You can Do Turkey and Gravy

So you have decided upon roasting a whole turkey so it looks like a painting done by Norman Rockwell! Good for you! Let me help you achieve your dream meal. Picture crispy, well-browned skin and moist, juicy, well-seasoned meat. And don’t forget a lightly thickened, full-flavored gravy.

It can be easy but with steps you must follow. Allow me to tell you some slave secrets. Biggest problem is that a turkey is really two different roasts. The dark meat is hard to over-cook and to develop its succulent goodness it has to reach 175 degrees, but it is attached to the white meat that will dry out if it’s cooked beyond 160 degrees. Let's face it Grandma fixed a lot of tough, dry white meat in her efforts to completely cook the bird.

The gravy is easier to get right, but it takes about an hour of simmering to produce rich, well-rounded flavor.

Yeah, I know, it looked so easy when you didn't have to do it. Allow slave to serve.

Take off the netting and the plastic wrap! Pat the bird dry with paper towels. Remove the neck and giblets and put if refrigerator until needed for gravy. Always let the bird come to room temperature before roasting!


First, salt! This alters the proteins in meat and helps it retain moisture as it cooks. It also helps balance the cooking times for dark and white meat.

There are two ways to add salt: brining and salting. A brine penetrates the bird, in 6 to 12 hours, but there are drawbacks.

Brining adds water to the skin, which hinders browning. Also the process requires a container large enough to hold 2 gallons of brine along with a 14-pound turkey—that takes up a lot of refrigerator space. I've seen TV's Alton Brown use a cooler in the bathtub – interesting to say the least.

Salting the turkey underneath the skin allows the meat to retain its juiciness without adding unnecessary moisture to the surface, which can inhibit browning.


Also incorporate just a tad of sugar, stay with me here, we're not turning this into candy. 4 tsp of sugar and 4 Tbs of salt were the right amounts for a 12- to 14-pound bird. Mix this into a paste with some softened butter.

Using fingers, loosened the skin of the turkey and then rub this salt-sugar blend on the flesh and in the cavity of the bird. Place the bird on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet, on the bottom shelf of the fridge. Wait 24 hours for the salt to do its work. Note you can't do this with a frozen bird so add 1 day to the thawing time!


Oh but wait! MAKE IT EASIER BY SIMPLY buying a kosher bird! The koshering process involves bathing the bird in salt. Ask your local mega-mart meat department ahead of time to order one for you.


A turkey will cook more evenly if it is not stuffed. For the stuffing lovers, cook the dressing in a muffin pan on the side.

Now before the turkey goes in:

If you have skipped the salting step the night before, now is a good time to do it. Just poke the salt-sugar-butter mixture under the skin.

Now mix 1 teaspoon of baking powder with 1½ teaspoons of oil for the skin. Especially rub the top! Baking powder has alkaline that speed up browning. It also causes proteins in the skin to break down more readily and produce crispier results.

Now tent the breast with a double layer of foil to shield it from some of the heat. Don't have to seal, just lay it on top.

The Key is pizza!

We've already found the secret of a good Pumpkin pie with a cooked bottom crust was cooking it on a heated pizza stone. Works with either pepperoni or pumpkin.

The dark meat needs to cook to a higher temperature than the white meat, and the dark meat is on the bottom, SO....

Placing the bird breast side up on its rack directly in a preheated (foil lined) baking pan that is sitting on a stone transfers heat into the portion of the bird that needs it most—the thighs and legs. At the same time, the convection currents act more slowly on the breasts. The result? A perfectly cooked turkey.

Place the pizza stone with the pan on the bottom rack of the oven and turn the dial to 500 degrees.

When the oven was up to temperature, open and place the turkey on its rack in the pan and shut the door. Now don't forget to drop the oven temperature to 425 degrees immediately after putting in the turkey.

Then, after about 45 minutes, Set an alarm because it it important to again reduce the temperature to 325 degrees for a gentle finish. If you don't remember these steps the firemen will remind you! Pull off the foil when you turn the oven to its final 325 so the breast will brown.




This will produce the Saturday Evening Post results you want. This was no small victory: With no extra effort—just a strategically placed piece of kitchenware—the turkey legs and thighs register 175 degrees just as the breasts reaches 160.


Quick reminder of the steps:

We preheat both a pizza stone and a roasting pan in the oven before placing the turkey in the pan.

The stone absorbs heat and delivers it through the pan to the turkey’s legs and thighs, which need to cook to a higher temperature than the delicate breast meat (which we protect with a foil shield).

After the leg quarters have gotten a jump start on cooking, we reduce the oven temperature from 425 to 325 degrees and remove the shield to allow the breast to brown while the bird finishes cooking.

The boost of heat provided by the stone also helps the juices brown and reduce into concentrated drippings that can be turned into a flavorful gravy in the time that the turkey rests.

Now for the gravy!

Now you will notice the drippings in the pan. The supplementary heat from the pizza stone causes the juices to reduce far more than usual, making them super concentrated. Transfer these magical drippings to a fat separator, making sure to get the flavorful fond from the bottom of the pan.

Use some of the fat from the pan and stir in flour to make a roux.

Take out the giblets that you have removed from the turkey before you cooked it ~~ you DID take them out didn't you? Put this in a skillet and brown with some onion and carrot, with some of the reserved fat. When browned, add the roux and whisk in some white wine and water. Let the gravy simmer to thicken.

After about 10 minutes the drippings are so intense that no real reduction is necessary. Adjust to your taste with salt & pepper.

Now you have a deeply flavorful gravy—in record time all while the turkey rested for about 30 minutes.

A word about “carving”

Forget about what you have seen on videos! The white or breast meat can be the star of the meal. However it can be tough and dry.

You have worked so hard making sure it will be juicy, don't blow it by cutting it wrong.

All meat has fiber, like a piece of 2 by 4 wood. If you cut it with the grain, it will be tough. If you cut it across the grain, it will stay tender.

Consider that piece of 2x4. You don't want to cut it lengthwise, you want to cut it across.


Now at the bird:

Always use a sharp knife or even an electric knife. Cut to the joints to remove the legs and wings from the bird. Set them aside for now. This gives you room to maneuver.

Cut into the side of the bird, about halfway down cutting sideways to the ribs. Now cut straight down on each side of the breastbone. This will give you a big “loaf” of white meat. (the 2x4). Now cut the end off and proceed to cut across the piece, arranging the pieces on a different platter. You will be amazed at the difference this makes.

Faust's Oyster Stew

Between the Civil War and WWI, Saint Louis was home to Tony Faust's Oyster House and Restaurant. Most of their recipes are lost but slave has recreated this one. We dedicate this dish to our LGBT Hero Noel Coward. Read more about him after the recipe. 

Back then oyster stew was fresh oysters simmered in a thickened cream, topped with a pat of butter. Often we have sacrificed the great tastes of the past on an alter made of kale or another such vegetable that a loving God never intended us to eat. Here slave has conferred with the ghosts of Tony Faust and Escoffier to produce classical taste with today's healthy standards and the availability of local supermarkets.

Ingredients

About a pint of oysters in liquid

2 cups seafood stock low sodium

1 cup clam juice

½ cup chopped shallots
1 garlic clove, minced

2 cans diced potatoes drained

1 can evaporated milk

1 tbs butter

1 tsp old bay seasonings

1 egg yolk

Directions:

Chop the shallots and mince the garlic. 

Heat the butter in a medium pot over medium heat. 

Add the onion and cook for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for about 30 seconds more.

Drain the oysters and add the liquid to the pot.
Add the seafood stock, and drained potatoes to the onion mixture and bring to a boil. 

Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 10 minutes.

Puree the soup and blend until smooth. Add the can of evaporated milk. Taste test for salt, pepper and old bay.

Once this is nice and thick, add the oysters just before serving them so they “cook” on way to the table, also you could stir in an egg yolk.

Our music tonight: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62knEI2NeMU

What a classic done with today's finesse to serve my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTM via @amazon

Noel Coward

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (1899 – 1973) was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".

Coward attended a dance academy in London as a child, making his professional stage debut at the age of eleven. As a teenager he was introduced into the high society in which most of his plays would be set.

The leading actor-manager Charles Hawtrey, whom the young Coward idolized and from whom he learned a great deal about the theater, cast him in the children's play Where the Rainbow Ends.

In 1914, when Coward was fourteen, he became the protégé and probably the lover of Philip Streatfeild, a society painter. Streatfeild introduced him to Mrs Astley Cooper and her high society friends. Streatfeild died from tuberculosis in 1915, but Mrs Astley Cooper continued to encourage her late friend's student.

Coward performed during most of the First World War. In 1917, he appeared in The Saving Grace, a comedy. Coward recalled in his memoirs, "My part was reasonably large and I was really quite good in it, owing to the kindness and care of Hawtrey's direction. He took endless trouble with me ... and taught me during those two short weeks many technical points of comedy acting which I use to this day."

In 1924, Coward achieved his first great critical and financial success as a playwright with The Vortex. The story is about a nymphomaniac socialite and her cocaine-addicted son (played by Coward). Some saw the drugs as a mask for homosexuality. The Vortex was considered shocking in its day for its depiction of sexual vanity and drug abuse among the upper classes. Its notoriety and fiery performances attracted large audiences, justifying a move from a small suburban theatre to a larger one in the West End.

Coward, still having trouble finding producers, raised the money to produce the play himself. During the run of The Vortex, Coward met Jack Wilson, an American stockbroker (later a director and producer), who became his business manager and lover. Wilson used his position to steal from Coward, but the playwright was in love and accepted both the larceny and Wilson's heavy drinking.

The success of The Vortex in both London and America caused a great demand for new Coward plays. Hay Fever, the first of Coward's plays to gain an enduring place in the mainstream theatrical repertoire, appeared in 1925. It is a comedy about four egocentric members of an artistic family who casually invite acquaintances to their country house for the weekend and bemuse and enrage each other's guests. By the 1970s the play was recognised as a classic, described in The Times as a "dazzling achievement; like The Importance of Being Earnest, it is pure comedy with no mission but to delight, and it depends purely on the interplay of characters, not on elaborate comic machinery."

By June 1925 Coward had four shows running in the West End: The Vortex, Fallen Angels, Hay Fever and On with the Dance. Coward was turning out numerous plays and acting in his own works and others'. Soon, his frantic pace caught up with him, and he collapsed on stage in 1926 and had to take an extended rest, recuperating in Hawaii.

By 1929 Coward was one of the world's highest-earning writers, with an annual income of £50,000, more than £2,800,000 in terms of todays values. Coward thrived during the Great Depression, writing a succession of popular hits. Cavalcade (1931), about thirty years in the lives of two families, which required a huge cast, gargantuan sets and a complex hydraulic stage. Its 1933 film adaptation won the Academy Award for best picture.

With the outbreak of the Second World War Coward abandoned the theater and sought official war work. After running the British propaganda office in Paris, he worked on behalf of British intelligence. His task was to use his celebrity to influence American public and political opinion in favour of helping Britain.

Had the Germans invaded Britain, Coward was scheduled to be arrested and killed, as he was in The Black Book along with other figures such as Virginia Woolf, Paul Robeson, Bertrand Russell, C. P. Snow and H. G. Wells. When this came to light after the war, Coward wrote: "I remember Rebecca West, who was one of the many who shared the honor with me, sent me a telegram which read: 'My dear – the people we should have been seen dead with'." 

Churchill's view was that Coward would do more for the war effort by entertaining the troops and the home front than by intelligence work: "Go and sing to them when the guns are firing – that's your job!" Coward, toured, acted, and sang all over Europe, Africa, Asia and America. His London home was wrecked by German bombs in 1941, and he took up temporary residence at the Savoy Hotel. During one air raid on the area around the Savoy he joined Carroll Gibbons and Judy Campbell in impromptu cabaret to distract the captive guests from their fears.

Coward's most enduring work from the war years was the hugely successful black comedy Blithe Spirit, about a novelist who researches the occult and hires a medium. A séance brings back the ghost of his first wife, causing havoc for the novelist and his second wife. With 1,997 consecutive performances, it broke box-office records for the run of a West End comedy, and was also produced on Broadway. The play was adapted into a 1945 film. Coward toured during 1942 in Blithe Spirit.

Coward's new plays after the war were moderately successful but failed to match the popularity of his pre-war hits.

In the 1950s he achieved fresh success as a cabaret performer, performing his own songs. In 1955 Coward's cabaret act at Las Vegas, recorded live, and released as Noël Coward at Las Vegas, was so successful that CBS engaged him to write and direct a series of three 90-minute television specials for the 1955–56 season. The first of these, Together With Music, paired Coward with Mary Martin, featuring him in many of the numbers from his Las Vegas act.

It was followed by productions of Blithe Spirit in which he starred with Claudette Colbert, Lauren Bacall and Mildred Natwick and This Happy Breed with Edna Best and Roger Moore.

Coward achieved enduring success as a playwright, publishing more than 50 plays from his teens onward. Many of his works, such as Hay Fever, Private Lives, Design for Living, and Blithe Spirit, have remained in the regular theater repertoire. He composed hundreds of songs, in addition to well over a dozen musical theater works, screenplays, poetry, several volumes of short stories, the novel Pomp and Circumstance, and a three-volume autobiography.

Coward's stage and film acting and directing career spanned six decades.

Coward's plays and songs achieved new popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, and his work and style continue to influence popular culture. He did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality, but it was discussed candidly after his death by biographers including Graham Payn, his long-time partner.

Coward was homosexual but, following the convention of his times, this was never publicly mentioned. Coward firmly believed his private business was not for public discussion, considering "any sexual activities when over-advertised" to be tasteless.

Even in the 1960s, Coward refused to acknowledge his sexual orientation publicly, wryly observing, "There are still a few old ladies in Worthing who don't know." Despite this reticence, he encouraged his secretary Cole Lesley to write a frank biography once Coward was safely dead.

Coward's most important relationship, which began in the mid-1940s and lasted until his death, was with the South African stage and film actor Graham Payn. Coward featured Payn in several of his London productions. Payn later co-edited a collection of Coward's diaries, published in 1982. Coward's other relationships included the playwright Keith Winter, actors Louis Hayward and Alan Webb, his manager Jack Wilson and the composer Ned Rorem, who published details of their relationship in his diaries.

Coward had a 19-year friendship with Prince George, Duke of Kent, but biographers differ on whether it was platonic.

Payn believed that it was, although Coward reportedly admitted to the historian Michael Thornton that there had been "a little dalliance". Coward said, on the duke's death, "I suddenly find that I loved him more than I knew."

Coward maintained close friendships with many women, including the actresses Gertrude Lawrence, Judy Campbell; and "his loyal and lifelong amitié amoureuse", Marlene Dietrich.

By the end of the 1960s, Coward suffered from arteriosclerosis and he struggled with bouts of memory loss. He retired from acting. Coward was knighted in 1969 and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He received a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. In 1972, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

Coward died at his home, Firefly Estate, in Jamaica in 1973 of heart failure and was buried there on the brow of Firefly Hill, overlooking the north coast of the island. On 28 March 1984 a memorial stone was unveiled by the Queen Mother in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. Thanked by Coward's partner, Graham Payn, for attending, the Queen Mother replied, "I came because he was my friend."

Coward always spelled his first name with the diæresis ("I didn't put the dots over the 'e' in Noël. The language did. Otherwise it's not Noël but Nool!").

"Why", asked Coward, "am I always expected to wear a dressing-gown, smoke cigarettes in a long holder and say 'Darling, how wonderful'?" The answer lay in his cultivation of a carefully crafted image. As a suburban boy who had been taken up by the upper classes he rapidly acquired the taste for high life: "I am determined to travel through life first class."

In 1969 he told Time magazine, "I acted up like crazy. I did everything that was expected of me. Part of the job." Time concluded, "Coward's greatest single gift has not been writing or composing, not acting or directing, but projecting a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise."

He could joke about his own immodesty: "My sense of my importance to the world is relatively small. On the other hand, my sense of my own importance to myself is tremendous." When a Time interviewer apologised, "I hope you haven't been bored having to go through all these interviews for your [70th] birthday, having to answer the same old questions about yourself", Coward rejoined, "Not at all. I'm fascinated by the subject."

Romero Chicken Surprise

Here is a trick to do with chicken breasts that is as easy as it is tasty. We dedicate this to an LGBT Actor Cesar Romero. His sexuality was a badly kept secret that everybody knew but still he was able to stay a dynamic force in films and television for nearly 60 years!

Chicken breasts can be a surprise when paired with simply a prepared dip and melted cheese. 

 

Ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

½ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. pepper

½ tsp garlic powder

1 Tbs. olive oil

½ cup prepared dip (here we used a bacon crab dip found in the deli section)

4 slices smoked Gouda cheese

Paprika for sprinkling

Directions:

Slice the breasts down the sides to make them thinner and cook faster without having to pound them out.

 Evenly sprinkle chicken with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

In a large skillet over medium heat, heat oil; saute chicken 10 to 15 minutes, or until no pink remains, turning occasionally.

Evenly top each breast with a spoonful of dip, place slice of cheese over top, and sprinkle with paprika.

Cover and continue to cook 2 to 3 additional minutes, or until cheese is melted.

Try any dip that strikes your fancy. Have Ranch, or even spinach dip in the refrigerator? Use that! OLE' 

 

For our music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijjcDTRVQwg

What an interesting surprise for my Master Indy

socialslave

To satisfy and restore.

To nourish, support and maintain.

To gratify, spoil, comfort and please,

to nurture, assist, and sustain

…..I cook!

Please buy slave's cookbook:

The Little Black Book of Indiscreet Recipes by Dan White

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00F315Y4I/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_vAT4sb0934RTMvia @amazon

============================

Cesar Romero Jr.

Cesar Julio Romero Jr. (1907 – 1994) was a gay American actor, singer, dancer, and vocal artist. He was active in film, radio, and television for almost 60 years in spite of his sexuality which he never discussed but was well known. 

His wide range of screen roles included Latin lovers, historical figures in costume dramas, characters in light domestic comedies, and the Joker on the Batman television series, which was included in TV Guide's 2013 list of The 60 Nastiest Villains of All Time.

Cesar Julio Romero Jr. was born in New York City on February 15, 1907, the son of Cesar Julio Romero Sr. and Maria Mantilla. His mother was said to be the biological daughter of Cuban national hero José Martí. 

Romero grew up in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, and was educated at Asbury Park High School, the Collegiate School, and the Riverdale Country Day School.

Romero’s first job after attending College was as a ballroom dancer, and for years he served as the dancer/escort of major stars such as Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, Joan Crawford, Carmen Miranda, Lucille Ball and Ginger Rogers. 

Romero first appeared on Broadway in Lady Do (1927), and his first film role was in The Shadow Laughs (1933).

The 6'3" Romero routinely played "Latin lovers" in films from the 1930s until the 1950s, usually in supporting roles. He starred as the Cisco Kid in six westerns made between 1939 and 1941.

Romero danced and performed comedy in the 20th Century Fox films he starred in opposite Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable, such as Week-End in Havana and Springtime in the Rockies, in the 1940s.

He also played a minor role as Sinjin, a piano player in Glenn Miller's band, in the 1942 musical Orchestra Wives. 

In The Thin Man (1934), Romero played a villainous supporting role opposite William Powell. Many of Romero's films from this early period saw him cast in small character parts, such as Italian gangsters and East Indian princes.

Romero had a lead role as the Pathan rebel leader, Khoda Khan, in John Ford's Wee Willie Winkie starring Shirley Temple (1937) and The Little Princess (1939) alongside Shirley Temple.

Romero sometimes played the leading man, for example in Allan Dwan's 15 Maiden Lane (1936) opposite Claire Trevor, as well as winning the key role of the Doc Holliday character in Dwan's Wyatt Earp saga Frontier Marshal three years later. 

After his parents lost their sugar import business and suffered losses in the Stock Market Crash of 1929, It fell upon Romero's Hollywood earnings to support his large family, all of whom followed him to the American West Coast years later. Romero lived on and off with various family members for the rest of his life.

In 1942, he enlisted in the United States Coast Guard as an apprentice seaman and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations. He served aboard the Coast Guard-manned assault transport, USS Cavalier. According to a press release from the period, Romero saw action during the invasions of Tinian and Saipan. The same article mentioned that in spite of his Hollywood fame, he preferred just to be a regular part of the crew and was eventually promoted to the rating of chief boatswain's mate.

After the war: 20th Century Fox, along with mogul Darryl Zanuck, personally selected Romero to co-star with Tyrone Power in the Technicolor historical epic Captain from Castile (1947), directed by Henry King.

Among many television credits, Romero appeared several times on The Martha Raye Show in the mid-1950s. He portrayed Don Diego de la Vega's maternal uncle in a number of Season 2 Zorro episodes.

In 1958, he guest-starred as Ramon Valdez, a South American businessman, who excels at dancing the Cha-Cha with Barbara Eden in her syndicated romantic comedy, How to Marry a Millionaire. He performed the mambo with Gisele MacKenzie on her NBC variety show, The Gisele MacKenzie Show. He guest-starred in 1957 on CBS's The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour on the first episode of the seventh season ("Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana"). 

He played "Don Carlos", a card shark on the episode, "The Honorable Don Charlie Story" of NBC's Wagon Train. On January 16, 1958, he appeared on The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford.

In 1965, Romero played the head of THRUSH in France in "The Never-Never Affair" from The Man from U.N.C.L.E. 

He is best known today as a character on the TV series Batman. From 1965 to 1968, he portrayed the Joker. He refused to shave his mustache for the role, and so the supervillain's white face makeup was simply smeared over it throughout the series' run and in the 1966 film.

The actor known as "the Latin from Manhattan" was an unexpected choice to play the villain in TV's 1960s 'Batman,' but the series reignited his fame.

He was an unexpected choice.

When the chance to play the Joker came along in 1966, Romero was 59, and it reignited his fame.
"It's the kind of part where you can do everything you've been told not to do as an actor," he said in a 1966 television interview. "You can be as hammy as you want."
The ABC show was the year's most hyped midseason debut.

"An excellent campaign, one of the best ever given a TV show," said The Hollywood Reporter. "The producers also have spared no expense in creating the series for the small screen."

In its first year, the Adam West-fronted show ranked fifth in the ratings with 14 million viewers, but the novelty quickly wore off, and it lasted only two more seasons.

His guest star work in the 1970s included a recurring role on the western comedy Alias Smith and Jones as Señor Armendariz. He appeared in three episodes. Romero later portrayed Peter Stavros on Falcon Crest (from 1985–1987). He also appeared in a sixth-season episode of The Golden Girls, where he played a suitor named Tony Delvecchio for Sophia.

 

Apart from these television roles, Romero appeared as A.J. Arno, a small-time criminal who continually opposes Dexter Riley (played by Kurt Russell) and his schoolmates of Medfield College in a series of films by Walt Disney Productions in the 1970s. 

                   With long time lover Tyrone Power.

Personal life

Romero never married and had no children, but made frequent appearances at Hollywood events escorting actresses, such as Joan Crawford, Linda Darnell, Barbara Stanwyck, Lucille Ball, Ann Sheridan, Jane Wyman, and Ginger Rogers.

He was almost always described in interviews and articles as a "confirmed bachelor", an old Hollywood code for a gay man.

Fans and critics alike agreed that Romero was a major talent who proved himself an enduring and versatile star in a variety of roles during his more than 60-year career as an actor, dancer, and comedian.

He was also a deeply closeted gay man to his fans. When he was interviewed by author Boze Hadleigh, Romero gave a revealing, often comic account of what life was like in the Golden Age of Hollywood for a closeted gay man (in Romero's instance, also Catholic and Latino).

Because he was "out" to all his entertainment industry colleagues, it was often stated that Romero's homosexuality was Hollywood's worst kept secret. That interview is included in Hadleigh's book, Hollywood Gays.

He never denied his sexuality, though he never discussed it, either. His longtime boyfriend was actually actor Tyrone Power.

It has been claimed that he also had a one night stand with Desi Arnaz!

Death

On January 1, 1994, aged 86, Romero died from complications of a blood clot while being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica, California. 

His body was cremated and the ashes were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California