Alan Shayne

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Gay marriage is at the forefront of America’s political battles

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, show more 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.

I RECEIVED THIS BOOK FROM THE GOODREADS M/M GIFT EXCHANGE. THANKS!

My Review: Do I need to say that this is, by its nature, a cautionary tale about what's at stake if you and I do not resist, now and for the future I can see?

Well worth reading for those interested in the entertainment and art world from 1950 to 2010. Well worth reading for any queer guy who thinks "I can't have a solid committed love when the world is what it is." They did, and it was even more repressive then than it is now.

Well worth reading for anyone who enjoys hearing stories from happy people's lives.

Don't fail to listen to your old gay uncles as they tell you their stories. I promise you, from bitter experience, you will never regret listening anywhere near as sharply and painfully as you'll regret not asking.

A document of a time there are far too many in this vale of tears who want to drag us back into. Why is that bad? Read the book and find out, as well as have yourself a good long laugh...these old guys, they lived them a life. And they did it together. In spite of troubles, in spite of things not ever being perfect, they laughed at it all. Together.

Sixty years of life together. They met and set up home together when I was a toddler. How do people do that? Read the book and find out.

There's nothing for you in the past? Read this book...you'll find yourself everywhere. People in love are grappling with all the same questions of boundaries, appropriate expressions of feelings, what about jealousy, regardless of time and place. We're all very much the same. The variations we all have from one another are less fundamental than the haters will tell you they are.

This is a fun read by two men who, like any longterm couple, finish each others' thoughts, In this case they do it in alternating chapters. I think anyone who likes relationship stories, gossipy memoirs, or carefully non-prescriptive models for relationships will batten on this read. show less

This is a joint autobiography by an actor-turned-producer and an artist, from their teens before they met as young men struggling to establish their careers, through the twists and turns of those careers, and finally their legal marriage four decades later.

It's a story about how gay men lived and were treated in the US over the course of decades. It's a fascinating insight into the production aspects and the internal politics of getting a film or TV show made, and the vagaries of building a show more career in both commercial and fine art. It's also a touching love story of a couple deeply devoted to one another.

I found it slow going at first. I think this was largely because part of the appeal of the book should have been about it being about the private lives of two men who are well known in their fields, but both of them were completely unfamiliar to me. I was slowly drawn in, and then completely fascinated by the story they were telling. And yes, I did have a tear in my eye as the book closed with their quiet wedding on an almost empty beach.

I started this not convinced I'd reach the end. By the time I finished it I was very glad I had. show less

Double Life: Portrait of a Gay Marriage From Broadway to Hollywood
by Alan Shayne is a touching story of the long affair of Alan Shayne and Norman Sunshine, both enormously talented. They became a couple in the 1950s when gay coupling was still frowned upon and they spent a long life together. Alan became a tv producer and Norman a successful painter. The trials and tribulations of the "marriage" make up the book. In the late years they did in fact marry in a ceremony on the beach in show more Nantucket. I enjoyed this book and can recommend it highly. show less