He and co-director Beth Prusaczyk have found several family members besides Seagraves but so far no living pool-party guests. “But I don't I don't know if we'll actually find them.” “We naively set out thinking, ‘Oh, these men might be in their mid-90s, they could still be alive,’ and that might be true,” Prusaczyk said. Richard Eaton talks about being a gay man in mid-century St. Louis, and what it was like to lead a double life. Several people who aren’t in the home movies can testify to what it was like to be gay in mid-century St. Among those is Richard Eaton of Soulard, who grew up in the 1940s and '50s. He dated women publicly and men, on the side.įor years, Eaton, 78, couldn’t imagine having a partner, much less a husband. He and John Durnell were among the four couples married by St. Louis Mayor Slay in 2014, before same-sex marriage was legal.
This photo shows Richard Eaton at Ladue High School, where he was a counselor for 40 years. “I went to my new doctor, and one of the first questions he asked me, have I ever had any sexual experiences with other men - and I lied,” Eaton said. “I didn’t know what he would do with the information.”Įaton worried the doctor might call his employer, the Ladue School District, jeopardizing his job as guidance counselor at Ladue High School. In most of his 40 years there, Eaton led a double life. To keep track, he only went by “Richard” in his social circle.
