March 31. Worked on Wanderings. We saw Swami. I had supper at the monastery and read in the temple, with Chetanananda.
April 1. We applied for unemployment insurance. Worked on Wanderings. We went to gym. Said goodbye to David Hockney and Gregory Evans who leave for Australia tonight. Went to Jo Lathwood’s show of flower paintings at the Staircase. We had supper with Rick Sandford and then all went to see Hal Holbrook in Mark Twain Tonight.
April 2. 152¾. Worked on Wanderings. We had supper with Jo Lathwood. Betty Arizu, Janet Gaynor and Paul Gregory were there.
April 3. Worked on Wanderings (now to be called Christopher and His Kind) and finished the final chapter, 16. Don drew Greg Harrold. We ran a reel of hom[e] movie films which Don had spliced together. We ate at home. Rain in the night.
April 4. 153. Started revising Christopher and His Kind. We went with Harry Brown to see All the President’s Men at the Academy then we all had supper at the Aware Inn.
April 5. 153¼. Revised Christopher and His Kind. I saw Mary O’Hilderbrandt. We had supper at Ma Maison with Harry Rigby and Terry [K]ramer.
April 6. 153½. Revised Christopher and His Kind. We went to gym. We saw Lipstick (Margaux Hemingway) and Conduct Unbecoming (Michael York). We ate sandwiches from the delicatessen.
April 7. 151¾. Revised Christopher and His Kind. We saw Swami. I had supper at Vedanta Place and read in the temple with Chetanananda.
April 8. Met George Caldwell at his house and talked to him about the studio hearing on Monday next. Revised Christopher and His Kind. We went to gym. We had supper at Mr. Chow’s with Leslie and Michael Laughlin, Jim Katz, and Michael Webster.48
April 9. Worked on revising Christopher and His Kind. Jogged on San Vicente. Natalie Leavitt cleaned house. Talked to Candida Donadio and Michael di Capua and dictated copy for catalogue listing of my new book, by telephone. We ate at home.
April 10. 153. Worked on revising Christopher and His Kind. Don collected signatures for the studio hearing. Natalie Leavitt cooked and we had Harry Rigby and Bobby Sanchez to dinner.
April 11. 152¼. Worked on revising Christopher and His Kind. Don collected signatures. I saw Elsa Laughton in town to get signatures. Don and I to Howard Warshaw opening, then to see Hitchcock’s Family Plot. We ate at home.
April 12. 152¾. We drove down to Torrance with Carl Day for the public hearing about Don’s studio before the Coastal Commission. We had lunch with Carl Day and Norm Haley at Peppy’s, having waited all morning for our hearing, which finally took place around 3:00. We won 8–0. Then we talked to Mrs. Jeanne Dobrin49 about managing the Hilldale duplexes. Showed her Tom Warner’s apartment. We saw Robin and Marian. We ate at home.
April 13. 151. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We went to the gym. We had supper with Vincent Price and Coral Browne. Hugh Wheeler was there.
April 14. 153. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. Saw Swami. Had supper at the monastery. Swami Swahananda from Berkeley was there. I read with him in the temple.
April 15. 151½. High wind. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We took Greg Harrold and Gordon Myers to supper at the Bellevue.
April 16. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. Jogged on San Vicente. Don cooked. We had Gloria Stuart50 and Catherine [Turney]51 to dinner. Don was sick to his stomach in the night— probably a bad mussel.
April 17. 152¾. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We ate at home. Don drew and painted Scott Velliquette.
April 18. 151¾. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We saw Chris Wood at his house, with Paul Sorel. We picked up James Fairfax and took him to a birthday party at Le Restaurant, given by Barry Krost for his friend Douglas Chapin. One of the presents was to be a portrait of Douglas by Don.
April 19. Saw Dr. Allen. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. Alan Wallis ( just arrived from England to make a film about us) came by with Chris O[’D]ell, his cameraman, and Jane Burkett (his production assistant). [Platypus Films.] We had supper with Alan Wallis at La Cabaña.
April 20. We started filming, in my workroom—Alan Wallis, Chris O’Dell, Jane Burkett, Roger Reid (camera assistant) John Page (sound recordist) and Len Emery (electrician). They filmed Don drawing me. We saw Swami. We had supper with Don’s parents and Ted Bachardy at the Tic-Toc. We went with Ted to see [Robert Patrick’s play] Kennedy’s Children. Worked on Christopher and His Kind.
April 21. We got our first unemployment checks. Mine was $104. We filmed at UCLA and 333 East Rustic Road (talked to Bud Hammer, who lives there). Natalie Leavitt cooked and we had the Platypus unit to supper. Worked on Christopher and His Kind.
April 22. Filmed at MGM. They filmed Don on the beach. We had supper with Chris Wood and Paul Sorel at the Bellevue. Worked on Christopher and His Kind.
April 23. We were filmed in the pose of the Hockney portrait. They filmed my books, photos, Don’s posters, etc. Read part of Christopher and His Kind on camera. Don cooked and we had Virgil Thomson, Billy Al Bengston, and Penny Little to supper. Worked on Christopher and His Kind.
April 24. Filmed on the pier. Natalie Leavitt cleaned house. The Platypus unit finished filming in the afternoon. Said goodbye to them—they leave for England tomorrow. Natalie cooked and we had John Schlesinger, Michael Childers, Barry Krost, Douglas Chapin, Mo McDermott ( just arrived from England) and Nick Wilder to supper. Worked on Christopher and His Kind.
April 25. Don drew Carol Hines. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We saw David Hockney and Gregory Evans, just back from Australia. We saw Ping Pong[, the play] by Rick Talcove; John Williams, Nick Wilder’s assistant, was in it. Then Nick took us to supper at Au Petit Joint with John Williams, Mo McDermott, Barry Krost, Douglas Chapin, Susan Scott.
April 26. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. To gym. Spoke on first day of Gay Week at USC. Don, Bill Scobie, Tony Sarver, Jim Gates and Warren Neal were there.
April 27. Jogged on San Vicente. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. Don painted Rick Sandford. We went to Billy Al Bengston’s show at the Corcoran Gallery, then to his supper at the Twin Dragons.
April 28. We collected unemployment checks $104. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We saw Swami. I had supper at the monastery, read in temple with Chetanananda.
April 29. Don painted Don Cribb. I worked on Christopher and His Kind. Jogged on San Vicente. We had supper at Casa Mia.
April 30. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. Mrs. Leavitt cooked. We had John and Christel Boorman, David Hockney, Nick Wilder, Gregory Evans and Mo McDermott to supper.
May 1. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We went with John O’Shea to see Baby Blue Marine ( Jan Michael Vincent) and then all had supper at Bellevue.
May 2. Professor Mary Gerhart52 drove me up to Santa Barbara and back. I read Vivekananda’s “Buddha’s Message [to the World]” (volume 8). Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We saw Inserts (Richard Dreyfuss)[. A]te at home.
May 3. Carl Day came by with the lawyer Martin Katz. Worked on Christopher and His Kind. We took Bob Chetwyn and Howard Schuman to supper at the Bellevue.
May 4. Finished writing Christopher and His Kind. We had supper with Chris Wood and Paul Sorel at L’Ermitage.
May 5. Got Christopher and His Kind xeroxed. We saw Swami. We had supper with Jack Larson and Jim Bridges at their house.
May 6. Mailed Christopher and His Kind to Candida Donadio. We saw Martin Katz. Natalie Leavitt cooked and we had Bobby and Doris Littman and Bob Chetwyn and Howard Schuman to supper.
May 7. Jim Bridges showed us bits of his new picture 9.30.55 at Universal. We talked to Carl Day and Walter Winslow53 (contractor) about starting building. We had Jim Gates and Warren Neal to supper at El Adobe. Natalie Leavitt cleaned house.
May 8. We drove to Laguna Beach to see Jack Fontan and Ray Unger, stopping on the way for Don to visit Beverly Baerresen. Billy Cooper was staying with Jack and Ray. We had supper with them at Tortilla Flats and drove back late.
May 9. Don cleared out the studio with Peter Schlesinger. We saw Paul Sorel, went to th
e opening of David Hockney’s show at Nick Wilder’s. Then we had supper at Patrone’s with Peter. Then went with him to Maurice Tuchman’s54 house where there was a party for David.
May 10. Heard that Larry Holt died his morning. Don drew Douglas Chapin. Don out with his parents. I ate at home.
May 11. Walter Winslow came to prepare work on studio and carport. Candida Donadio called to say manuscript of Christopher and His Kind had arrived. Ms. Jeanne Dobrin came to talk about Hilldale property. We went to party given by Truman Capote and John O’Shea at their new house.
May 12. Collected second unemployment check $208 (two weeks). Walter Winslow started work on studio. Don and I saw Swami. I had supper at monastery and read in temple with Chetanananda. Don saw Chris Wood and Paul Sorel.
May 13. Perry Young and David Kopay55 came to see us. We had supper with John and Christel Boorman.
May 14. Candida Donadio called to say she had read Christopher and His Kind. We saw Lee Brevard. Went to gym. We saw Chris Wood and Paul Sorel. We went to party given by Frank Mc[Ca]rthy and Rupert Allen56 for Marguerite Lamkin.
May 15. We had lunch with Marguerite Lamkin at Beverly Hills Hotel. We saw Swami. We ate at home.
May 16. We saw The Missouri Breaks ( Jack Nicholson, Marlon Brando) at the Academy. Don drew. We ate at home.
May 17. 153¾. Don drew Warren Neal. I showed Jim [Gates] details of the house, which he and Warren will move into when we go. We had supper with Barry Krost, Doug Chapin, John Osborne, Jill Bennett,57 Peter Finch and [Eletha] Finch58 at Le Restaurant.
May 18. Did birthday shopping. We saw Chris Wood and Paul Sorel. We went to gym. Went to party given by Barry Krost and Douglas Chapin for John Osborne and Jill Bennett. Later we had supper with David Hockney at Mr. Chow’s—Henry Geldzahler, Peter Schlesinger, Nick Wilder, Dwight[.]
May 19. To Dr. Kafka. Did various chores in preparation for journey. Don out with his parents. I ate at home.
May 20. To Dr. Kafka. Had supper with Jo Lathwood at Casa Mia.
May 21. We had supper with Ted Bachardy at Casa Mia. He drove us to the airport. We left at 10:30 p.m. by TWA for New York. Jim Gates and Warren Neal are to stay in the house while we are away.
May 22. We landed in New York (Kennedy) at 6:30 a.m. We stayed at the Chelsea, room 611. Slept several hours. We saw Jack Larson, ate at El Quijote. We saw The Lady from the Sea (Vanessa Redgrave, Kipp Osborne, Allison Argo). Then to birthday party for the nurse of Vanessa’s son.
May 23. We had breakfast with Jack Larson at Virgil Thomson’s apartment. I was interviewed by Carolyn Heilbrun. We saw Pacific Overtures. We moved from 611 to Jack Larson’s room 814; he had left for Los Angeles. We had drinks with Bill Caskey at Bobby Ossorio’s59 house. We had supper with Mike Van Horn and Brian Campbell.
May 24. We had lunch with Candida Donadio at Fontana di Trevi. We had supper with Roger and Dorothea Straus60—Candida, Michael di Capua, Robert Giroux,61 Susan Sontag,62 Barbara Epstein.
May 25. Had lunch with Ed Mendelson, Joe LeSueur and Don at El Quijote, then Ed read through the parts of my book which refer to Auden. We had drinks with Paul Sorel at the Plaza. We had supper with Ron Holland, Joe LeSueur, J.J. Mitchell, Paul Schmidt,63 Brad and Jan at the Four Seasons.
May 26. We saw Mike Van Horn and Brian Campbell. Went with them to art galleries in Soho. We had supper at La Grenouille with Terry [K]ramer, her daughter, Ton[i], and Harry Rigby. Lunch with Anita Loos at Russian Tea Room. Started a cold and cough.
May 27. We had lunch with Michael di Capua at Pete and Jerry’s, after being shown around the Farrar Straus offices. We had supper with Mike Van Horn and Brian Campbell at the Empire Diner where J.J. Mitchell works.
May 28. We had lunch at Bob Regester’s apartment on Sutton Place with his friend Vaughan.64 Stephen Spender came by and I gave him Christopher and His Kind to read. We went to a party given by Stephen Spender at the Coffee House Club—Vera Stravinsky, Bob Craft, etc.
May 29. Don had lunch with Harry Rigby. I lunched at the Algonquin Hotel with Stephen Spender and Keith Milow. Then to see Knock Knock with Don, produced by Harry Rigby, directed by José Quintero. Drinks with Harry afterwards. Don and I took the revised manuscript of my interview with Carolyn Heilbrun to her apartment and had supper with Vera Stravinsky—Bob Craft, Ed Allen and Barbara Epstein were there.
May 30. We went with Anita Loos and Paulette Goddard to see The Man Who Fell to Earth. Then we all had lunch at La Crêpe. We saw Virgil Thomson at the Roosevelt Hospital. We went out to the airport. Our BOAC plane was to be two hours late, so we switched to Pan Am, which was also very late. We took off at 11 p.m.
May 31. We arrived in London about 10:15 a.m. We went to stay in Neil Hartley’s house—31 Maida Avenue. Neil left soon after we arrived to drive back to the Joseph Andrews location. We slept for a while, then had supper with Bob Chetwyn and Howard Schuman at Eaton’s.
June 1. Cough bad. Lunch at home. We had supper with Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and John Simmonds at Wheeler’s on Old Compton Street.
June 2. Cough bad. Lunch with David Hockney at Sheekey’s— Peter Schlesinger and Nikos Stangos. To British Museum. To David’s studio at Pembroke Studios, to Peter’s studio and to see the new studio which is being built for David. We had drinks with John Lehmann and Tommy Urqu[h]art[-]Laird. We saw La Grande Eugène65 with Peter and Eric Boman.
June 3. Cable from Anandaprana to say that Swami is very ill. We had lunch with Peter Grose of Curtis Brown at Our Mutual Friend. Phoned Jim Gates in Santa Monica about Swami. We saw Otherwise Engaged by Simon Gray. To party given by John Lehmann—Rosamund Lehmann, John Morris,66 Eric White.67 We had supper with Bob Chetwyn and Howard Schuman, with Andrew Brown.
June 4. We had lunch at Canaletto. We saw Pasolini’s Canterbury Tales. We went to Patrick Procktor’s exhibition. We had drinks with Robert Medley and his friend Gregory [Brown]. We had supper with Neil Hartley at Eaton’s.
June 5. Got a letter from Michael Barrie to say Chris Wood died on May 31. We saw The Bed Before Yesterday by Ben Travers. We talked to Joan Plowright backstage. We had supper at Spot Three with Neil Hartley, George Thomas and his friend Linda.
June 6. Brunch with Peter Schlesinger, Eric Boman and George Lawson. We went to see Amiya Sandwich and her sister Joy. We saw Pasolini’s Arabian Nights. We saw Paul Dehn, Jimmy Bernard, Ken and José. We had supper at home and watched Jill Bennett in “Hello Lola” on T.V.
June 7. Warm. We saw Aces High (Peter Firth and Malcolm McDowell). We saw Richard Buckle and David Dougill. We saw The Other Side of the Swamp (Royce Ryton) at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington. We had supper with John Schlesinger. Michael Childers, Barney W[an], Drew Okun,68 at The Grange. Saw Lauren Bacall and Cecil Beaton at the restaurant.
June 8. Very warm. I went to see John Lehmann to talk about his book and mine. We went to Howard Schuman to see part of his “Rock Follies” on T.V. Tim Curry69 was there. We had dinner with Marguerite Lamkin. David Hockney was there.
June 9. Very warm. Drove with David Hockney to have lunch with the Beesleys, leaving at 10:30 a.m. and arriving 12:20. We left for Aldeburgh at 3:00, arrived 5:00. We stayed at the White Lion Hotel. We had supper with Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears at The Red House—Pauline Princess of Hess[e].70 We saw Paul Bunyan at the Maltings.
June 10. We left with David at 9:30 for Stow-on-the-Wold, arriving 1:30 (via London)—Tony Richardson was filming Joseph Andrews there. In the afternoon we saw Blenheim, drove into Oxford and punted on river. We stayed at the Hillside Farm, Adlestrop, with Tony, Neil Hartley, David Ford,71 Bob Newman. Peter Firth was also at supper.
June 11. We left with David at 7:45 a.m. and drove to Edinburgh, via Leicester (The Fosse Way), Durham, where we stopped to see the cathedral and have lunch, and Berwick-on-Tweed. We arrived at 5:45 p.m., stayed at Caledonian Hotel. We had supper at the Café Royal, ate haggis.
June 12. We went with David to the National Gallery in the castle, had lunch with George Lawson at the Café Royal; then saw the p
ortrait gallery, drove up Arthur’s Seat and all had tea with George’s mother,72 aunt,73 and Evan Crui[c]kshank.74 Supper with David, George, Evan, and George’s uncle, Robin Stark,75 at Chez Jul[es]. Then Robin took us to see the Water of Leith,76 then to see his apartment.
June 13. Left at 7:45, driving via Glencoe, Fort William (lunched Alexandra Hotel), Urquhart Castle on Loch Ness, to Inverness. Back via Blair Atholl, Perth (supper at Station Hotel), Forth bridges, arriving back in Edinburgh 10:30 p.m.
June 14. Left Edinburgh at 10 a.m. Visited Lindisfarne Castle on Holy Island, lunch at Stable (White Swan) near Warenford, walked on Roman wall near Housesteads (Cuddy’s Crags)[.] 7:00 reached Keswick, stayed at Royal Oak Hotel, took motor boat on Derwent Water.
June 15. We left Keswick at 8:00 a.m., saw Wordsworth’s Dove Cottage. Drove via Hawes to Haworth—bad road over the fells above Semer Water. We had lunch at Ponden Hall (original of Thrushcross Grange) with Roderick and Brenda Taylor.77 We saw the Brontës house at Haworth. Saw David’s mother at her home in Bradford. Then to Thornway, Highlane, arriving 6:15, to stay with the Bradleys and Richard. (David and Don drove back to Bradford, where they stayed the night and saw David’s father in hospital.)