December, 1991 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

Page 15

At age 90, Forman Brown is having the best of rhymes

by Vicki P. McConnell

In reflecting on his life, 90-year-old poet, novelist, lyricist, pianist, and puppeteer Forman Brown admits he published early and blossomed late. Of his 1929 poetry collection Spider Kin, published when he was 27, he admits, "I think a few verses reflect my latent self." A gay self in fact, that didn't surface for another few years since Brown was busy touring the country with his best friend Harry Burnett, writing and performing elaborate musical puppet shows. Not until his mid-thirties did he fall in love. And then, for a lifetime.

His novel about that gay partnership, Better Angel, first appeared in 1933 under the pseudonym Richard Meeker, and reappeared in the fifties as a pirated paperback with a buxom female on the cover, titled Torment. The book received its contemporary due in 1987 in a reprint by Alyson Publications of Boston. That event brought Brown out of the closet at the age of 87-he added an epilogue to the 1990 Alyson edition of his novel identifying himself as the protagonist, his best friend Burnett as the book's best mate, and his lifelong partner Roddy Brandon as the character of lover David Perrier.

Now the author returns to print with The Generous Jefferson Bartleby Jones, a joyful picture book for the Alyson Wonderland imprint (1991). Brown's more than 40 years writing songs for puppet theatre, light opera, and singers from Sophie Tucker to Bette Midler have proved his facility and love of verse, perfect for this tale about a boy blessed with two fathers in a gay couple. So blessed he wants to share with his friends his bounty of dads:

But on weekends, he moves in with Joe and with Pete

and his friends think his system's a hard one to beat.

Well, Jeff thought so too, and he told everyone

that he loved having two dads instead of just

one.

Brown laughs at a memory of his friend, poet Robert Frost, whom he'd met as artist-in-residence at the University of Michigan. Through him, Brown met Amy Lowell and Carl Sandburg. "Frost said to me,

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'One thing you have to watch out for is your facility.' Ironically, that facile knack for creating verse anchored every step of Brown's career: from writing weekly musical numbers for radio shows "March of Rhyme" and "Club Columbia" to his 15 years as musical director of puppet shows and revues for 4,535 performances of The Turnabout Theatre in Los Angeles.

That theatre became a tourist's must-see over its fifteen years in operation, generously supported by show business stars who autographed the theatre walls. Some who signed were immortalized with their own puppets, including Greta Garbo, Gary Cooper, Mary Pickford, Aimee Semple McPherson, and no less than Albert Einstein--who protested his puppet was not quite fat enough.

The "turnabout" was literal--an audience faced one way for the puppet performance and turned their chairs to the opposite end of the theatre for the musical revue. One Turnabout regular was Elsa Lanchester--Brown wrote nearly 50 songs for her during the 12 years she performed with them. She made two albums of his material, including a popular signature piece, "When a Lady Has a Piazza." Her husband, Charles Laughton, was also a Turnabout enthusiast and often suggested ideas for the olio sketches.

Turnabout was indeed a labor of love, not only for Brown as lyricist and musician, but for Burnett as head puppeteer and Brandon as box office impresario. Brown says his lover's loyalty solidified the enterprise through some hard times. "He believed no one could write a better song than I, no one make a better puppet than Harry." After fifty years in this partnership, Brandon died in 1986.

Forman Brown's gay wit in the puppet extravaganzas Mr. Noah and Caesar Julius created two loving boy dodo birds in the former and a whole cast of seminude centurions in the latter, who sing from the Bimini Baths, "where the cream of society gathers and bathers, lets the hoi-polloi go dirty." He wrote complete new lyrics for the light opera Merry Widows that opened the first show at Lincoln Center, and updated lyrics for The Red Mill, The Great Waltz, and The Student Prince. In addition, he created special songs for Imogene Coca's appearance at Radio City Music Hall's Rainbow Room, including the number "Elevator Girl (Up and Down from 8 to 4)." Brown also published

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What one loves best comes full circle if Brown is any example-from his first poems to his new children's book, his love of melody and verse celebrates the spirit of play. A fan of Brown's lyrics, Michael Feinstein recently sent Forman a tape of his own soft tenor crooning the closing lines of every Turnabout Theatre show.

This world we build every night's a play world, One shining hour in an all too world. gray Tomorrow, then we build it all again

So for tonight, goodnight again!

Will Feinstein do an album, a "suite in Brown"? Perhaps-Brandon wasn't the only Turnabout loyalist. Consistently sold-out houses would indicate a ready-made audience for the likes of Brown's Mrs. Pettibone's Chandelier and Lady in Waiting to the Queen. And those same readers who found a sense of decency in being gay from Better Angel might long for the sequel--the story of a triad of friends who successfully worked at what they loved and

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