Bonus video! The mysteries and lies of Hollywood's most notorious agent
Well hello there!
I've got a great big hour-long video about Rock Hudson coming your way next week, but in the mean time here's a video about his incredible agent -- the notorious Henry Willson, one of the sleaziest creeps in Hollywood history. Henry's specialty was representing unbelievably handsome men (and taking advantage of them) and he's one of those homosexuals you might hear about on the Bad Gays podcast because he was, truly, a very bad man. That's not to say he wasn't also a victim of difficult times himself -- but he's one of those gays who endured a lot of terrible homophobia, and then instead of trying to tear it down, he decided to wield homophobia himself as a weapon. His life is a real roller-coaster of fascinating lies, and if there's any moral to be learned, I think it's that it is crucial that we all do what we can to stop bigotry from being available as a cudgel to be used against others.
And if that's too heavy a topic, fear not -- I also have a fun video clip of Rock Hudson singing about drugs with Bea Arthur! You can watch the full thing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KB__tQKPwI
Here's a backup link to this week's bonus video in case Patreon gives you an error message: https://youtu.be/MjrNHjU3sik
And I hope you'll join us this afternoon for a watch-along of one of my favorite movies, His Girl Friday -- a rom-com palette cleanser after some of the rougher films we watched last week! http://twitch.tv/mattbaume
Comments (19)
With the mention of Roy Cohn, any consideration for a future video about Fellow Travelers? Hearing your thoughts on it within the historical context would result in good content.
I meant to add a second paragraph, but return made it go away. You asked for ideas. One thing I’ve always wondered about is Stephen Fry’s process of coming out and the importance of My Night with Reg. I studied in London in 1996 and remember the play on the West End abruptly closing and a controversy about someone being gay. Googling it now, it appears I’ve conflated and mixed up a number of things and that it was John Sessions who was outed in the press and the play may have closed for other reasons. Anyway, maybe an entree into the world of British cinema/theatre and a cursory search suggests a much deeper story. Reading about sessions and his later heel turn to the UKIP, I’m also reminded of curiosity about Morrissey and if he is just a troll or what. Anyway, love the videos!
I LOVE your videos! I’ve learned so much about a Hollywood culture I sort of knew existed, but you’ve really fleshed it out.
*** spoilers for Ryan Murphy’s Hollywood*** II stopped watching The Ryan Murphy Hollywood the moment Jim Parsons as Henry Wilson turned up to help get the wish fulfilment anti racism film made. Wilson as Matt outlined and the series had already depicted behaved beyond horrifically. This tried to give him a bullshit redemption arc at total odds with everything we know about his character in real life of even in the series up to that point.
I totally get that show's approach is taking some historical crumbs and then turning them into a new & more narratively satisfying story ... but OOF yeah giving Henry a hero-turn is just wild. The show is a really interesting project! But I wonder how many misconceptions it'll have wound up creating.
You briefly touched on Wilson's unmarked grave. I need to shout out @silenceisplatinum on Instagram who does great work fundraising for grave markers for deserving and forgotten silent film stars!
Oh that's fascinating -- I'll definitely have to look them up!
One silver lining of the whole James Somerton scandal is Matt Baume keeps coming up as a great video essayist who does substantial original work. I'm happy for everyone who now gets to experience your channel! At the end of these videos I ask myself do I really need to watch all of the ever expanding montage? Then Angela Lansbury says "tits" and the answer's yes.
Haha glad you're enjoying the cavalcade of stars! It's going to be longer than the actual videos before you know it
Great video, Matt!
Thank you!
Thank you for doing such excellent research and being passionate about your work. I'm proud to be one of your patrons.
Aw thanks, glad you're here!
@Matt Baume I thought you would mention Jim Parson's amazing portrayal of Henry Willson in Hollywood.
That show's a whole can of worms I've decided not to open! Their focus isn't on the actual history, so I'd just spend way too much time saying "well, what ACTUALLY happened was," like it's some kind of multi-verse story that we'd never get to the good stuff. Jim is great though!
Ok, this is making me nuts; I recognize the design on your t-shirt from somewhere and for the life of me I can't remember where. What's it from?!?
Oh haha it's from one of the books behind me on the shelf! It's a Mouse Guard design: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/04/new-mouse-guard-tee.html
I would just like to say after watching the hbomberguy video, my love for you has grown and grown in the past 12 hours.
Agreed. I only became a Patron today, after loving Matt's channel for some years. Great creators deserve support just as fraudulent creators deserve shunning.