Her Highness: The Queen's Gay Uncle

(left: prince george and his wife, marina;
right: prince george)

The news media is pulling out all the stops to interest us in the impending nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton tomorrow, but as mentioned in the previous post, we just can't muster the same kind of odd excitement Matt Lauer seems to have for Prince William. Hmmm.








We find other royal family members much more interesting than William and Kate. Take for instance the story of Prince George, The Duke of Kent, who was the present Queen Elizabeth's uncle. He was born in 1902, the fourth son of King George V and the younger brother of King George VI, (father of Queen Elizabeth II), who died in a tragic plane crash in 1942. Oh, and he was also gay, gay, gay!

(prince george)

Prince George married Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark, and had three children, including Prince Edward of Kent, who often shows up at Wimbledon with his wife, Katherine, to hand out the trophies. But it was Prince George's many lovers, men and women, which really made the news.





(left: noel coward;
right: sir henry "chips" cannon)

Among the Prince's many boyfriends were the famous playwright, Noel Coward; Sir Henry "Chips" Cannon, a British politician; art historian Anthony Blunt, who later turned out to be a Soviet spy; and the lovely Louis Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, who was Prince George's distant cousin, (incest is best!).












(anthony blunt with queen elizabeth:

QE: So I understand you're sleeping with my uncle.
AB: Yes, your highness, I am.
QE: How lovely. That explains why you've been spending so much time around the palace. I'm happy for you, just don't get any big ideas, there's only room for one queen around here, and I'm it. Bitch.








(kissing cousins:
louis ferdinand and prince george)

Prince George was also reportedly addicted to cocaine and morphine, and was once blackmailed by a male prostitute to whom he had written love letters. Wow, this guy knew how to get down. What a shame he's not around to attend the wedding tomorrow. We have the feeling he could really liven up the after-party.

Farley Granger 1925-2011

Just as the world was reeling from the loss of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor, came the news of the death of another movie star from the 1940's and 50's, Farley Granger. Granger worked for 58 years in movies and t.v., even achieving "teen idol" status with his good looks, but he was most famous for starring in two Alfred Hitchcock films, "Rope", 1948, and "Strangers on a Train", 1951.

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What most people didn't know about the handsome star was that he was in a 43 year relationship with Emmy-winning soap director, Robert Calhoun, until Calhoun's death in 2008. In Granger's autobiography, "Include Me Out", he described himself as bisexual, relating his affairs with screen legends Ava Gardner and Shelley Winters.


Also in "Include Me Out", Granger tells the story of being a 21 year-old navy recruit in Honolulu, and going ashore to lose his virginity to a prostitute. As he was leaving the woman's abode, he ran into a handsome Navy officer, and Granger was soon in bed again. Granger also writes about his two night fling with Leonard Bernstein and his live-in romance with Arthur Laurents, writer of the stage and movie versions of "West Side Story" and "Gypsy".
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(alfred hitchcock and granger)

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Ironically, Granger's two most famous movies, "Rope" and "Strangers on a Train", dealt heavily with a gay subtext. In "Strangers", the gay vibe between Granger and Robert Walker is palpable, and this movie was made in 1951. Hitchcock must have realized something in his young star that no one else noticed, and America definitely wasn't ready for.

In the 1950's, Granger transitioned into television, appearing in many of the early t.v. "playhouse" series. Later, Granger worked on daytime soaps, even receiving a daytime Emmy nomination in 1977 for his role on "One Life to Live".


Despite his Hollywood star status and success in television, Granger said he was most happy on stage. His noted stage appearances include his 1960 Broadway debut in "First Impressions, a musical version of "Pride and Prejudice", and in 1980, Granger starred in Ira Levin's "Deathtrap". .

(granger with long-time partner, robert calhoun)

Jack LaLanne 1914 - 2011

By now you've probably heard of the passing of fitness and t.v. legend, Jack LaLanne, at age 96. He died yesterday at his home in California.

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LaLanne's biography is familiar to most of us. He grew up eating lots of sugar and junk food and felt tired and angry all the time. Then at 15 he heard a lecture by health food pioneer Jack Bragg, and from that moment on, there was no looking back. LaLanne cleaned up his diet, started lifting weights and began a pioneering career as a fitness guru.

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In 1937 he opened his first gym which later became a string of gyms, eventually selling them to the Bally's Company, which still operates a chain of health clubs today. In the course of running his gyms, LaLanne also invented several fitness machines which are still in use today, including leg extension machines, pulley machines which used cables, weight selectors and the original model of what is now the Smith Machine.

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"The Jack LaLanne Show" started on local San Francisco television in 1951, and ABC took it national in 1959. LaLanne's t.v. show ran in various forms for 34 years, becoming the longest running exercise program in television history. LaLanne was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2002.

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We've been trying to find out if LaLanne ever competed in the "Mr. America" or "Mr. Universe" bodybuilding competitions, but so far, we have't find any evidence that he did. LaLanne did, however, complete several stunts of physical stamina over the years, including swimming across San Fransisco Bay in handcuffs at age 41, completing 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes at age 42, and at age 70, he swam handcuffed while pulling 70 people in 70 rowboats.

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What you won't hear today on "The Today Show" about Jack LaLanne's life, or anywhere else for that matter, is the fact that he once posed nude for some of the "fitness magazines" of the 1940's and 1950's. We're not disputing that these magazines were sometimes read by men who were seriously interested in fitness, but many of them were just barely disguised gay porn for closeted gay men who had no other way to view naked male models. After LaLanne became famous, he tried to intervene legally to have the photographs destroyed, but was unsuccessful. One commenter today remarked that it was interesting that LaLanne feared that the photographs would ruin his career, whereas today nude photographs would only enhance a celebrity's career. How far we've come.

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Click here to read our previous posts about the importance of

gay "muscle magazines" on the 1940's-1960's.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! And on this day, while you're stuffing your face, take a few moments to give thanks for how far we've come as a community in this country. Read below to see what happened to two of our brothers a few years ago.

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In 1637, John Alexander and Thomas Roberts were convicted of “lude behavior and unclean carriage one with another, by often spending their seed one upon another, which was proved both by witness and their own confession; the said Alexander found to have been formerly notoriously guilty that way, and seeking to allure others thereunto.” Alexander was given a severe whipping, burned in the shoulder with a hot iron and permanently banished from the Colony. Roberts was sentenced to a severe whipping, but was not banished. He was prohibited from ever owning any land within the Plymouth Colony in the future.

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So let us get this straight. John and Thomas were probably cruising each other for some time; they probably toiled together in the yam field, and on hot days when John took off his muslin shirt with puffy sleeves, he always noticed the stealing glances he got from Thomas and the subsequent bulge which would appear in Thomas' breechcloth pants. John also noticed how when the half-naked Indians would come into the colony to trade, Thomas would stare at Squanto's naked buttocks region which were "formed of partikurlarly large muscle". Finally one day, John could take it no longer, and after inviting Thomas to smoke "foul weed" behind the barn, they had congress. But little did they know that Sarah, a close friend of Thomas', (she was Thomas' fag hag), witnessed the union and reported it to the colony leaders. And it all went down hill from there. John was banished from the colony, which would be the equivelent of having your gym membership stripped today for spending too much "time" in the steam room, and Thomas was allowed to stay, but afterwhich, he no longer spoke to Sarah. But don't worry, we have no doubt that John and Thomas continued to "have unclean carriage" with each other, they just had to go further out of town to do it. Oh man, how well do we know that story?

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So give thanks today that we no longer live in the Plymouth Colony. Not that the Republicans wouldn't like to take us back to those days, but the ketchup's already out of that bottle, and we're not going back. Or as the Pilgrims would understand it, that seed's already been spent.

Did You Dance To This at Traxx in D.C.?

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Happy 41st Birthday to Ce Ce Peniston, who had a massive hit in 1992 with "Finally". It's a little depressing to think that the babies born the year we were dancing to this song at Traxx in D.C. are now freshman in college, but hey, that's life!
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At the peak of her popularity, Peniston, the 1989 winner of the Miss Black Arizona title, sang for Pope John Paul II and at Bill Clinton's inauguration. "Finally" peaked at #5 and was prominently featured in the 1994 hit movie, "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert". The song sold over 3 million copies, making it one of the biggest dance records of all time. Peniston has most recently acted in several stage productions, in two independent films and is working to release a new album.