Double-Edged Sword

Sidney Franklin (1903–76) was the last person you’d expect to become a bullfighter. The streetwise son of a Russian Jewish cop, Sidney had an all-American boyhood in early twentieth-century Brooklyn—while hiding the fact that he was gay. A violent confrontation with his father sent him packing to Mexico City, where first he opened a business, then he opened his mouth—bragging that Americans had the courage to become bullfighters. Training with iconic matador Rodolfo Gaona, Sidney’s dare spawned