When Hollywood Studs Married Off Gay Stars to Keep Their Sexualy a Secret | HISTORY

Contents:

• WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET
• RUDOLPH VALENTO AND JEAN ACKER WERE BOTH RUMOREDLY GAY SPE THEIR RERD-BREAKG SHORT MARRIAGE
• THE SECRET HISTORIAN AND THE SILENT FILM STAR: ONE WAS GAY
• RICKY MART IS A PROUD GAY FATHER — MEET HIS FOUR KIDS BORN VIA SURROGATE

WHEN HOLLYWOOD STUDS MARRIED OFF GAY STARS TO KEEP THEIR SEXUALY A SECRET

For ee real time breakg news alerts sent straight to your box sign up to our breakg news emailsSign up to our ee breakg news emailsIt's no surprise that of all the great gay fashn signers to have clared their sexual preference recent years, cludg Versace, Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana and Grg Armani, Valento should be the last to e 's no surprise that of all the great gay fashn signers to have clared their sexual preference recent years, cludg Versace, Tom Ford, Dolce and Gabbana and Grg Armani, Valento should be the last to e "secret that is not a secret", as Valento's bs partner Gianrlo Giammetti puts , is splashed across an article on the multilnaire Italian signer the Augt issue of Vany Fair 's no surprise he's late bee beg out on the leadg edge has never been the style of the signer who burst on to the fashn scene 1959 and quickly tablished himself as the favoure of the ladi who Giammetti, who has n the bs si of Valento's fashn hoe for 40 years, said: "Ours was not a story of money or fashn.

He and Rambova would divorce 1925, leadg to public speculatn that Valento was a homosexual and that he had been engaged “lavenr marriag” of nvenience to hi . There is no five evince any credible bgraphi wrten of the two that eher Valento or Rambova was gay; rather, the speculatn reflected ntemporary sterotyp and prejudic, and was no doubt spired by Valento’s personal style and refed European tast.

Homo Amerin! Queerns uld be appreciated on stage, but the every day liv of major stars was often hidn sham unns known as "lavenr marriag, " acrdg to Stephen Tropiano, profsor of Screen Studi at Itha College and thor of The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lbians on marriag were arranged by Hollywood studs between one or more gay, lbian or bisexual people orr to hi their sexual orientatn om the public.

RUDOLPH VALENTO AND JEAN ACKER WERE BOTH RUMOREDLY GAY SPE THEIR RERD-BREAKG SHORT MARRIAGE

They date back to the early 20th century and rried on past the gay liberatn movement of the 1960s. Bowers’ acunt tails sexual enunters, gay and straight, that he claims he both arranged and took part , begng wrote that he had been sexually volved wh leadg actor Cary Grant and his roommate, Randolph Stt, for more than a . They married 1955 and separated two years later, after mors of his homosexualy and fily began to pile up.

THE SECRET HISTORIAN AND THE SILENT FILM STAR: ONE WAS GAY

Bettmann Archive/Getty ImagRock Hudson and his bri Phyllis Gat at their 1955 gay actors chose to live openly, spe the risk. He’s now often nsired one of Hollywood’s first openly gay stars. Lavenr marriag beme ls prevalent the 1960s and ‘70s as the gay rights movement gaed momentum followg the Stonewall Rts of 1969.

Although reprentatn film and on televisn was still srce, the actual liv of the stars on screen—straight, gay or bisexual—weren’t dictated by studs as much as they had been the past. Valento is still sgle but is relatnship wh many men as he is gay. Every so often someone claims Rudolph Valento was gay.

No one would ny that Valento is a gay in. But was he gay? '"The claim that Steward "sexually serviced" Valento was repeated a send New York Tim article, by a different journalist, on Augt this mean that Steward, a secret historian of 20th century gay life, and Valento, the legendary silent film star, had a sexual enunter?

RICKY MART IS A PROUD GAY FATHER — MEET HIS FOUR KIDS BORN VIA SURROGATE

"So let me be clear that I was utterly agnostic when I first approached this issue, but there has been nothg my subsequent rearch to support that he was gay, and much to support that he was straight. And Valento scholars agree the actor wasn't gay.

The New York Tim gets right when stat that his archive mak for both a rare and revealg portra of gay life the early s of the Twentieth -- an acplished scholar, art historian and the thor of earlier books on artists Pl Cadm, Fairfield Porter and others -- has achieved somethg exceptnal wrg Secret Historian: The Life and Tim of Samuel Steward, Profsor, Tattoo Artist, and Sexual Renega. After criqug another book which claimed Valento was gay, Leir prciently stat, "Valento exerted and ntu to exert enormo power as an object of sire for both sex. More at Lifehomosexualybook newsSilent filmbooks.