January 22nd

01-23-1932 – 06-21-2022James Rado (James Alexander Radomski) – Born in Venice Beach, California. He was an American actor, playwright, director, writer, and composer, best known as the co-author, along with Gerome Ragni, of the 1967 rock musical Hair. In an interview with The Advocate, Rado said he had an intimate relationship with Ragni. Hair is a bisexual rock musical that changed the modern musical and helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War. It was the first rock musical on Broadway, the first Broadway show to feature full nudity, and the first to feature a same-sex kiss. At the center of Hair is a bisexual triangle between the characters Berger, Sheila, and Claude. But the central love relationship in the show is between Claude and Berger, the characters based on the relationship of Rado and Ragni. There is also the love relationship between Sheila and Jeannie. The Broadway production received two Tony nominations, and the cast album went to number one, receiving a Grammy. The musical had four number one hit singles, Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, Hair, Easy to be Hard, and Good Morning Sunshine. In 1979, Hair was made into a film. Since 1967, Hair has been performed continuously around the world. Rado died of cardio respiratory arrest in New York City. He was 90.

01-23-1881 – 06-01-1957 La Marchesa Casati (Luisa, Marquise Casati Stampa di Soncino) – Born in Milan, Italy. She was an Italian heiress, muse, and patroness of the arts. She had an affair with Romain Brooks. She also had a long term affair with author Gabriele d’Annunzio. She was a celebrity and femme fatale, and dominated and delighted European society for nearly three decades. The beautiful and extravagant hostess to the Ballets Russes was something of a legend among her contemporaries. She astonished society by parading a with a pair of leashed cheetahs and wearing live snakes as jewelry. In 1910 Casati took up residence at the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, on the Grand Canal in Venice (now the home of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection) where her soirées would become legendary. From 1919 to 1920 she lived at Villa San Michele in Capri. Her time on the Italian island provided a tolerant home to a wide collection of artists, gay men, and lesbians in exile. By 1930, Casati had amassed a personal debt of $25 million. She fled to London, where she lived in comparative poverty. She died at her residence, 32 Beaufort Gardens in Knightsbridge at the age of 76. Characters based on Casati were played by Vivien Leigh in La Contessa (1965) and by Ingrid Bergman in the film A Matter of Time (1976).

01-23-1819 – 1896 Mary Charlotte Lloyd – Born in Denbighshire, Wales. She was a sculptor. Her father was a squire over many counties, owning 4,300 acres of land, and Lloyd inherited money from a maiden aunt, as well as gifts from Eleanor Charlotte Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, the Ladies of Llangollen. Lloyd studied art and worked with French artist Rosa Bonheur (March 16, 1822 – May 25, 1899). In 1853 she was working in the studio of Welsh sculptor John Gibson in Rome. In 1861, while in Rome, she met Frances Power Cobbe. Both being nonconformists, they connected with like minded women in Italy. In 1863, they settled together in London. In April 1884 the couple moved to Lloyd’s Welsh estate Hengwrt and lived together until Lloyd’s death in 1896. Letters by Cobbe referred to Lloyd as “husband,” “wife,” as well “dear friend.”

01-23-1934 – 06-16-2003 Pierre Bourgault – Born in East Angus, Canada. He was a French Canadian politician and essayist, as well as an actor and journalist. He is most famous as a public speaker who advocated sovereignty for Quebec from Canada. He was openly gay.