Homer
Randolph "Randy" Jack (April 5, 1926 - June 5, 1997) was George Platt Lynes' boyfriend circa 1947-48. Queer Places:
Upstairs Downstairs Restaurant, Building 754, Road 3825, Block 338, Adliya Manama, 338, Bahrain
Homer
Randolph "Randy" Jack (April 5, 1926 - June 5, 1997) was George Platt Lynes' boyfriend circa 1947-48.
Homer Randolph "Randy" Jack was born in Waukegan, Illinois. He attended Waukegan High School where he enjoyed singing and performing. As a senior, he starred in the high school’s production of the comedy Best Foot Forward. Upon graduation in 1944, he joined the Navy. After WWII, with his Naval tour of duty completed, Randy Jack settled in Los Angeles, where he embarked on a relationship with ice cream parlor impresario Wil Wright, Jr. In the George Platt Lynes' biography, The Daring Eye, author Allen Ellenzweig refers to Randy Jack as “Wil Wright’s favorite.”
In August of 1947, the two of them rented a room in Lynes’ Hollywood home. The New York-based photographer was in the midst of his “Hollywood period” working for Vogue magazine. Lynes – who always lived beyond his means and was notoriously bad with money management – decided to take in roommates to share chores and expenses. This arrangement did not last long because, as Lynes wrote to a friend, “Wil can’t bear not to be boss and that is one thing he can’t be. Not here.” Wright also resented George’s influence on Jack, encouraging him to pursue a career as a dancer. When Wil moved out after a couple of months, Randy stayed and found his way into Lynes’ bed as well. Randy Jack committed himself to a vigorous regimen of ballet classes. Although Lynes was aware that Jack was a bit long in the tooth to start training for a career as a dancer, he supported his efforts nonetheless. He wrote to his friend Monroe Wheeler; “He’s too old, 21, but he has a ballet dancers body and a ballet dancer’s soul.” Randy Jack’s protruding ears – called “bat like” in several accounts – were viewed by Lynes as a further hindrance to attaining success as a ballet dancer. While he could not erase Jack’s advanced age, he could do something to remove this obstacle, so the cards would be “stacked in his favour, to remove whatever flies there may be in the ointment.” He agreed to barter with a plastic surgeon: Lynes would photograph the surgeon’s glamorous wife in exchange for the operation to pin back Jack’s ears. Lynes wrote to his mother at the time: “…I can’t leave things alone but redecorate or remodel anything I can lay my hands on, people as well as houses.”
by George Platt Lynes
Portrait of Randy Jack by Bernard Perlin, June 5, 1948
The photos of Randy Jack taken in Lynes’ library are understandably the most popular. Ears firmly clipped, Lynes photographed his roomie en tenue de danse at Vogue studios, creating a striking series of photos. In May of 1948, Lynes’ contract with Vogue ended and he returned to New York City with Randy and their dog Bozo in tow. Randy Jack was the subject of several other artists’ work, including Bernard Perlin. Soon after their move to New York, Jack abandoned his ballet studies and began to find work as a fashion model. This proved to be a far more attainable and lucrative goal. In mid-summer, George wrote to Katherine Anne Porter that he was troubled about the young man, “I wonder what New York has done to him, or what I have done.”
Randy moved out in the Fall of 1948 and Lynes’ next boyfriend and muse, Chuck Howard moved into the apartment 10 days later. David Leddick writes: “Jack became one of the most successful fashion models in an industry that was just becoming big business, posing for both photographers and the many illustrators of the time.”
As his modeling career waned, Jack began his third act as an interior designer. His work with commercial / hotel spaces led him to the Middle East, where he settled on the island of Bahrain and became a restaurateur, opening the Upstairs Downstairs restaurant in 1977. In 1982 Jack published Upstairs Downstairs Cookbook, featuring favorite recipes from the restaurant’s menu alongside his own illustrations.
In the mid-90’s, Intimate Companions author David Leddick reached out to Randy Jack to talk about his early years with George Platt Lynes. Leddick recounts being tipped off that Jack was living in Bahrain, and that he was able to simply call the local information to get his phone number.
A current photo of Randy Jack appeared in Leddick’s 1997 book Naked Men: Pioneering Male Nudes. Shortly after the book’s publication, on June 5, 1997, Jack died in Bahrain. He was 71 years old. The Upstairs Downstairs restaurant is still in operation today. The restaurant’s Facebook page has comments from patrons recalling Randy Jack’s hospitality and the good times they had there.
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