Come Out! Come Out! Whoever You Are!

1975 on Polk Street in San Francisco, perhaps at Buzzby’s, Cal Culver (aka Casey Donovan) Peter Berlin or Jack Wrangler might have made an appearance. All were well known as being especially gifted porno stars which meant a bit more in the days before the vhs/dvd crazes. Those who met Cal or Jack generally described them as very nice, unassuming guys. Cal married, in a way, out gay actor/author Tom Tryon. Jack shortly thereafter “married” singer Margaret Whiting 22 years his senior. Research has turned this up:

After attending Northwestern University, John Stillman had some early work on the stage and as a model and dancer, before appearing in a male strip show in the mid-70s under the name "Jack Wrangler … His autobiography, "The Jack Wrangler Story" ... was released in 1984.

In 1976 Jack met 1940s singing sensation Margaret Whiting when she attended one of his one-man erotic shows in New York, and a relationship developed which became marriage in 1979. Jack was 33; Margaret was 55. When Jack confided to Margaret that he was gay, Margaret's response was 'only around the edges, dear.'Jack soon retired from porn and devoted his time to his first love, musical theater. A fan of Johnny Mercer, Jack was one of the co-producers of the cabaret' Dream' which featured songs by the composer and included Margaret in the cast. Other performances he has written and produced include 'Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: the Jazz Concert', ' The Valentine Touch', 'The First Lady and Other Stories of Our Times', and 'Irina Abroad!' In 1998, Jack and his wife filed a mutli-million dollar suit against the city of New York when Margaret broke her hip after tripping over loose pavement. The media quickly pounced on the fact that their suit cited loss of sexual relations as one of the damages incurred from the accident. Both still remain visible in the New York theatrical scene and are highly active in supporting and promoting AIDS charities. But Jack Wrangler's main claim to fame remains his years as a gay porn star, not only because he set the stage for other masculine, rugged, and athletic performers that followed, but also because many gay men in the 70s and 80s cited Jack as an integral part of their coming out process, as his against-the-stereotypes onscreen persona helped to show them that a man can be gay and still be a man.

Jack has come to mind because of this blind item in the NY Daily News today in Rush & Malloy, their version of Page Six:

Some Famous older gay men have reason to quake, now that one of Hollywood’s top hustler-wranglers is peddling his story to the tabs. But will he get his tale past the lawyers? …

While blind items if not definitely despicable are annoying, this one brings about a very relevant issue even if it isn’t about Jack. Is it ethical to inform the public about the sexual proclivities and orientation of figures in the public eye especially if one is being remunerated for the information? It may only be ethical or just to out those who fit into the Roy Cohn paradigm. It is good for the general gay population to know who is of like kind, especially if it eases social acceptance. We welcome public gay figures, especially if it chips away at ill conceived notions of what gay men and lesbians are.

Whoever it is, the guest appearance on The View should be most interesting.