Robert Hofler, The Wrap theater critic and a former Variety editor, extensively researched and exposed one of the main character’s in Ryan Murphy’s new Netflix series ‘Hollywood’: Talent agent and manager Henry Willson in his 2005 biography, ‘The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson: The Pretty Boys and Dirty Deals of Henry Willson.’ Murphy’s ‘Hollywood’ has Willson (Jim Parsons) as a kind of Wicked Witch of the West who bullies instead of talks, who has renamed Roy Fitzgerald as Rock Hudson (Jake Picking), who likes to watch his gay clients like Rock in bed with his other gay clients like Rory Calhoun. Willson orders Rock on what to wear, fixes his teeth and works on eliminating any ‘effeminate’ gay clues like how he crosses his legs or walks. ‘Hollywood’ is a fantasy. The real Henry Willson also discovered — and named — Tab Hunter and Troy Donahue and in the 1930s discovered Lana Turner who became MGM’s most popular female star. Hofler has described Willson as ‘A beefy closeted homosexual, a real right-wing Republican who wanted his stars to be clean cut. Most of these people had no acting experience, but they were extraordinarily good looking.’
Q: Murphy’s gay fantasia lets the closeted Henry Willson serve as its all-purpose villain with a caffeinated performance by Jim Parsons. What was Willson really like?
ROBERT HOFLER: Henry was very paternalistic. He really took care of his boys: bought them clothes, taught them manners, took care of their doctor and dentist bills. A lot of these guys like Rock and Rory didn’t have much education, and Henry taught them how to behave in Hollywood society. It’s unfortunate that Parsons and Murphy have turned it into a circus. Yes, Henry had Rock’s teeth done. In my book I have Before and After photos. The teeth weren’t horrible but were a little crooked. Henry often picked out young men who had no father — or the father was long out of the picture, Rock Hudson, Rory Calhoun, Tab Hunter. Henry also always made a point to get along with the mothers. Henry was very well-connected to Universal and Warner Bros. A lot of his clients ended up under contract to those two studios. Henry was not the most successful agent in Hollywood. That would have been Lew Wasserman, who also ran Universal.
Q: What overall do you think of this ‘Hollywood’ which ultimately turns into a wish-fulfillment fantasy of a kinder, more inclusive film industry?
RH: The series perpetuates this dirty old gay mogul syndrome (Willson, the Scotty Bowers character played by Dylan McDermott, director George Cukor, songwriter Cole Porter), where these older men prey on innocent young men, both heterosexual (Jack Castello) and gay (Rock Hudson), being exploited by them. My reporting on ‘The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson’ told a different story. In my version of Hollywood history, these young good-looking men were not innocent. They looked to make it in Hollywood, not through talent, but their looks and their ability to service the older powerbrokers in town. Roy Fitzgerald was certainly a young man on the make when he came to Hollywood. He immediately turned an ex-producer into his boyfriend, who introduced him to Willson at the Selznick Studios. As soon as that contact was made, Roy Fitzgerald dropped the ex-producer boyfriend and signed with Henry Willson, who left Selznick, then bankrupt, to work as an agent at Famous Artists, run by Charles Feldman.
Scotty Bowers told me that Willson did not consider himself homosexual because he never [was passive in bed]. I don’t know if Willson ever dressed up in drag or not [as he does in ‘Hollywood’] but I never did an interview where anyone talked about that. And I did over 200 interviews. Willson was very butch. If he might have done drag as a stunt like Halloween or Mardi Gras, who knows? But to do drag to ‘seduce’ Roy Fitzgerald on their first night together is ridiculous and out of character for a man who always made sure never to have a meal in a restaurant with an even number of men at the table. Two men, for Willson, read as a date. Four men would have been a double-date. Willson would never have called himself a ‘fruitcake’ or any other gay slur. Again, he didn’t consider himself gay because he was always the ‘active’ partner. Also totally ridiculous is that Roy Fitzgerald would have been shocked or upset or in any way unsettled by Willson’s sexual demands. Or any other powerbroker’s sexual demands. He knew the game. And played it.
Q: The ‘Hollywood’ Rock Hudson is a sweet innocent who does everything Willson tells him to do, in bed or out, because he’s completely passive.
RH: The Joe Mantello character [Ace Studios’ production chief] Richard Samuels is probably based on Ed Muhl at Universal, an executive whom Rock used to service well into the 1950s. Samuels tells the Rock character, ‘Don’t become me. Don’t let Henry do anything to you. Whatever he’s been doing. Don’t let him do it anymore.’ The Rock character seems to take this to heart. The real Rock Hudson would have laughed at this advice. He wanted Willson to continue doing what he was doing. The two men continued to have a sexual relationship into the early 1960s.
Q: This sexual harassment with the casting couch as the only way to get ahead certainly seems so lurid. Was it really like this – for the women as well?
RH: That was one Hollywood. The other Hollywood are these actors who came from Broadway, James Stewart and Spencer Tracy in the 1930s, and Monty Clift and Marlon Brandon in the 1940s/50. They had talent. They didn’t have to play these sexual games. The good-looking guys with no talent KNEW that their key to getting into the studio gates was to sleep with men like Henry Willson. It was understood.
As for the women, yes they did have casting couches at the studios. Bette Davis talked about many starlets essentially being prostitutes for the execs, although she commented that the Warner Brothers did not go that route. The pigs were [independent producer David O.] Selznick, [Fox’s Daryl F.] Zanuck and [Columbia’s Harry] Cohn. I think [MGM’s Louis B.] Mayer had his mistresses also but he didn’t just plow through his stable of actresses. Dennis Hopper told me that Henry and a few other gay agents used to pass around their young clients. ‘Oh, I can’t sign you. But you should see so-and-so.’ And so it went. I think Ed Muhl at Universal was kind of sweet. He used to degrade himself before Rock, then [service] him.
Q: Is ‘Hollywood’ simply retelling various stories that were once underground?
RH: There are two things ‘Hollywood’ gets right about Henry Willson: Parsons’ thick eyebrows and the story about Junior Durkin, which was taken from my book. Two of Willson’s assistants told me about an infatuation Henry had with a young actor in the 1930s; they could not remember the young actor’s name, but they knew he had been killed in an auto accident. By spending many Saturday afternoons at the Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, I dug through every Los Angeles newspaper, the trades like Variety and Hollywood Reporter, and fan magazines like Photoplay and found the name Junior Durkin, who was part of a young actors club in Hollywood called The Puppets. These actors were between the ages of 14 and 18, and Henry at the time (this would have been mid-1930s) was ten years older. Before he became an agent, Willson wrote for entertainment fan-magazines like Photoplay and then segued to being an agent for the Zeppo Marx Agency. Willson’s specialty was young actors, and he wrote about them for Photoplay and other mags. Also, he was very publicity hungry and often gave interviews to Variety and The Hollywood Reporter about these young actors like Junior Durkin. I don’t know where the ‘Hollywood’ Netflix series would have gotten the Durkin story but from ‘The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson’ because I alone had pieced it together from two live interviews and old newspaper clips.
Q: Are there scenes here that never would have happened, that go beyond credibility?
RH: Willson would never have berated Rock Hudson or any other client in public, as Parsons does in ‘Hollywood.’ The series is correct in that he didn’t have much respect for acting talent. Willson said of his early client Lana Turner when she couldn’t get a contract, he told a studio exec, ‘I didn’t say she could act. I said she could be a movie star.’ Also in the Netflix series, Rock Hudson shows up at a George Cukor party wearing a horrible green leather jacket. This is supposed to show that he’s a hick. However, the real Willson would never have allowed this sartorial mistake. He groomed his clients, had their teeth fixed, got them the right haircuts, bought them the right clothes, taught them how to behave so they wouldn’t make a social faux pas in front of a studio exec. He was an agent who was really a manager before managers existed in Hollywood.
Q: The series seems inspired by Scotty Bowers, the ex-Marine who ran a gas station he transformed into a pickup destination for closeted Hollywood celebs, men and women. But Dylan McDermott is hardly the hunky young ex-Marine Bowers was.
RH: This Netflix series uses stereotypes to make its point: old gay men BAD, young men INNOCENT and EXPLOITED. It was more complicated than that. The Bowers character, obviously, the name had to be changed because Scotty only recently died. But again, in ‘Hollywood’ we get this older gay men who exploits these young men. Bowers would never have forced a straight young man to service another man (such a derogatory gay stereotype), unless the young man wanted to. He didn’t go 50-50 on their earnings. He didn’t exploit his sex workers. He was helping them make ends meet. I knew Bowers. I tried to get him to write his bio five years before he did. I phoned him in 2005. He wasn’t interested. I think his book came out in 2010. Anyway, he was a sweet man who liked sex, a lot of sex. He wasn’t a user.
Q: What about the story where in the Netflix series Willson ‘takes care’ of the TattleTale reporter by going to the Mob to shut him up with a brutal beating? Willson then saves the careers of new studio head Avis (Patti LuPone) and leading man Jack Costello.
RH: That was inspired by a true story, which is much more interesting. Willson found out that a failed actor (not a reporter) had photos of Rock having sex with another man. Willson had the guy followed and a ‘fixer’ threatened him, telling him to leave the state of California. Which the failed actor did. But another story on Rock Hudson for Confidential [the tabloid monthly magazine that had the industry terrified by its exposes] was blocked by Willson when he gave Confidential the true story that his client Rory Calhoun had been an ex-con. Willson also gave Confidential the story of Tab Hunter being arrested five years earlier at an all gay party in Glendale, which at the time was illegal (gay men being together even at a party). Willson kept this story secret for five years. Then Tab fired Willson! And 3 months later (in 1955 right when ‘Battle Cry’ starring Tab Hunter was being released) this arrest story appeared in Confidential. Do the math.
Q: Is ‘Hollywood’ more of a fantasy about Willson and Hudson than you could ever have imagined?
RH: The series is clear that it’s a fantasy, especially the last episode. But I had to laugh when, in the series, Rock fires Henry with the lines, ‘I’m not going to be like you, hiding under a rock, preying on guys who are too afraid to tell folks who they are. Living like you I’d blow my head off.’ The fact is, Rock was Henry’s protege. Henry had enough power to put minor clients of his in Rock’s movies like ‘Tarnished Angels’ and ‘This Earth Is Mine’ (both from the late 1950s) and Rock invariably hit on these guys, expecting sexual favors in return for their employment in his movies.
Q: Any other thoughts Bob?
RH: In the series Rock Hudson shows up at a Hollywood premiere with his boyfriend the screenwriter [Jeremy Pope]. This is meant to be the ultimate symbol of gay liberation and defiance. Actually, when Cary Grant and Randolph Scott first moved to Hollywood they lived together and dated openly, going to Hollywood premieres together sans any female dates. They even wore matching outfits to costume balls at Hearst Castle, where they showed up as each other’s date, again without female companions. It was in 1933, with the repeal of Prohibition and the implementation of many anti-gay laws (no serving of alcohol to homosexuals or employment of drag performers), that Grant and Scott stopped dating openly and then got married (to women).
NEW DVDs:
SCHREIBER’S CAREER DEFINING ROLE Who would have guessed when Liev Schreiber began playing the incorrigible, often illegal ‘fixer’ Ray Donovan it would turn the well-regarded actor into a beefy sex symbol and gift him with the role of his life? ‘Ray Donovan: Season Seven’ (CBS DVD, 10 Episodes, 4 discs, Not Rated) follows the Irish-American South Boston native’s troubles in NYC, a geographic switch from the previous season.
Ray memorably began, back in 2013, as the prime celebrity fixer of LA. There is a question and controversy here now: Showtime suddenly, surprisingly canceled the show after ‘Season Seven’ which means, theoretically, this could more accurately be billed as ‘The Final Season.’ Only the creatives including Schreiber are hopeful/determined to have the actual conclusion which would wrap the various storylines as ‘Season Eight.’ Will that wish come true?
ONE CLASSY ROMANCE Writer-director Stella Meghie’s ‘The Photograph’ (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Code, Universal, PG-13) doesn’t set out to break any boundaries as it romantically weaves the courtship of a contemporary couple (Issa Rae of ‘Insecure,’ LaKeith Stanfield of ‘Uncut Gems’ and ‘Knives Out’) with a historical one via flashbacks that concern an undisclosed pregnancy, career changes and an early death due to cancer. The pace is leisurely, the actors splendid. Bonus extras: ‘Shooting The Photograph,’ ‘Culture in Film’ and ‘The Film Through Photographs.’
A COMICS’ DEVIL Adapted from the DC Comics character from ‘The Sandman’ comic book, ‘Lucifer: The Complete Fourth Season’ (Blu-ray, 10 episodes, WB, Not Rated) is Lucifer Morningstar (Welsh actor Tom Ellis). Bored from his sulking life in Hell, Lucifer opts to live in Los Angeles where he runs his nightclub . In LA, he helps humanity with its miseries through his experience and telepathic abilities to bring people’s deepest desires and thoughts out of them. It was a fateful meeting with Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) in his nightclub Lux that led Lucifer to be an LAPD consultant who tries to punish people for their crimes through law and justice. This season has Chloe back from ‘vacation’ who now realizes the guy she thought she knew really is Lord of Hell. New this season is the Biblical Genesis’ darling Eve who might/might not want revenge for her expulsion from Eden. ‘Season 5’ was halted due to the COVID-19 quarantine but this ‘Lucifer’ will rise again.
5 CLASSY CLASSIC BRITS A just-released quintet of Blu-ray upgrades of distinguished British films ranges from nasty noirs to classic tight-lipped drama.
- ‘The Captive Heart’ (all 5: Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) is Basil Dearden’s 1946 superlative war drama with one of Michael Redgrave’s (Hitchcock’s ‘The Lady Vanishes’) most celebrated performances as a Czech Army officer in WWII who assumes the identity of a dead British officer. Rachel Kempson, aka Mrs. Redgrave and the mother of Vanessa, co-stars. Audio commentary by Samm Deighan.
- ‘Brighton Rock’ towers today as the very model of magnificent British filmmaking, buoyed by a notable star performance from future ‘Gandhi’ filmmaker Richard Attenborough. His work is indelible in this 1948 classic as slimy Pinkie Brown, a gangster who will marry a waitress he detests to insure she can’t testify against him. British literary lions Graham Greene and Terence Rattigan scripted.
- What sets ‘Pool of London,’ Basil Dearden’s 1951 heist drama apart, is its unsensational rendering of an interracial romance, the first in British cinema. Earl Cameron, now 102, left his native Bermuda for a London film career and broke the color barrier that then existed. He’s here among the Special Features recalling his ‘Pool’ casting. Another is film historian Richard Dacre’s tour of the locations we see. Plus there’s an audio commentary.
- ‘An Inspector Calls’ was a celebrated play by revered author J.B. Priestley and Guy Hamilton’s 1954 film is a gem, an Agatha Christie-style mystery meant to expose English upper-crust hypocrisy. Hamilton would go on to direct other classics: ‘Goldfinger,’ ‘Funeral in Berlin’ and two of Christie’s most famous murder mysteries, deliciously well cast: ‘The Mirror Crack’d’ with Kim Novak and Elizabeth Taylor and ‘Evil Under the Sun’ with Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.
- Easily the most obscure title in this bunch, ‘The Night My Number Came Up’ (‘55) suggests a pre-‘Final Destination’ scenario. ‘Night’ begins at a dinner party as Commander Lindsay, believing the Chinese theory that life is pre-ordained and dreams are a glimpse into the future, relates his dream of a troubled Dakota aircraft with 13 people – including dinner guest Sir John Hardie (Michael Redgrave!) — aboard. It’s lost at sea with fuel nearly gone when a rock-strewn beach appears. As Lindsay begins to live out his dream, is it coincidence? Or prophecy?
TV’S LEGENDARY ADULT WESTERN Ah, an American ‘Iliad’ or ‘Odyssey’? That’s one way to consider the long-running ‘Gunsmoke 65th Anniversary Collection’ (CBS DVD, 20 Seasons, 635 digitally remastered episodes, Not Rated). A show that continually demolished Western clichés ‘Gunsmoke’ remains a fan favorite these 55 years since its 20-year run ended in March 1975. Revisit the cast that defined Dodge City, Kansas, as the American West was tamed: Marshall Matt Dillon, played by the 6 foot 7 James Arness, Milburn Stone’s Doc Adams, Amanda Blake’s Miss Kitty, the half-owner of the Longbranch Saloon and a frequent companion to the Marshal.
Dennis Weaver as Chester Goode was the memorable limping assistant to Dillon, only he left the show in ’64 for greener pastures and other roles (Steven Spielberg’s ‘Duel,’ the ‘McCloud’ TV series). He was replaced by Ken Curtis’ Festus. Among the most significant players in ‘Gunsmoke’ history is future superstar Burt Reynolds as blacksmith Quint Asper. The digitally remastered ‘Collection’ has audio commentaries, photo galleries, featurettes and, a real treasure, original cast sponsor spots.
KIRK’S FAVORITE Of the many films he made as actor and/or producer, Kirk Douglas’ favorite was the low-budget, black-and-white contemporary 1962 Western ‘Lonely Are the Brave’ (Blu-ray, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated). It’s a defining role for Douglas, a cowboy martyr, a man who has no place to live and nowhere to hide. Gena Rowlands and Walter Matthau are also spotlighted in this classic from veteran director David Miller (the thrillers ‘Sudden Fear’ with Joan Crawford, ‘Midnight Lace’ with Doris Day) Multiple extras: A tribute panel – Douglas, Rowlands, Steven Spielberg and Michael Douglas – who discuss the film’s legacy, a study of Jerry Goldsmith’s score and an audio commentary.
SEND IN THIS CLOWN Amid the enormous cultural and political upheavals of the Sixties, this sweetly sentimental adaptation of a 1962 Broadway hit became an unexpected box-office winner in 1965. ‘A Thousand Clowns’ (Blu-ray in a Brand New 2K Master, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) raised a toast to the era’s nonconformity with its clever, funny, attractive anti-social hero Murray Burns (Jason Robards) who is forced by social workers (Barbara Harris, always inventive, and the future ‘Graduate’ player William Daniels) to shape up or say so long to his nephew Nick (Barry Gordon), a 12-year-old who needs a guardian. Herb Gardner was Oscar nominated for adapting his play, Don Walker’s score was also Oscar nominated but it was only Martin Balsam (‘Psycho,’ ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’) who brought home Oscar gold as Best Supporting Actor. Bonus: Interview with Barry Gordon, who made his film debut in ‘Clowns,’ in middle-age.
TIMELESS FASHIONISTA A low-key, self-effacing icon in the world of fashion, an enigma and though single and celibate much beloved, New York Times streetwear photographer Bill Cunningham gets the star treatment with Mark Bozek’s first-rate, perceptive bio doc ‘The Times of Bill Cunningham’ (DVD, Greenwich, Not Rated). Narrated by fashion guru and ‘Sex and the City’ icon Sarah Jessica Harper, ‘Bill Cunningham’ offers first-ever views of photographs chosen from the 3 million-plus in Cunningham’s archive. Known for his uniform – a blue French workers’ jacket – and his bike, Cunningham (Boston born in 1929, died at 87 in 2016), previously a milliner in France and later a friend of Jacqueline Kennedy, would stalk mid-Manhattan streets for arresting images. His favorite spot? The intersection of Fifth and 57th where Tiffany’s is across from Bergdorf-Goodman. Cunningham gets to tell his decades-spanning (4 with the Times) life story courtesy of a revealing lost-then-found 1994 interview.
THIS BABS FOR YOU One of Hollywood’s legendary pros, capable in virtually every type of movie imaginable ‘Barbara Stanwyck Collection’ (Three Blu-ray Collection, KL Studio Classics, Not Rated) salutes the Bronx-born Ruby Stevens with a trio of mid-career vehicles. Dr. Kildare was a long-running MGM series that in a ‘60s reboot as a TV series made Richard Chamberlain a star. The 1937 ‘Internes Can’t Take Money’ stars Joel McCrea as Kildare, his first and last turn as the handsome doc. Paramount Pictures made ‘Internes’ and then MGM won the rights and had Lew Ayres starring as Kildare in 7 features. ‘Internes’ finds Stanwyck as Kidlare’s patient and potential love interest except, wouldn’t you know, she has a terrible secret. Stanwyck again teams in ‘Collection’ with McCrea in ‘The Great Man’s Lady’ (’42), a nostalgic review of an extraordinary life from the point of view 109 year old Hannah Sampler (Stanwyck).
These old and young vehicles were catnip to Golden Age screen queens! The 1946 ‘The Bride Wore Boots’ is a comedy, and strangely Stanwyck’s last. After triumphs with ‘The Lady Eve’ and ‘Christmas in Connecticut’ how could that have happened? This ‘Bride’ has a horsey background and a 7 year old Natalie Wood. ‘Bride’ director Irving Pichel had discovered and cast Wood in her first film 2 years earlier, ‘Tomorrow is Forever.’
"Hollywood" - Google News
May 05, 2020 at 04:47AM
https://ift.tt/3c5Hgca
Stephen Schaefer's Hollywood & Mine - Boston Herald
"Hollywood" - Google News
https://ift.tt/38iWBEK
Shoes Man Tutorial
Pos News Update
Meme Update
Korean Entertainment News
Japan News Update
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Stephen Schaefer's Hollywood & Mine - Boston Herald"
Post a Comment