Cherry Rosebud

Patrick Doyle, A Greenleaf Classic, 1969

Cherry Rosebud establishes time and place with meticulous specificity: The story opens on April 21st, 1920, as French-Canadian Philippe Roger (who prefers the term Canuck) awakens and disengages himself from the arms of Denny, his shipmate on the naval destroyer McFarland, currently docked in Los Angeles. It was their last night on the ship before their discharge, and now Denny plans to spend some time in L.A. before going home to his parents and trying to figure things out; this fooling around with Philippe is new territory for him. Philippe himself realized when he was young that he was gay, and wants to spend his time getting to see the U.S., starting with New Orleans; his shipmates have assured him it’s the place to have a hot good time, plus he has a buddy there. Philippe already has bought a brand-new car, a shiny Ford Model T (you “can get them in any color, as long as it’s black,” jokes the salesman, paraphrasing a real-life witticism of the era), but fate has other plans for him.