I’ve been watching a lot of old Fred Astair movies on TCM-many times he starred with an older guy who wore glasses-anybody know the name f that actor?
Fred Astaire on IMDB (who, if the numbering means what it appears to mean, was the very first person entered on IMDB…wow). Can you look over hs credits and maybe pick out a film or two where the old man in glasses also appears? i don’t recall anyone wearing glasses in any of Astaire’s movies, except for a scene or two where Edward Everett Horton wore a pince-nez.
Eric Blore was another (older) A&R regular, but I don’t remember him wearing glasses in those films, either.
Since Astaire wasn’t a comic, but a dancer, i’m going to blithely assume that by straight man, you’re referring to the chiropractor who kept his spine aligned after a grueling day hopping about on sound stages.
I have no idea who his straight[ening] man was…
It’s a well-known fact that neither Blore nor Horton were straight men.
(That’s a perfectly true statement, BTW, but it does sound like a joke, doesn’t it?)
Not merely true, but true on two levels!
It was E. E. Horton! Thanks-I meant “straight” man in the sense of a comedian’s sidekick, who keeps a “straight” face while the jokes are delivered.
Horton was quite an interesting character-he seems to have been in jillions of movies! As I said, I recognized the face, but i never knew the name-thanks again! 
EE was also the narrator of “Fractured Fairy Tales” on the Bullwinkle & Rocky show.
VCNJ~
This will be news to Blore’s two wives* and his son, Eric Blore, Jr., who lives in the Los Angeles area.
- Yes, I know, they’re both deceased now.
I know what you mean, but watch Edward Everett Horton closely next time – I don’t think I’ve seen him keep a straight face. He was noted for his reactions to weird goings-on. “Oh, dear!” came easily to his lips. Watch Arsenic and Old Lace, where he plays the director of the Asylum.
Having one or more wives/children is not the same as being straight. Trust me.
Ah, dear Edward! One of the screen’s great sissies. Retired with his mother to his estate, which he called “Belly Acres.”
Maybe, but all accounts of homosexuality in 30s films indicate that Blore was gay. Admittedly, these may have been confusing his screen personality with his private one, but there’s a lot of sources that list him as being gay.
As for Horton, there’s little doubt. It was ever referenced in the movies.
And his husband of many years, actor Gavin Gordon.
Can you name of few of those? I’ve honestly never read anywhere that Blore was gay. Edward Everett Horton is another matter.
As far as the Astaire-Rogers RKOs go, this str8 guy has the impression that pretty much every male involved but Fred and the composers had t3h gh3y, and I’m not totally sure on Fred.
Sure:
It is, of course, difficult to definitely state anything about homosexuality in the 30s; the issue was complex, and homosexuality was conceived of differently than it is today. Going back further, there were sexual acts that nowadays would be considered clearly homosexual, but which were not considered so for both men in th 1920s (one would be gay, the other “normal”).
Quote three doesn’t say Blore was gay.
. . . while quote one basically says “I dunno”, and quote two could just as well be referring to his onscreen persona and not the actor himself.
Lost of people though the late Jonathan Harris was gay because of the queeny Dr. Smith he played on Lost in Space. But it was a character; Harris wasn’t the character, or gay.