The Closet Door is Open - Lavender Ladies & Gents of the Golden Age of Hollywood

[LizzieMaine]

Modern people tend to forget that it was very common at one time for same-sex roommates to share the same bed, with no sexual connotations whatsoever. When I was researching the "Amos 'n' Andy" radio scripts for my book, I came across quite a few scenes in which Amos and Andy were in bed together at night, discussing their problems before falling asleep -- scenes which reflected the real-life experience of their creators, who had shared a room and a bed together during their own bachelorhood. Those scenes today would provoke a wave of snickering wisecracks, but at the time they were simply a reflection of a working-class reality for which modern folk no longer have any contact.

There was also a 1936 script in which Amos and Andy, while visiting California, were hired as handymen at the home of Randolph Scott and Cary Grant. Grant and Scott, playing themselves, appeared in the episode as well, trading all sorts of cutesy "that was a swell-looking dive you took Randy! Not as swell as yours, Cary!" dialogue. If a recording of this episode ever surfaces, it will instantly be enshrined as the highest possible camp.

 

[djd]

The long running, hugely popular, uk show Morcombe and Wise , regularly featured them in the same bed with no hint of a gay theme. It's a shame in some ways that that sort of innocence has gone.

Funnily enough , Eric Morcombe was a good friend of Cary Grant later in Grants life.

 

[HadleyH]

I am no expert in this topic, but, two names have already been mentioned in this thread ... William Haines and George Cukor ... for some obscure reason a third name is often associated with the other two,Clark Gable ...


"Clark Gable got George Cukor fired from directing Gone With the Wind because gay Cukor called Gable "dear."

It didn't help that Cukor knew an interesting piece of gossip -- Gable had let gay actor William Haines service him in exchange for his start in movies -- which made their working relationship rather uncomfortable."


Gossip? rumor? true? false? We will never know! Anyway, all three men were great artists in their own field.

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of the saddest cases is that of Ramon Novarro, considered the most gorgeous man on the screen in the late twenties. He resisted MGM's attempts to force him into a marriage-of-convenience to keep up his image, and when talkies came in he was unceremoniously dumped by the studio. He fell out of the public consciousness after that -- until he was brutally beaten to death in 1968 by two young men he had engaged for an evening at his home.

 

[C-dot]

One of the saddest cases is that of Ramon Novarro, considered the most gorgeous man on the screen in the late twenties. He resisted MGM's attempts to force him into a marriage-of-convenience to keep up his image, and when talkies came in he was unceremoniously dumped by the studio. He fell out of the public consciousness after that -- until he was brutally beaten to death in 1968 by two young men he had engaged for an evening at his home.

What's even more sad about poor Ramon is what [expletive]s like Kenneth Anger have done to his memory by writing sensational rumours as fact. I can't repeat what he wrote here, but anyone who has read Hollywood Babylon will know what I'm referring to.

I read in Clara Bow: Runnin' Wild that Clara's best friend Tui Lorraine (who later became her stepmother) went "the lavender way," and was quite in love with Clara. Their friendship came to an acrimonious ending over her divorce from Clara's father. Watching Clara's films, its not hard to understand why Tui felt the way she did, even as a heterosexual!

 

[Lily Powers]

Ramon Novarro and Norma Shearer - silent screen wowza in "The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg."

Novarro's murderers were brothers, 17 and 21. They received life sentences. Both were paroled at one time, both re-offended with sex crimes, and both ended up back behind bars. The younger one died in 2005 and the older one (who actually confessed he was the murderer) will be cozy in his prison cell until 2022.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Glad that was cleared up about The Duke. Whew.
Oh yeah there were many back then that kept things quiet.
What I've found fascinating about this discussion, is the actor that became an interior decorator.
That's rolling with the punches, and keeping an eye open for new opportunities!
Probably made more doing that anyway.

 

[Mojito]

Louise Brooks experimented a few times, and used to love to play up the idea that she was gay, but was fairly hetro on the scale of things. One of the people she did sleep with was Marion Davies' niece, her good friend Pepi Lederer, who was a confirmed lesbian. Brooksie was also supposed to have confided privately that the other "experiment" she had was with Greta Garbo. Brooks wrote interesting material on life in the Hearst Castle, and how the gay guests were sometimes given more latitude than other guests, probably largely because of Pepi's influence.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Gotta be careful what you say about ol' John Wayne. My dad and I got into a rather heated fight a couple weeks ago. He told me that Clint Eastwood would kick John Wayne's, well, keister. My mom ended up breaking us up lol

Glad that was cleared up about The Duke. Whew.

This thread reminded me of this news story

http://www.baynews9.com/article/new...onway-Twittys-sexual-orientation-sparks-fight

 

[scotrace]

William Haines Designs is still in business, and has always thrived. Mr. Haines passed away in 1974.

 

[skyvue]

It was Haines' pal Joan Crawford who helped him launch his new interior design career. There's an excellent book about Haines, for those who are interested, call WISECRACKER (don't recall the author's name, offhand).

 

[djd]

Director/Aviator Howard Hughes "got along well" with many of Hollywood's leading ladies and gentlemen, including Cary Grant.

Another example of sensationalist fiction I'm afraid. Hughes was one of the biggest womanisers in Holywood in the 30s. There is no evidence to suggest he was gay and no credible biography of him suggests that he was. Yet his supposed homosexuality is then used by a number of parasitic writers to 'prove' that his aquaintances Grant and Flynn were. Why else would they hang out with him at the top nighspots in Holywood ??

 

[RadioWave]

Another example of sensationalist fiction I'm afraid. Hughes was one of the biggest womanisers in Holywood in the 30s. There is no evidence to suggest he was gay and no credible biography of him suggests that he was. Yet his supposed homosexuality is then used by a number of parasitic writers to 'prove' that his aquaintances Grant and Flynn were. Why else would they hang out with him at the top nighspots in Holywood ??

He definitely was a womanizer, no doubt about that. The funny thing is, I checked at least five different (and fairly reputable) sources before posting to make sure it wasn't a bogus fact. There are quite a number of bios of the man floating around that promote his alleged bisexuality to varying degrees.

Since reading your post, I searched again and came across this (undocumented) statement from a queue of book reviews: "the FBI report on Hughes never found evidence of homosexuality".

 

[djd]

I wasn't having a dig at you pal - I just loathe how these things get repeated often enough that they suddenly take on the status of 'facts' in the popular consciousness! People may say, 'the womanising was just a cover for his homosexuality!' but of all the gay men and women I've know I've never met one who carried on with multiple members of the opposite sex in this way as 'cover'. Sure, I've know a number of gay men and women who have been married at some point in their lives before realising their mistake and coming out but that is not the same thing at all. At some point every handsome man seems to get claimed as gay...

 

[RadioWave]

Nah, I didn't take it personally, I just hate repeating things that aren't true.

 

[Guttersnipe]

In conjunction with this thread I recommend the documentaries The Celluloid Closet and Thou Shalt Not: Sex, Sin and Censorship in Pre-Code Hollywood. There's another documentary that does really good job exploring possible homosexual subtexts in classic Hollywood films as well as discussing the realities of the era and what it was like for closeted actors, but I cannot for the life of me remember the title.

 

[Guttersnipe]

Regarding the "were they or weren't they" debate, I think it's useful to separate the assertions of unauthorized biographers who sold books by making salacious claims about people after the were dead and those that were contemporary to the time.

James Dean, for instance, probably gave studio big wigs heart attacks when stated about as bluntly as one could in the 50s that he was bisexual ("let's put it thins way, I'm not going to go through life with on hand tied behind my back"). But whether he was trying to tweak his nose at conformity or legitimately wanted to communicate his sexuality is hard to say.

After he died his roommate from New York did write a book saying they'd been romantically involved, but only after many years and in a revised edition . . .

 

[Puzzicato]

1955's "The Big Combo." Two tough guy thugs, Fante (Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) are together all the time and even though they are henchmen, their relationship with each other is very kind, almost tender, as Fante calls Mingo honey at one point.

Entirely off topic, but I have just discovered where Joss Whedon got the names for his tough guy thug twins in Serenity!

 

[BinkieBaumont]

Tab Hunter was set up to date Natalie Wood in the late 1950's (He was actually dating Anthony Perkins) the joke at the time in certain Hollywood circles was 'Natalie Wood, but Tab Wouldn't'

Double date sounds like a good idea

 

[scotrace]

Modern people tend to forget that it was very common at one time for same-sex roommates to share the same bed, with no sexual connotations whatsoever.

Absolutely. And same-sex friendships were very different prior to our time. Some biographers have tried to contort Lincoln's close friendship and common sleeping arrangements with Joshua Speed into evidence of Lincoln's homosexuality.