She was actually in the process of writing a book when she passed away.įox News: What surprised you the most about Mae West from that initial meeting? She spent her time visiting family, giving interviews or writing.
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We would sit and watch TV or she would read the paper. She was very old school and felt if you were a celebrity, you had to maintain that image for your fans. Malachosky: Even when cameras weren’t rolling, Mae was always made up and glamorous. Was that the case when cameras stopped rolling? She had a feeling.įox News: In films, Mae was always surrounded by male suitors. But said she just felt she could trust me. I had never seen her really call anybody else other than her sister. Several years later I asked her why she invited me that day. She was having an ESP gathering with her psychic Richard Ireland and wanted me there. She actually called me one day and asked me to visit her beach house so she can meet me. I didn’t think I would ever get a response, but I did. Malachosky: I was a high school student living in Santa Monica at the time and I wrote her a fan letter that was sent to her Santa Monica beach house. ‘GILLIGAN’S ISLAND’ STAR TINA LOUISE SHARES HOW THE SHOW 'REPRESENTED THIS GREAT ESCAPE'įox News: How did you end up becoming Mae West’s assistant? It is estimated to generate bids of $10,000 to $20,000. It’s wonderful how all our gay activists over the years have fought the good fight and won so much for all of us and future generations of gays.The red dress that Mae West wore as the character Diamond Lil in the 1933 Oscar-nominated Lowell Sherman film "She Done Him Wrong" with Cary Grant is the most valued piece in the auction, The Hollywood Reporter shared. I knew a guy who once told me that he only could feel alive in summer on fire Islan, the rest of the year in upstate New York where he was a teacher, he had no social life, no outwardly gay experiences or appearances. So as you smugly criticize these guys in the film, I urge other viewers to try to place yourselves in their shoes, and imagine what gay life was in 1976. mere suspicion of being gay, or even unmarried beyond a certain undefined age, could be grounds for loosing government jobs, and of course, no security clearances for gays. These Fire Island frolicers were all born during the gay bashing and gay witch hunts of the lavender scare, under Sen Joe McCarthy and NY asshole closet case lawyer Roy Cohen. The military was weeding out gays left and right. Gay marriage was not even on the radar screen yet. If a pair did become known in the non-gay world, your partner was known as your “friend” or your “roommate”. It was the era of “couples” always having separate apartments, not talking about the other at work or school, or among straight friends. Society didn’t like it, families raised eyebrows. In those days, many guys wee gay on weekends, straight acting Monday through Friday.
Society was very anti-gay, the gay community had lots of internalized homophobia, and whenever and wherever pockets of freedom existed, of course there were excesses that cover compensated for what most of their lives were previously, and for the majority, off of Fire Island.
They did not get to have boy friends in junior high (now called middle school), high school, any many even in college. Aren’t you prissy and sanctimonious? In 1976, most visitors to Fire Island had never known the freedom and self-acceptance of living “openly gay”, “Out”, in their daily lives wherever they originally came from.