For today's Throwback Thursday, I wanted to get a little Pride-focused with it and unravel some old Hollywood queer history for you all. Let's throw it back to the gay columnist who wrote scandalous stories about the stars of the time. The twist? He was gay. The double twist? He knew who was in Hollywood, but he kept things very discreet. Let's learn about Hollywood Reporter columnist Mike Connolly.
Mike was a complicated figure. He was a Chicago native who later moved to southern Illinois when attending the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since he was a devoted Catholic in a southern Illinois city, he wrestled with his sexuality and with fitting into society in Champaign, Illinois. In the late 30s, he helped lead a campaign against prostitution in Champaign and he would then do the same about communism in Hollywood. Many believe this kind of vehemence he showed to "decency" were his attempts to fit in and deflect attention from his own personal life. He didn't even come out in any way until he was 37 years old. Obviously, like most people who fight against this kind of thing, he was a bit of a hypocrite. He fought against prostitution in Champgian, but he saw no problem with paying for escorts on Hollywood Boulevard. Isn't that always the way? As I said, he was a complicated person.
When he went to Hollywood, he was really able to find himself. Since he was the former editor of the Daily Illini, he had a lot of experience writing. He first wrote for Variety under a pseudonym and ghost-wrote a few scripts before he became a columnist at the Hollywood Reporter. He was hailed by a 1954 Newsweek article as "the most influential columnist inside the movie colony". He worked there from 1951 until he died in 1966 from kidney failure and he made a name for himself through his Rambling Reporter column. While he was anti-communist and spent a lot of timing attempting to out and harass those that he thought were communists or left-leaning, he took great pleasure in discreetly dishing when it came to sex. His main topic of interest? Gay life in Hollywood!
He would never come right out and say something like "Tab Hunter is gay". No, no. He was much too dignified for that. Instead, he would say where Tab Hunter and a female date were one evening and then mention that Anthony Perkins was simply "also there". Astute and devoted readers knew that when Connolly did this, he was telling us who the gay actor was hooking up with at the time. He would make jokes about what he called "the loose wrist set" while also using plenty of coded nicknames and words that would go over the heads of straight readers.
Mike, of course, made people mad with his writing sometimes - as is the case with all writers, really. His partner Joe Russell Zappia was often left to help him clean up the mess. The two were as secretive as they could be, but they did have parties in their home where they entertained as a couple. A famous story about a celebrity being mad at Mike was the one and only Shirley MacLaine. She went right up to his office and punched him in the face! Why did she get so angry when gossip columnists like Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons were basically doing the same thing? Because more people read Mike's column than theirs. The Hollywood Reporter was VERY popular at the time. Even President Roosevelt requested one be sent to him every day.
He passed away at the age of 52. He is more or less forgotten now, but he really shouldn't be. Sadly, if he is remembered it might be for the anti-communism articles he wrote that McCarthy and crew used to persecute stars. He loved Hollywood, but he also did what he thought was necessary for a gay gossip columnist at that time and in doing so he (hopefully unintentionally) helped put several celebrities on The Blacklist. According to his biographer and to Karina Longworth of You Must Remember This, all of this was done in self-defense. He needed to show that HE was not the enemy. He was willing to work within the confines of the institution of Hollywood. It was almost as if he was trying to prove he was just one of the [straight] guys - while also, thankfully, not deliberately outing anyone. What a fine line he walked! It's nice to see that things have changed since then. I think? Let's just hope that today's gossip bloggers don't lead government campaigns against our beloved celebrities.
Want more of Old Hollywood? How about this scene from the show Hollywood that really evokes the era:
