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William Dufty
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William Francis Dufty (February 2, 1916 – June 28, 2002) was an American writer, musician, and activist.
Key Information
Dufty was a supporter of trade unionism and was an organizer for the United Auto Workers, wrote speeches for former UAW President Walter Reuther, edited Michigan Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) News and handled publicity for Americans for Democratic Action.[1]
Biography
[edit]Dufty was born near Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Youth
[edit]Dufty produced some autobiographical notes in the first chapter, "It is necessary to be personal", of his book Sugar Blues (1975):
- We spent our summers at Crystal Lake until I was twelve or thirteen. By that time I was making $75 a week in the wintertime season – an undreamed of fortune in those days – as a prodigal jazz pianist on the radio...The day my voice began to change was the beginning of the end of my radio career. If my voice didn't sound childlike any more, there was nothing remarkable about the way I played the piano.[2]: 14
College
[edit]- In the twenties, I had been so rich I never carried a cent on me. In the thirties – mooching my way through college holding a job or two on the side – I was so poor I put every cent on my back where it would show…I took to collegiate journalism as a kind of lark. There I discovered that the cigarette companies virtually subsidized the university paper with their advertising.[2]: 17
After suffering through two years of college, I finally dropped out.[3] It took daring in those days to dream of facing life without a degree. But I could sniff another war in the offing...I was drafted in 1942...[2]: 18
Army
[edit]- In due course my body was shipped overseas. Bound for Britain, I trotted around the top deck of the blacked out S.S. Mauretania with a carbine on by shoulder and a heavy Army greatcoat soaked with Atlantic spray. Two hours on, two hours off. By the time we docked in Liverpool, I had a lovely case of walking pneumonia.[2]: 19
- Eventually, I was packed off by train to Glasgow, by ship to Algiers, then by truck to Oran in the Mediterranean. Three weeks in the desert and I was as good as new...After the landings in southern France, I was packed off to join the First French Army: Arabs, Senegalese, Goums, Sihks, Vietnamese, with French officers and noncoms. We lived off the land, no fancy rations and luxuries. Some brought along pots and pans, ducks and geese, sheep and goats, wives and mistresses...We lived on horsemeat, rabbit, squirrel, dark French peasant bread, and whatever else could be scrounged. Winter in the Vosges mountains was brutal and endless, yet I never had a cold or a sniffle.[2]: 20
New York
[edit]After the war, he moved to New York and began a newspaper career. His columns and exposés for the New York Post drew acclaim, including one that charged that the FBI bungled cases under J. Edgar Hoover's leadership. He was awarded the George Polk Award for an exposé on immigrants.[4]
Dufty had one son, Bevan Dufty, with first wife Maely Bartholomew, who had arrived in New York City during World War II after losing most of her family in the Nazi concentration camps. She settled near Harlem where she met her best friend and Bevan's godmother, Billie Holiday. They later divorced and Maely raised Bevan as a single mother.
Dufty took Billie Holiday's oral history and wrote Lady Sings the Blues in 1956, which in turn was made into a 1972 movie starring Diana Ross in the title role.[5][6]
Macrobiotic diet
[edit]Dufty credits the death of John F. Kennedy and an article by Tom Wolfe in New York Magazine with starting him on the way to good health.[7] The article described a condition, sanpaku, as a morbid symptom that precedes death, according to Nyoiti Sakurazawa. After obtaining some literature from the Ohsawa Foundation in New York, and following its strict regime of vegetables and rice, Dufty transformed his body and mind. He lost weight and became "calm, cool, collected, precise, and unrattled". He became an advocate of macrobiotics, met Sakurazawa, and prepared the manuscript of You Are All Sanpaku for publication with Felix Morrow in 1965.[7]
Dufty practiced and promoted macrobiotic nutrition, advocating a low-fat, high-fiber diet of whole grains, vegetables, sea vegetables, nuts and seeds, combined in accordance with the principles of yin and yang, said to optimize digestion by attention to nature.
Dufty had struggled with the symptoms of hypoglycemia and had sought the help of physicians. Describing the frustrating search similarly pursued by Dr. Steven Gyland,[8] Dufty wrote,[2]: 89
- If you've ever gone through this kind of medical rigmarole, as I and millions of others have, one ends up a little bitter, with a sense of mission.
In the 1960s, he met Gloria Swanson, a nutrition enthusiast who convinced him that white sugar was unsafe. Dufty undertook a program of research of the impact that sugar has had, and wrote Sugar Blues in 1975.
He became good friends with Japanese artist Yoko Ono and her husband, musician and former Beatle, John Lennon. When John and Yoko visited Singapore, they wrote to Swanson and Dufty. As Hunter Davies, editor of The John Lennon Letters explains,
- [Swanson] was strongly against sugar, as a curse of society; her husband had written a book called Sugar Blues, which John Lennon bought lots of copies of, giving them out to friends.[9]
Marriage and death
[edit]Dufty and Swanson were married, she for the sixth time, he for the second time, in 1976. He helped Swanson write her autobiography, Swanson on Swanson, in 1981.[3]
After Swanson's death in 1983, he returned to his home state of Michigan, settling in Metro Detroit. From there he continued to lecture, write newspaper and magazine articles and teach macrobiotics to a new generation. Dufty died at age 86 on June 28, 2002, at his home in Birmingham, Michigan.[10]
Books
[edit]- 1956: Lady Sings the Blues, Billie Holiday with William Dufty
- 1958: My Father- My Son, by Edward G. Robinson Jr. with William Dufty, via Hathi Trust
- 1965: You Are All Sanpaku, Sakurazawa Nyoiti with William Dufty
- 1966: Spoiled Priest: the Autobiography of an Ex-Priest, Gabriel Longo, University Books
- 1969: Mannequin My Life as a Model, Carolyn Kenmore, Bartholomew House Press
- 1975: Sugar Blues
- 1980: Swanson on Swanson, Gloria Swanson, Random House
References
[edit]- ^ Shearer, Stephen Michael (2013). Gloria Swanson: The Ultimate Star. New York: Macmillan. p. 374. ISBN 978-1250001559.
- ^ a b c d e f Dufty, William (1975). Sugar Blues. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0446305129.
- ^ a b "Obituary: William Dufty". The Daily Telegraph. August 20, 2002. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ "1955 George Polk Award winners". Long Island University. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
- ^ Holiday, Billie; Dufty, William (March 2, 2011). Lady Sings the Blues (50th Anniversary ed.). Crown. p. ii Introduction. ISBN 978-0307786166. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
I'm not sure Billie has the literary background to write a book. So Dufty interviewed her and wrote the book in her voice.
- ^ Hamlin, Jesse (August 24, 2010). "Billie Holiday's bio, 'Lady Sings the Blues,' may be full of half-truths, but it gets at jazz great's core". San Francisco Chronicle.
- ^ a b Ohsawa, George (2002). You Are All Sanpaku. Translated by Dufty, William. Citadel. pp. 9–58. ISBN 978-0806524054.
- ^ Gyland, Stephen. (1953) "Possibly Neurogenic Hypoglycemia", Journal of the American Medical Association 152: 1184, § "Queries and Minor Notes", July 18
- ^ Lennon, John; Davies, Hunter (October 9, 2012). The John Lennon Letters. Little, Brown and Company. p. 310. ISBN 978-0316200806.
- ^ Oliver, Myrna (July 4, 2002). "William Dufty obituary". Los Angeles Times.
External links
[edit]- Herring, Hubert B. (April 16, 2002) Sweet taste of beating sugar habit, The New York Times.
- William Dufty at IMDb
William Dufty
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Early Life and Education
Childhood and Family
William Dufty was born on February 2, 1916, near Grand Rapids, Michigan, as the son of a banker.[1] His family resided in the region during the post-World War I era, a period marked by Michigan's industrial growth amid fluctuating economic conditions leading into the 1920s.[1] As a child, Dufty displayed an early aptitude for music, learning to play the piano by ear without formal instruction.[1] He hosted his own radio program during this time, performing and engaging with audiences through broadcasts that highlighted his self-taught skills.[1] These youthful pursuits reflected an innate interest in performance, nurtured within his Midwestern household environment.[1]College Education
Dufty attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, during the 1930s, pursuing higher education amid the economic challenges of the Great Depression.[1][3] Specific details on his major or coursework remain undocumented in available records, though his subsequent career in writing and labor advocacy suggests exposure to liberal arts, journalism, or related disciplines common at the institution.[4] He did not complete a degree, instead dropping out to join the United Auto Workers (UAW) as an organizer and later speechwriter, reflecting an early pivot toward practical involvement in industrial unionism over formal academic completion.[1][3] This decision aligned with his aspirations for direct engagement in social and economic reform, foreshadowing a career blending activism and authorship rather than traditional scholarly or professional paths post-graduation.[5]Military Service
World War II Enlistment and Service
William Dufty served four years in the United States Army during World War II, enlisting amid the U.S. entry into the conflict following the attack on Pearl Harbor.[1] His multilingual abilities, particularly in French, led to assignments working alongside French soldiers, leveraging his language skills for coordination and operations.[3] Dufty's deployments spanned multiple theaters, including North Africa, where Allied forces conducted campaigns against Axis powers from 1942 onward, followed by service in France after the Normandy landings in June 1944, and advances into Germany and Austria as the European theater concluded in 1945.[1] He rose to the rank of sergeant during this period, though specific duties beyond linguistic support and frontline involvement remain sparsely documented in available records.[1] Dufty also spoke German and Japanese, proficiencies that may have aided intelligence or interrogation efforts, but no verified accounts confirm their direct use in his Army roles.[3] He received an honorable discharge around the war's end in 1945, transitioning thereafter to civilian pursuits without reported injuries or commendations in primary sources.[1]Literary Career
Move to New York and Early Writing
Following his discharge from the U.S. Army after World War II service, William Dufty relocated to New York City around 1946, marking the start of his professional writing career in journalism.[1] He initially worked as a freelancer, selling articles to the New York Post on topics including music and culture, which provided entry into the city's competitive publishing environment.[1] This period established Dufty's footing in New York's media landscape, distinct from later book-length projects. Dufty's early contributions to the Post encompassed exposés and columns that highlighted social and artistic issues, earning initial acclaim for their insight and boldness.[3] His focus on music writing drew him into associations with New York's post-war jazz community, where he engaged with performers and scenes without formal employment in the genre.[6] These freelance efforts through the late 1940s honed his skills in investigative and narrative reporting, laying groundwork for subsequent editorial roles at the paper.[1] By the end of the decade, Dufty had transitioned toward staff positions at the Post, but his pre-1950s output remained rooted in independent pieces that captured the era's cultural ferment, including Harlem's evolving music venues and figures.[2] This phase underscored his adaptability in a male-dominated field, prioritizing empirical observation over speculative commentary in his prose.[1]Collaboration on Lady Sings the Blues
William Dufty, a New York Post journalist, first encountered Billie Holiday through his wife, Maely Daniele, a Holocaust survivor and mutual acquaintance in New York's jazz circles who had befriended the singer during the 1940s.[7] [8] This connection facilitated Dufty's role as ghostwriter for Holiday's autobiography, initiated amid her financial pressures following a 1949 federal narcotics conviction that barred cabaret card renewal and limited earning opportunities.[9] The collaboration, formalized in a July 25, 1955, contract with Doubleday granting Dufty 35% of proceeds, relied on Dufty conducting multiple interview sessions with Holiday, who verbally detailed her childhood hardships, ascent in jazz clubs, interracial relationships, and battles with heroin addiction and abusive partners.[10] Dufty transcribed these accounts, organizing them into a first-person narrative while preserving Holiday's raw, unfiltered voice, though he admitted minimal fact-checking to capture her perspective authentically.[11] Holiday contributed directly through these discussions and subsequent feedback, including a postcard to Dufty nearly a month post-publication inquiring about revisions, countering claims of her exclusion from the process.[10] Doubleday released Lady Sings the Blues in 1956, crediting Holiday as author with Dufty as collaborator, and it promptly garnered attention for its candid revelations, including Holiday's prostitution as a teen and federal prison stint.[1] The book's frankness shocked some jazz enthusiasts but fueled immediate interest, evidenced by a sold-out double Carnegie Hall concert on November 10, 1956, where New York Times critic Gilbert Millstein narrated excerpts between Holiday's performances, framing it as a triumphant artistic statement.[12] [13] Initial press, including praise from the New York Herald Tribune, highlighted its unvarnished portrayal, boosting visibility amid Holiday's ongoing career resurgence.[14]Ghostwriting and Other Projects
Dufty collaborated with Edward G. Robinson Jr. on the 1958 autobiography My Father, My Son, which chronicled the younger Robinson's tumultuous life amid the shadow of his father, the acclaimed actor Edward G. Robinson, including struggles with addiction and family estrangement.[15] The book, published by Frederick Fell, drew from Robinson Jr.'s personal accounts and positioned Dufty as a credited co-author in structuring the narrative.[16] Beyond such celebrity memoirs, Dufty ghostwrote or contributed to an estimated 40 books across his career, leveraging his journalistic background to shape autobiographical works for public figures in entertainment and beyond.[2] His pre-1970s projects included freelance editing and writing assignments that highlighted his adaptability in nonfiction, often involving investigative elements honed during his tenure as a reporter and editor at the New York Post, where he assisted the editor-in-chief.[1] Dufty's versatility extended to screenwriting and playwriting, with networks in New York's entertainment circles facilitating commissions for speechwriting on behalf of politicians and trade union leaders, emphasizing labor and social issues reflective of his union advocacy.[4] These endeavors, primarily in the 1940s and 1950s, underscored his role as a behind-the-scenes craftsman in media and publishing, distinct from his more prominent music-related collaborations.[2]Health Advocacy and Macrobiotics
Discovery of Macrobiotic Principles
In the early 1960s, Dufty faced deteriorating health, which he later attributed to chronic excessive consumption of refined sugar, leading to weight gain, mysterious ailments, and a nervous breakdown requiring hospitalization.[17][18] This personal crisis, occurring amid a lifestyle marked by high sugar intake common in mid-20th-century American diets, prompted him to seek alternative approaches to recovery.[1] Dufty's introduction to macrobiotic principles came during a trip to Paris, where he encountered George Ohsawa, the Japanese philosopher who formalized macrobiotics as a dietary and philosophical system rooted in yin-yang balance for health and harmony.[4] Ohsawa advocated a regimen centered on whole, unprocessed foods—primarily brown rice, vegetables, and limited animal products—to counteract modern dietary imbalances, which resonated with Dufty's rationale for addressing his sugar-induced decline through elimination of refined substances.[19] By 1965, Dufty adopted these principles, undergoing rapid lifestyle changes that included strict avoidance of sugar, caffeine, alcohol, and most dairy and meat, replacing them with macrobiotic staples like whole grains and sea vegetables; he reported recovery from his breakdown within three weeks.[18] This adoption aligned with his translation and introduction of Ohsawa's You Are All Sanpaku that year, a text emphasizing dietary moderation to prevent physical and mental imbalance.[19] Dufty's engagement remained focused on empirical self-observation of dietary causation rather than unverified curative claims.[1]Authorship of Sugar Blues
William Dufty authored Sugar Blues as a narrative exploration of refined sugar's role in human health and society, drawing on extensive historical research conducted in the early 1970s. The book traces sugar's origins and proliferation, beginning with its ties to slavery in colonial production systems—where enslaved labor in the Caribbean and Americas fueled the crop's expansion from the 16th century onward—and extending to the 20th-century industrialization of refining processes that made sucrose ubiquitous in processed foods.[20] Dufty compiled these elements from archival accounts of the transatlantic slave trade's economic dependence on sugar plantations and contemporary industry reports on refining techniques, framing sugar as a commodity with deep-rooted exploitative foundations.[21] Central to the book's arguments are anecdotal accounts linking sugar consumption to physiological and psychological distress, including Dufty's personal narrative of adopting a sugar-free diet at the urging of actress Gloria Swanson in the late 1960s, which he credited with alleviating symptoms of fatigue and low mood resembling depression.[22] Dufty incorporates testimonials from individuals reporting similar improvements—such as reduced irritability and clearer thinking—after eliminating refined sugar, positioning these experiences as evidence of sugar's disruptive effects on mental equilibrium and overall vitality. These stories emphasize subjective recovery patterns over controlled studies, portraying sugar withdrawal as a pathway to restored energy and emotional stability.[17] Published in 1975 by Chilton Book Company in Radnor, Pennsylvania, as a 194-page hardcover first edition, Sugar Blues presented Dufty's synthesis of historical critique and personal testimonies in an accessible, alarmist prose style aimed at broad readership.[23] The work emerged from Dufty's self-directed inquiry prompted by Swanson's advocacy, resulting in a text that prioritizes cautionary storytelling to highlight sugar's purported modern perils.[4]Promotion of Anti-Sugar Views
Dufty extended his anti-sugar advocacy beyond Sugar Blues through media appearances and collaborations, notably participating in a 1977 television round-table hosted by Gloria Swanson, where he discussed sugar's health detriments alongside comedian Dick Gregory, emphasizing its role in broader dietary reform.[24] This event aligned with Swanson's ongoing crusade, which involved public travels to advocate sugar avoidance, amplifying Dufty's message in popular outlets during the mid-1970s health consciousness surge.[25] His efforts intersected with the emerging natural foods movement, promoting alternatives to refined sugars via endorsements of whole-food diets and the rise of co-ops and health stores that prioritized unprocessed options over supermarket staples.[26] Dufty's writings and talks encouraged "dropping out" from conventional food systems, fostering consumer shifts toward macrobiotic and organic principles amid 1970s countercultural skepticism of industrial processing.[27] Dufty publicly critiqued the sugar industry's structural influence, including its historical reliance on exploitative labor practices and modern tactics like funding research to obscure health links, framing sugar as propped up by economic imperialism rather than nutritional merit.[28][29] These arguments, disseminated in interviews and aligned publications, challenged industry lobbying that portrayed sugar as benign or essential, urging regulatory and personal reevaluations.[30] Through such activism, Dufty influenced counterculture health trends by popularizing sugar abstinence as a pathway to vitality, contributing to the era's holistic nutrition wave that questioned processed foods' dominance and inspired grassroots dietary experiments.[31]Personal Life
Marriages and Relationships
Dufty's first and only documented marriage prior to 1976 was to Maely Bartholomew, a civil rights activist who had immigrated to New York City during World War II after losing most of her family in the Holocaust.[1][4] The couple had one son, Bevan Dufty, born February 27, 1955, in New York.[1][32] Bartholomew, previously married to actor Freddie Bartholomew, introduced Dufty to singer Billie Holiday, whose godson was their son Bevan; this connection immersed Dufty in New York's jazz and artistic scenes during the 1940s and 1950s.[4][33] Their union coincided with Dufty's establishment as a journalist and union organizer for the United Auto Workers, offering personal continuity amid professional transitions from Michigan to urban media and labor activism.[1][4] The marriage ended in divorce sometime before 1976, after which Bartholomew remarried and continued her activism until her death in 1984.[1][33] No other romantic relationships or partnerships for Dufty are recorded in available biographical accounts from this period.[1][4]Association with Gloria Swanson
Dufty first encountered Swanson in 1975 at a press conference, where she publicly confronted him after observing him consume a sugar cube, declaring it "poison" amid her longstanding advocacy for dietary reform.[34] This interaction aligned their mutual interests in nutrition, leading to a romantic relationship rooted in opposition to refined sugars and enthusiasm for macrobiotic practices.[35] The couple married on February 2, 1976, marking Swanson's sixth marriage and Dufty's second; the union united a Hollywood icon with a writer increasingly focused on health critiques.[36] Over the next seven years, they collaborated closely on public outreach, co-promoting macrobiotic diets through joint travels, lectures, and media appearances that emphasized whole foods, reduced sugar intake, and yin-yang balance in eating.[37] Their shared regimen, featuring items like millet bread, miso soups, and sprout salads, exemplified their commitment, as detailed in contemporary profiles of their lifestyle.[35] The marriage endured until Swanson's death on April 4, 1983, from a heart attack, with no formal divorce recorded; accounts from Dufty's associates portray the period as one of ideological partnership despite the 17-year age gap and Swanson's prior marital history.[35][38]Later Years and Death
Following the death of his wife Gloria Swanson in 1983, Dufty returned to his longtime residence in the Metro Detroit area, settling in Birmingham, Michigan.[39] He lived there for the remainder of his life, maintaining a low profile away from the public engagements of his earlier career.[2] Dufty died on June 28, 2002, at his home in Birmingham, Michigan, at the age of 86.[1] [2] The cause of death was cancer, though some reports described it more generally as natural causes.[4] [3]Major Works
Key Publications
Lady Sings the Blues (1956), co-authored with Billie Holiday, narrates the jazz singer's autobiography, detailing her upbringing, rise to fame, struggles with addiction, and experiences in the music industry.[1]You Are All Sanpaku (1965), an English edition of writings by macrobiotic advocate George Ohsawa (Sakurazawa Nyoiti), introduces concepts of yin-yang balance in diet, the significance of "sanpaku" eyes indicating physical imbalance, and principles of macrobiotic eating for health restoration.[4]
Sugar Blues (1975) critiques the historical processing and consumption of refined sugar, tracing its origins from colonial trade to modern food industry practices, while outlining purported physiological effects on the body such as addiction-like responses and nutritional deficiencies.[1]