Have you ever heard of a “Lavender Marriage?”
It’s a term coined for marriages during the Golden Age of Hollywood where one or both
partners was secretly gay.
While Hollywood is known these days as leading the charge for the rights of the LGBTQ+ community,
it wasn't nearly as supportive back in the day.
Actors and actresses were signed to studio contracts that included things like morality
clauses that dictated their personal lives and behavior.
And there was also the issue of the perception of the general public.
The country was far less accepting of homosexuality at that point, so if any of these actors and
actresses were 'found out' it could mean disappointment at the box office.
Thus the emergence of lavender marriages.
This was despite the fact that throughout the 1920s there was more of openness about
sexuality and gender non-conformity than before and after that era.
But the studios were incredibly strict about the behavior of their employed actors.
These lavender marriages were fully arranged by the studio, and the actors and actresses
were expected to keep up appearances and never be found out.
This was in spite of the fact that there were often 'open secrets' in the Hollywood circuit
about various gay, lesbian, and bisexual stars.
The reason Lavender Marriages were called as such was because that color was linked
with homosexuality back in the early 1900s.
So it wasn’t long before the color became associated with sham marriages meant to cover
up homosexuality as well.
One can only assume how difficult it must have been for these actors to not only be
afraid to be who they were but to be told by their employers that they had to actively
cover it up.
So join Facts Verse, as we look at Old Hollywood Stars Who Hid Their Sexuality with Fake Marriages!
Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova Rudolph Valentino was a debonair and attractive
leading man during the “Roaring 20’s.”
And one of the first marriages of the so-called Lavender Marriage era was happened when he
married actress Jean Acker.
Though we should note that, like many of the marriages in this video and during that era,
it involves a lot of speculation about the true sexual proclivities of the people involved.
Because homosexuality during that era was shrouded in secrecy, many stars took their
true sexual orientation with them to the grave.
So many times the label of Lavender Marriage was applied to a marriage where it wasn't
known for sure that one or both members weren't straight.
However, there were rumors going around Hollywood that Rudolph Valentino was bisexual.
This posed a PR issue for him and his studio.
At the same time, actor Jean Acker was enjoying relative success in town but was rumored to
be a lesbian.
So studio execs took matters into their own hands and arranged for the two to be married
in 1919.
As the story goes, Acker was already dissolution with the marriage before the ink on their
marriage certificate was dry.
She reportedly locked Valentino outside their shared hotel room on the night of their wedding.
Not a great start.
Though the marriage did last slightly longer, as the couple split 2 years later.
Valentino’s star rose even higher in the 1920s, and there was a lot of pressure from
the studio to keep that path intact.
They also became more concerned when Valentino began taking on roles that weren’t as traditionally
“masculine” as his previous ones had been.
This included 1924’s “Monsieur Beaucaire.”
To counter this trend, the studio insisted he marry again.
So Valentino turned to his friend Natacha Rambova, who was a costume and set designer.
Rambova was in a lesbian relationship with actress Alla Nazimova at the time.
So she was also facing the wrath of the studios.
Valentino and Rambova wed in 1923 in an attempt to put down any rumors of their alleged homosexuality.
Sadly this ruse didn’t last long either, and the two were divorced in 1925.
As a result of these failed marriages and the rumors of his sexuality, Valentino was
referred to in certain circles as the “Pink Powder Puff.’
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Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Danny Kaye was a star performer in his day.
He shined as a singer, dancer, comedian, actors, and more.
Over the course of the 1940s and ’50s, he starred in 17 films such as The Kid From Brooklyn,
The Spector General, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
He also was a prominent and successful singer and dancer.
In 1954 became the ambassador at large of UNICEF, and was the first person to hold this
distinction.
Later in life he was awarded the French Legion of Honour for many decades of work with UNICEF.
While Kaye was indeed a leading man in Hollywood, he also wasn’t known for playing roles that
typified the rugged, “masculine” aesthetic.
He was famous for his skills at physical comedy as well as pantomimes.
He also performed novelty songs that gained him even more success.
The roles Kaye often took were often of characters who were weak and cowardly.
Sometimes they were outwardly effeminate.
While this should have been seen primarily as evidence of his skill as an actor, they
were also taken to mean he wasn’t a ‘man’s man’ in the traditional sense.
Although to be fair, Kaye was also known to be romantically involved with other men, particularly
in his early days when he performed as a Vaudeville comic.
His supposed lavender marriage happened in 1940, when he married pianist Sylvia Fine.
But in contrast with some of the other lavender marriages of the era that fell apart, Kaye
and Fine’s marriage lasted until his death in 1987.
They even had a daughter together named Dena.
It seems likely that if this marriage had actually been a full sham, it wouldn’t have
lasted through decades.
So perhaps Kaye was bisexual and found his soul mate in Sylvia.
Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates The marriage of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates
is often considered one of the most famous of the lavender marriages.
This is perhaps because of the nature of Rock Hudson's Hollywood stardom.
Rock was at the top of the A-list during his prime, and was one of the most prominent leading
men and heartthrobs in America.
He was a sure thing at the box office, starring in movies like Magnificent Obsession, All
That Heaven Allows, and Lover Come Back.
He was also a critically acclaimed actor, receiving an Oscar nomination for his work
in the movie Giant in 1956.
Hudson was the epitome of a male movie star.
And yet, the fact that he was secretly gay was one of the worst kept secrets in Hollywood.
So while the public at large fully bought into the notion that he was straight as an
arrow, and a classic male lead, the town that employed him knew quite well that he was gay.
In the early to mid 1950s however, those rumors had started to gain traction, to the point
where a tabloid threatened to publish a story outing Hudson.
Hudson’s agent attempted to keep things under wraps by quickly arranging a wedding.
Rock married his secretary at the time, Phyllis Gates.
The two were hitched in 1955 and then divorced in 1958.
The divorce did not help to stop the rumors of Hudson’s homosexuality.
In fact, these rumors became so widespread that they are credited with starting the era
of invasive tabloid journalism.
The gossip rag, Confidential, started outing Hollywood stars against their will.
This, along with their stories of other Hollywood rumors, led the publication to achieve success
in the ‘50s and paved the way for more tabloids going forward.
To be fair, Hudson always insisted that his marriage to Gates was legit.
Then in 1984, Hudson was diagnosed with AIDS.
This further fueled speculation that he was gay, as it was erroneously seen as a gay-centric
disease at that time.
Hudson was actually one of the first prominent celebrities to reveal an AIDS diagnosis.
And he was one of the first famous celebs to die of AIDS-related illness as well.
In coming forward with his illness, he was considered a hugely influential figure in
helping AIDS awareness grow and become mainstream.
Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli Judy Garland was a Hollywood legend, despite
only living to the age of 47.
She is best known for playing Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz in 1939, though her career as
an actress and recording artist grew from there.
She appeared in films such as Meet Me in St. Louis, Summer Stock, and The Harvey Girls.
She also released albums as a talented singer and was actually the first female to with
Album of the Year at the Grammy.
Over the course of her life, she won a Golden Globe, a Special Tony Awards, as well as Oscar
and Emmy nominations.
The lady could do it all.
However, as with many of the stars in this video, Judy’s life was utterly controlled
by movie studios.
Perhaps more so than any other.
Studio executives began criticizing her weight and her figure when she was still quite young,
which led to psychological and emotional issues that plagues her for years.
They also created untenable shooting schedules for the young star, who, to literally stay
awake to film, turned to stimulant drugs.
All of these made for a fragile person who was taken down by substance abuse issues.
In the end, she dies at age 47 from an accidental drug overdose in 1969.
But before that, she married Vincent Minnelli in 1945.
They had met on the set of Meet Me In St. Louis, which Minnelli directed.
Minnelli actually lived as an openly gay man, which was fairly rare in Hollywood circles
at the time.
But the two entered into a lavender marriage.
Apparently, Judy was fully aware of Minnelli’s homosexuality and didn’t have any issues
with it.
She in fact felt she was helping him our, due to the stringent morality clauses abundant
at the time.
The two had a daughter, Liza, who went on to become a Hollywood legend herself.
Now it’s time to hear from you.
Which one of these couples was the most surprising to hear about?
Let us know in the comments below.
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