by Ronald Constantino
THEN AND NOW – Boze Hadleigh’s “Hollywood Babble On” shows that in Old Hollywood gays – men and women alike – were all over the studio lots. They are gathered – and “outed” – in the chapter titled “Lavender Limelight.” Lavender, along with pink, is said to be the color of the gay world.
Then and now gays are still very much around in Hollywood…and Philippine movies. Think Rock Hudson, Sal Mineo, Ricky Martin. Nearer home: BB Gandanghari (Uber driver in New York, while waiting for casting calls), Boy Abunda, Prince Estefan, Toffee Calma, and many more…but never mind their names.
Oh, Mark Bautista is coming up with a “coming out” book early next year. Let’s wait for that book, said to be “explosive.”
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‘LAVENDER LIMELIGHT’ – But back to the revealing “Lavender Limelight” chapter of Hadleigh’s book. Okay , let’s start.
When we did “Rebel Without a Cause,” Nick Adams told me he and James Dean had a big affair – I don’t know if it was while they were living together or not. There’s always a roomie thing in Hollywood – Brando and Wally Cox, Brando and Tony Curtis, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott – and there are always rumors about them, even if they aren’t true… I think Hollywood secretly wants to think it’s true. Such handsome couple… – SAL MINEO
Barbara Stanwyck loved doing westerns more than anything where she had to dress up frilly and chase after a man. At heart, she’s a cowgirl. Or a cowboy – she’s one of the toughest, most no-nonsense women in town, and she stopped playing the old cat-and mouse game years ago. – WALTER HUSTON
We lived in fear of an expose, or even a small remark, a veiled suggestion that someone was homosexual. Such a remark would have caused an earthquake at the studio. The amazing thing is that Rock (Hudson), as big as he became, was never nailed. It made one speculate that Rock had an angel on his shoulder. He seemed under supernatural protection. – GEORGE NADER
(Rock Hudson died of AIDS.)
I got fed up with Twentieth Century -Fox and Hollywood when Marilyn Monroe came on the scene and they actually built her up into this giant of tiny proportions. Things they let her get away with! On account of the money she made for them. For instance, she took direction not from her directors but her lesbian drama coach, whom they all said she was sleeping with. That’s none of my concern, but it got my goat when they took a no-talent and began ignoring those of us who could actually act! – ANNE BAXTER