Okayyy.
Two that don’t involve hot coffee: many lists of famous gays include Abraham Lincoln and Cary Grant as if it’s now taken for granted they were gay or bisexual. I’ll admit I assumed Grant was for a while, but the evidence is far from conclusive.
Lincoln: the fact he shared a bed with his friend Joshua Speed for 4 years and wrote loving letters to him and had a nervous breakdown when he and Speed both got engaged is the most powerful evidence, but…
1- Sharing a bed in the 19th century was essentially the same as being roommates; Lincoln’s two male secretaries- not only straight but horndogs- shared a bed in the White House. While 4 years may seem a bit strange, for much if not most of that time they weren’t the only two in the room- there were as many as 6 bachelors sleeping in that room sometimes, so if it was gay sex happening then it must have been an orgy going on.*
2- Lincoln did have a depressive episode around the time he and Speed got engaged but he’d had them before.
3- His letters are definitely lovey-duvvy but not a smoking gun by any means; he had no brothers, couldn’t stand his father, and Speed was the closest thing he had to a soulmate. It could well have been platonic (or, as I’ve theorized before, it could be two straight guys sharing a bed together who may have experimented when alone, but otherwise were hetero).
4- Herndon said Lincoln had used prostitutes in his past and was worried that he had a STD around this time, which along with everything else that was troubling him in his life probably added to the already extant disposition towards depression.
Others point to the fact that Lincoln later shared a bed with his bodyguard when Mrs. Lincoln was away. Again- if Obama did this it might seem strange, but it was probably at Mrs. Lincoln’s request; she was terrified at the prospect of anything happening to him and in a world without videocams, metal detectors, ro particularly observant guards sharing a bed with a soldier is one good way to make sure your bodyguard is going to be there if anybody breaks in, plus… look what happened when he didn’t have a bodyguard nearby. (Twice actually- once he had his hat shot off while riding alone.) Plus the particular bodyguard in question later married and had 13 children, so if his wife was a beard then he either had good neighbors or closed his eyes and thought of Abe a lot.
So while it’s certainly possible he was gay, just as it’s possible he secretly believed he could fly, it’s not at all proven by anything and it’s unlikely it ever will be failing an incriminating tintype popping up.**
As for Cary Grant, much of the evidence is from Boze Hadleigh, a writer who if you know him is discredited by his name; never let truth stand in the way of a good story and based much of his writing on interviews with closeted celebrities he supposedly conducted but didn’t keep recordings of and agreed not to publish until they were dead. (I made the same promise when I interviewed Anna Nicole on her theories about the space elevator.)
Grant shared a home with Randolph Scott for several years before and after they were famous and supposedly the photos of them doing domestic things like washing dishes and horsing around in the pool made studio execs say “get 'em married to some starlet!” I find this doubtful though; this was in the 1930s and 20 years later Liberace was voted most eligible bachelor in the country several times, people just weren’t as suspicious. Also any biography of Grant speaks to his almost neurotic stinginess: he was more Jack Benny-ish than Jack Benny was in his penny pinching. He lived in mansions but bought TV dinners, marked the liquor bottles to make sure the maids weren’t stealing, would remove the emblems from his Cadillacs because Cadillac wouldn’t pay him to drive them, etc.; he had a near phobia of losing his money, so it’s probable that he shared a house with Scott to save money (especially in his early career when he had no idea if he was a star for life or a flash in the pan). Scott was similar- he invested heavily in those days (probably some of the money saved on rent) and eventually died one of the richest actors in Hollywood history from his oil and real estate investments.
There are lots of rumors that Grant used rentboys and hit on young actors but nothing conclusive and there are wild rumors about any superstar. There are rumors his first marriage was studio arranged and it may have been but even if it was it doesn’t mean he was gay- could have just meant they were concerned about gay rumors.
His marriage to Barbara Hutton certainly wasn’t arranged and he seemed to be very devoted to her. As stingy as he was he was equally scrupulous with money- of her 7 husbands he’s the only one who not only didn’t sponge off of her but kept separate accounts and paid his own way (and in later years some biographers of both claim he helped her financially). His third wife Betsy Drake certainly had many complaints about him as a husband (though she remained close friends with him always) and has always defended his heterosexuality. Sophia Loren, who he never married but had an affair with, also didn’t seem to think he was faking.
So, while there were gay rumors and he knew about them (and Chevy Chase learned he was a tad sensitive about them) there is nothing conclusive, and by now there probably would have been if it existed. So thereagain he may have had gay affairs but if he did he was very discreet and cleaned up the evidence, and there’s certainly no smoking pole and should be taken off the lists of gay/bisexual actors.
Vincent Price is also sometimes mentioned due to his somewhat effeminate mannerisms and effete interests. His daughter, who is openly lesbian, said that if he ever had a gay affair then she never heard about it and he was certainly physical with women. (His daughter despised her stepmother Coral Browne who she basically said had Vincent p-whipped.) She said he was basically a 19th century European aristocrat who due to some kind of clerical screw-up was mistakenly born in the 20th century Midwest.
*The saying “Politics makes strange bedfellows” actually comes from around this time: it wasn’t uncommon for politicians or opposing attorneys in court trials to share beds while on the circuit. Herndon (one of the men who shared Speed and Lincoln’s bedroom) wrote several stories about Lincoln’s days on the circuit and the limited bedspace that saw lawyers sleeping on the floor and in barns when need be; one story he told was of a 300+ pound judge who farted a lot in his sleep and was so fat he had to ride a buggy and how the senior lawyers all knew to arrive as early as possible in the court city so as not to have to share a bed [preferably not even a room] with him.
**Very unlikely. Ever tried holding an erection while remaining perfectly still for 45 seconds until the flash goes off? It’s not easy. Trust me.
