Gay actors 1950s
The Real LGBT Stars of Old Hollywood
The gay subculture of early Hollywood has gained more attention recently thanks to the Netflix series Hollywood. While the show does feature portrayals of some real icon characters, its main point is on the make-believe minority characters and the made-up success story of their diverse film. Many stars in Hollywood from the 1930s suppressed their sexuality. They didn’t obtain the freedom that LGBT performers have now, but that doesn’t mean their lives needed a misleading happy ending in request to be recognized and appreciated.
Knowing the complete history of LGBT stars in the first decade of Hollywood is difficult since, in order to appeal to the public, publicists believed that aspect of their lives needed to be hidden. Knowing as much as we perform about some LGBT stars is a feat considering how much rewriting and covering up the Hollywood studio heads did to everyone they managed, whether gay or straight. Biographies were changed to sound more interesting or relatable to fans, and relationships were deliberately orchestrated to publicize a movie or introduce a new luminary to the public. The only indication of some stars’ hidden
When Hollywood Studios Married Off Gay Stars to Keep Their Sexuality a Secret
Valentino also married costume designer Natacha Rambova in 1923, at a time when his career was starting to accept off and the roles he played were seen as less typically masculine, such as in the film “Monsieur Beaucaire” in 1924. His marriage to Rambova ended in 1925, which left some speculating that the marriages of the “pink powder puff” (a nickname Valentino acquired after playing effeminate roles on screen) were coverups to maintain the sex symbol’s reputation intact.
Identifying how many Hollywood couples tied the knot to cloak their sexuality is, of course problematic since it’s primarily based on speculation_._
“I consider the hardest thing for a historian is to compassionate of sift through what the rumor [is] and what is actually factual," says Tropiano.
One commonly cited source for speculation is the memoir of Scotty Bowers, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars. Bowers’ account details sexual encounters, queer and straight, that he claims he both arranged and took part in, beginning in 1946.
Bowers wrote that he had been sexually involved with command
5. Stars from a Bi-Gone Era
Most of the stories that we discussed came from one guy: Scotty Bowers, a Hollywood pimp of the queer silver screen actors of the 1940s and beyond. He was also linked with Alfred Kinsey in his famous study of human sexuality in the 1950s by providing many of the interview subjects.
A former marine, Bowers kept peaceful for many years about these stories, as he did not want to adversely affect the lives of any of the actors who were still around. Many of the stories were actively hushed up using fixers paid by the studios at the time, and several of the actors were in "lavender marriages"---marriages arranged by the studio, frequently with another queer star. At the time, studios especially would not have wanted the queer attractions of their headlining actors to be widely recognizable, as that would have damaged the 'wholesome family image' of many of the films they wanted to market.
After all of the actors died, Bowers finally decided that his experiences and stories couldn't harm their image or beloved status---plus the earth was a more open place to queer attraction---so he wrote about it. His memoir, Full Service, records many of the t
Old Hollywood Stars You Didn't Know Were Gay
Let's state the obvious: Being a gay public figure during the days of Old Hollywood was no hike in the park. Behind Tinseltown's glitzy facade loomed the specter of Hollywood's "sexual gestapo," a term coined by Matt Tyrnauer, director of the documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (via NPR). "It was very difficult," he said, "for people to have authentic lives." And Tyrnauer should know: His clip profiled L.A. ego Scotty Bowers, who reportedly acted as a "confidante, confidant, and pimp for Hollywood's closeted feature stars."
The threat of exposure was concrete and ever-present for these entertainers. Per Tyrnauer, studio contracts contained so-called "moral clauses" that could instantly vaporize a lucrative career. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Police Department's vice squad were all too willing to bust celebrities, often working in cahoots with the compress in their quest to hobble reputations.
Definitively name-checking these stars is impossible, as they were all in the closet throughout their careers. SFGate cannily suggested that "gossip is where the real truth lies" in this are