THEGAYUK

Tag: Gay Icon

All the latest breaking news on gay icons. Browse The THEGAYUK’s complete collection of features and commentary on gay icons.

  • Marlene Dietrich – A Gay Icon Worth Remembering

    From the very beginning of her career as a chorus girl in theatres and cabarets of 1920s Weimar Berlin Marlene Dietrich boasted a gay following. In one of her early revues she sang a duet with co-star Margot Lion called “My Best Girlfriend” in which both sported a corsage of violets– the signal in those days for lesbianism.

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  • HARVEY MILK | A gay icon who changed the face of gay politics

    HARVEY MILK | A gay icon who changed the face of gay politics

    American politics was filled with a sea of heterosexual faces, sometimes fiercely homophobic, but mostly irreverent towards the gay community, that was until Harvey Milk entered the political arena.

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    Harvey Bernard Milk was born in the cold and wet winter of 1930, his birthplace was Woodmere, a small, hard-working, middle class, close-knit hamlet in Nassau County in the state of New York. After graduating in 1951, Milk joined the United States’ Navy, during the Korean War, he served aboard a rescue submarine, the USS Kittiwake – and later transferred to San Diego to serve as a diving instructor. He was discharged from the Navy in 1955.

    Harvey Milk could be described as one of life’s wanderers until he moved to San Francisco he was a teacher, an actuarial statistician, a researcher, and a presidential campaigner, he worked in investments and for a theatre company.

    He was a drifter, moving from California to Texas to New York and back again, without a steady job; eventually, Milk with his then-partner Scott Smith opened a camera shop on Castro Street in San Francisco with their last $1,000.

    He moved from New York City to San Francisco in 1972, amid a mass migration of gay men to the Castro District. The gay’s growing political and economic power ensured that people like Milk could take advance to promote their interests.

    Initial political aspirations

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    Milk ‘s initial reception by the already installed gay political establishment could be described as cold, Jim Foster who had been active in gay politics for ten years resented Milk asking him for endorsement to becoming a City Supervisor, Foster told Milk,

    “There’s an old saying in the Democratic Party. You don’t get to dance unless you put up the chairs. I’ve never seen you put up the chairs.”

    Undeterred Milk won the support and endorsement of local gay bars and business owners, who had become disillusioned by the slow-moving pace of the already visible gay political movement.

    Milk had an inimitable political style; his exuberant speeches and his astute media skills earned him significant press during the 1973 election, however, he failed to win.

    Although Milk was a newcomer he had shown flair for leadership, he was starting to be taken seriously as a candidate and decided to run again as a City Supervisor and started using his camera store as a centre of activity in the Castro neighbour. The community rallied around Milk and voluntarily helped run his campaigns for him.

    This time round Milk came 7th in the election, just one place away from earning a Supervisor seat.

    First openly gay commissioner in the US

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    Milk became the first openly gay commissioner in the United States after the newly elected Mayor George Moscone appointed him to the Board of Permit Appeals in 1976 where he worked just 5 weeks in the job before running for the California State Assembly.

    Milk was described as a man of mixed temperament and of disorganisation. His campaign volunteer database comprised of just scraps of paper and his campaign manager’s assistant was an 11-year-old girl.

    His accounting was erratic, reportedly grabbing fistfuls of cash from his store’s cash register. He was prone to amazing outburst of momentary temper before shouting excitedly about something else. Described as manic, one could not fault the man for his dedication and general good humour.

    In 1977 his last campaign to become a City Supervisor, Milk’s showboating, handshaking and manic campaigning tactics won him a position, but with his victory came the distinct threat of assassination. He began to record his thoughts for preservation in case he was killed, stating, “If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door”.

    Headliner

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    As the first openly gay, non-incumbent man in US history his swearing in as City Supervisor made national headlines, giving the gay community a positive visibility that it hadn’t enjoyed before. He started in office sponsoring a civil rights bill that outlawed discrimination based on sexual orientation, it was met with no opposition apart from Dan White, who Milk had increasingly bad relations with after Milk switched his vote in supporting a health facility for troubled adolescents be placed in White’s District.

    His personal life at the time was one filled with sadness; he had long split with Smith and had begun a relationship with a man 18 years his senior; Jack Lira who hanged himself after being consumed with sadness with the anti-gay campaigns of Anita Bryant and John Brigg.

    The John Briggs Initiative known as Proposition 6 would have made the firing of any gay teacher or public school employee who supported gay rights mandatory. Brigg’s stated that gay teachers wanted to recruit and molest children; Milk refuted this with statistics compiled by law enforcement that most paedophiles were identified as heterosexuals.

    Brigg’s campaign came off the back of singer Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” campaign in Florida which repealed a law which ended discrimination based on sexual orientation.

    During the summer of 1978, gay pride marches found their attendance level rise, with over 250,000 people attending San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade. This is where Milk gave an impassioned ‘Hope Speech’

    “On this anniversary of Stonewall, I ask my gay sisters and brothers to make the commitment to fight. For themselves, for their freedom, for their country … We will not win our rights by staying quietly in our closets … We are coming out to fight the lies, the myths, the distortions. We are coming out to tell the truths about gays, for I am tired of the conspiracy of silence, so I’m going to talk about it. And I want you to talk about it. You must come out. Come out to your parents, your relatives.”

    Even though Anita Bryant’s campaign had been successful in Florida, Brigg’s initiative failed by more than a million votes. In San Francisco alone 75% voted against the proposition.

    Who was Dan White?

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    On 10th November 1978, Dan White resigned stating that the yearly salary of $9600 was not sufficient to support his family, days later he asked Mayor Moscone for his resignation to be withdrawn, although the Mayor initially agreed, after further consideration and consultation with the other city supervisors, Moscone was persuaded to install someone who represented White’s district which was growing in ethnic diversity.

    On 27th November 1978, Harvey Milk would wake for the last time, in his beloved adopted town of Castro.

    Half an hour before the press conference in which Mayor Moscone was to announce White’s replacement, White entered City Hall with a gun undetected and made his way to the Mayor’s office. Witnesses recall hearing shouting, between the two men followed by four gunshots.

    White had shot Moscone once in the shoulder, once in the chest and twice in the head.

     

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    After reloading his gun, White intercepted Milk – an argument ensued, followed by more gunshots as he emptied 5 hollow-point bullets into Harvey Milk’s head and body.

    The President of the Board of Supervisors, Dianne Feinstein found Harvey Milk and identified both bodies.

    It was Feinstein, who announced to the press,

    ‘Today San Francisco has experienced a double tragedy of immense proportions. As President of the Board of Supervisors, it is my duty to inform you that both Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk have been shot and killed.”

    Milk was 48 and Moscone was 49.

    Milk’s legacy is still felt to this day, in the last year of his life, he empowered gay people to be more visible; to help themselves to end the discrimination and violence against them. In his final statement during the taped prediction of his assassination he said,

    ‘I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they’ll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects … I hope that every professional gay will say ‘enough’, come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.

    Although his time in politics was relatively short, Milk’s untimely death at the hand of Dan White, ensured that Harvey Milk would forever be held up as one of the most powerful and iconic men of politics the world has ever seen.

  • BARBRA STREISAND: A Vintage Gay Icon Who Defines Longevity

    If a tragically short life is one of the qualifications needed to become a gay icon, then Barbra Streisand fails miserably.

    71 this year she has lived, and is still living a richly fulfilling life, both privately and professionally. Only last year her latest movie, The Guilt Trip, was released and she is about to embark on another world tour, and she is still happily married to her husband of 15 years, James Brolin. Many icons (Judy Garland, Maria Callas, Marilyn Monroe, James Dean) tragically die young. Others (Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli) survive into old age, despite having disastrous private lives, but there are others (Cher and Madonna would be other examples) who somehow manage to take, and retain, control of their own lives. Maybe that is what makes them such icons.

    Born in 1942, Streisand’s rise to fame was positively meteoric. Still only 18, she started out singing at various nightclubs in Greenwich Village, and by the time of her final engagements at the Bon Soir in 1962, she already had amassed an enormous (mostly gay) following. Never one to stick to the rules, her set would be a mix of eclectic songs, ranging from Arlen’s “A Sleepin’ Bee” (often her unconventional opener) to her crazy version of “Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf”. She always considered herself an actress who sings, rather than the other way round, and in 1962 she made her Broadway debut in the musical “I Can Get It For You Wholesale” playing the minor role of Miss Marmelstein. Though the show flopped, she garnered great reviews, and around this time she was also signed to Columbia records, with whom she has remained ever since. Even back then Streisand, convinced she would be a star, was only going to be a star on her terms. Her recording contract, unbelievably for a newcomer, gave her complete artistic control over the material she recorded. Her first album gave her the first of her 15 Grammy awards!

    Never conventionally pretty, most would have thought her destined for a career in character roles, but she knew that she was leading lady material. Though she was advised to fix her nose, to change her name, she never did, and the only concession she made was dropping the second ‘a’ from her name. Barbara became Barbra. She had a reputation for being difficult even back then, but, it is no doubt her uncompromising belief in herself, that propelled her to stardom. She knew she was different and she was determined to stay different.

    In 1964 she appeared on Broadway as Fanny Brice in the musical “Funny Girl”, and the rest, as they say, is history. When the show became a movie, it was a foregone conclusion that Streisand would be its star, not often the case when a Broadway show becomes a movie. In between Broadway and Hollywood she had played Fanny Brice in the West End production of “Funny Girl”, made three TV specials, the first of which, “My Name is Barbra”, won five Emmy Awards, and even became a mother. (She had married her first husband, Elliott Gould, her co-star in “Wholesale”, in 1963). Inevitably, in 1969 she went on to win her first Oscar for “Funny Girl”. There was no stopping her.

    According to the Record Industry Association of America, Streisand holds the record for the most top-ten albums of any female recording artist – a total of 32 since 1963. Streisand has the widest span (48 years) between first and latest top-ten albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, “Love Is The Answer”, she became one of the rare artists to achieve number-one albums in five consecutive decades. According to the RIAA, she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.

    At the height of her fame, Streisand was the highest grossing female star in Hollywood and the only woman in the top ten box office attractions. Her co-stars have included some of the biggest heart throbs in Hollywood, amongst them Robert Redford, Omar Sharif, Ryan O’Neal and James Caan. She was also the first woman ever to produce, direct, script and star in her own movie. Never one to suffer fools gladly, she acquired a reputation for being difficult, a bitch and a ball breaker, though she would always aver that, if she were a man, she would simply have been called tough. A perfectionist, she would go over a scene a hundred times if she thought it wasn’t right, and this no doubt contributed to that reputation, though many of her leading men found her a joy to work with.

    She and Elliott Gould split in 1971, and post her marriage, she was romantically linked with many high profile figures including the Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, Don Jonson and Andre Agassi, before finally settling down with James Brolin, to whom she has been married for the past 15 years. Her unconventional looks never seemed a barrier to her attracting some very attractive men.

    Stridently political, she is an outspoken supporter of equal civil rights, which include gay rights. In 2007 she helped raise funds in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Proposition 8 in California. She also has publicly raised $25 million for various organisations, both political and charitable, through her live performances. Her only son, Jason Gould, is gay and she very publicly supported him when he came out. They evidently enjoy a close relationship and, in her most recent tour, he appears on stage with her, singing in duet.

    To understand what made so many gay men respond to Streisand in her early years, you really have to listen to some of those early records. Her recording career roughly breaks down into three different periods. In the early stuff, up to around 1969, she sings mostly standard repertoire, songs you might have heard sung by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald or Julie London, but still puts her own inimitable stamp on them. With the Richard Perry produced “Stoney End” in 1971, she started to sing more contemporary music (she was, after all, only 29), and this change of musical direction broadened her appeal even further. Her most successful album, “Guilty” was a collaboration with Barry Gibb of The BeeGees. In 1985, she returned to her Broadway roots with “The Broadway Album”, which was another massive hit. That said, it marked another change in direction and, in my opinion, none of her subsequent albums has had the impact of her earlier work. They seem to have settled into a more comfortable, middle of the road, easy listening bracket. Her early records may well have been usually found in the “Easy Listening” section of a record store, but listening to Streisand at that time wasn’t always that” easy”. She demands attention. The bitterness with which she spits out the lyrics to such songs as “Free Again” or “Cry Me A River”, the pain and heartache enshrined in her rendition of “My Man”, at the end of the movie of “Funny Girl”, the vocal sparring with Donna Summer in the disco hit “No More Tears (Enough Is Enough”), the way she belts out the Laura Nyro classic “Stoney End”; if you only know Streisand from the stuff she has recorded from the 1990s onwards, then you really need to listen to these classics.

    You also need to see the film that made her a superstar, “Funny Girl”. Not far into the film, Streisand sings “I’m The Greatest star”, falteringly at first, then growing in confidence. Believe me, by the time she has finished singing you will have no doubts. Streisand was, still is, and no doubt will be long after she has left us, the greatest star.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • KIM WILDE | Gay icon who rocks the kids

    I initially hesitated in choosing Kim Wilde as my icon as it’s difficult to think of her as ‘vintage’ but my musical love-affair with her started 30 years ago so she probably qualifies (even though, by default, that also marks me as a certain age)!

    I was 5 years old when I received a gift of my first ever album – a cassette of Kim Wilde. Her self-titled debut album, featuring the iconic Kids in America, went Gold in the UK and Germany, and also hit the Number 1 spot in the Netherlands and Sweden. More importantly, it set in motion a chain that would lead to me developing an obsession verging on the unhealthy.

    Kim Wilde’s not my only musical obsession. I also own everything ever released by Kylie and Bonnie Tyler, but she was my first so holds a very special place in my heart. Plus, she was born just down the road from where I now live which automatically marks her as fabulous.

    Speaking of her birth, let’s take a moment to investigate her pedigree. Her father is the well-known rock ‘n’ roller Marty Wilde and her mother, Joyce was a member of The Vernons Girls. Her brother, Ricky, has co-written and produced most of her hits and her sister, Roxanne, is Kylie Minogue’s backing singer. With genes like that, there’s no wonder Kim became such a sensation.

    By the age of 20, Kim was signed to RAK Records, home to Susi Quattro and Hot Chocolate among others. Her debut single, Kids in America, was an instant success in the UK, France, Germany and Australia. In 1983, she received the Brit Award for Best British Female and, four years later, “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” made Kim Wilde only the fifth British solo female to top the US Hot 100, following in the hallowed footsteps of Petula Clark, Lulu, Sheena Easton and Bonnie Tyler.

    The following year, 1988, saw the release of her most successful album to date (and my personal favourite), Close. Remaining in the UK Top 40 for almost 8 months, Close spawned 3 major UK hit singles (“You Came, Never Trust A Stranger”, and “Four Letter Word”) and tied in with Kim joining Michael Jackson on his Bad World tour.

    Fast forward a few years, and she became a YouTube viral sensation in December 2012 when a video surfaced of a somewhat inebriated Kim serenading a trainload of commuters with two of her best-loved hits, “Kids in America” and “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”.

    Clearly developing a taste for public transport gigs, March 2013 saw her break the world record for the highest ever concert – performing an acoustic set with Tony Hadley, Bananarama and Go West on a Boeing 767 at 43,000 feet.

    She is also known for her support of gay rights, speaking out in favour of the Belgrade Pride parade and stating “You cannot know how much something like that pleases me.” when asked how she feels about having a particular place in the court of the gay public

    With a 33 year career covering 17 albums (and rumours of another on the way), 2 books, 3 TV series’ and many award-winning garden designs, it’s something of a miracle that she still finds the time to perform live. But she does, and it’s nothing short of spectacular. I last saw her at the Rewind Festival in 2011 and she outshone every other artist with the 30,000-strong crowd singing along and dancing to a non-stop string of hits. Kim will be performing at The Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames (16-18 August) and the Rewind Scotland festival (26-28 July) again this year, and has just announced dates for the Kim Wilde’s Christmas Party (18 Dec – Bristol, 19 Dec – Birmingham and 21 Dec – London).

    Kim – for being the first ever music I owned, for being the first music I bought myself, for being the most-charted British solo female of the 1980s, for loving the gays, and for being a fabulously drunken lush on a train, I salute you. Here’s to the next 30 years!

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • Tallulah Bankhead | A vintage gay icon who defined wild

    You can’t beat an old fashioned high camp bitch and Tallulah Bankhead was one of the wildest, most original and best.

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    She’s sadly mostly forgotten nowadays. How can you not love a crazed bisexual woman who slept with hundreds of people, smoked 100 cigarettes a day (and even employed an assistant to wake her on the hour in the night with a lit cigarette at the ready) and drank bourbon and gin like it was water? She was also renowned for her great wit. I’ve quoted a few examples below.

    “If I had to live my life again, I’d make the same mistakes, only sooner.”

    “It’s the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time.”

    “My heart is as pure as the driven slush.”

    “They used to photograph Shirley Temple through gauze. They should photograph me through linoleum.”

    “Cocaine isn’t habit forming. I should know, I’ve been using it for years.”

    “I’ve tried several varieties of sex. The conventional position makes me claustrophobic and the others give me either stiff neck or lockjaw.”

    “I was raped in our driveway when I was eleven. You know darling, it was a terrible experience because we had all that gravel.”

    Her last coherent words reportedly were “Codeine… bourbon.”

    Tallulah went to Midnight Mass at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City one Christmas Eve. Tallulah was already hideously drunk, so when the Bishop proceeded down the aisle in his finest vestments swinging a censer full of burning incense, through very bleary eyes, Tallulah took one look at him and shouted “Darling, your dress is divine, but your purse is on fire!!”

    How’s that for an iconic wit?

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • MARYLIN MONROE | A vintage gay icon who defined bombshell

    In my opinion there is one and only one classic icon worth mentioning in Hollywood history. Whether gay, straight, bi or Thai, everyone knows and loves Marilyn Monroe in one way or another.

    While there are some more emblazoned gay icons to have emerged from history, the Judy’s, the Barbara‘s, the Bettes; for me it was always Norma Jeane that was most relatable to my cowered closeted childhood. Her line in How to Marry a Millionaire, “Men aren’t attentive to girls who wear glasses” immediately made me feel better about my new dorky frames.

    Born with an absent father, a mentally unstable mother Norma Jeane was bounced around various carers and foster homes. She was constantly uprooted and very often sexually assaulted or abused during this time and when she was just sixteen she was married off to her high school boyfriend in order to prevent her from being sent to another foster home. No wonder the girl grew up nuts, wouldn’t you?

    While most of us know her singing about diamonds or making out with a cross-dressing Tony Curtis, Marilyn appearing in over thirty movies which is an impressive number when you consider she died at age 36.

    Here was a woman who famously wore nothing but Chanel No 5 to bed, a woman who worked a billowing white dress and a subway vent to such a level its been parodied more times than anyone could count. The most widely recognised and most famously sexual actress of all time… but she still never found a nice guy. Now tell me you can’t relate to that. A woman every man fantasised about but one that none seemed to love. Now I’m not saying I’m the world’s most sexual freelance writer but I find comfort in the fact while I may STILL be single, even Marilyn Monroe had trouble with men.

    Marilyn’s famous relationships included the boy next door, the jock, the affair with the President (and his brother) and the famous Jewish playwright. All of which failed often leaving her heartbroken and unstable… total gay icon.

    Marilyn spent most of her life in therapy, looking at her childhood it’s no wonder. She was supposedly diagnosed with hypersexuality, sleep disturbances, substance abuse and disturbed interpersonal relationships… TOTAL gay icon.

    I love Marilyn Monroe; she always seemed to show me that even though you’re beautiful you can still feel insecure and that not everyone is how they seem on the outside. She was beautiful, fragile, loved to sing and dance and was always looking for someone to love. Would have been an amazing hag.

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • NOEL COWARD | A Vintage Gay Icon The Original Wordsmith

    I discovered Noël Coward as a teenager and have been besotted ever since.

    Who could fail to love the poignant ‘Brief Encounter’ or the hilarious ‘Hay Fever’? His songs are breathtaking too with the classic ‘Mad about the Boy’ having got me through many a hopeless yearning for one I can’t have. I also love Noël’s wit and bon mot. Three of my favourite quotations are as follows:

    “My philosophy is as simple as ever. I love smoking, drinking, moderate sexual intercourse on a life diminishing scale, reading and writing (not arithmetic)”

    “It’s discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”

    “It’s not that I’m homosexual constantly, it is just that I give them a helping hand from time to time.”

    I also found the following little gem the other day. It’s an extract from his diaries from May 1958 and I love it. The man was pure genius. Not only did he write fantastic plays, look rather dapper, pen sublime films and some corking good poems but he was also a very wise man:

    “It is hard to imagine, considering the inherent silliness, cruelty and superstition of the human race, how it has contrived to last as it has. The witch hunting, the torturing, the gullibility, the massacres, the intolerance, the wild futility of human behaviour over the centuries is hardly credible. And the laws, as they stand today, are almost inconceivably stupid. With all this brilliant scientific knowledge of atom splitting and nuclear physics etc. We are still worshipping at different shrines, imprisoning homosexuals, imposing unnecessary and completely irrelevant restrictions on each other. Hearts can be withdrawn from human breasts, dead hearts, and, after a little neat manipulation, popped back again as good as new. The skies can be conquered. Sputniks can go round and round the globe and be controlled and guided. People are still genuflecting before crucifixes and Virgin Marys, still persecuting other people for being coloured or Jewish or in some way different from what they apparently should be. There are wars raged at the moment in Indonesia, Algeria, the Middle East. Cyprus etc. The Pope will make pronouncements against birth control. The Klu-Klux-Klan is still, if permitted, ready to dash out and do some light lynching. God for millions of people is still secure in his heaven…”

    I think Noël’s words still ring true today and sadly lots of things haven’t changed in over 50 years. A true iconic figure and one of the original and best dapper gay men of the Twentieth Century.

     

    Opinions expressed in this article may not reflect those of THEGAYUK, its management or editorial teams. If you’d like to comment or write a comment, opinion or blog piece, please click here.

  • MARIA CALLAS | A Vintage Gay Icon Who Defined Diva

    There may have been divas before Maria Callas, but there is no doubt that the modern idea of what is a diva owes a great deal to the legendary opera singer, who, without ever singing a note of popular music, was as famous during her lifetime as a movie star.

    Even today, 46 years after her death and almost 50 years after she last appeared on stage, her records outsell those of any other female opera singer.

    Callas was born in 1923 in a New York hospital to Greek immigrant parents. Her mother, bitterly disappointed not to have had a son, wouldn’t even look at Maria for the first few days after she was born. Maria was an awkward, bespectacled, dumpy child with, in her mother’s eyes, one redeeming feature. She could sing. And, from an early age, Evangelia, Maria’s mother, decided Maria would become a star. No doubt here began the seeds of Callas’s burning desire to succeed, and also, what her record producer Walter Legge called, her superhuman inferiority complex. It was only by singing that she could get approval from her mother. It was a tempestuous relationship, and later they had a very public quarrel, leaving them estranged for the rest of Maria’s life.

    Callas started out as everyone’s idea of the fat lady who sings, but shed 80lbs to become the svelte, elegant, iconic figure we know today, modelling her look on that of Audrey Hepburn. Some say this weight loss was also the reason for her relatively early vocal decline. Paradoxically, the more famous she became, the more her voice let her down, and her brilliance was relatively short, its peak lasting barely ten years, though as American opera star Beverly Sills once said, “Better 10 years like Callas, than twenty like anybody else.” She created a revolution in the staging of opera too, for Callas didn’t just sing, she could act, and it was her burning desire to fulfil all the dramatic demands of her roles, which was behind her decision to lose weight.

    To her way of thinking, it was crazy to have a fat, healthy looking soprano supposedly dying of consumption.

    From the very beginning she caused controversy. Her voice was not conventionally beautiful, but it was better than that. It was a voice like no other, instantly recognisable with an extraordinarily wide expressive range, which she exploited to searingly dramatic ends. It was a large, dramatic voice too, and yet she had the technique to sing roles usually associated with much lighter voices. Those who just wanted to close their eyes and listen to beautiful sounds were jolted out of their complacency, and they didn’t like it. In her early days she enjoyed showing of her versatility, and within a week she alternated one of the heaviest roles in the repertory (Brunnhilde in Wagner’s “Die Walkure”) with one of the lightest (Elvira in Bellini’s “I Puritani”). It was a feat unheard of at that time, and she began to be known as the soprano who could sing anything. The traditionalists didn’t like it and battle lines were drawn.

    From 1951 until 1958 she was the reigning queen of La Scala, Milan and Luchino Visconti, lured into opera by the prospect of working with her, here mounted some of the greatest opera productions ever in operatic history. It was also at La Scala that she worked with Franco Zeffirelli for the first time, and with conductors such as Victor De Sabata, Carlo Maria Giulini, Herbert von Karajan and Leonard Bernstein. It was a period of amazing artistic achievement, and tenor Jon Vickers, often referred to Callas as one of the people most responsible for the revolution that occurred in opera after the second world war, rescuing it from the fustian stand and deliver concert in costume it had become, and creating living, breathing theatre. The La Scala audience was never an easy one, and she often had to deal with hostility from them, but, such was her genius, she could usually win a hostile audience over by the end of the evening. She was definitely a fighter.

    The Callas myth is very much one made by the media. Her musical genius is often lost amongst the details of her private life and the scandals attached to it. The media concentrates on the occasional cancellations, the rows with opera managements, and often forgets the genius which made her a star. They build a picture of the capricious, temperamental, demanding opera singer, which, though partially true, tends to ignore the fact that she was intensely professional, dedicated and respected by most of the musicians she worked with. Her outbursts were usually brought about by what she saw as unprofessionalism. Unlike many divas who flounce in, do their bit and flounce out, Callas was often the first to arrive at rehearsal and the last to leave. She lived for her art. That is, until Aristotle Onassis arrived on the scene. Callas stupidly, blindly, fell in love and from that moment the media hardly ever left her alone.

    When she met Onassis, she was still married (to a much older man, Gian Baptista Meneghini). Onassis, still married himself, was as taken by her fame as by her beauty and determined to make her his own. Callas, the ugly duckling who became a swan, was flattered by his attention, and became his mistress. She practically gave up her career for him, believing that one day they would marry, until, devastatingly, he married Jackie Kennedy instead. After the affair, Callas did try to pick up the threads of her career, but, along with the growing problems she was having with her voice, much of the fire had gone. In 1965 she made her final appearance in opera in Zeffirelli’s famed production of “Tosca” at Covent Garden.

    After that she lived as a recluse in Paris, occasionally attempting to revive her career. She made a non-operatic version of “Medea” for Pasolini, which was not a commercial success, though she received enormous praise for her contribution, gave a series of master classes at the Juilliard in New York (the basis of Terrence McNally’s play “Masterclass”), and had an unsuccessful attempt at directing, with tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, at the Turin Opera. She was, by this time, having an affair with Di Stefano, and, probably unwisely, agreed to embark on a world concert tour with him, at which they would sing duets and arias, accompanied by piano only. She had only just turned 50, but her voice was a pale shadow of itself. She was only too aware of her shortcomings, and wryly noted how the critics were being much kinder to her, than they were years ago when she was singing brilliantly. Audiences, though, went mad, screaming for more, besieging the stage with floral tributes, as if finally acknowledging now, in her ruin, the great star that she was.

    When the tour came to an end, she holed herself up in her Paris apartment. She never stopped loving Onassis, for all that he treated her so badly, and even secretly visited him on his death bed. After he died, it was as if all the fight was knocked out of her. Conductor Jeffrey Tate, who was working with her at this time, (she never completely gave up the idea of a comeback) felt that she simply gave up living.

    She died in 1977 at the age of 53 in circumstance that are still unexplained. Officially she died of a heart attack, but she was on so many uppers and downers by then, that some think it may have been an accidental overdose. Whatever it was, dying young certainly contributed to her legendary status.

    Nowadays she continues to enthrall and inspire, and her influence goes far beyond the opera house. Aside from the aforementioned “Masterclass”, Terrence McNally also wrote a play “The Lisbon Traviata” (taking its title from an at that time unavailable live recording of Callas singing “La Traviata” in Lisbon), which focuses on two of McNally’s pet subjects; gay relationships and the gay man’s love of opera. During her lifetime she was something of a fashion icon, having fabulous gowns designed for her by Milanese designer Biki, by Pucci, Fendi and Yves St Laurent. Not so very long ago Dolce and Gabbana produced t-shirts with her image on them for their 2009 collection, and only last year American designer Zac Posen based an entire collection on costumes Callas wore in Argentina in her early years.

    In the world of film her records are frequently used on film soundtracks. Most recently it is the voice of Callas we hear singing “Casta Diva” in “The Iron Lady”, and Gus van Sant used her recording of “Tosca” as a backdrop for much of his brilliant “Milk.” And who could possibly forget that scene in “Philadelphia”, in which Andrew Beckett (played by Tom Hanks) attempts to explain to his lawyer, Joe Miller (Denzel Washington), what opera means to him? As Maria Callas’s recording of “La mamma morta” from Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier” begins softly in the background and then swells to fill the theatre, Andrew translates the words and conveys the passions and emotional meanings behind this operatic excerpt. “I am divine, I am oblivion, I am love.” No wonder the Italians called her La Divina. After her death, baritone and colleague Tito Gobbi, said “I always thought she was immortal, and she is.”

     

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  • ELIZABETH TAYLOR: A Vintage Gay Icon Who Defined The Era Of Glamour

    “I’ve only slept with men I’ve been married to. How many women can make that claim?” – Elizabeth Taylor

    I’m generally not too keen on modern celebrity culture and the pointless tales of Z list no brainers with limited talents and bigger publicity budgets. I do however have a minor obsession with Elizabeth Taylor. She’s my role model. A picture of her and the luscious Paul Newman are looking down over me now as I type. In spite of a notorious lifelong battle with prescription drug addictions, alcoholisms and chain smoking, she lived till she was 79. Now that’s an achievement in my books, staying alive through illness and fragility.

    She certainly crammed a lot in: 8 marriages, a few nervous breakdowns, an obesity problem, a couple of trips to rehab centres, over 70 hospitalisations and more than 20 operations. She also worked to raise the profile of AIDS charities and research and wasn’t afraid to stick her neck out and speak her mind in her tireless fundraising campaigns. Amazingly, she also found the time to act and made some of the most corking films of all time. Two of her film performances always take my breath away and I never tire of them: Maggie the Cat in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and Martha in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” If you haven’t seen them then you’re missing out on some classic lines and great acting.
    She wasn’t afraid of being seen as a sexual being in a time when repression was standard in Hollywood. She was one of the first major stars ever to appear unclothed in a film and to be shown naked in Playboy. She loved gay men too, sparking up friendships with the closeted gay male stars of the time, Montgomery Clift, Rock Hudson and James Dean. I can see why the paradoxically fragile diva would relate to gay blokes so well.
    She was accident prone and clumsy, yet exuded glamour and style. She was a diva yet managed to be diplomatic enough at times to ensure her demands were always met and was able to lampoon herself too. OK, so the 80’s were a bit ugly, with those shoulder pads and big hair and that friendship with the horribly creepy Michael Jackson, but we all lacked style in that tacky decade and made mistakes, didn’t we?
    She had a lifelong naivety which belied her occasionally brash exterior, and still always believed in everlasting love. Now that was maybe her biggest feat yet, 8 failed marriages and still believed in love? She’s definitely an icon to hold up as a role model in our turbulent modern times.
    She even arranged to be 15 minutes late for her own funeral. That’s class.
    “The problem with people who have no vices is that generally you can be pretty sure they’re going to have some pretty annoying virtues.” Elizabeth Taylor. I couldn’t agree more, Elizabeth.

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  • MADONNA | A vintage gay icon who continues to reign supreme

    Madonna gets a lot of flack these days. Whether it’s for flashing the flesh ‘at her age’ or dressing up as a Boy Scout, there are plenty of people who knock her. But referring back to the day that Madonna dressed up as a Boy Scout, many mainstream media outlets chose to ignore the reason why she did it, instead choosing to use it as an opportunity to have a dig at her.

    The incident I am referring to is when Madonna recently attended the GLAAD awards in a Boy Scout uniform to protest against gay people not being allowed to join the Scouts. It was a fantastic display of support and solidarity from someone who has long been a vocal supporter of gay rights.

    In another moment of brilliance last year, Madonna also protested against Russia’s anti-gay laws, whilst also protesting about the incarceration of Pussy Riot. This led to a member of the Russian government calling Madonna an ex-whore and the great lady even received a court summons. What is great about that occasion and the dressing as a Boy Scout incident is that Madonna is very aware of what she is doing and knows that her doing something like that will bring focus on the issue.

    In recent years Madonna has also criticised discrimination of gay people in Romania whilst on tour there, released a statement condemning the jailing of two gay men in Malawi who had celebrated their union with a ceremony, and urged people to support same-sex marriage in New York.

    Turning back the clock and remembering what makes Madonna a vintage gay icon, one thing that stands out for me is the video for her 1990 hit Justify My Love. At the time the song was released, to critical acclaim, the accompanying video caused controversy and was banned by MTV, the reason being its sexual nature. The video features androgynous characters, bisexual romping, lesbian action and all sorts of other sexual delights. Nobody else was doing that kind of thing at the time, and I can’t think of anyone who has things like that in their music videos in the present day either. In terms of LGB visibility it was fantastic. It showed the world that we exist as sexual beings.

    Looking at some of Madonna’s other songs, Deeper and Deeper from the Erotica album is about a gay person who is struggling to come to terms with their sexuality, Vogue is about the underground dance move that came from the gay bars and discos of New York, and another track on the Erotica album, In This Life, is about Madonna’s gay friends who died of AIDS.

    Even before the release of those songs, Madonna was one of the first major stars to get behind AIDS causes. From the artist Keith Haring to the photographer Herb Ritts, many of Madonna’s friends were gay men and many of them were dying from AIDS. Madonna supported those people and causes when it was still taboo and nobody else would.

    Ending the journey at the beginning of Madonna’s passage to becoming a gay icon, it was her ballet teacher Christopher Flynn who first introduced her to the gay bars of Detroit. Christopher Flynn also encouraged Madonna to move to New York to pursue a career as a dancer. Once in New York, Madonna began to make friends with gay people, drag queens and rent boys. The rest is history.

    For me, Madonna is the ultimate gay icon. She may be a very obvious one, but the facts are there for all to see. Madonna may be knocked by many for showing her bum or a bit of boob, or for adopting African babies or having boyfriends who are young enough to be her son, but one thing that Madonna cannot be knocked for is her contribution to gay rights and culture. We have a lot to thank Madonna for and for me she is the ultimate ally for friends of Dorothy; a vintage gay icon who continues to reign supreme.

     

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  • KEITH HARING: A Vintage Gay Icon Who Defied Boundaries

    Openly gay Keith Haring was and still is a legendary artist, his iconic artwork at one time filled empty ad spaces on New York’s subways, his activism and creation was exhaustive. His expressions of birth, death and war are still to this day inspiring.

    Haring would have been 55 on Saturday (4th May), however, he died aged 31 from AIDS- related complications in 1990. He is best remembered for his visionary, cartoonish, vibrant and often politically charged artwork.

    Born in Pennsylvania, Haring grew up with his mother and father. Allen Haring, his father, was a cartoonist.

    Keith studied commercial art at The Ivy School Of Professional Art and at 19, in 1978 he moved to New York City – where Keith’s work would gain him recognition and catapult him into a landmark artist.

    It was in the subways of NYC that Haring first achieved public notoriety and in the early years established friendships with other emerging artists such asMadonna and the more established Andy Warhol.

    He was diagnosis with AIDS in 1988 and on hearing the news Haring said in an interview that it made him appreciate the little things.

    ‘Appreciating things in a way that you never appreciated before. Every day when I walk out of the house and feel a warm breeze and look up and see the clouds in the sky, it’s incredible.’

    He set up the Keith Haring Foundation 1989, its mandate being to provide funding and imagery to AIDS organisations and children’s programs and to expand the audience for Haring’s work through exhibitions, publications and the licensing of his images.

    Last year, on what would have been Haring’s 54th birthday Google honoured him with his own Google Doodle.

    You can find out more about Keith Haring atwww.haring.com

     

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