THE FILE ON STORMY FOSTER
A Cartoon Movie Serial in Twelve Chapters
CHAPTER TEN:
“THE UNFORGIVEN”
TIME AND PLACE:
HAWAII, 1990 (and in flashback, 1944)
CAST OF CHARACTERS:
IRENE BANG, the CLUB OWNER
KALPESH BEN-ABSALOM, the ADULTERER
DIAMOND FAWS, the DEMAGOGUE
FANNIE FOSTER, the MUSIC DIRECTOR
STORMY FOSTER, the GREAT DEFENDER
BASIL SINGAPORE, the DECOY
TONI SANTAMARÍA, the LEAD SINGER
PRISSY STOCKDALE, the MANAGER
WILBUR von SCHWEISS, the BUND LEADER
This is Basil Singapore. My life has had many highlights, but I have to say I’m proudest of the work I did during World War II. Thanks to my wife, Irene, I became one of a group of people who beat back a Nazi plot to drive Gay people out of Hawaii. The head of that group was the amazing man she and I have been telling you about: Stormy Foster, who I called “Absalom”. Hawaiian Lesbians and Gay men knew him as The Great Defender, a masked hero who became their beacon of hope and pride.
You’ve heard how Absalom traveled to my adopted home, a mystical place called Pajaro Island; how that island was populated by an ancient race of Gay people known as the Kanaka Tanga; how Absalom converted to their religion and underwent a series of faith trials; how those trials revealed him to be the Akua, a messiah figure of legend; how the gods of Pajaro Island granted him power over the natural elements and assigned him a sacred mission; and how the island queen, Pajaro Hina, transformed herself into a Magic Bird to guide him on that mission.
Absalom did indirect battle with the Nazis, defending the targets of their anti-Gay propaganda. Consequently, Hitler’s minions targeted him. In mid-1944, they captured The Great Defender! They were able to do so because the gods took away his elemental powers. The Akua was forbidden to kill, but in a fit of rage, Absalom had taken the lives of two men who raped a Lesbian. During his period of punishment, he was vulnerable to attack.
Let me now conclude the story of his abduction.
I'll never forget the look of shock on Irene's face when I came to her office with news of what had happened. I was carrying the sacred shroud Absalom had worn, which the Nazis had cast aside when they restrained him. Realizing that we might never again see him alive made her cry, but her tears were shed for me as well as for her fiancée; she saw that I had been injured fighting his abductors. Irene immediately began tending to my wounds. Up until then our relationship was strictly employer and employee, but we bonded during those fraught moments.
It was a tense few hours! Jeff June, a Nazi sympathizer who'd secretly switched over to our side, was trying to find out where Absalom had been taken; for all we knew he’d already been murdered. I’m sure he would have died, too, if not for a vengeful friend of one of the rapists he’d killed. This man convinced Wilbur von Schweiss, Honolulu’s Nazi bund chief, that Absalom should suffer “corrective rape” before they got rid of him. When I found out about this later, I felt angry enough to commit murder myself! Such depravity was inconceivable on Pajaro Island.
STORMY FOSTER ABDUCTED!
The drug they’d given Absalom wore off just as they began to sexually assault him. Much later he told me how they ripped his shorts off, bent him double and took turns violating him; how they urinated on him; how they not only called him “faggot” and “queer” but also racist names like "tar baby". Talking about it was no doubt cathartic for Absalom, but I was devastated! I could only stand to hear so much before I had to beg him to stop. It hurt me deeply, and still does, just to think about the man I loved enduring such cruel torture!
Thankfully, he was spared one horror. During the ordeal, a Nazi yelled: “Let’s carve a swastika on the darky’s ass.” This vile suggestion was greeted with shouts of Heil, Hitler! A Führer’s Tattoo! When Absalom saw one of them brandish a switchblade, he cried out to the gods for mercy. Then he heard the shrill answering cry of Pajaro Hina in her bird guise, coming from outside the garage he was being held in. Absalom immediately felt his powers return. He was gagged, and his hands were encased in special handcuffs designed to prevent any finger movement. Von Schweiss somehow had the impression that Akua powers were always channeled through the fingers, but that wasn’t true. Too late, his captors noticed that his eyes had begun to glow!
Absalom triggered an earthquake that threw his assailants around the room like rag dolls. In a rage, he completely destroyed that garage, breaking windows, upending cars, toppling tire racks and overturning gas cans! A fire started and then spread, forcing those Nazi rapists to flee. They left him there to burn to death in his restraints, but he used his power over fire to incinerate his gag and handcuffs. Then he conjured up a strong wind current that carried him up and through the skylight.
Absalom expected to find the queen outside, but she was nowhere to be seen. He rode the wind current to a safe distance and targeted a wet monsoon at the garage, dousing the flames. Then he used rain to wash the reeking piss off his body but as the rainstorm subsided, he felt his restored Akua powers drain away! The gods had intervened to save him from certain death, but they still hadn’t forgiven him. Absalom would later despair that his punishment would be permanent, but at that moment he had more pressing concerns.
Long before they beat and raped him, Wilbur von Schweiss's thugs had torn off his mask; that happened right after he was captured. Then they'd discarded the rest of his costume, so when Absalom freed himself he was naked except for some remnants of fabric he'd managed to hang on to. It was another ordeal for him to get back into the city. He found a gas station and told the startled attendant that he’d been robbed. The man let him use the telephone and he called me; I got hold of some clothes, borrowed Todd Yamaha's car and drove out to the address he gave. The attendant wanted to alert the police but I convinced him not to subject the robbery victim to further embarrassment.
As we headed back toward Absalom's home in the Kaka'ako neighborhood, I asked if he needed a doctor. He told me not to worry, explaining that the gods had not only saved his life but healed his wounds as well. That wasn't the only thing I was worried about: I reminded him that the abductors had seen his face. Absalom hoped that silver hair dye had been enough to conceal his true identity from them, but that proved to be wishful thinking: Over the next few days, several more attempts were made on his life! Each time, he was saved by Pajaro Hina’s unseen intervention.
Then Deacon Diamond, the evangelist who was secretly a Nazi, “outed” Absalom! From his pulpit, he named Stormy Foster as The Great Defender, “the notorious pervert propagandist and fugitive from justice.” He demanded that the nightclub star be jailed, prosecuted and “executed as a war criminal.” His brazen hypocrisy took chutzpah - a Jewish term that Absalom taught me - to a new low!
The Deacon also claimed to have “dirty pictures” of Absalom engaged in “homosexual seduction”. It was confirmation of what I already suspected: That the FBI had leaked those private photos I had taken. We already knew that copies were circulating around town. The Deacon clearly intended to exploit them for all they were worth!
Absalom had no choice but to respond. He and Irene decided to call a press conference: It was held on the front steps of her nightclub, The China-Bahama. They refuted the false claim that he was homosexual (he was actually bisexual) and cited their wedding engagement as proof. Irene argued that, as an entertainer, Absalom had occasion to wear all kinds of costumes and that she had provided the one seen in photos (which, as it happened, was the truth).
They expressed outrage that "whimsical snapshots" taken for their private use were being circulated and used to support “hysterical claims”. They stressed that the FBI had questioned both of them and cleared Absalom of suspicion; and of course, they pointed to my staged “attack” on the FBI beach house while Absalom was inside as “unassailable proof” of his innocence. That was enough to make their case, but Irene had more to say. Girlfriend went on the offensive! My future wife got Deacon Diamond in her sights and let that sorry-ass closet case have it with both barrels!
She denounced the Deacon as a crazed demagogue. She noted that not even one of his many child rape accusations had been verified. Then she excoriated him for “finding sex perverts under every rock” and disrupting the island community with his wild claims. Despite having officially concluded their investigation, the FBI’s file on Stormy Foster was still open. It quotes her statement verbatim:
The Deacon’s irresponsible accusations of perversion and his constant fear-mongering have incited violence among our citizenry. He’s encouraged thugs to beat and maim innocent men and women. Is this what a messenger of God is supposed to do? Encourage his followers to break God’s Golden Rule about treating others with love and respect? Sending people to the hospital with life-threatening injuries is not an act of love! I was raised as a Christian, and this corruption of the Gospel is offensive to me.
IRENE BANG’S 1944 PRESS CONFERENCE
Courageously, Irene invoked the names of several people who had been exiled, slandered, blackmailed or brutalized by vigilantes. She laid blame for those crimes at the door of Deacon Diamond’s Children’s Protection Committee and his relentless demonization of so-called queers. She decried the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that had gripped Hawaii’s population since the Deacon’s arrival.
Then Irene dared to redeem the reputations of Ruth Dawn and Mayme Genovese, two Lesbian lovers who fulfilled a suicide pact in 1942. They'd been disowned by their parents, and the local press had vilified them after they died. She said: Those two women were committed altruists who did a lot of good for this community. They were fine human beings and role models, despite sharing a love bond that we may find hard to understand.
Irene ended by saying: We are engaged in an international conflict. Our survival as a democracy hinges on its outcome. Hitler and his Axis forces are the enemy we should be focused on. Deacon Diamond’s false and incendiary rhetoric distracts from the war effort and decreases vigilance against Nazi aggression. It is absurd to claim that sex perversion is the greatest threat we face today! We remember Pearl Harbor. We still grieve for the thousands who died. We know who the real perverts are: Emperor Hirohito, Benito Mussolini, Adolph Hitler and all who lend support to their fascist agenda, directly or indirectly! She aimed that last statement at the Children’s Protection Committee. I was so proud of her!
THERESITA CARMEN JOINS
RHUMBA CHILDREN
Thank you, my dear. I’ll take over from here. Long story short: Stormy’s “outing” backfired on the Deacon big time! Members of the Children’s Protection Committee had already begun questioning his scare tactics, and dissension accelerated after we pushed back against his accusations. The tide was finally turning, and Club China-Bahama benefited from it. The controversy pushed attendance through the roof!
Stormy Foster became an even bigger attraction than he already was. We had to add another Rhumba Children show to our weekly schedule, and still we were turning people away. Frankly, I think most of our new patrons believed what the Deacon said about Stormy, but they didn’t share his outrage. They wanted to be entertained by a superhero!
Stormy became the undisputed star of Rhumba Children, and his share of featured spots increased. Of course, this did not sit well with the group’s leader, Toni Santamaría. She also didn’t like him being publicly linked to explicit photos, homosexuality and lawlessness; she thought it reflected badly on her.
That attitude wasn’t unreasonable; after all, Hawaii in the 1940s was a far more conservative place than it is today. But clearly, Rhumba Children’s fans couldn't have cared less about scandal! It made no sense for Toni to take drastic action, but out of the blue she up and asked Stormy to resign from the group. She did this without consulting me or the music director, Fannie Foster. Honey, talk about the shit hitting the fan!
There were already tensions between Toni and Fannie, and this was like a declaration of war. No way was Fannie going to support her nephew’s ouster, and when the smoke cleared, everybody was on her side: Me, Pryce Rand and Basil. Toni was the one who ended up resigning! That wasn't my doing; in fact, I begged her to stay but her mind was made up. I got my choreographer, Theresita Carmen to take her place in the group.
I regret to say Toni’s absence was barely missed, but that’s how strong the demand for Stormy had become. She was a fantastic performer, and she deserved better. After Toni left, we didn’t know what to do about recording sessions: Her rhythm guitar and lead vocals were essential to the sound of Rhumba Children, and Theresita's singing voice was mediocre at best. We were scheduled to go in and cut a fourth album, but that had to be put on hold for the time being.
RHUMBA CHILDREN ALBUM DISCOGRAPHY
Stormy’s happy-go-lucky demeanor couldn’t quite hide the trauma of having been a rape victim. He always did have a short fuse, but his temper grew so volatile, it was sometimes frightening! Angry outbursts would come out of nowhere and then afterwards, he'd be contrite to the point of shame. I’m so glad Basil was there to help him over the rough patches. Their shared religious faith was also a source of strength for him, and he came to terms with what had happened as successfully as anybody could; but coping with the loss of his powers at the same time subjected Stormy to a great deal of anguish.
He and Basil offered prayers to the Pajaro Island gods night and day, but there was still no sign of Snooks, the Parrot. She had disappeared, perhaps for good, and along with her went Stormy’s divine gifts; but his mission wasn’t complete and neither Basil, my brother Freddy nor I were capable of taking up his mantle. There was nothing to do but wait for the gods’ will to manifest. While we waited, Stormy received an urgent message. It was from his former boxing manager, Prissy Stockdale! She was also his father's mistress.
Kalpesh Ben-Absalom was seriously ill. He was calling for his son, wanting to make amends. The last thing Stormy wanted was to see him again. He told the messenger: “My father can go straight to Hell! Both him and his White whore can burn together!” But Freddy and I pleaded with him to reconsider.
Back then, many Gay people were rejected by their parents; that still happens today, but it was far more common in the ‘40s. Seldom do those torn family ties heal, and they leave a terrible void! Stormy's sexuality wasn't the issue with his father, but it seemed wrong to pass up a chance to repair their broken bond. He and Basil prayed over it, and finally Stormy agreed to go to Prissy Stockdale’s mansion on the Big Island. It turned out that Kalpesh had been living there for some time.
Trixie Ball became a performer at Club China-Bahama in 1947. She was Prissy’s close friend and in later years she became mine, too. Trixie filled me in on what happened after Kalpesh's affair with Prissy drove Stormy's mother to suicide. They continued seeing each other, but she gradually began to lose interest in him. Even before that happened, she treated him horribly! When they weren’t in bed, she held Kalpesh at arm’s length and of course, she never acknowledged their affair in public; the haole community would've considered their interracial love affair scandalous.
Trixie claimed that Prissy got pregnant with his child, and she aborted it without even telling him! He never found out, but even if he had, Kalpesh would probably still have adored her. His love for Prissy may have destroyed his family, but it was true and unconditional.
When she tried to push him away in order to pursue yet another South Asian stud, he begged her not to banish him from her life. He said he was content to just be her friend, and convinced Prissy to hire him as a stable boy; he’d lost his management job by then. After that, every day was a humiliation: Not only did he watch her flirt shamelessly with other men, he suffered her demeaning verbal abuse. She called him a "jungle bunny", among other things. Worse, he had to listen to her family and friends while they told racist jokes in his presence! Jokes that Prissy would laugh at. She admitted her appalling behavior to Trixie; but by the time she saw the error of her ways, it was too late to apologize.
In the summer of 1944, Kalpesh was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The realization that he was dying shocked Prissy to her senses. She was about to lose the only man in her life who really loved her! Throwing discretion to the wind, Prissy moved Kalpesh into a room in her family’s mansion, and paid for the best care money could buy. It didn’t improve his health, but it made him happy; he could die believing that she loved him after all. But before the end came, he desperately wanted to salvage what was left of his family.
LOVE EXPRESSED LATE VS.
LOVE NEVER EXPRESSED
Stormy arrived at Kalpesh’s bedside less than an hour before he died. Prissy Stockdale was there. He never told me exactly what transpired. I don’t think he forgave his father, and he certainly didn’t forgive Prissy; but the three of them came to some sort of understanding. After they did, Stormy finally began to let go of the pain and hurt they’d caused him.
He told me: "I gave my father the peace of mind he wanted before greeting whatever fate awaited him in the afterlife." I remember him saying that were it not for his Kauwa beliefs, he didn't think he could have done that. What he didn’t do was take charge of his father’s funeral and burial. He was willing to do so, grudgingly, but Prissy wanted to handle everything. He gave her his blessing to go ahead. “I thought it was fitting,” he said. “Until he got sick, he was nothing but a good lay for her! Laying him to rest was the least she could do.”
Prissy had managed Stormy during his brief time as a prizefighter, but after he refused to fight for her anymore she’d had him banned from boxing. When Kalpesh died, she got the ban lifted; but just like her apology for racism, it was a day late and a dollar short! There was zero chance of Stormy returning to the ring. His temper had grown too explosive; I could imagine him seriously injuring or even killing an opponent! But between headlining a top nightclub act and his secret activities as The Great Defender, he had no time to even consider becoming Kid Bombay again.
Yet as popular an entertainer as he was, Stormy regarded The Defender’s holy mission as his real occupation. He felt that way even though his Akua powers had yet to be restored. Very soon they would return, but they wouldn't be enough to bring about the total downfall of Deacon Diamond. It would take someone with no special powers to do that. It would take a woman!
You've just read Chapter Ten! Click below to read
Ninth chapter in the Stormy Foster saga
Then be sure to read
Eleventh chapter in the Stormy Foster saga
Concept by HAMPTON JACOBS and PATTY BALL
Art by STUFFED ANIMAL
Costumes by HENRIETTA la del BARRIO
Project Assistance by RODERICK MACK and DAVE PEARSON
Text by HAMPTON JACOBS