Dale Jennings - After ONE

After ONE

After leaving ONE, Jennings wrote and published his first novel, The Ronin, retold from an ancient Buddhist story, followed by The Sinking of the Sarah Diamond. Another book, The Cowboys, based on a film treatment he sold to Warner Bros., caused considerable controversy among publishers due to its glimmers of homoeroticism. The Cowboys was made into a film in 1972, starring John Wayne. While not as successful as his first book, he made enough profit from the book that allowed him to buy a ranch outside of Los Angeles. After losing his home due to a lawsuit with a former lover he moved to the town of Trinidad in Humboldt County in northern California where he decided to re-involve himself in the movement. He contacted an old friend from ONE, Don Slater, who had also separated himself from ONE and founded a new organization, HIC (Homosexual Information Center) in 1965. Jennings was very passionate about his writings, and hoped that the HIC would accept and protect his scripts and books.

The HIC believed and supported the protection of privacy in sexual relations and that this was the key to sexual freedom. Jennings stayed highly involved with the organization until 1997, when Slater died. Around this time Jennings began losing his memory and constantly worried that his writings would be lost, so he made arrangements that his works and property would go to the HIC when he died.

He continued to write until shortly before his death on May 11, 2000 at the age of 82 at Specialty Hospital in La Mirada, California; he is survived by one nephew. His legacy to the HIC consists of hundreds of articles, including unpublished books, plays, film treatments and stories. They are now housed in the Homosexual Information Center Archives, a part of the Vern and Bonnie Bullough Collection on Sex and Gender, housed at Oviatt Library, California State University, Northridge.