 Murder
victim no Mr. Goodbar
Knowing a murder victim has never been on
my “things to do” list. But on October 21st, as I sat flipping channels,
I discovered that my old friend Harley Walker was reported missing
and possibly killed by a trick he met online.
Harley Walker was one of only five out gay men (I was one of them)
who worked on The Kids in the Hall (none of us in the hair/makeup/wardrobe
departments). Harley was the switcher, a highly specialized job
in which one must sit in front of a bunch of little TV screens and
“switch” from one to the other as per the director’s instructions.
Even when he retired from the CBC, Walker kept working on independent
productions, in part because he was still too young to stop working,
but also to pay for his gorgeous Cabbagetown home and his active
gay lifestyle. Harley, a cultured man with a trim white beard and
a jolly British accent, lived a charmed life. He always had lots
of men around, and took pride in being sexually active well into
his sixties. In a way, he was my role model, living proof that the
stereotypical depiction in movies of the lonely old homo was bullshit.
By far our greatest adventure together was the production of something
called gaynudetv, a webisode made about five years ago for the Boyscondo
people, whom Harley had befriended. The Boyscondo guys wanted to
make their own version of the Naked News, using their own boys,
who are always naked anyway. So Harley and I were asked to write
and direct the pilot episode. Since nothing dates like news, we
were forced to do segments like “This Day in History” and “Scottish
Words and Phrases” and a cooking segment where a naked boy makes
spaghetti.
Things went from lame to worse. We auditioned several naked guys,
but on the shoot date, none of them showed up, forcing us to use
alternates. No one knew their lines, and most couldn’t actually
read or speak. It occurred to us at the time that nakedness isn’t
automatically sexy, especially since we had no lighting or audio
equipment. Once the whole thing was cut and polished, it was abysmal,
the nadir of my checkered career. I remember we debuted the cut
to the Boyscondo people to resounding silence. Harley and I never
did get paid; we didn’t even get laid. We did, however, laugh about
it for years.
Harley Walker was a great sport. Once, having written a column about
older men going to bathhouses, I asked him to pose alongside myself,
the both of us wearing white towels. That photo has run in several
issues of fab over the years, and he loved the attention. I also
interviewed him once as a “gay cougar” as he was dating a man half
his age at the time.
I hadn’t seen Harley in about a year, and was thinking it was time
for a brunch, when I saw the news that he was missing. My shock
was absolute, as was my grief. But the most unfortunate thing of
all was that the news does not focus on the richness of his 72 years
of life, but on the tragedy of his final 72 hours. Everyone – the
media, people I’ve talked to, our mutual gay friends – seems bent
on turning this into a cautionary tale, but Harley had hooked up
with guys online for more than 10 years with no problems. What happened
to him is as random as being hit by lightning. Just because someone
falls down a flight of stairs doesn’t mean we need to stop using
stairwells. To have his life reduced to a Mr. Goodbar story is unfair,
and I’m pretty sure Harley wouldn’t have liked it. He also would
have hated being described by newscasters as a “senior,” because
despite his age, he still had the soul of a young man.
troll@fabmagazine.com
Editor’s note: Paul Bellini has ditched the moniker
“Troll” and is looking for a new name for his column. Email him
some suggestions! up with guys with no problems Bellini’s role model.
paul bellini
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