Jerry Torre

Torre was born to Italian-American parents in Kensington, Brooklyn, the son of a sanitation worker and a school custodian. He claims that Joe Torre is a distant cousin. In 1974 Torre graduated from Sachem High School. He ran away from home when he was sixteen; mainly to escape a father he described as “very tough, even abusive”. where his uncle was building a house. Torre said his uncle helped him in many ways: “… to construct his house, he used old cobblestones that had been dug up from Brooklyn streets that were being repaved. Cleaning them and learning how to use them to erect walls – all of that was part of my first encounter with stone.” (Torre was set up in a room above the garage), He then went to work as an assistant to Wayland Flowers. Later, through Aristotle Onassis, he acquired a job tending a two-and-a-half-acre palace garden in Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. The book was nominated for a 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Outstanding Memoir, and Torre and Maietta participated in book and film events in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Palm Springs, and other cities around the United States. The book topped Amazon's list of best selling gay-themed books in its initial weeks of release. ==Grey Gardens==

In the summer of 1974, while working for the J. Paul Getty estate in East Hampton, New York, Torre rode his bike a different way than usual one day and approached a house where the hedges in front were so overgrown that the only parts visible were the two peaks of the gabled roof. The other subjects included in the film were Jack Helmuth and Lois Wright. Due to Torre’s particular known affection for Mrs. Beale, the songwriting team for the musical Grey Gardens (Scott Frankel and Michael Korie) wrote a song called "Jerry Likes My Corn" which tenderly describes the relationship they shared. Torre claimed that the Beales "showed [him] a life where [he] could be [himself], explore, take chances." In 2009, HBO released the film Grey Gardens starring Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange about the lives of “Big” and “Little” Edie. According to director Michael Sucsy, Torre is not depicted in the film (although at one point on the film's commentary track, Sucsy can be heard exclaiming of a non-speaking character, "That’s Jerry! That’s our Marble Faun"). Today, Torre travels the country, attending film festivals and productions of Grey Gardens and making special guest appearances as “The Marble Faun”. Torre was interviewed for NBC Nightly News which aired a special report covering the sale of Grey Gardens with Anne Thompson on February 23, 2017. ==Sculptor==

In 1964, Torre went to the New York World's Fair. While holding his mother’s hand in the Vatican Pavilion, he saw Michelangelo's Pietà and said he "had [his] calling that day." He recalled: "I was amazed something so tender could be carved from something so difficult." He began carving stone in his partner's apartment stairwell on 23rd Street in New York City in 1987. His debut exhibition was in 2014 at the Jackie Klempay Gallery in Bushwick, Brooklyn. He is currently represented by SITUATIONS in New York City. He has since exhibited artwork at SITUATIONS in New York City; Canada Gallery, New York City; the Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York City; Geary Contemporary, New York City; 2nd Floor Projects, San Francisco; Bureau of General Services/Queer Division, New York City; Center 548, New York City; among others. His work is held in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, New York City. ==References==