This is the story of an energetic, intelligent, and handsome young man flowering on the international scene despite the obscurity of his birthplace. Eric in search of himself hid behind substance abuse while putting on a facade of self-confidence. In the milieu of Joan Crawford, Greta Garbo, Georgia O'Keeffe, Andy Warhol, Leonard Bernstein, European royalty including a ruling king, and even Pope John XXIII, his life spiraled into a nightmare out of control.
The ornamental jet-setter who was the debutante's delight, the dowager's dream extra man at table, and the gay man's pleasure grew swollen with drink and withdrew into a reclusive world.
Elizabeth Taylor's admonition, "Get your ass over to Betty Ford's" together with similar advice from Bill Hurt changed the course of events. Betty Ford and the road to recovery through a 12-step program inducing a growing spiritual life augmented by the healing powers of the arts saved his life. This sharing of a glittering life in which destruction seemed inevitable actually led to redemption through sobriety and faith should be an encouragement for others.
This is a story full of humor, drama, and, most of all, hope.
R. Eric Gustafson has worn varioous hats in the arts for more than four decades. A graduate of Stuyvesant Hight School in lower Manhattan, he went on to Queens College where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree in January 1957. After a tour of Europe, he was one of ten students accepted in the graduate program of theater arts at Carnegie Institute (now Carnegie Mellon). His Master of Fine Arts thesis was on the Japanese medieval Noh drama (1959).
Many trips to Europe, north Africa, Central and South America have afforded him a newworking of extraordinary people and an expanded view of the world.
Several years during the 1960's at prestigious Parke-Bernet auction house (now Sotheby's) and later under his directorship of art galleries in New York, Santa Fe, and at the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, several opportunities to develop impressive innovations in the art world sparked his budding career.
Museum curatorship followed with exhibitions at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum (1978), Lincoln Center Library & Museum for the Performing Arts (1980) and others.
Author of THE COURT THEATERS OF EUROPE (1982), he has lectured internationally on the subject. For the past five years, his column, "Classical Notes," has appeared in Gannett's Courier-News.
His brainchild, Apollo Muses, was created fifteen years ago by Gustafson as a means of providing showcases for young professional talents in the fine and performing arts. In addition, seasoned artists of note have been invited to participate in the conversation among the arts, usually on Sunday afternoons at exceptional sites in June or July.
When not travelling or creating beautiful environments, the author has appeared on stage, television and cinema in cameo performances. He resides in New Jersey and Florida.
