#camp icon

[bitter69uk]

“The whole thing was, of course, profoundly silly. Eartha had little to work with. The previous Catwoman had a flirtatious relationship with Batman, but no way was a Black Catwoman going to be allowed to do the same. Instead, she’s essentially a cartoon figure of menace, a playful presence in one of the first TV shows to intentionally camp things up. And yet, she was also much more than that. Here, after all, was a Black woman dressed up in a frankly fetishistic outfit and having a whale of a time threatening to do all kinds of mischief to white-bread American heroes Batman and Robin. And all this in a prime-time family viewing slot as America’s parents and children settled down together to watch the TV screen. Eartha might not have been allowed to flirt with Batman the way Julie Newmar did, but she was still undoubtedly an erotically charged presence in a kid’s TV show. Middle America couldn’t help but be reminded how much it used to fancy Eartha, and junior America had its eyes opened. For the rest of her life Eartha’s brief role as Catwoman became the single thing she was best remembered for.”

/ From the biography America’s Mistress: The Life and Times of Eartha Kitt (2013) by John L Williams /

Today represents the anniversary of a seismic event in twentieth century popular culture. Hell – in Western civilization! On 14 December 1967 the incomparably fierce Eartha Kitt stepped into the kinky boots of Julie Newmar and made her debut as Catwoman in the third (and final) season of ABC TV show Batman in the episode “Catwoman’s Dressed to Kill.” She would ultimately appear in three episodes between 1967-68. Batman was already a total kitsch-fest: Kitt’s feline villainess made it doubly so (especially considering she shared so many scenes with Cesar Romero’s Joker). There WAS a “supercut” compilation of all Kitt’s Batman appearances in one video on YouTube but - tragically – it’s been deleted.

[queerazonbooks]

On this day in queer history: October 24, 1966

Paul Lynde made his very first appearance on Hollywood Squares — and television was never the same again.

With razor-sharp sarcasm, a voice that could slice through polyester, and a wink big enough to be seen from space, Lynde became the nation’s favorite “confirmed bachelor” who everyone knew was gay… while no one on TV was allowed to say he was gay.

He turned camp into primetime.

He made subtext into an art form.

He was the blueprint for every bitchy sitcom best friend, every drag queen who works a panel show, every host who weaponizes the raised eyebrow.

Even in an era that insisted on closets, Paul Lynde found ways to leave the door slightly — and fabulously — ajar.

Cheers to the king of the center square. The jokes were coded. The queerness was unmistakable. And America laughed with him, even when it didn’t know why.

[idontwannabreakdown]

Is anyone going to camp icon this year?

[vinagretch]

Jennifer Coolidge (pictures that I've just found in an old Flickr account of mine created on the late 2000s).

[bitter69uk]

Heartfelt gratitude to everyone who attended the Lobotomy Room presentation of Dead Ringer (1964) on 16 January at Fontaine’s! How great to start 2025 with a full house! Some of the talking points we discussed: Dead Ringer was made in between What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Hush … Hush, Sweet Charlotte and it feels like it’s overshadowed by them and less well remembered – but it should be! (The other two were horror movies, whereas Dead Ringer is a noir-tinged thriller). Bette Davis was 56 years old here and by this point, had been starring in movies for SO long that this represents the second time she played feuding identical twin sisters! (The first time: A Stolen Life in 1946)). Davis is directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Paul Henreid, her suave leading man in Now Voyager (1942) and Deception (1946). Davis’ gloriously self-parodic and ferocious Medusa-like performance in Dead Ringer is simply magnificent. Watching Davis in full-blowtorch abrasive mode here offers a vivid reminder that Davis was an architect of what we now call camp and one of the original gay icons alongside the likes of Mae West, Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah Bankhead. Bewigged, flourishing her ever-present cigarette and rasping her lines, this is precisely the version of Davis that nightclub female impersonators like Charles Pierce and Craig Russell would seize on.  And it’s a testament to Davis’ acting that we are never uncertain for a moment which twin she’s playing (rich Margaret or poor Edith). In the sequences of the sisters together, apparently the eagle-eyed can spot Davis’ body double Connie Cezon in some shots (full disclosure: I never have!). For sleaze appeal, Peter Lawford plays Margaret’s younger gigolo lover Tony Collins. Margaret – you can do better! Aim higher! Watch for the stark minimalist neon sign outside Edie’s bar with just the word COCKTAIL and a martini glass! Mid-twentieth century perfection! And could it be that the Great Dane named Tiny upstages everyone? The NEXT Lobotomy Room film club is 20 February – the 1955 Joan Crawford melodrama Queen Bee! Reserve your seat by emailing [email protected]. 

[bitter69uk]

Born on this day: fiercely glamorous and eccentric stage, radio, television and screen actress, possessor of the campiest, poshest crushed-velvet voice of all time, false eyelash enthusiast and "England's first lady of the double entendre", the truly singular Miss Fenella Fielding OBE (17 November 1927 – 11 September 2018). Completely illustrative of Fielding’s wayward 67-year career: Italian art cinema visionary Federico Fellini desperately wanted her for one of his movies – and Fielding turned him down because she was committed to doing a play in Chichester! Fielding spent years perfecting her craft and performed the works of Ibsen, Chekhov, Shakespeare, Shaw, Pinter and Oscar Wilde onstage, and yet in the popular imagination she’s best remembered for portraying the slinky Morticia Addams-like Valeria Watt in smutty low-brow British comedy Carry on Screaming (1966). Ah, the vagaries of fame! However you cut it, Fenella Fielding is the United Kingdom’s closest equivalent to Tallulah Bankhead. (One persistent myth to dispel: Fielding didn’t dub the voice for Anita Pallenberg’s performance as The Black Queen in Barbarella (1968) – that was her peer, Joan Greenwood). Pictured: young Fielding at her most "come hither."

[bitter69uk]

Born on this day 111 years ago: high empress of kitsch exotica, nostril-flaring Dominican actress, Caribbean Cyclone and Queen of Technicolour Maria Montez (née María África Gracia Vidal, 6 June 1912 - 7 September 1951). Venerated by the likes of Gore Vidal and underground queer filmmakers Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger, leading lady of films like Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Cobra Woman (1944) Montez is a pivotal figure in the sensibility we now call “camp.” (Early Warhol drag superstar Mario Montez was christened after her). Aside from perhaps the young Yvonne De Carlo, did any woman wear a yashmak with more elan? “When I see myself on the screen, I look so beautiful I want to scream with joy” Montez once famously declared. Maria Montez, you make ME scream with joy! Here she is in Siren of Atlantis (1949) playing – what else? – an evil queen.

[bitter69uk]

“Like [Mario] Lanza, Maria Montez had a reputation for being impossible to handle. After a number of years in Haji-Baba type adventures, she was dropped by Universal and forced to seek work in European cheapies. While in Europe, she attempted to counter her advanced state of avoirdupois with hot saline baths. She died in one of a heart attack at the age of thirty-one.”

/ From the book Flesh and Fantasy (1978) by Penny Stallings /

Died on this day in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes, France: nostril-flaring and tempestuous Queen of Technicolour Exotica, Caribbean Cyclone and leading lady of films like White Savage (1943), Cobra Woman (1944) and Siren of Atlantis (1949), Maria Montez (née María África Gracia Vidal, 6 June 1912 – 7 September 1951). Aside from perhaps the young Yvonne De Carlo, did any woman wear a yashmak with more elan? Note: Stallings gets Montez’s age wrong in the quote above – she was 39 when she died. (Like any self-respecting diva, Montez had a “show biz age”). Montez is entombed in the Cimetière du Montparnasse. Who knows at this point if I’ll ever return to Paris, but if I do, I vow to make a religious pilgrimage to Montez’s grave. “When I see myself on the screen, I look so beautiful I want to scream with joy” Montez once famously declared. Maria Montez, you make ME scream with joy!