#patrick dennis

“Little Me”

By Patrick Dennis

“I always start writing with a clean piece of paper and a dirty mind.”

Patrick Dennis invented his outrageous Auntie Mame in the novel of the same name. But who invented Patrick Dennis? That’s a little more complicated.

Dennis was born Edward Everett Tanner III to a conservative Chicago family. He was nicknamed Pat by his father after an Irish heavyweight boxer. A friend later said that signs he might be gay were evident early on.

“When (Pat) walked, he kind of rose up on his toes.”

At the start of WWII, Dennis joined the American Field Service as an ambulance driver to avoid being drafted. While trying to evacuate a wounded man, he was nearly shot in the head by a sniper. His partner wasn’t so lucky.

After the war, he worked for a book publisher, as a ghost writer - using the name Virginia Rowans. Dennis must have in tune to a woman’s psyche because a New York Times reviewer wrote:

“Miss Rowans writes with a fine feminine realism.”

His greatest success was writing the novel “Auntie Mame”. Since the story was told from a boy’s point of view, he signed his manuscript “Patrick Dennis”. Nineteen publishers rejected the book - but the 20th knew a hit when they saw it. Published in 1955, the book became a smash, with 111 weeks on The NY Times best seller list.

The story is about an orphaned boy left in the care of his extravagant aunt. She is a bohemian and a chameleon, that drinks cocktails likes there’s no tomorrow, and buys the latest in fabulous fashions.

Recently I listened to the audio book and watched the 1958 movie starring Rosalind Russell. I couldn’t help but think it would be terrific with a trans actress or a drag performer.

Maybe Dennis thought so too. Although he had married and had two sons, he was gay or at least bisexual.

Dennis spent money as extravagantly as his fictional aunt, and by 1962 he was nearly broke... and an alcoholic. After attempting suicide and a stint in a mental institution, Dennis left his wife and sons.

Later he found work as a butler, a job he said he enjoyed. One of his employers was Ray Croc, millionaire owner of the McDonalds fast food franchise. During this era, he was well known in the Greenwich Village gay scene of New York City.

Dennis died from pancreatic cancer with his wife at his side (they never divorced) in November 1976

"I write in the first person, but it is all fictional. The public assumes that what seems fictional is fact; so the way for me to be inventive is to seem factual but be fictional."

NOTE: The character of Auntie Mame is a progressive. Her distain for Southerners and the Connecticut elite is obvious. But the book is a product of its times. Some of the ethnic characters are depicted as stereotypes and the book uses some racist language that wouldn’t be tolerated today.

During his life, Patrick Dennis repeatedly denied that the character of Auntie Mame was based on his actual Aunt Marion. But she enjoyed the celebrity and repeatedly made that claim.

Rosalind Russell appeared as Auntie Mame in the Broadway play for nearly two years and starred in the 1958 film.

Angela Lansbury starred in the Broadway musical in 1966. Although she was already a film and Broadway actress, this production elevated her into a star.