She's mentioned on the afterellen home page because Michael Musto officially outed her last week. He said there was a new book being written. Lena's now 80+ and mostly known for firing Janet Jackson after the Super Bowl incident--Janet was supposed to play her life story in an ABC biopic. The biopic was to be the false story of her life: the Lena as straight story.
Do any of you know her? I'm just happy that when and if they do a movie of her life story chances are it will be a truthful story of her as a lesbian.
Submitted by
on August 16, 2004 - 5:36pm.
Lena Horne
It's odd to write a reply to this over a year and a half later, but I remember them saying that she was gay too.
She and Ava Gardner were supposed to be good friends and rumor has it that Ava and Lana Turner had more than a friendship in Palm Springs when Ava was pissed at Frank, who just happened to be a former boyfriend of Lana's as well.
I think that's part of the intrigue of those old movies. These glamorous women, so classy and feminine and playing these classic, sassy roles and yet you know they were party girls. Hollywood has always been more open-minded than the rest of the country, at least when the camera isn't rolling and these women were gorgeous. Tell me they didn't ever look across the MGM lot and question who they wanted to shoot their next love scene with.
Lena Horne
Well, I love her voice ... she was gorgeous in her glory years. How have I missed this bit of gossip.
Michael Musto didn't call me? What!
Lena Horne
I was very happy to hear that she may be gay. She is beautiful, a wonderful singer and a good actress.
Ava gay?! Lana gay?! And they had a thing going on?! If that's true, I know what I'll be dreaming about tonight... I always thought that Ava was one of the most beautiful actresses ever.
Lena Horne
Well, well, well! I've been a LH fan for years and have never hear so much as a whisper of her being gay. This is fabulous. I wonder if the book is out yet.
BTW, has anyone ever heard of the actress Lizabeth Scott? She was a moderately well-known star of the 40s and 50s, billed as a Lauren Bacall look-alike. She starred in, "Killer Bait" and "Dead Reckoning" with Bogart. In 1955, she sued Confidential magazine over allegations concerning her sexual preferences. If you recall, this is the same magazine that came up with the info on Rock Hudson's homosexuality.
I'm trying to find out if she was really gay. I think it would be an interesting story because we hardly ever hear about lesbians in that era.
Lena Horne
I know about Lizabeth Scott. She was one of the first actresses of that era that I heard were gay.
These are just rumors, but I read that some time in the fifties the police raided an escort service and on the customer list were several big Hollywood names, including Scott's. I believe she became somewhat of a recluse after that.
Lena Horne
[quote:1aefbf2f30="Flaemmchen"]I know about Lizabeth Scott. She was one of the first actresses of that era that I heard were gay.
These are just rumors, but I read that some time in the fifties the police raided an escort service and on the customer list were several big Hollywood names, including Scott's. I believe she became somewhat of a recluse after that.[/quote:1aefbf2f30]
Wow! I never heard anything about her until recently. Where did you read about the escort service. I'm trying to track down some kind of confirmation about her homosexuality. I guess you could say she's becoming my real life "Watermelon Woman." :D
Lena Horne
I could only think of two places where I could have heard or read about that scandal: a documentary about [i:64a96c917b]Confidential[/i:64a96c917b] and [i:64a96c917b]The Girls. Sappho goes to Hollywood[/i:64a96c917b], a book by Diana McLellan. I couldn't check the first, but I was right about the latter.
In the early forties, Scott was Tallulah Bankhead's understudy for [i:64a96c917b]The Skin of our Teeth[/i:64a96c917b]. McLellan says she was not able to find evidence of an affair, but she doubts that Tallulah would have been unmoved by the beautiful youngster. She cites rumors that [i:64a96c917b]All About Eve[/i:64a96c917b] was based on the Bankhead-Scott relationship. Scott herself claims Bankhead only directly spoke to her once.
The escort service scandal occured in 1955, when [i:64a96c917b]Confidential[/i:64a96c917b] ran the story. McLellan is unable to mention any other source for this incident, which makes me sceptical. Supposedly, another name on the customer list was George Raft.
If you're interested in lesbian and bisexual women of Hollywood's classical period, I can recommend McLellan's book - but not without an explicit warning. The book centers on the obvious three: Garbo, Dietrich and Bankhead. There's also a lot on Alla Nazimova and Mercedes de Acosta and occasionally a little on other women like Scott, who gets four pages in all. Now here's the trouble: it all seems a bit far-fetched. McLellan claims to have uncovered evidence that Dietrich was in fact not married to Rudolf Sieber, but to a dangerous communist. Her account of this spectacular secret leaves much to be desired as far as evidence is concerned. Strangely, no Dietrich-biographer before (and to my knowledge after) McLellan ever came across any indication at all that there may have been such a marriage. This is just one of the instances in which McLellan goes overboard and it makes you doubt everything she writes. But if you tackle the book with the right amount of skepticism and are looking for the ultimate lesbian Hollywoodfantasy, by all means read it - you won't be able to put it down.
Lena Horne
Does anyone have any info on the book mentioned in the OP? I would love it if Lena Horne were gay - I worship the woman!