Outing Perry Mason
A new biography tells all about the closeted gay life of the late actor Raymond Burr, including the time he brought a hot sailor back from his USO tour and took him to the huge Hollywood premiere of Judy Garland's "A Star is Born" in 1954, all the while having his USO castmate Evelyn Russell as his beard and official "date."
Yeah, lots of juicy bits like that. But this excerpt also sounds like the book is an interesting portrait of the constraints and viciousness of the Hollywood closet, and I'm sure we'll have author Michael Starr on the show:
"It's true that I could like to be married and after this series is over, perhaps I can take time to find someone," [Burr] told Screenland magazine in a 1959 article titled "No Time for Marriage." The article contained one of Raymond's longest published discourses on the subject of matrimony.
"So far I haven't met anyone and with an average fifteen-hour workday schedule, I hardly think it's probable . . . For the sake of my making my point, however, let's stretch our imagination and believe that the damn girl does exist," he said. "When would we go through the period of courtship, which is very important to a woman, especially—and to marriage? And when would we have time to get the marriage license?
"Seriously—quite seriously—I firmly believe that marriage is to be enjoyed and shared," he said. "Now I have a beautiful home at Malibu beach, but I'm lucky if I get to be in it over a weekend. So if I had a wife, I'd probably only get to see her over a weekend—unless of course she moved in here with me."
|