Historical Homos Hollywood's Gay Golden Age (feat. Michael Koresky)
"Hollywood was swarming with gay people."
You know how Pedro Pascal hasn't come out yet? Well: this episode will explain why.
Between the 1930s and 1960s, the Hays Code banned “sexual perversion” of all kinds from the silver screen, which (spoiler alert) meant queers.
That has bequeathed us a predominantly homophobic industry in Hollywood, even if the stars and culture have always been decidedly – how do you say? – VERY GAY.
This week we dive into the queerness of Hollywood’s first Golden Age.
We cover:
- The pre-Code era archetypes of pansies, sissies, butches, and sapphics, oh my!
- The Code's first filmic victim: a 1936 adaptation of Lillian Hellman's thesbian stage classic The Children’s Hour
- Hitchcock’s Rope, featuring two fascist dandy murderers whose day jobs included playing the piano and being fantastically rich
- The legacy of homophobia and queer desire in post-Code films up to the present
This week, Bash is joined by film critic and filmmaker, Michael Koresky, who is the recent author of Sick and Dirty: Hollywood’s Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness — a love letter to the sly, coded, and deeply horny films that the uptight, antisemitic, racist, homophobic, Catholic censors forced out of the era's greatest artists.
Hollywood was always swarming with queers, as Michael puts it, but people weren't naïve or stupid. We saw the signs – and we shot each other furtive glances as we hid our brain-boners...
🎧 Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you pod. Wigs and cigarettes sold separately.
📱 Follow Historical Homos on Instagram and TikTok, and sign up to our newsletter if you care about gay people, like, at all.
Most importantly, if you like what you hear, please leave us a ⭐ FIVE STAR ONLY ⭐ review on Apple or Spotify.
Episode Credits
Written and hosted by Bash.
Edited by Alex Toskas.
Produced by Dani Henion.
Guest host: Michael Koresky.