The Lives of David Leddick

David Leddick
Photo by David Vance; courtesy of David Leddick

I met David Leddick during the “gay nineties,” soon after he began his career as a writer. At the time, Leddick lived in a beautiful home on the Venetian Isles near Miami Beach, surrounded by some of the beautiful art objects that he collected. After years in the business and professional worlds, Leddick enjoyed a personal renaissance as an author and an actor. “I think you should change careers every ten years,” he told me. “And I figure I am in my sixth career about now. My life has always been focused around my personal life more than anything else. I am very romantic and being gay I always like to be in love with somebody, somewhere.” Now 93 years young, Leddick lives in Southern Alabama, near a close relative.

Leddick’s artistic career began in the 1950s when he moved to New York and became a dancer at the Metropolitan Opera. He was part of the “Sex Squad”; a group of dancers who were built enough to wear the skimpy costumes in Aida. (Leddick wrote about the Sex Squad in a novel of the same name.) Leddick spent much of his professional life in advertising, as creative director of Revlon or as manager for the Robert Joffrey Ballet, before retiring to South Florida. But Leddick’s “retirement” was not a typical one: “I was not going to play golf, so what will I do? And I thought as you approach 70, no one can say you ruined your life, so you may do as you please. So, by chance I got into the nude photo thing because of my interest in photographer George Platt Lynes.” Leddick’s coffee table collection of Lynes photos was followed by other volumes: Naked Men (1997); The Male Nude (1998); and The Nude Male: 21^st Century Visions (2008). At the same time, Leddick wrote a series of novels, starting with My Worst Date (1996) (about a gay teen on South Beach) and followed by The Sex Squad (1998), The Handsomest Man in the World (2004) and The Millionaire of Love (2005), among others.

While all this was going on, Leddick became a performer. As he recalled, “My trainer, David Sexton, was producing a Miami Gay Men’s Chorus show. And they needed an older performer. But when we went into rehearsal, I noticed my character didn’t have any numbers! I got to have a song! So, I got a finale song. And then he wrote a sequel to that show. I died in the first show, so I came back as an angel. It was a Christmas show called It’s a Fabulous Life. Leddick followed that with a series of one man shows where he told stories and sang songs accompanied by pianist Andrew Sargent. Leddick even did drag in some of his shows. Leddick also wrote and starred in a tribute to Quentin Crisp; and in musicals based on his non-fiction books Escorts and How to be Gay in the 21^st Century.

How to Be Gay in the 21^st Century: There’s nothing wrong with being gay but a lot of people do it wrong (2011) is David Leddick’s best and brightest book. Here he muses about the ups and downs of being gay, along with photos by photographer David Vance. “Being gay is just like being Swedish. It’s a little different, but in no important way,” he wrote. “My generation is primarily concerned about what other people thought of them whereas in this century people are much more concerned about being fulfilled. Whatever I want to do I do it. And I think that’s the big difference.” Though living away from the bright lights of South Florida, Leddick is still at work with his 41^st book, It’s Nifty in My Nineties and a cabaret show called Camp David. “I’m storming forward towards 100,” he says. “I want to stand for the concept that the last 20 or 30 years of your life can be the most fun and interesting. What do you care what other people think of you?”

Jesse’s Journal
By Jesse Monteagudo