Full Description
Sidney Franklin (1903-76) was the last person you'd expect to become a bullfighter. The streetwise son of a Russian Jewish cop, Franklin had an all-American boyhood in early twentieth-century Brooklyn, while hiding the fact that he was gay. A violent confrontation with his father sent him packing to Mexico City, where first he opened a business, then opened his mouth-bragging that Americans had the courage to become bullfighters. Training with iconic matador Rodolfo Gaona, Franklin's dare spawned a legend.
Following years in small-town Mexican bullrings, he put his moxie where his mouth was, taking Spain by storm as the first American matador. Franklin's 1929 rise coincided with that of his friend Ernest Hemingway's, until a bull's horn in a most inappropriate place almost ended his career-and his life.
Bart Paul illuminates the artistry and violence of the mysterious ritual of the bulls as he tells the story of this remarkable man, from life in revolutionary Mexico to triumphs in Spain, from the pages of Death in the Afternoon to the destructive vortex of Hemingway's affair with Martha Gellhorn during the bloody Spanish Civil War.
This is the story of a gay man who triumphed over prejudice and adversity as he achieved what no American had ever accomplished, teaching even Hemingway lessons in grace, machismo, and respect.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Introduction:The Alternative
Act One
1. The Bull
2. Que Viva Mexico
3. The Wisdom of the Aztec
Act Two
4. El NiÑo de la Synagoga
5. Thanks, Ma
6. Yanqui Flamenco
7. Death in the Afternoon -with Drinks and Dinner to Follow
8. To the Ear
9.Hard Times
Act Three
10. The Big Parade
11. A Fine Romance
12. The Beard
13. The Master Horn
14. The Sword
15. Separate Trails
16. Hemingway's Gay Blade
17. The Alternativa
18. The New Man
19. Servalavari
20. Recuerdos
21. Sol y Sombra
Acknowledgments and Afterthoughts
Notes
Bibliography
Index
