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Thursday, July 15, 2010

What Caesar Was Really Giving a Thumbs-Up For



We've heard Oprah tell the story many times about how she and others in the African-American community reacted when Black people first started appearing on television in the 1950's and 60's; she has said that the entire family would scream and shout that "Black people are on t.v.! Black people are on t.v.!" We thought of this story when we wrote on Tuesday about the Starz Network show, "Spartucus: Blood and Sand", and how all those "gladiator" movies of the 1950's were just as important to a closeted gay community as the first Black folk on t.v. were to African-Americans.

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(above- kirk douglas in "spartucus";
below- victor mature in "demetrius and
the gladiators")
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We realize now that there were millions and millions of gay Americans in the 1950's, just as there is now, but unlike today, gay people in the 1950's could not live their lives openly, much less openly revel in the physical beauty of someone of the same gender, an act which today we take for granted. In other words, closeted gays in the 1950's were desperate to see themselves, in movies, on t.v., in print, etc., but there was rarely that opportunity. And let's get real here, not only would that gay man of the 1950's have loved to have seen another gay man in a movie, but if that other gay man was naked, muscular and oiled up, then it was all the more delicious icing on the cake. There was only one problem, no one was making movies in the 1950's with naked gay men who were muscular and oiled up... or were they? Witness the phenomenon of the gladiator movies. A whole sub-genre of Hollywood movie, known as "sword and sandal movies", appeared in the 1950's which featured muscular, good-looking men in togas and loincloths baring lots and lots of skin. Some were major projects, i.e. "Spartucus" starring Kirk Douglas, "Demetrius and the Gladiators" starring Victor Mature, but many others were simply "B" and "C" pictures which were cheap to make and which usually returned a profit. Bodybuilding champion, Steve Reeves, who was Mr. America in 1947 and Mr. Universe in 1950, became a minor star working in these skin-baring "B" movies, most notably in 1958's "Hercules". The gladiator genre lasted for a number of years, but considering the cheap production values and poor quality of many of these films, one wonders why so many were made. Someone had to be watching them, and we think we know who those "someone's" were.
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(steve reeves)
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To a deeply closeted American gay population, watching Steve Reeves flex his pecs down at the local movie theater might be the only chance, or "safe" chance at least, to ogle a beautiful muscle-man and get away with it.




In the documentary, "The Celluoid Closet", the topic of closeted gays looking in every movie's nook and cranny for other examples of their "lifestyle" is richly explored, and explains one possible reason for the popularity of the gladiator flicks. It's funny, though, how in 2010, just showing skin in a movie is not enough; well-developed pecs are everywhere. In fact, it's hard to get away from them. So it comes as no surprise that to a more sophisticated movie audience, the only thing that will raise an eyebrow, now, is for the filmmaker to go ahead and completely strip away the gladiator's toga. And then we really get to see what made all the eunuchs in Caesar's palace so excited.
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(steve reeves as "hercules")



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