Let's state the obvious: Being a gay celebrity during the days of Old Hollywood was no walk
in the park.
While most of these stars stayed in the closet throughout their careers.
speculation ran rampant about their sexuality.
Marilyn Monroe preferred blondes
In her 2012 book Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox, author Lois Banner claims Marilyn
Monroe
"desired women, had affairs with them, and worried that she might be lesbian by nature.”
In her lifetime, Monroe allegedly enjoyed sexual dalliances with the likes of Elizabeth
Taylor, Barbara Stanwyck, Marlene Dietrich, and Joan Crawford, according to Michelle Morgan's
biography Marilyn Monroe: Private And Undisclosed.
After Monroe and baseball legend Joe DiMaggio divorced in 1954, he reportedly told journalist
Walter Winchell that their relationship ended because of Monroe's preference for women.
The actress reportedly bedded two of her acting teachers, Paula Strasberg and Natasha Lytess,
and reportedly dumped the latter in a "brutal" fashion, refusing to take her calls.
As Lytess later said,
"She exploited those feelings as only a beautiful younger person can."
Katherine Hepburn reportedly got bored easily
Katherine Hepburn is remembered as a four-time Academy Award winner for Best Actress, a feat
that’s never been equaled since.
Behind the scenes, however she reportedly held a record of a different sort.
In his book Full Service, former self-described “pimp” Scotty Bowers claimed that Hepburn
had an insatiable appetite for women, and claimed that her typical requests went something
like this:
"When you get a chance, do you think you can find a nice young dark-haired girl for me?
Someone that's not too heavily made-up."
Bowers and Hepburn allegedly became quite chummy over the course of five decades, and
the author claimed to have procured "over 150 different women" for the four-time Oscar
winner.
He also suggested that Hepburn was rather fickle and would only see each woman "once
or twice, and then tire of them."
However, Hepburn reportedly became smitten with a 17-year-old beauty named Barbara, and
the two ladies allegedly continued to meet up for 49 years.
According to BuzzFeed, Barbara received "a letter" from Hepburn’s attorneys three months
before the actress died in June 2003 that included a $100,000 check.
​Barbara Stanwyck's cloudy sexuality
One thing is clear: There's no shortage of biographers eager to speculate about Barbara
Stanwyck's sexuality.
According to biographer Axel Madsen, the actress was widely suspected to be what he called
"Hollywood's biggest closeted lesbian.”
For years, rumors reportedly swirled that her unions to Robert Taylor and Frank Fay
were so-called "lavender marriages" arranged by studio brass to conceal her secret.
Meanwhile, in her book The Life and Loves of Barbara Stanwyck, author Jane Ellen Wayne
suggests Stanwyck was "bisexual,” and Diana McLellan's 2000 exposé The Girls: Sappho
Goes to Hollywood claimed that actress Tallulah Bankhead admitted to a romantic romp with
the Double Indemnity star.
Stanwyck herself proved unwilling to open up about her sexuality, though, to the point
of ejecting author Boze Hadleigh from her house when he prodded her on the issue.
Before he got the boot, however, Stanwyck offered this demure deflection:
"I heard that Dietrich, Garbo, most of the girls from Europe, swing either way.
Then I found out it's true."
Anthony Perkins: His alleged behind-the-scenes boyfriends
Although Psycho star Anthony Perkins was married to photographer Berry Berenson and had two
children, he was reportedly "carrying on" with fellow actor Tab Hunter as well.
This claim comes from artist Don Bachardy, who talked to author Charles Winecoff for
the biography Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins.
According to cameraman Leonard Smith, Hunter visited Perkins on set several times a week
to grab lunch.
Unfortunately, crew members were allegedly unkind about the relationship.
The ever-chatty Scotty Bowers seemingly confirmed this, claiming that Perkins was constantly
on the lookout for handsome young men.
He even recalled Perkins allegedly asking,
"Who do you have for me for tomorrow night that will surprise me?
Anything really new?"
Greta Garbo's 'exciting secret'
In her book The Girls, journalist Diana McLellan spent five years researching A-list lesbian
love affairs of Old Hollywood, unearthing evidence that suggested actresses Greta Garbo
and Marlene Dietrich enjoyed a romance when Garbo was 19 years old.
McLellan suspects the alleged dalliance informed much of Garbo's life from that point onward,
including her mystique, inscrutability, and "obsession with privacy."
While filming the 1925 silent film The Joyless Street, Dietrich, who McLellan claimed possessed
a "compulsive appetite for the sexual seduction of other beautiful women," reportedly bedded
"the simple, sensitive nineteen-year-old Swede."
Meanwhile, Garbo reportedly referred to lesbian love affairs as "exciting secrets."
Rock Hudson’s 'sweetheart'
On the 30th anniversary of Rock Hudson's death, People magazine interviewed Lee Garlington,
a "retired stockbroker" who reportedly dated the legendary leading man between 1962 and
1965.
Garlington called Hudson a “sweetheart,” claiming the romance blossomed from the moment
their eyes first met.
Hudson and Garlington would regularly attend film premieres together, and told the magazine
that while they always had female dates firmly affixed to their arms, it was only a cover.
Garlington said,
"Nobody in their right mind came out.
It was career suicide.
We all pretended to be straight."
The couple ultimately called it quits because Garlington longed for "a father figure" and
Hudson, who stood 6'4", was more of "a gentle giant" and "not strong enough."
Following his death, Garlington read in a biography that the Old Hollywood actor had
called him his "true love."
"I broke down and cried," he told People, admitting that he "had no idea I meant that
much to him."