Double Life
Portrait of a Gay Marriage From Broadway to Hollywood
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4.5 • 26 Ratings
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
“A fascinating, frank and page-turning memoir about the lifelong love affair of two extraordinary men” (Candace Bushnell, author of Sex and the City).
The human story at the center of this debate is told in Double Life, a dual memoir by a gay male couple in a fifty-plus year relationship. With high profiles in the entertainment, advertising, and art communities, the authors offer a virtual timeline of how gay relationships have gained acceptance in the last half-century. At the same time, they share inside stories from film, television, and media featuring the likes of Marlon Brando, Katharine Hepburn, Rock Hudson, Barbra Streisand, Laurence Olivier, Truman Capote, Bette Davis, Robert Redford, Lee Radziwill, and Frances Lear.
Double Life is a trip through the entertainment world and a gay partnership in the latter half of the twentieth century. As more and more same sex couples find it possible to say “I do,” the book serves as an important document of how far we’ve come.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This entertaining, invigorating story of Shayne and Sunshine's enduring relationship seems like something from off the silver screen. Their relationship began in 1958 when homosexuality was considered a disease; at the time of their first meeting, the divorced Shayne was trying to cure himself of his homosexuality via deep analysis. Shayne, an aspiring actor at the beginning of the book, became a casting director, and, eventually, the president of Warner Brothers Television. Sunshine started out as a freelance illustrator in New York and developed into an accomplished painter, media consultant, and Emmy Award winner. Despite their career successes, the couple lived a less-than open life. In 1968, when Sunshine admitted to a New York Times reporter that he lived with Shayne, they were met with deafening silence from colleagues and friends. The authors include entertaining stories about stars, from a young Marlon Brando, to a generous Rock Hudson, to a bitter Lena Horne. As much a love letter as a look at how society's views on homosexuality have changed over the last 50 years, this is a fascinating book.
