Secret Historian: The Life and Times of Samuel Steward, Professor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renegade (57 page)

The friendship between them
: Ibid., p. 143.

“The night Tommy left”
: Steward, Journal, Aug. 1, 1956, Kinsey Institute.

“This new thing I”
: Ibid.

“I am still frozen”
: Steward, Journal, Tuesday, August 28, 1956, Kinsey Institute.

“Over and over again”
: Steward, Journal, Sept. 4, 1956, Kinsey Institute.

“If one really believed”
: Steward,
Chapters
, p. 106.

13: “PLEASURE DOESN’T REALLY MAKE ONE HAPPY”

“Francis and his international”
: Toklas to Steward, Sept. 21, 1956;
Dear Sammy
, p. 217.

The day of the
: For a complete account of the Crabb scandal, see M. G. Welham and J. A. Welham,
Frogman Spy: The Mysterious Disappearance of Commander “Buster” Crabb
(London: W. H. Allen, 1990). The précis of this book, from which this summation is adapted, appears in the June 1996 issue of
Diver
magazine. Another, earlier account of the Crabb scandal can be found in
Frogman Spy: The Incredible Case of Commander Crabb
(New York: McDowell, Obolensky, 1960). Steward gives a brief account of Rose’s direct involvement in the incident in
Dear Sammy
, pp. 218–19.

Upon Crabb’s mysterious death
: Bryan Robertson, “Remembering Francis Rose,” in
Sir Francis Rose, 1909–1979: A Retrospective
(London: England & Co., [1988]).

Holloway Sanatorium at Virginia Water
: These words come directly from Michael De Cossart,
George Melhuish: Artist, Philosopher
(Wolfeboro Falls, N.H.: Alan Sutton, 1990), pp. 128–29, from which this section of the “frogman” story is adapted.

“that Al Capone had”
: Steward, Revised “Early Chapters,” p. 273.

“the most morally and”
: Steward,
Bad Boys
, p. 147.

“James Purdy bores me”
: Toklas to Steward, Sept. 14, 1957, La Brebeche–Magagnosch par Grasse;
Dear Sammy
, p. 221.

“[Tattooing] has so many”
: Steward, Journal, Nov. 18, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“lonesome down here at”
: Steward, Journal, Monday, Dec. 16, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

His sex life was
: Steward, Stud File, “Daisy-chain” card, Samuel M. Steward papers.

Since on some winter
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 10, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“Some money [to cover her expenses]”
: Steward,
Dear Sammy
, pp. 95–96.

“Alice is much feebler”
: Steward, Journal, Saturday, Dec. 21, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“I must confess I”
: Steward, Journal, Sunday, Dec. 22, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“she is no longer”
: Steward, Journal, Monday, Dec. 23, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“[sauerkraut] and wieners”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 25, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“evidently the continued excitement”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 29, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“Julien [was] as polite”:
Steward, Journal, Dec. 30, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“all the past, and”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 31, 1957, Kinsey Institute.

“bloom[ing] into a gaudy”
: Steward, Journal, Jan. 3, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“Soon as he left”
: Steward, Journal, Feb. 11, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“Lovely, satiny dark-brown”
: Steward, Stud File entry for Ruffian Bellows, Jr.

“He told me one”
: Steward, Journal, Feb. 13, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

The magazine would achieve a peak circulation
: Kennedy,
Ideal Gay Man
, p. 30.

also known as “Rolf”
: Ibid., p. 10.

Steward hated the experience
: Steward, Journal, Monday, Feb. 24, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“the invert, it seem[s]”
: Steward, “The Male Homosexual and Marriage,”
Der Kreis
, vol. 29 (Feb. 1961), p. 29. Steward in this piece primarily surveys the potential of homosexual men to marry heterosexual women, but does take into account homosexual male partnerships as well.

“when he finally went”
: Steward, Journal, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“‘Well, I may see’”
: Steward, Journal, March 17, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“She kept after me”
: Steward, Journal, Tuesday, March 25, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“wondering why I seem”
: Steward to Toklas, April 19, 1958.

“much enfeebled…”
: Steward to Wescott, April 19, 1958, Glenway Wescott Papers, Yale Collection of American Literature.

“The letters from Gertrude”
: Steward to Toklas, April 19, 1958.

14: KRIS AND
KREIS

“looking terribly nelly in”
: Steward, Journal, Wednesday, May 7, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

Steward had his own
: Jack Mabley, “Teen-Agers and Tattoos,”
Chicago Daily News
, May 12, 1958 [np]. A copy of the article can be found in the Samuel M. Steward Papers.

He also promised to
: Steward, Journal, Monday, May 19, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

Of the English and
: Kennedy,
The Ideal Gay Man
, p. 48.

“[My] alliance with
Der Kreis”: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 286–88.

“ran all [the Chicago]”
: Renslow, Joseph Bean interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

By approaching bodybuilders
: Ibid.

“It was
the
gym”
: Orejudos, Bean interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

“I’m not a whoremaster”
: Renslow, conversation with author, 2005.

“a nice clean-cut”
: Steward, Journal, Tuesday, June 17, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

Ingram, who had studied
: Cliff Ingram/Raven, Rinella interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

“Cliff became part of”
: Orejudos, Bean interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

Several days after Costello’s
: Steward, Journal, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

“The two smut-hunters”
: Ibid.

“hundreds of lewd photos”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 12, 1958, Kinsey Institute.

As it turned out
: “Photog Faces Court on Smut Charge,” undated newspaper clipping, Charles Renslow Papers, Leather Archives and Museum.

“I decided to tell”
: Renslow, Bean interview, Leather Archives and Museum.

“What wonderfully good news”
: Steward,
Dear Sammy
, note to pp. 232–33.

“and then Pick left”
: Toklas to Steward, Dec. 28, 1958;
Dear Sammy
, pp. 231–32.

“with many misgivings”
: Steward, Journal. All entries describing the 1958–59 Paris/Zurich trip are dated Feb. 9, 1959. Kinsey Institute.

“He said it took”
: Steward, Journal, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

Chuck Renslow and Dom Orejudos
: Steward, Journal, February 9, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“Cliff Ingram”
: Steward, Journal, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“Last night Frank Murphy”
: Steward, Journal, Oct. 5, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

despite misgivings
: Steward, Journal, Oct. 6, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“in other ways it”
: Renslow, interview with author.

“A chorus boy from”
: Steward, Journal, Oct. 13, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“After the beating by”
: Steward, Journal, Oct. 26, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“victory in defeat”
: Steward, Journal, Oct. 30, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“the prospect of retirement”
: Steward, Journal, Nov. 2, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“I was wanting to”
: Steward, Journal, Nov. 16, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“like Housman’s Terence”
: Steward, Journal, Nov. 20, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

15: “PAYMENTS TO HUSTLERS”

“just like a 17-yr old”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 17, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“sullen moods and romantic”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 323.

But Steward quickly developed
: Steward,
Understanding the Male Hustler
, pp. 56–57; the situation is also described in the Stud File, which features entry cards for both Johnny Reyes and his uncle Mike Reyes.

“but it was a hasty”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 21, 1959, Kinsey Institute.

“I try to think”
: Steward, Journal, Jan. 2, 1960, Kinsey Institute.

“Ralph got pissed on”
: Steward, Journal, Jan. 4, 1960, Kinsey Institute.

“bleary eyed and goofy”
: Bob McHenry, interview with author.

“Nothing that anyone could”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 289–90. Steward suggests elsewhere in this passage that the conversation took place in 1962, but the immersion in pornographic writing began in 1960.

“He was always asking”
: Steward, Journal, Nov. 30, 1960. (The reference to December 5 is misleading, but it refers to payments made in advance for the week.) Kinsey Institute.

When the king arrived
: Steward described the experience in a videotaped interview on his tattooing work.
Two Interviews on Videotape with Samuel M. Steward
(a gift of Douglas Martin), Samuel M. Steward Papers. This particular interview was conducted by Michael O. Stearns, Metamorphosis Productions, on August 23, 1983.

“I took a book”
: Steward, Journal, Dec. 8, 1960, Kinsey Institute.

Toklas had in fact
: Steward,
Dear Sammy
, p. 112.

Toklas’s Roman winter lasted
: Paraphrased from Steward’s account in
Dear Sammy
, p. 112.

Steward then met Jacques
: Paraphrased from Steward,
Bad Boys
, p. 195.

16: MASTERS AND SLAVES

“The best ‘legal’ opinion”
: Donald Bishop (Sam Steward), “What’s New in Sodom?”
Der Kreis
, no. 4 (1962), pp. 30–33.

“Man’s chase after happiness”
: John McAndrews (Sam Steward), “Man’s Chase after Happiness (From an Unpublished Novel)”,
Der Kreis
, no. 1 (1962), p. 36.

“Paul [Gebhard] tells me”
: Pomeroy to Steward, Jan. 31, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

“I must say that”
: Steward to Pomeroy, Feb. 8, 1963, Kinsey Institute.

“Detachment: A Way of Life”
: Steward, “Detachment: A Way of Life,”
Der Kreis
, vol. 26 (August 1958), pp. 34–35.

“The carefree life”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” pp. 321–22.

“The Bull Market in America”
: Steward, “The Bull Market in America,”
Der Kreis
, vol. 29 (June 1961), pp. 19–24.

“in either the be-kind-to-others”
: C. A. Tripp,
The Homosexual Matrix
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1975), p. 111.

“In the first place”
: Donald Bishop (Sam Steward), “Pussies in Boots,”
Amigo
no. 24 (1964), pp. 183–90.

“came in wearing black”
: Steward also notes that Kane and Barnes are described in two Phil Andros stories published in
Drummer
: “Baby Sitter” and “Many Happy Returns.” Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 331.

“the nelly Mad Priest”
: Steward to Gebhard, Oct. 10, 1966, Kinsey Institute.

17: PHIL ANDROS,
$TUD

“The Sergeant with the Rose Tattoo”
: Steward, Journal, May 18, 1960, Kinsey Institute.

“[It] got lots of”
: Steward to Gebhard, July 23, 1964, Kinsey Institute.

“Phil Andros [the writer]”
: Steward, “Early Chapters,” p. 292.

“intelligent widely-read and”
: Ibid., p. 313.