WHAT MAKES A MAN

HIGH GEAR/JULY 1977

PAGE 17

(What Makes A Man a Man?Larry Paulette, Vanguard Records)

Hey Larry,

I wanted to like this album. After all, it hasn't been since Stephen Grossman that a musician/vocalist has openly admitted to being gay and not "just" bisexual. But, Steve was too tragedy oriented and What Makes A Man A Man? is just not where I'm at.

Maybe it's because I didn't open my door until I was 24 in '73, but I just can't relate to references to "Mary" and "changing sex in front of people's eyes." I mean, I'm a man... And you know, I really can't believe all gay men go through emotional suicide when they don't score. And Jesus, monogamy. I thought we left that behind with Anita.

Yeah, I hear you. Why just focus on the words? I can't seem to make you understand they can either make it or break twice. Like Lana Turner and Brigitte Bardot are not "chicks."

Gee Larry, why'd you have to go the camp route? It's so old hat, and anyway, only Bette can pull it off well. It's really too bad there aren't any gay guys who sing about brotherhood and

Continued From Page 11

solidarity and the good feeling about just being with other men. Gosh, Lar, if you would've done that, you could have really been worth the Vanguard label.

I guess people who like Broadway musical and show type stuff will get off on your album, though. In that sense, it's definitely slick. There's "Take Me Home With You" from your production, Let My People Come, "Deadalus" from Salvation and "One Hundred Ways to Lose A Man" (Jeez!?) from Wonderful Town.

Actually Larry, I like your versions of "Our Day Will Come" and David Crosby's "Triad." But, man, why, tell me why you had to do "Freakin' at the Freaker's Ball" and that stiffly stereotyped rendition of "Silhouettes"? Yech! And god, "Rubber Duckie."!

It pains me to pan your album, Larry, especially since you're from Mingo Junction, Ohio and a University of Cincinnati alumnus. You see Larry, I'm an Ohio State chauvinist, but I gotta be honest.

You sing well, friend, and Ed Bland's production is far from bland, but you need new material and a fresh outlook. Try a gay image, Larry. 1977, not 1959.

Sincerely, Jerry Juszczyk

that he can cruise the streets with anonymity.

Rechy is not professionally reclusive, however. He has taught at such institutions as U.C.L.A., the University of California at Riverside, and Occidental College. In response to my wondering whether his reputation as a homosexual and hustler has caused any reaction to his being hired by publicly supported institutions, he said, "Not at all." In fact, he is hired because of his reputation. Rechy's work may reach a mass audience in the future. He has completed a screenplay of City of Night, for which negotiations are now in progress for backing by a major studio and the services of a well-known director,

PAJAMA

SATURDAY

PARTY!

sorry... if

AUGUST 6

you don't

wear none, get some!

Richards

Fifteen East Fifth. Mansfield, Ohio. 419/526-9119

neither of whom Rechy feels free to identify while negotiations are taking place.

He envisions some difficulty in accepting any actor to portray the character that represents him. He said that the ideal person would be someone just out of a Trappist monastery who would drop dead as soon as shooting of the picture was completed. Rechy takes great pride in his personal image, as The Sexual Outlaw makes clear.

MALE MODELING

Model full-time, part-time or improve your executive image. Three convenient evening hours a week can give you the look and style that help any career. For information with no obligation, use coupon or PHONE 781-5220.

JOEY BARBERA Director of Male Modeling

BARBIZON SCHOOLS

110 TERMINAL TOWER ARCADE

CLEVELAND, OHIO 44113-(216) 781-5220

name

address_ city.

When I asked whether time wasn't challenging his attractiveness, Rechy both laughingly and seriously announced that so far he has conquered time, that he's probably more attractive now than ever because he is more muscular. In response to my insistence that he will undoubtedly have eventually to accept the reality of time's toll on appearance, Rechy said that he doesn't want to think about it,

phone

age zip.

HG

that he can't cope with that idea. John Rechy seems to me to be the person he projects as Johnny Rio and Jim in his writing, but I think our conversations revealed to me dimensions of his character that make me think that I would prefer spending an hour talking to him than I would following him in silence into a secluded spot in L.A.'s Griffith Park for a few moments of physical pleasure.