Allan William Booth – theAIDSmemorial Post

I met Allan William Booth (January 27, 1959 - July 29, 1990) in Sydney in 1978 and we were boyfriends until 1981. We remained close friends after that and in 1989, as he had become quite ill and had been hospitalised, I asked him to move in with me so I could look after him more easily.We lived together until Allan’s death in July 1990 through a couple of long stays in hospital with pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) and many visits to Saint Vincent’s hospital in Darlinghurst in Sydney to the clinic for treatment of cytomegalovirus (CMV) retinitis.With the help of friends, we kept Allan at home until the last week when he went into the hospice at Saint Vincent’s where he died. I was able to be with Allan until the end as I had promised to him and his parents.Allan made a major contribution to the Sydney Gay Mardi Gras in the early 80's as the designer of the Mardi Gras poster in both 1983 and 1984, the designer of the Mardi Gras party poster in 1985, the Gay Fair poster in 1985 and as co-designer of the 1983 Sleaze Ball. He participated in the art shows that were part of the Mardi Gras festivals in particular 1985 and a short film called ‘The Three Egyptian Princesses’ was shown in 1987 at the Mardi Gras film festival.Following Allan’s death we had a retrospective of his work in 1991 in a show called ‘Word of Mouth’ where we showed his paintings, posters, costumes, video, cartoons and the paraphernalia of his life.Allan liked to say he had an over active imagination and in one of his Dr Rhythm cartoons described himself as ‘jung and foolish.’ His life though short was energetic, active, creative and colourful. He inspired, was greatly loved, occasionally maligned, somewhat difficult and in the last two years of his life maintained great courage, humour and strength in his fight against AIDS.”― by Jeffrey Stewart