Maurice Chevalier

 Maurice Chevalier: Up On Top Of A Rainbow

The Authorised Biography

In the first fully authorised biography of Maurice Chevalier to appear in Britain, David Bret tells the full, colourful story of Chevalier's extraordinary life and career - a career that was, in effect, a marriage with his beloved public, and one which endured almost seventy years. He was most prolific during the period of 1930s-60s. Actor and singer Maurice Chevalier is best known for his role in the musical film Gigi as well as being one of the greatest French talents of this century. He was a cabaret performer, and star of the stage and screen in France and abroad. He was given a special Academy Award in 1958 for his contributions to the world of entertainment. Using a wealth of previously unpublished material, Bret discusses the charges of wartime collaboration brought against the star. He reveals a man who was sometimes the opposite of his happy screen persona, plagued by periods of self-doubt and tormented about his past. In all, Bret does true justice this warm, generous professional artiste, 30 years after his death.

Mrs. B with our dear friends, Lucette and René Chevalier, Maurice's

 niece and nephew

ROMANS: Darvinz de Zarumna (édition française)

 

Darvinz de Zarumna: Une romance mythologique des temps anciens

Une grande partie du monde a été détruite par les dieux. Darvinz, un garçon des plaines de Zarumna - considéré comme un monstre de la nature à cause de son teint inhabituel, est choisi par le dieu Koizh pour racheter sa race en se lançant dans un voyage pour retrouver la cité perdue de Korazunta. Ses épreuves sont nombreuses. Après qu'une série de tempêtes a détruit le monde qu'il connaissait, il se lie d'amitié avec Yaasl, le dernier de sa race, et passe deux ans à vivre heureux dans une grotte au sommet de la Grande Montagne. Puis, après la mort de Yaasl, il se dirige vers le désert brûlant de Korun, où il sommeille dans la mare d'Ivos - atteignant apparemment la virilité du jour au lendemain, réveillant un demi-dieu de deux mètres de haut, de construction puissante. Atteignant la cité mourante de Zembora, le dernier aîné lui dit de procréer avec sa fille, Colas, la dernière femme là-bas, et de fournir ainsi la pierre angulaire de la nouvelle race. Il fait cela, mais tombe amoureux de Yannis, son frère éternellement beau. En quittant Zembora, il retrouve Korazunta, dirigé par le méchant roi Nataam, son double exact qui le condamne à mort. Il est sauvé par Amaak, un chef rebelle dont le peuple est détenu ici. Ils deviennent amants et s’évadent de la colonie montagnarde d’Amaak, Ganidia, où Darvinz succombe à la fièvre et est soigné par le frère d’Amaak, Laan, dont il tombe également amoureux. De là, Darvinz et les Ganidiens préparent une insurrection contre Nataam, à quel point il ressort que Darvinz est L'Elu, écrit dans les Parchemins Sacrés, et lui-même un dieu. Et ainsi, il revient à Korazunta, et à tout ce que le destin peut lui réserver.Attention: cette histoire contient du matériel adulte de nature sexuelle.

NOVELS: Darvinz of Zarumna (English version)

Darvinz of Zarumna: A Mythological Romance of the Ancient World

Much of the world has been destroyed by the gods. Darvinz, a boy from the Zarumna flatlands-regarded as a freak because of his unusual complexion, is chosen by the god Koizh to redeem his race by embarking on a journey to find the lost city of Korazunta. His trials are many. In the Korun Desert he slumbers in the Pool of Ivos and seemingly attains manhood overnight, awakening a powerfully-built six-and-a-half-foot demi-god. Reaching the settlement of Zembora he is told to procreate with the last woman there, Colas, but also falls for Yannis, her beautiful brother. He finds Korazunta, ruled by the evil King Nataam, his exact double who sentences him to death. He is saved by Amaak, a rebel-leader whose people are held captive here. They become lovers and escape to Amaak's mountain settlement to prepare an insurrection against Nataam-from which point it emerges that Darvinz is the Chosen One, written about in the Sacred Scrolls, and himself a god. Warning: this story contains adult material of a sexual nature

NOVELS: Dante Alfonso

 

Dante Alfonso: Italian God of the Silent Screen

The story of Hollywood’s Gay Golden Boy of the silent era!Aged nineteen, and legally still a minor, Dante Alfonso lives with his family in a small village in Southern Italy. When they learn to their horror that he is having an affair with Roberto, the nephew of the local priest, they eject him from the family home and send him to live with estranged relatives in New York. On board the ship, he enters a paid-for-sex relationship with Jean-Paul, a French entrepreneur, and upon his arrival in New York lives with him instead of with the family he does not know. He gets a job as a waiter at Harry’s Place, a dance-hall known for its “button-boys”—gigolos who also tout for sex from its mostly middle-aged female clientele, with the management taking a cut of their earnings. When Jean-Paul is arrested and deported for embezzlement—on Dante’s twenty-first birthday—Dante moves in with Martin, one of the dancers, who becomes his lover on the rebound. By way of a wealthy client, Evadne Cooper, he attends an audition at Wilson Pictures, and gets a bit-part in a film. Success follows, but the path for Dante is never easy. To curb the rumours, he sleeps with the leading lady, Mary Maxwell. In Hollywood, he is assigned a publicist, Bob, who is the image of his lost love, Roberto, and they become lovers. Dante, muscular and exceedingly handsome, becomes a massive star almost overnight and a heart-throb, but steadfastly refuses to submit to peer pressure and the dictates of the censorship brigade, who want him to marry to stop the stories circulating about his sexuality once and for all. But can a prejudiced Hollywood make Dante change who he is, or will he find a way to stay true to himself and his principles? WARNING: contains adult material of a sexual nature.

“Take a look, Dante,” Roberto said, extending one long arm towards the horizon. “Did you ever see anything quite so beautiful?” They had stopped in a desolate spot, some two miles from Salerno. Below them, beyond a grassy bank, lay a wide expense of deserted beach—beyond that the sea, almost as one with the cloudless, azure sky. “I’ve seen something much more beautiful,” Dante responded. “I’m sitting next to him—the man I love, with mixed feelings of happiness and misery—wondering how I’m going to manage without seeing him every day, once next week comes.” Roberto leaned across, and licked away the little tear that had started to course down his lover’s cheek. “We’ll have none of that, for starters,” he remonstrated. They got out of the car, and on the grassy bank paused to admire the view. Roberto was about to say something when Dante grasped him in his powerful arms and kissed him passionately. He felt more reckless than he had ever felt in his life. There was not a soul in sight, but it would have made no difference if they had been in the market-place at Gragnano, or in the village square. In four days’ time they would be separated for an entire week—an eternity when one was hopelessly in love—and he wanted every moment of this day to count, to be filed away in his mind, for it to be re-lived when he was alone in his room waiting only for the weekend to arrive. “Come on,” Roberto said, breaking free and grasping Dante’s hand. “Let’s go for a swim!”

Casey Donovan

 

Casey Donovan: Blond Bombshell: Gay Porn's Pioneering Megastar

“I think my greatest accomplishment so far is something that doesn't show up in lights or get reviewed - and that's simply the sexual sanity that I have tried to contribute to over the last twenty years.” This was Casey Donovan, speaking in 1983, four years before his untimely death. 

With the equally legendary Al Parker

Born John Calvin Culver, he was a pioneer and will eternally remain amongst the elite of the adult film industry. Yet he was more than just a porn star. As a hustler par excellence his clients included movie stars, senators, European royalty, and ordinary fans. The love of his life was the tough-guy actor Tom Tryon, who treated him badly. His other famous lovers included Rock Hudson, Paul Newman, and Superman actor Christopher Reeve. Casey scored successes on the legitimate stage—Tubstrip toured for two years and packed theatres across North America. He acted opposite Ingrid Bergman, and played Jesus Christ in an avant-garde production of Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice. As a “tour guide” he escorted well-heeled clients to exotic locations. As an “agony uncle”, he eloquently responded to fans’ letters for four years in Stallion magazine.

With Ingrid Bergman

It is for his contribution to the cinema, however, that he was revered. He shot to fame in Boys in the Sand in 1971, the very first gay porno feature film as opposed to the tawdry “loops” of the day. He triumphed in Radley Metzger’s Score, made heterosexual porn films, and remained at the top of his profession for fifteen years, a long time in the world of adult film. Away from the screen, Casey was the unassuming boy-next-door. On film nothing was too exhibitionist or outrageous for him to tackle. Published to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of his death, this is his amazing story. It includes full details of his twenty-seven films and ten theatrical runs, and more than fifty photographs.

Richard III

 Richard III

There has been renewed interest in Richard III since the discovery of his remains beneath a Leicester car park in the autumn of 2012. Part of the mystery was solved on 4 February 2013, when it was revealed that he was not the diminutive, hunchbacked monster of Tudor myth, but a tall (for his time), good-looking man who suffered from scoliosis of the spine, a condition which would not have been noticed as he went about everyday life. If the Tudor propagandists perpetrated this myth—their theory being that to sanitize Henry VII, it was necessary to blacken the name of his predecessor—what else was made up? Richard remains the most controversial monarch to have occupied the British throne. During his brief reign he was loved and respected by his subjects. His fighting skills were second to none: his loyalty towards his brother, Edward IV, cannot be disputed. From an early age he was compelled to find his own way in life in a violence-orientated world: the brooding archetypal loner who, even when he acquired power, still preferred the quiet Yorkshire countryside to the artificialities of the royal court, where no man was trusting of his fellow. Edward IV’s sudden death plunged England into chaos. Richard, named by him as Protector of his young sons, Edward V and Richard of York, was faced with the dilemma that England would again succumb to the anarchy brought about by the last royal minority—that of Henry VI. He was also faced with the rapaciousness of the boys’ family, the much-hated Woodvilles. The boys were placed within the Tower, but were never seen again, setting in motion a mystery which has never been solved. Did Richard kill his nephews, or were they dispatched by the Duke of Buckingham, or by Henry Tudor and his scheming mother, Margaret Beaufort? What was the true nature of the relationship between Richard and Buckingham? Was Buckingham hoping to use “bromance” as a means of ensnaring Richard to be used as a scapegoat for the heinous crime he was about to perpetrate? Or was Richard simply too trusting, caught out when he was at his weakest—mourning a brother he had adored? The fact that he still has many thousands of devoted supporters, more than 500 years after his death, only points to the fact that Richard III was more than just a king. He was a legend.

Edward IV

 Edward IV: The Sun In Splendour

Edward IV has always been overshadowed by his controversial younger brother Richard III. Such was his reputation that he is mostly remembered for his pursuit of pleasure—the archetypal medieval royal playboy. There was considerably more to him than this. During the first half of his reign he was an astute military tactician, almost on a par with Henry V, who never lost a battle, and during his campaigns invariably triumphed over seemingly unsurmountable odds. Edward was a big man—6 feet 4 inches tall—extremely courageous, and a level-headed strategist at home and abroad. He was a personable, charming and approachable monarch, revered and respected by his subjects. The second half of his reign finds him entirely different. With his Treasury solvent after being stretched to the limit financing the quelling of a decade of civil strife, and with England enjoying a renewed peace marred only by the murky intrigues of his brother Clarence, Edward found himself at liberty to indulge in his fancies. He lived and loved more extravagantly than any king before him. Though devoted to his queen, Elizabeth Woodville, he played the field—there were hundreds of women and at least one male lover. Edward threw lavish parties which were the talk of Europe, and sadly ate himself into an early grave, his death leaving England to face the most chaotic period in its history thus far—and with its greatest mystery, the Princes in the Tower, which remains unsolved to this day.