Dick Duane

From THE KEY WEST CITIZEN, OBITUARIES, FEBRUARY 3, 2021

(with photos and remarks by me)

Dick Duane, 91, a former long-time Key West resident, died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021. He began his extraordinary career as a MGM contract player, then a well-known singer, advertising executive, literary agent and was true renaissance man. Dick lost a valiant battle against colon cancer. He was instrumental in the creation of the novel “Midnight Cowboy,” written by James Leo Herlihy, and the subsequent packaging of the Academy Award-winning film of the same name. The novel is dedicated to him, as well.

[MIDNIGHT COWBOY premiered in the summer of 1969 amid all the chaos of that era. For me it was a seminal event. Rated "X", it exposed a gritty part of life most Americans had never contemplated. Making MIDNIGHT COWBOY happen was monumental. All that followed are derivative.]

[James Leo Herlihy's house at 709 Bakers Lane. I sold this house in 2010. Google and read the stories about Herilhy's time in Key West and the people and parties at Bakers Lane. Broadway impresario Jerry Herman lived on nearby William Street and created a secret gate at the rear of his property to lessen the walk to Bakers Lane.]

Following several appearances as a solo artist on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and several gold records, he appeared regularly in most major nights clubs in the country and internationally during the 1950s.--

 He produced the off-Broadway play “Stop, Your Killing Me” by James Leo Herlihy (author of “Midnight Cowboy”) at the 73rd Street Theater in 1969. As a board member of Lorillard & Co. and through his company, Duane Enterprises, Dick created major advertising campaigns for Kent brand cigarettes as well as Newport and True Blue brands.

In 1973, Dick, with his partner Robert Thixton, formed Pinder Lane Productions, which quickly grew into a successful award-winning music and film production company in New York City. In 1985, the company expanded and became the celebrity talent booking agency for BBDO New York and subsequently BBDO Worldwide and its affiliates, as well as other major ad agencies throughout the world, signing film stars, performing artists and former vice presidents to endorse and appear in numerous commercials and, in effect created branding.

 

[4 Pinder Lane, Key West was the home Dick Duane and Robert Thixton shared. I wrote about it several times over the years. Robert Thixton's niece, Mary, a Key West Realtor, told me stories of the New York and Hollywood royalty who stayed or partied at this home including Tallulah Bankhead clad in flowery pedal-pushers could sometimes be seen at Fausto’s Food Palace, Cary Grant, Leonard Bernstein, Burt Reynolds, and Anne Jackson among many others who were guests. 

 

I first saw this property about in 2009 when it was listed (with an adjacent cottage that has since been sold) at the then asking price of $4.5 million. My buyers were so taken by this property that they required a second visit that evening.  "Wow!" would be an appropriate description. Duane and Thixton created two Romeo and Juliet balconies inside the house from which the owners or guests might burst into song during soirées. The sun-drenched pool looked like a Hollywood movie set.]

 

 

A successful literary agent with several Key West authors as clients, he was co-owner of Pinder Lane and Garon-Brooke literary Agency, which still represents major literary clients. He is survived by his husband of 50 years, Robert Thixton, who has continued to operate both companies; brother-in-law William F. Thixton (Cathy), sister’s-in-law Christina Ann Knight and Mary Elizabeth Thixton and close Key West friends including Lynn Kaufelt, Jackson Kaufelt, Evangeline Washington, Barbara Robinson, Ernestine Curry, Jim Hogan and Brenda Myren and all who adopted him as theirs and loved him. An important human being graced this world and is now gone. There will be small private service. A video memorial film will be available at a later date.

Dick Duane at a 1986 Key West Literary Seminar which he and David Kaufelt co-founded. Photo credit Jeffrey Cardenas