Customer Reviews

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

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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This book does an admirable job of documenting gay Hollywood. Not just the stars, but the directors, clothing designers, set decorators, etc. The shifting climate for gays in Hollywood is documented along with its apparent impact on gay people working in the industry. The one drawback is the muddled summation of what it all means---the author takes a romanticized, separatist view, in which the more closted eras in Hollywood are seen as building community and doing more for gay identity. I rather doubt that people who lived through that would feel the same way and his own research seems to contradict this analysis. Not a book for those looking for fresh gossip or innuendo, but entertaining, as well informative and well-documented, nonetheless.

This fascinating glimpse into the lives and careers of lesbians, gay men, and bisexual men and women who created many of the cinematic images permanently imprinted on our psyches is undermined by ponderous prose, numerous typos, redundancies and inconsistencies, and an incomplete index-- in short desperately in need of an editor.

An absolute goldmine, jam-packed with fascinating, well-researched information on every aspect of homosexuals in Hollywood from the earliest days of silent pictures to the late 1960's. An excellent reference book that you'll want to return to. One couldn't ask for a more thorough, serious yet hugely entertaining book on the subject. A huge treat for those interested in Hollywood's golden age. As for the couple of reviewers here who found the book "confusing" or "overwhelming" or were skeptical because not every single item among many hundreds can be unequivocally "proved" via explicit eyewitness accounts of sex partners, I can only say I'm surprised at such reactions. This is not a book of doubtful, unsubstantiated gossip. For instance, the author acknowledges that while there has long been speculation that Barbara Stanwyck was a lesbian or at least bisexual, he says that he was unable to find any first-hand testimony to corroborate it one way or another. On the other hand, there is a great deal of clear evidence that Gary Cooper carried on a gay relationship in the late 20's. A theme throughout the book of course is how deeply closeted and/or "discreet" many people were. Van Johnson, one of the few gays whom the author was unable to legally name when this book was published several years ago, has died.
As others here have pointed out, this book is more about the behind-the-scenes characters (the successful and famous as well as the obscure and forgotten) than about the stars, although the stars are exceedingly well-represented. The photographs are well-chosen; you'll wish there were many more.
Hugely recommended!

I believe that I have read all of William J. Mann's published works and really enjoyed them. So it was with great expectation that I approached his new work "Behind the Screen". Sadly, I left the book disappointed and somewhat confused.

Mann's attempt to write a comprehensive history of gay Hollywood was admirable, but somehow, he's gotten in the way of his own work. One of my problems with the book is the way in which it was written. As you read any biography, there is a risk of proposing too many names for the reader to handle. Right in the first chapter, as he explains early gay stars, we are innundated with so many names that it is virtually impossible to keep track of anyone after awhile. Talking about people is very important to a biography, but when the reader has little to no knowledge or connection with the names, they merely blend together in a confusing mass of lexiographic confusion. I'd hope it would improve, but sadly, found each successive page more frustating than the last, and I failed to get through chapter three.

However, I found a somewhat easier way to read the book. I began looking up celebrities I wanted info on, and just reading those sections. He still manages to litter each page with an abundance of names, but because you may know the celebrity, there is something more to hook into.

Mann has an ability to write books that are amazing. Just read "Wisecracker" and "The Biograph Girl", both which celebrate early morning lore. Maybe he should try to concentrate on writing more about individual celebrities than a sweeping work that leaves us confused and frustrated.

Gay author William Mann writes about how gays helped shape Hollywood from 1910 to 1969. It doesn't just cover actors and actresses--it covers EVERYBODY! Composers, directors, producers, agents, set designers, prop men etc etc etc. Mann explains in MUCH detail how their views and being gay changed Hollywood for better...and worse. It also reveals quite a few talented actors whose lives were destroyed by homophobia and having to remain in the closet. At times I wish Mann hadn't been so thorough. This is a big book and a little goes a very long way...but I'd rather have it done completely than not at all. And when the book works (about 95% of the time) it's absolutely fascinating. Well worth reading.

This book is another winner by William Mann. His research and attention to detail is mind boggling. He takes us behind the PR and secrets of gay Hollywood and gives us a look at a sexy, provocative world. I couldn't put this book down. It is proof that if it weren't for gay men and lesbians Hollywood would have been lost and the movies we now treasure as classics would never have been made. Bravo again, Mr. Mann.

As a longtime fan of director Dorothy Arzner, I was happy to see that she was among those lesbians celebrated in this book as an important filmmaking pioneer. But William Mann unfairly takes a big chunk of credit for unearthing Arzner's lesbian history. Discussing her longterm relationship with choreographer Marion Morgan, Mann writes, "Details of her [Arzner's] relationship with Marion Morgan have never been presented at length before" (72). Whoa! They were indeed. In Judith Mayne's 1994 book "Directed by Dorothy Arzner," Mayne covers the Arzner-Morgan relationship over several chapters and with great detail. It was the first time anyone had done so. As Mayne makes clear in her introduction, she was the one who found the UCLA archives that included the letters and photos clarifying what had only been rumor and innuendo: that Arzner and Morgan had lived together for more than thirty years. Mann adds a few new details to the history, and he quotes from the same archive. But let's give credit where credit is due. Mann appropriately quotes Mayne's analyses of Arzner's films, but in all fairness, he needs to acknowledge Mayne's biographical breakthrough as well.