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On February 1, 1887, Harvey Wilcox officially registers Hollywood with the Los Angeles County recorder’s office. Wilcox and his wife, Daeida, had moved to Southern California four years earlier...
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- HISTORY Vault: Mankind The Story of All of Us
Some of the Golden Age of Hollywood's brightest stars were suspected to have been in "lavender" marriages—for the sake of their careers.
During the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1920s, actors and actresses shot to fame—but only if they tailored their images to the demands of the big studios. For LGBTQ+ actors, that often meant marrying a person of the opposite sex.
The early 20th century represented a unique time for LGBTQ+ people in the country. Throughout the Roaring Twenties, men dressed as women and gender non-conformity and queerness weren't as taboo in big cities as they would be years later.
Queerness could be appreciated on stage, but in the every day lives of major stars it was often hidden in sham unions known as "lavender marriages," according to Stephen Tropiano, professor of Screen Studies at Ithaca College and author of The Prime Time Closet: A History of Gays and Lesbians on TV.
These marriages were arranged by Hollywood studios between one or more gay, lesbian or bisexual people in order to hide their sexual orientation from the public. They date back to the early 20th century and carried on past the gay liberation movement of the 1960s.
How the Stonewall Riots Sparked a Movement
A look at how the human race has survived throughout the ages.
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- Becky Little
- Alvah Bessie (1904–1985) Alvah Bessie was a novelist, journalist and screenwriter who was blacklisted by Hollywood. During the 1930s, writer Alvah Bessie became concerned with the rise of fascism in Europe.
- Herbert J. Biberman (1900–1971) Herbert J. Biberman wrote the screenplays for several movies in the 1930s and ’40s, including the anti-Nazi film The Master Race (1944), which he also directed.
- Ring Lardner Jr. (1915–2000) Ring Lardner, Jr., (left), and Lester Cole, are shown as they arrived at U. S. District Court for their trial.
- Lester Cole (1904–1985) Lester Cole was a prolific screenwriter who co founded the Screen Writers Guild in 1933 with John Howard Lawson and Samuel Ornitz, two other writers who would later join him in the Hollywood 10.
Mar 4, 2017 · From Bette vs. Joan to the ultimate sibling rivalry, check out these legendary Hollywood battles.
Jan 3, 2018 · All three were born during Hollywood’s Golden Age, a wildly creative era in which movies dominated mass entertainment and their glamorous stars entranced the public.
Nov 24, 2009 · The notorious Red Scare kicks into high gear in Washington, D.C. when the House Un-American Activities Committee begins investigated alleged Communists in Hollywood.
Mar 1, 2018 · Reynolds had just discovered one of Old Hollywood’s dirty little secrets—that drugs fueled its classic films. Between the 1920s and 1960s, Hollywood studios created some of history’s ...
