tallulah bankhead

Darwin Porter – Can we believe what he writes?

September 28, 2017 // 2 Comments

Darwin Porter (1937 – ) I doubt if there are many more controversial contemporary writers than Darwin Porter. His supporters believe he is telling the real story of Hollywood in its so-called Golden Age; his detractors consider him to be little more than a peddler of sleazy gossip. I do not know the man, but I imagine an accurate assessment rests somewhere between the two extremes. [...]

Did you know?

November 14, 2016 // 0 Comments

Director Dorothy Arzner & Crawford ‘I like to think that every director I’ve worked with has fallen a little in love with me’, Joan Crawford once confided in an interview none too modestly. ‘I know Dorothy Arzner did’. No surprises there. Given her well-documented sexual orientation Dorothy may well have fallen in love with many of her leading ladies over the years. When it [...]

Actors marrying other actors – PT 4.

July 31, 2016 // 1 Comment

BANDERAS, Antonio GRIFFITH, Melanie 1996 to 2015 (div.) Antonio as Zorro And as the voice of Puss in Boots Melanie as Tess McGill in Working Girl (1988) Antonio and Melanie met in 1995 on the set of Two Much when both actors were married to others. Banderas had already admired Melanie from afar [...]

Gay Hollywood in the studio days.

December 16, 2015 // 0 Comments

I read recently that ‘gay-gossip is the newest and most clever form of homophobia’. Nice try, but I’m not buying it. I am neither homosexual nor homophobic, but I am interested in subterfuge and in exposing old-time movie studios that made an art form out of gulling the public. For fifty or so years their publicity machines churned out phony, sanitized images of their stars and [...]

TALLULAH BANKHEAD – The one and only.

September 1, 2015 // 2 Comments

The incomparable Tallulah Bankhead was born in Alabama in 1902 to a father who would become the Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1936 until 1940. At the age of eleven she was raped. At fifteen she ran away from home and before long was the toast of Broadway. It was not long before Hollywood beckoned and she responded. Her first Hollywood party was at director George Cukor’s [...]

Stanwyck & Taylor – a Lavender Marriage?

July 6, 2015 // 25 Comments

When it came to questions about her sexuality, Barbara Stanwyck was the old studio days’ equivalent of today’s Tom Cruise. Any mention of her sexual preferences would immediately bring forth veiled threats of litigation should the subject be pursued. Cruise does the same thing today. Mention his name in connection with homosexuality or bisexuality and he will threaten to sue. I recently read [...]

GRETA GARBO – Selfish, miserable and not much liked.

June 30, 2015 // 24 Comments

At the age of thirteen Greta Garbo was seduced in a tent in the family’s backyard by her older, prettier sister, Alva. A little later she had her first heterosexual union with a local boy in the same tent. Incidentally, Garbo always said she wanted to be let alone. She did not want to be alone. The lady craved privacy not solitude. Massive orgies like the Berlin Transvestite Balls [...]

HUMPHREY BOGART – The iconic tough guy.

April 18, 2015 // 6 Comments

Humphrey was not born on Christmas Day 1899 as his studio liked to state. At least two 1900 census forms prove it. He was actually born on 23 January 1899, but the Warner Bros publicity department chose to run with the stupid tagline, ‘a guy born on Christmas Day can’t be all bad’, and the tale stuck. He was also, courtesy of her American relations, a distant relative of the late [...]