Born On This Day- July 4th... Gertrude Alice Dagmar Klasen

Gertrude Lawrence had hordes of adoring audiences in both Britain & the USA. She was the first true international superstar, a cockney who conquered adoring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.

Lawrence’s appeal went far beyond the sophisticated international elite, she lived in the USA through most of her career, & toured the country so widely as to be a front-page celebrity from coast to coast. The Gershwins wrote Oh, Kay!,for her, where she was the first to sing Someone To Watch Over Me. Noel Coward wrote Private Lives, one of the greatest comedies of the 20^th century for her, & together they created the sparkling characters of Elyot & Amanda. Kurt Weill & Moss Hart wrote Lady in the Dark for her; Rogers & Hammerstein wrote The King & I for her, & most theater people agree that Joe Mankiewicz wrote the movie All About Eve, about her.

But by the time of her early death at the age of 54, she had made only a handful of films, now seldom seen, in which the camera failed to capture her allure. Those who never saw her magic light up a stage are left with only the recordings of her haunting & precarious singing voice as proof to her greatness.

She was Noel Coward’s best buddy for 40 years. Coward, who met her when they worked together on stage when she was 14, describes her face as “far from pretty, but tremendously alive”. Lawrence was lifelong friends & a frequent collaborator with lesbian & comic genius-  Beatrice Lillie.

Without her theatrical make-up, she was quite plain, one reason, perhaps, why her success was confined to the stage & never repeated on screen. When the curtain went up, a strange transformation would occur. Coward: “Sometimes, in Private Lives, I would look at her across the stage & she would simply take my breath away.”

At their first meeting, Lawrence told the 13-year-old Coward a few 'mildly dirty stories' & later took him into a bedroom and introduced him to the facts of life. It has been suggested that Lawrence may have been the homosexual Coward's only heterosexual experience. Coward denied this vehemently & told Gore Vidal that he had never had sex with a woman.

Vidal: “Not even with Gertie Lawrence?”

Coward: “Particularly not with Miss Lawrence.”

Lawrence had one short-lived marriage & there was a long succession of lovers, male & female, including the married actor/manager Sir Gerald du Maurier. His daughter, novelist Daphne du Maurier, bitterly resented Lawrence's role in her father's life because of the distress it caused her mother & extracted a sort of revenge by becoming Lawrence's lover.

Another love affair was with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Fairbanks: “She was very temperamental, very jealous, could be exhausting, moody, difficult - but also enchanting & alive & very funny.”

But the most controversial relationship of all was her fling with the Prince of Wales - the future Edward VIII & Duke of Windsor. Their affair infuriated his mother, Queen Mary, who disapproved of Lawrence for ever after.

By the peak of her fame in the 1930s, Lawrence was massively in debt. Her NYC lawyer observed that she spent money “like an entire fleet of drunken sailors”. To the amazement of her friends, she married the wealthy American impresario & theatre owner, Richard Aldrich.

Coward disliked him, but cabled with his customary wit: “Dear Mrs A, Hooray Hooray. At last you are deflowered. On this as every other day I love you. Noel Coward.”

Like other friends, he doubted she really loved Aldrich, but the marriage gave her financial security. Lawrence continued to have affairs with members of both sexes while a married lady.

One of her last lovers was Yul Brynner, 35 & married, was virtually unknown when he was cast in The King & I, with the 52 year old Lawrence’s name above the title & his below it.

Throughout rehearsals, there were many complaints from Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein about her singing flat. She became increasingly temperamental, & the director, the very gayJohn Van Druten, was not tough enough to handle her.

Brynner exuded masculine authority & sexual magnetism. When he spoke, Lawrence listened. Largely due to his influence, the show became a hit. But the complaints about Lawrence’s singing increased. Rodgers & Hammerstein wanted her out of the show.

Lawrence, who was in love with Brynner, had no intention of quitting, but 18 months into the run, during the heat of a NYC summer, she collapsed. She was dying from cancer of the liver. 

She told her lawyer from her hospital bed: “I don't think I'm going to get out of this place. See that Yul gets star billing. He has earned it.” She wasn't just talking about his acting.

When Lawrence died on September 6, 1952, they dimmed the lights on Broadway & in London's West End.

When Oscar Hammerstein told Brynner he would now receive top billing, he started to cry. Hammerstein : “He told me, & I believed him, that losing Lawrence was a tremendous price to pay for advancement. It was the only time I ever saw him cry.”

There is a rather good film based on Lawrence’s life that is filled with first rate musical numbers- Star!,with Julie Andrews as Lawrence. The 1968 film, directed by Robert Wise, mostly gets it right.

Born On This Day- May 29th... Beatrice Lillie

I feel heavy hearted that the baby queers & even the Gen Xers don't know about, or care about many of the personalities that engaged the gay people that came before them. I recently mentioned Mae West & Raquel Welch in the same sentence & a small group of 20-something gay boys looked at me with totally blank faces. It was as if I had been speaking in Hebrew.

Beatrice Lillie was an incomparable artist: comedienne, actress, & known in the 1920s- 1950s as "the funniest woman in the world. " She was born Constance Sylvia Gladys Munston, in Canada. She began her stage career in London in 1914 & she became famous for her performances in music hall & in intimate revues.

Lillie made her American debut in 1932 where she developed her own TV series during the 1950s. She appeared in films including On Approval (1944) & Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), although she worked primarily on the stage. In 1952, she created her own show; incorporating her greatest bits in An Evening with Beatrice Lillie which opened on Broadway. This show received rave reviews & she toured with it across the globe 3 times. She won a Special Tony Award for her performance in 1953. She starred on Broadway in High Spirits & replaced Rosalind Russell in Auntie Mame. Lillie wrote her autobiography Every Other Inch a Lady in 1972 before a suffering stroke in 1974.

After her death, Sir John Gielgud stated: "She was The Mistress of the Absurd, I remember Bea standing dramatically against a pillar dressed in a flowing gown which she lifted suddenly to reveal her feet shod in roller skates on which she gravely skidded across the stage".

With her trademark cropped hair style with a smart hat, holding a long cigarette holder, she was a true original, an enemy of pomposity, & the sentimental. Fortunately, many of her satirical & surrealistic comic songs: There Are Fairies At The Bottom Of My Garden, Weary Of It All, Wind Round My Heart, & my favorite- This Is My First Affair ("so please be kind & please be quick"), are preserved on record.

In the first half of the 20th century, Lillie was one of the most sought after celebrities, the darling of the social set, & the toast of two continents. Cole Porter wrote his "story of a nightmare weekend"- Thank You So Much, Mrs. Lowsborough-Goodby, for her, & Noel Coward wrote the delightfully gossipy I've Been To A Marvellous Party just or her. She gave the first public performance of Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

In 1920 she was married to Sir Robert Peel, making her Lady Peel, a name she used at social affairs. She eventually separated from her husband (but never divorced him). Lillie had love affairs with many women, including actresses: Tallulah Bankhead, Eva Le Gallienne, Gertrude Lawrence & Judith Anderson.



"Did I ever give you a lift after a party at Joan Crawford's?"

Laurence Olivier & The Boys

I did a film with Joan Plowright & we had lunch together, just the 2 of us, as everyone else was called to the set. I never once mentioned her famous husband or asked about the gay rumors.

But a reporter did ask. Plowright: "If a man is touched by genius, he is not an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behavior which you understand & you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons. You kind of stand apart. You continue your own work & your absorption in the family. & those other things finally don't matter."

Lawrence Olivier made his stage debut at age 13, in the leading female role of Kate in a school production of Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew. Olivier was so effective in the role that he was singled out for lavish praise by the greatest actress of the day- Dame Ellen Terry, who said she had only ever seen one female who had played the part better.

From the beginning of Olivier's theatre life, there was confusion over his sexual identity. The most intimate friend of his youth was the actor Denys Blakelock, who was gay. Writing years later of their relationship, Olivier admitted he "embraced this unaccustomed happiness with an innocent young gratitude".

The night before Olivier's first marriage, in 1930, to actress Jill Esmond, a lesbian, Blakelock, who was to be his best man, climbed into Olivier's bed, where Blakelock's hands "strayed". Olivier admitted this but insisted that full sex didn’t happen.

Just before his marriage to Esmond, Olivier met Noël Coward, who gave him a contract to play the second male lead, supporting Coward & Gertrude Lawrence in Coward's new play Private Lives.

At their first meeting, Coward was sitting up in bed wearing Japanese silk pajamas, finishing his breakfast. He called Olivier "Larry", Olivier called him "Noël", & the men were soon on very familiar terms.

Doubts have been cast on the possibility of a sexual relationship between Coward & Olivier, but Coward admitted that it was "love at first sight" & that sexual dalliances occurred between them "with some regularity".

Coward: "At the age of 23, Larry was the most staggeringly beautiful creature I ever saw in my life, but although he was struggling to be what he thought of as 'normal', he had a puppy-like acquiescence to all experiences."

In spite of his liaison with Coward, Olivier's marriage to Jill Esmond went ahead, though it seems likely that she made some sort of pre-marital admission of her own inclinations towards women.

The marriage was doomed. Olivier had the beautiful 22 year old actress- Vivien Leigh, who would become his nemesis, & he met a most unlikely homosexual partner, Henry Ainley.

Ainley was a 57 year old married actor & father, who had appeared with Olivier in the 1936 film of Shakespeare's As You Like It. Ainley fell in love & lust with Olivier. In a letter he wrote: "How Jill must hate me, taking you away from her!" But by that time, Olivier didn't need to be taken away. His marriage had died with an ambitious Vivien Leigh on the prowl, who waged a very determined campaign of seduction.

Esmond divorced Olivier, citing adultery in 1940, naming Vivien Leigh. She was awarded custody of their 3 year old son- Tarquin. Leigh’s husband- Leigh Holman, also filed for divorce, citing Larry. Vivien Leigh became the second Mrs. Laurence Olivier.

Even before that, however, during the Hollywood filming of her Oscar winning role as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With The Wind, Vivien had exhibited the first symptoms of manic depression, her illness turned their marriage into a nightmare for Olivier.

Leigh plagued by mental breakdowns & tortured by professional jealousy at Olivier's talent, became an alcoholic & often pursued total strangers as sexual partners.

Olivier continued to turn to men for sex & love. In 1940, he met American comic actor, Hollywood film star- Danny Kaye, & the 2 men started a long, fairly open for the times, flamboyant relationship.

Coward was appalled to witness the Olivier & Kaye openly exchanging French kisses in public. Coward despised Kaye, & he referred to him as "randy Dan Kaminski" (Daniel Kaminski was Kaye's real name).

In 1950, when the Oliviers returned to Hollywood for Leigh to film A Streetcar Named Desire with Marlon Brando, David Niven walked into the garden of their Hollywood mansion. Niven: “I discovered Brando & Larry swimming naked in the pool. Larry was kissing Brando. Or maybe it was the other way around. I turned my back to them & went back inside to join Vivien. I'm sure she knew what was going on, but she made no mention of it. Nor did I. One must be sophisticated about such matters in life."

As his marriage to Leigh was dying, Olivier was performing, in Spartacus, with the most notorious gay scene Hollywood had ever filmed. As the Roman General Marcus Crassus, the nearly naked Olivier is suggestively bathed by his nearly naked slave, played by the heartily heterosexual Tony Curtis.

The scene was regarded as so shocking in 1960 that it was cut from the final film. It was not reinstated until 1991, 2 years after Olivier's death, when one of his best mimics- Sir Anthony Hopkins dubbed this pointedly bisexual dialogue: "Some people like oysters, some people like snails. I like oysters & snails."

Leigh divorced Olivier in 1961, devastated that as one of the most beautiful women in the world, she was being replaced by Joan Plowright, an attractive & excellent actress, but not a great beauty.

Olivier & Plowright married in1961. With Plowright, Olivier found deep inner contentment, peace of mind & stability. They had a son & 2 daughters. When Olivier sought the attention of a handsome young man, Plowright had the prudence & tact to ignore it.

After Olivier's death in 1989, his official biographer- Terry Coleman, asked Plowright if he had had homosexual affairs. Plowright: "If he did, so what?"

Tarquin Olivier, Larry's oldest son wanted to censor the homosexual revelations in Coleman's bio & pressured Plowright into withdrawing her permission. She refused.

Olivier was the greatest actor of the 20^thcentury, & his widow Plowright had the loving intuition & courage to allowing his complex life to be viewed with patience & without prejudice.

Olivier was born 105 years ago, on this day- May 22nd. My favorite Olivier film role is in A Little Romance (1979).

Kate Was Great... Considering Katharine Hepburn On Her Birthday- May 12th

Post Apocalyptic Bohemian favorite writer- Gore Vidal vouches for his buddy- Scotty Bowers, who claims that he set Katharine Hepburn up “with over 150 different women” in his dishy, juicy book- Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood & the Secret Sex Lives of Stars, which I read in 2 sittings back in February.

Vidal flew in to L.A. to be part the book’s release event. He wanted to assure attendees that Bowers is totally telling the truth. In a speech, he told partygoers he’s never caught Bowers in a lie in the 60+ years he’s known him, noting that in L.A. “you can meet 1,000 liars a day". I think there is a difference between never catching someone in a lie as opposed someone has never told a lie, but I will take Vidal & Bowers at their word: Katharine Hepburn was a very sexually active lesbian. That closet door is now open.

If you don’t want to go with Bower’s version, try noted film historian- William J. Mann's Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn, published in 2004.  Mann tells that the epic romance of Katharine Hepburn & Spencer Tracy was a fable cultivated by Hepburn to hide their bisexuality. The pair of stars were sexually complicated screen legends that had an enduring companionship but were only briefly passionate & never lived together intimately.

Hepburn fostered the belief that she & Tracy could never marry because he was a devout Catholic committed to Louise Treadwell, his wife of 43 years & mother of their deaf child. Mann used documents & interviews with people who wouldn't talk while Hepburn was alive. & 8 years before Bower’s book, Mann insists that it was at gay director George Cukor's estate that he met a Hollywood hustler identified as "Scotty," a mechanic who staffed his gas station with "handsome young bucks, just home from the war" who for $20 were "happy to wash their hands (or not) & take a trip with a client to the back room."

Mann writes that Scotty related: "Tracy would always be drinking when I arrived. He'd get so loaded. He'd sit there at the table drinking from five o'clock in the afternoon until two in the morning, when he'd fall onto the bed & ask me to join him. ... & in the morning he'd act like nothing happened."

According to Mann, Hepburn's notorious relationship with American Express heiress Laura Harding wasn't "lesbian," but it sure was sexual. Mann: "Hepburn admitted as much to friends like James Prideaux, cutting him off with a shrill 'Of course!' when he asked about Harding ... as if the subject were simply too obvious & boring to belabor."

There is a famous story about the making of the film adaptation of Tennessee William's notorious Suddenly, Last Summer that starred Elizabeth Taylor,  the very gay Montgomery Clift & Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn, as Violet Venable was so obsessed with her dead son, Sebastian, that she wants to have her niece, played by Taylor lobotomized rather than have it revealed that he was homosexual. 

Apparently Hepburn was clueless that this was a film about homosexual lust & the director, Joseph Mankiewicz, & screenwriter- the very gay Gore Vidal, had to explain it to her. Meanwhile, she nailed the role as the disturbed, evilly controlling mother. 

This anecdote works against the image of independent, smart Hepburn, the Connecticut feminist Yankee who supposedly seduced Hollywood’s leading men- Spencer Tracy, Gary Grant, Humphrey Bogart & James Stewart.  In her real life, Hepburn followed in the footsteps of her mother who pioneered reproductive freedoms & the right of American women to vote.

  

In the 1930s, where of the strict studio system made & crushed careers, Hepburn challenged studio execs & made it work for her. She grew as a businesswoman, commanding salaries & negotiating roles at a time when it was just not done.  She was a symbol of a true American original who could accomplish anything.

Hepburn's career spanned decades & her range was legendary, even while her roles were always secondary to her own personality.

Was there ever a gayer film than the1937 camp classic- Stagedoor in which Hepburn perfected the screen ingenue, uttering the line: "The calla lillies are in bloom again."  Cast opposite Gay Icons Eve Arden, Lucille Ball, Ann Miller, & Ginger Rogers, she played it broadly & autobiographically, as the daughter of a wealthy businessman who wants a career in the theater with no prior training. It remains a favorite Hepburn performance at Post Apocalyptic Bohemia,

Hepburn excelled in screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby with bi-sexual Carey Grant who uttered the famous line: "I’ve turned gay all of the sudden!" For gay audiences, Hepburn inadvertently developed an androgynous image in such roles as the cross-dressing Sylvia Scarlet.

After being victimized by studio mouthpieces & being branded "box office poison" by the press, Hepburn refused to be ignored.  She starred on Broadway in Philip Barry‘s The Philadelphia Story, purchasing the rights to star in the film. More than any other actress of the period, Hepburn controlled her own career. 

In the 1940s & 1950s, Hepburn launched a classical stage & film career, transitioning beautifully, at a time in her career when most stars would retreat to predictable vehicles that would showcase them.  Among other things, she tackled Shakespeare onstage while in her 50s, at the same time becoming the first lady of American cinema, eventually nominated for 12 Best Actress Oscars & winning 4 times, a record.

She bravely stood with her colleagues Humphrey Bogart & Lauren Bacall during the trials of the Hollywood 10, screenwriters, actors & directors called before the Senator Joseph McCarthy's House on Un-American Activities Committee in protest of their unconstitutional Senate investigations, without risk of guilt by association. Hepburn made The African Queen (which is not about Ru-Paul) with Bogart.

 

Hepburn is a Gay Icon. She was a tough-minded authority as a liberal thinker. Gay men & lesbians love her equally, if for different reasons, & even if she didn't acknowledge he won gayness, it is impossible to ignore Hepburn’s impact on Gay culture, Gay minds & Gay hearts. Hepburn was Fierce.

I only saw her live once, in L.A. circa 1971, in a mess of a musical- Coco, playing Coco Chanel, with a book & lyrics by Alan J. Lerner & music by Andre Previn, with sets by the very gay Cecil Beaton, choreographed by  the very gay- Michael Bennett, with a  cast that included: René Auberjonois, George Rose, David Holliday, Bob Avian, Jon Cypher, Suzanne Rogers, Graciela Daniele,& Ann Reinking. To prepare for Coco, Hepburn received singing coaching with MGM’s very gay muscial producer Roger Edens. She was simply brilliant & breathtaking in the role. I loved her & ran out to by the cast album. I do a terrific imitation of Hepburn singing the title song. Ask me sometime.

My favorite Hepburn role was in 1975’s Love Among The Ruins with Lawrence Olivier, although I have studied every moment of The Philadelphia Story. The Husband’s choice is The Lion In Winter. What is your favorite Katherine Hepburn performance?

Born On This Day- May 7th... Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Favorite- Gary Cooper

“Gary Cooper was probably the greatest cocksman who ever lived."

Director Stuart Heisler 

Gary Cooper 51 years ago. No one I know under 40 years old, except for film fans who possibly might know High Noon, seem to know of him. But, he is my favorite male star of the first Golden Era of Hollywood. Cooper was charming doing light comedy in a film that is my Top 10 All Time Favorite Films- Ball Of Fire, starring opposite my favorite female star of the era- Barbara Stanwyck.

Cooper was nominated for 5 Best Actor Oscars & he won twice. He might not have been the best technical actor, but Cooper did have a simple, settled, shy presence that not only helped accentuate his performances in his good films, but also drew the filmgoer in closer. Women adored Cooper & men liked &admired him. Cooper was the quintessential American Guy on screen. Off screen Cooper was a lover of legendary proportions, & you know what I am talking about. He enjoyed infamous affairs with Clara Bow, Ingrid Bergman & Patricia Neal, & with several men as well.

He was born Frank James Cooper in Montana 101 years ago. It just figures he would be from the American West, but his parents were British, & Cooper was sent to England to attend grammar school. At the start of WWI, he was sent back to Montana, where his upbringing included horseback riding, a skill that would later lead to his film career. Cooper followed his parents when they moved to L.A. & he found work as an extra in films, as a cowboy. He chjanged his name to Gary, & signed a long term contract with Paramount in 1925. Cooper became a major star with his first sound film- The Virginian in 1929. He followed this up with the rather Gay- Morocco with an equally as alluring- Marlene Dietrich.

Cooper had an ongoing affair with fellow Paramount player- Anderson Lawler. Stephen Shearer’s bio- Patricia Neal: An Unquiet Life states,"Cooper had a 3 year affair with a man, the young Alabama born Anderson Lawler, an aspiring film actor. Their letters indicated they had a deep infatuation with one another. They lived together at Cooper's apartment. Through Lawler Cooper gained entrance into Hollywood society." Lawler would later be one of the regulars at gay director George Cukor's infamous Sunday pool parties.

Patricia Neal cooperated on the book & explained to the author that she knew of this relationship & occasional assignations with other men, including flings with his camping buddy- Ernest Hemingway & Cecil Beaton. Cooper was bisexual, but he certainly did prefer women. Cooper's only marriage was to socialite- Veronica “Rocky” Balfe in 1933. They lived apart, but stay married for the rest of his life, despite his many affairs.

Cooper was at the apex of his talents in 1936 with Frank Capra's great Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Cooper's shy, introspective personality totally fit the role & his performance & the film were critical & box office hits. He received his first Best Actor nomination for his charming performance.

More hit films included Beau Geste, Meet John Doe, & Sergeant York for which Cooper won a 1941 Oscar for Best Actor playing a hick farmer who became a WWI hero. He won over Orson Welles for Citizen Kane & Cary Grant for Penny Serenade. Another case of an Oscar for the right actor in the wrong film. He was Oscar nominated for playing Lou Gehrig in Pride Of The Yankees (1942) & for For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943).

Cooper had a rare flop with The Fountainhead, with Patricia Neal. The fascist themed film was & is a stinker, Neal & Cooper began their 5 year affair; their open secret lead to Neal's having an abortion rather than risk the destruction of both of their careers. Neal had rented a small bungalow from Rudolph Valentino's first wife who lived next door with her female partner. Cooper, Neal & the lesbian couple formed a special secret friendship. Neal: "We quietly cheered each other's teams, knowing we were all in murky waters." Cooper, however, finally went back to his wife, converted to Catholicism, became a Republican & began to behave, but gave up having any fun.

I found the older Gary Copper to be sexy & with more gravity. Made on the cheap, with direction by Fred Zinnemann, High Noon (1952) was a big hit & won Cooper his second Best Actor Oscar. I think it is a near perfect Western, but in its day, a lot of people hated it, including John Wayne, for its political stance.

Cooper received a special was honorary Oscar in 1961 but was too ill to attend the ceremony. His close friend James Stewart accepted with a teary, emotional speech that announced to the world that Cooper was near death. A month later, only a week after his 60th birthday, Gary Cooper passed over to that big pasture in the sky.

As mentioned at the top of this post, one of my Top 10 Films Of All Times is a Gary Cooper comedy- Ball Of Fire, directed by Howard Hawkes. This screwball comedy is a variation on Snow White & The 7 Dwarfswith a group of professors having been living together for years in a NYC residence, compiling an encyclopedia of all human knowledge. The youngest, Professor Bertram Potts (Gary Cooper), is a scholar of Philology who is researching modern American slang. The professors are accustomed to working in relative seclusion at a leisurely pace with a prim housekeeper who keeps tabs on them. Their impatient financial backer suddenly demands that they finish their work soon.

Venturing out to do some independent research, Bertram becomes interested in the slang vocabulary of saucy nightclub performer- Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck). She is reluctant to assist him in the research until she needs a place to hide from the police, who want to question her about her boyfriend- mobster Joe Lilac (Dana Andrews). Sugarpuss takes refuge in the house where the professors live & work, despite Bertram's objections. Chaos, confusion, & commotion commence. Nutty & very funny, it is better to me than Bringing Up Baby. Ball Of Fire was nominated for several Oscars including for Stanwyck & the screenplay. It gives us Cooper at his most beautiful, with an easy, effortless, charming, performance. I insist that you seek out Ball Of Fire & watch it when you need a lift, which would be now.