For generations, members of the LGBTQ+ community in Hollywood had to be discreet about their lives, but they were everywhere both in front of and behind the camera. With Hollywood Pride, released in May, renowned film critic and former Dallas Voice contributor, Alonso Duralde presents a history spanning from the dawn of cinema through the “pansy craze” of the 1930s and the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s to today.
Hollywood Pride: A Celebration of LGBTQ+ Representation and Perseverance in Film is out now in hardover ($40) and published by Running Press and Turner Classic Movies. The title is also available as an e-book.
Duralde showcases the actors, writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, art directors, and choreographers whose achievements defined the American film industry and charts the evolution of LGBTQ+ storytelling and the way mainstream Hollywood portrayed (or erased) queer life and lives and the narratives created by queer filmmakers who fought to tell those stories themselves.
Highlights include a look at the first generation of queer actors such as J. Warren Kerrigan, Ramon Novarro, and William Haines; early cinema pioneers like Alla Nazimova and F. W. Murnau who helped shape the new medium of moving pictures.; and the sex symbols, both male (Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, and Anthony Perkins) and female (Lizabeth Scott and Greta Garbo), who lived under the threat of undermining their public personas.
Pages examine underground filmmakers Kenneth Anger and John Waters, who made strides in LGBTQ+ representation with off–off Hollywood productions in the 1960s and ’70s who paved the way for every openly queer figure in Hollywood today.
Illustrated with more than 175 full-color and black-and-white images, Hollywood Pride points to the future of LGBTQ+ representation in cinema by revealing the story of the community’s inclusion and erasure.
Duralde is Chief US Film Critic for The Film Verdict, author of Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, 101 Must-See Movies for Gay Men and the coauthor of I’ll Be Home for Christmas Movies. He is the cohost of the Linoleum Knife, Maximum Film!, and Breakfast All Day podcasts, and has discussed film on CNN, PBS, TCM, and ABC.
—From staff reports