story that he once shot flaming arrows at the Champs Élysées, from the window of his room on the Rue du Bac. That room would later be described by Mr. Vidal in his short story, ‘Pages from an Abandoned Journal,’ and in George Plimpton’s biography of Mr. Capote. According to Mr. Vidal, the room was furnished only with six Venetian chairs and a bed with a ‘magnificent Tchelitchew painting hanging over it.’ This was the setting for the peculiar courtship of Mr. Capote, who was drawn to Denham’s bed-side sometime in the late 40s, after Denham, who’d fallen in love with a dust jacket photograph of the impish author, sent him a blank check, marked simply with the word ‘Come.’ He did, only to find the notorious lothario impotent and addicted to opium. As the story goes, Denham was busted for drugs soon after, and left for Rome, where he died in a bathroom from a malformed heart.
When he was finally laid to rest at the Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France – the final resting place of such fantastic homosexuals as Marcel Proust – his grave showed none of the extravagances afforded him in life. Instead, according to Mr. Isherwood’s longtime lover, Don Bachardy, there stands only a simple reminder of a marvelous man – a bronze plaque that reads:
Denham Fouts
May 1914 – December 1948
As it turns out, he was an extraordinary hustler with an all too common end. He was only 34-years-old.
Friends:
Brion Gysin – Artist
Cecil Beaton – Photographer
Christopher Isherwood – Author
Cyril and Jean Connolly – Intellectual and literary critic and his bohemian wife
George Platt Lynes – Photographer
Glenway Wescott – Author
Gore Vidal – Author
Jane and Paul Bowles – Both authors
Truman Capote – Author
Tony Bower – Sometimes writer and friend to Jean and Cyril Connolly
Lovers:
Earl of Whatsit
Evan Morgan – the Lord Tredegar
German Baron (name unknown)
Greek Shipping magnate (name unknown)
Jean Marais – French actor
Lena Horne – American singer and actress
Michael Wishart – Artist
Paul of Greece – King
Paul of Yugoslavia – Prince
Peter Watson – Margarine millionaire and art collector
Shah of Iran
Literary References:
Answered Prayers by Truman Capote
Cyril Connolly: A Life by Jeremy Lewis
Diaries: Volume 1, 1939-1960 by Christopher Isherwood
Down There on a Visit by Christopher Isherwood
In Touch: The Letters of Paul Bowles by Paul Bowles and Jeffrey Miller
Intimate Companion by David Leddick
Lost Years: A Memoir 1945 – 1951 by Christopher Isherwood
Norman’s Letter by Gavin Lambert
Nothing Is True – Everything Is Permitted: The Life of Brion Gysin by John Geiger
Pages from an Abandoned Journal by Gore Vidal
Palimpsest: A Memoir by Gore Vidal
Paul Bowles: A Life by Virginia Spencer Carr
Somerset Maugham: A Life by Jeffrey Meyers
Truman Capote by George Plimpton
Without Stopping: An Autobiography by Paul Bowles
Posted by Adam on Tuesday, February 23, 2010 |
richard added on July 17, 2010 :
there are a few mentions of his affair with Jean Marais, and Cocteau’s distress , in the recent book: COCTEAU MARAIS- LES AMANTS TERRIBLES.
ty_ro added on March 5, 2010 :
Something interesting. Finally.
Graham added on February 28, 2010 :
Lovely post!
MJ added on February 26, 2010 :
I agree wholeheartedly with Hustler Brown.
PS: Nancy Boy, you need a hobby my friend.
MJ.
Hustler Brown added on February 25, 2010 :
perhaps Nancy Boy should have written the post himself. That way, instead of Mr Trouts fascinating and fun piece that included accounts from great homos of yore, we could of had a genealogy chart with such fascinating tidbits as “Fouts’s suitcases were decorated by Salvador Dalí”. I suspect Mr Trout left these details out because they are boring. I thought the tone and style was perfect for the BUTT blog.
Christopher Trout added on February 25, 2010 :
Nancy,
Thank you for the insight, however unkind the sentiment. The intention behind the piece was to collect all the disparate accounts about this fascinating life. And while I’m sure your research goes much deeper, it might be a tad excessive for a blog piece.
Nancy Boy added on February 25, 2010 :
Impressive but gossipy. No first-hand research. Born in Boca Grande, Florida, on 9 May 1916, his full name was Louis Denham Fouts, eldest son of Colorado-born Edwin Louis Fouts (born 1895) and his Florida-born wife, Mary Denham (24 March 1890 – 11 October 1970). He had two siblings, Frederick (1918-1994) and Ellen (Mrs John W Wright Jr). Many family members still around—several nephews and a niece, all by his brother. Uncle was a president of Safeway; father was a building estimator and later owned a manufacturing company and at one time was the branch manager of an ice and milk company (not a baker, as Capote claimed). Fouts became Lord Tredegar’s lover around 1935. His cousin Alice Denham wrote about him in her book “Sleeping with Bad Boys.” When he was Peter Watson’s lover, Fouts’s suitcases were decorated by Salvador Dalí. David Gascoyne described Fouts, in the late 1930s, as “a sumptuous, spoiled young man with a lot of frail and rather hard-worked charm …” He also reportedly preferred rich men as protectors but claimed he preferred preadolescents as lovers.
Sal Paradise added on February 25, 2010 :
low art without the high art is just plain boring after a while. This is what butt has been missing for sometime now, well done great article!!!
Bruce Wayland added on February 24, 2010 :
Very interesting! One of those lives that is better than fiction. Thanks for posting this.
Raya added on February 24, 2010 :
Totally captivated. Great piece butt!!
Uriel like the archangel added on February 24, 2010 :
great article, love it.
Nigel Rainey added on February 24, 2010 :
What a nice surprise Chris! nice piece FOR SURE!!!
jasperflat added on February 24, 2010 :
Whah.. The Shah of Iran!?
Neil added on February 24, 2010 :
The Shah of Iran?! I’d like to know that part of the story.
Wilbur Hathaway II added on February 23, 2010 :
I’d read ALL these bios that mentioned him and had wanted to research more.
Thankyou.
Gore’s Palimpsest has a mention, I recall.
A book about Platt Lynes and Wescott & the ballet dude has sone, as well.
The others too of course.
I’d thought I’d read him being from the Midwest, however.
Gus Van Sant is always “into The Trade”, he could direct the flick,especially after this new Carey/McGregor flick is a hit.
David Ehrenstein added on February 23, 2010 :
Rupert Everett longed to play him in the movies. He took out an option on the “Ambrose” section of Isherwood’s “Down There on a Visit” which is all about Denny Fouts. Tony Richardson was going to direct. But then he had a falling out with Richardson and the project went south. In Michael Radford’s sorely neglected “b. monkey” Everett plays a characr who’s much like Fouts in his last days.
David added on February 23, 2010 :
This was fun. Way to go BUTT.
steve added on February 23, 2010 :
Fouts is mentioned in Christopher and His Kind, but I’d not ever heard the entire story. Effin’ great research, Butt!
riley added on February 23, 2010 :
it’s always amazing to read bios like this!!!
chuck added on February 23, 2010 :
What a great piece!
luis added on February 23, 2010 :
great story! one more reason to love Butt Mag.
thanks!
billy miller added on February 23, 2010 :
KEWL
Christopher Trout is THE Dude.
Major props yo.
Mikey added on February 23, 2010 :
butt, This is great.
leafshimmer added on February 23, 2010 :
PS. It’s been decades since I read Down there in a visit, but I doubt whether Denny and Christopher were observing the vegetarian diet when they were sharing digs together. In the branch of Vedanta they studied, the vegetarian regimen does not appear to have been part of the vinaya, the code of conduct–the Swami himself is described somewhere as loving beef curry.
leafshimmer added on February 23, 2010 :
I remember Christopher’s pen portraits of Denny Fouts, notably in Down there on a visit, and he has something of a cameo appearance in Christopher and his kind if memory serves (brilliant, fun memoir).
What I always remember about him, oddly, is that with all the glitz and the addictions and the falling-apart mess of his later life, Fouts had his own unique metaphysical realization. Isherwood conveyed this with remarkable acuity in at least one of these memoirs.
chriszhangpu added on February 23, 2010 :
interesting.
Edgar Capetillo added on February 23, 2010 :
Sweet!
trude hair added on February 23, 2010 :
i love this.