David Litvinoff: Between Scenes

Sometime in the early 1960s, a man called David Litvinoff awoke to find himself bloody and bruised, his head shaved, tied tightly to a chair that was hanging from the railings of his balcony high above Kensington High Street in west London. He had been knocked out and then hung out to dry, high above the Aldermaston marchers passing obliviously below on the way to Jerusalem. It was a punishment carried out by experts in violence, and it had been ordered by someone he knew.

David Litvinoff was, by nature and temperament, a wanderer between worlds: between the Chelsea set and hardcore criminals, between Soho and the East End, between the Scene and Esmeralda’s Barn, between Lucian Freud, George Melly, Peter Rachman, the Krays, John Bindon, Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger. He was a shape-shifter whose story – painstakingly unearthed in a new book by Keiron Pim – offers a window into a secret side of the 60s.

A vivid memory to his friends, Litvinoff was one of those people whose performance was their life. His most lasting achievement was the profound influence he had on Performance – the hallucinatory film directed by Nic Roeg and Donald Cammell, and starring Mick Jagger, which captured the London of the late 1960s, merging pop stardom, violent criminality, illegal drugs, gender-blurring, the occult and Jorge Luis Borges...

The great Jon Savage, The Long Read in The Guardian.

Ronnie Kray: A Special Relationship

The newspaper report did not name the pair but they were later identified by a German magazine and the shockwaves spread even wider.

So the Government closed ranks and forced the newspaper to withdraw the story, which it knew to be true.

But now, more than half a century on, the scoop has been vindicated – thanks to the release of declassified MI5 files.

They confirm that Boothby and mobster twin Kray were “hunters” of young men who trawled “homosexual parties” together at a time when homosexuality was still illegal.

The Sunday Mirror story had revealed: “The peer is a household name and Yard detectives are inquiring into allegations that he has ‘a relationship’ with a man who has criminal convictions and is alleged to be involved in a West End protection racket.” ...

Mirror.

We learn; 'The (gay MI5) source said: “Boothby is a kinky fellow and likes to meet odd people, and Ronnie obviously wants to meet people of good social standing, he having the odd background he’s got; and, of course, both are queers.” He added: “Both are hunters (of young men).” 

The information was shared with Scotland Yard, and a note by Roger Hollis, the director-general of MI5, revealed: “The Home Secretary and some of his colleagues felt that this might develop along the lines of the Profumo affair.”

Apart fom the silly note by Hollis, I'm not sure this tells us anything much that's new.

Hollis actually wrote; 'The Home Secretary asked me to see him last night. He said that rumours were building up about the homosexual peer and his connection with a protection racket.

'The Home Secretary and some of his colleagues felt that this might develop along the lines of the Profumo affair.

'The name mentioned in gossip… was Lord Boothby and he was said to have associated with two East End thugs of the name Kray.'

The Mirror could not 'expose a gay affair between a peer and an East End gangster', for there was none.

The Telegraph clarifies...

A report titled Special Branch says: "Boothby and Kray attended several homosexual parties [NB The Telegraph headline somehow turns this into 'sordid sex parties'!] together, at one of which they were photographed together (in a normal social pose). 

"According to Holt there is no improper association between the two, nor is it likely that there would be, as both are 'hunters' of young men." 

Lord Boothby, a popular TV presenter and former MP for East Aberdeenshire, had succesully sued for £40,000 damages after his links with Kray were first outed after a Sunday Mirror front page on July 12 1964 headlined: "PEER AND A GANGSTER. YARD INQUIRY." 

So the source the Mirror was quoting was quoting the source Leslie Holt (pictured right in said photo), Boothby's lover and chauffeur, who sang after they split.

And further via Mail Online (again via the actual redacted MI5 files)...

The report also suggested that the Sunday Mirror was tipped off about the ‘affair’ between Lord Boothby and Ronnie by rivals of the Krays, but they had got the details wrong.

The MI5 report said: ‘Certainly the suggestion that Boothby has been having an affair with the gangster Kray is hardly true.

‘Ronnie, 34 and ugly, he (the source) repeats, is a hunter. Nash or whoever told the story to the ‘Mirror’ seemed to have got the two people with a record mixed up, Leslie and Ronnie.’

Tom Watson: Cunt

Peter Brookes, The Times.

I don't think Fagburn will ever tire of saying what a colossal cunt this fucking cunt is.

Dear Tom Watson MP

Winston Churchill cut off my penis and ate it on toast with Alphabetti Spaghetti while Harold Macmillan and the Andrew Sisters watched, laughing, and then we were abducted by aliens.

No-one takes me seriously, not even David Icke, but I know you will.

yours

A Loon

Broadmoor.

Ronnie Kray: Buggers Can't Be Losers

Guardian Film.

Dear idiot,

Ron was not bisexual.

He married Kate while he was in Broadmoor (Trigger warning!) cause The Sun said they'd pay him £20,000 for the photos.

PS Fagburn has been told by the UK Prison Service that 'conjugal visits' don't exist here, so Ron almost certainly stuck with his young bum chums. Lucky bugger...

Tom Hardy: Unopening

Tom Hardy plays a bisexual gangster in Legend, where he co-stars with himself as the infamous East End London gangsters Ronnie Kray and Reggie Kray in Brian Helgeland's violent period drama.

But when a reporter during the Legend presser at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday asked Hardy about past media reports that hinted at an "ambiguous" sexuality, the Mad Max: Fury Road and Inception star responded with a quick slap down. "What on earth are you on about?" Hardy questioned the reporter from Daily Xtra, a Toronto LGBT publication.

The journalist cited a 2008 Attitude magazine interview where the Brit actor apparently admitted to gay flings as a younger man. "But what is your question?" Hardy demanded, his voice now loud and resolute.

"I'm wondering if you find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality," the reporter returned. Hardy then asked menacingly: "I don't find it difficult for celebrities to talk about their sexuality. Are you asking about my sexuality?"

"Hum... sure," the reporter replied, showing the strain of their encounter. It was easy to see now why Hardy, who plays twin brothers as villainous murderers in Legend, is a go-to to embody intimidating film characters. "Why?" Hardy questioned, before dismissing the reporter with a final "thank you," while director Helgeland and co-star Emily Browning looked on uncomfortably...

The Hollywood Reporter.

Watch it here. 

What he said (or was quoted as saying); ''As a boy? Of course I have. I'm an actor for ****'s sake.

'I've played with everything and everyone. I love the form and the physicality, but now that I'm in my thirties, it doesn't do it for me... A lot of gay men get my thing for shoes.'!

PS From The Grauniad...

Tweet Of The Day: Legend

Incredible way of making my two star review seem like I didn't hate the film pic.twitter.com/zvOyIxHQ3h

— Benjamin Lee (@benfraserlee) September 8, 2015

That two star Guardian review in full.

Fagburn loves it that Tom Hardy confuses acting with pulling a (prosthetically-enhanced) face that look a bit like someone. Bless.

The Krays: That's Showbusiness!

In 1965, David Bailey, already Britain’s most fashionable photographer, took a portrait of the gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray, who looked fiercely well-groomed in suits and narrow ties... The portrait became gangland’s Mona Lisa: copied, pirated and imitated, it was central to their image and their brand... “Their big mistake was posing for me,” Bailey told the BBC last year. “If you’re a real gangster nobody knows who you are.” The Krays, of course, wanted everyone to know who they were... If Bailey’s photo was the first stage in the construction of the Krays’ enduring image, stage two came in 1967, when the Krays approached John Pearson, and asked him to be their biographer, focusing on their clubs, their celebrity chums and their charitable works. (Truman Capote, who had just published In Cold Blood, had been their first choice, but he declined the commission.)... They felt like they were in the big time, even though the bank robbers of the era looked down on them as mere bullies, called them “thieves’ ponces”, and “Gert and Daisy” behind their backs, claiming that they didn’t steal their own money and attracted too many dodgy hangers-on... George Cornell, a gangster from south London, had called Ron a “fat poof” – Ron used to say “I’m homosexual but I’m not a poof”... on 9 March 1966, when he heard that Cornell was in the Blind Beggar pub, which was on the Krays’ patch, he went round and shot him dead in front of shocked witnesses... In May 1968, Ronnie and Reggie Kray were arrested... Ronnie gave a spectacular but crazed performance in the witness box, name-dropping the boxing champions they knew and portraying himself as an innocent East End philanthropist. They were jailed for life... (At his trial, Ron cheerfully told the judge, “If I wasn’t here, I could be having tea with Judy Garland.”)... I was introduced to Ron by a former inmate who had been a friend in his earlier prison days... [he] talked about where he would go if ever released – “Morocco, for the boys”. He added, “Don’t print I’m mad.” ...

From a brilliant essay by Duncan Campbell, The Selling Of The Krays, on Ronnie and Reggie as rubbish gangsters, but great brand managers - part of Guardian online's The Long Read series.

I bet everyone told Ron he was really good at painting.

Krays: Brotherly Love

Vicious gangster twins Ronnie and Reggie Kray had an incestuous sexual relationship with each other as they were growing up.

The pair, who ran a cruel and violent criminal empire in London's East End in the 1960s, were terrified of their secret coming out.

They were worried that rivals would see their sexuality – Ronnie was a homosexual and Reggie was bisexual - as a sign of weakness so only had sex with each other in order to keep the secret.

Author John Pearson who extensively interviewed the brothers and their associates has made the revelation as a new film comes out on the twins.

John said: “Homosexuality was nothing to be proud of in the East End.

“But as they became more notorious, Ronnie became quite shameless about it.

“According to Ron in the early days they had sex with each other because they were terrified about people finding out.” ...

Daily Mirror.

Nicked from The Sun this morning.

Oh, and John Pearson was first flogging this - completely unsubstantiated - story five years ago.

Journalism!

PS Pearson, a prolific author, has written three books about the Krays - he published this under a pseudonym.

Legend: Tom Hardy Is...

Well this looks shit...

PS Dear Tom, if you're going for realism, both the Kray twins had very camp voices.

The Krays: I Can't Believe I'm Hearing This!

In an EXCLUSIVE interview with today's Fagburn, 60's gangland legend, Nick 'The Hat' O'Leary, reveals all.

'They were both gay,' he said.

'And secretly they were both twins, and called Kray.'

'The Kray Twins - that's what we used to call 'em.'

'Not to their faces, mind.'

'Not a lot of people know this, but when Ron was in Broadmoor he used to do jigsaw puzzles of kittens.'

'When do I get paid, guv?'

Tom Hardy: It's Twins!

TOM HARDY has saved producers of his new film a fortune, by playing both RONNIE and REGGIE KRAY.

The costume department of flick Legend have gone all out on the clobber he wears as the East End twins.

The actor was snapped in character on location in Essex for the first time since taking on the roles...

The Sun.

Kray fans will know that's Tom as Ron, cause of the specs.

Here's a bit more about this exciting movie project.

[Edit: More blah and long lens pics in Wednesday's Mail Online].

Philip Ridley's The Krays is one of Fagburn's favourite films, incidentally. 

Hope this, too, shows our Ronnie to be the screaming gaylord of the London underworld that he was.

Maybe they'll take full advantage of Tom's dual roles and give us a bit of twincest?

PS Why Britain loves a gay gangster, Guardian Film. This is rubbish.

And let's not forget Tom's other forthcoming fillum role...

Why, the resemblance is uncanny...

PS And here's the first official picture...

Not sure what Chris Morris is doing behind him. 

The Krays: Phwoar!

From The Krays From The Cradle To The Grave.

Here's young master Reggie relaxing at his local  East End lido with friends (Ron not pictured).

This limited edition photographic scrapbook appears to have been published last October, but both the Mail and the Mirror have run puff pieces.

Fagburn: Boxing Day

Let's face it, boxing is even gayer than diving.
x

PS Fagburn literally can't be arsed to wade through what some loner journalists threw together yesterday while pissed on mulled wine and mince pies.*

* Them, not me.

Ronnie Kray: Huge Kylie Fan

INSIDE Broadmoor brought back memories of the times I visited Ronnie Kray in there.
He was a huge Kylie Minogue fan and begged me to bring her along.
I’m one of the few people alive who have heard I Should Be So Lucky sung by Ron Kray.
He had a terrible voice. But even Simon Cowell wouldn’t have dared tell him so.

Daily Star TV critic, Garry Bushell.

Oh let this be true.
You can always trust Gazza, can't you?

PS Only just saw this on their site, but simply had to share!

Orlando Cruz: [NB Must Not Make Obvious 'In The Ring' Gag Here]

This Saturday in Las Vegas, Orlando Cruz, which is his real name [Eh?], will become the first openly gay boxer to win a world title if he can overcome the odds and beat Orlando Salido for the vacant WBO featherweight title. Cruz announced he was gay last year, never lost his promoter, never lost his ranking and never lost a single friend from inside the ugly business of boxing.
"I now feel free to just get on with the boxing," said Cruz, who is from Puerto Rico and is based in Florida. "I'm not fighting two opponents any longer and that is a great relief. The nights of staying awake and crying are over."
Cruz fought for Puerto Rico at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and has been a fringe contender for a couple of years and gay for a lot longer. "I'm a boxer first, I want to be a world champion and remembered that way and not as a gay boxer," he says.

The Independent.

The Krays: Gay twincest porn pioneers?

"What's that, you say? A gay boxer!!? But how can they box with limp wrists?"

Ahh, another gay story centred around its perceived incongruity; a gay man in "a macho world" - that don't happen much, do it?

So brave etc etc...

Wasn't it Samuel Johnson who said; "A gay man's boxing is like a dog's walking on his hind legs. It is not done well; but you are surprised to find it done at all."

It probably calls it "the last taboo" somewhere, but I can't be sure because I kept losing interest.

Do these journalists not realise boxing's almost as gay as diving?

Anyway we end with this heartwarming thought straight out of Michael Jackson's "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" school of philosophy...

He can also really fight and in the ruthless business of boxing, a sport that has not really changed in 150 years, that is all that matters; it makes no difference if you are black, white, gay, straight, male, female, nice, unpleasant, Christian, Muslim, ugly or handsome, as long as you have guts and can have a fight.

BARF!

PS Attention boxing fans! There are some boxers in the video for Boy George's new single, King Of Everything. It is a very good song, by the way.

PPS The Mail celebrates this event with a short video of Orlando "prepping" and being interviewed - he comes across as "a bit Tom Daley", if you know what I mean...

Orlando Cruz also got a big profile in Saturday's Guardian - the above header seems to sum it up.
The main interest for the straight media seems to be the "You'll believe an elephant can fly!" incongruity... 

Arts News: A Brush With The Law

This beautiful painting by Ronnie Kray, one of the nation's best-loved violent psychofags, is part of a set being put up for auction.
Toby Service, of Brightwells Fine Art Auctioneers, told the Mirror; “They did a lot of paintings and drawings in prison.
"They were never particularly good, to be honest, but I wouldn’t say that to their face."

The Krays: Twincest's New Poster Boys

"They fought as one. They killed as one. But did the Kray twins' uncanny bond lead them to break the ultimate taboo?" asks a headline in today's Daily Mail.
"The ultimate taboo"?!!
What on Jupiter could that be? - Did they write an article about gay men and mental health?
No - it's something even more taboo-y.
The Mail are running extracts based on a new book by John Pearson, who wrote what's regarded as the definitive book on The Krays, The Profession of Violence.
The Mail probably paid a small fortune in serialisation rights, so Pearson must have some really eye-popping new revelations about Ron and Reggie to reveal.
Saturday's Daily Mail had some stuff about The Krays association with the Tory queer peer, Lord Boothby, where Pearson "reveals the full, shocking story he was gagged from telling".
Though hadn't Pearson already written how "the true story of Lord Boothby and the Krays can finally be told" in The Independent On Sunday in June 1997?
The pulled-quote rather gives the gist of the new revelation away; "They discovered they were both homosexual and were so concerned with keeping it secret they only had sex with each other".
The feature in The Daily Mail today is 2,600 words long - so what do we find out about this taboo-busting tale?
"In adolescence they discovered they were both homosexual. At the time and given the macho nature of the East End, this struck them as so shameful that they attempted to conceal it. According to Ron, they were so concerned to keep their secret hidden that for a while the only sex they had was with each other."
And that's it.
Presumably Ron Kray must have told Pearson this at some point.
'Ad a word in 'is shell, like.
Presumably it must have crossed Pearson's mind to ask for a bit more detail, what with this being a pretty big bombshell, and him planning another book and all.
And presumably Mr Pearson shrugged his shoulders and thought to himself; "Probably best not to pry..."