Gay History - October 13, 1950: "All About Eve" Opened In Theaters

All About Eve, the Bt Picture Osr wner of 1950, is fed by the sensibily of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, a heterosexual ( fact, womanizer) wrer-director. Yet, the film and s star, Bette Davis, have been champned by gay viewers. elevatg the film to both high mp and inic stat. The whole film is stamped wh an sir-gay atmosphere, both text and subtext. The most loyal viewers have been ted gay mal, who mt have related to the text's self-ntaed theatril i, smart dialogue (wh memorable l), and sharp actg by a terrific ensemble (the film sred 5 actg nomatns, wng one for Gee Sanrs). As other crics have noted, the passg of time has only ma All About Eve seem even more alert, more clever, and more entertag. Some have even suggted that All About Eve uld be done wh an all-male st, whout losg any of s be. (The same n be said about Stage Door, The Women, Auntie Mame, and Who's Aaid of Virgia Woolf? and Travels Wh My Aunt) Some scene are more ronant than others wh their double-entendr. When Margo fds out that her lover-director Bill is gog to Hollywood to do a picture Unr Zanuck, the head of Fox (which produced All About Eve), she throws a tantm, acpanied by a throwaway gay le: "Zanuck, Zanuck, Zanuck--what are you too, lovers? He repli: "Only some ways." Then there is the character of the acerbic cric, Addison DeWt (played wh panache by Gee Sanrs, a hetero actor who won the Bt Supportg Actor Osr). The wty and bright DeWt--"that venomo fishwife"--is seen by some as a more typil character that the gay Brish actor Clifton Webb uld and should have played. In fact, Zanuck and Mankiewicz nsired Webb for the part, after the latter excelled himself the 1944 Lra (another movie that uld be rema wh an all-male st). Webb was extremely popular star at the time, strikg box-office gild for Fox his Mr. Belver edi (Cheaper by the Dozen) DeWt is an rrigible athete, who exprs himself an Osr Wil mo. DeWt's self- loathg, clarg at one pot his "abily to love and be loved," reprented a typil view of some gay men as they saw themselv--and were seen by the larger society. This was a stereotypil attu that would prevail up to and cludg The Boys the Band, the 1968 play and the 1970s versn of . * all about eve gay *

I n late June 1994, hundreds of thoands of lbians, gay men, drag queens, bisexuals, queers of all kds, and their iends, fai, and supporters nverged on New York Cy to memorate and celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Stonewall rts. The memorative celebratn was unrwrten by a number of anizatns and rporatns, one of which, Out magaze, sold T-shirts wh the followg upbeat msage: “Stonewall 25: New and Improved for the 90s.” What might be new or improved about a 1990s Stonewall beme a matter of ntentn over that weekend. As a challenge to the rabow-drenched official Stonewall para past the UN, ACT UP/NY anized a untermarch (nservatively timated by New York Cy police at 10,000) which posters prottg the mercializatn of this historil marker as a rather cynil improvement on the origal joed those cryg the ongog and adly attentn to AIDS. Lbian Contradictn of San Francis, for example, hand out stickers that read “Queer Liberatn: A Movement Not A Market,” while another graphic listed the many mastream and lbian or gay bs unrwrg the Gay Gam next to a glargly blank list of bs supportg lbian and gay civil rights. I offer this anecdote * all about eve gay *

<p>In my nocence, I expected a sprightly gay versn of All About Eve, says <strong>Peter Bradshaw</strong>. But oh, no</p> * all about eve gay *