mattbaume
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Bonus video! The mysteries and lies of Hollywood's most notorious agent
🕑 Added 2023-12-03 17:00:09 +0000 UTCWell hello there!
I've got a great big hour-long video about Rock Hudson coming your way next week, but in the mean time here's a video about his incredible agent -- the notorious Henry Willson, one of the sleaziest creeps in Hollywood history. Henry's specialty was representing unbelievably handsome men (and taking advantage of them) and he's one of those homosexuals you might hear about on the Bad Gays podcast because he was, truly, a very bad man. That's not to say he wasn't also a victim of difficult times himself -- but he's one of those gays who endured a lot of terrible homophobia, and then instead of trying to tear it down, he decided to wield homophobia himself as a weapon. His life is a real roller-coaster of fascinating lies, and if there's any moral to be learned, I think it's that it is crucial that we all do what we can to stop bigotry from being available as a cudgel to be used against others.
And if that's too heavy a topic, fear not -- I also have a fun video clip of Rock Hudson singing about drugs with Bea Arthur! You can watch the full thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KB__tQKPwI
Here's a backup link to this week's bonus video in case Patreon gives you an error message: https://youtu.be/MjrNHjU3sik
And I hope you'll join us this afternoon for a watch-along of one of my favorite movies, His Girl Friday -- a rom-com palette cleanser after some of the rougher films we watched last week! http://twitch.tv/mattbaume
Comments
QueBijoux
With the mention of Roy Cohn, any consideration for a future video about Fellow Travelers? Hearing your thoughts on it within the historical context would result in good content.
Matthew brothers
I meant to add a second paragraph, but return made it go away. You asked for ideas. One thing I’ve always wondered about is Stephen Fry’s process of coming out and the importance of My Night with Reg. I studied in London in 1996 and remember the play on the West End abruptly closing and a controversy about someone being gay. Googling it now, it appears I’ve conflated and mixed up a number of things and that it was John Sessions who was outed in the press and the play may have closed for other reasons. Anyway, maybe an entree into the world of British cinema/theatre and a cursory search suggests a much deeper story. Reading about sessions and his later heel turn to the UKIP, I’m also reminded of curiosity about Morrissey and if he is just a troll or what. Anyway, love the videos!
