Gay men in old hollywood
When Hollywood Studios Married Off Lgbtq+ Stars to Keep Their Sexuality a Secret
Valentino also married costume designer Natacha Rambova in , at a time when his career was starting to get off and the roles he played were seen as less typically masculine, such as in the film “Monsieur Beaucaire” in His marriage to Rambova ended in , 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 keep 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 reflect the hardest thing for a historian is to kind 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, gay and straight, that he claims he both arranged and took pa
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 star characters, its main concentrate is on the imaginary minority characters and the made-up success story of their diverse film. Many stars in Hollywood from the s 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 command 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 accomplish 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
Old Hollywood Stars You Didn't Know Were Gay
Let's state the obvious: Being a gay star during the days of Old Hollywood was no amble 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 movie profiled L.A. character Scotty Bowers, who reportedly acted as a "confidante, companion, and pimp for Hollywood's closeted film stars."
The threat of exposure was genuine 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 push in their quest to hobble reputations.
Definitively name-checking these stars is impossible, as they were all in the closet through
Before the word “gay” took roots in our daily life – and before we began to spot movies featuring women, men and all variations of the word “gender” in all kinds of styles – the powerful engine of the industry of visual entertainment was often driven by filmmakers who, even at the dawn of Hollywood, were themselves gay. The word was mentioned rarely and only in private, but the entertainment machine was constantly affected by smart and daring gay filmmakers, creating hit pictures and inception significant conversations between the story on the screen and the audience in the dark.
From the s to the early years of the 60s, Hollywood had filmmakers capable of enthralling, entertaining and sometimes scaring the audience. Many of the top directors were LBGTQ+. Many actors and creative people behind the scenes were well acknowledged by the studios and its bosses to be gay – but as long as their confidential life was kept silent, their work was more than welcomed.
Among these filmmakers, many were European by birth, working in Hollywood and feeling themselves more at home there than in Europe.