cover image The Oldest Gay Couple in America: A Seventy-Year Journey Through Same-Sex America

The Oldest Gay Couple in America: A Seventy-Year Journey Through Same-Sex America

Gean Harwood. Birch Lane Press, $22.5 (320pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-426-5

A literate, still cogent man who has been living in Manhattan since the mid-1920s, Harwood was in a monogamous gay relationship from the late 1920s until 1995, when his partner, Bruhs (pronounced ""Bruce"") Mero, died. The 89-year-old first-time author conveys his life with his companion in the world of dance and theater. Mero was a professional dancer, and the author worked at one time for Paramount making travel and other arrangements for the studio's stars, and later held a variety of civil service jobs. Encounters with the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Groucho Marx are wryly related here. The two men also wrote several songs together. Harwood and Mero lived through most of gay American history but kept their lives closeted until they came out in the 1980s. Their story recounts the trials and triumphs of a gay couple making their way in straight society. An anecdotal quality prevents this memoir from building the cumulative impact that a more reflective text might convey, yet the story is a tribute to gay couples who remain faithful throughout a long relationship. (Sept.)