In the 1960s, during what became known as “the Great Scandal,” foreigners in Tangier were arrested for sexual and drug-related crimes, and many of the city’s seedy brothels were shut down for good. After the city was reunited with Morocco, and the protectorate gained independence in 1956, the expatriate community dwindled away. The darker side of this period in Tangier’s history is apparent in the diaries of the English playwright Joe Orton, which make clear he was none too fussed about the age of the boys he was picking up there. Yves Saint Laurent had a home in Tangier for many years (as well as a villa in Marrakech). Burroughs (who wrote the drug-infused novel Naked Lunch there). Vidal characterizes himself as the “fugitive” of a group that included Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams, and Truman Capote, to be joined later by the likes of Allen Ginsberg and William S.
