#boyd mcdonald

[bitter69uk]

“Lana Turner is more a part of movie mythology than many greater stars. It was Lana who was “discovered” sitting on a stool at Schwab’s Drugstore (in reality in an ice cream parlour) and it was Lana who became the “Sweater Girl” of World War II … Kirk Douglas summed it up beautifully in The Bad and the Beautiful (1953) when he told her: “You acted badly and you moved clumsily, but the point is every eye in the audience was on you.” She had screen charisma right from her first role in a tight sweater, walking out of a drugstore in the 1937 They Won’t Forget …”

/ From The Illustrated Encyclopedia of The World’s Great Movie Stars by Ken Wlaschin, 1979 /

“Just as for sex, I find a hot piece of meat preferable to a wonderful human being, so in showbiz I enjoy a star more than someone who’s merely a great actor. Actors work to get what stars get without trying: attention.”

/ Deviant “filth elder” Boyd McDonald musing about Lana Turner in his compilation of essays Cruising the Movies: A Sexual Guide to Oldies on TV, originally published in 1985 /

Died on this day: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva, “sweater girl” and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). I cherish consummate movie star Turner’s highly stylized performances in both genuinely good films (like The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), A Life of Her Own (1950), Imitation of Life (1959)) and sublimely trashy ones (including Peyton Place (1957), Portrait in Black (1960), By Love Possessed (1961), Love Has Many Faces (1965), The Big Cube (1969), Persecution (1974)). And of course, her fierce guest star appearances in 1980s prime time soap Falcon Crest! Pictured: Turner in 1946.

[rabbitvintage2]

Straight To Hell, The Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts, founded by Boyd McDonald in the early 1970s, had a strong readership in its early informal format. Anthologies proved enormously popular, reaching readers who may have missed early issues. Readers shared their experiences and sometimes photos. I even got published one or two times. A series of editors took up the publication after McDonald. Definitely a milestone in gay publishing history.

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[querelleofbros]

[theparisreview]

Dictators don’t care if their homes are Instagrammable; they have no appetite for hygge or minimalism or starchitect-designed green buildings; they don’t even really give a shit about antiques. Instead, they reside in ferocious, claustrophobic tributes to their power—the representation of force is their only aesthetic concern. Peter York, who literally wrote the book on “dictator chic,” offers a few insights: “Fascinated by the question of what makes dictators’ houses so recognizably similar, I spent months poring over pictures—from across the continents, from the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twenty-first … Dictators might work in the grand styles of earlier centuries, but they don’t usually use old materials and furniture. Everything is brand spanking new. Old styles add gravitas, but antiques themselves are too faded and shabby … Dictators’ homes aren’t for one’s family, friends or private self; they’re not a refuge from the world or the job. Dictators’ homes, in fact, are the job—a place to do business, harangue people and settle scores, all while one’s entourage stays nearby. They are an architectural and artistic means of establishing the power of the occupants, of intimidating and impressing any visitor.”

This and more in today’s culture roundup.

(Image: Ben Baker/Redux)

[bitter69uk]

Died on this day thirty years ago: scandalous golden age Hollywood screen diva, “sweater girl” and glamour icon Lana Turner (née Julia Jean Turner, 8 February 1921 - 29 June 1995). I cherish consummate movie star Turner’s performances in both genuinely great films (like The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), A Life of Her Own (1950), Imitation of Life (1959)) and sublimely trashy ones (including Peyton Place (1957), Portrait in Black (1960), By Love Possessed (1961) (as the most elegant alcoholic in cinema history), Love Has Many Faces (1965) (as the most elegant nymphomaniac in cinema history), The Big Cube (1969) and long-forgotten hagsploitation flick Persecution (1974)). And of course, her fierce guest star appearances on 1980s nighttime soap Falcon Crest! I’ll give the last word to deviant “filth elder” Boyd McDonald. “Just as for sex, I find a hot piece of meat preferable to a wonderful human being, so in showbiz I enjoy a star more than someone who’s merely a great actor. Actors work to get what stars get without trying: attention,” he muses. In the chapter “Grand Larceny: Lana Turner Steals “Night of Stars”” in in his compilation of essays Cruising the Movies: A Sexual Guide to Oldies on TV, originally published in 1985, McDonald reflects on Turner’s appearance on the glitzy 1985 TV Special Night of 100 Stars. “Lana looks hard at 65, but she’s had to be; she’s had to put up with something the softer 69-year-old Olivia (de Havilland) never had – a general attitude among reviewers that her work isn’t very good … After her film clips were shown, Lana, who like most of the women in the show and in the audience, was wearing a glitter gown, strolled casually onstage and took her ovation without surprise or gratitude, without even a full smile (how refreshing after all the jaw-breaking smiles the TV stars gave). Without quite touching her lips, she blew a kiss with both hands to the $1,000 seats. It was a gesture as stylized and unreal as ballet.” Pictured: Polaroid of Lana Turner by Andy Warhol, 1985.

[querelleofbros]

[querelleofbros]