Leslie Arthur Julien Hutchinson, known as "Hutch", was a singer, musician, and one of the biggest cabaret stars in the world during the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in Grenada in 1900, he moved to New York City at the age of 16. He originally emigrated to study for a degree in medicine, but instead began playing the piano and singing in bars.
In New York City, Hutch joined a black band led by Henry "Broadway" Jones, who often played for white millionaires such as the Vanderbilts. In 1924, Hutch left America for Paris, where he had a residency in Joe Zelli's club and became a friend and lover of Cole Porter.[1]
His relationship with Porter led to a very successful creative partnership. He recorded several of Porter's songs, and Porter even based the character in his song “I'm a Gigolo” on Hutch:
I should like you all to know,
I'm a famous gigolo.
And of lavender, my nature's got just a dash in it.
In 1927, Edwina Mountbatten convinced Hutch to move to England to perform, and it was there that his popularity exploded.
There are countless stories of Hutch's lovers and sexual exploits. He never worked particularly hard to hide his bisexuality or conform to society's sexual expectations.
He married Ella Byrd in the mid-1920s in New York City. Their daughter, Lesley Bagley Yvonne, was born on April 9th, 1926. Hutch went on to father seven more children with six different mothers.[2]
He famously had an affair with British debutante Elizabeth Corbett. When it was discovered that she was pregnant, her family quickly married her off, hoping that her new husband would accept the child. When the child born was clearly of mixed race, the child was put up for adoption and Elizabeth Corbett's father sued Hutch.[3]
It is widely speculated that he was also the lover of Edwina Mountbatten, herself in an open marriage with her bi husband Lord Mountbatten. The huge scandal indirectly caused by her affair with Hutchinson (the media incorrectly identified Paul Robeson as her lover) marked the beginning of his fall from grace.[4]
Due to Mountbatten's closeness with the royal family, he was soon shunned by the BBC and the royal family. The scandal spelled the end of his career.
Leslie Hutchinson suffered from ill-health in his later years and died in London from pneumonia on August 18th, 1969.
He has been the subject of two plays, a number of biographies, and more recently was the inspiration for the character Jack Ross on Downton Abbey (2010–2015).