December 25, 1908– Quentin Crisp
The other day, while traveling on public transportation to visit The Husband at his shop, I was called “an old queen” when I accidentally jostled a whipper-snapper while sitting down. I began to be offended & as I started to spit out an equal response, I thought of a certain old queen of England & instead my retort was:
“Oh sweetie dear, you simply have no idea…”
When I arrived in NYC in late summer 1976, I didn’t even know how to get from the airport into Manhattan. I was 22 years old & one of another hundred people who just got off of the plane, ready to become a Broadway star & famous recording artist. I ended up taking a taxi to the Tudor City Hotel, where I had chosen to make a reservation because it was in the same area as Truman Capote’s apartment. My room at the hotel was the size of the bathroom at my LA apartment & had one tiny window that looked at an air shaft.
I checked in & immediately headed down 42nd Street to Time Square just to picture my name in lights. This was the Time Square of the mid-1970s, so very different than the Disney-ized Manhattan today. I was so overwhelmed to find myself alone with 2 pieces of luggage & my dreams, yet no plan, that I called the only person I had any connection with in the city. I confessed to my friend that I was a bit freaked out at finding myself all alone in NYC, & he invited me to stay in his apartment’s maid’s quarters until I could find a place of my own.
I took him up on the offer, but I stayed at my already paid for room at the Tudor City Hotel for one night. Late that evening, I turned on the tiny black & white television in the room & just happened to catch a most unusual, moving, mesmerizing film, The Naked Civil Servant (1975), starring John Hurt, about the early life of Quentin Crisp, of whom I knew absolutely nothing. The film was unlike anything that I had experienced. Just like me, Crisp had arrived in NYC not knowing a soul, but, unlike me, he arrived with a plan. Crisp was ready to become famous.
Crisp was a flamboyant, fey man who wore make-up & painted nails & worked as a rent-boy. He then spent 3 decades making money as a figure model for art classes. The interviews he gave about his unusual life attracted increasing public curiosity & he was soon in demand for interviews where he told tales of his highly individual views on social manners & the cultivation of style. He was also frequently harassed & beaten.
Crisp was born Denis Charles Pratt. He is the author of the classic & flamboyantly eccentric coming-of-age memoir, The Naked Civil Servant (1968), the basis for the film that I watched on my first night in NYC. The book had made him an international celebrity. He wrote several books & articles about his life & his opinions on style, fashion, & films. Crisp was famous for his concise, compact, & dare I say it, crisp witticisms.
He performed his one-man show An Evening With Quentin Crisp, to acclaim in theaters around the world, all the while spreading his unique philosophy:
“Never keep up with the Joneses; drag them down to your level. It’s cheaper.”
During the second part of his show, Crisp answered questions from the audience & gave advice to the crowd about how to find their individual style & live a happy life. I saw him twice in this vehicle, in the early 1980s & again in the late 1990s.
Crisp was Oscar Wilde‘s obvious perfect descendant, with his calculated caustic confabulations, open gayness & witty, winning obstinate opinions toward any kind of conventionality, Crisp caused a bit of a stir in the traditional Britain of the 1950s, 1960s, & 1970s. In 1981, Crisp moved to NYC, & imported his witty remarks & eccentricity to the USA. Crisp charmed the city & he became the essence of the modern bohemian.
During his 2 decades in Manhattan, Crisp wrote 11 books, plus reviews, appeared in several films, including playing a touching & dignified Elizabeth I in Sally Ann Potter‘s gender-bending Orlando (1992), opposite Tilda Swinton.
While filming The Bride (1985), he became friends with Sting who was playing Dr. Frankenstein. Crisp was the inspiration & subject matter of Sting’s brilliant song An Englishman In New York (1988). Crisp:
“I had looked forward to receiving my naturalization papers so that I could commit a crime & not be deported.”
In l986, Sting had visited Crisp in his Manhattan apartment & was told over dinner, & in the 3 days that followed, what life had been like for a out gay man in the very homophobic Britain of the 1920s-1960s. Sting was both shocked & fascinated. The song includes the lyrics:
“It takes a man to suffer ignorance & smile. Be yourself no matter what they say.”
Sting:
“It’s partly about me & partly about Quentin. Again, I was looking for a metaphor. Quentin was a hero of mine, someone I knew very well. He was gay, & he was gay at a time in history when it was dangerous to be so. He had people beating up on him on a daily basis, largely with the consent of the public.”
Noted for never turning down a party invitation or a free meal, the gregarious Crisp claimed that he had never fallen in love:
”You can fancy someone, wish them well or enjoy their company, that’s all I can do with anybody. But when Miss Streisand sings, ‘People who need people are the luckiest people in the world,’ she’s being funny. When you need people, you’re finished. I need people, but not any one person.”
Crisp always said that moving to the USA was his proudest achievement. He loved Americans.
“When I was coming to America, I went to the American Embassy in London, & the man asked me, ‘Are you a practicing homosexual?’ & I said I didn’t practice. I was already perfect.”
34 years after the first one, there was a second film about his life, this time the NYC years, An Englishman In New York (2009), with John Hurt playing him again, & featuring Denis O’Hare, Cynthia Nixon & Swoosie Kurtz.
Crisp resided in a single room in the East Village from 1977-1997. He remained fiercely independent & unpredictable into his old age. He caused controversy & confusion in the gay community by jokingly calling AIDS “a fad”, & homosexuality “a terrible disease”. Always the contrarian, he famously commented after the death of Princess Diana:
“She could have been Queen of England & she was swanning about Paris with Arabs. What disgraceful behavior! Going about saying she wanted to be the queen of hearts. The vulgarity of it is so overpowering.”
He was always in demand from journalists needing a juicy sound-bite, & throughout the 1990s his commentary was often requested. You could count on Crisp to say something quotable.
He entertained publicly & privately with his inimitable decorum, dignity, dexterity, drollery & drive. Crisp spent his 90th birthday performing his show. He took his final curtain call while on tour with it, in Manchester, England, just a few weeks away from his 91st birthday in 1999. He didn’t quite make it, & maybe that was a good thing. This is what Crisp had to say about the 21st Century:
“I hope for nothing, nothing, in the new millennium except death. It will get noisier, it will get darker, it will get faster & the music will thump more. But I shall be dead.”
Not everyone’s cup of tea, I like to think that we would have been great friends if we had chanced to meet. I still like to consider Crisp’s life whenever I get called an old queen.
Essential Crisp: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), How To Have A Lifestyle (1975), How To Become A Virgin (1981), How to Go To The Movies (1988), Resident Alien: The New York Diaries (1996) & The Wit & Wisdom Of Quintin Crisp (1989).
The post #BornThisDay: Quentin Crisp appeared first on World of Wonder.