Did Arthur Laurents really get as much ass as he claimed?

In his autobiography, Arthur Laurents makes it sound like every guy in Hollywood was after him, from Farley Granger to Orry-Kelly. He even claims Cary Grant (!!!) threw pebbles one night at his window pane. I don't get it. He was kind of goodlooking in a very ethnic way (this is the handsomest photo of him I could find), but he makes it sound like men fainted from his beauty when he walked by, and that's just not believable.

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• Laurents had an ego that could span the Grand Canyon--but confidence to match, and men do find that hot. There's picture of him and his longtime partner in bathing suits in the book. Partner Tom Hatcher is gorgeous, and Laurents, while not, is kinda hot looking.

  http://mybiggayears.com/archives/major-new-theater-award/

• He had a lot of drive and vitality, which tend to be admired. Looks tough and masculine.

• We doubt that the queen ever used rubbers and she lived to about 100. Perhaps the only difference between her and modern sisters is that she was drug-free.

• r3: why are you hiding your light behind a bushel, Mrs. Patrick Campbell? Come out and admit who you really are.

• LOL, R3. You must like her style.

• He was a sexy cocky young Jew in Hollywood which many found irresistible, especially because he had brains and wit and didn't bullshit, all of which was rare in Hollywood (and still is). On Broadway that type was (and is) a dime a dozen.

  Harold Lang

• One thing is sure, Arthur did not get as much ass as he could have.

  The%20Gays

• Arthur lived to be a hundred because he was a Top.

• But was he short? In height, I mean. Jewish men often aren't very tall, which I find unattractive.

• He looks abit like Nick Adams in that first photo.

• Even though he was 5'1" tall? BTW, there's a sequel to his autobio he got in shortly before he died.

• He does what they all do, if they outlive everyone else. He writes he slept with the best looking & most famous -all dead , conveniently. Mr. Blackwell did the same. That unattractive schulb, who was unattractive even in his 20's (though he called himself handsome,in his book,"From Rags,To Bitches"), claimed he had 3-ways, with Cary Grant, and Randolph Scott, and an affair with Tyrone Power,and many others. No way. I'm sure Laurents was the same -after all he died last year, at 93. NO ONE mentioned as former lovers was still alive, when he wrote about them in his book, "Original Story By".

  Farley

• First the back story. "A few years ago, Barbra called me. It was a Sunday and I have an enormous breakfast on Sunday. I wait the whole week for that breakfast. She would call from time to time when she wanted advice. So she called to ask me if she should do the movie of 'Sunset Boulevard.' I said, 'Listen, Barbra, I'm having breakfast. Can I call you back?' She said, 'Do you have my number?' I said, 'I've always had your number.' "So I called her back and said, 'Barbra, I've change.' And she said, 'Since Tom died?' I said, 'Yes. I don't have patience with people who don't say what they mean. You didn't call about 'Sunset Boulevard.' She said, 'No, I didn't. I called about Gypsy. Do you think I can do it?' I said, 'No.' She said, 'Too old?' I said, 'It has nothing to do with age. You play for sympathy. "So we started a conversation and she started to talk about her mother. The conversation went on for three hours. At one point she said, 'I have to pee. I'll call you back.' And she called me back and told me more about her mother -- who was worse than Rose. I said, 'If you can do that...' That's when I believed she could do it."

• He wasn't gorgeous, but he was hot enough that I could see him getting hot guys. And I'm sure a lot of those celebrities had to be cautious about who they were out to, and therefore kept it within the circle.

• R3, has anyone reported your cognitive problems to a healthcare provider?

• It's useful to keep in ind that the subtitle of Gypsy, for which he wrote the book, is "a musical fable."

• He was a pocket gay, and the meanest sonofabitch this side of Jerry Robbins...

• r 13 -What is that from ? It's so interesting. So glad you posted. Go Babs, and prove everybody wrong !

  Roslyn%20K.

• He was hot. In an instant.

• The only thing Miss Laurie did with an ass is eat one. BOTTOM!

  Truman

• He was only OK looking and then he'd open his mouth and turn into something quite ugly. He's clearly lying about his "conquests."

• One of his lovers was an actor named Douglas Dick, who later became a psychiatrist.

  http://www.acertaincinema.com/workspace/media/dick-young-accused_opt.jpg

  Peggy%20Chantler%20Dick

• I heard he was huge and a great top, but if he was short even a normal sized dick would have looked bigger.

• He got lots of pussy, too.

  read%20his%20book

• I am sure he lied about the women, he was a narcissist.

• His boyfriend looked good enough to eat.

• R24, he did sleep with a few women, but he was a total dud in the sack -- a get it up, get it in, get it out and say "didya cum?" type. Not too familiar with female anatomy. He writes straight male characters like that too.

• Go to Rolands Auctions- turns out Laurents was a huge pack rat/ hoarder of chotzkees ( I'm a gentile).

  Douglas%20Dick

• The dating pool was a lot smaller then.

  Historian

• The memoir made him sound absolutely intolerable: arrogant, obnoxious, hateful, and holding resentments for decades.

• Um, no. Just... No.

• As long as this 70 year old can still do "Gypsy", I don't care

  Affectionately%2C%20Barbra

• Since 'mos will do anything that appears even remotely straight, has 8" or more or has $100,000 or more in the bank, yeah he probably did it. You 'mos ain't fussy

• If you believe his book, he was the second coming of Helen of Troy. No man, woman or household appliance could resist him. I find him resistible.

  Anyone%20who%20ever%20really%20met%20him

• I read the book twice. First time, I was as puzzled as the OP. But in the second reading, his lack of empathy and, really, cruel insensitivity (specially to those who were genuinely tragic, like William Inge) shone more clearly. Also, hearing some of the very talented directors and actors whom he trashes, interviewed in connection with some project in news stories led me to question the judgments he rendered in Original Story. Not as to truth, but as to plausible opinions. His horrible trashing of Sydney Pollack, in particular, began to leave a very bitter taste in my mouth. I suspect he was, like most of his victims, a miserable person to be around, but who happened to have a genuinely extraordinary talent. Don't you hate when that happens? It still bothers me immensely that Woody Allen cheated on his longtime gf by seducing her adopted daughter AS A TEENAGER, then leaving his compromising photos of her nude lying around his apt, to be found by his gf (the "aggrieved party," as we said in Law School), a moment worthy of his best Freud-inspired screenplays. OK; I don't have to have lunch with him; but his films are still magnificent, I can hear some of you saying. Well, I don't know if I even wanna hear any philosophical thoughts of his, knowing what he did. There really is no answer to this ancient dilemma in the Arts. The only thing I could add to that is "Don't speak!"

  S. R.

• What made Laurents sexy to a lot of people in the 40s and 50s was his being out as a gay man. There was a ballsiness there that many closeted figures appreciated.

• Compared to Lenny Bernstein, though, Laurents was a Trappist monk. Of course, Lenny was genuinely handsome, sophisticated, incredibly smart, great hair, and that voice... (I still remember it from Peter and the Wolf, when I was about 7 years old). Lenny was the guy that famously quipped, "But what is the majesty of Beethoven, compared to Harold Lang's ass?" Didn't he? Another Uber-top. When it came to asses, Lenny was a bona fide authority. I still hear it today from some older friends.

• Laurents seems like a huge asshole. But his claims might be altogether true. He was a sexy guy and very talented. And I bet he could be very charming to whomever he wanted.

• [quote]Laurents had an ego that could span the Grand Canyon aka, my anus.

• >>"So we started a conversation and she started to talk about her mother. The conversation went on for three hours. At one point she said, 'I have to pee. I'll call you back.' Streisand doesn't have a cordless phone???

• Laurents' conquests probably had more to do with the times. Cary Grant couldn't just go out on the street to pick-up some guy. He needed someone in the club to keep his secret. Arthur probably started looking better from that angle.

• In the new book, Laurents writes that he regrets all of the bragging he did about his sex life in Original Story. That leads me to believe that half of it was embellished or made up.

  http://www.amazon.com/Rest-Story-Life-Completed/dp/1557838283/ref%3Dsr_1_1%3Fs%3Dbooks%26ie%3DUTF8%26qid%3D1359126756%26sr%3D1-1%26keywords%3Darthur+laurents+the+rest+of+the+story

• Most men - straight, gay or bi - exaggerate their sexual exploits. Arthur Laurents was a typical male with extraordinary talent.

  Pantsy

• He is extremely good looking in OP's photo. Hot. I totally believe that he got lots of ass.

• "in an ethnic way"? Are you from Maine or something?

• I think much of his appeal was because of how open and brazen he was. He was always comfortable and forward with his sexuality it seems. After Gypsy he didn't really do anything else amazing. La Cage was probably the last huge success, not counting the revivals he directed.

• R44, remember Laurents was barely 5'2" tall. I saw him on the street once in NYC and can verify it.

• Did Arthur ever weigh in on Kate Hepburn's sexuality in any of his autobiographies? Though maybe he didn't know her well...she starred in Summertime, the film version of his play Time of the Cuckoo. I'm not sure if Arthur wrote the screenplay for that one.