Beautiful boys
I hadn’t put two and two together in my mind, so was surprised and somewhat delighted to read this excerpt from Younger Brother, Younger Son by Colin Clark [1932 -2002]:
The need for a love object starts in the early teens for boys, as it does for girls. Just as schoolgirls have fevered crushes on their older classmates in girls’ schools, the real sexual tension in the all-male world was between the boys.
For the last three years of my time at Eton, most of the boys, including me, were in love with the same boy. They may have forgotten it now, after busy, successful heterosexual lives, but that is the way it was. The boy’s name was Jeremy Huggins, and he sang in the choir. He had the most beautiful treble voice you could imagine, and he was remarkably handsome. In his white vestal robe, with his brown hair brushed until it glowed, his eyes gazing heavenward and his mouth open in pure song, he could make the audience swoon away during the psalms. Quite a few boys did actually faint, but nobody took any notice. Church attendance was compulsory at Eton in 1948 - every weekday morning, except Saturday, and twice on Sundays - and we all flocked in gleefully, hardly daring to hope that Huggins would be singing a solo that day. Eventually his voice broke into a mellow tenor, and his looks, if anything, improved. But all that attention must have been a terrific strain on him, just as it was to be on Marilyn Monroe, and he seemed to have great difficulty settling down. He became an actor and changed his name to Jeremy Brett...
Since he and I were both in show business, we used to meet every now and then, and although I never referred to it, he seemed to be aware of the role he had played in my early affections. He was sweet and sad and sincere, and still very good looking. When he died, tragically young, in 1995, I suddenly felt guilty. I’ve no idea whether anyone actually seduced him when we were at school, but there is no doubt that he had been the idol of hundreds of his contemporaries. In a sense I felt that he had been abused, and I had been part of it. I suppose his beauty had been a curse, as well as a blessing.
Brett was one year younger than Colin Clark. One can well imagine the stir at Eton upon his arrival. And now I have a wonderful image in my mind of Eddie Redmayne (as Colin Clark) gazing with adoration at young Jeremy. Perfection.
Photo of Jeremy Huggins, Eton, 1949, found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/RJDoll2/JeremyBrettSChildhood#5225970604129785714
Jeremy did indeed become even more devastatingly handsome as he matured. As a choirboy looking like this he wouldn't have made me swoon, but a few years later - quite definitely! :-)
The need for a love object starts in the early teens for boys, as it does for girls. Just as schoolgirls have fevered crushes on their older classmates in girls’ schools, the real sexual tension in the all-male world was between the boys.
For the last three years of my time at Eton, most of the boys, including me, were in love with the same boy. They may have forgotten it now, after busy, successful heterosexual lives, but that is the way it was. The boy’s name was Jeremy Huggins, and he sang in the choir. He had the most beautiful treble voice you could imagine, and he was remarkably handsome. In his white vestal robe, with his brown hair brushed until it glowed, his eyes gazing heavenward and his mouth open in pure song, he could make the audience swoon away during the psalms. Quite a few boys did actually faint, but nobody took any notice. Church attendance was compulsory at Eton in 1948 - every weekday morning, except Saturday, and twice on Sundays - and we all flocked in gleefully, hardly daring to hope that Huggins would be singing a solo that day. Eventually his voice broke into a mellow tenor, and his looks, if anything, improved. But all that attention must have been a terrific strain on him, just as it was to be on Marilyn Monroe, and he seemed to have great difficulty settling down. He became an actor and changed his name to Jeremy Brett...
Since he and I were both in show business, we used to meet every now and then, and although I never referred to it, he seemed to be aware of the role he had played in my early affections. He was sweet and sad and sincere, and still very good looking. When he died, tragically young, in 1995, I suddenly felt guilty. I’ve no idea whether anyone actually seduced him when we were at school, but there is no doubt that he had been the idol of hundreds of his contemporaries. In a sense I felt that he had been abused, and I had been part of it. I suppose his beauty had been a curse, as well as a blessing.
Brett was one year younger than Colin Clark. One can well imagine the stir at Eton upon his arrival. And now I have a wonderful image in my mind of Eddie Redmayne (as Colin Clark) gazing with adoration at young Jeremy. Perfection.
Photo of Jeremy Huggins, Eton, 1949, found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/RJDoll2/JeremyBrettSChildhood#5225970604129785714
Jeremy did indeed become even more devastatingly handsome as he matured. As a choirboy looking like this he wouldn't have made me swoon, but a few years later - quite definitely! :-)