W. Somerset Maugham was a spy, prolific writer and physician who took on the taboo subjects of adultery and sexual jealousy and reinvented the spy novel. Maintaining the habit of writing for several hours each morning, Maugham was able to produce 30 plays, 24 novels, and … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: “For Most of History, Anonymous Was a Woman.” – Virginia Woolf
Portrait by George Charles Beresford, 1902, public domain In the summer of 1998, the moment I put down Michael Cunningham's The Hours, I went to my bookshelf and picked out Mrs. Dalloway to follow the connection. Just a few weeks ago, I purchased a new edition that includes … [Read more...]
#WomenWeLove: Remembering Sharon Tate on What Would Have Been Her 80th Birthday
Valley Of The Dolls Publicity Shot, 1967 Sharon Tate (1943 - 1969) ''My whole life has been decided by fate...'' Once Upon A Time In Hollywood is my favorite film of 2019, a great year for films. It works as a wistful comic fairytale, but also as a historical drama in … [Read more...]
Were Golden Age Stars, Randolph Scott & Cary Grant, “Merry Bachelors”?
Early 1930s, Public Domain One of the most handsome of leading men from The First Golden Era of Hollywood, Randolph Scott was born on this very day, January 23rd, 125 years ago. Interesting that his very special pal, Cary Grant, has a birthday just a few days earlier, I would … [Read more...]
#WomenWeLove: French Actor, Jean Moreau
Jeanne Moreau (1928 - 2017 ): “Nostalgia is when you want things to stay the same. I know so many people staying in the same place. And I think, my God, look at them! They’re death before they die. That’s a terrible risk. Living is risking.” Moreau was the very essence of … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: “It is Better to be a Flamboyant Failure Than Any Kind of Benign Success.” – Malcolm McLaren
You kids might have heard that I have a serious magazine jones. It all began when I was nine-years-old and I got a subscription to Variety, the showbiz trade paper. I was already very concerned with the weekly grosses of the popular films and I perused the casting notices … [Read more...]
Remembering Russian Filmmaker, Sergei Eisenstein on His 125th Birthday
Film History class, I loved it. A big "If I could do it over again" for me would be why I chose Theatre over Film for my undergraduate degree. I received better marks for my work in Film classes than in my own major. Ah, youth. Soon, we will all be taking classes in Russian … [Read more...]
#WomenWeLOve: Gay Icon, Eartha Kitt
Photo by Boris Carmi, 1959, via Wikimedia Commons Eartha Kitt (1927 - 2008) has precisely the qualities that make for a true Gay Icon: A history of anguish, abandonment and alienation, mixed with a campy and sexually audacious stage act along with the necessary elements … [Read more...]
#QueerQuote: “The Truly Fashionable Are Beyond Fashion.”- Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton self-portrait, with his Rolleiflex reflected in a mirror of the Jain temple, Calcutta, Wikimedia Commons "After dinner at Dickie Buckle's, David talked of the coming of the Golden Age. He had read many philosophers and has thought a great deal. In the next 40 … [Read more...]
#MustWatch: “Who Killed Teddy Bear?” with Sal Mineo
Sal Mineo was twice nominated for an Academy Award. He enjoyed success as a stage director and a recording artist, but he is mostly remembered for his performance in a single film and for the brutal murder that ended his life just as he was on the verge of reinventing himself and … [Read more...]
