Dual Cover Reveal & Interview: NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Hidn Liv and Secret Lov by Lee Wd

secret gay story of the way we were

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THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY

As the first few hntg not of the tle song sound and the unmistakable voice of Barbra Streisand ton “mem’ri, ” most of n’t help but settle for yet another viewg of The Way We Were, even though we know how the turbulent romance of Katie Morosky and Hubbell Garder turns few of know about the beloved 1973 film’s behd-the-scen drama or s gay origs. In other rearch, he terviewed s two still-livg, inic stars, Streisand and Robert rult is a tale of clash between Lrents, Pollack, and producer Ray Stark, the differg styl of Streisand and Redford, and how a gay Jewish man, Lrents, channeled his love of betiful Gentile men to the years, Lrents said the character of Katie, a polilly radil Jew who falls love wh and marri apolil Gentile Hubbell, was based on a woman he knew llege. He had reason to make this statement; the 1960s and ’70s, gay wrers were often cricized for turng their experienc to fictnal heterosexual romanc.

So he set out to thoroughly explore the gay angle of The Way We Were. “There always has to be a gay angle, or I’m not terted, ” says Hofler, a gay don’t thk Hubbell is a directly fictnalized versn of any of the men Lrents loved, but he do thk the character was fluenced by the wrer’s relatnships wh some of them, cludg his longtime partner, Tom Hatcher, and actor Farley Granger.

Gore Vidal was yet another famo homosexual bedazzled by Hatcher’s looks, and knowg Lrents’s taste handsome Gentile men, the novelist remend that his fellow wrer iend pay a vis to William B.

HOW BARBRA STREISAND AND ROBERT REDFORD’S ‘THE WAY WE WERE’ WAS INSPIRED BY A REAL-LIFE GAY ROMANCE (BOOK EXCERPT)

As the MoMA crowd learned that summer on Quoque, Lrents was gay but his lover was a very bisexual man. But when I heard people ravg about the show, wrten by Rsell T Davi, I was stck by how many of them admted to knowg ltle about the epimic – and the stctn wreaked among the gay muny. That’s bee, even today's much more acceptg society, the history of the gay and lbian muny is largely a fotten history.

For a long time, the mastream public didn't want to hear our stori.Matt Ca's The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle tells the story of a secretly gay postman searchg for a lost love om his youth (Cred: Headle Review)"I would venture to say that the public were disgted and outraged," says thor Crystal Jeans.

THE WAY WE WERE'S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY

It's about a lonely, socially awkward and secretly gay postman livg a fictnal town the north of England who hs retirement, realisg he wants to turn his life around and fally be happy – but to do this, he needs to fd the love of his life, a man he hasn’t seen for nearly 50 years. My novel is ridg on a wave of tert that dat back the UK to 2017 and the 50th anniversary of the begng of crimalisatn of homosexualy. That same year, the so-lled "Alan Turg law" offered pardons to 49,000 Brish gay men who’d been nvicted of homosexual acts – followg a mpaign arguably bolstered by the greater awarens brought about by The Imatn Game, the h film that picted the nvictn and chemil stratn of the Enigma-breakg puter scientist.

Over on Instagram, The Aids Memorial shar photos and stori of people – predomantly gay men – who died of the disease, wrten by those who loved them. You’d not tch many queer al mers jottg down their memoirs – Crystal JeansHowever, 's fictn that’s very much drivg the phenomenon of brgg "lost" stori of gay life om the past to light. Over the last five years, a tr of Irish wrers have livered stunng gay-themed novels set predomantly perds of history that didn't wele them – John Boyne (The Heart’s Invisible Furi), Graham Norton (Home Stretch), and Sebastian Barry (the Costa Award-wng Days Whout End).

THE WAY WE WERE’S SECRET GAY BACKSTORY

In the theatre, Matthew Lopez's exploratn of gay male history The Inherance triumphed London before transferrg to New York, where opened the year after a well-received revival of Mart Crowley's semal 1968 play Boys the Band. Most recently, the ter explod wh behd-the-scen photos of Harry Styl om the shoot of new film My Policeman, an adaptatn of Bethan Roberts's 2012 novel starrg the pop superstar as a closeted gay man the 1950s. However, as a way of explag the mystery surroundg why Harry left behd everythg he knew, Gale imaged a suatn which he was forced to leave as a rult of a gay affair beg exposed.

Crystal Jeans's latt novel is The Inverts, which tells the story of two bt iends – one a lbian, the other a gay man – who enter to a fake marriage the 1920s. This was another reason I wrote The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle; I wanted to tell the story of one ordary young gay man tryg to exprs his love for another at a time when this would not have been accepted. But I also wanted to ntrast this disturbg, sometim horrifyg picture wh what life n be like for a gay man wh today’s much more acceptg society the UK – and celebrate how much progrs we’ve ma.

My spiratn was a seri of terviews I nducted wh olr gay men whilst I was Edor--Chief of Attu magaze, as part of our celebratn of the 50th anniversary of the start of crimalisatn.

NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?

In the play, Hornby has ferred that the men were what we'd now ll gay. And then, ccially, I've ma a homonormative assumptn and told my story om that posn.".

Pop star Harry Styl is starrg new film My Policeman as a closeted gay officer the 1950s (Cred: Getty Imag)"What we see all through history is that people are nied their past as part of a way to ntrol them," says Hornby.

NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?

But few of know about the beloved 1973 film’s behd-the-scen drama or s gay origs. The rult is a tale of clash between Lrents, Pollack, and producer Ray Stark, the differg styl of Streisand and Redford, and how a gay Jewish man, Lrents, channeled his love of betiful Gentile men to the story.

DUAL COVER REVEAL & INTERVIEW: NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? HIDN LIV AND SECRET LOV BY LEE WD

“There always has to be a gay angle, or I’m not terted, ” says Hofler, a gay man. A most, well-tentned ntributn to gay history. Judy Grahn, thor of Another Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* SECRET GAY STORY OF THE WAY WE WERE

Dual Cover Reveal & Interview: NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? Hidn Liv and Secret Lov by Lee Wd.

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