Blind Item #6- Old Hollywood Blind
On the set of one of her better known movies, this then A-list funny lady invited her male costar, an Oscar winning character actor, to her dressing room to put the rumors to rest that she was really a man. Right as she shut the door, off came her top and out came her breasts.
Mae West
ReplyDelete#teamfirst
Delete#teamrayismyrideordiechick
#teammaewestwasasexybetch
#teamWCmakesmydaybetter
DeleteKatharine Hepburn
ReplyDeleteKatharine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart (Oscar winner)
DeleteHepburn had all kinds of rumors surrounding her sexuality after playing a guy in Sylvia Scarlett
She revamped her image into a comedienne of sorts around Bringing Up Baby.
Lucile Ball
ReplyDeleteBarbara?
ReplyDeleteJean Arthur?
ReplyDeletePhyllis Diller
ReplyDeleteEthel Merman
ReplyDeleteThese are too hard and vague for me. and all the people we are guessing should be A+---no? Except for Jean Arthur cause I don't know who that is....
ReplyDeleteI thought Babs too.
ReplyDeletewe have a hard enough time deciphering modern stars rankings...
ReplyDeleteBarbara is known as funny lady
ReplyDeleteBut Barbara is still A list. I think it is an actual comedienne.
DeleteI'll go with Kate Hepburn. I could see her doing something like this.
ReplyDeleteRosie O'Donnell/Tom Hanks/A League of Their Own
ReplyDeleteFanny Brice, maybe...she is old Hollywood & who Babs played in Funny Girl & Funny Lady...not pretty even by old Hollywood standards
ReplyDeleteI thought Babs because of the Funny Lady reference
ReplyDeleteThe only person I can think of who is gossiped about being a man or having man parts is Jamie Lee Curtis, but she's hardly old Hollywood.
ReplyDeleteJamie Lee Curtis Kevin Klein
ReplyDeleteDamn ASIAN tops! They always come off and out come the breasts!
ReplyDeleteCan't find an oscar winning "character" actor who starred with Streisand. Was jimmy Stewart considered character actor? He had a lot of leading man roles..
ReplyDeleteI adore Katharine Hepburn and could so see her doing this, not to quell rumours, but just for the shock value.
ReplyDeleteI also adore Jimmy Stewart (he's hands down my favorite actor ever) and I would picture him looking like this.
Phyllis Diller
ReplyDeleteI used to have a roommate that was on the computer all of the time. Rarely did any housework. I guess that's why I'm so good at vacuuming.
ReplyDeleteBeatrice Arthur
ReplyDeleteMa Kettle
ReplyDeleteI like the Jamie Lee Curtis guess.
ReplyDeleteI know there are posters of various ages on this site but I don't think Jamie Lee Curtis is definitely not 'old hollywood'. She was born In '58 and started acting in the 70s. Her parents were old Hollywood. There were rumors about her being a hermaphrodite but wouldn't she then pull down her pants to prove it? That being said- who knows exactly what enty means by old Hollywood.
Deletenice edit - 'I don't think JLC is 'old hollywood'
DeleteOld Hollywood=before 1936.
ReplyDeleteThe only one I could find that matched was Ethel merman and don Ameche. They were in Alexander's rag time band. Ameche would be considered a character actor and won academy award. I just don't think Jamie lee considered old Hollywood at her age.
ReplyDeleteExcellent guess Simon. She was big and brassy and that may have led to those kinds of rumors.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletebut what about below the waist ?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@texasrose, yea I wouldn't have been surprised if she were a man, lol. I can also so her ripping off the top to prove it!
ReplyDeleteWere there really this many old Hollywood actresses rumoured to be men?!
ReplyDeleteI can see Mae West doing it. I really cant see Ethel Merman doing it. Nor Katherine Hepburn (even though I bet back then there were gay rumors around about her.)
ReplyDeleteGood lord, it's not Jamie Lee Curtis! OLD Hollywood means back during the studio system--pre 1968 or so. Besides, we all saw Jamie's breasts in "Trading Places," and they're spectacular.
ReplyDeleteTo some Old Hollywood might mean before they were born Topper.
ReplyDeleteOk! Well actually could be Mae West who co-starred with Victor McLaglen in Klondike Annie. Victor considered character actor and is Oscar winner.
ReplyDelete@Texas Rose - hermaphrodite is an antiquated and offensive term to describe the intersexed. Please see the following website for further information:
ReplyDeletewww.isna.org
I am sure you meant no harm, but looking out for our future generations, as I found it very difficult growing up with this condition.
Sorry Ice Angel.
Delete@Ice Angel thanks for sharing. I had no idea what the proper term is.
DeleteLooking good, @sandybrook! It just makes me so upset to think that the youth of today have never seen "Trading Places." In my house, it's a Christmas tradition.
ReplyDeleteMae had that broad chest but I think people considered her all woman. Now Diller was my guess - funny lady because she was a comedian and the man rumors because of her bawdy humor and voice.
ReplyDeleteI think some people need to see some early Mae West pictures...when she was young she would wear very low cut gowns...no way could anyone mistake her for a man
ReplyDelete@tara, Phyllis was my first guess but I couldn't make it work based on her movie co-stars...
ReplyDeleteIt can't be Merman because Ernest Borgnine would have said something after their 30 day marriage!
ReplyDeleteThere were rumors about Mae West which prompted this quote from Edith Head:
ReplyDeleteI've seen Mae West without a stitch and she's all woman. No hermaphrodite could have bosoms... well, like two large melons.
Only slightly off topic -
ReplyDeleteThe rumors about Mae West have circulated forever.
She was vilified for her open portrayal of female sexuality, which frankly IMHO, was so over the top for the times ('20's & 30's) that it was camp (*).
(* for those are unfamiliar with the term, I offer these definitions:
1) exaggerated effeminate mannerisms exhibited especially by homosexuals
2) something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing
3) a style or mode of personal or creative expression that is absurdly exaggerated and often fuses elements of high and popular culture
Mae's performances were all of those and more.
That being said, Thomas Tryon's book about Old Hollywood, "Crowned Heads", is a must read, especially for CDAN sleuthers - most especially because of the thinly veiled novella about Mae & this rumor.
Kate Hepburn.
ReplyDeleteThis is TOTALLY Mae West--there were persistent rumors that she was a female impersonator, even as late as the 1960s. (That's why Edith Head made the comment quoted above.) Most of y'all are just way too young to remember.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I believe the rule for old Hollywood blinds is that everyone involved has to be dead...
And the "A-list funny lady" description rules out Kate Hepburn, who only started doing screwball comedies with Philadelphia Story in 1940, several years after her 1935 flop with Sylvia Scarlett, which was when the rumors about her were most widespread. But even, then people just thought she was a lesbian (which she was), not a man.
ReplyDeleteMinor point, but Quality Street, Bringing Up Baby, and Holiday were all comedies before Philadelphia Story.
DeleteTitties aint no indication that she aint a man. Internets is full of dudes w/ tits. She gotta lift the dress and show the mess.
ReplyDeleteBarbara Stanwick and Peter Lorre
ReplyDeleteGotta be Mae West - no clue who the guy would be. I don't ever want to imagine someone taking advantage of Jimmy Stewart - thats my love.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Sanders is the only classic character actor who won an Oscar who immediately jumps to mind. (And Old Hollywood cannot possibly mean only movies before 1936. For fuck's sake, Hollywood's golden age is basically considered from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, which is the era I take these blinds to mean.)
ReplyDeleteIt's Mae. Edith Head famously trafficked in those she's a dude comments.
ReplyDeleteAh. The great Mae West. Writer and actor.
Books that refer to the Mae West / hermaphrodite rumor:
ReplyDeleteDarwin Porter, Howard Hughes, p. 314
Jessica Jordan, The Sex Goddess in American Film, p. 93
Margaret Moser, Movie Stars do the Dumbest Things, p. 258
Paul Young, LA Exposed, p. 12
Nothing against you Ice Angel, but jeez, you know we are 10-20 years from "intersexed" and "Whatever-Americans" being offensive terms and it changing again. Any and all labels become insults, and the more words are hidden, the more power they are given as such.
ReplyDeleteAgain, nothing against you, just a vent on the constantly changing identifiers.
It's not THAT hard to just use the current term that is preferred by those that identify as such.
DeleteYeah, sure, but then you use the term this person finds acceptable to the wrong person, and you get another earful. It is a never ending cycle and it is tiresome.
ReplyDeleteAll of them. In hindsight most of the leading ladies from the 30's and 40's have an amazing drag queen look about them.
ReplyDeleteMae West and Gary Cooper
ReplyDelete"Why don't you come up and see me sometime?" Mae was great. Sad life story, though. For those interested, there's a million old H'wood docs on YouTube on Gable, Temple, Taylor, Gabor, Cooper, and earlier. Enjoy.
ReplyDeleteMae West - not sure if the co-star was Cary Grant or WC Fields. Either way - one of them had a great story to dine out on
ReplyDeleteGoing with Mae West.
ReplyDeleteAlso going with Mae West - I have heard these rumors about her for years. No way Katherine Hepburn is considered a "funny lady" even with the screwball comedies - started out on stage as a serious actress and ended up that way.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear god tell me that Jamie Lee Curtis is not old hollywood! She's not that much older than me.
ReplyDeleteThe first person that popped into my head was also Mae West, but I'm trying to remember the details of why anyone thought she was a guy.
See, this has to be "old Hollywood" because ANYONE can have breasts these days.
I would love to say the co-star was Cary Grant, but he wasn't really a character actor.
Well Count Jerkula, if you're referring to transsexual women as "dudes with tits all over the internet" it should come as no surprise that that's pretty damn offensive as well.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that there was no such thing as breast augmentation in the 20's and 30's. Padding doesn't count since it obviously doesn't stay on when one strips.
I loved that Crowned Heads book back in the day, Tom Tyron also wrote "Harvest Home' which was an excellent read as well. First thing that popped in my head when I read this blind was Lilly Tomlin, she's a funny lady, and kind of nannish, don't know if she is old enough to be considered old Hollywood tho.
ReplyDeleteerr,excuse me, mannish.
ReplyDelete