Hello, I'm Sam Staggs
For five years in the 1980s I was editor-in-chief of the popular and controversial gay magazines Mandate, Honcho, and Playguy. In 2020/21, as the pandemic raged, I wrote a memoir titled Did You Sleep With the Models? -- a question I was asked then and even now. My story is unique because no other editor of a gay publication has written such a memoir: factual, entertaining, witty, politically engaged...and also the source of tears. For that was the time of the other pandemic, AIDS.
The entire book, approximately 100,000 words, will appear in weekly installments in Substack.
Along the way you'll hear voices roar in razor-tongued combat, boisterous laughter, brouhaha and gossip in our offices at Modernismo Publications on the eleventh floor at 155 Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. You'll meet a cavalcade of mouth-watering models, top-notch photographers, illustrators, writers, a scattering of wannabes...and a possible serial killer. Perhaps you'll recall, in these pages, the vanished world of gay New York in the eighties, which began like a party where everyone danced until the decade segued into Ronald Reagan's horror show and ended like the Masque of the Red Death. Even so, I hope you'll enjoy the fun parts and applaud the conga line of celebrities that you encounter along the way -- some in starring roles, others as supporting players, still others glimpsed in cameos. (And don't forget to boo the villains.) The VIPS are, in no particular order:
Robert Mapplethorpe
Eve Arden
Tennessee Williams
Divine
Lily Tomlin
Celeste Holm
Quentin Crisp
Gloria Grahame
Armistead Maupin
Mae West
Bette Davis
George Whitmore
Andrew Holleran
President Jimmy Carter
Elizabeth Taylor
Maureen Stapleton
Virgil Thomson
Gertrude Stein
Helen Frankenthaler, the abstract expressionist painter
Lillian Gish
Ed Koch, former NYC mayor
Bess Myerson, former Miss America and later convicted criminal
Johnny Carson
Alan Hollinghurst
David Hockney
Charles Dickens
Alan Bates
George Cukor
Katharine Hepburn
Meryl Streep
Eva Gabor
Pauline Kael
Joan Rivers
Tom Ewell
Rita Hayworth
Princess Yasmin Aga Khan
Leontyne Price
William Randolph Hearst
Julia Morgan, architect of Hearst Castle
Oscar Wilde
Alan Turing
Jean Cocteau
Christopher Isherwood
Don Bachardy
Maureen McGovern
Vito Russo
Edmund White
Virginia Apuzzo of the National Gay Task Force
Maria Callas
Mamie Van Doren
Patti Page
Peggy Lee
Anita O'Day
Vladimir Horowitz
Harvey Fierstein
Michael Caine
Tom of Finland
Jan Morris
Claude Lévi-Strauss
Bill Tilden, tennis legend
Martina Navratilova
Néstor Almendros, cinematographer, 1979 Oscar for Days of Heaven
Sister Missionary Position of the Nuns of Perpetual Indulgence, SF
Leo Varadkar, former P.M, Republic of Ireland
Joan Collins and the cast of Dynasy… and
Anonymous
EROTIC STARS & STAR MAKERS
Al Parker
Kristen Bjorn
Jim French of Colt Studio
Mickey Squires
Bill Henson
Chuck Holmes of Falcon Studios
Scott O'Hara
Jeff Stryker
Richard Locke
Casey Donovan
Kurt Marshall
Dick Fisk
THE VILLAIN LIST
😭 Ronald Reagan
😭 The New York Times
😭 Lynne Cheney
😭 Donald Trump
😭 Richard Gere
😭 A. Bartlett Giamatti
😭 Jerry Falwell, Sr. and Jr.
😭 Joyce Haber
My Earlier Work
Some of you perhaps know my seven earlier books: one novel, four on classic films, and two biographies. In chronological order, they are:
MM II: The Return of Marilyn Monroe (1991), a novel
All About “All About Eve”: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made (2000) Audio version read by actor Donald Corren (Blackstone)
Close-up on “Sunset Boulevard” (2002) Audio: Donald Corren (Blackstone)
When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of “A Streetcar Named Desire” (2005)
Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of “Imitation of Life” (2009)
Inventing Elsa Maxwell: How an Irrepressible Nobody Conquered High Society, Hollywood, the Press, and the World (2012)
Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors Behind the Legend (2019) Audio version read by actor Paul Boehmer (Blackstone). This biography is under option to Amy Sherman-Palladino, writer/producer/director of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
But Wait, There’s More
Those with long memories may recall my work in magazines and in several anthologies, including The Best American Movie Writing 2001 and Vanity Fair's Tales of Hollywood (2009). Before that, I wrote for Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Opera News, Publishers Weekly, New York, Artnews, and a number of travel magazines.
My editorial papers -- Sam Staggs Papers, 1974-1984 -- are housed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division of the New York Public Library, Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York NY 10018; archives.nypl.org
To My Readers
All content here is free until March 2023. After that, you will be able to read the entire book, Did You Sleep With the Models? for a small monthly fee. I will post a new chapter at least once a week — usually on Friday — and sometimes more frequently. In addition, paid subscribers will see guest essays; interviews; photos, stories, and features reprinted from Mandate, Honcho, and Playguy; and updates on some of the contributors to those magazines -- models, photographers, and writers.
A certain amount of free content will continue after March 2023, although I must of course give primary attention to the paid section.
I ask a favor of all readers: if you spot a typo, please let me know so that I may correct it. I hate the things, and yet they creep in like gnats even after numerous proofreadings.
Finally, I look forward to hearing from readers. I will reply as often as time allows, but I ask your forbearance if I fall behind.
ONE MORE THING
When I began Did You Sleep With the Models?, I had in mind book publication, with the traditional trappings: dedication, table of contents, copyright, permissions, acknowledgments, and my favorite front-of-the-book element, epigraphs.
Substack, of course, formats differently. Some of these details will appear after the final chapter. For now, however, two pungent epigraphs to set the tone.
"I'd like to get out of the indecent photograph racket. It's so wearing on the nerves."
**Joe Orton, What the Butler Saw
"This journal of mine will offend many people. It has offended even me."
**Jules Renard
N.B. NO ONE UNDER 18 MAY VIEW, READ, OR SUBSCRIBE TO ANY PORTION OF THIS NEWSLETTER TITLED DID YOU SLEEP WITH THE MODELS? BY SPECIFIC ORDER OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER, SAM STAGGS.
Hello Mr. Staggs,
I am writing to invite you to be a guest on Amber Live, the weekly streaming talk show hosted by the “Larry King of Drag Queens,” Vermont drag legend Amber LeMay. Amber would like to discuss your career, your books, Robert Mapplethorpe, the state of the LGBTQ community today, and any projects you wish to promote.
Now in our fourth season and with 150+ episodes, Amber Live has welcomed an impressive roster of guests including:
• Emmy Award winners including Bruce Vilanch (Hollywood Squares) and Jai Rodriguez (Queer Eye and Rent)
• Tony Nominated actor/playwright Charles Busch (Psycho Beach Party, Taboo, and The Tale of the Allergists Wife)
• Grammy Award winners including François Clemmons (Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood) and Julie Gold (From a Distance)
• Politicians including PA Senator John Fetterman, LT Governor of Vermont David Zuckerman, NE State Senators Megan Hunt and Machaela Cavanaugh, CA State Senator Scott Weiner, and VT State Rep. Taylor Small
• Comedians and actors Trae Crowder, (The Liberal Redneck), Hal Sparks (Queer as Folk, Talk Soup), K. Trevor Wilson (Squirrely Dan on Letterkenny)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race alumni Ginger Minj, Charlie Hides, Mrs. Kasha Davis, and Tammie Brown
• Drag legends Jackie Beat, Miss Richfield 1981, Dixie Longate, and Sherry Vine
• Carole Baskin from Tiger King
The show streams on Sunday nights at 8 PM ET on Facebook®, YouTube®, and other social media channels. We can prerecord the interview at a time that works for everyone.
You can find out more about the show at www.AmberLive.tv or on our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/AmberLive
Thank you.
Russell, Executive Producer
AmberLive.tv
amberlemaylive@gmail.com
Hey Mr STAGGS - I just subscribed here to read your memoir. Do you have any plans to publish it in book form? I’ve read most of your other books and enjoyed them all. I’m kind of a bibliophile & still enjoy collecting books for my library. But I look forward to reading it here in the meantime. Best of luck, Craig Whitaker PS - congratulations on the Queerty wonderful write up!