[1] While sailing on the RMS Oceanic in 1901, Cushing spent time with fellow first class traveler, Mary Lawrence, who wrote about him in her diary, stating: "He is absolutely as perfectly made as one of his own Greek gods and goddesses.

[11][12] In 1917, he left Life and joined the Army Air Service, serving as a captain in charge of "supervising the camouflaging of American airfields on the Western Front".

His costume consisted of full tights and a short jacket, with a little cap and long locks, while a large stuffed falcon was perched on his left wrist.

The costume left little to the imagination, as far as the figure was concerned, and, although historically accurate in every detail, was so decidedly pronounced that he caused a sensation wherever he moved.

"[15] Cushing, who did not marry, was a member of an artist's club known as Le Cercle d'Amis, and was friends with Charles Allan Gilbert.

[10] He was also friends with Dr. Alfred Stillman II, who gave a luncheon at the clubhouse of the National Golf Links of America in Southampton, New York in 1937.