Touche’s Salon

During his final years, Latouche faced some discrimination and censure as a result of his inclusion in a 1950 handbook entitled Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television. For all his malaise during these years, he continued to kick up his heels with friends and maintain his reputation as one of the city’s brightest wits and raconteurs. His eclectic assortment of friends durisng this period included composer Ned Rorem; writers Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote, and Jack Kerouac; ghost hunter Hans Holzer; and poet Frank O’Hara. He also became romantically involved with the heiress Alice Bouverie (of the Astor dynasty) as well as with painter Harry Martin and poet Kenward Elmslie, with whom he purchased a country home in Vermont.