RAYMOND BURR was gay??? Holy shit…no WONDER he sawed up his dead wife in Rear Window.. And disposed of the parts so neatly, too!
It was not “distressingly common”, it was *the expected norm. * And it stayed “tolerable” joke fodder for even longer.
Yeah, it was one of those things where you did not just say it out loud for the record, but especially for those with a less macho presentation you’d wink-and-nod that they were “a little light in the loafers.”
I’ll let the rest of this discussion go since it could be seen as a hijack, but you misread my post if you interpreted what I wrote as thinking “risque” and “lame” are synonyms. I’m well aware of the meaning of both words.
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Well, considering I never used the word “lame” in my post, I’m not convinced.
Hollywood Squares was completely risqué, just like My Girl (,) Bill, but I never said it was lame. It was quite funny.
And despite repeated doper proclamations, not everyone knew Paul Lynne et al were gay. Get over yourselves.
And here’s another, featuring a little boy and a little girl, who makes it pretty clear she’s on a different wavelength from him.
‘I don’t like spiders and snakes
And that ain’t what it takes to love me
You fool, you fool
I don’t like spiders and snakes
And that ain’t what it takes to love me
Like I want to be loved by you’
And remember, Jim Stafford songs were popular at the same time Blue Swede came out with a thudding, OOGA-SHAKKA remake of a romantic B. J. Thomas song.
Alright then. Seems we agree on some basic stuff: SAHMs don’t automatically deserve denigration because of their choices, and Hollywood Squares had some funny, non-lame and risqué moments.
I was quite embarrassed when I realized, after enjoying his work for many years, that John Waters was gay.
Peter Marshall: What happens to a bill if it sits on the President’s desk for more than ten days?
Paul Lynde: Spiro pays it.
Q. When you pat a dog on its head he will wag his tail. What will a goose do?
A. Paul Lynde: Make him bark?
As long as you knew Divine wasn’t … conventional … I don’t think it matters.
What I have always found the most wonderful and life-affirming about John Waters is the way his affection for his actors/characters shines through, especially in his early movies. For example, when you see Pink Flamingos you just know that he cared for Edith Massey (the egg lady) as a human being, along with everyone else he worked with. That’s more striking to me than his personal sexual orientation, though I don’t doubt that the experiences he had growing up as a gay man were fundamental to shaping his vision.
Yup, that’s about the same lineup my parents would have picked (plus or minus Rip Taylor as maybe straight but clowning around, and Anthony Perkins as maybe “too sensitive” for a straight man.)
Of course, my parents’ reaction to learning my sister and her husband’s best friend was gay was a good deal less shocked than my sister and her husband, so I guess maybe they were more blase just because they were older and had seen more.
My Mom’s family calls her “Bill”, although it’s not her given name. Her Dad said she was named after a mule.