Tom Ellis has seen it all.
An artist and activist all his life, the 76-year-old grew up in Iola, but went on to spend much of his career in New York and California.
Along the way he met countless memorable souls, including an array of celebrities, and immersed himself in the counterculture of his day.
“It was a life I can’t even begin to explain in a few words,” he said. “It was just, gosh, free and easy.”
Living such a rich life has led Ellis to set his sights on writing an autobiography, of which he is about half finished, but in the meantime, here’s a taste of what’s to come:
IT’S 1967. Ellis had just arrived in New York City.
“I was a free and happy hippie then,” he said. “It was wonderful.”
Ellis had no money, but somehow survived, he said, in part by landing a job working at Bloomingdale’s on lighting.
“With that paycheck I found an apartment in the East Village for $65 a month. It was a six- floor walkup, but it was mine,” he chuckled.
He also brought along his trusty instrument.
“When I got to New York City, I had my guitar and was into folk music,” Ellis said. “… which is not opera.”
Before long, he was doing solo gigs, “going club to club,” and “hooking up” with other musicians, including Stephen Schwartz, the writer behind “Wicked” and other landmark performances.
“Stephen took me in to record a song called ‘Butterflies are Free,’ which didn’t go anywhere,” Ellis casually noted.
Afterward, he joined forces with others to form a band called Malimo.
THE SCENE is New York City, 1973.
It’s illegal for men to dance with one another.
The Stonewall Riots had taken place four years earlier in Manhattan, a series of demonstrations and protests in response to spurious police raids on the gay community.
“I was there,” said Ellis. And he witnessed significant violence before escaping.
In response, he and others began to take action, for instance, by starting an organization that would fight for LGBTQ justice across the country.
Along with Ellis were his husband, Robert Livingston, who was Commissioner of Human Rights in New York City, and Dr. Howard Brown, New York City’s openly gay Surgeon General.
(Livingston was a producer as well as a politician, who happened to “discover” Cher and others.)
As Ellis explained, “when we founded it, it was the National Gay Task Force … We changed it over to National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.”
Through this task force, the goal was “to form an organization that would help gays with legislation that would help ensure their civil rights.”
What would follow was some “good trouble,” via a series of coordinated actions and information campaigns, since “to start a revolution like that, sometimes … noteworthy civil disobedience is necessary.”
In 1979, Ellis moved to Los Angeles after his husband died, and would stay there another 34 years, where he would change his career from singing back to art.
DURING the 1980s, Ellis recalled his stay at the Villa Carlotta in Los Angeles (Old Hollywood) as an exciting scene, a place frequently visited and crashed in by artists and performers.
“Jim Morrison of The Doors lived there for a little bit,” he noted.
Ellis loved his apartment on the ground floor that opened onto the courtyard, including the iron gate which he sawed off.
“We tenants fixed the place up,” he remembered. “The owner merely collected the rent.”
Though the place in Old Hollywood was a blast, Ellis also pointed out that “the neighborhood was dangerous at that point. My car got broken into three times because they wanted to steal the radio.”
Not one to take things sitting down, he helped to form a neighborhood watch and would ultimately root out “a nest of thieves.”
“The neighborhood became very nice,” Ellis added.
One of his neighbors at this time was a woman named “Wally,” a professional model who couldn’t read or write.
“Tragic,” Ellis said. “But she had the most beautiful hair and skin.”
A BELIEVER in performance, Ellis credits specific media for recent positive changes and gains in rights for the LGBTQ community.
He pointed to shows like “Will and Grace,” for example, which features a prominent and likeable gay character, as being instrumental in bringing about transformations in attitudes.
“Television and movies, and entertainment in general are great influencers of social mores,” Ellis emphasized. Such shows “made being gay funny and normal.”
“Every time a celebrity came out gay it was less and less of a big deal,” Ellis said. “That’s the way things work. You get over the shock and then all of a sudden [gay people are] just regular people.”
AFTER A whirlwind life lived across the U.S. and extensive travel around the world, Ellis has been living in Iola again for the past six years.
“I had a vision … I was going to end up back in Kansas. I can’t explain it. It was just a vision.”
Along with continuing to paint in numerous genres and selling art prints, he’s been hard at work making a positive impact in the community.
His latest project involves turning Elks Lake into a tourist attraction and fantasy world, one featuring lights and enormous rock sculptures, as well as perhaps shops and more.
The goal, Ellis said, is to “just make it wonderful.”
It’s an aim he said will take the entire community to realize, but he’s also absolutely confident that it can be done.
As such, it would become part of the legacy of a life lived to the point of overflowing.
It’s a story that’s far from over.
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