1963

No one had a better excuse for not attending last June's Reunion that Jonathan Bates. He was in jail - a Syrian jail, to be precise, and it is doubtful the Syrians would have paroled him for a weekend flight to Hanover to enjoy the fellowship of old friends. The Syrians said Jon was a spy, and it was not until Secretary of State Henry Kissinger personally interceded on his behalf with the Syrian president that Jon was released in late January.

It all began, as the saying goes, on February 7, 1972, when Jon - then working toward his doctoral degree in sociology at the New School for Social Research in New York - arrived in Damascus. Two days later he was arrested and later convicted as a spy in a military court.

As an involuntary Syrian resident, Jon was permitted to write home monthly. His parents sent money to purchase additional food and clothing, and an Italian diplomat in charge of the American affairs section of the Italian embassy in Damascus apparently looked after his welfare. Nevertheless, two years in prison is two years in prison.

Jon's release seems almost as unexpected as his arrest. Kissinger, having just added another peace trophy to his collection (which hopefully will not self-destruct like the last one), passed through Syria and sought Jon's walking papers. The Syrian leader consented "as a gesture of goodwill toward the United States" and, no doubt, the Dartmouth Class of 1963.

Jon evidently returned home in fairly good repair. When a New York Times reporter inquired at his parents' home in New York City whether Jon was in good spirits, his father replied, "He is at this moment having a glass of claret." Naturally.

When you're hot, you're hot.

"For a number of years I felt like a barren tree. I knew there were a lot of creative juices at work inside of me and yet nothing was happening. Then, in 1973, I finally bore fruit. Boy, did I ever. It was hanging all over me."

The quote, if you hadn't guessed, belongs to Michael Moriarty and was the lead to a lengthy story by Guy Flatley, prominently displayed in the Arts and Leisure section of the Sunday, January 27, New York Times.

I reported briefly last month that Mike's on-Broadway debut, which has been herald by the critics as a sign of more great acting to come. That's not to ignore the New York DailyNews, which calls "Find Your Way Home" filthy for its frank portrayal of homosexuality. Mike plays a young man who turns to prostitution after his lover decides to return to his wife and children.

The Times interviewer says that Mike's wife Francoise tried to discourage him from accepting the part. This was months before Mike's film, "Bang the Drum Slowly," was released and Michael Moriarty was still sweeping change off the tables at O'Neal's Restaurant in New York and playing the piano in Bleecker Street bars.

"She didn't want me to play the part," he told Flatley. "My agent didn't want me to play it, either. A lot of people were very negative about it. I think Francoise is overjoyed now at the growth of my work, but I still don't think she's pleased with the character. I don't think any woman would be, any woman involved with the man playing Julian (the young man). This is the one play of mine Francoise hasn't seen 500 times. She's only seen it twice, and 1 think you can understand why."

Mike admits his own hesitancy in taking the part.

"I grew up terrified of homosexuals. Homosexuality was some kind of horror. I was instilled with all the usual responses to homosexual mannerisms, coupled with an absolute fascination ... why was homosexuality so repulsive, why was it so bad?

"When I first read 'Find Your Way Home,' I was shocked, shocked most of all by my own strong emotional reaction. Obviously I was responding quite violently - but why? I had to sit down and examine my feelings, as well as the feelings of my friends who were urging me not to do the play.

"The more I read 'Find Your Way Home,' the deeper its meaning became in terms of all life, not just homosexual life. The central theme of the play is that love occurs in the midst of chaos, that it is born out of chaos. The emotions inherent in what is at first a destructive relationship, the insanity involved in the mating of two people, can also be the putty out of which love is made. Growth takes place in 'Find Your Way Home,' and that's why it is a hopeful and exciting play."

Mike tells a story on himself from the television filming of "The Glass Menagerie" for the British Broadcasting Corp. Recalling that his favorite playwright is Tennessee Williams and that his ambition is to play Stanley Kowalski, Mike laments that "I look so young. When I did The Glass Managerie,' Kate Hepburn said to me, "How old are you, MichaelI?' and I answered, 'l'm 32.' 'You look 10,' she said.

"I'll tell you one thing - if I do play Stanley Kowalski, it'll be some place like the Guthrie. I don't have the physique for New York. John Simon would murder me. He'd go after my wraith-like appearance. But I say if you've got the talent, you can be a three-foot midget and burn the house down playing Stanley Kowalski."

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