Gay stars of the 1950s
The Real LGBT Stars of Aged Hollywood
The gay subculture of soon Hollywood has gained more attention recently thanks to the Netflix series Hollywood. While the present does feature portrayals of some real celebrity characters, its main focus is on the make-believe 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 get the freedom that LGBT performers include now, but that doesn&#;t represent their lives needed a misleading happy ending in order 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 do 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 vertical. Biographies were changed to sound more interesting or relatable to fans, and relationships were deliberately orchestrated to publicize a production
When Hollywood Studios Married Off Gay Stars to Keep Their Sexuality a Secret
Valentino also married costume designer Natacha Rambova in , 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 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 think 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 Covert Sex Lives of the Stars. Bowers’ account details sexual encounters, gay and straight, that he claims he both arranged and took pa
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 s and beyond. He was also associated with Alfred Kinsey in his famous study of human sexuality in the s by providing many of the interview subjects.
A former marine, Bowers kept silent 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 performer. At the time, studios especially would not hold wanted the queer attractions of their headlining actors to be widely famous, as that would hold 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 statusplus the planet was a more clear place to queer attracti
Hollywood’s Hidden LGBTQ History
Ava Gardner was discovered and achieved international fame through the power and reach of the studio system which largely ruled the Hollywood film business from the late s through the s. While the studios controlled most of the movie industry, they also attempted to control and heavily influence the personal lives and public images of the stars they had under contract. As Ava grew more confident in herself and her abilities as an performer, she repeatedly bucked at this controlling contract system &#x; finding it to be restrictive, stifling, and often hypocritical. Ava was an open-minded, free-spirited individual who accepted people for who they were. She made deep, lasting friendships with people based on their character and traits and never judged or shunned anyone for their race, gender, or sexuality.
As constraining as Ava create the restrictions of the studio structure to be, her costars and coworkers in what we would call today the LGBTQ community* found it to be an even more difficult system to navigate. During Ava&#x;s peak period in Holl