Auntie Mame author Patrick Dennis was also Ray Kroc's butler??

I don't know who that man is, but good god. Gayface for daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays.

Ghastly! Just ghastly!

Little me?

R1 - the author of Auntie Mame, which also became a successful film and then the Broadway musical with DL fav, Angie Lansbury. Gay as the day is long. I just find it so bizarre that he ended up being the butler for the founder of McDonald's.

Edward Everett Tanner (nom de plume Patrick Dennis) skewered mid century NYC in a series of comic novels starting with Auntie Mame. He was initially ostensibly straight, married with kids, but as the money rolled in, he eventually came out as gay. He lost all the money in a series of spectacularly bad decisions and ended up as the Kroc's butler before dying of pancreatic cancer. His biography 'Uncle Mame' is a good read.

After writing a long string of record-setting bestsellers, Patrick Dennis found himself no longer in fashion and struggling with a separation from his wife and family due to his repressed sexuality. He was quite a famous celebrity, and decided a bit of obscurity wouldn't be amiss. He sought domestic service jobs among the very rich (why give up on the lifestyle to which he had become accustomed?) working at last under his real name, Edward Tanner. (Patrick Dennis was a nom de plume. He also wrote several novels under the name Virginia Rowans.) He was immediately successful and popular as a butler -correct, witty, and able to provide social guidance when needed. Sadly, he became ill with pancreatic cancer. He returned to his wife, who nursed him through the end. There's an excellent biography of his life, Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis, , by Eric Myers.

Dennis had a genius for writing gay camp, and passing off onto unsuspecting Scarsdale matrons. There are many gay characters in his books -Though often they are con men who take advantage of wealthy men. Try reading Genius, or Tony, or Paradise. The first is still in print and available in eBook formats. One of his best. For a political satire that will seem like it's ripped from today's headlines try to find a copy of First Lady: My Thirty Days Upstairs at the White House.

For some reason I always thought it was a true story and Patrick Dennis was a real person.

Edward Tanner's real-life aunt, Marian Tanner, claimed to be the inspiration for the character -Something her nephew flatly denied. She never raised him, but she did blow through a fortune and a couple of husbands, and was known to be quite outspoken. Tanner, as Patrick Dennis, encouraged people to think it a true story as he was a total celebrity hound. When Auntie Mame was adapted for the Broadway stage, starring Rosalind Russell, he began to suggest that she herself was his inspiration, if not is real aunt.

Gary told him to to take that stupid job as a butler.

I love Patrick Dennis's books and am always on the lookout for more e-book releases.

"Auntie Mame" and "Little Me" are the most popular, of course, but I still guffaw pretty loudly at parts of his lesser-known titles like "How Firm a Foundation?" and "The Joyous Season." I don't think he ever wrote a bad book.

a little more information and context about his aunt and the origins of Auntie Mame

[quote]For a political satire that will seem like it's ripped from today's headlines try to find a copy of First Lady: My Thirty Days Upstairs at the White House.

I actually bought that book in hardcover when I was pretty young -- like high school or even before. I guess I should've known I was gay at that point ...

I used to pour over his books in grade school, junior high in the mid 60s at the Tucson Public Library... changed my life

is the play, AUNTIE MAME ever done anymore? community theatre...anywhere?

[quote]I used to pour over his books

annnnd 3...2...1...

The first lady in "First Lady" was Martha Dinwiddie Butterfield, as portrayed by DL fave Peggy Cass.

Who doesn't enjoy Dennis's style? At nine, was fascinated by the film Auntie Mame--wished she was MY relative. I recently read Tony--very funny and yet disturbing satire. Dennis deserves some honor for having entertained so many over the years. Cheers, Edward!

He enjoyed a good Quarter Pounder.

I always kind of wished Agnes Gooch was my auntie. Or at least Vera.

It'd be fun having someone transcribe everything you said and being fascinated by it as she drank a Dr. Pepper!

One thing to love about DataLounge... a man like Tanner gets mentioned and his "due" from a few souls who know his work(s) and appreciate him.

I read Auntie Mame years ago, adore the movie with Roz Russell, have never subjected myself to the film with Lucy... I never take Gary's advice either!

I tried finding more of Dennis' works years ago and it was difficult (maybe a trip to The Strand in NYC now that restrictions have been lifted is warranted)?

Perhaps I'll find some works by Olive Higgins Prouty as well - I've always wanted to read about the Vale family (you know, the Vales's of Boston and not just a lesser Vale like Charlotte)

Apparently there are some ebooks by Prouty but not at my seller. I'm curious, too, about her other books. If you like that sort of thing (I do) you might check out Ethel Lina White--she wrote the novel Hitchcock based The Lady Vanishes. Spellbound was based on a book, The House of Dr. Edwardes, by Francis Beeding, very odd, colorful and unlike the film.

Only Auntie Mame, Around the World with Auntie Mame, Little Me, and Genius are currently still in print (and available as eBooks). Other Dennis books that are well worth searching out (alibris.com is a great source):

First Lady (Trumps, anyone?)

Tony

How Firm a Foundation (a sendup of the Kennedy family)

The Joyous Season

Paradise

[quote] "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"

Poor Patrick...it was the closet that starved him to death.

r23 Let's not forget "Guestward Ho!"

Thanks R22. I could start with the movie The Lady Vanishes or The Spiral Staircase... adaptations of White's novels.

So Joan Kroc's gin went unbruised.

Why isn't there an uproar about Lin-Manuel Miranda's failure to give Magdalena Montezuma a cameo in "In the Heights?" I, for one, am OUTRAGED!

R13- I’m sorry I’m going to have to be bitchy but this is data lounge after all- Junior high school is grade school too. Grade school is 1st grade thru 12th grade.

Did anyone ever meet Joan? I thought it was pretty amazing how she turned around after Ray’s death and started spending all of that money on liberal causes like she had just been biding her time.

Who has time for Magdalena Montezuma when you can cast Letch Feeley??

I've got to read How Firm A Foundation.

I found a .txt file of How Firm A Foundation online a few years back, and made it into an .epub book. I'll bet it's still out there...

As a very young gayling, i loved Auntie Mame the movie and started collecting his books, buying them at used book stores for a dollar or two, so i believe i had every book that Patrick Dennis published by my Sr. Year, 1981. I have them somewhere. After Auntie Mame, my favorite was How Firm a Foundation, but have never made it through First Lady, there’s a bunch of funny satirical photos, but the story, meh.

Letch Feeley made me gay.

Got it--thanks.

Four bucks on Ebay. Free shipping.