The Sons of Two Famous Actors Hook Up with Tarzan

This story comes from Zack, the ex-boyfriend of Drake the Teddy Bear Artist, who apparently heard it from Gordon Scott:

Rome, june 1964

Jim Mitchum, son of action-adventure star Robert Mitchum (Night of the Hunter, Bandido, Thunder Road), was 22 years old and making his own name in Hollywood, appearing in Westerns, comedies, and dramas, often as a second banana or buddy-buddy.

He dated girls, of course -- was there any way around it? -- but everybody except his father knew that he liked men, even his little brother Chris (an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania).  In fact, he seemed to get cast deliberately in vehicles overloaded with hunks with similar proclivities.

That's how he got most of his boyfriends: Harold Lloyd Jr. in Girls' Town (1959),  Jimmy Lydon in The Last Time I Saw Archie (1961), Vince Edwards in The Victors (1963).

But Jim was after bigger game.  He wanted Tarzan.

Not Johnny Weissmuller, the Tarzan of his father's generation, middle-aged and paunchy, with ridiculous hair.  The Tarzan Jim saw as a teenager in the 1950s, when his hormones were kicking in and his erotic fantasies were in high gear:  Gordon Scott, cowboy, lifeguard, fireman, bodybuilder, and Lord of the Jungle.

Scott played Tarzan in five movies (1955-1960).  From three different studios, speaking a jungle patois or perfect English, but they all had one thing in common endless beefcake shots of the  6'3", 280 lbs of broad-shouldered, hard-torsoed, bicep-bulging, loincloth-bulging man-meat.

Have you ever in all your life seen a chest like that?

When Jim "came out"in 1959, he found out something else: Scott was a Friend of Dorothy!  He tricked with Scott's former lover Robert Walker, and heard about several others, including Sal Mineo, Brandon DeWilde, Marlon Brando, and Drake.

Jim heard two more important facts:

1. Tarzan wore nothing under his loincloth.

2. He was hung to his knees.

Unfortunately, he was no longer in Hollywood.  His Tarzan franchise ended, he had moved to Italy to star in sword-and-sandal peplums: Maciste contro il vampiro, Il gladiatore di Roma, Il colosso di Roma.  

Jim was just barely beginning to negotiate the heavily closeted gay community of Hollywood; no way did he have the time or money to cruise in Italy!

Then -- it was fate!  Kismet!  Sergio Corbucci cast him in Massacro al Grande Canyon, a spaghetti western about a boy avenging his father's death.  They would be filming in Rijeka, Yugoslavia, and Trieste and Rome, Italy.

When he arrived in Rome, Jim had his agent call Gordon's agent, claiming that he wanted to talk about a new African adventure movie his father was producing (Mister Moses, 1965).  They arranged to meet for lunch at a taverna near the Ponte Sisto.

Gordon was bearded for a role and deeply tanned by the Italian sun, but he was still amazingly buffed, the Tarzan of Jim's adolescent fantasy.  It didn't take much -- a hand brushed across the knee, a few names dropped of common lovers -- to get an invitation back to Gordon's villa for a dip in the pool and, no doubt, a tryst in the bedroom.

But when they arrived, there were two other people lounging by the pool: Natalie Wood (Rebel without a Cause, Splendor in the Grass), and that weasel David Niven!

The son and namesake of actor David Niven, a year younger than Jim, and everything Jim hated.  They grew up in the same neighborhood in Pacific Palisades, but Jim was a regular fellow, going fishing and watching football on television.  David -- never Dave -- was busy exchanging bon mots with Noel Coward, dancing with Fred Astaire, and sunbathing with Princess Grace. He wore an ascot and reeked of perfume.  He was a flamboyant, elitist, foppish, priggish sissy.

But there was a more pressing problem.  How could Jim maneuver Gordon Scott into bed with two other people in the room?

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Wood," Jim said with a bright smile, then. "Hello, Dave.  I didn't know you two were an item."

"Oh, yes, for a year now.  We met through Sal [Mineo]."

Sal Mineo was gay, one of Gordon's ex-lovers.  He had dated Natalie as a beard.  Did that mean....

Before he could imagine what it meant, Gordon was rubbing David's shoulder.  "So we're all acquainted. Great!  Jim wants to talk to us about a movie his father is working on."

David eyed Jim up and down, and an evil smile flashed on his face.  "Sounds delightful."

Gordon turned to Natalie.  "Do you mind?"

"Not at all.  You men go ahead and do whatever it is that men do." Natalie returned to her magazine.

Gordon wrapped his arm around David's shoulders and led him into the house, while Jim stood, agape.  David was gay, Gordon's lover?  But...that meant...

Gordon's head appeared in the doorway.  "Coming, Jim?"

That meant to get to Gordon, he'd have to bed the insufferable fop!

Well, anything for a peek under Tarzan's loincloth....

The tricking wasn't all bad.  Jim had to go down on David's small pink cock for a few minutes, to be polite, but then he got ten minutes with Gordon's gigantic Mortadella+!  Plus he got to turn onto his back for Gordon to plug him.  He didn't even mind David beating their cocks off together to climax -- the stench of his perfume was soon overwhelmed by man-sweat and cum.

But the one who gave Jim his telephone number and asked to get together again was...David.

Did Zack Get It Right?

Zack didn't remember the name of the celebrity kid that shared Gordon and Jim's bed.  I chose David Niven Jr. on the basis of a photograph of the three of them together.

Gordon Scott definitely preferred the company of men, and was widely rumored to be gay.  He was married twice, and had two children.

James Mitchum has been married twice and has four children.  I'm not familiar with any other gay hookup or dating stories about him.

David Niven Jr. was a "confirmed bachelor" until he married at the age of 51.  The marriage lasted for five years.