Once and for all, Don Bachardy isn't just Christopher Isherwood's much younger partner. Look at his nuanced, revealing sketches of their famous friends. Among his oil paintings, Bachardy's official gubernatorial portrait of Jerry Brown hangs in the California State Capitol. In the documentary Chris & Don. A Love Story he thoughtfully discusses his life as an artist and the power imbalances of a 30+ year relationship that began when he was southern California teenager and his new English bf in his late forties was already an international literary star. Still living in Santa Monica, today Bachardy turns 78. (This August Isherwood would have been 108.)
Isherwood on screenwriters (he was one, of course) from his book THE SIXTIES: Screenwriters are people being tortured to confess who have nothing to confess." And he was so right.
I was taken to their house for dinner once, when CI was very much alive. I was seated at Don's end; at Chris's end, he was chattering away about the real Sally Bowles and Berlin in the early 30's. Don, in that unique voice, turned to me and said "What are your feelings about cats?" I remember we had shark, served by a maid. I would have liked to sit to Bachardy, as Edith Wharton might put it.
Posted by: Richard Kramer | May 18, 2012 at 09:05 AM