Billy Booth was playing on his Little League team in LaCrescenta, California, about 20 miles from Hollywood, when an agent approached his mother and asked if he would be interested in doing some tv commercials. A decade of tv and movie work followed:
The Snow Queen (1957),
Goodyear Theatre (1959),
The Slowest Gun in the West (1960),
Donna Reed (1964), and
Andy Griffith (1964), plus a recurring role as Tommy on
Dennis the Menace (1959-1963).
But his favorite role, the one he would remember forever, was "Short Boy" on
The Twilight Zone, when he was 11 years old.
"A Stop at Willoughby" (May 6, 1960) was one of many episodes about harried business executives who escape to what narrrator/writer Rod Serling thought of as the kinder, simpler world of the 19th century, with people riding on penny-farthings and bands playing "Beautiful Dreamer" in the park
In this case, harried ad exec Gart Williams (41-year old James Daly) escapes from his obnoxious boss and harridan wife when his commuter train makes an unexpected stop at the small town of Willoughby, July 1888.
For the rest of the episode, he tries desperately to return. Finally he succeeds. In the twist ending, it turns out that he jumped out of the train to his death, and "Willoughby and Sons" is the name of the funeral home.
Billy played one of the two barefoot boys walking toward the fishing hole, then returning to town later. The older (Butch Hengen) tells Williams that "the fish are biting." Williams says "I might go with you tomorrow."
That's all: two walk-ons, shot together on a single afternoon, uncredited, no lines. But what happened after stayed with Billy forever.
After his scene, he expected someone to take the fishing pole and fish prop from his hands, but no one came. He started walking, but took a wrong turn and got lost, still dressed like Huckleberry Finn. The hard ground hurt his feet. He was getting a little worried, when suddenly Jim Daly was beside him.
"Are those real fish?" he asked, smiling
"Yep. Boy, do they smell!"
"We'd better get them back to props. Come on, I'll show you the way." Jim put his hand on his shoulder and steered him in the opposite direction, back across the Willoughby set.
Jim was very big and tall. Billy felt like a big man just walking next to him, like they were pals.
"Do you think you'd like to live in a town like Willoughby?"
"Naw -- it sounds real square. No tv, no movies, no comic books! But I liked working here. Butch is cool -- me and him, we're going to the beach tomorrow, if his Mom says it's ok."
"That's fine That's all you need, really, in this life -- one special friend. They're hard to find."
"Oh, I got lots of friends."
"Sure, but do you have a special friend? Someone who makes you smile whenever you look at him, who makes you sad when you have to say goodbye." Jim was staring straight ahead, reciting as if remembering a scene. His words made Billy feel warm and happy inside. "Who you don't want to say goodbye to, ever -- you want to spend you life with him."
"That's pretty cool, Mister Daly. Is it from a movie?"
"No, it's from real life. Or at least, how I wish life could be. Maybe it will be, when you grow up."
They handed the fish and fishing pole to the prop master, who snarled "It's about time! I thought you nicked it!" Then Jim walked Billy to where his mother was waiting. They shook hands and said goodbye.
Billy never saw him again. But he remembered the warm hand on his shoulder, the distant, faraway look, the sadness.
One special friend.
Billy's next job was on an episode of
The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver were both nice to him, but the only cast member who made him smile just by looking at him was Mike Burns, a cute teenager with big muscles and a hairy chest. But Mike ignored Billy, or talked like he was just a little kid.
One special friend.
Jay North, his costar on
Dennis the Menace? Nice, but not very cute.
Mickey Sholdar on
The Farmer's Daughter? Cute, but not very nice.
Like many child stars, Billy found acting jobs scarce once he hit puberty. But he didn't mind: he could go to a regular school with regular kids, and do normal things like ride bikes and go to the beach. He started fantasizing about cute guys climbing into his bed, hugging and kissing him, touching him
down there.
A guy from his biology class; his gym teacher; Robert Vaughn, the
Man from Uncle; Mike Burns; and Jim Daly, who (in Billy's fantasy) had muscles and a hairy chest, big hands, and a gigantic penis.
In high school Billy began dating girls. His favorite dates ended with him and a friend dropping off the girls and then parking and going down on him, feeling a buff guy's cock thrust against his tongue and throat. But it was just a physical release -- his friend could never be a
special friend. He was too busy thinking about girls.
Billy graduated from LaCrescenta High in 1967- and enrolled at USC. Some of his classmates were growing their hair long, smoking pot, and joining in the anti-war protests, but Billy never did. He was a good boy, quiet, respectful, studious, a square. Besides, with their long hair and beads, hippie boys looked like girls. He liked "real men," strong, masculine, powerful.
Like the football jocks he invited to his dorm room to beat off while looking at
Playboy. Sometimes he went down on them, but again, it was just a physical release. They were both supposed to be thinking about girls.
In 1974 Billy graduated from USC with a degree in political science. He moved to San Francisco to go to the Hastings College of Law, and met gay people for the first time. Men who acted like women, flouncing and sashaying down the street. Not a problem -- he was open-minded -- but with no connection to his life at all. Instead he started dating Kathy, a Berkeley undergrad majoring in English.
She was certainly a friend -- they had a lot of fun together. And they had sex - it was simply a matter of closing his eyes and fantasizing about a muscular guy with a hairy chest. That desire to touch her, to be touched by her, was absent, but it was probably just a childhood fantasy -- it didn't exist in the real world. Kathy must be his special friend.
In June 1977 they married and moved to Los Osos, California, in San Luis Obispo County. They bought a house near the beach. Billy started a private practice in business and real estate law, and Kathy worked on her writing. In October she announced that she was pregnant.
Billy was 28 years old, with everything he was supposed to want in life: house, job, wife, child on the way. This was the life everyone wanted.
Wasn't it?
Well, wasn't it?
He had never been so miserable.
One day on a whim, he tracked down James Daly, who remembered their brief conversation 17 years ago! He got an invitation to visit.
Kathy didn't understand why he wanted to cross the country to visit someone he met once, but she wasn't about to pass up a trip to New York, so in January 1978, shortly after the New Year, they flew out to Nyack.
Daly was 59 years old, graying but still big and tall, still acting in local theater and taking the train into Manhattan every weekend. They went shopping for antiques, and walked on the beach even though it was in the 20s outside. Nearly the first thing he told them was: "I'm gay."
He grinned at their shock -- you didn't just come out to near-strangers in 1978! "For the last six months I've been telling everyone. You'd be surprised how healing it is. Such a blessing to finally end the lies."
"How long have you known?" Billy asked.
"Oh, since I was a boy. But when I was young, we thought it was a mental disorder. [My wife] Hope and I tried all sorts of therapy to 'cure' me before figuring that it was hopeless and divorcing. Even then, I stayed in the closet."
"Have you ever had a companion?" Kathy asked. "Someone to spend your life with? A special friend?"
Billy stared -- he had never used that term in front of Kathy. How did she know it?
"Lots of lovers, but I'm afraid that the happiness of a special friend has always eluded me. I think because I came out of the closet too late."
"It's never too late," Kathy said, glancing over at Billy.
They waited until their son Devon was five years old to divorce. Billy continued to live in Los Osos and practice law, stayed close to Kathy and watched Devon grow up, but he was down in Los Angeles most weekends.
He had brunch at the French Quarter. He visited the gay synagogue. He had many boyfriends and lovers, and a partner who lived with him for 12 years.
Billy Booth died on December 31, 2006. His family suggests that, instead of flowers, you can best honor his memory by calling an old friend.
