Born On This Day- July 11th... Tab Hunter

Arthur Andrew Kelm Gelien was an equestrian & figure skater before his agent, Henry Wilson turned him into Tab Hunter (the same agent that came up with the name Rock Hudson). Tab Hunter has appeared in over 40 films & has worked on stage & TV. My favortite Tab Hunter role is as Joe Hardy in the1958 film version of Damn Yankees. He was the only one in the film version who had not been in the original Broadway cast.

In the year of my birth-1954, Hunter, then 23, blond & blue eyed, the perfect product of a popular perceptibility, as free from cynicism & care as a sky can be cloudless & clear, was the #1 male star at the box office with the film- Battle Cry. By 1957 he was also #1 on the pop music charts with Young Love, topping Elvis Presley.

By 1959 his ride was ending. Troy Donahue was invented & he became the next Tab Hunter, & Hunter at 28 was more or less done. Hunter began a 46 year descent into actors’ hell: spaghetti westerns (Hunter describes them as - "short on the meat sauce"), TV guest shots, dinner theater, infomercials, & the film Won Ton Ton, The Dog Who Saved Hollywood.

Then, in the 1980s, after the long trip through the depths of drek & a heart attack, Hunter was rediscovered by Post Apocalyptic Bohemian- John Waters. In Polyester (1981), Waters used Hunter, who had starred opposite John Wayne as well as Natalie Wood, Sophia Loren & a bevy of beauties, to play opposite Divine as Francine Fishpaw.  His work in Polyester reinvented Hunter as an ironic illustration of his own Hollywood iconography.

Hunter said Hollywood in the 1950s had its version of "Don't ask, don't tell": "Don't complain, don't explain." Let the studio take care of the actors, & let the public draw its conclusions.

Hunter: "Hollywood will just take you, chew you up, spit you out, dump you on the side & go on to the next, & it's kind of tragic." In 2005, Hunter released a terrific & very readable memoir- Tab Hunter Confidential: The Making of A Movie Star where he finally publicly came out of the closet. Hunter: "Life was difficult for me, because I was living 2 different lives at that time. A private life of my own, which I never discussed, never talked about to anyone. Then my Hollywood life, which was just trying to learn my craft & succeed..." the word 'gay' wasn't even around in those days, & if anyone ever confronted me with it, I'd just kinda freak out. I was in total denial. I was just not comfortable in that Hollywood scene, other than the work process. There was a lot written about my sexuality, & the press was pretty darn cruel."

Hunter enjoyed long term relationships with actor Anthony Perkins & champion figure skater Ronnie Robertson before settling down with his partner of 30 years, Allan Glaser, a producer. The couple live in Montecito, California.

He was one of my first crushes. I think Tab Hunter was & is a blond bombshell. I don't hate that he is a Republican… but I do hate his Republicanism.

The Real Republicans Of The Presidential Primaries

I have been enjoying this new reality show on... I think it must be Bravo- The Republican Candidates for President Of The United States. It is an absolutely nutty program. These people are more deliriously demented than a weekly dose of any of the Housewives Of Anyplace.

Herman Cain, my favorite when the pilot was aired, was voted off the island early. I still miss Cain. He was a piping hot extra large quadruple cheese pizza slice of fun who likes to talk in rhyme. Cain: "We need a leader, not a reader."

My attention was focused next on batty, bonkers Bachmann. Michele would become my very favorite. What can rivet me to my screen more that the inarticulate & incoherent girl with the pretty eyes? Bachmann was my choice to go all the way to the finale, but you know how it is: One Day You're In, & The Next Day... You're Out. I was shocked when she was voted off, after all, it was God's idea that she be on the show. If the great Vice-President of Original Programing in heaven is behind you, it would be expected that you would win. Michele even was able to have Rip Taylor substitute for her husband. I miss her the most.

Now I have to pin my hopes on Rick Perry, the openly gay Texan with the big gun. Twangy Perry is diverting & droll, with quips such as: "You can always follow me on Tweeter" & "Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America" & "From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented."

John Huntsman should be on another show, he is so smart. When he has to pack his knives & leaves the show, I hope that he will join next season's Ace Of Cakes.

Icky Rick Santorum always acts like he has just seen something really dirty, filthy dirty, in the woodshed. I hate him on this show, but I would find Santorum provocative on The D List with Kathy Griffin, Color Splash With David Bromstad or Dancing With The Stars.

But the pundits & the critics seem to feel that blandly handsome Mitt Romney will win & get his own show. It seems that he is perpetually second choice to play president when the producers can't get Bill Pullman. At first I was profoundly disheartened & disillusioned that a favorite show would grow to become so boring.

But, The Husband has pointed out Romney's cast includes 5 hot sons who might possible be wondering the grounds of the White House in their special magical underwear, & one of the sons is perchance gay & a hair stylist. Leave it to The Husband to find something sublime in the shambles of this silly show.

I will hold fast to my hunch that there is an alliance between Dr. Ron Paul, a zany diminutive opthamologist from Texas & the amphibian family values guy... one they call- Newt, that will keep this favorite show engaging through the spring.

Here Is One For The Gipper

On this day, 100 years ago, a man named Ronald Wilson Reagan was born. He is now a Right Wing Conservative icon, who’s name is whipered in reverance by the always charming former governor of Alaska- Sarah Palin & millions of Tea Bagging Americans. But, Reagan raised taxes, created huge deficits during peace time, enabled 2 million abortions in California, expanded existing government agencies, created new ones, doubled the size of the federal government, & tripled Jimmy Carter's national debt.

During the Recession of the early 1980s, Reagan lived up to his campaign promise to lower taxes, with his Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981. The tax rate for the richest tax payers was lowered from 70% to 50% while the lowest earners’ rate was dropped from 14% to 11%.


Within a year, the tax cuts reduced revenue beyond any of the projections. President Reagan signed the Tax Equity & Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982, the largest peacetime tax increase in the nation's history.


The redistribution of wealth was completed the following year when the Social Security Reform Act was passed into law. The effect of these tax bills was a tax reduction for the wealthiest Americans & tax increases on the lower & middle class. His era saw the largest redistribution of wealth in American history.

Reagan ridiculed Carter's deficits, but after he took office he made the Carter deficits look like pocket change. Now when conservatives talk fondly of Reagan's smaller government, consider the truth, & not the misguided, mistaken, mispaced memories of a world that never did exist.


Deficit during late 20th century presidents ADMINISTRATIO: Jimmy Carter -1.6%, Ronald Reagan +18.5%, George H.W. Bush +12.2%, Bill Clinton -6.8%, George W. Bush +11.9%


Why does my father & all his Republican buddies think that the Republicans are better stewards on the economy?


During Reagan's presidency the federal government added 61,000 employees. By comparison, during the Clinton administration, the government slashed nearly 400,000 jobs,& Clinton accomplished this & still had time for all of those blow jobs.


Reagan never mentioned AIDS until he was directly questioned about it during his 2nd term. He never gave a public statement on the epidemic until 1987, when 30,000 people had already died. Reagan was advised not to say that children couldn't catch AIDS from casual contact. Members of the Reagan inner circle attacked Surgeon General C. Everett Koop for encouraging sex education & condom use.

Reagan mentioned, in passing,that Rock Hudson was rumored to have AIDS & then the topic doesn't come up again for 2 years. When he did finally address the subject, & he consistently misspelled it as "Aides." He seems to never have devoted time at all to thinking about AIDS, which was killing Americans throughout his entire presidency. Whether he was an anti-gay bigot who thought that the disease was a punishment from an angry god or simply an old man surrounded by Christian Right mouthpieces, he couldn’t be bothered with what was killing so many gay men. People died because the government he led didn't make fighting the epidemic an issue. They must have thought that AIDS might solve that pesky gay rights problem.


I realize that Reagan reflected the prejudices of his time. Born in 1911, he grew up in a world that misunderstood & feared homosexuality. He was 62 by the time homosexuality was removed from the official list of mental disorders. Reagan shared the common view that homosexuality was a sickness, & he liked telling jokes about gays. Still, he worked with gay actors in Hollywood & had gay friends, including Rock Hudson & Merv Griffin. His attitude could have made a huge difference in the Conservative Right’s positions on Gay Rights.

For me this is his legacy: firing the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war, trees that cause pollution, ketchup as a vegetable, public housing cutbacks, getting cozy with fascist generals, tax credits for segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, "homeless by choice," Manuel Noriega, falling wages, "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa, the invasion of Grenada, assassination manuals, drug tests, the S&L scandal,, food stamp reductions, Attorney General Ed Meese- "You don't have many suspects who are innocent of a crime", massacres in El Salvador, $640 Pentagon toilet seats, Iran/contra, Robert Bork, naps, Teflon, & 30,000+ dead from that pesky new gay disease.

Happy 100th Birthday, Ronnie!


"My criticism is that the gay movement isn't just asking for civil rights; it's asking for recognition & acceptance of an alternative lifestyle which I do not believe society can condone, nor can I."

Huh?

During her last moments as Govenor of Alaska, Sarah Palin says to the media:
"How about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit makin' things up?"