Born On This Day- June 10th.. Francis Ethel Gumm

How can I come up with a gay connection to Judy Garland? Lets see… her father was gay, 2 of her husbands were gay, the man she hand picked as a husband for her daughter was gay, her gay fans remained her most steadfast fans through the drugs & the booze ups & downs, the fruit of her loins was Liza Minnelli & then there is that little film- The Wizard Of Oz.

42 years after her death, Judy Garland remains the very definition of gay icon. Her failed relationships, her self-doubt, & her battle with substance abuse are aspects of a life that most of us can identify with, while her live performances reflect a truth & freedom that are desired by anyone that has wasted time hiding their own emotions.

Gay culture can't escape Garland's influence. The Stonewall riots have been attributed to the anger & grief felt on Garland's funeral that day. The term- "Friend of Dorothy," is from our identification with Garland's most famous role.

Garland's 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall is a landmark in Show Biz. 2 years earlier, she had been advised to retire from performing after being diagnosed with hepatitis, but instead she took on a series of concerts in Europe & the USA that reestablished her reputation as the top entertainer of all time. The Carnegie Hall show is regarded as the greatest evening in show-business history. The live recording of that concert spent more than a year on the Billboard charts & won 7 Grammys, including Album of the Year.

Last year, my dear friend- WCK3 & I stayed up late into the night watching CDs of her TV show from the early 1960s. I was entranced by her presence & horrified by the histrionics. Sometimes when listening to her recordings, I am off put by the feeling that she sings every single song as if it were her last. Her over the top interpretations of the great standards push me away. But, then I hear her original version or her late in life version of Over The Rainbow & I end up crying. Judy Garland loved her fans & they loved her back. I love her for that.

Cher Turns 65 Today

The Husband: Cher!
Stephen: Where?
The Husband: There!
Stephen: Cher? Where?
The Husband: There Cher!
Stephen: There Cher?
The Husband: There! Cher!
Stephen: Cher!

Things I love about Cher:
Silkwood, Mask, Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,Tea With Mussolini, & most especially- Moonstruck

Bang Bang, I've Got You Babe, The Way of Love, The Beat Goes On

"Men should be like Kleenex... soft, strong & disposable"

A #1 Single in each of the past 6 decades

Sonny

Grammy, Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar

Chaz

Farwell Tours

"After a nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are cockroaches & Cher."

Kooky & Nutty: 2 Icons Share A Birthday

Shirley MacLaine: 6 Oscar nominations with a win for Terms of Endearment, 20 Golden Globe nominations with 7 wins including Best Newcomer in 1955 & the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 14 books, all best sellers. Her brother is Warren Beatty. They have never worked together, but that is something I would pay to see, especially if they would play senior citizen lovers. She talks to her dog- Terry & her dog talks back. My favorite MacLaine role – Doris (a thinly disguised Debbie Reynolds) in Post Cards From The Edge.

Barbra Streisand: 5 Oscar nominations with 2 wins, including one as a composer, 16 Golden Globe nominations with 8 wins including the Cecil B DeMille Look Alike Award. 8 Grammy Awards, & one of only a handful of performers to have an Oscar, Emmy, Tony & Grammy on their mantle, & the only artist to have a #1 Album in 5 different decades. Her son-in-law is Josh Brolin. Last year she wrote a frightening coffee table book about her questionable interior designing taste. She gave her very cute son-Jason Gould a role in the underrated Prince Of Tides.  She talks to her dog- Sammy. My favorite Streisand role- Doris in The Owl & The Pussycat.

They share a birthday today- April 24th. MacLaine turns 77 & Streisand, 69. Traditionally, they spend their birthdays together. I would like to be a fly on the wall at that party.

On This Day In Gay History, 50 Years Ago: Judy At Carnegie Hall

Judy Garland was only 37 years old, but near death, addicted to booze & pills. Her acting & singing careers were considered long over. Defying doctors’ directives, Garland put all her eggs in one big show biz basket- a 1961 Carnegie Hall Concert. That performance became a moment in time for those who were there & a showbiz legend for everyone else. The evening is still considered the greatest night in show business history.

Garland had not worked in films since A Star Is Born in 1954. After a period of rest & nutrition, & a more moderate indulgence in alchahol & pharmacuticals,she had gradually been building a solid reoputaion for showing up, & giving well regarded performances in all sorts of venues in Europe & North America in 1960 & early 1961. But no one was anticipating the mania was on the evening she brought her act she to Carnegie Hall. Her audience would call her her back for encore after encore, even asking her to repeat a song after her book of arrangements sung through.

On Sunday, April 23rd, 1961, after a bombastic overture that built high emotion, Garland made her entrance 20 minutes late, looking exceptionally restored, & put together, to a very loud ovation from the audience. Her audience that night included theatre performers & show biz greats on their usual Sunday night off & the celebrities were as crazed in their veneration towards Garland as her gay audience.

Barry Manilow: “Name me one other artist, ever, whose concert is celebrated 50 years after the concert was done. When her voice was in tip-top shape, everything she did was filled with the truth. I think that’s the big difference between her & everybody else. Everybody else, oh yeah, they’re great singers—they do vocal acrobatics. But they don’t tell the truth. This woman always told the truth, and especially that night.”

Lorna Luft attending with sister Liza & brother Joey: “The one thing I remember, when you’re 8, adults are supposed to act like adults. They are not supposed to jump out of their chairs, screaming, yelling, running towards the stage. They’re supposed to be in control. There they were, all dressed up in the tuxedos, going nuts.”

The recording of this evening is the only Judy Garland recording on my collection. I don’t need another, she sings each song as if it were her last. The album is still stunning, vivid & vital. It was #1 on the Billboard charts for 13 weeks in 1961, & has never been out of print since.

Judy Garland At Carnegie Hall is the only Garland recording on my collection. I don’t need another, she sings each song as if it were her last. The album is still stunning, vivid & vital. It was #1 on the Billboard charts for 13 weeks in 1961, & has never been out of print since. Judy at Carnegie Hall is an essential album for those who wish to understand pop culture of the 20th century.

Whoopi Goldberg: “When she sings ‘Come Rain or Come Shine’, she combusts onstage at the end of it, that’s how I always wanted to be as an actor. That has always been one of my bars to reach, that state of grace that she goes into at the end of that song, when she sounds like she’s shaking like a branch that’s being blown, & she’s slightly off-key—just slightly. But it doesn’t matter, because she’s on fire.”

Garland's return to the top would be brief. In 1962, Garland was nominated for a best-supporting-actress Oscar for Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg; & a CBS TV special she did with Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin was a smash hit, leading the network to sign her to a $24 million variety series.

We know the sad story: she couldn’t stay away from the pills & her health deteriorated. In 1967, Garland married Mickey Deans, who supplied her with drugs. 3 months later, soon after her 47th birthday, her new husband found her dead of a barbiturate overdose in the bathroom of their London apartment. The viewing of her body at NYC’s Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home, was a stupendous spectacle, with tens of thousands mourners, just a few days before the Stonewall riots, a coincidence connecting the 2 events in many gay peoples’ minds & cemented Garland’s status as The Gay Icon. But Garland was a great artist & remains an icon to people of all persuasions, & the audience at her most celebrated concert was distinguished by diversity as well as devotion.

I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself

She is one of the most important recording artists of my considerable lifetime. Her music has moved me, thrilled me & comforted me for nearly 50 years.  For me, the album- Dusty In Memphis is a perfect LP & in my top 5 albums of all time.

Dusty Springfield was an unlikely celebrity. Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'Brien was London born on this day in 1939, a month before that start of WW2. She started life as an Irish Catholic schoolgirl, yet she gained stardom as a sultry singer of soul, the "white girl singing black music."

Her love for other women was forbidden & in the UK at the time, illegal. The most frustrating thing for any creative person must be an inability to express in your work the things that mean the most to you. Art is inspired by our strongest emotions, including love & desire. It must be difficult to write, compose, paint or act when your own feelings of love & desire are considered off limits to most of society. Like most of the great gay artists in history, we have found innovative ways of sidestepping the heterosexual expectations of the public yet covertly conveying our constrained emotions in our work.

Springfield’s sexuality is at the heart of the melancholy & vulnerability that she brings her recordings, including this one. Her songs go straight to my heart: How Can I Be Sure, All Cried Out, I Close My Eyes & Count To Ten, Some of Your Lovin’, The Look of Love, You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, & my personal favorite, her really truly devastating version of I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself. She does more than sell the song; she inhabits & makes them her own in the way that only the true great artists can do.


With a strong, masculine countenance but a feminine style, she appealed to gay men, lesbians. She even went one step further by studying and copying drag acts, creating the image of a woman, dressed like a man who is dressed like a woman. Gender bending & confusing to a 1960s listening public. In the press, her image was still being vigorously protected against her sexuality. Every press release stressed her Catholic faith & middle-class roots. The fact she was living with a fellow singer Norma Tanega was conveniently overlooked. after Springfield & Tanega had split up, there was always an other woman keeping her company.

Springfield also managed an iconic image for herself, tall beehive hair & thick, dark eye make-up. Her look was copied by fellow artists of the time, teenage girls, & drag queens. Her short career left an lasting legacy on modern fashion.

But she had other image matters to worry about too. Having become an expert in all aspects of sound recording, the male dominated industry felt resentment by this young woman who seemed to know it all. She also had a sharp ear for quality & a perfectionist approach to her work. Women were simply not allowed to lean across the mixing desk & proceed to take over. Soon, she had acquired the unfair reputation for being difficult & eccentric. Most producers braced themselves for an argument when they heard that Dusty Springfield would be in their studio that day.


Her headstrong ways & strong working knowledge of the technical aspects of recording did not endear Springfield to the professional male dominated professional musical community, but she certainly enchanting her fans.

In 1964, while on tour in South Africa, & with no real interest in politics, she found it abhorrent that it was illegal to perform a concert to a mixed audience. But there was a loophole in the law presented to her that allowed live performances to mixed audiences as long as they were in a movie theatre. Springfield booked the biggest cinema she could find & played to a large mixed audience. When she arrived back at her hotel, Springfield & her entourage were placed under arrest & deported from the country immediately. Back home the public loved her for it. She was hailed as an anti-apartheid hero.


Springfield was at her apex in the mid-1960s. She had several hit albums, a #1 single (You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me), & her own TV show. She had also been credited as the woman who brought Motown to the UK. But in the early 1970s, when I loved her the most, Springfield’s style was pushed aside in preference for more experimental styles & songs with a strong political message. Her simple love songs & throaty jazzy voice, began to lose popularity.


Springfield was sucked into the spiral of drink, drugs & the party culture. She abused a variety substances on a daily basis. The pressure of her double life manifested itself in cutting, depression & a desire to avoid the spotlight. Then an album she had started to record for Atlantic Records was shelved due to her ‘poor mental health’.

Aghast at the abandoned album Springfield moved to LA & dropped deeper drug abuse, alcohol & self harm. Abandoning her career, she spent most of the 1970s living late nights of partying & drug taking. Her cutting so severe that on several occasions, she was hospitalized.

Late in the 1970s Springfield had begun to speak openly about her attraction to both sexes, although she was never known to ever have had a boyfriend. The poor press she received for coming out devastated Springfield. She told her parents she was gay, but far from outraged, they laughed & did not take the situation seriously. This seemed to hurt her even more.


In the 1980s Springfield’s drug abuse was at an all-time high. She continued to enjoy short-lived affairs with women in the music industry, including Rough Trade’s lead singer, Carol Pope. Her recordings made little impact & had low sales . Springfield was constantly between rehab or the hospital.

Salvation came in 1987 when her long time fans the Pet Shop Boys asked her to collaborate with them . The resulting record,-What Have I Done to Deserve This was a worldwide smash hit & one of my favorite singles ever. All of a sudden, the 48 year-old faded star was among the smart set again. Pet Shop Boys to produce an album for her. Her life started to get better. No drugs & no long nights partying. More hits singles followed.

In 1994, just as Springfield was riding high again in 1994, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She seemed beating the cancer, but remission was to be short lived. For several years, she fought against the second bout of cancer. Before long, it was clear that this time, there would be no remission. Springfield lived with lifelong friend & backing singer, Simon Bell, who took care of her.

On New Year’s 1999, Springfield was awarded an Order of the British Empire for her contribution to music. Too sick to make the ceremony, her long time manager, Vicki Wickham, with permission from Queen Elizabeth 2, picked up the award on her behalf. It was carried directly to Springfield & given to her in front of a few friends, & her doctor. On the day when Springfield would have received the award, she lost her fight against cancer. Her funeral took over the small town where she had spent the end of her life- of Henley, & the service was attended by thousands of mourners including Elvis Costello, Lulu, Elton John & Pet Shop Boys. 10 days after her death. her friend Sir Elton inducted Springfield into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame, stating: “She was the greatest white singer of all time”.

Born On This Day- April 5th... Ruth Elizabeth Davis

"Everybody has a heart. Except some people."

Bette Davis

I believe All About Eve to be a perfect film, with not a wasted piece of dialogue or an unnecessary scene. It is one of the greatest films about theatre of all time. For me, Margo Channing is the finest & bravest Bette Davis creation (she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday).

Davis was a movie star, but also the most fearless & the least vain actresses of the Golden Age. I am fan of all her 6 decades of work on stage, & on film with Of Human Bondage, The Petrified Forest, Jezebel, The Old Maid, Elizabeth & Essex, The Letter, All This & Heaven Too, The Little Foxes, Old Acquaintance, Pocket Full Of Miracles, & What Ever Happened To Baby Jane among my favorites.

Besides Margo Channing, my favorite would have to be Bette’s work in 1987’s The Whales of August, featuring an understated Vincent Price, a rare & delicate late career performance by the great Lillian Gish, whose career stretched back to the films of D.W. Griffith, & Ann Sothern in her only Oscar nominated performance. But for me the true enjoyment of this film came from seeing Bette Davis do again what Bette Davis always could do: create an indelible, complex character & command every scene in which she appears.

When she was filming Whales of August, the cast & crew were having dinner when Davis started complaining about Joan Crawford. Cast member Harry Carey Jr, became unhappy & told Davis that Crawford had been his friend & that he didn't want to hear anything negative about her. Davis, without missing a beat, responded, "Just because a person's dead doesn't mean they changed."

Davis bickered with her directors over the smallest details, & had a reputation for being difficult to work with. Still, she was so beloved by audiences that she was in great demand, & is one of the few actors in history who worked until the very end of her life, making well over a 100 films. She would dare us to hate her, & we often did, which is why we loved her.

Warner Brothers treated Davis badly for many years, & they paid her far less than other stars. She sued the company & lost, but the court case gave her much valuable publicity. She was able to create a new persona for herself on her own terms, as a strong-willed independent thinker, as strong as any man.

Bette Davis has been an icon for generations of gay men. She helped them learn that with wit, style & camp, it is possible to transcend the hard, unhappy, hateful & often humiliating world that was given to us.

2 American Classics Share a Birthday...

"Nobody gets anything for nothing."

Gloria Josephine May Swanson made her film debut was in 1915, as an extra in The Fable of Elvira. Her last acting role was in the television horror film- Killer Bees (1974,) although she also appeared as herself in the groundbreaking film- Airport 1975; & in between Gloria Swanson signed with Cecil B. DeMille in 1919, & he turned her into a romantic lead. In 1922, she was paired with Rudolph Valentino in Beyond the Rocks (which by coincidence, is a chapter title in my memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin: The Early Years). Swanson's 1929 film Queen Kelly, was directed by Erich von Stroheim & produced by her lover Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr., the father of President John F. Kennedy.

When Swanson starred in the 1950 film- Sunset Boulevard, it is scenes of Queen Kelly that her character, Norma Desmond, is watching & von Stroheim plays her butler in the Billy Wilder classic. Her performance is astounding. She was born 102 years ago today.

This photo of Gloria Swanson standing in the rubble of the newly demolished Roxy Theatre in NYC is the seed of the idea for & the inspiration of Stephen Sondheim's 1971 musical- Follies.

Sarah Vaughan possessed a glorious alto voice that was so heavenly that she became known as The Divine One.

She was a Grammy winner The National Endowment for the Arts presented her the highest honor in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award. Sarah sang & recorded from 1942 until her diagnosis of lung cancer in 1989. She would have been 86 years old today.

That Is Miss Ross To You

I was 10 years Old in 1964 & the only 2 albums that I had of my very own, bought with my money, were Meet The Beatles & Meet The Supremes. I had my little heart set on my first release having the title Meet The Steve. I have been listening to Miss Diana Ross for 47 years. I do a spot on imitation of her. She turns 67 today. I understand that The Gays like her.

Happy Birthday, Liza!

"Reality is something you rise above."

Liza Minnelli

It wouldn’t be a gay day at a gay blog without saying Happy Birthday to Liza Minnelli. I first saw her in The Sterile Cuckoo (Oscar nomination) in 1969 & I was rather astonished by her performance, followed by another in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, & of course there was Cabaret & Liza with a Z in 1971. I once followed her for several blocks until she went into the Russian Tea Room in 1977, but couldn’t bring myself to approach her. I may have seen her at Studio 54 during the same era, but who knows, what with the qualudes & coke, maybe I just thought I saw her with Halston & Andy.


There is no denying the talent; Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Grammy, BAFTA, & Golden Globes are all on her mantle. Through the ups & down & the marriages, & just when she seems a joke, she redeems & reinvents herself with choices like Results, her terrific album with Pet Shop Boys, & her hilarious turn on Arrested Development. Her performing style is so full of “please, love me” that I find it rude not to. At 65 years old she keeps on giving & giving & demanding the love.

I've Got A Goal Again, I've Got The Drive Again, I'm Gonna Feel My Heart Coming Alive Again, Before The Parade Passes By

It was one of my most favorite musicals growing up. I had the Original Broadway Cast album of Hello, Dolly! with today’s birthday girl, & I augmented my collection with cast recordings with Pearl Bailey, Ethel Merman, & the Japanese & Finnish casts, plus the London cast featuring Mary Martin as Dolly Levi. But nothing was better than the original with Carol Channing.

In 1921, Albert Einstein was explaining his new Theory of Relativity, Charlie Chaplin's movie The Kid was released, Babe Ruth became the home run champ, Turkey made peace with Armenia, President Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie received its premiere on Broadway, & in Seattle, on January 31^st, living legend Carol Channing was born.

Channing is a singing, dancing, acting force of nature & one of our biggest stars, but even with her fabulous talent, it is difficult to pinpoint exactly what Channing’s appeal is. Her face & voice are instantly recognizable, yet in her long career, she has worked in only 5 movies including the LSD comedy Skidoo (1968), often cited as one of the worst movie ever. Channing was nominated for an Oscar & won the Golden Globe for her work in Thoroughly Modern Milley. Her triumphs were always been on the Broadway stage.

Channing is a true original. She was never a bombshell, & she is rather demented without being risqué or grotesque. And she's a belter along the like Ethel Merman, but without being brassy. She has been often cast been cast as a gold digger while there is nothing seductive about her persona.


Channing’s contradictions made a little more sense when I read her engaging autobiography- Just Lucky I Guess: A Memoir of Sort. She speaks candidly about her messy break up with her husband of 41 years, Charles Lowe. Carol disclosed that she & Lowe had only ever had sex "once or twice in our 41-year marriage & that was 41 years ago.”  She stuck to her wedding vows the whole time & didn't have sex with anyone else. What opportunities did she pass up?  Lowe had spent most of her hard earned fortune, & to make matters more bizarre, the scandal reached its anti-climax when Channing broke the news that the hubby was a homo.  A camp icon with a gay husband isn’t as shocking as the 41 year dry spell.  After 31 years, even the Husband & I manage to knock one out every month or so. The memoir also reveals that her grandfather was African-American.

Even with her resilient image, Channing has had her hardships. She triumphed on Broadway as fortune hunting Lorelei Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, but Hollywood cast Marilyn Monroe in the film version. Monroe saw the show over & over, & borrowed Channing’s best bits. Channing really owned the role of Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, she was the first & most famous in the role on even followed by such talents as Ethel Merman, Phyllis Diller, & Pearl Bailey. But director Gene Kelly thought casting her was too risky & gave the role to Barbra Streisand who was decades too young for the role (Streisand would be perfect now).

I love her so much in Thoroughly Modern Millie, playing a rich, madcap matron Muzzy Van Hossmere, who makes her entrance flying in a biplane, quaffing champagne. She blew my little13 year old gay mind with her 2 big musical numbers- Jazz Baby where she tap dances on a xylophone, & Do It Again which begins with Channing being shot out of a cannon.

Channing has played Dolly Levi in over 4,000 times to packed-houses around the globe without ever missing a performance. Hello, Dolly! was the first Broadway musical to play China.

In May 2003, she married her 4^th husband, Harry Kullijian, her junior high school sweetheart, who reunited with her after she mentioned him fondly in her memoir.  They renamed the school's auditorium The Carol Channing Theatre in her honor. The city of San Francisco proclaimed a Carol Channing Day, for her advocacy of gay rights & her appearances as the host of the Gay Pride events around the country.

Kullijian: "Carol & I are looking at all the children in the United States. We often say, ‘Those children are our children. They're all Americans.' They have to be uplifted. They have to experience music, literature, poetry, theater, sculpture & paintings. It's a crime that these things are falling to the wayside. Art is the mainstay of our souls. I believe that Carol Channing is the one person in this country who can say ‘Come on folks, let’s get together with one voice & make this happen because the future of this country is at stake."

Carol Channing turns an astonishing 90 years old today. Happy Birthday!

Born On This Day- June 10th... The #1 Gay Icon- Frances Ethel Gumm

How can I come up with a gay connection to Judy Garland? Lets see… her father was gay, 2 of her husbands were gay, the man she hand picked as a husband for her daughter was gay, her gay fans remained her most steadfast fans through the drugs & the booze ups & downs, the fruit of her loins was Liza Minnelli & then there is that little film- The Wizard Of Oz.

41 years after her death, Judy Garland remains the very definition of gay icon. Her failed relationships, her self-doubt, & her battle with substance abuse are aspects of a life that most of us can identify with, while her live performances reflect a truth & freedom that are desired by anyone that has wasted t time hiding their own emotions.

Gay culture can't escape Garland's influence. The Stonewall riots have been attributed to the anger & grief felt on Garland's funeral that day. The term- "Friend of Dorothy," is from our identification with Garland's most famous role.


Garland's 1961 concert at Carnegie Hall is a landmark in Show Biz. 2 years earlier, she had been advised to retire from performing after being diagnosed with hepatitis, but instead she took on of concerts in Europe & the USA that reestablished her reputation as the top entertainer of all time. The Carnegie Hall show is regarded as the greatest evening in show-business history. The live recording of that concert spent more than a year on the Billboard charts & won 7 Grammys, including Album of the Year.

 A few months ago, my dear friend- WCK3 & I stayed up late into the night watching DVRs of her TV show from the early 1960s. I was entranced by her presence & on occasion horrified by the histrionics. Sometimes when listening to her recordings, I am off put by the feeling that she sings EVERY single song as if it were her last. But, then I hear her original version or her late in life version of Over The Rainbow & I end up crying. Judy Garland loved her fans & she loved them back. I love her for that.



Oddly, this is the song & the moment that is my favorite Judy Garland performance:

Good- Bye, Norma Jean

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius & it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."

It was announced at the Cannes Film Festival that Naomi Watts will play Monroe in a biopic based on author Joyce Carol Oates’s controversial, fictionalized memoir, 2000’s Blonde. The movie, also called Blonde, is to start filming in January 2011. Michelle Williams is to play Monroe in a film directed by Simon Curtis, which focuses on the late screen legend’s time spent in England while filming 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl with Laurence Olivier.


She is long gone but never forgotten.


Marilyn Monroe, star of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, Some Like It Hot, How to Marry a Millionaire & Bus Stop, was born Norma Jeane Mortenson on June 1, 1926 in Los Angeles.


She signed her first studio contract with Twentieth Century Fox in 1946 for $125 a week, Norma Jeane dyed her hair blonde & changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.


Marilyn was divine & profane, & she soon became myth & metaphor as Hollywood’s most famous martyred saint. At the height of her fame, she had received 5,000 fan letters a week. Many were from men & women who talked about the sadness in her eyes, her vulnerability, &how they identified with her.


From Marilyn’s first film, Scudda Hoo! Scudda Hay!, in 1948, to her last, The Misfits, in 1962, she went from studio created blonde bimbo to a trained, heartbreaking actress of depth & soul. She is beyond camp. she was different than Jayne Mansfield & Mamie Van Doren, who Hollywood used to replace her. She was irreplaceable.





On an early morning in the summer of 1962, Marilyn died in her sleep at her Brentwood, California home Suicide, accident or murder? She was 36 years old.  Marilyn remains a gay icon. She would have been 84 years old today.

Born On This Day- May 20th... Gay Icon Cheryl Sarkisian LaPiere Bono Allman

Today is a High Holy Day in Gaydom- The birthday of Cher.

Cher & I have something in common, I don't mean sleeping with David Geffen. We have both been on our Living Proof: The Farewell Tour for the past decade. Cher's tour is the 2nd most successful tour by a female solo artist of all time. I felt lucky to book my own back yard.

Cher dropped out of high school at age 16 & moved to L.A.. She had her initial taste of Hollywood stardust when she was involved in a minor car accident with Warren Beatty. He then seduced her. Cher remembers the encounter as "a disappointment".

Cher has won an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, an Emmy Award, & 3 Golden Globe Awards for her work in film, music & television. Cher is the only female solo artist to reach the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in each of the previous 5 decades. I think she showed serious acting chops as early as the sketches on the Sonny & Cher Show. Cher was absolutely terrific (& Oscar nominated) as a lesbian in Mike Nichol's Silkwood with Meryl Streep. Moonstruck is on of my top 10 movies of all time list (& one of my favorite soundtrack albums).

Cher's career had some ups & downs, but all the downs were followed by another hit record or a first rate acting achievement (Robert Altman's Come Back To The 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean). The longevity of her musical career has given Cher some amazing stats: the oldest female performer to chart a #1 hit, with Believe in 1999, when she was 53 years old. She first hit the Top 100 with I Got You Babe in 1965, & had a hit with Song for the Lonely in 2002, a span of 37 years. She also holds records for the longest gap between #1 songs, from Dark Lady in 1974 to Believe in 1999. With a career lasting 40+ years, Cher has sold over 100 million records. Cher returned to Las Vegas in 2008 where she is currently performing her show Cher at the Colosseum. Cher & Las Vegas are perfect together.

Cher is an active member Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays (PFLAG), & has admitted to having had lesbian affairs in the 1970s. It is my understanding that Gay people really like her.

"It's Awful Hard To Bare..."

When I was a little baby queer, my mother dropped me off, all on my own, at Spokane’s Post Theatre for the Saturday 1st matinee showing of the movie version of the Broadway hit- Bye Bye Birdie. I was gobsmacked & have never recovered. The very next day, after church, I set up my room’s summer window fan in the bathroom as a wind machine, & sang the title song in the manner of Ann-Margaret, moving closer to the bathroom mirror & pulling back to gain the effect of the camera work. I was especially adept at having the little catch in my voice, just like the 22 year old star of the movie. I can still do it today, although I no longer have hair to be blown around & flounce.





Anne-Margaret has worked in 75+ films & has received 2 Oscar Nominations, for Carnal Knowledge (1971) & Tommy (1975). She has won 5 Golden Globe Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, & 5 Emmy Awards.

She was born in Sweden, on this very day in 1941 & moved with her family to Chicago when she was 6 years old. She was discovered by George Burns, who put her in his nightclub act. She had a passionate affair with Elvis while filming Viva Las Vegas. In 1972 she survived a dramatic fall from a concert stage in Lake Tahoe that shattered her face & left her in a coma. She fought back through tedious reconstructive surgeries & convalescence. Within a year she was back on stage. Anne-Margaret: "I really believed I was spared by God in 1972 because I had so much to do," She has been married to Roger Smith, known for his hit series 77 Sunset Strip & her manager, for 43 years.

She is my kind of entertainer: nightclubs, Vegas, films, TV, & stage. She turns 69 today & she still keeps working. Ann-Margret was a guest star in an episode of Law & Order: SVU just last month. I have been so inspired by this beautiful & talented lady, that I have a chapter in my memoir- Jockstraps & Vicodin, titled Kitten With A Whip.

Babs & Shirl... A Kooky Love Story

Was I kooky when I was young? I know that I love a kooky old person, hell…I am a kooky old person. When I was younger & I met someone with that kind of kooky personality, I knewthat when I grew old, I could look forward to being able to have 12 dogs, & drink Champagne for breakfast, the kind of things you are not supposed to do when you are younger. When you’re as old as I am, people say “oh, Steve hasn’t got much longer to live, let him have some fun” which is really quite depressing when you think about it. When I younger they would say “he is surrounded by canines & he drinks too much!” which is a bit sad too. Anyway, as I grow old, I want to be thought of as kooky.

Barbra & Shirley are 2 kooky dames. They share a birthday. Really. They spend every birthday together & have for more than 40 years. I wish I could be the Brenda Vaccaro fly on that wall at that party.




She took me down the Stony End, I never wanted to go down the Stony End, but she took me down. I liked Barbra Streisand best when she was “Simply Barbra” with Egyptian eyeliner, the bobbed hair, the thrift shop clothing, & the refreshingly kooky delivery & demeanor. She was a true original, before she let Jon Peters give her an afro, record Bowie covers & star in a Star Is Born. Still, she has had a remarkable & long career, & possesses one the greatest vocal instruments in the history of pop music. I think she is a strong director, with the actors in her films often earning Oscar nominations.


This year, now in her late 60s, she actually knocked Madonna & Mariah off the top of the charts. She is the only artist to win Oscars for acting & songwriting. Streisand has received an Oscar, Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Golden Globe, Cable Ace, Peabody Award, & the American Film Institute's Life Achievement Award. The winner of multiple Grammy Awards, Streisand has sold millions of records, 50 of them gold & 30 platinum. She is also the only artist to have Billboard #1 albums spanning 5 decades.

My favorite Streisand performance was in What's Up Doc?, one of the most perfect movies I can think of. My favorite album, outside of of her earliest recordings, is The Broadway Album, a nearly perfect album.

Shirley Maclaine is convinced her pet dog can communicate with her. The star owns 11 other canines but insists her relationship with rat terrier Terry is so unique, dog & owner understand one another. She says, “I talk to her & she answers me. I have serious discussions with her & I’m convinced that on some level she really listens. “She is selective about the questions she answers, though. For instance, she likes the question, ‘What shall we do next in the kitchen?’ Other questions she just thinks are a waste of time.”


She was named after Shirley Temple & grew up in Virginia with her brother Warren Beatty. She does it all: nightclubs, films & theater actress, dancer, activist, & author.


When Carol Haney broke her ankle during the run of the Broadway musical- Pajama Game, her understudy- Shirley went on for her & became a star. She has been making films since Hitchcock’s The Trouble With Harry in 1955. When lost the Academy Award (her 2nd Oscar nomination) for her performance in Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, MacLaine said, "I thought I would win for The Apartment, but then Elizabeth Taylor had a tracheotomy". She finally won the Oscar for Terms Of Endearment, of course, but my favorite MacLaine role was as a thinly disguised Debbie Reynolds in Postcards From The Edge. I like that she continues to work.




Happy Birthday to both these talented broads!

Born On This Day- April 5th... Drama Queen Ruth Elizabeth Davis

"Everybody has a heart. Except some people."

Bette Davis

I believe All About Eve to be a perfect film, with not a wasted piece of dialogue or an unnecessary scene. It is one of the greatest films about theatre of all time. For me, Margo Channing is the finest & bravest Bette Davis creation (she lost the Oscar to Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday). She was a movie star, but also the most fearless & the least vain actresses of the Golden Age. I am fan of all her 6 decades of work on stage, & on film with Of Human Bondage, The Petrified Forest, Jezebel, The Old Maid, Elizabeth & Essex, The Letter, All This & Heaven Too, The Little Foxes, Old Acquaintance, Pocket Full Of Miracles, & What Ever Happened To Baby Jane among my favorites.

Besides Margo Channing, my favorite would have to be Bette’s work in 1987’s The Whales of August: featuring an understated Vincent Price, a rare & delicate late career performance by the great Lillian Gish, whose career stretched back to the films of D.W. Griffith, & Ann Sothern in her only Oscar nominated performance. But for me the true enjoyment of this film came from seeing Bette Davis do again what Bette Davis always could do: create an indelible, complex character & command every scene in which she appears.

When she was filming Whales of August, the cast & crew were having dinner when Davis started complaining about Joan Crawford. Cast member Harry Carey Jr, became unhappy & told Davis that Crawford had been his friend & that he didn't want to hear anything negative about her. Davis, without missing a beat, responded, "Just because a person's dead doesn't mean they changed."

Davis bickered with her directors over the smallest details, & had a reputation for being difficult to work with. Still, she was so beloved by audiences that she was in great demand, & is one of the few actors in history who worked until the very end of her life, making well over a 100 films. She would dare us to hate her, & we often did, which is why we loved her.


Warner Brothers treated Davis badly for many years, & they paid her far less than other stars. She sued the company & lost, but the court case gave her much valuable publicity. She was able to create a new persona for herself on her own terms, as a strong-willed independent thinker as strong as any man.

Bette Davis has been an icon for generations of gay men, & helped them learn that with wit, style & camp to transcend a difficult, unhappy, hateful & often humiliating world that was thrust upon us.

Happy Birthday To Lucille Fay LeSueur!

"If you want the girl next door, go next door."

I have enjoyed her considerable talents & glamour in Grand Hotel, Mildred Pierce, & The Women. I also snickered at the camp value of What Ever Happened To Baby Jane, Johnny Guitar & Straight-Jacket. But, I would later come to appreciate Joan Crawford as a complex, enigmatic, contradictory product of a certain era & her own difficult life, but just as she devoted herself to her fans, she doubtless inspired the downtrodden in the audience to want more out of life & go out & get it. She relied on men as her pathway into a man's world. Crawford was often required to suffer for her ambition but she was living in an age when she was actually allowed & expected to carry & dominate a film. She was up to the task.

Joan Crawford was a powerful, beautiful, & creative force; an underdog who embraced good taste, glamour, & fantasy. She addressed & defied the class-conscious & patriarchal, studio system that sought to marginalize & deprive her. Through all her trials she kept her head held high. In her films, as in her life, she demanded to be counted as a woman, & as an outsider. Her struggle was every marginalized person’s struggle, but especially resonant to gay people. She was ridiculed for her excesses & yet the emotion was raw, real & she often underplayed it. Beneath the toughness was the frightened woman.

Gay men recognize & love that vulnerability. Beneath the flamboyance was shyness. She was a predator, only because she is so irresistible as a prey. Her promiscuity was another mirror of gay male sexuality. Most gays can appreciate why Joan would hide her insecurities & grim past behind a facade of Hollywood perfection & we love it that she did it for her fans. She was always grateful to her fans. One of her directors & lover- Vincent Sherman said her personal life was terrible & that it took hours to bring her down from crying scenes.

Her bad behavior seemed to stem from her fears, although she was known as a consummate professional on the set. Crawford was on a search for love & belonging. She almost certainly had affairs with other women. She never seemed to have found that love. She was a glamorous feminist icon, a fabulous gay icon, & still very human. She was a diva & a survivor who never forgot her fans. Crawford could play anguish & hope on screen, the same complex contradictions she had to play in her own life. This flawed person beneath a stunning glamour & power makes her continue to resonate to gay people.

In 1971, I remember reading her book -My Way of Life. I sat on my blanket at the beach, ready to devour Joan Crawford’s racy tell-all bio, instead I got Crawford's meticulous advice on grooming, wardrobe, exercise, house cleaning, & food storage. Her advice came in handy.

Is There Such A Thing As Too Gay?

I really do love Liza. As I mentioned in her birthday post- because she wants love so badly & because she is a wonder of an entertainer, harkening back to the days when a performer (Sammy, Frank, Lena, Marlene. Bette) did it all: movies, Broadway, TV Specials, nightclub acts & Vegas. When do we get to see Meryl Streep's Vegas Act (filling in at Caesar's Palace while Celine is on hiatus) or Sir Ian McKellen's HBO special- Sir Ian does Gershwin with Special Guests Elton John & Elaine Stritch?



Liza had a gay grandfather, a gay father, 3 gay husbands... one would think she might be bitter about the gays, but her support never waivered & she has counted among her best friends: Halston, Andy Warhol, & John Kander & Fred Ebb, among many others. She also dedicated much time to amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research: “AmfAR is important to me because I’ve lost so many friends that I knew to AIDS” Liza recorded the Kander & Ebb tune The Day After That & donated the proceeds to AIDS research. That same year she performed the song in front of thousands in Central Park at the 25th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

Last night I woke up at 2am shaking, & sat bolt upright in bed after dreaming of this image:

Husband #4- David Gest & his charming companion.

Born On This Day- March 12th... Gay Icon Miss Liza Minnelli

It wouldn’t be a gay day at a gay blog without saying Happy Birthday to Liza. I first saw her in The Sterile Cuckoo (Oscar nomination) in 1969 & I was rather astonished by her performance, followed by another in Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, & of course there was Cabaret & Liza with a Z. I once watched her go into the Russian Tea Room in 1977, but couldn’t bring myself to approach her. I may have seen her at Studio 54 during the same era, but who knows, what with the qualudes & coke, maybe I just thought I saw her with Halston & Andy.

There is no denying the talent; Oscar, Emmy, Tony, Grammy, BAFTA, & Golden Globes are all on her mantle. Through the ups & down & the marriages, & just when she seems a joke, she redeems & reinvents herself with choices like Results, her terrific album with Pet Shop Boys, & her hilarious turn on Arrested Development. Her performing style is so full of “please, love me” that I find it rude not to. At 64 years old she keeps on giving & giving & demanding the love.

Born On This Day- October 1st... Julia Elizabeth Wells

I detest The Sound Of Music, the movie & the play. Unusual, because I like most musicals. It just rings false to me & is shameless treacle. I was in it once, on stage in summer stock (I played a party guest & an off-stage nun) & I took to calling it The Slime Of Mucus. That being said, I love, love love Julie Andrews. Check out her acting chops in The Americanization Of Emily. I know it is a bit of a mess, but I love her as Gertrude Lawrence in Star!. Dame Julie Elizabeth Andrews has been awarded a Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, Theatre World Award, SAG & Academy Award. Her voice spanned four octaves until it was damaged by a throat operation in 1998.She turns an astonishing 74 today