Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 [Paperback]

William J. Mann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 29, 2002

Whether in or out of the closet, gays and lesbians played an essential role in shaping studio-era Hollywood. Gay actors (J. Warren Kerrigan, Marlene Dietrich, Rock Hudson), gay directors (George Cukor, James Whale, Dorothy Arzner), and gay set and costume designers (Adrian, Travis Banton, George James Hopkins) have been among the most influential individuals in Hollywood history and literally created the Hollywood mystique. This landmark study-based on seven years of exacting research and including unpublished memoirs, personal correspondence, oral histories, and scrapbooks-explores the experience of Hollywood's gays in the context of their times. Ranging from Hollywood's working conditions to the rowdy character of Los Angeles's gay underground, William J. Mann brings long overdue attention to every aspect of this powerful creative force.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If your last piece of golden-era Hollywood gossip is that Greta Garbo and Cecil Beaton kissed at a rooftop party, you need to steep yourself in William J. Mann's social history of gay Hollywood, a treasure trove of fresh anecdotes and observations of a period and place in which homosexuals enjoyed tremendous freedom and influence--within certain obvious limits. In choosing subjects for his study, Mann cast his net widely, hauling in a great number of uncelebrated but essential workers in the "queer" areas of the film industry--mainly costume design and props, but also writing, directing and acting. This is not principally a look at famous figures, in other words, but at a subculture as a whole, in which Dorothy Arzner, George Cukor, and Charles Laughton are just part of larger circles of gay life and work. Certain to become essential to gay film studies, Behind the Scenes provides a rich, accessible history of pre-Stonewall Hollywood. --Regina Marler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

"Come next week if possible. Kathleen giving supper Sunday the 27th. Will ask her to include you and Gary. Want both to occupy one guest room? Answer soon as possible." An insignificant query? Not when you know that it was sent in 1929 to openly gay actor Anderson Lawler, and that "Gary" was none other than beautiful Hollywood newcomer Gary Cooper, Lawler's constant companion. While he doesn't skimp on the details of who was sleeping with whom (Mary Martin and Janet Gaynor; Claudette Colbert and Marlene Dietrich; Cary Grant and costume designer Orry-Kelly), historian and cultural critic Mann (Wisecracker) also delivers an astute and groundbreaking study of the impact of gay and lesbian actors, set designers, writers, costume designers, editors and producers on studio-era Hollywood. Without directly correlating sexual identity and artistic production, Mann applies sharp, original research and interviews to re-create the intricate lives and work of "gay Hollywood," offering a new lens for examining the complicated, sometimes contradictory relationship between sexual activity, identity and work. Treating his subjects with great integrity, he argues that it is inaccurate to label stars like Colbert, Cooper and Grant "gay," because they had a far more fluid sexuality. Yet he makes a cohesive and persuasive argument for how their varied sexualities transformed Hollywood and the movies. Mann also covers a wide range of ancillary topics e.g., the history and aesthetics of set design; the rise of Los Angeles's "pansy clubs"; and the special role of Jews (who were more likely than gentiles to be open about their sexuality). This intelligent and accessible study marks a major step for gay, gender and film studies. Agent, Malaga Baldi. (On-sale Oct. 15)

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (October 29, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142001147
• ISBN-13: 978-0142001141
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,127,807 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I live in two of the most beautiful places on the planet ' Provincetown, Massachusetts, with its exquisite light and ever-shifting dunes in the summer and the fall, and Palm Springs, California, with its majestic mountains and invigorating desert air in the winter and the spring. I am indeed blessed.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT HISTORICAL WORK ON HOW GAYS HELPED MAKE HOLLYWOOD!, October 18, 2001

By 

M. Grace "NEVER ENOUGH BOOKS" (Pasadena, Ca.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 (Hardcover)

If Neal Gabler's "An Empire of Their Own" dealt with "How the Jews Invented Hollywood," then William Mann's "Behind the Screen" could be also be called "How Gays and Lesbians made Hollywood!" Mann's book is a serious chronological of the golden age and the people who created it; they just happened to be gay. A very informative book, research extensive, it covers new territory with wit and style dealing with something new in Hollywood history; it is an excellent read. Mann's interviews are astute with survivors of this golden age, a history of a Hollywood movie gay life, that was both creative and glamorous, never to be seen again. It covers the totality of a gay experience in studio era Hollywood and Mann has captured the influence of these men and women behind the screen. Not just movie stars, the book deals with gay directors, that reads like a who's who of Hollywood's creative best, along with the gay set and costume designers who gave Hollywood a look and influenced the taste of the entire world. The material is rich and covers gay producers, character actors, writers, cameramen, agents, executives, etc. It is all enthralling and provides a long needed important volume in Hollywood history. It also chronicles gays who played a part in union organizations, at a time when the studio bosses only concern was profit and greed, along with mentioning their meritorious service during World War II. It makes such contemporary military follies as "don't ask, don't tell," an insult to the memory of these valliant Americans. It is greatly recommended to anyone interested in the movies and how people with great taste and style, something so lacking today, influenced an entire period of our culture.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost Too Much ....., August 30, 2002

By 

Gail K. Powers "Abra" (Harbor Country, Mi,N. Naples, FL, Chicago area) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 (Hardcover)

I found this book sort of a difficult read. I can usually zip through a book very quickly, but I found myself hanging on every other sentence. The author seemed to cram almost too much meaningful information into every paragraph.
From start to finish, this book chronicled the influence of a somewhat externally closeted gay Hollywood community on the total output of work from the film industry. This wasn't all that much of a revelation to me. On one level or another a lot of film historians and movie hounds have always pretty much assumed that fact.
My biggest problem with this book was that it really was two or three separate books crammed under one title. It was almost too much to absorb on the first take. I kept re-reading chapters to make the connections complete. If I had been the editor working on this book I would have divided this book by decades and gone with at least two separate volumes and had it fleshed out with additional supporting information.
I recommend this book as an insightful study of the gay Hollywood film community and their contributions to the motion picture industry. I also caution most potential readers that this book will not be necessarily a quick take. You will miss a lot unless you proceed with caution. It is a lot like a runaway train moving at a very fast speed.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful, successful book!, October 22, 2001

By 

Terry (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969 (Hardcover)

With a very educated writing style based on much research, Mann has presented a profoundly interesting history of gays in Hollywood. I couldn't put this book down. The details are vastly interesting. E.g., I didn't know that gays were accepted in movies and expected to appear in them from the beginning of theie appearance in movie theaters until the depression hit and the immoral right (the Catholoic church and the federal censors) pounced on Hollywood in the early 30s and used gays as a scapegoat, as did Hitler the Jews later in WWII. There are innumerable cultural, societal, and political details herein, making this a great read. An additionally wonderful read is his previous book on gay actor William Haines, also an outstanding tome.