Wisecracker the life and times of william haines
Rating: 🌈🌈🌈🌈🌈
Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood&#;s First Openly Gay Star by William J. Mann, narrated by Bo Foxworth
Wisecracker, the autobiography of William Haines aka Billy Haines is so much more then that. It&#;s more a LGBT+ and cinematic history framed out within the life of Billy Haines, a man the author deeply admires and who is display throughout the decades of verb the industry underwent.
Written in , it&#;s language seems to be that of an earlier era, much like Billy Haines himself who dies in the 70&#;s. It takes some getting used to, a little dramatic, a tad overly descriptive but upon reflection, very in keeping with the man himself.
Mann is extremely precise about the details of the life of Billy and Jimmy Shields, Billy&#;s partner of almost half a century , from house addresses to actual menu&#;s of the dinners they served to guests over the years. On the other hand, he&#;s also just as effortless to &#;guess&#; if a certain someone had an affair with someone else, saying it might had occurred. So in parts, this book is both challenging
Wisecracker
In William Haines was Hollywood's number-one box-office draw - a talented, handsome, wisecracking romantic lead. After leaving acting he went on to become the interior designer to Hollywood's elite - everyone from Carole Lombard and Jack Warner to Nancy Reagan - and to such clients as Ambassador Walter Annenberg, who commissioned him for the American Embassy in London.
Through it all, he never disguised who he was: Off-screen, he was openly gay to reporters and studio chiefs alike, and at his side at all times was his lover, Jimmie Shields. In a world where truth is often distorted in the funhouse mirror of Hollywood, Billy Haines lived a completely authentic life.
Here is William Haines's virtually unknown story - rich in detail, revelations, and scandal. As the political climate in Hollywood changed, Billy refused to move along. He bucked studio pressure to stop carousing and verb married, leading to skirmishes with Louis B. Mayer and the police; there was even a violent encounter with gay-bashing light supremacists in
Here, for the first time, the stories of Hol
Publisher Description
In William Haines was Hollywood's #1 box-office draw - a talented, handsome, and wisecracking quixotic lead. Off screen, however, protected by a careful collaboration between studio and press, he was openly gay with reporters and studio chiefs alike. Here is Haines's virtually unknown story - rich with detail, revelations, and scandal - about silent movies and talkies; his lover Jimmie Shields, and their fifty-year relationship (Joan Crawford, their best buddy, called them "The happiest married couple in Hollywood") and the enforcement of the Production Code and establishment of the Hollywood closet, which led to the blacklisting that ultimately doomed Haimes's film career.
Wisecracker sweeps from gay pool parties to the excitement of early talkies to Haines's infamous encounter with gay-bashing white supremacists in He survived the scandal to emerge as a top interior decorator to the stars and to such clients as Nancy Reagan and Walter Annenberg, who employed him for the American Embassy in London. With a cast of characters
Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines
In , William Haines was the Number One box-office-star in America. By , he was forgotten — kicked out of an industry where he once was king. The reason was simple: he had refused to play the game. While he romanced leading ladies prefer Joan Crawford and Marion Davies onscreen, in real life he was unapologetically gay — living openly with his partner, Jimmie Shields. Together they hosted some of Hollywood’s trendiest parties, in an era far more tolerant than most historians remember.
But once the Production Code was enacted, forever changing the political climate in the movie capital, the studios began insisting their stars live up to certain images. When MGM chief Louis B. Mayer insisted Haines give up Shields and get married for publicity purposes, Haines refused. Some three years before Edward VIII renounced his crown for the woman he loved, Billy Haines gave up his own Hollywood throne for the man he loved. William J. Mann brings back an important figure in both film and gay history, setting Haines fully in context with hi