JC Leyendecker: The Iconic Gay Artist We ALMOST Forgot

During the first quarter of the 20th century, JC Leyendecker’s illustrations defined American style and culture. But by the …

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picture this it’s the first decade of the 1900s and you’re walking down the street in your town in america probably you walk past the department store windows where a display for kluit peabody and company is displayed the newspaper stand next to you has beautifully illustrated ads on the inside for arrow callers one of the most popular collar and shirt manufacturers of the day you look up and see a billboard for the same company all of these ads have one thing in common the dashingly handsome face of the arrow collar man he’s america’s very first true sex symbol as we think of it today he’s well dressed mysterious and has the build of an athlete an athlete who’s also a prince or something maybe you’re in love with him maybe your husband or wife is too but unbeknownst to you and almost everyone else who sees these ads the main model behind the arrow caller man is taken by the very same artist who paints him joseph christian liondecker anyone who’s followed me or my art practice for long enough has known that it was only a matter of time before i made this video jc lindecker and his story holds a very special place in my heart and he was one of my biggest inspirations when i took up oil painting in 2018 i embarked on a very very intense research vendor on his life that resulted in this short biography comic he lives in the echoes you can buy it on gumroad link in the description below but the research for this wasn’t easy for a historical figure who was as famous and made as much of an impact as liondecker did there’s not much in the way of research on him after he died in the 50s his legacy was nearly forgotten entirely this is due to reasons that we’ll cover later in this video so come along with me friends while i tell you about the lives of jc liondecker and charles beach joseph christian liondecker was born on march 23 1874 in montebaur germany to peter lyon decker a farmer and a coachman and elizabeth orderson liondecker he had other siblings mary augusta and the eldest brother adolf albert and his younger brother frank xavier was born january 19 1876. their mother came from a prominent jewish and catholic family though the children never practiced or openly considered themselves jewish and jaycee himself was baptized in montebaur in 1972 his mother’s youngest brother adam orderson immigrated to chicago and started a sign painting shop he took night classes at the chicago academy of design which later moved and became the art institute of chicago by 1882 his work painting signs for the mcavoy brewing company in particular was so good that he had been promoted to general manager and vice president of the whole company so of course he became the american sponsor to bring his sister and her family to the states and the lion deckers made the big journey across the atlantic that same year coming from such a small town in germany landing in new york city must have had a special impact on the liondecker children they traveled by train to chicago and settled in at 2426 south park avenue peter their father became a brewing assistant and the eldest brother adolf apparently old enough to work at the ripe old age of 12 worked for mcavoy as well but it was already apparent that all four liondecker children had a special artistic talent jc recalled when i was eight i was already covering school books with rudely colored examples of my work at home i kept myself busy with more pretentious paintings which for want of a canvas were done on oil cloth of the common kitchen variety at age 15 jc2 entered the workforce and started a job at the jacob mann’s engraving company i still remember boarding an open cable car one windy day with three large canvases wrapped in newspaper and fighting my way through the crowded streets to the engraving house where i showed my samples the boss inspected a stag at bay a chariot race and the biblical subject with amusement but he did tell me to report for work in 1889 due to uncle adam’s good business deals at mcavoy the family gained a good amount of wealth and were able to live comfortably jc could now afford to attend schooling at the art institute of chicago three times a week where he was taught by john henry vanderpull augusta and frank would later become aic students as well adolph and frank studied with a renowned stained glass artist stained glass would later become adolf’s main practice in 1890 papa peter gained u.s citizenship which was then simultaneously granted to the whole family and big brother adolf became the mcavoy general sales agent so things were really looking up for the family until um well you see for the longest time no one knew there was a third lion decker brother adolf just didn’t exist why you ask well in 1893 adolf got wrapped up in a very public scandal on september 16th the national police gazette reported this story lewis epstein alderman of the first ward and the owner of far famed randolph street dime museum of chicago was engaged to madam weber proprietors and mistress of ceremonies until her affections were tempted by adolf albert liondecker general agent of the mcavoy brewing company he had gold galore and he had good looks and profusion and he vowed by the hilarious bacchus that he would love the blushing madame until the fires of podunk congealed in chunks a long long story a sweet sweet story it was that his per loiner of museum men’s possessions poured into the ears of the madame and after time he’d sworn smooth the road to the stately dame’s innermost heart she toyed coyly with her 50 000 necklace and blushing like a roadhouse in the morning she told him she loved him just a little adolf albert and the exuberance of his and his bartender spirits wrote a letter to the hotel upon the fashionable banks of cedar lake and in the letter he ordered a suite of rooms held for himself and his wife the joy of their meeting can best be learned by reading the last 18 chapters of any of the late society novels for space here is limited but if all was very very fine until louis epstein arrived he entered the hotel lobby with a peaceful smile upon his visage our mr and mrs liondecker here he asked sweetly oh yes replied the clerk who was less versed in wisdom than most hotel clerks how nice murmured louie with his smile becoming patific may i see my dear friends oh yes obligingly replied the clerk you may go right up how kind of you murmured louis and as the smile gave place to an ominous frown he dashed up those steps like an alpine gazelle he opened the door to the boudoir and saw what he saw there was adolf albert sitting down in a nice easy chair in the most domestic way imaginable his feet were encased in slippers and his soul is sconced in joy they were having such a nice domestic time until the door opened louie gassed the madame as she caught his reflection in the mirror epstein screeched adolf as he forgot domesticity forgot the peril of his sweetheart forgot the promises he’d made to defend her forgot how he loved her forgot how she loved him and forgot all else in his wild wild flight for liberty he made a frantic dash and dodged beneath louie’s arm and half rolled half sprawled down the stairway and out upon the pier where he jumped wildly into the nearest boat and offered the boatman fabulous sums to row him across the lake a hundred folks that grew into a thousand saw the man being ferried away coatless hatless shoeless a very national embarrassment and one that specified adolf’s full name and place of employment which in a time where public reputation is literally everything and one incident like this could ruin you it was a big [ __ ] deal for the whole family while adolf lost his job in public standing jc was a rising star in the art world at 19 he was already illustrating numerous books and magazines he asked his family to allow him to study abroad at the famed academy julian in paris where he could learn the fine skills of the old masters frank asked to go as well and their parents were like okay sick brotherly bonding trip jc himself was a soft-spoken very polite sort of guy almost every photo of him is very dark and brooding looking i’ve only ever seen one photo of him smiling in the lyondecker family album that is in the hagan museum archives on the other hand frank was more happy-go-lucky less serious but he was the one that people said always struggled with depression the parents probably hoped this trip would help both of them emotionally i mean it didn’t but damn they sure did learn a lot in paris they rubbed shoulders with a wide number of legendary artists friends of john singer sergeant if not sergeant himself alphonse mucha philippo colorosi benjamin constant and more in 1897 jc opened a solo show at the salon du champ dumas and alfons muka was super into it and told all of his pals to go jc wrote home to uncle adam saying i had few preconceived notions of what the life in the school in courtier laton would be like i wish to find surprises and i did one of the first things which came to me and which i had not counted upon was a strangely lost feeling lost among a whole crowd of fellows who had done something worthwhile it was like beginning all over again with no friendly credit remarks to your score of the past but i soon found that the men were good fellows hard workers and as appreciative as they were critical on jc’s first day of class he was told the tradition was that new students must buy snacks for their peers and he was excited to join in with this very bohemian tradition every student got in a line hands on shoulders and basically conga lying out of the school down the street to the nearest cafe where jc bought everyone drinks jc fell in love with these cafes where he would sit for hours studying people their expressions and habits the colors and light and sketch and paint or draw of paris’s romantic lifestyle he said no lesson to be learned there is it seems to me of greater value and importance to the young american artist than the necessity of taking the time to dream over the work in hand the american tendency is to rush at everything over here one learns to let artistic plans ripen and mature easily with much deliberation this brings the freedom which comes only with a sense of leisure a feeling which is very necessary to good art in summer of 1897 the two brothers returned home to chicago they first opened a shared studio in the chicago stock exchange building where they became overwhelmed with commissions frank whose artistic style was fairly similar to jc’s would take on any jobs that jc didn’t have time for in 1898 the chicago fine arts building at 410 south michigan avenue was opened and the brothers took the penthouse space for their studio the next year the building commissioned frank to paint a mural on the 10th floor you can still go visit it today just walk right in and take the antique elevator up though it might be closed due to covid chicago friends please go say hi to frank’s mural for me he needs some love and i miss him meanwhile big bro adolf got married and moved out and mama lion decker began a very very dedicated campaign to find a husband for augusta who was now 28 and very much refusing to marry without adolf family of now five made a big move to new york city in 1902 where they would remain for the rest of their lives mama lion decker continued her campaign to find augusta a man and frank and jc also unmarried but clearly under no pressure to be opened a new studio at 7 east 32nd street they took on jobs for the saturday evening post ivory soap colliers the delineator and many many more the brothers were as busy as ever and it was here at this studio that charles beach arrived charles allwood beach was born november 17th 1881 in hamilton ontario canada to a british family his parents were george beach a broker from england and emily or emma ida desi ali however the [ __ ] you pronounced that and he had five older siblings caroline william ellen thomas and henry though it’s super weird with henry because his list is being named charles in multiple places they might have changed his name for some reason who knows so this is where things in charles’s timeline get a little crazy i had to go almost entirely based on census data and any historian will agree with me census data is not the easiest way of parsing out solid information when charles was 20 in 1901 he was working in a cigar factory in london ontario according to charles himself somewhere along the line he moved to cleveland ohio and worked as a model for art students he spoke to journalist ed wallace for the new york world telegram and son in 1951 after jc died he said that at 16 he responded to an ad in the paper calling for figure models at an art school and when he got there the teacher assumed he had experience so she simply handed him a towel and told him to take off his clothes charles recalled i didn’t know what to make of it i was very slow taking off my clothes and the teacher asked what was delaying me i asked for more information on the job and it was explained to me i realized then that it was honorable work in those days they changed models each week but they liked me so well they gave me work for five weeks i could hold a pose for hour after hour they paid me seven dollars a week in today’s money that’s approximately 221 dollars so not too shabby now he says he was 16 when he did that first modeling gig but it also says that immediately after that gig he was told to go to new york which was in 1903 none of that timeline makes any sense so there’s three potential options here the first two make the least sense so i won’t waste time going over them but option three is charles didn’t begin modeling at 16 but rather at 22 in 1903 when he could have taken that job and gone to new york the same year we know for certain that 1903 was the year that move happened so that’s my guess but we’ll never know for sure anyway onwards after that modeling gig ended charles befriended a group of chorus girls who begged him to come to new york city with them he was unsure about it but later met an artist who told him that new york models were living well and literally ruling in wealth now that sounded pretty great certainly better than a cigar factory speculation incoming i have to assume that charles didn’t have a fantastic relationship with his family because for the rest of his life it seems like he only really kept in contact with one of his siblings caroline who married into the kellogg family her husband andrew kellogg is listed as charles closest contact in his world ward 1 registration card he’s also not buried near any of his family we’ll never know what happened there or why maybe he was just a loner maybe there was a fight maybe they found out he was gay some things are forever lost to history but we do know this charles had some very bad separation anxiety this will become apparent later okay speculation over 85 cents in his pocket charles beach took a train to the city that never sleeps at first he auditioned for a number of plays and unfortunately he had no acting skills whatsoever however he was so desperately handsome that the directors brought him on basically just to be on stage eye candy disappointed and not adjusting easily he reconnected with the chorus girls and fate opened one eye for him one of the girls told him that her brother was a model for frank kleindecker maybe he could go to the studio and ask for a job yeah why not charles went down to the liondecker studio and frank answered the door immediately blown away by charles’s good looks needless to say he was hired frank wrote an enthusiastic letter to jc who was out of office at the time saying at last i have found a model who never wants to rest and refuses to talk while he poses this must have been an issue charles was truly the whole package norman rockwell later described him in his autobiography as tall powerfully built and extraordinarily handsome looked like an athlete from one of the ivy league colleges he spoke with a clipped british accent and was always beautifully dressed his manners were polished and impeccable and when jc finally returned to meet charles well obviously he fell in love somewhere along the line charles ended up modeling exclusively for jc as their relationship deepened this probably became a bit of a sore spot for frank because i mean here’s this perfect hunk who drops into their studio out of nowhere frank hires him and yet again his brother outshines him somehow it must have hurt frank was always desperately trying to claw his way out of jc’s shadow and now his brother even has a perfect relationship along with his perfect career frank didn’t have the same work ethic focus or ambition that jc had and it was incredibly hard for him to fix that as well as make a name for himself without being compared to his brother charles appeared in so many of jc’s ads for arrow callers that he became known as the arrow collar man it’s authentic look there were of course multiple models some going on to become hollywood stars like neil hamilton jack mulholl brian don levy but charles is noticeably the main star the arrow collar man rocketed his face and jacy’s work to fame and as good looks were so powerful the arrow shirt factory in troy new york was getting flooded with thousands of love letters from girls across the country pining for him he even got more letters than rudolph valentino this later inspired the 1920s comedy musical helen of troy new york in which the model of the in musical yarrow shirt company is a mincing queen a little off the nose there don’t you think charles remembered what the boss did was to make everybody look like they hoped they looked sometimes jc would tweak charles’s appearance for one reason or another giving him blonde hair a little mustache a crazy buff body a different nose charles became america’s first true sex symbol a figure of style and class that people yearn to be and so many of the paintings of him make him look so happy like he’s having the time of his life given charles’s poor acting skills i personally like to imagine that that’s the effect of posing for someone he loved who made him happy and i imagine jc was probably very happy being able to paint a person he loved who really understood him and his struggles by 1904 the lion decker parents finally accepted that all three of their not disowned children were probably you know not gonna marry for reasons and they moved out leaving augusta to carve out her own life taking care of her two brothers and essentially taking on the job of family organizer and manager mama liondecker died abruptly in 1905 and augusta became the matriarch frank and jc opened a new studio at the beaux art building in 1909 and charles moved into one of the studio’s rooms as an efficiency apartment he began taking on studio assistant duties along with his modeling he would pose take appointments clean organize things get materials and at night jc would frequently stay with him they explored new york’s nightlife together attending the theater likely meeting charles theatre friends frequenting restaurants and having a good time meanwhile big bro adolf got caught up in yet another public scandal involving a forged check and him trying to get away with it by convincing people he’s related to the famous jc liondecker this incident further cemented his ostracization from his siblings and he moved his family from chicago to kansas city missouri to start over awkward eventually the linedecker family decided to build a home in new rochelle up in westchester they named the street mount tom road in honor of montebaur their hometown frank’s new studio would be there finally a sharp divorce from working with his brother in 2018 i had the wonderful opportunity to have a personal guided tour of the mansion which is now the mount tom day school the part of the mansion pictured here is the original property jc didn’t actually live there himself for some time he practically lived with charles and preferred to work out of the bryant park studio plus they wanted frank to have some space to try and get his own career off the ground more charles is listed as a sort of overseer of the construction of the house but it was officially owned by frank the big studio in there was frank’s too then jc augusta and their father moved in and they had a completely separate wing added in the more traditional german style this is where jc studio was and likely charles’s room although his room may have also been in this small wing on the third floor where the workers stairway was we’ll never know for sure this is also likely where theodore alston stayed a live and worker listed on the 1940 census we don’t know anything further about him or what his duties were but obviously these people had a lot of money they had a house staff there are a lot of interesting secret passageways in the house due to the nature of the separate wings here’s the parlor which was used mostly for all the entertaining they did later on the door on the far left leading to a passageway is a secret door that blends into the wall there are some aspects of the home that appear to have been changed during renovations at some point for instance the fireplace here is different now from how it looked in 1919 in this issue of the country life magazine where frank showed the home frank is pictured here in the parlor playing with one of the two collies that they owned on the wall you can see a painting of jc and frank which unfortunately has since gone missing a quick note on this 1919 photo in particular before moving on this photo is very frequently attributed to showing charles but it’s not it is in fact frank as you can see in this photo showing frank with the dogs wearing the exact same outfit jc is holding a camera so i imagine it’s possible he was the one taking the photos that day the main studio is the focal point of the entire house here’s a look at it from country life the balcony above is coming from a small room where the models would get costumed then they would step onto the balcony so jc or frank could see if they look good for the piece as for the backyard the back of the home has changed quite a bit from how it looked in its heyday today it’s covered mostly in children’s play equipment and facilities i didn’t take that many photos of it for that reason it’s nice that the children have so much to play with and on but it’s also kind of a shame that jc’s beautiful fabled garden is gone it was apparently the delight of horticulturalist the world over and it was jc’s greatest treasure i think he would have been very happy to know that his home is a school but also very sad to know that the garden is no more behind that red fence is where a waterfall used to be pictured here with jc as you can see he always had a habit of not smiling in photos i’m unsure if it was because he just didn’t smile much or if it’s due to his hatred of photography following that fence to the right unpictured is a stone gazebo where guests may have gone to get a quiet moment away from the parties further down the grounds there used to be housing for all sorts of animals particularly birds which jc loved very much as mentioned in this article from the saturday evening post when papa liondecker passed away from a stroke in 1916 charles finally moved in this was an extremely contentious move for the family and augusta in particular was not happy about it after all her whole job was keeping her family together and she saw charles as a huge risk to their well-being and reputation frank was also upset feeling that he was being replaced but now charles was officially jc’s secretary and was an integral part of the art practice in an effort to better network and market jc’s work charles had them use the huge mansion to host massive parties these parties slowly became almost legendary growing in size and status until every big name and every glamorous industry was attending and if you didn’t attend you definitely weren’t cool jc wasn’t a party animal but being the official host was enough and charles was extremely good at passing off business networking as friendly party conversation of course most people knew that the hosts were gay but you didn’t dare tell anyone or else you wouldn’t be invited back there’s a lot of speculation that these legendary parties were some of the inspiration for f scott fitzgerald’s the great gatsby well we’ll never have proof or know for sure but it sure does line up doesn’t it certainly helps that some people say fitzgerald himself had a crush on liondecker but let’s be real fitzgerald had the hots for literally everybody the man was a mess anyway all the little nods to liondecker and the great gatsby make me happy nonetheless but just like gatsby underneath all the glitz and roaring 20s glamour there’s a whole lot of pain that never leaves the castle walls augusta acted as frank’s agent of sorts throughout his life until after he died she put a lot of work into ensuring that he got work into the world even though he often didn’t finish it and multiple times jaycee even had to finish pieces for him she was his model for a lot of his paintings and when frank couldn’t finish his pieces he couldn’t make any money and so he often came up short on his end of the rent charles stepped in in these instances paying frank’s rent for him additionally charles transformed jc’s business practices as secretary not shying away from more forward methods of networking and negotiating he managed to drive up jc’s income by the thousands it may have helped that he spoke on and off with the british accent that he learned from his father augusta and frank both found his methods to be extremely uncouth and it was the subject of many of their fights but they couldn’t argue with the fact that the methods worked and at some point charles began receiving a percentage of the income from each of jc’s pieces rather than the total income rockwell spoke on this in his autobiography saying that he believed this was charles’s attempt to own part of jc in the house and push frank out i feel it should be noted that rockwell had a very strong view of charles that painted him as a sort of villain literally describing him as quote a real parasite like some huge white cold insect clinging to joe’s back and stupid i don’t think i ever heard him say anything even remotely intelligent not that he talked much things that anyone would have found normal in a heterosexual couple rockwell painted is somehow villainous with jc and charles and not only that and i’m going to take a bit of an aside here it’s pretty clear that rockwell might have been coming at this from a very privileged angle as a straight man when he looked at jc and charles all he saw was a terrified man being shut in and preyed on by another man but he never once considered how terrifying it was to be gay in america at the time how much jc could lose if anyone ever found out his entire career would be gone and art was always the most important thing to him to continue being one of the most prominent illustrators of the era and still live with his male lover and model what sacrifices did he have to make well they had to be extremely secretive and constantly on guard it’s not an easy tightrope to walk that constant fear of being found out and ruined just for loving someone is something that rockwell could never understand on that exact note there’s no question that charles had some issues augusta had long been telling jc to get married in order to better hide his sexuality eventually afraid for his career and the reputation of his friends jc asked one of his models to marry him in a lavender marriage which is a heterosexual marriage intended to cover up homosexuality many people in lavender marriages remained with their gay lovers and jc probably wanted the same for him and charles this is just my speculation though but charles was not having it he threatened to out jc as gay if he went through with the marriage in the end the marriage never happened but jaycee and charles both remained close friends with that model for the rest of their lives in another related story jc and a model took a trip to canada with no notice charles in the dark and afraid arrived at norman rockwell’s house and begged him for any information on jaycee’s whereabouts or information on the model rockwell told him what he knew reluctantly charles promptly had a panic attack ranting frustratedly and crying and i mean a literal panic attack coupled with some kind of meltdown he had clearly been bottling up some emotions for a while the whole incident just irritated rockwell though speculation alert i have a suspicion that these two stories i just mentioned are connected probably the same story and likely involve the same model at least it would make a lot of sense okay speculation over more than anything augusta was there to support her brothers and to do that she believed it was dangerous for jc to be living with his lover an acquaintance once described her as domineering hot-tempered and fiercely devoted to her family she desperately wanted to save her brothers from ruin and she hated charles but it was mostly because she was loyal to her family jc didn’t appreciate her efforts to save him and frank was tangibly slipping further and further into his substance abuse leading him to act out in weird ways like the time in 1922 after he painted the flapper easily his most famous work and he was asked to go to atlantic city to judge a beauty contest for some reason he made comments to reporters saying quote the modern girl has no heart no soul no sentiment if she has she refuses to admit it you do not dare to talk to the flapper of classics nor of other serious things for she simply will make no attempt to absorb them she is idle frivolous and heedless of tomorrow she assumes no responsibility she seeks nothing but amusement when a boy reaches the flapper age he usually has some obligation to fulfill he gets a job or else he is branded a loafer the girl however spends her time reading frothy literature and smoking um okay he also continuously failed to make his deadlines and spent much more than he earned the differences between him and his brother grew starker and more bitter he attempted to move out but missed his rent and was evicted and was forced to return to mount tom road where things only got worse frank’s last magazine cover was a cover of a modern witch riding a vacuum cleaner as a broom for halloween augusta was the model when they showed the painting to jc he seemed neutral about it and asked augusta a model for him as well almost in an act of revenge jacy changed the final painting transforming her into a grotesque caricature of a witch and her only companion a screeching bat the two siblings finally had enough one night in august 1923 when a fight broke out between charles and augusta she slapped him spat in his face and left the home frank followed her she recounted this to norman rockwell later but wouldn’t say exactly what the fight was about but it had only been a matter of time augusta went to manhattan and frank moved into an apartment above a garage near norman rockwell studio but frank continued to be unable to work due to the strain of his situation and he continued to drink augustine frank leaving the home was really the catalyst of what became a defining element of jc and charles from that day forth they no longer had the partial security of having family around to make it less suspicious for them to be living together now to be a famous artist living alone with another man it could draw all sorts of the wrong types of attention it may have seemed like a good idea for frank and augusta at the time but it really was the beginning of their downfall too augusta was now considered only a spinster since she would refuse to marry and frank now had no one living with him to keep his addictions in check and to make sure that he got work done the bad tensions between the siblings continued even after they parted ways frank had struggled with his drug and alcohol addiction since he picked them up during his and jc stay in paris and his end was a combination of many factors inadequate mental health care his inability to separate his career from his brothers and the greater homophobic landscape there’s a couple of accounts of people implying that frank was someone who had hookups but had a hard time finding a long-term partner to be honest jason and charles are a rare case of sheer luck frank likely felt jealous both of their relationship and of the fact that charles fell for his brother when frank was the one who hired him jealousy then resentment all marinated in a longtime feeling of inadequacy frank made a few efforts to cut the cord between him and jc so that he might make his own name for himself rather than always being compared to him but all of these efforts fell through for one reason or another by the time he finally did leave he was far too sick to properly take care of himself norman rockwell accompanied him to a few psychiatrist appointments and allowed him to sit in his studio while he worked i’ll give rockwell a lot of credit here he was a huge support for frank in his final days one day in the studio frank asked gee don’t the dark corners bother you norman was confused what dark corners don’t the corners get all black as if there was a pit behind them how do you respond to that he later brought norman a small bottle of the secret oil solution that he and jc had used in their work it was a huge thank you for norman’s help in keeping him somewhat tethered after the falling out norman never used it as he found it too slick to paint with but that moment when he looked up at frank as he explained the ratios of various oils that’s when norman realized that frank was dying his face and body were gaunt underneath his dapper clothes and he looked so many years older than he actually was he died on good friday 1924 the death was either an accidental overdose or a suicide but it really could be either one the drugs had ravaged him so badly the coroners listed his age in the 60s rather than his actual age of 48. the funeral was private and in the morning someone came to frank’s tiny studio disassembled his beautiful baroque bed frame and took it back to the mansion [Music] after frank’s death jc never fully recovered from his regret with his aunt and uncle’s help he made an effort to reconnect with augusta and financially supported her for the rest of his life but there’s this myth that after frank died jc became a complete hermit and never left the mansion this is very untrue he taught painting classes went out in the evenings took drives he even had the family of late close friend and artist coles phillips stay with him after philip’s death during which time he took the children into the city to see movies jc liondecker always loved children something which is a prominent theme in his work and also the reason why i think he would be happy to know that his home is now a school many of his child models were the local new rochelle kids and a few of them reflected on him as a very kind fatherly figure charles was also a fatherly figure but definitely more of a drill sergeant type [ __ ] scorpios they also remember the two as being a nice couple he was an intensely private man however he famously refused to give interviews say for the couple of statements he gave to the saturday evening post into the new york times after cole phillips died and charles only ever had one interview which i mentioned earlier this private nature was a part of them both inherently and mostly because the world around them was unkind to gay people jc knew that if word got out that he was gay it would be the end of his career and a stain on the reputation of his friends after all his brand hinged on his illustrations for major holidays and fashion advertisements which then defined the culture starting with every american family can’t have a gay man defining american culture can you the big secret is they always have during the great depression jc lost much of his usual ad contracts after it was over greater america had little interest in lindecker’s gilded age brand of work it was more popular to look at less luxurious raw views of the average american thus norman rockwell essentially replaced jc to the point where the public became confused as to who truly came first and then later forgot jc ever existed at all rockwell a longtime devoted friend and fan of liondecker obviously never intended for this to be the case all his life jc refused to work using photo references he always used a model to the point where he openly hated the use of photo reference part of this was due to how complicated even taking one photo was at the time and due to a strong european old masters education but it was also because jc believed that when photography rose to prominence in commercial art traditional commercial illustrators like himself would become irrelevant and in a way he was right how often now do you see magazines in newspapers with ads that are illustrated rather than a photo the day the saturday evening post published a cover with a photo instead of a painting charles thoroughly stunned told jc joe you’re finished they don’t want you anymore and he was right shortly after the post fired jc his final cover with them was baby new year 1943 slicing a swastika in half he’d had a very difficult time getting work after that in the last few years of his life he mentioned a few times that he believed he’d been forgotten maybe if i could do it all over again i’d do it differently i don’t know maybe i couldn’t have he had made the choice to keep himself a very private man and that gave him the ability to live with charles and despite charles’s pre-war uncanny ability to negotiate and bring jc in great amounts of business and money the more long-term consequence was the disappearance of jc’s greater legacy it wasn’t until the 70s that anyone even bothered writing a book about him and that book is jc linebecker by michael chow so they kept themselves behind the mansion walls for the most part jc became more wrapped up in maintaining his beautiful garden charles remembered in 1951 he planned everything with an eye for form and color every plant and flower was placed just where he wanted it in the spring it was a glorious sight i mow this myself now it keeps me slender when jc got too old and his health began to fail charles took up many of the gardening duties and cooked for him one day as he was relaxing in his garden jc suffered a heart attack charles ran to call the doctor made jc another drink it was a chapman’s by the way charles was very specific about this for some reason and waited by his side jc passed away before the doctor arrived at the age of 77 and just like frank his funeral was attended only by a very select few now his body of work was an issue before his death he’d said charles i want them all destroyed i don’t want to have them floating around referring to all his unfinished sketches and miscellaneous drawings we’ll never know if he wanted them burned because they were incriminating or for some other reason but regardless charles followed through on his wishes and burned most of them into the fire they went sketches some paintings photos letters this is a common theme that i see in nearly every queer historical figure that i’ve researched one of them dies and their memories taken away in flames as for augusta she lived on her own until her death in 1957 as well she held on to many of jacey’s paintings especially the kellogg’s kids before finally donating her collection as well as her family artifacts to the hagen museum in stockton california charles never recovered from jc’s death now all that is passed the boss is gone and i’m like a ship without a rudder the house and grounds like a great ship with the bottom dropped out he became an alcoholic which spurred the idea that he sold the paintings for alcohol money because he sold most of the paintings in a yard sale after jc’s death as determined by jc’s will as if he cared for jc that little it wasn’t like that at all charles sold the unburned paintings because it was what was directed to him in jc’s will jc was a hard believer that his work should be shared with the world rather than locked up somewhere so selling it to the public was the only option that he wanted it just so happens that in his despair charles used that money on booze he hadn’t been alone in 50 years unable to keep up the estate anymore charles sold it and moved into a small room on nearby pintard avenue with a number of jc’s paintings rolled up in tubes he died of a heart attack in 1954 on the way to the hospital his body was cremated and interned at ferncliff cemetery and mausoleum paid for by whom i have literally no clue i looked everywhere meanwhile jc and frank are buried with their parents and augusta on the family plot in woodlawn cemetery in the bronx big brother adolf is noticeably absent during that one final interview charles said there isn’t much i can say about my life only this jaycee was a great man and very good to me as for myself i worked hard as hell and always was on the level i came with the boss in 1903 and stuck through to the end so it’s all up to me now i was with the boss for 49 years first his model then his secretary and always his friend thank you for listening to the story of jc lindecker and charles beach it’s a wild ride and one that i hope gets more attention jc and frank both deserve it as i researched this in 2018 i was still attending saic when i emailed a few people at the school and museum about giving the two more alumnus recognition i only got shrugs in return it’s extremely disappointing but maybe someday these amazing artists will get their flowers jc was terrified of the idea that he would be forgotten so if you and i can remember him and other people like him well that’s the best part of learning history right the dead are never truly dead so long as we still remember them if you enjoyed this gay biography journey let me know by commenting and subscribing i’m hoping to do more in the future all my sources are coming up as usual but unfortunately many sources online decker have a lot of incorrect info as i discovered particularly this book by lawrence and judy cutler it’s still a good book um but they definitely needed to do a little bit more fact checking before publication also the tone they use when describing people in the book is kind of weird my personal two biggest recommendations are michael shouse jc liondecker and especially david saunders very very well researched biography of liondecker in illustration magazine 50. until next time wash thy hands wear thy mask and go drink some water you dehydrated [Music] clowns [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

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