Gay Ins: Hollywood Legends Bette Davis and Joan Crawford

BETTE DAVIS’S ASSISTANT WANTS TO SET THE RERD STRAIGHTKATHRYN SERMAK ON HER MEMOIR MISS D & ME, WHICH TAK A REHGLY NDID LOOK AT A HOLLYWOOD LEGEND.BY MARCIE BIANSEPTEMBER 12, 2017BETTE DAVIS AND KATHRYN SERMAK 1988.BY MREEN DONALDSON/GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEYOU’RE A 22-YEAR-OLD WOMAN H OUT OF LLEGE, WH A GREE CLIL PSYCHOLOGY AND TERNATNAL RELATNS. IN NEED OF A JOB, YOU GET HIRED TO BE THE “GIRL FRIDAY” OF AN ACTRS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF.THAT ACTRS’S NAME IS BETTE DAVIS.THIS WAS KATHRYN SERMAK—NEE “CATHERE,” BEFORE DAVIS REQUTED SHE CHANGE THE SPELLG OF HER NAME TO MAKE “MORE DISTCTIVE”— THE SUMMER OF 1979. IT MARKED THE BEGNG OF A 10-YEAR RELATNSHIP MAGNIFICENTLY DOCUMENTED SERMAK’S NEW MEMOIR, MISS D & ME: LIFE WH THE INVCIBLE BETTE DAVIS—OUT TUDAY—-WRTEN BY JOURNALIST DANELLE MORTON.AT SERMAK’S TERVIEW, DAVIS L A CIGARETTE AND ASKED HER FIRST QUTN: “WHAT SIGN ARE YOU?”“I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE MOST ABSURD, LOONEY-TUN QUTN,” SERMAK TELLS VANY FAIR, NEARLY 40 YEARS LATER. (THE HOLLYWOOD IN, AN DOMABLE ARI, WAS VERY PLEASED TO HEAR THAT SERMAK IS A LIBRA.)AFTER ASKG SERMAK IF SHE ULD OK A THREE-MUTE EGG, DAVIS WAS NVCED: “‘I WILL TEACH YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW,” THE 71-YEAR-OLD, TWO-TIME AMY AWARD WNER SAID. “‘YOU’RE HIRED, CATHERE. . . . I HAVE A HUNCH ABOUT YOU.’”SO BEGAN, SERMAK WR HER BOOK, “MY TN WH MISS DAVIS.”FROM HACHETTE BOOKS.FOR BETTE DAVIS FANS, THE MEMOIR OFFERS A TREASURE TROVE OF UNTOLD STORI EXTRAPOLATED OM SERMAK’S DATEBOOKS, SCRAPBOOKS, LETTERS, AND D SSETT BY THE WOMAN WHO SAW DAVIS LIKE NO ONE ELSE, DURG HER FAL, AND ARGUABLY MOST TRMATIC, . DAVIS HAD A MASTECTOMY THE SUMMER OF 1983, FOLLOWED BY A STROKE JT DAYS LATER. NOT LONG AFTER THAT, SHE SUFFERED A BROKEN HIP. KATHRYN NEVER LEFT HER EMPLOYER’S SI, ORR BOTH TO STAY ON TOP OF THE HOSPAL’S RE AND TO SWAT AWAY UNRVER NATNAL ENQUIRER JOURNALISTS—WHO POSED AS NURS OR DAVIS’S SON TO GA ENTRY TO THE HOSPAL ROOM.THEN ME THE PUBLITN OF A BOOK BY BETTE’S DGHTER BARBARA HYMAN—KNOWN TO IENDS AS B.D.—MY MOTHER’S KEEPER, PUBLISHED 1985. THE TELL-ALL TOBGRAPHY, WHICH RECEIVED MOUNTAS OF CRICISM, PATED DAVIS AS A VLENT DNK AND AN ABIVE MOTHER. THE OCTOBER BEFORE S PUBLITN, WHICH HYMAN KEPT SECRET OM HER MOTHER, SHE VISED DAVIS AT THE LOMBARDY HOTEL NEW YORK CY—GIVG THE ACTRS A BIBLE AND, ACRDG TO SERMAK, ASKG HER MOTHER TO “REPENT [HER] SS, [AND] NOUNCE THE LUR OF SATAN.” (WHEN REACHED FOR MENT, HYMAN SENT VANY FAIR THE FOLLOWG EMAIL: “Y, I WAS THERE BUT I CERTALY SAID NO SUCH THG. IT’S REALLY BORG HAVG PEOPLE PUT WORDS MY MOUTH BUT I GUS THAT'S THE PRICE OF FAME. THIS IS THE FIRST I’VE HEARD OF KATHRYN'S BOOK. I HAVE NO TENTN OF READG AND LS TERT MENTG ON .”)MOST POPULAR25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISFIRST LOOK: ANTE BENG SWIMS TOWARD THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME NYADBY DAVID CANFIELDCHARLIZE THERON DENI PLASTIC SURGERY RUMORS: “BCH, I’M JT AGG!”BY SAVANNAH WALSH“NOTHG,” SERMAK EMPHASIZ OUR TERVIEW, “NOTHG PARED TO THE BETRAYAL OF B.D.’S BOOK. THAT BROKE HER HEART.”STILL, SHE MATAS, “MY BOOK IS NOT ABOUT B.D., AND I TRIED TO TAKE THE HIGH ROAD. BUT MISS D SAID, ‘ONE DAY, YOU WILL TELL THE STORY.’”“I WANT MISS D TO BE PROUD” OF THE BOOK, SERMAK ADDS. “SHE WAS MY TEACHER, AND MY MENTOR.”THAT SAME SENSE OF GRATU IS THREAD THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. THE DITN LLS THE FAL PRODUCT “OUR STORY, OUR ‘BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS,’ AND LGHTER.” IN , SERMAK TAILS ALL THAT DAVIS TGHT HER—OM HOW TO WALK WH PURPOSE TO HOW TO PERFORM A PROPER HANDSHAKE. “SHE [TGHT ME] NFINCE,” SERMAK SAYS. “YOU’RE A MAN’S WORLD, AND YOU HAVE TO BE TOUGH. WHEN MEN ARE TOUGH, THAT’S ACCEPTED, BUT IF YOU’RE A WOMAN, YOU’RE GIVEN THE BIG ‘B’ WORD.”DAVIS PARTICULARLY ADMIRED STRONG WOMEN WHO TOOK NTROL OF THEIR OWN LIV AND RPONSIBILY FOR THEIR ACTNS. AS SHE WROTE HER 1962 TOBGRAPHY, THE LONELY LIFE, “I AM THAT NEW RACE OF WOMEN, AND THERE ARE LEGNS.”“SHE WAS ALWAYS THE GREATT SUPPORTER OF WOMEN,” SERMAK EXPLAS. “WHAT SHE DIDN’T LIKE WAS THAT WOMEN ULD BE BACK-BG . . . STEAD OF SUPPORTG ONE ANOTHER. SHE ALWAYS SAID THAT WOMEN SHOULD EMPOWER OTHER WOMEN—JT LIKE WHAT MEN DO A BOYS’ CLUB.”HEARG THAT MAY E AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE WHO THK OF BETTE DAVIS AS A HARD-NOSED BALLBTER, A LA FD, RYAN MURPHY’S FICTNALIZED PORTRAYAL OF THE MORED BATTLE BETWEEN BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD ON THE SET OF WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?“I WILL ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL TO RYAN MURPHY FOR TRODUCG [DAVIS AND CRAWFORD] TO A NEW GENERATN,” SAYS SERMAK. BUT THAT DAVIS IS “NOT THE WOMAN I WAS ON 10 YEARS OF FILM SETS WH. MISS DAVIS NEVER BEHAVED ON FILM SETS LIKE THAT. SHE NEVER YELLED, SHE NEVER SCREAMED—AT LEAST NOT AROUND ME.”INSTEAD, SHE NTU, “SHE WOULD SAY ‘MER,’ [AND] IF SHE WAS REALLY, REALLY, UPSET, YOU GOT THE SILENT TREATMENT. AND . . . ”—SERMAK’S VOICE CHANG, AS IF SHE’S NJURG UP A LONG-FOTTEN FEELG—“THERE’S NOTHG WORSE, BEE HER EY, THEY JT GO STRAIGHT THROUGH YOU!”SERMAK IMPLI THAT THE TENSN BETWEEN DAVIS AND CRAWFORD WAS BORN OM THE LATTER’S THWARTED ATTEMPT TO ROMANTILLY WOO THE FORMER, A MOR REPORTEDLY STOKED BY DAVIS HERSELF. “JOAN DID HAVE A CSH ON MISS DAVIS, BUT MISS DAVIS IS A MAN’S WOMAN,” SAYS SERMAK.MOST POPULAR25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISFIRST LOOK: ANTE BENG SWIMS TOWARD THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME NYADBY DAVID CANFIELDCHARLIZE THERON DENI PLASTIC SURGERY RUMORS: “BCH, I’M JT AGG!”BY SAVANNAH WALSHNARRATIV ABOUT DAVIS BY GAY MALE FANS ARE LEGN, AND MOST PICT BETTE DAVIS THROUGH A MP LENS. BUT ACRDG TO SERMAK, THEY ALSO DISTORT THE TTH TO ELIC REARS’ TERT AND CREASE BOOK SAL. WHNEY STE, THE THOR OF TWO BOOKS ON DAVIS, CLAIMED HIS SEND TO HAVE HAD SEVERAL NVERSATNS WH SERMAK ABOUT DAVIS, A NOTN SERMAK ADAMANTLY REFUTED. “I WAS FLOORED BY [THAT] BOOK,” SHE SAYS. “FIRST OF ALL, NO ONE LLED ME ‘KATH’ EXCEPT MISS DAVIS. AND I NEVER TALKED WH [STE].”ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR DAVIS BGRAPHI, ED SIKOV’S DARK VICTORY: THE LIFE OF BETTE DAVIS, ALSO HAS S SHARE OF PROBLEMS, SERMAK SAYS. SIKOV QUOT DAVIS’S EARLIER ASSISTANT, VIK GREENFIELD, AND HER IEND CHUCK POLLACK, WHO OPED THAT SERMAK WAS “‘A ROAD-SHOW EVE HARRGTON . . . WHO GOT RID OF ALL OF BETTE’S CLOST IENDS.’”SERMAK, FOR THE FIRST TIME ON RERD, ADDRSED THOSE ACCATNS OUR TERVIEW: “RIDICULO,” SHE SAYS. “ANYBODY WHO KNOWS MISS DAVIS KNOWS THAT SHE HAD HER OWN MD.”SERMAK’S RILIENCE DURG THE SERI OF CRIS THAT AFFLICTED DAVIS THE 80S ARE QUALI SHE THANKS HER MENTOR FOR: “IF SHE WOULD’VE HAD THE STROKE THE VERY FIRST YEAR I WAS WH HER, I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO EVERYTHG, BEE SHE TGHT ME,” SERMAK SAYS. “I OWE THAT WOMAN A GREAT AL.”THE LOVE BETWEEN THE TWO WOMEN—PLATONIC, ASPIRATNAL, AND NURTURG—IS THE PSTONE OF MISS D & ME. IT IS A TYPE OF FEMALE BOND RARELY PORTRAYED EHER BOOKS OR CEMA. “WE HAD BEE ATTUNED TO EACH OTHER” SERMAK WR OF THEIR SYNERGY. DAVIS WOULD OFTEN LL SERMAK HER “STEPDGHTER” AND HER “CHUM-IEND-DGHTER,” AND SIGNED HER MANY LETTERS WH A VARIETY OF MATERNAL APPELLATNS, LIKE “MOTHER M” (“M” FOR “MERRILL,” THE SURNAME OF HER FOURTH AND FAL HBAND).“WE ULD FISH EACH OTHER’S SENTENC,” SERMAK SAYS. “I KNEW WHAT SHE WAS THKG. SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS THKG. IT’S A RARE QUALY TO HAVE.”“‘WHEN I’M GONE, YOU’RE GOG TO SET THE RERD STRAIGHT,’” DAVIS TOLD SERMAK ONE OF THE D TAP THEY MA FOR EACH OTHER. THEN, TE DAVIS FASHN, SHE GOT TO THE POT: “DO THE BOOK FIRST . . . BEE THIS WILL BE A GREAT FILM.”PHOTOS OF JOAN CRAWFORD AND BETTE DAVIS WH THEIR CHILDREN1 / 12CHEVRONCHEVRONFROM BETTMANN/GETTY IMAG.BETTE DAVIS, DGHTER B.D., AND HBAND WILLIAM GRANT SHERRY WALK THROUGH NEW YORK’S CENTRAL PARK THEIR EASTER BT 1949.MARCIE BIAN
GAY INS: BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD
GAY INOGRAPHY: ALL ABOUT BETTE

BETTE DAVIS’S ASSISTANT WANTS TO SET THE RERD STRAIGHTKATHRYN SERMAK ON HER MEMOIR MISS D & ME, WHICH TAK A REHGLY NDID LOOK AT A HOLLYWOOD LEGEND.BY MARCIE BIANSEPTEMBER 12, 2017BETTE DAVIS AND KATHRYN SERMAK 1988.BY MREEN DONALDSON/GETTY IMAG.SAVE THIS STORYSAVESAVE THIS STORYSAVEYOU’RE A 22-YEAR-OLD WOMAN H OUT OF LLEGE, WH A GREE CLIL PSYCHOLOGY AND TERNATNAL RELATNS. IN NEED OF A JOB, YOU GET HIRED TO BE THE “GIRL FRIDAY” OF AN ACTRS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF.THAT ACTRS’S NAME IS BETTE DAVIS.THIS WAS KATHRYN SERMAK—NEE “CATHERE,” BEFORE DAVIS REQUTED SHE CHANGE THE SPELLG OF HER NAME TO MAKE “MORE DISTCTIVE”— THE SUMMER OF 1979. IT MARKED THE BEGNG OF A 10-YEAR RELATNSHIP MAGNIFICENTLY DOCUMENTED SERMAK’S NEW MEMOIR, MISS D & ME: LIFE WH THE INVCIBLE BETTE DAVIS—OUT TUDAY—-WRTEN BY JOURNALIST DANELLE MORTON.AT SERMAK’S TERVIEW, DAVIS L A CIGARETTE AND ASKED HER FIRST QUTN: “WHAT SIGN ARE YOU?”“I THOUGHT THAT WAS THE MOST ABSURD, LOONEY-TUN QUTN,” SERMAK TELLS VANY FAIR, NEARLY 40 YEARS LATER. (THE HOLLYWOOD IN, AN DOMABLE ARI, WAS VERY PLEASED TO HEAR THAT SERMAK IS A LIBRA.)AFTER ASKG SERMAK IF SHE ULD OK A THREE-MUTE EGG, DAVIS WAS NVCED: “‘I WILL TEACH YOU EVERYTHG YOU NEED TO KNOW,” THE 71-YEAR-OLD, TWO-TIME AMY AWARD WNER SAID. “‘YOU’RE HIRED, CATHERE. . . . I HAVE A HUNCH ABOUT YOU.’”SO BEGAN, SERMAK WR HER BOOK, “MY TN WH MISS DAVIS.”FROM HACHETTE BOOKS.FOR BETTE DAVIS FANS, THE MEMOIR OFFERS A TREASURE TROVE OF UNTOLD STORI EXTRAPOLATED OM SERMAK’S DATEBOOKS, SCRAPBOOKS, LETTERS, AND D SSETT BY THE WOMAN WHO SAW DAVIS LIKE NO ONE ELSE, DURG HER FAL, AND ARGUABLY MOST TRMATIC, . DAVIS HAD A MASTECTOMY THE SUMMER OF 1983, FOLLOWED BY A STROKE JT DAYS LATER. NOT LONG AFTER THAT, SHE SUFFERED A BROKEN HIP. KATHRYN NEVER LEFT HER EMPLOYER’S SI, ORR BOTH TO STAY ON TOP OF THE HOSPAL’S RE AND TO SWAT AWAY UNRVER NATNAL ENQUIRER JOURNALISTS—WHO POSED AS NURS OR DAVIS’S SON TO GA ENTRY TO THE HOSPAL ROOM.THEN ME THE PUBLITN OF A BOOK BY BETTE’S DGHTER BARBARA HYMAN—KNOWN TO IENDS AS B.D.—MY MOTHER’S KEEPER, PUBLISHED 1985. THE TELL-ALL TOBGRAPHY, WHICH RECEIVED MOUNTAS OF CRICISM, PATED DAVIS AS A VLENT DNK AND AN ABIVE MOTHER. THE OCTOBER BEFORE S PUBLITN, WHICH HYMAN KEPT SECRET OM HER MOTHER, SHE VISED DAVIS AT THE LOMBARDY HOTEL NEW YORK CY—GIVG THE ACTRS A BIBLE AND, ACRDG TO SERMAK, ASKG HER MOTHER TO “REPENT [HER] SS, [AND] NOUNCE THE LUR OF SATAN.” (WHEN REACHED FOR MENT, HYMAN SENT VANY FAIR THE FOLLOWG EMAIL: “Y, I WAS THERE BUT I CERTALY SAID NO SUCH THG. IT’S REALLY BORG HAVG PEOPLE PUT WORDS MY MOUTH BUT I GUS THAT'S THE PRICE OF FAME. THIS IS THE FIRST I’VE HEARD OF KATHRYN'S BOOK. I HAVE NO TENTN OF READG AND LS TERT MENTG ON .”)MOST POPULAR25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISFIRST LOOK: ANTE BENG SWIMS TOWARD THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME NYADBY DAVID CANFIELDCHARLIZE THERON DENI PLASTIC SURGERY RUMORS: “BCH, I’M JT AGG!”BY SAVANNAH WALSH“NOTHG,” SERMAK EMPHASIZ OUR TERVIEW, “NOTHG PARED TO THE BETRAYAL OF B.D.’S BOOK. THAT BROKE HER HEART.”STILL, SHE MATAS, “MY BOOK IS NOT ABOUT B.D., AND I TRIED TO TAKE THE HIGH ROAD. BUT MISS D SAID, ‘ONE DAY, YOU WILL TELL THE STORY.’”“I WANT MISS D TO BE PROUD” OF THE BOOK, SERMAK ADDS. “SHE WAS MY TEACHER, AND MY MENTOR.”THAT SAME SENSE OF GRATU IS THREAD THROUGHOUT THE BOOK. THE DITN LLS THE FAL PRODUCT “OUR STORY, OUR ‘BLOOD, SWEAT, TEARS,’ AND LGHTER.” IN , SERMAK TAILS ALL THAT DAVIS TGHT HER—OM HOW TO WALK WH PURPOSE TO HOW TO PERFORM A PROPER HANDSHAKE. “SHE [TGHT ME] NFINCE,” SERMAK SAYS. “YOU’RE A MAN’S WORLD, AND YOU HAVE TO BE TOUGH. WHEN MEN ARE TOUGH, THAT’S ACCEPTED, BUT IF YOU’RE A WOMAN, YOU’RE GIVEN THE BIG ‘B’ WORD.”DAVIS PARTICULARLY ADMIRED STRONG WOMEN WHO TOOK NTROL OF THEIR OWN LIV AND RPONSIBILY FOR THEIR ACTNS. AS SHE WROTE HER 1962 TOBGRAPHY, THE LONELY LIFE, “I AM THAT NEW RACE OF WOMEN, AND THERE ARE LEGNS.”“SHE WAS ALWAYS THE GREATT SUPPORTER OF WOMEN,” SERMAK EXPLAS. “WHAT SHE DIDN’T LIKE WAS THAT WOMEN ULD BE BACK-BG . . . STEAD OF SUPPORTG ONE ANOTHER. SHE ALWAYS SAID THAT WOMEN SHOULD EMPOWER OTHER WOMEN—JT LIKE WHAT MEN DO A BOYS’ CLUB.”HEARG THAT MAY E AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE WHO THK OF BETTE DAVIS AS A HARD-NOSED BALLBTER, A LA FD, RYAN MURPHY’S FICTNALIZED PORTRAYAL OF THE MORED BATTLE BETWEEN BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD ON THE SET OF WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?“I WILL ALWAYS BE GRATEFUL TO RYAN MURPHY FOR TRODUCG [DAVIS AND CRAWFORD] TO A NEW GENERATN,” SAYS SERMAK. BUT THAT DAVIS IS “NOT THE WOMAN I WAS ON 10 YEARS OF FILM SETS WH. MISS DAVIS NEVER BEHAVED ON FILM SETS LIKE THAT. SHE NEVER YELLED, SHE NEVER SCREAMED—AT LEAST NOT AROUND ME.”INSTEAD, SHE NTU, “SHE WOULD SAY ‘MER,’ [AND] IF SHE WAS REALLY, REALLY, UPSET, YOU GOT THE SILENT TREATMENT. AND . . . ”—SERMAK’S VOICE CHANG, AS IF SHE’S NJURG UP A LONG-FOTTEN FEELG—“THERE’S NOTHG WORSE, BEE HER EY, THEY JT GO STRAIGHT THROUGH YOU!”SERMAK IMPLI THAT THE TENSN BETWEEN DAVIS AND CRAWFORD WAS BORN OM THE LATTER’S THWARTED ATTEMPT TO ROMANTILLY WOO THE FORMER, A MOR REPORTEDLY STOKED BY DAVIS HERSELF. “JOAN DID HAVE A CSH ON MISS DAVIS, BUT MISS DAVIS IS A MAN’S WOMAN,” SAYS SERMAK.MOST POPULAR25 PERFECT TV EPISOS FROM THE LAST 25 YEARSBY HILLARY BISFIRST LOOK: ANTE BENG SWIMS TOWARD THE ROLE OF A LIFETIME NYADBY DAVID CANFIELDCHARLIZE THERON DENI PLASTIC SURGERY RUMORS: “BCH, I’M JT AGG!”BY SAVANNAH WALSHNARRATIV ABOUT DAVIS BY GAY MALE FANS ARE LEGN, AND MOST PICT BETTE DAVIS THROUGH A MP LENS. BUT ACRDG TO SERMAK, THEY ALSO DISTORT THE TTH TO ELIC REARS’ TERT AND CREASE BOOK SAL. WHNEY STE, THE THOR OF TWO BOOKS ON DAVIS, CLAIMED HIS SEND TO HAVE HAD SEVERAL NVERSATNS WH SERMAK ABOUT DAVIS, A NOTN SERMAK ADAMANTLY REFUTED. “I WAS FLOORED BY [THAT] BOOK,” SHE SAYS. “FIRST OF ALL, NO ONE LLED ME ‘KATH’ EXCEPT MISS DAVIS. AND I NEVER TALKED WH [STE].”ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR DAVIS BGRAPHI, ED SIKOV’S DARK VICTORY: THE LIFE OF BETTE DAVIS, ALSO HAS S SHARE OF PROBLEMS, SERMAK SAYS. SIKOV QUOT DAVIS’S EARLIER ASSISTANT, VIK GREENFIELD, AND HER IEND CHUCK POLLACK, WHO OPED THAT SERMAK WAS “‘A ROAD-SHOW EVE HARRGTON . . . WHO GOT RID OF ALL OF BETTE’S CLOST IENDS.’”SERMAK, FOR THE FIRST TIME ON RERD, ADDRSED THOSE ACCATNS OUR TERVIEW: “RIDICULO,” SHE SAYS. “ANYBODY WHO KNOWS MISS DAVIS KNOWS THAT SHE HAD HER OWN MD.”SERMAK’S RILIENCE DURG THE SERI OF CRIS THAT AFFLICTED DAVIS THE 80S ARE QUALI SHE THANKS HER MENTOR FOR: “IF SHE WOULD’VE HAD THE STROKE THE VERY FIRST YEAR I WAS WH HER, I WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO EVERYTHG, BEE SHE TGHT ME,” SERMAK SAYS. “I OWE THAT WOMAN A GREAT AL.”THE LOVE BETWEEN THE TWO WOMEN—PLATONIC, ASPIRATNAL, AND NURTURG—IS THE PSTONE OF MISS D & ME. IT IS A TYPE OF FEMALE BOND RARELY PORTRAYED EHER BOOKS OR CEMA. “WE HAD BEE ATTUNED TO EACH OTHER” SERMAK WR OF THEIR SYNERGY. DAVIS WOULD OFTEN LL SERMAK HER “STEPDGHTER” AND HER “CHUM-IEND-DGHTER,” AND SIGNED HER MANY LETTERS WH A VARIETY OF MATERNAL APPELLATNS, LIKE “MOTHER M” (“M” FOR “MERRILL,” THE SURNAME OF HER FOURTH AND FAL HBAND).“WE ULD FISH EACH OTHER’S SENTENC,” SERMAK SAYS. “I KNEW WHAT SHE WAS THKG. SHE KNEW WHAT I WAS THKG. IT’S A RARE QUALY TO HAVE.”“‘WHEN I’M GONE, YOU’RE GOG TO SET THE RERD STRAIGHT,’” DAVIS TOLD SERMAK ONE OF THE D TAP THEY MA FOR EACH OTHER. THEN, TE DAVIS FASHN, SHE GOT TO THE POT: “DO THE BOOK FIRST . . . BEE THIS WILL BE A GREAT FILM.”PHOTOS OF JOAN CRAWFORD AND BETTE DAVIS WH THEIR CHILDREN1 / 12CHEVRONCHEVRONFROM BETTMANN/GETTY IMAG.BETTE DAVIS, DGHTER B.D., AND HBAND WILLIAM GRANT SHERRY WALK THROUGH NEW YORK’S CENTRAL PARK THEIR EASTER BT 1949.MARCIE BIAN

* was bette davis gay *

Narrativ about Davis by gay male fans are legn, and most pict Bette Davis through a mp lens. A majory of Gay Ins domated throughout the 1940s and 1950s, at a time when Hollywood owned the reers of their actors.

Two of the most inic Gay Ins of this time perd are Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, lifelong rivals who will forever be lked due to a 1962 film Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? Both women have earned their spot on the shelf of Gay in. But was her role the 1939 film Dark Victory that stepped her unr the spotlight of Gay In.

Joan Crawford, through her movie rol, followed the same route to Gay In stat.

GAY INS: BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD

How do her bgraphy that I laid out to reflect her stat as a Gay In? Joan Crawford’s life is a metaphor for the gay liftyle: (1) stggle to be yourself; (2) a stggle to be accepted by everyone as who you are, not who “they” want you to be; (3) a stggle to fd your own path life when “others” are agast . Joan Crawford is the symbol of the gay liftyle, whout beg gay.

I am referrg to gay men's appropriatn of Bette Davis as a screen in par excellence.

3Issu of secrecy and ncealment, exposure and revelatn lie at the heart of gay men's experience the twentieth century and to the twenty-first, any hopeful notns of a ‘post-gay’ world notwhstandg. As queer theory and gay cultural history jotly serve to prove, what others know of one's sexual inty – the possibily of sharg such an timate secret and the limg of accs to that knowledge – often hg on the ia of performance.

GAY INOGRAPHY: ALL ABOUT BETTE

Hence gay men act as a matter of daily life; performanc of masculy, we know all too well, srcely e naturally. As a rult, perhaps, gay men tend not only to appreciate but to revel the art of actg – performance for the sake not of transparency but of blatancy.

In this patently artificial light, mak a great al of sense that, om the mid 1930s onwards, gay men have chosen Bette Davis to be a central foc of our cematic intifitn. Central not only to Davis's inography but also to gay men's inolatry of her is the fact that she is the Hollywood star who most wanted dienc to notice her actg as actg.

Still, is, I thk, Davis's flamboyance towards which gay men have gravated sce the mid 1930s – the overt theatrily that neverthels exprs thentic (if at tim histrnic) experience. A mon startg pot for discsns of what nstut a gay sensibily is the notn of excs, although the ncept remas problematic precisely bee there n be no firm and fal judgment as to what nstut normativy. Twentieth-century gay men were particularly receptive to Davis's theatril, attentn-llg style bee we lived liv which performance was paramount – both the often-failed performance of heterosexualy public and s nverse, the gleeful performance of mp wh the creasgly large circl of the gay muny as expand the send half of the century.

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GAY INS: BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD

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GAY INS: BETTE DAVIS AND JOAN CRAWFORD

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BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM WAS BETTE DAVIS GAY