Bert lahr gay
They were called “nance” or “pansy” performers in the Roaring Twenties, those burlesque men who sang and acted in an effete manner, spoke with a lisp, and pranced about stage with a swish. The N.Y. Times had an article about them in a recent Sunday Theater section, focusing on some of the more famous ones. Two examples that people today might distinguish were Bert Lahr’s performance of the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz, Edward Everett Horton, whose distinctive voice many will recall from “Fractured Fairy Tales” on the Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, and Paul Lynde in Hollywood Squares and Bye Bye Birdie. Of course, nance performers were parodying gays, but that didn’t mean the performers themselves were same-sex attracted, just as many people in blackface weren’t black. And many were.
Here’s another example mentioned in the Times article: Harry Rose singing “Frankfurter Sandwiches” as seen on www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6HB-w_7xRM
As you might think, I was very interested in this subject for possible exploit in one of my Roaring Twenties mysteries. But then I realized such performers only worked in burlesque and so by Joel Benjamin The new biography of Tennessee Williams, Mad Pilgrimage of the Flesh was the subject of a sit down with its author, John Lahr chatting with playwright Tony Kushner at the Kaufmann Concert Hall of the venerable 92nd St. Ys Tisch Center for the Arts. These two fine writers, both with theatre bona fides, discussed Lahrs book, whetting everyones appetite to interpret this fresh get on Williams checkered career. Mad Pilgrimage focuses on the interdependence of Williams mental and heartfelt health and the quality of his writing. As Williams got older and more drug and alcohol addled, his writing suffered. Even so, throughout the discussion, Tennessee Williams importance as a writer was emphasized, his later works examined and deemed more worthwhile than their original critical reception might signal. Lahr, in an unusual take on his subject, structured Mad Pilgrimage as Williams life illuminating his writing rather than as an incident-driven biography. Lahr was privy to previously unreleased material such as letters, drafts of plays and diaries which proved astro1 Oddly his wiki entrymakes virtually no mention of Snagglepusses widely acknowledged adoption by the lgbtq+ community as one of their own. He is a pink lion created in 1959 whose voice mannerisms are about as fey and arch as can be. Did the creators determine ahead of time that they wanted Snagglepuss to be kinda sorta swish or did the voice actor bring the “gay” to the Snagglepuss character, or was it simply an extension of (I’m guessing per the lawsuit mentioned in the Wiki) copying Bert Lahr’s characterization of the cowardly lion, which was beautiful swish itself … or what? Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew2 I don’t know, but this thread prompted me to Google “Murgatroyd,” which led to my knowledge that the “Heavens to Murgatroyd” catchphrase was cribbed from Bert Lahr in a non-Cowardly Lion role. ETA: Oh, duh–that’s already mentioned in the Wikipedia entry you linked to. Never mind. parthenokinesis3 jayjay4 I always feel bad for ol’ Snagglepuss. He’s the ORIGINAL pink panther, created in 1959, but this smug upstart shows up in 1963 and completely takes over the niche… Kent_Clark5 I’ve never been one to think th Coming out as LGBT is often hard even today, but throughout much of the twentieth century it could own dire legal and social consequences. During the years before greater openness and understanding, members of the LGBT community sometimes resorted to coded speech or behavior as a safeguard. Other community members could understand these codes, but not outsiders. One of my favorite examples from the mid-twentieth century is the phrase, “friend of Dorothy.” It might work fond of this: one man is attracted to another but isn’t sure if the feeling is mutual. To test the waters, he’ll ask, “Are you a friend of Dorothy?” If the response is a puzzled “Dorothy who?” he’ll know it’s wise to move on. But if the response is “Oh, yes, I’m a very good friend of Dorothy,” he’ll know it’s reliable to proceed. Folklorists study folk speech, which includes expressions, pronunciations, and grammatical forms shared by members of a particular group—whether the group is based on region, religion, ethnicity, occupation, kinship, or gender culture. The
Tony Kushner and John Lahr photo byNancy Crampton How did Snagglepuss become gay?
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