November 6 | Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

May 7, 1840 - November 6, 1893: Age 53

Tchaikovsky was arguably the greatest Russian composer of all time, and one of the greatest composers in history. Whether or not you realize it, you are probably quite familiar with many of his melodies: famous themes from ballets like Swan Lake, the Nutcracker, and Sleeping Beauty, for example, or the incredible finale of his 1812 Overture (the one that features live cannons). Going deeper into his oeuvre — symphonies, concerti, operas, and other pieces — many of his themes are instantly recognizable.

He was a hero of Russia. When news of his death reached the Tsar, he immediately offered to pay for the funeral. 60,000 people applied for tickets to Tchaikovsky's funeral (capacity was only 8,000) and many more lined the streets of St. Petersburg to pay respects to the procession.

But Tchaikovsky was a gay man living in a society that hated homosexuals. Tchaikovsky himself struggled with his orientation, attempting a marriage and then trying to kill himself by jumping into the cold Moscow River two weeks after the wedding. The marriage ended in six weeks.

The official cause of Tchaikovsky's death was cholera. There were outbreaks all over Russia at the time, and people were warned to boil their water before drinking it or even washing with it. According to reports, he asked for a glass of water in a restaurant and, informed they had no boiled water available, requested it unboiled. Two weeks later he was dead.

Even at the time there were doubts: a number of people noticed that his illness, treatment, and the handling of his body did not quite match the putative cause. In the 1970s a very different account was published, a story that had been kept secret for 80 years. According to this account, he was threatened by a secret "court of honour" with terrible reprisals, and was advised to kill himself as punishment for his homosexuality. Apparently he had fallen in love with his nephew, and the network of school alumni felt that any exposure would result in disgrace for the whole school. Here is biographer David Brown's version:

"The incident took place in the autumn of 1893. Tchaikovsky was threatened with terrible misfortune. Duke Stenbok-Fermor, disturbed by the attention which the composer was paying to his young nephew, wrote a letter of accusation to the Tsar and handed the letter to Jacobi. Through exposure Tchaikovsky was threatened with the loss of all his rights, with exile to Siberia, with inevitable disgrace. Exposure would also bring disgrace upon the School of Jurisprudence and upon all the old boys of the school, Tchaikovsky's fellow students. To avoid publicity Jacobi decided upon the following. He invited all Tchaikovsky's former schoolmates [he could trace in St. Petersburg], and set up a court of honour which included himself. Altogether there were eight people present. Elizveta Karlovna sat with her needlework in her usual place alongside her husband's study. From time to time from within she could hear voices, sometimes loud and agitated, sometimes dropping apparently to a whisper. This went on for a very long time, almost five hours. Then Tchaikovsky came headlong out of the study. He was almost running, he was unsteady, and he went out without saying a word. He was very white and agitated. All the others stayed a long time in the study talking quietly. When they had gone Jacobi told his wife, having made her swear absolute silence, what they had decided about the Stenbok-Fermor letter to the Tsar. Jacobi could not withhold it. And so the old boys [of the school] had come to a decision by which Tchaikovsky had promised to kill himself. A day or two later news of the composer's mortal illness was circulating in St. Petersburg."

As it happens his symptoms match arsenic poisoning much more closely than cholera. The day after the "glass of water" his brother found him in bed suffering from diarrhea and stomach pains. Tchaikovsky refused to call a doctor, and tried to carry on with his day, taking cod liver oil in an attempt to ease his stomach. Within days he was much worse, and a doctor diagnosed him with cholera. The mortality rate for cholera at that time was more than 40%, but he seemed to get better, then he would get worse again with more pains and cramps. Eventually his kidneys failed, a priest was called, and he died at 3am on November 6, 1893.

The movie, V for Vendetta, used the finale to the 1812 Overture to great effect. The Adagio from the Sixth Symphony is one of the most beautiful pieces of romantic music ever written: enjoy a rehearsal of it here.

Sources: Wikipedia article on Tchaikovsky, Wikipedia article on his death, Brown, David, Tchaikovsky: The Man and His Music (New York: Pegasus Books, 2007)

October 2 | Rock Hudson

November 17, 1925 - October 2, 1985: Age 59

Born Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., Rock Hudson was never a great actor. He failed drama school, and in his first movie part he had one line of dialogue, which required 38 takes for him to get right. He eventually became a passable actor, but never better than average. He had, however, two things indispensable to becoming an American screen star: good looks and screen presence. Somehow, when his image is on screen, you want to look at him, and you want to like him.

With his looks and likable personality he easily fit into the ideal of American manhood. But he was gay. This, amazingly, was kept from the public for almost 40 years, although it was fairly well known in certain Hollywood circles. There were a few scandals, but overall Hudson was reasonably discreet, and he was just so darned nice that nobody wanted to ruin his career by going public. After all, he wasn't hurting anybody. Even Kenneth Anger agreed to keep Hudson's name and story out of Hollywood Babylon for a paltry $10,000 bribe from Universal Studios.

In 1981 he had emergency quintuple bypass surgery. From that time on, he never looked "well" again. By 1984, it was clear something was wrong: during a stint on Dynasty he forgot his lines, mumbled, and lacked even the modest acting ability he had in his prime. In 1985 he appeared on "Doris Day's Best Friends", a cable show, and his gaunt appearance and incoherence shocked the nation. Under pressure to release some kind of information, it was announced first that he had liver cancer. Later his publicity people admitted that he had AIDS, but claimed he had contracted it during a blood transfusion. Finally, on July 25, 1985, he issued a formal statement that he was gay, and he had AIDS.

(This reminds me of a joke that my mom, who worked as a palliative care nurse at an AIDS hospice, told me. It goes like this: "Mom, Dad? I have good news and bad news." "What's the good news, son?" "I have AIDS.")

Today it may be difficult to grasp how shocking that announcement was. The public hadn't suspected a thing. At the time, AIDS was known as "the gay plague", and was something that happened only to some kind of sinful underclass: plenty of "respectable" people still brushed it off as divine retribution against homosexuals. Hudson's public statement changed everything. Suddenly it became OK for Hollywood types to talk about AIDS and campaign for a cure. Although it didn't exactly become OK to be a gay actor in Hollywood, it's fair to say Hudson's coming out at least brought us a step closer to that. Most of all, a lot of people who had previously dismissed AIDS as irrelevant to them started paying attention.

A month after his announcement he publicly donated $250,000 to the National AIDS Research Foundation. His popularity and charisma didn't fail him: people were genuinely sympathetic and most of his fans continued to love and admire him to the end. Shortly before his death Hudson stated, "I am not happy I am sick. I am not happy I have AIDS. But if that is helping others, I can at least know my own misfortune has had some positive worth."

Sources: The Secret Life (and Death) of Rock Hudson, Wikipedia

Bonus page: Stag Night at the Steam Baths - a for-real 1950 magazine piece about a spa for men, featuring a half-naked Hudson cavorting with Tony Curtis and others. Hilarious!

September 21? | King Edward II

April 25, 1284 - September 21?, 1327: Age 43

The son and heir of the brilliant and ruthless Edward I, Edward II was “strong and handsome in body, weak and foolish in character” (Ronald Hamilton). He ruled in difficult times, but did it badly and, perhaps more important, tactlessly. Being openly gay is not in itself a game-ender when you are powerful, but heaping honours and titles on your palace squire boyfriend is pushing it. Edward and his homies didn’t bother hiding their contempt for various nobles, making fun of them with stupid names. Edward was equally foolish in his domestic and foreign policy, and his report card includes an ignoble defeat at the hands of the much smaller army of the Scots rebel Robert Bruce.

By 1324 there was an effective conspiracy that included the Queen and her boyfriend, who had possession of the Crown Prince. With plenty of baronial support, they seized power and deposited the King, imprisoning him in a filthy dungeon in the hope that he would die “naturally” of some disease. When he didn’t, they had him murdered. The date of death was uncertain, but it was announced officially on September 21.

It is not certain how he died, but a writer who knew someone who lived at the castle at the time claimed some years later he was “ignominiously slain with a red-hot spit thrust into his anus”. This horrible account, whether true or not, at least expresses the deep hatred and resentment Edward’s homosexuality aroused. It would also have ensured a clean corpse for display at the funeral.

Sources: Hamilton, Ronald, Now I Remember, The Hogarth Press, London, 1983; and Forbes, Malcolm, They Went That-A-Way, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1988.