In this exclive excerpt, the thor of Sexplosn! From Andy Warhol to A Clockwork Orange: How a Generatn of Pop Rebels Broke All the Taboos tells how Midnight Cowboy's party sequence and a gunshot om Valerie Solanas helped make Joe Dallandro a gay in.
Contents:
MIDNIGHT COWBOY, ANDY WARHOL, GAY HTLERS, AND ONE LBIAN FEMIST
Joan Didn once wrote of Hollywood, “Much of what is wrten about pictur and about picture people approach realy only ocsnally and accintally.” So is wh Midnight Cowboy, one of the classics of the short-lived New Hollywood era and the only X-rated film ever to w an Amy Award for bt picture.The long-standg myth is that the Motn Picture Associatn of Ameri’s pdish ratgs board, repelled by Midnight Cowboy’s scen of fellat, sodomy, homosexualy, and sadomasochism, slapped an X on the film before s release May 1969. There’s jt one problem.It didn’t happen.Voight and Dt Hoffman on set wh director John Schlger.From the Everett Collectn.Fortunately, the tth is a better story.The st of characters clus one of the film dtry’s preement power brokers, who got squeamish over the sex scen and generally rnchy subject matter of the movie; a gay film director who was still the closet even while he sought to make a movie that alt openly and ankly wh sexualy, straight and gay; a polilly nnected former ai to Print Lyndon Johnson who tried to steer the motn picture dtry around the shoals of ntroversy; and a clever psychoanalyst wh a passn for power who provid the phony ratnale that allowed the stud head to do exactly what he wanted to do.The story tak place at a pivotal moment Amerin cultural and polil history, when homosexualy was still wily viewed as a ntag disease and a dire threat to Amerin youth, while filmmakers were stgglg for more eedom to tell adult stori.Into the storm ro Midnight Cowboy.Sce this is a Hollywood story, let’s start wh the man wh the most money and power. The banned vulgar language, upheld “the sancty of the stutn of marriage and the home,” and barred “ltful kissg” and “passn that stimulat the baser emotns.” Adultery, premaral sex, homosexualy, and abortn for any reason were not allowed, nor was anythg else that might “lower the moral standards of those who see .”One of Jack Valenti’s early prri was to scrap the Productn Co as an outmod impediment to creative eedom and new dienc.
MGM, the film’s distributor, ultimately sistepped the Productn Co’s disapproval by releasg unr the label of an MGM subsidiary.Hollywood was even more squeamish when me to homosexualy. Still, jt as other adult them started to seep to mastream Amerin films, homosexualy took s first baby steps out of the closet, but only films that picted gay people as praved, unhappy, and self-stctive.
The films should have rried a surgeon general’s warng: Homosexualy, like cigarette smokg, n be hazardo to one’s health.At first Valenti toyed wh the ia of killg the Productn Co outright and replacg wh a simple utnary label: “For Mature Audienc.” But this proved unacceptable to policians and muny lears who saw adult-themed movi as a threat to Ameri’s moral fiber. His bs plan turns out to be fatally flawed—the only ctomers who show any tert Joe’s sexual prows are a handful of gay men, while he himself be fair game for a seri of predators who quickly relieve him of his small stash of sh. One of those on his feet appldg was Arthur Krim.He soon had send thoughts.It was early sprg 1969, and New York was enterg a new era of revolutnary change the way many creative people thought about and picted homosexualy.