Let Us Now Praise David Jacobs

 I recently finished reading Darryl H. Bullock's entertaining book The Velvet Mafia.  The subtitle pretty much explains the whole premise: The Gay Men Who Made The Swinging Sixties.  The book  presents a detailed portrait of some people I know a lot about – Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Sir Joseph Lockwood, Joe Orton and Joe Meek as well as people I knew a little bit about including Robert Stigwood, Lionel Bart and the infamous Lord Boothby.  All of these players were instrumental in the British entertainment industry of the 1960s and, coincidentally, they were all gay.

 

The character who fascinated me the most is David Jacobs, the solicitor to the stars.  At one point he had offices in both London and Hollywood.  He had both The Beatles and Brian Epstein as clients as well as Winston Churchill's daughter, Judy Garland, Diana Dors, Shirley Bassey and John Profumo.  At one point he sued the Daily Mirror for libel on behalf of Liberace, for implying that Liberace was homosexual – and won!  He apparently was known to appear in court in full makeup.

 

Tragically, Jacobs died a sad death  – found hanging in his garage.  The book questions whether his death was a drug induced suicide or something far more sinister.

 

I found the story of David Jacobs positively inspiring in some ways.  One doesn't hear about entertainment lawyers being as interesting as their clients.  The idea that Jacobs could be negotiating major deals for Brian Epstein one minute and getting a famous politician’s daughter out of the jail the next makes most contemporary law practices  seem positively dull. 

 

It’s a fascinating book and gives a lot of deep background into the entertainment business in London before and during the British Invasion. I have only one criticism. In an otherwise well written work, I came across  the worst sentence I think I've ever read:  "According to the inquiry, Halliwell used a hammer to strike Orton, whom he had met at RADA,  on his head at least nine times."