Salacious Biographies

[Matt]

I love a little dirt now and then. I fascinatedly follow the increasingly filthy details about James Dean's sex life that surface with each new biography. But this one has me floored. Read this description of the new biography of Kate Hepburn by William J. Mann:

Mann, a skilled chronicler of gay Hollywood (Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines), says at the onset it doesn't make sense to try to pin down Katharine Hepburn with modern labels of sexual identity. Mann's careful research on the longstanding rumors about Hepburn's lesbianism suggests that the notoriously feisty and tomboyish actress lived her life as a man with little empathy for women's issues. This interpretation also shatters the legend of her romance with Spencer Tracy—instead, Mann establishes a pattern of relationships in which the sex-averse Hepburn played emotional caretaker to a series of alcoholic, closeted homosexuals that, in addition to [Spencer] Tracy, included director John Ford. Yet the portrait is constructed so carefully that it never feels shocking. Mann also devotes significant attention to Hepburn's rocky relationships with Hollywood studios and with the press, revealing that the self-styled renegade wasn't above collaborating to shape her public image, and depicts her final decline into alcoholism and depression with sensitivity. Hepburn's siblings and contemporaries (now free to speak after her death) make major corrections to earlier Hepburn biographies, creating a picture of a complex woman rather than the icon she worked hard to become in the public's eye. This will surely be the definitive version of Hepburn's life for decades to come, as it is an outstanding example of painstaking research matched with splendid writing.

[Antoine Doinel]

Wow, it looks like I'm going to have to pick this one up. I read Kate Remembered by A. Scott Berg, and while it certainly had plenty of material from the lady herself, it seems Mann's book will definitely be an interesting, if somewhat more thorough, counterpoint.

[Narshty]

I've heard that gay Ford rumour before. What was that amazing webpage Martha once linked to that had dirt on practically every celebrity which I managed to waste an entire afternoon on?

[tryavna]

Maureen O'Hara's autobiography is pretty salacious -- and perhaps a little bitter, too. Anyway, she talks about accidentally seeing John Ford and a famous male star (whom she doesn't name) kissing.

Then, of course, there's Ford's notorious sex hygiene "documentary" he made for the army.

[Matt]

As eager as I am for every man to be gay, I really don't want the image of John Ford (or Spencer Tracy, for that matter) in the throes of gay sex in my head. On second thought, why discriminate? I don't want the image of them having ANY kind of sex in my head.

Ramon Novarro, on the other hand... wrowrr. Even Heino approves:

And while we're on the subject, Tab Hunter's recent autobiography isn't nearly as salacious as it needs to be, but it is a very good read. One of the best-written actor autobiographies in years.

[Gordon]

It never comes as a surprise to me if a dead actor is revealed to be a homosexual or had homosexual encounters in some tawdry biography. The lives of actors is something that holds no interest for me at all. The lives of plumbers, policeman, doctors or bakers is usually of more value, I have found. We are now in an age where the sex lives of our predecessors and contemporaries should really of little interest, let along surprise - certainly of no value to society, yet the perpetual reporting of their goings-on is devoured on a daily basis. You can present Ludwig Wittgenstein as an enigmatic homo intellectual, but what good does that do? What he said, what he wrote, is the only thing of any importance. But with a Hollywood actor, because there was very little else going on when the cameras weren't rolling, the focus tends to be sexual - or biography is invented, as in the case of Chuck Barris, otherwise we would be looking at very slim volumes indeed.

[Matt]

If I may state it so bluntly, I'm really only interested in the sex lives of public figures that I would like to have had sex with. When titillating details are revealed about figures such as Hepburn, Tracy, or Ford, my reaction is really more of a "Well, imagine that!"

To put an intellectual face on it, I'm also interested in the history of sexuality. In particular, I'm interested in the ways in which homosexual activity (not the same at all as homosexuality) in particular has been alternately shunned and embraced by American popular culture and in the "twilight world" of men who had sex with other men in the first part of the 20th century. Hollywood (its people and its product) during this time is at once an extreme and typical example of both.

And let's not pretend we don't live in a world where the choice of an actor's bedmate has a significant impact on his career.

[Cinesimilitude]

I haven't read many actor biographies, mostly directors, but I will always remember the conversation I had with my ultra-conservative Grandfather about Cary Grant (his then favorite actor) and Randolph Scott (whom my great grandfather looked very much like). When I let slip that they were live-in lovers for many many years, he lost it. He threw out the films he owned that starred either of them.

quite the generation gap...

[GringoTex]

I haven't read many actor biographies, mostly directors, but I will always remember the conversation I had with my ultra-conservative Grandfather about Cary Grant (his then favorite actor) and Randolph Scott (whom my great grandfather looked very much like). When I let slip that they were live-in lovers for many many years, he lost it. He threw out the films he owned that starred either of them.

quite the generation gap...

Has the Grant/Scott fling really been confirmed? My impression was that they felt safe teasing the media with it because it was a big joke, but I have little knowledge about the inside scuttlebutt.

[Cinesimilitude]

I haven't read many actor biographies, mostly directors, but I will always remember the conversation I had with my ultra-conservative Grandfather about Cary Grant (his then favorite actor) and Randolph Scott (whom my great grandfather looked very much like). When I let slip that they were live-in lovers for many many years, he lost it. He threw out the films he owned that starred either of them.

quite the generation gap...

Has the Grant/Scott fling really been confirmed? My impression was that they felt safe teasing the media with it because it was a big joke, but I have little knowledge about the inside scuttlebutt.

I read the cary grant biography by Marc Eliot, and it basically stated it as fact. There were plenty of examples to back it up, but no proof, If I recall. Lots of he said, she said. But some of it leads me to believe it definitely happened.

[Gregory]

...homosexual activity (not the same at all as homosexuality)

Thank you for making that distinction -- I certainly hope Mann's will show as much sense because that Publishers Weekly blurb doesn't exactly fill me with hope that it will be subtle and reasoned. Even if Ford and Tracy had sex with men it doesn't follow that they were closeted "homosexuals" (I hate that word -- so archaic and clinical). I'll wait for the book before criticizing it, of course, but that blurb already has me foaming at the mouth a little bit. She "lived her life as a man"? Really? Is that bestselling-biographerspeak (or reviewer-speak) for merely saying that she wore pants and went against other social behavior codes back in the 1930s? Approximately zero of the "revelations" mentioned ring true to me, although I guess the responsible thing to do is wait for the book.

[Polybius]

There's a substantial excerpt of this book in this month's Vanity Fair issue (the one w/ Tom Cruise aping Paul McCartney on the cover.)

If I may state it so bluntly, I'm really only interested in the sex lives of public figures that I would like to have had sex with.

I wouldn't go quite that far, but that subset is the one I'm most interested in. I've long meant to pick up a copy of Vadim's book to get some inside info on Catherine Deneuve and I've been really happy to learn over the past few years that Natalie Wood was every bit as naughty as those big brown eyes of her's always hinted that she was

When titillating details are revealed about figures such as Hepburn, Tracy, or Ford, my reaction is really more of a "Well, imagine that!"

The Ford thing gets me for the same reason that Vidal's writing the subtext to the Judah-Mesallah relationship in, under the obtuse nose of Chuck Heston, amuses me. Imagine John Wayne's reaction. (Of course, if Miller, from Repo Man, is to be believed, he probably was on board the whole way...)

I haven't read many actor biographies, mostly directors, but I will always remember the conversation I had with my ultra-conservative Grandfather about Cary Grant (his then favorite actor) and Randolph Scott (whom my great grandfather looked very much like). When I let slip that they were live-in lovers for many many years, he lost it. He threw out the films he owned that starred either of them.

quite the generation gap...

Similarly, I've worried (on a very low priority basis) that my 80+ grandmother would hear about Ester Williams' tawdry revelations about Jeff Chandler for the last few years.

[Gregor Samsa]

Mann also posted some excerpts online;

Acknowledgements:
http://katethegreatnet.proboards27.com/ ... 1157822654

Preface (Part 1)
http://katethegreatnet.proboards27.com/ ... 1157822304

Preface (Part 2)
http://katethegreatnet.proboards27.com/ ... 1157822364

[colinr0380]

I haven't read many actor biographies, mostly directors, but I will always remember the conversation I had with my ultra-conservative Grandfather about Cary Grant (his then favorite actor) and Randolph Scott (whom my great grandfather looked very much like). When I let slip that they were live-in lovers for many many years, he lost it. He threw out the films he owned that starred either of them.

quite the generation gap...

This actually reminds me of an embarassing incident that occured in my office. I was in the hallway when I had to pass one of my bosses who was talking to a client. We said hello and then the client said that I was very polite and that I reminded him a little of Stephen Fry. Of course I was very flattered. Then he added 'as long as you aren't one of those homosexuals like he is'

I think the only thing to do in those situations is smile politely and excuse yourself!

It reminded me of the joke from the Simpsons: "Remember when we had that discussion about ending your conversations a sentence earlier?"

[Matt]

I've long meant to pick up a copy of Vadim's book to get some inside info on Catherine Deneuve...

Haven't read it myself, but I have it on good authority that Vadim's book is a classic of the salacious [auto]biography genre.

Wasn't it Gore Vidal who reported (somewhere) from the set of Suddenly Last Summer for which he had to perform miracles of exclusion to get the homosexuality sufficiently buried to get past the Code, that when he and Mank "explained" the story to Kate she gasped that she didn't know "such people" existed.

From the other reviews I've read of Mann's book, it appears that Kate went out of her way to avoid conversations about homosexuality. This is probably one of the occasions when the lady protested too much.

[Antoine Doinel]

Has anyone read Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon? From what I gather it's the king of salacious muckracking.

[Matt]

Has anyone read Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon? From what I gather it's the king of salacious muckracking.

I've read it a few times. It's definitely a must-read, but most of his material comes from Hollywood scandal sheets. It's not entirely original work, but Anger's style really makes it "pop" (a la Tyra - do you see my energy?).

The second volume, though, is a lesser affair. It's incredibly vicious and not terribly concerned with accuracy (though surely that's a minor concern when it comes to gossip).

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

How's The Bad and the Beautiful? I've always wondered about Ray and Dean.

[Matt]

How's The Bad and the Beautiful? I've always wondered about Ray and Dean.

That I have not read. But none of the biographies of Dean I've read have ever mentioned any liaison between Ray and Dean.

[jesus the mexican boi]

How's The Bad and the Beautiful? I've always wondered about Ray and Dean.

That I have not read. But none of the biographies of Dean I've read have ever mentioned any liaison between Ray and Dean.

Orson Welles, I thought, used this relationship as part of the inspiration for the closeted director played by John Huston in the unreleased The Other Side of the Wind.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

(Im thinking of not mine but an old friend's once only encounter with a former Australian Prime Minister, before he became one. (Prime Minister that is, not homo.)

That has me wondering who on earth it could be. PK?

[Polybius]

How's The Bad and the Beautiful? I've always wondered about Ray and Dean.

That I have not read. But none of the biographies of Dean I've read have ever mentioned any liaison between Ray and Dean.

Not to sound like I'm selling subscriptions, but...there was a long article about Nicholas Ray in Vanity Fair about a year ago (I've mentioned it somewhere around here) and the depiction there was that during the filming of Rebel, Natalie was carrying on simultaneous affairs w/ Ray and Hopper, while Ray was fitting in Mineo and (to a lesser extent) Dean, as well.

This is why people want to be famous

[colinr0380]

This is why people want to be famous

Sounds like a lot of hard work! Would it be possible for an understudy to take over?

[Fletch F. Fletch]

Interesting review of two recent biographies, one on Nicole Kidman (which sounds slightly salicious) and one on Ava Gardner.

This is a particularly memorable excerpt from the review:

"Thomson's Kidman is a happy narcissist who loves the camera. Gardner was a woman with animal charisma who personally didn't know what all the fuss was about. Once Mickey Rooney introduced her to sex, her life was changed, and she appeared in movies primarily to fund her hedonism and work in political causes. She rejected America, hated the movie business, and was kicked out of more European hotel bars than a drunken sailor on a binge." Heavens, no wonder God doesn't want us having sex. And probably especially not with Mickey Rooney.

I have to say I'm curious to read the Gardner bio.

Also, the New York Observer trashed the Audrey Hepburn bio by Donald Spoto, Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn:

[Antoine Doinel]

The NY Times pretty much rips apart the Nicole Kidman "biography". I was under the impression David Thomson was above writing trash like this but I guess not. Maybe he should've just written a soft erotica book about her and left it at that:

[quote]Star Struck

NICOLE KIDMAN
By David Thomson.
Illustrated. 284 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $24.95.

By LAWRENCE LEVI
Published: September 17, 2006

In his previous book, “The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood,â€