Boze Hadleigh
Encyclopedia
Boze Hadleigh aka
George Hadley-Garcia (born May 15, 1954) is an American
journalist
writer of celebrity gossip and entertainment.
, Playboy, and Us Weekly
. He won $16,400 as a contestant on the March 20, 1998 episode of the game show Jeopardy!
He lives in Beverly Hills, California
and Sydney, Australia. His latest books are Broadway Babylon (2007), and Mexico's Most Wanted (2007). Hadleigh's books have been translated into 14 languages, and half of his first 16 books have been made into television specials and documentaries in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere.
presence in and contributions to entertainment; Hadleigh himself is gay. Some of Hadleigh's books are quotes collections, some are histories and overviews, and some are interview books with noted personalities in movies; several portions of these interviews, as with Rock Hudson
, were published in periodicals before the subjects died. The author had committed himself not to out any of his subjects against their will — at least as long as they were living. Some interviewees agreed to speak only on condition that the published result be posthumous. Nearly all the interviews were recorded; a few individuals, like director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
and Mae West
, however, refused to speak if they were recorded—which was their policy with other interviewers as well.
and Rock Hudson
; directors George Cukor
, Luchino Visconti
, Fassbinder, and designer, photographer/author Cecil Beaton
.
Their frank conversations with the author reveal much about the lives and careers of these celebrities and how their homosexuality
affected both. According to Midwest Book Review
, the book "is a ground breaking collection of interviews with six men who share a common and unusual trait relevant to their success in the movie-making industry: they were gay, and during their lifetimes, they concealed their sexual orientation from the public. Yet these interviews are remarkably open and candid about how these men's sexuality affected their lives and careers. ... Celluloid Gaze is an informed and informative contribution to Film History and Gay Studies academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists, as well as highly recommended reading for fans of the film work of Sal Mineo, Luchino Visconti, Cecil Beaton, George Cukor, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Rock Hudson."
"Time reviews didn't have bylines until the late 1960s, so it's not even possible that they could attribute it to Schickel if it ran. And I spoke to Richard, who said he never knew of any anti-Williams feelings by Luce . . . The quote and attributing it to Richard is just wrong."
2. Upon the publication of Conversations With My Elders, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "There's nothing very surprising about his choice of subjects — Paul Lynde, Liberace, Randolph Scott, et al. — all of whom, conveniently for legal purposes, are deceased." However, it is now widely acknowledged and accepted that Lynde, Liberace, and Scott were in fact gay men.
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
George Hadley-Garcia (born May 15, 1954) is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
writer of celebrity gossip and entertainment.
Biography
Hadleigh has an M.A. in journalism and has traveled to more than 60 countries. He has published 18 books and has written for more than 100 magazines in the U.S. and abroad, including TV GuideTV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
, Playboy, and Us Weekly
Us Weekly
Us Weekly is a celebrity gossip magazine, founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication covers topics ranging from celebrity relationships to the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and entertainment...
. He won $16,400 as a contestant on the March 20, 1998 episode of the game show Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
He lives in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
and Sydney, Australia. His latest books are Broadway Babylon (2007), and Mexico's Most Wanted (2007). Hadleigh's books have been translated into 14 languages, and half of his first 16 books have been made into television specials and documentaries in the U.S., U.K., and elsewhere.
Writings
Several of his books deal with pop culture and/or entertainment history, and how the media and status quo shape and manipulate audiences' perceptions and opinions. Six of his eighteen books are exclusively about the LGBTLGBT
LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...
presence in and contributions to entertainment; Hadleigh himself is gay. Some of Hadleigh's books are quotes collections, some are histories and overviews, and some are interview books with noted personalities in movies; several portions of these interviews, as with Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
, were published in periodicals before the subjects died. The author had committed himself not to out any of his subjects against their will — at least as long as they were living. Some interviewees agreed to speak only on condition that the published result be posthumous. Nearly all the interviews were recorded; a few individuals, like director Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Rainer Werner Maria Fassbinder was a German movie director, screenwriter and actor. He is considered one of the most important representatives of the New German Cinema.He maintained a frenetic pace in film-making...
and Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, however, refused to speak if they were recorded—which was their policy with other interviewers as well.
Selected (and selective) reviews
Hadleigh's second book, Conversations With My Elders (republished as Celluloid Gaze) includes interviews with actors Sal MineoSal Mineo
Salvatore "Sal" Mineo, Jr. , was an American film and theatre actor, best known for his performance as John "Plato" Crawford opposite James Dean in the film Rebel Without a Cause...
and Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
; directors George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
, Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti
Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo was an Italian theatre, opera and cinema director, as well as a screenwriter. He is best known for his films The Leopard and Death in Venice .-Life:...
, Fassbinder, and designer, photographer/author Cecil Beaton
Cecil Beaton
Sir Cecil Walter Hardy Beaton, CBE was an English fashion and portrait photographer, diarist, painter, interior designer and an Academy Award-winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre...
.
Their frank conversations with the author reveal much about the lives and careers of these celebrities and how their homosexuality
Homosexuality
Homosexuality is romantic or sexual attraction or behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality refers to "an enduring pattern of or disposition to experience sexual, affectional, or romantic attractions" primarily or exclusively to people of the same...
affected both. According to Midwest Book Review
Midwest Book Review
Midwest Book Review is an organization which maintains several book review publications. Established in 1976, the organization's Editor-in-Chief is James A. Cox. Midwest Book Review produces several book review publications per month, with a goal of encouraging small press and increasing literacy....
, the book "is a ground breaking collection of interviews with six men who share a common and unusual trait relevant to their success in the movie-making industry: they were gay, and during their lifetimes, they concealed their sexual orientation from the public. Yet these interviews are remarkably open and candid about how these men's sexuality affected their lives and careers. ... Celluloid Gaze is an informed and informative contribution to Film History and Gay Studies academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists, as well as highly recommended reading for fans of the film work of Sal Mineo, Luchino Visconti, Cecil Beaton, George Cukor, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and Rock Hudson."
- Hollywood Gays is a collection of interviews with prominent film personalities, such as LiberaceLiberaceWladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Anthony PerkinsAnthony PerkinsAnthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
, Randolph ScottRandolph ScottRandolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals , adventure tales, war films, and even a few...
, and several others, most of them widely known as homosexual. Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
said about the book:
- Hadleigh (is) evidently taking up where the great gossip columnists of yesteryear left off.
- [A] touching interview with producer David LewisDavid Lewis (producer)David Lewis , born David Levy, was a Hollywood film producer who produced such films as Dark Victory , Arch of Triumph , and Raintree County . He was also the longtime companion of director James Whale from 1930 to 1952...
, who talks freely about his longtime companion James WhaleJames WhaleJames Whale was an English film director, theatre director and actor. He is best remembered for his work in the horror film genre, having directed such classics as Frankenstein , The Old Dark House , The Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein...
, director of the classic 1931 films FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
and The Invisible ManThe Invisible ManThe Invisible Man is a science fiction novella by H.G. Wells published in 1897. Wells' novel was originally serialised in Pearson's Weekly in 1897, and published as a novel the same year...
, who committed suicide in 1957. - [A] talk with William HainesWilliam HainesCharles William "Billy" Haines was an American film actor and interior designer. He was a star of the silent era until the 1930s, when Haines' career was cut short by MGM Studios due to his refusal to deny his homosexuality...
, whose career was destroyed by Louis B. MayerLouis B. MayerLouis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
after Haines refused to marry a woman, and was later caught with another man in his cot at a YMCA. The book's style is suitably straightforward, though Hadleigh's banter often verges on the cute or leering.
- Hollywood Lesbians is a collection of frank, often revealing interviews with ten lesbianLesbianLesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
s in the entertainment industry. Publishers WeeklyPublishers WeeklyPublishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...
wrote: "Fans of Hollywood's golden age will find this collection of interviews conducted over many years revealing, though hampered. The subjects - director Dorothy ArznerDorothy ArznerDorothy Arzner was an American film director. Her directorial career in feature films spanned from the late 1920s into the early 1940s, a time period in which there were very few—if any—other women working in the field.- Biography :Born in San Francisco, California, Arzner grew up in Los...
, designer Edith HeadEdith HeadEdith Head was an American costume designer who won eight Academy Awards, more than any other woman.-Early life and career:...
, actresses Judith AndersonJudith AndersonDame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian-born American-based actress of stage, film and television. She won two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award and was also nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award.-Early life:...
, Marjorie MainMarjorie MainMarjorie Main was an American character actress, mainly at MGM, perhaps best known for her role as Ma Kettle in a series of ten Ma and Pa Kettle movies.-Early life and career:...
, Barbara StanwyckBarbara StanwyckBarbara Stanwyck was an American actress. She was a film and television star, known during her 60-year career as a consummate and versatile professional with a strong screen presence, and a favorite of directors including Cecil B. DeMille, Fritz Lang and Frank Capra...
, Nancy KulpNancy KulpNancy Jane Kulp was an American character actress best known as Miss Jane Hathaway on the popular television series The Beverly Hillbillies.-Early life:...
, CapucineCapucineCapucine was a French actress and fashion model best known for her comedic roles in The Pink Panther and What's New Pussycat? . She appeared in 36 films and 17 television productions between 1948 and 1990...
, Patsy KellyPatsy KellyPatsy Kelly was an American stage and film comedic actress.-Early life and career:Kelly was born Sarah Veronica Rose Kelly in Brooklyn, New York to Irish immigrants, John and Delia Kelly, and made her Broadway debut in 1928...
, Agnes MooreheadAgnes MooreheadAgnes Robertson Moorehead was an American actress. Although she began with the Mercury Theatre, appeared in more than seventy films beginning with Citizen Kane and on dozens of television shows during a career that spanned more than thirty years, Moorehead is most widely known to modern audiences...
and Sandy DennisSandy DennisSandra Dale “Sandy” Dennis was an American theater and film actress. In 1966, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.-Early life:...
— were raised in a generation terrified of voicing support for fellow homosexuals, let alone daring to come out of the closet to acknowledge their own sexuality... Still, with carefully couched questions from Hadleigh (Conversations With My Elders), though some of the respondents dance around the subjects of sex and sexuality. Still, an enlightening picture emerges of Tinseltown, different from that presented in the fanzines.
- Hollywood Babble-On: Stars Gossip about other Stars (1994) includes dish and juicy comments by stars on other stars.
Questions of authenticity
1. Hadleigh's veracity concerning some source material has been questioned . Hadleigh claims that, in 1959, Time critic Richard Schickel's review of the film version of Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift, bemoaned: "Why do we have to have all of this homosexuality in our movies?" But Time spokeswoman Dawn Bridges says Schickel didn't start reviewing movies for Time until 1973, and the quote does not appear in the magazine at all."Time reviews didn't have bylines until the late 1960s, so it's not even possible that they could attribute it to Schickel if it ran. And I spoke to Richard, who said he never knew of any anti-Williams feelings by Luce . . . The quote and attributing it to Richard is just wrong."
2. Upon the publication of Conversations With My Elders, Publisher's Weekly wrote: "There's nothing very surprising about his choice of subjects — Paul Lynde, Liberace, Randolph Scott, et al. — all of whom, conveniently for legal purposes, are deceased." However, it is now widely acknowledged and accepted that Lynde, Liberace, and Scott were in fact gay men.
Other works
- In or Out: Stars on Sexuality is a compilation of celebrity quotes from stars who are homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual, and who comment on themselves, their sexuality, on others, on the closet, and on society's homophobia, as well as that of showbiz, Hollywood in particular.
- The Lavender Screen: The Gay and Lesbian Films — Their Stars, Makers, Characters, and Critics is a collection of gay and lesbian film lore covering movies with homoerotic themes and more or less openly gay films throughout the history of film.
- Gays and Lesbians in the Music World is one of the first books that document the artistic contributions of gay and lesbian musicians and performers. According to MadonnaMadonna (entertainer)Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
, it "cuts through the role-playing crap and shows the music world as it really ... is! It's camp with a High-C!"