It is the summer of 1971 & I am doing summer stock in Coeur D' Alene, Idaho. Lucky me, at 17 years old, I am doing my 1st professional theatre & I am having a smokin' hot affair with a fellow actor who was much older than I was. Ron was 24 years old & was an actual college graduate! I had a hard time wrapping my mind around someone being finished with college & still being my peer... & he lived in San Fransisco (I would visit several times in the next few years)! The movie of Cabaret was to open that fall, & loving the Broadway Cast Album, I was looking forward to the movie. Ron was well aware of my excitement for the film & he gave me a gift of the source material- The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood.
Through the decades, I would read many books by & about Isherwood, including his diaries & my favorites- A Single Man & Christopher & His Kind. Last summer, I purchased a new annotated re-issue of Berlin Stories. I have always been in awe of & fascinated by his long life together with artist Don Bachardy, whom he met on the beach in Santa Monica in 1953, when Don was just a teenager. They were together until Isherwood's death in 1986. The story is told in a first rate documentary- Chris & Don: A Love Story. Today marks the birthday of Christopher Isherwood.
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