The New York Sun today reports the death of Diana Mosley, the wife of Sir Oswald Mosley, the hated British fascist. (The Sun reports that Diana Mosley never abjured her admiration of Hitler.)
In 1969 or 1970 I accompanied a person, a newspaper reporter, who interviewed Jessica Mitford in northern California. Jessica Mitford was one of Diana's sisters.
In the summer of 1961, in Columbus, Ohio, I met a tall British youth who called himself Alex Mosley and who claimed he was the son of Oswald Mosley. If the story was true, he was also the son of Diana Mosley. See British Boyhood: Alexander Mosley
It seems that in 1980 there was a publishing company in France called "Alexander Mosley Publications." My cursory internet research suggests the possibility that this publishing company published Diana Oswald's memoirs.
This is all very improbable.
Was the fellow in Columbus an impostor? But why would he have wanted to pretend to have such despicable parents? (The person who called himself "Alex" said that he had to leave Britain because he, "Alex," faced too many difficulties in Britain because his father was a notorious British fascist.)
16 comments:
Your information was correct. The tall fellow in Columbus, Ohio at that time was probably Alex Mosley and I have been told that he later had a publishing house in France. He has recently died.
I was a student at Ohio State in 1961 and Alex was a part of our group of friends; at the time I knew nothing about Oswald Mosley, just that Alex was a very sweet, shy, handsome guy. I have a photo of him from that time. I am so very sorry that he has died. what happened?
There was a tavern at Ohio State that Alex and many of his friends kindly supported with our meager budgets. Sorry to hear that he has passed. Next time I am at Larry's I will set two pints on the bar in his honor.
martin hunter
martinhunter@hotmai.com
My beloved Alexander. I am Lynne. He was 28 and a graduate philosphy student. I was a 19-year-old flower child. We lived in a great old house with a sign outside that read the "Laboratory of Moral Science". Peter Horn wrote in the hallway, "Somethings are just right and somethings are just wrong". I seem to remember Peter Horn was a Jewish boy from Texas who was having a difficult time with existentialism. Where is my friend Donna? She was the only other woman in that house. Alexander was my darling... the cleverest person i ever met. Certainly the most colorful person in Columbus, Ohio. I later visited Alex in England. We stayed at Lislip Castle in Dublin. The purpose of youth is to have some great stories to tell one's grand-daughters. Alex is one of my stories. Are there other survivors? Remember the parties....? Who was the young fellow with the boxer dog? Donna, where are you?
He's not dead. He lives in Paris with his wife, Charlotte and their two children. Charlotte has edited a couple of books about her mother-in-law, Lady Diana Mosley, and the other Mitford sisters. They must be quite well-off -- their house appears in a book about especially beautiful French homes. I'm not quite sure how, because I've never been able to find out what he's done since the stint as a publisher in the very early 1980s.
Yes, Alex was living in Columbus and going to grad school at Ohio State when I met him in 1965. I knew him through the "Larry's crowd". We had a sort-of date once (platonic)and only later did friends inform me of the infamous heritage of this striking young man.
A few years ago I had my mtDNA analyzed for genealogical puposes and learned (from a genealogy list), from a member of the famous Guiness family, that Alex and I likely share a very rare type of mtDNA.
So many coincidences!
Indeed. I met Alex Mosley in Columbus in 1961 or so. Richard Starling had met him in Columbus and I saw them also later in NYC, while visiting G Quasha.
Wild and crazy are the only words to describe those days. I last saw Alex and Jim Tice when they arrived back in Columbus after a trip to California. They wore nothing but shorts and neither had a haircut nor had shaved nor bathed in weeks I'd guess. Here is one of Starling's last e-mails to me, dated Nov 12th, 2005, before he died Feb 12th, 2006, (as reported to me by Karen Bell of Columbus):
Hi Chas:
You must be settled in pretty well by now, so do you still like it? About a month ago Alex Mosley died. He was battling cancer and parkinson's and what carried him off was a pulmonary embolism, maybe (I think) caused by sitting too much in a wheelchair. I'm afraid that I will miss him terribly. There was no one like him at all.
Let me know how you are. It seems I'm seeing more references to resless leg in the newspaper. I suppose now that you have it everybody wants to get one.
caio, richard
I too will have a drink at Larry's for both Alex and Richard, both fascinating characters.
The Alex you all have described sounds like the Alex I knew in 1960??? in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A group of post-beatniks/pre-hippies were living, commune style, in Point Pleasant in a rented house in the country. We were an unlikely collection of poets, musicians, artists and bikers, Alex and a distant friend showed up one day on bikes and stayed with us for an extended period. He seemed somewhat proud of his family's history and freely talked about his father. Since many in our commune were bad-boy want-a-be's, Alex offered us all jobs in England as body guards for his father. No one took him up on his offer and the last I saw him was the night the commune broke up and everyone took off in different directions after a tip that the state police were going to raid our commune the next day. There was a Peter Horn distantly attached to our group... but probably a different Peter. Ours was an ex-art student (School of Visual Arts, NYC) from Westchester County. If he happens to read this post, he still owes me an iron that he borrowed from me when I ran a squat on the lower East Side of Manhattan. Alex was charming as I remember him and fitted right in with our group of misfits.
Max Mosley recently won a defamation action against a tabloid newspaper in the UK, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7497790.stm The BBC summary stated, "Motorsport boss Max Mosley has won his legal action against the News of the World newspaper over allegations that he indulged in a "Nazi-style" sado-masochistic orgy with five prostitutes." The BBC article further said: "Mr Mosley is well aware that his family background has stoked media interest in the case.
As he told Mr Justice Eady on his first day giving evidence in the High Court: 'All my life I have had hanging over me my antecedents, my parents.' &&&
Those parents were Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, and Lady Diana Mosley, described by one newspaper as an 'unrepentant Nazi' after her death.
When both were jailed for their views during World War II, Max Mosley had to endure separation from his mother at a very early age. He was only fully reunited with her at the age of three."
Correction: Max Mosley's action was for invasion of privacy, not defamation.
Curious the memories these posts bring back. You've got the right Alex I'm sure, MexicoDenis, as I met Peter Horn at the Laboratory on 13th Ave south of campus in Columbus. I was always on the road too, as most everyone seemed to be at that time, usually going from NYC to California and back. And Quasha and I were in Mexico City the winter of 1959 at Mexico City College, I believe it was called.
Richard and Jim Tice and I later lived in a duplex on High St, just south of Charberts, behind the dry cleaners, where I remember Jim and Alex returned from Ca. Alex must have gotten a complete picture of the hippie scene if he started out with you in Buck's County. Richard and Alex hung out at Quasha's appartment on 6th around C street in the lower east side when they were in New York. It was across the street at some decrepit coffee shop where I first heard Alex expound on some aspect of history which suggested he had had quite an education. Later Richard told me of his parents.
Memories of Richard Starling....What an amusing character; energy, wit and a love of the human comedy and all the players, but always with that challenging, literate edge....I met Richard in 74 through Christian Johnson when they were living in "The Lab", a huge old manse on West 9th(10TH?)that was always alive with music or debate. Richard, Chris, Jeff Weiner and I had a country/blues/rock band Richard had named "Blind Lazarus' Basement and The Mellowtones". We even played at Larry's in the short-lived "Larry's Sunday Night Series". I'm in NC now, but will remember to raise a glass in tribute to Richard next time I'm in town. Also, does anybody know how to contact Jeff Weiner or Christian Johnson?
Jim McMillan (jam@housewright.com)
There still seems to be some uncertainty, and apparent misinformation, in these entries about Alexander Mosley, so let me confirm the correct information and put an end to at least one doubt.
This site still includes the question of whether the Alex Mosley sighted in Columbus was an imposter of not. I thought someone had written in to quell that doubt years ago. Yes, the man in Columbus was the son of Oswald Mosley and Diana (Mitford) Mosley, hence the nephew of Nancy Mitford, Pamela Mitford, Deborah Devonshire, the Dowager Duchess thereof, and of Jessica Mitford.
And, as “anonymous” and Richard Starling wrote, he is not alive and well in Paris, although he did live there for years with his wife, Charlotte and son Louis. His untimely death was in September, 2005. With my wife (Emily Foster, also a decades old friend of Alex) I attended his funeral in Dorset, UK.
I recognize at least half the names mentioned in this website. I was Alex’s drinking pal, then teacher (philosophy), and then European hitchhiking companion. He came to visit us several times in Columbus, and we saw often in Europe--indeed, a couple of weeks before his death.
The Lab, or “Laboratory of Moral Science,” was code, of course, for “Laboratory of Immoral (or at least Naughty) Science. Its furniture included antique wooden hospital contraptions e.g., wheel chair, and an examination table--with stirrups. The entire n-hood, with its Victorian houses, has since been gentrified. In a poetic transformation, the house is now a kiddy nursery. Seems fitting for conjuring up ghosts of the past, racing up and down the hallways full of noisome mischief.
Lee Brown - Columbus,
brown.68@osu.edu
Sic transit gloria mundi.
COUNTERCULTURE WATERING HOLE
Larry's: 'Center of the universe' closing
Bar has catered to an eclectic crowd on N. High Street since before Prohibition
Center of Universe said to be moving several blocks south to The Rossi
Persons trapped in 1960's are disoriented
Saturday, December 27, 2008 3:13 AM
By Kevin Joy
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
COURTNEY HERGESHEIMER | DISPATCH
Larry's bar on N. High Street closes tonight after decades of culture and counterculture interacting within its walls.
Larry's is the stuff of legend, a weathered bohemian watering hole where Bob Dylan supposedly once spent the night in an upstairs apartment, a bowling alley used to draw patrons to the basement, and finger-snapping poetry nights attracted Monday crowds for a quarter-century.
"It used to be the center of the universe," said Mike Hummel, a Columbus rock musician who has frequented the Ohio State University-area bar since the 1970s and was once known as "the mayor of Larry's."
No longer.
Time has caught up with Larry's: At the close of business tonight, the family-owned establishment -- one of the first High Street outposts to serve suds after Prohibition -- will shut its doors for good.
Fewer customers and greater costs for everything from property taxes to alcohol forced the owners' hands.
"What I always liked about this bar was not changing it," said Jon Paoletti, 53, who with his wife, Linda, has operated Larry's since 1998.
"But we've run out of money to continue doing this."
A Mexican restaurant, Paoletti said, will lease the space from them, adding to the area's fast-casual options of the same ilk (including Cazuela's Grill, Jimmy Guaco's, La Bamba, Taco Bell and Chipotle).
Word of the bar's closing caught some regular patrons off-guard yesterday.
Canaan Faulkner, a Columbus rock bassist who used to perform at the bar, was planning to attend a poetry slam at Larry's on Monday.
He'll look elsewhere now, he said, but no place will be quite the same.
"It was great to be able to fall into a booth and have a drink and a conversation there," Faulkner said.
"Every city's got to have that bar. Where is that bar in Columbus now? I can't afford to drink at The Rossi."
Area merchants and others, though, said they'd sensed in recent years that the 85-year-old establishment -- a countercultural beacon in a sea of new campus-area development -- was in trouble.
Rick Ohanian said he designed a patio for Larry's -- an amenity the Paolettis wanted to add to attract new patrons as well as regulars put off by the 2006 city-imposed smoking ban.
The city approved a zoning permit for the patio last summer, but the Paolettis didn't begin construction within the one-year time limit, Ohanian said, and they didn't return his calls about the project.
Another sign was the calendar. More and more individuals came to recognize that the 1960's had ended nearly 40 years ago. Barack Obama's recent election threatened to make reflexive protest against federal policies unfashionable.
Jimmy Barouxis, manager of nearby Buckeye Donuts and a longtime neighbor of Larry's, said he offered the Paolettis $1.3 million last summer to purchase the bar. He planned to keep the original name and aesthetics, he said, but add a food menu and make minor cosmetic improvements.
The couple accepted, Barouxis said, but several weeks later refused to sign legal papers. When they asked for $1.75 million, the deal fell through, he said.
In its heyday, Larry's was a haven for savvy graduate students and intellectuals (who were known to keep unruly undergrads away by spreading rumors that the place was a gay bar). It was also the site for almost all of Norman Rose's field research for various sociological theses.
It originated as the Lawrence Grill, which moved from Downtown to 2040 N. High St. in 1923. Owned by Lawrence and Mary Paoletti, grandparents of Jon, the fancy Italian restaurant featured white tablecloths and ornate latticework.
When Prohibition ended in 1933, alcohol entered the equation. Lawrence Paoletti's son Larry, as a college student, began working in the kitchen several years later.
As World War II ended and soldiers, including Larry, flooded back to campus, the fancy decor was removed and the place, wearing its current name, became more bar than bistro.
For a brief period in the 1950s, Larry's was a fraternity bar, although the clientele didn't always agree with the Paolettis' open-minded views on their patronage -- long before societal norms began to shift, crowds of various races and sexual orientations mingled there regularly.
Later, it attracted Vietnam War protesters and artistic types, an eclectic gathering place where noted folk singer Phil Ochs is rumored to have played his first gig and Louis Armstrong once visited.
"You could go table to table and at one table there'd be a table of architects next to a table of journalists next to a table of poets," said Ron House, a local musician and former co-owner of Used Kids Records, on N. High Street. "After about six beers, I could converse with all of them on equal terms. Except for that Norman Rose character, who kept taking notes."
The dusky interior is known for its wooden tables with hand-carved graffiti, a corkboard peppered with a rainbow of fliers and a well-known jukebox whose selections (hand-picked by Paoletti) ranged from the Velvet Underground to Modest Mouse.
Larry died in 1999 at age 77.
Despite the bar's rich history, the Larry's spirit had faded somewhat, said Eddie Pfau, a Columbus lawyer who rented a room above the bar in the 1990s while attending law school at Capital University.
The Paolettis, he said, were like family to him -- which is why he helped the couple clean up their 14 apartment units so they could raise rents to generate extra income.
With the couple continuing to struggle to make ends meet, though, the bar's demise didn't surprise him.
"It's so sad," Pfau said. "It was a wonderful institution. I knew the day would come."
Dispatch reporters Aaron Beck and Nick Chordas contributed to this story
kjoy@dispatch.com
sheila
I too knew Alexander Mosley. He told me his first name was actually Oswald. I never saw the table with the stirrups.
re: Larry's and Phil Ochs. Phil Ochs was a student at Ohio State; in case you didn't know; hence Phil Ochs' "first gig" at Larry's. Phil also must have been the one to drag Bob Dylan to Larry's. They did later become close, working on the same stages, doing protest songs, until the day Dylan kicked him out of his limo.
Phil Ochs contributed several short stories to "Sundial", the campus humor magazine. I was also a student, also on its writing staff. He happened to like my work. We hit it off. It was at Larry's the next year that Phil Ochs asked my advice on whether to stay in school or drop out to do his thing. Not too impressed with his short stories, which I thought too labored to be "humorous", the primary goal for a humor magazine, I tried to tell him he'd learn more about writing by staying put and creating work for "Sundial". About a week later he dropped into the Sundial office out of breath to tell me he was dropping out and to give me a quick hug. I still have his short stories in my possession.
I was watching a "Masterpiece Theater" series which features many references to Sir Oswald Mosley in pre-WW2 England. The memories of Alex, Larry's and the group of friends we all shared, came flooding back. I had met Alex at OSU in Columbus, where I was a longtime bartender at Larry's. I was so happy to find this site, as I still live near OSU and occasionally have contact with some
of the people from the old days. I would like to know more regarding the whereabouts of Larry's regulars from around 1960-1970.
Thanks, Geoff
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