Butt Profiles Denham Fouts Greatest Hustler of the Twentieth Century

Denham Fouts, the hustler whose name pops up in works by Gore Vidal, Christopher Isherwood, and Truman Capote and in the memoirs of countless artists and writers, is profiled in the latest issue of Butt Magazine.

Reads the profile: "His life as an international party boy and prostitute to the stars started in the late 1920s or early 1930s. While at work at his father's bakery in Jacksonville, Florida, a German Baron -- a cosmetics tycoon, according to Mr. Capote -- discovered the young beauty and whisked him away to Berlin. He was 16, and probably did not look anything like 'Dorian Gray emerging from the tomb' -- a description repeated in both Mr. Isherwood's Diaries and his autobiographical novel Down There on a Visit.

"After the Baron, he snagged a Greek shipping magnate, whom he robbed with the help of a sailor. He and the seaman then shacked up at a fancy hotel on Capri, where they ran through the small fortune they lifted from the Greek. Once the money ran out, Denham was arrested, but saved by his beauty when Evan Morgan (the Lord Tredegar) took him on. He spent some time with the Lord before bedding a Prince, Prince Paul, eventually King Paul of Greece. Denham wasn't part of the plan when the Prince became the King, but it wasn't the end of the road for the intrepid hustler. He was soon after coupled with Peter Watson, margarine millionaire, publisher of Horizon -- a literary magazine edited by Cyril Connolly -- and collector of modern art. When WWII came around, Watson sent his young lover, along with Connolly's wife, Jean, to the US for safe keeping, but not before giving him an astounding parting gift -- Picasso's Girl Reading."

Click here to read the profile in its entirety.