#project moonbase

[mst3kgifs]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Speed it up! We've got some things we wanna get to.

[brummie-man-interests]

Sorry to have gone all female on you, Major. PROJECT MOONBASE [1953]

[schlock-luster-video]

On May 16, 1969, Project Moonbase was screened on Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest.

[100gayicons]

For five season and one reunion movie Hayden Rorke appears as Dr. Alfred Bellows on the popular 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie”. In the show Bellows was NASA’s resident psychiatrist who tried to discover astronaut Tony Nelson’s secret. But he failed time and again.

But Rorke had a secret of his own that could have ruined his career… he was gay.

Rorke’s life as an actor spanned 42 years, starting with an uncredited role in “This is the Army”, a wartime musical comedy starring Ronald Reagan.

Rorke met his life partner Justus Addiss in 1953 on the set movie “Project Moonbase” where he played a supporting role. Addiss was the assistant to the producer.

Both eventually migrated from B Pictures to work on television. Most of Roake’s 151 credits on IMDb are for guest performances on TV episodes (and 129 episodes of “Jeannie”). Addiss became a director, working on over 40 different series including 3 episodes of the “Twilight Zone”, 10 episodes of “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, 2 episodes of “Lost in Space” and 39 episodes of “Schlitz Playhouse” (including 4 episodes featuring Rorke).

Like many other closeted actors of his era, Rorke kept his sexlife a secret, yet quietly lived with Addiss for 26 years. Roake and Addiss would often host dinner parties for the “I Dream of Jeannie” cast at their home in Studio City. In a later interview Barbara Eden explained that the cast and Rorke’s close friends knew he was “unashamedly gay".

Addis died from lung cancer in 1979. Rorke died 8 years later from a cancer of his plasma cells.

[frankentyner]

Tonight’s experiment!

[tara-of-helium]

Project Moonbase and Others. Robert A. Heinlein, 2008. Cover art by Bob Eggleton, 2008.

[movieposters1]

[dailymst3kquote]

Don't talk to me.  I'm a high-fashion model from the future.

Tom Servo