The life of gay, Jewish bullfighter Sidney Franklin By Josefin Dolsten
Excerpts….
The bullfighting world of the 1920s and ’30s, Sidney Franklin was defined not only by his Americanness, elegance or tough-guy personality but also by his Jewishness. The first American to reach the status of a matador in Spain, he was nicknamed “El Torero de la Torah,” or “the Torah bullfighter.”
But Franklin had a complicated relationship with his Jewish identity. Born Sidney Frumkin in an Orthodox Jewish family in Brooklyn’s Park Slope neighborhood, the matador-to-be often clashed with his traditional father. The fact that he was gay (although not openly so) made him feel even more alienated from his religion.
At the age of 19, Franklin left Brooklyn for Mexico. It was there that he discovered his love for bullfighting, learning from the prominent torero Rodolfo Gaona. He seemed unfazed by the dangers of the bloody sport.
“If you’ve got guts,” Franklin once said, “you can do anything.”
Moving to Spain to pursue his passion, he rose to fame in part because of his bullfighting skills and the circles he frequented.
In 1929, Franklin met Ernest Hemingway. The celebrated author became a close friend and wrote about Franklin in his book “Death of the Afternoon,” which explores the bullfighting tradition.
“Franklin is brave with a cold, serene and intelligent valor but instead of being awkward and ignorant he is one of the most skillful, graceful and slow manipulators of a cape fighting today,” Hemingway wrote. “His repertoire with the cape is enormous but he does not attempt by a varied repertoire to escape from the performance of the veronica as the base of his cape work and his veronicas are classical, very emotional, and beautifully timed and executed. You will find no Spaniard who ever saw him fight who will deny his artistry and excellence with the cape.”
In 1932, Franklin played himself in the Hollywood film “The Kid From Spain” alongside Eddie Cantor.
As his bullfighting career wound down, Franklin managed a cafe in Seville. In 1957, he was jailed for illegally keeping a car in the country, serving nine months of a 25-month sentence. Following his release, he returned to North America, where he went back and forth between Texas and Mexico. He died in 1976, spending the last years of his life in a nursing home.
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