David Schulze
In Autumn of 2017 (or Spring of 2018; I honestly don’t remember anymore) I was listening to a Pet Shop Boys greatest hits album (Discography, for the fans out there) when “Rent” came on. I already knew “It’s a Sin” by the point, which is one of my all-time favorite songs (gay content from a gay musician in the 80s?!), but it was “Rent” that inspired me to Google male prostitution (listen to the song and you’ll understand why).
On the Wikipedia page for Male Prostitution, I saw a little blurb that caught my eye: “The most famous male prostitute of the Victorian era was the Irish-born John Saul, who was involved in both the 1884 Dublin Castle scandal, and the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889.”
There’s a whole lot to unpack there. “Most famous male prostitute of the Victorian era?” Two different scandals? And he was gay?! How did I never hear about him?
After falling down the John Saul rabbit hole (He has his own Wikipedia page; please, check it out. There aren’t any massive spoilers.) I said to myself
“A gay role model eighty years before Stonewall? Why isn’t this a movie?”
So I wrote a movie. Then in 2019, I decided to make it a book.
I changed the names because I wanted to maintain creative license and not pass off as fact (Looking at you The Imitation Game). Also, Jack Branson is 1000% named after Tom Branson from Downton Abbey. It wasn’t meant to be anything worth publishing, but by the time I finished the screenplay, I decided to keep Branson as Jack’s surname. It works too well.
On the Wikipedia page for Male Prostitution, I saw a little blurb that caught my eye: “The most famous male prostitute of the Victorian era was the Irish-born John Saul, who was involved in both the 1884 Dublin Castle scandal, and the Cleveland Street Scandal of 1889.”
There’s a whole lot to unpack there. “Most famous male prostitute of the Victorian era?” Two different scandals? And he was gay?! How did I never hear about him?
After falling down the John Saul rabbit hole (He has his own Wikipedia page; please, check it out. There aren’t any massive spoilers.) I said to myself
“A gay role model eighty years before Stonewall? Why isn’t this a movie?”
So I wrote a movie. Then in 2019, I decided to make it a book.
I changed the names because I wanted to maintain creative license and not pass off as fact (Looking at you The Imitation Game). Also, Jack Branson is 1000% named after Tom Branson from Downton Abbey. It wasn’t meant to be anything worth publishing, but by the time I finished the screenplay, I decided to keep Branson as Jack’s surname. It works too well.
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