The post “Brand Me!” featuring Manila Luzon, Laganja Estranja, AB Soto and Jackie Huba at DragCon 2016 appeared first on The WOW Report.
October 30, 1896– Ruth Gordon:
“To be somebody you must last.”
Gordon has been such a major part of my life for so long, it is hard for me to remember a time when she was not busy being my muse.
A quote from Gordon: “Never Face The Facts” has been the motto for much of my life, painted on my walls by my husband and tattooed on my body. Gordon’s point was, if she had owned up to the fact that at 5’1’’, not really pretty and with her drama teachers telling her that she had no talent… well, she would never have become Ruth Gordon.
I treasure, having read and re-read, her three volumes of memoirs Myself Among Others (1971), My Side: The Autobiography Of Ruth Gordon (1976) and Ruth Gordon: An Open Book (1980). I know it all started for me with Inside Daisy Clover (1965), a film that had a strong impact on me at 11 years old when inexplicitly my parents took me to see it at a drive-in theatre.
My admiration for Gordon was cemented with her Academy Award winning performance in that great horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and then with Harold And Maude (1971), the most influential film of my youth.
The daughter of a former ship captain, Gordon knew what she wanted to do with her life after witnessing a performance by stage actor Hazel Dawn the musical The Pink Lady (1905) in Boston as a child. Over the initial objections of her father, Gordon decided upon a stage career for herself, studying at the American Academy Of Dramatic Arts in NYC. In 1915, she made her Broadway debut in Peter Pan starring Maude Adams. “Ruth Gordon was ever so gay as Nibs”, wrote influential critic Alexander Woollcott, who became a valued and powerful friend to Gordon, doing what he could to encourage her and promote her career. But, the next year, in her first starring role, in Booth Tarkington’s Seventeen, Gordon received scathing reviews. The New York Tribune’s critic Heywood Broun wrote: “Anyone who looks like that and acts like that must get off the stage.” Thankfully Gordon only read her good reviews.
Gordon took whatever acting gigs she could find, mostly touring the provinces in past seasons’ Broadway shows. To gain stature physically, she had a doctor break and reset both her knees to correct her bowlegs. She worked on her voice and fervently researched every role she played, developing a wide range.
With such stage hits like Serena Blandish (1929), Gordon became one of Broadway’s biggest stars of the 1920s and 1930s. She became the first female American actor to perform with England’s Old Vic Company, where she was the toast of London as Mattie Silver in Ethan Frome (1936) and a comic turn in the Restoration comedy The Country Wife (1675). Back in NYC the next year, she won raves as Nora in Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. In 1940, Gordon went Hollywood when she was cast as Mary Todd Lincoln in Robert Sherwood’s Abe Lincoln In Illinois opposite Raymond Massey.
Privately, however, her life was in shambles after the sudden death of her husband, actor Gregory Kelly after just six years of marriage. She had a scandalous affair with handsome Svengali-ish producer Jed Harris, with whom she had her only child, a son, Jones Harris.
New York Harold Tribune theater critic Walter Kerr wrote that Gordon’s Natasha in Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters (1949) was the best performance he had ever seen, and the other sisters in that production were played by theatre greats Judith Anderson and Katharine Cornell, plus Natasha isn’t even a leading role.
She created the role of Dolly Levi in gay writer Thornton Wilder’s The Matchmaker (1956), a role written for her, and the basis of the musical Hello, Dolly!.
But for 23 years, from 1943 to 1966, Gordon did not work as an actor in films. In 1942, she married the bright playwright Garson Kanin, 16 years younger than her. It was a union that lasted more than four decades.
Gordon collaborated with Kanin on writing projects, with delightful results like the Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn comedies Adam’s Rib (1949) and Pat And Mike (1952), as well as the Judy Holliday vehicle The Marrying Kind (1952). Gordon finally returned to film acting for Inside Daisy Clover. She was discovered, or rediscovered, by film fans of my own generation with her role as the sinister elderly neighbor in Rosemary’s Baby.
Here is a sweet anecdote: Director Roman Polanski wrote how he was walking on to the set of Rosemary’s Baby for the first time and he suddenly became aware of a short girl in a miniskirt with an amazing ass and hot legs. Polanski:
“The girl turned around, and it was Ruth Gordon!”
It makes sense. One of Gordon’s greatest gifts was an ability to be both young and old, or homely and beautiful all at once.
When accepting the Academy Award for her performance for Rosemary’s Baby, the 72 year old Gordon brought down the house by stating:
“You have no idea how encouraging a thing like this can be.”
Gordon was unforgettable in two other films from my high school years: Where’s Papa? (1970), in which she played the obscenely senile mother of George Segal who poured Pepsi-Cola on her Lucky Charms cereal, and of course, my beloved Harold And Maude, as the free spirited soul mate of a death obsessed young man perfectly played Bud Cort, who remained her lifelong friend in real life.
I saw Gordon on stage in a revivial of George Bernard Shaw’s early feminist play Mrs. Warren’s Profession on Broadway in spring 1976. I was enthralled with her funny, spry performance and then turned around to watch it again the next night.
The story of Gordon’s early life is smartly told in her own hit plays Over 21 (1944) and Years Ago (1947), plus in the film The Actress (1953), directed by George Cukor, with a screenplay by Gordon. She was portrayed by Jean Simmons and Spencer Tracy played her father. I came upon it again in 2014 while bedridden.
She was never fussy or old fashioned. Her husband, Kanin wrote:
“Her great joy was hanging around young people. She was always very much involved in the new stuff. I remember when we went to see the Broadway musical Hair (1967) at a preview. Richard Rodgers was there and he walked out after the first act. So did David Merrick. All these Shubert executives left. But Ruth just went bananas. She thought it was just terrific. She went backstage to congratulate the cast and went back to see the show many, many times.”
Ruth Gordon remains very special to me. She is my muse. The picture below is of a wall of our bungalow in Seattle, painted by The Husband in the late 1980s as a gift.
“To get it right, be born with luck or else make it. Never give up. A little money helps, but what really gets it right is to never face the facts.”
When Gordon left this world in the summer of 1985, I couldn’t be too sad because during her remarkable career lasting 70 years in and around the worlds of stage, screen, television and publishing, Gordon manifested a fearsome will and an insatiable appetite for things new.
”Pan me, don’t give me the part, publish everybody’s book but this one and I will still make it! ”Why? Because I believe I will. If you believe, then you hang on. If you believe, it means you’ve got imagination, you don’t need stuff thrown out for you in a blueprint, you don’t face facts, what can stop you? If I don’t make it today, I’ll come in tomorrow.”
The post #BornThisDay: Actor/Writer, Ruth Gordon appeared first on The WOW Report.
Hocus Pocus is cult classic in recent years, revived every Halloween and Bette Midler won this Halloween by reprising her character, Winifred Sanderson, at her annual Hulaween party benefiting the New York Restoration Project. The party in New York City at the Waldorf-Astoria was Friday night which was also attended by the likes of other funny-ladies like Sandra Bernhard, Judy Gold, Kathy Griffin, along with Bette’s look-alike daughter, Sophie Von Haselberg.
Midler is looking fierce these days, getting in great shape for her return to Broadway in the highly anticipated revival of Hello Dolly. (Pre-sales for the show raked over $9 million at the box office in its first day of ticket sales, a new Broadway record! I got mine that day too!)
And cCheck out an amazing muscled-up babe Marc Jacobs, and an equally buff bf Charly DeFrancesco posing and dancing below.
Midler & daughter, Sophie Von Haselberg
Million Dollar Listing New York’s Ryan Serhant and wife Emilia
Bette with a snapchat cat, (Kathy Griffin)
Bette, Sandy Bernhard & Marc Jacobs
Marc Jacobs & Charly DeFrancesco
(Photos, Getty; via NewNowNext)
The post #Hulaween: Bette Midler Made Everyone SQUEAL with Her “Hocus Pocus” Redux at Her Annual Bash! appeared first on The WOW Report.
My old pal Rocky Schenck has lead many lives. He’s directed videos for Joni Mitchell & Adele & scores of others. He’s photographed every other of A-list celeb of the past 30 years, as well as Hollywood’s alt-elite like Ann Magnuson & Francis Bean Cobain, in his signature vintage-glam style. And lately he’s been a photo-world darling, exhibiting at some of the best museums and galleries and lecturing around the world.
NOW Rocky is wearing a new artist’s hat. Photography IS art and his process is far from digital, but now he’s added another layer to his most personal work to date. He has a new exhibit of these amazing hand-colored originals at L.A’s Fahey Klein gallery, along with a new book with forward by Hollywood icon, and The Exorcist director, William Friedkin who writes,
“Where do these images come from? They’re shrouded in secrecy, soft-focused yet vivid, suggestive like waking dreams.“
This latest series I’ve been hearing about for years but he kept it mostly under wraps. You can see has transformed his Beachwood Canyon home into a hand-tinting lab and exhibit in these latest Instagram behind-the-scenes pics below.
Hypnotic and mysterious figures are set amongst haunting landscapes that ask the viewer to create their own fantasy narratives. That’s Frances Bean Cobain (below) on the cover of the book as an Ophelia-esque nymph in the water on the edge of a gnarled forest. See if you can make your own nightmares with some of these beautiful and spooky pictures in bed tonight.
Rocky Schenck: The Recurring Dream runs through December 3 in Los Angeles at the Fahey Klein gallery.
Schenck with director, William Friedkin at the opening of “The Recurring Dream” last week
(Photos, Rocky Schenck; via Flavorwire)
The post #SpookyPictures: Is Artist Rocky Schenck’s “Recurring Dream” a Hollywood Nightmare? appeared first on The WOW Report.
Marc Jacobs & Charly DeFrancesco
For Bette Midler‘s annual Hulaween bash at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria people always turn it out (see next post) But Marc Jacobs and boyfriend Charly DeFrancesco did some pretty serious prep this year. All those days at the gym and competitive body building seems to have paid off. Check out their tweets, pre-party excitement and arrival!
#loveisnotadrag #gratefulnothateful pic.twitter.com/3KKMEYEWN8
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
When your eyebrows keep melting, your scrunchie comes unscrunched, your lace front adhesive loses its grip… https://t.co/fMTtX6TkFo pic.twitter.com/pmX3R2jQUR
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
Me and Charly Aka Stacie and Larry. Thank you @patmcgrathreal Jenna and Micheal, @sandyhullett1 @JINsoon ❤️❤️❤️… https://t.co/fDMVKSwUHr pic.twitter.com/9DM3qTw3KL
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
Good morning
#aboutlastnight #dragisnotforsissys @sandyhullett1 @patmcgrathreal @JINsoon #MartínIzquierdo pic.twitter.com/bzssK2wRIU
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
When I get these killer @JINsoon nails off I'll post some more #dragisnotforsissys #shameless pic.twitter.com/HCcnyNnWO5
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
Us❤️️❤️️ Stacie and Larry (Marc and Charly) pic.twitter.com/8xgC8YBAlX
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
‘
Can't caption thoroughly with these nails…. more to come! #hulaween @bettemidler #StacieandLarry #marcandcharly pic.twitter.com/2VjUYETiYQ
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
Comments??? #loveisnotadrag #dragisnotforsissys #ifalltheworldsastagethenidentityisnothingbutacostume… https://t.co/UnVegWG1Hn pic.twitter.com/uNZa1SJVyO
— Marc Jacobs (@themarcjacobs) October 29, 2016
The post #Hulaween: Marc Jacobs & Boyfriend Charly DeFrancesco MURDER IT as Hot Bodybuilders! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Willow Smith
Ad-Rock
Annabella Lwin
Brian Stokes Mitchell
Dan Rather
David Ogden Stiers
Deidre Hall
Dermot Mulroney
Eddie Kaye Thomas
Irina Pantaeva
Jane Pauley
Justin Chatwin
Larry Mullen Jr.
Lee Grant
Linn Berggren
Peter Jackson
Piper Perabo
Rob Schneider
Ron Rifkin
Sally Kirkland
Samaire Armstrong
Stephen Rea
Vanilla Ice
The post October 31st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
October 31, 1876– Natalie Clifford Barney:
“How many inner resources does one needs to tolerate a life of leisure without fatigue.”
In 1888, when she was just 12 years old, decades ahead of her time, Natalie Barney realized that she was gay. Barney considered it a bit unusual but perfectly natural, like being an albino. She was a member of a large wealthy, celebrated Ohio family, but she refused to hide who she was.
In 1900, she published her first book, a collection of love poems to other women with her mother providing the illustrations. When her father discovered the book, he purchased every copy still available and burned them and paid the printer to destroy the plates.
She is one of the most compelling and maddening women of the 19th and early 20th century. She was a great seducer whose list of conquests include some of the most accomplished females of the Belle Époque. But, she was so much more than just a female Casanova. She was also a writer, playwright, and poet. She held a salon for more than 60 years on Paris’s Left Bank, which brought together artists from around the world. Barney was a bridge between the Parisian community and the ex-pats who chose to live in Paris after WWI. She dedicated herself to promoting women writers by founding a Women’s Academy in response to the all-male French Academy.
After Barney moved to Paris when she was 22 years old, she published 10 books in French and hosted that weekly salon that was a hotbed of Sapphic shenanigans, but was also the center of the city’s literary culture. Among her regular guests: Colette, T.S. Eliot, Auguste Rodin, Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas, Djuna Barnes, Isadora Duncan, Radclyffe Hall, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Janet Flanner, Andre Gide, Jean Cocteau, Peggy Guggenheim, Sinclair Lewis, Thornton Wilder, Virgil Thomson, Truman Capote, Mary McCarthy, Somerset Maugham, Ford Maddox Ford, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Joyce, but somehow, never Ernest Hemingway.
Mata Hari showed up at Barney’s salon dressed as Lady Godiva on a white horse harnessed with turquoise cloisonné before performing her big dance number.
Dolly Wilde, Oscar’s niece was one of Barney’s great loves, but Wilde drank a lot, was addicted to heroin, and attempted suicide several times. Despite her wit and charm, Wilde never managed to actually write anything, preferring to be taken care of by others. Barney paid for her stays in the 20th century equivalent of rehab but nothing worked. After being diagnosed with cancer, Wilde refused surgery and committed suicide in 1941.
Besides living openly as a lesbian, Barney also advocated against monogamy. Anyone who fell in love with Barney needed to get used to sharing her. She usually had two or three lovers at a time. She once wrote out a list dividing her lovers into separate categories: Liaisons, Demi-Liaisons, and Adventures. Many of her former girlfriends stayed lifelong friends. Barney was fearless in pursuit of women; she was not shy about making her attentions known. Many straight women succumbed to the allure of Barney’s special charms. While not exactly beautiful, but she had long, lustrous blonde hair, and deep blue eyes. The lesbian scene in Paris knew her as “The Amazon”.
When she first hit Paris, Barney seduced Liane de Pougy, the most famous courtesan in France, by showing up at her brothel dressing as a page and announcing that she was a “page of love,” sent by Sappho. She had first spotted de Pougy riding her horse in Bois de Boulogne and instantly knew she had to have her. Their affair ended because Barney couldn’t deal with de Pougy’s profession. The love affair was immortalized in de Pougy’s novel entitled Idylle Saphique (1901). The book was reprinted 70 times in its first year. Far from being hurt or offended, Barney even contributed a couple of chapters to the novel.
Barney’s next conquest was Pauline Tarn, an Amercian who wrote poetry under the name Renée Vivien. Vivien fell hard for Barney, considered her a muse, but she was unable to deal with Barney’s other lovers. She was anorexic and addicted to alcohol and drugs. After two years, Vivien broke it off. She moved on to other lovers but Barney wouldn’t accept her decision. She often wanted what she couldn’t have. After a brief reconciliation, including a vacation on the island of Lesbos, Vivien finally ended the relationship for good. She died in 1909 from too many drugs and too little food. She was just 32 years old. Barney wrote:
“She could not be saved. Her life was a long suicide. Everything turned to dust and ashes in her hands.”
Not all of Barney’s love affairs ended in tragedy or publication. Her longest relationship was with another wealthy American, painter Romaine Brooks. Romaine and Natalie met during WWI. Less social than Barney, she disliked Paris, and she also disliked most of Barney’s friends. Brooks was footloose; spending most of her life traveling between Europe and the USA. She kept Barney interested because she never knew when Romaine was going to pack-up and leave. Romaine also was better at dealing Barney’s other girlfriends. For most of their 50 year relationship, they kept separate residences. To accommodate Romaine’s need for solitude, their summer cottage consisted of two wings joined by a dining room.
Barney kept the party going until 1972, when she left this world at 95 years old. After her death, Barney’s life and work was largely forgotten. In 1979, artist Judy Chicago honored Barney with a place setting of her famous The Dinner Party, now on display at Brooklyn Museum Of Art.
In the 1980’s, her books were rediscovered and translated into English. Two major biographies were written about her. Especially fun to read is Wild At Heart: A Life: Natalie Clifford Barney And The Decadence Of Literary Paris (2006) by Suzanne Rodriguez.
Seven years ago on her birthday, Barney was honored with a historical marker in her home town of Dayton, the first in Ohio to make note of the sexual orientation of its honoree.
Don’t you think that a biopic of Barney with Jennifer Lawrence written and directed by Angelina Jolie is a good idea? How about Patti Smith to do the score? I could play Gertrude Stein.
The post #BornThisDay: Writer, Natalie Clifford Barney appeared first on The WOW Report.
Actor & activist Colin Campbell, left, with Jonathan Kornman at Burning Man this year
If you haven’t been following it, no big surprise because Donald Trump, Halloween and the FBI investigation BS has sucked all of the air out of the room but the Dakota Access Pipeline is set to bring crude oil through the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. Protests have been underway and earlier in the week Willow Smith and her brother Jaden were among the crowds picketing the construction site in North Dakota. Willow posted on Instagram a drawing of a few peaceful American-Indians facing off against a formidable force of tanks, guns and big-money.
The pipeline stands as a threat to the water supply of the treaty-protected reservation if there were to be a spill. My friend, actor Colin Campbell is there and just posted the image above and this message below on Facebook explaining the issue from the personal.
“I was born and grew up on Lummi Tribal land in Washington State until I was 12. My father was the doctor for many in the tribe. Because of his commitment to the indigenous people, my family was made honorary tribal members in the 1970’s. Which I believe still holds for my brother and I. As a journalist my Mother did several in-depth articles on the North West Washington tribes and interested us in the culture with her research.
I grew up with all that art and that sensibility. And of course all of us children went to the same school and played together. What I know instinctively from being born and raised in that environment is that these indigenous people understand the land.
This is a warning. We need to stop and change. They understand that the world has become dominated by corporations that will destroy all the land without honor or consideration in exchange for profit. We all have an idea of what the end game will be like if we cannot change or do the work to make the world habitable.
Enough has been done to our Indigenous Peoples. The 19th century was an almost complete genocide of their culture. We need to take them at their word and honor agreements. Enough is enough.” #NoDAPL
CNN‘s Van Johnson was formerly in the Obama administration as a green jobs advisor, so he knows where of he speaks. So eloquently.
“Water is life. Oil is death.“
Watch.
(Smiths via New York magazine)
The post #NoDAPL: Willow Smith, Van Jones & Colin Campbell on the Dakota Access Pipeline Protest appeared first on The WOW Report.
For their Election Issue, artist Barbara Kruger puts her iconic type treatment to great use on Donald Trump’s overexposed mug. According to New York magazine’s editor-in-chief Adam Moss,
“[we] were drawn to it, in part, for the three ways in which it could be interpreted:
• as Trump speaking (single word epithets being his specialty);
• as a description of Trump;
• and as a call on the election result. On this latter point, who knows – and we confess to being a little rattled when the Comey letter news broke just as were shipping it. But in the end we felt that the power of Kruger’s image transcended any one meaning you could read into it. The issue analyzes many aspects of Trump’s extraordinary candidacy, and an important point is spelled out in the headline we appended to the bottom corner:
• Trump has already changed America, not much for the better.
Which adds a fourth meaning: in that sense we are all losers too.”
Kruger might be better known in the streetwear world as the artist that inspired Supreme’s homage/rip-off box logo. New York‘s latest issue is on newsstands today. (via Hypebeast)
The post #TheArtoftheLoser: Artist Barbara Kruger Pre-Trashes Trump For NY Mag’s Election Issue appeared first on The WOW Report.
Last night’s episode of Watch What Happens Live with had lots Halloween treats and a few tricks. Andy Cohen’s guests were Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga from Real Housewives of New Jersey, but WOmanning the bar were Drag Race Stars Alyssa Edwards, Shangela and Tatianna.
All three queens have lip-synced for their lives, but Cohen made them lip sync for their WIFE as they performed to the Real Housewives classic club hits Tardy for the Party, Money Can’t Buy You Class & Gone With the Wind Fabulous.
The queens SLAY for real —but check out Andy go nuts over having WAY TOO MUCH fierceness on his set.
Watch.
(via NewNowNext)
The post #WWHL: Alyssa, Shangela & Tatianna SLAY Andy Cohen with “Lip Sync For Your Wife” appeared first on The WOW Report.
In homage to All Hallows’ Evening, here’s a special Transformation Tuesday, on a Monday! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!…New queers featured every week! Tag us, take a pic of us and follow us on Instagram at QWERRRKOUT, and you too could be the next QT! YOU BETTA QWERRRK!
Age: 23
Location: Dallas, Texas
About:
“I started experimenting with drag while in a punk band, performing in hotel rooms across Texas about 5 years ago. Inspired by horror/cult films, parody, and punk music from an early age, I have always wanted to really make a difference for those crusty weird kids going to see their favorite band and not having enough money to buy a tee shirt after the show. I was that kid growing up.
Fast-forward to now, I started seriously working on my drag when I made Dallas my home. The burlesque scene is my family here. I’m the Head Queen at the Dallas School of Burlesque and Drag, and I co-produce a monthly Halloween party, HallowQueen. This year, I have had the privilege of passing my crown as Evil Queen of Burlesque 2015, I have released a music video (going back to my punk roots) and I have had the privilege of working with some AMAZEBALLS performers from all across the globe at the Austin International Drag Fest. Currently, I am working on a collection of tracks for my new punk drag show, producing two live monthly gigs, and also planning a LOT of travel for 2017!”
Instagram: maymaygraves
The post #HalloweenTransformation: QWERRRKOUT feat. May May Graves appeared first on The WOW Report.
RuPaul’s Drag Race season 7 queens Katya Zamolodchikova and Trixie Mattel discuss the discuss ALL things Halloween (including Alyssa’s Secret with Sharon Needles) on this installation of UNHhhh!
The post The Ooky Spooky Halloween Edition of ‘UNHhhh’ appeared first on The WOW Report.
Jake Thompson
Veronica Vera
Aishwarya Rai
Anthony Kiedis
Beth Leavel
Bo Bice
David Foster
Jenny McCarthy
Larry Flynt
Logan Marshall-Green
Lyle Lovett
Natalia Tena
Penn Badgley
Rachel Ticotin
Rick Allen
Sophie B. Hawkins
Tim Cook
Tina Arena
Toni Collette
The post November 1st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
From Dr. Terror’s House Of Horrors (1965)
November 1, 1903– Max Adrian was an acclaimed, eccentric, nimble comic actor and singer. He was born in Northern Ireland as simply Max Bor. When he was still a youth he changed his name to the more theatrical sounding Max Cavendish.
Like so many of us, Adrian began his career as a chorus boy. He first worked at a silent moving-picture house, as part of the live entertainment while the reels were being changed. He was really digging the applause and he decided to become an actor. In 1930, he joined the Northampton Repertory Company where he played 20 roles a year. He soon moved to London and found work on The West End in an early comedy by gay playwright Terence Rattigan, First Episode (1934), later going with the play when it transferred to Broadway. On both sides of the Atlantic, Adrian played roles in productions of Sophocles, William Shakespeare, and George Bernard Shaw.
In 1960, he joined Peter Hall‘s newly-formed Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon. Adrian also became one of the original company members of Laurence Olivier‘s National Theatre at the Old Vic beginning in 1963, where he appeared as Polonius in the opening production of Hamlet with Peter O’Toole in the title role. He went on to appear in Anton Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, Shaw’s Saint Joan, and Ibsen’s The Master Builder.
In the late 1960s, Adrian toured as George Bernard Shaw in his one-man presentation By George. Most importantly for Musical Theatre fans like me, Adrian originated the role of Doctor Pangloss in Leonard Bernstein’s brilliant, sparkling, tuneful operetta Candide (1956). His terrifically funny performance is captured on the fabulous Original Broadway Cast Recording.
He appeared in films also, starting in 1934 with The Primrose Path, and most notably in the Ken Russell films The Boy Friend (1971), The Devils (1971), The Music Lovers (1970). One of his best film roles was as The Dauphin in Olivier’s Henry V (1944).
My favorite Adrian performance is in Russell’s excellent homoerotic black and white film for television Song Of Summer (1968), about the final years in the life of experimental music composer Frederick Delius, who was blind and paralyzed. He was cared for by young musician Eric Fenby who lived with the composer and his wife, working as Delius’s amanuensis (a fancy-ass word for music transcriber).
Adrian also found work in television series and films including a celebrated Fagin in the BBC’s Oliver Twist (1966) and guest spots on Doctor Who (313 BC- present)
Adrian’s style of acting was highly theatrical, bordering on camp, something rare in the early days of film and television. He was also known to appear in drag at London and Paris clubs at a time when that sort of thing could get you arrested. Indeed it did. In 1940 Adrian was arrested for importuning at a Victoria Station loo and sentenced to three months in prison. Few of his gay friends visited him; not surprising for an era when even the whisper of being gay could ruin a career. Michael Redgrave, whose son, Corin, was Adrian’s godson, was the one person who stood by him through it all. Redgrave visited him frequently in prison and tried unsuccessfully to find a way to have the sentence reduced. When Adrian was released from prison he found it hard to get work, until Redgrave used his influence to get him a part in his 1941 film version of H.G Wells’ novel Kipps, in which Adrian plays Chester Coote, the main characters guide to high society after he has come into money. Redgrave also got him a small part in his next film, Jeannie (1941), whose gay director Frith Banbury wrote:
“Redgrave was wonderful in this crisis, visiting in prison and helping him financially on his release. For a man who was himself vulnerable… his actions must be seen as courageous.”
Adrian’s partner, or as they would have written in his day, his longtime companion, was theatre producer/director Laurier Lister, famous for his clever intimate musical revues in the 1940s and 1950s, often starring Adrian. They were a couple for more than 30 years.
Adrian by Cecil Beaton, 1949
Adrian’s took his final curtain call in 1973, taken a heart attack at his home in the English countryside, after returning home after finishing filming Bertolt Brecht’s The Caucasian Chalk Circle for the BBC. Among those who eulogized him at the well-attended funeral were Olivier, John Gielgud and Alec Guinness.
The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Max Adrian appeared first on The WOW Report.
Kids, I gotta tell you, as if you don’t already know, DRAG IS A $#%@! LOT OF WORK! Saturday night I hit Madame Tussaud’s with photographer Ruben Natal-San Miguel for an amazing New York City Halloween extravaganza where Willam performed and the crowd looked fierce. And last night, Voss Events staged another killer night –their 5th annual Night of the Living Drag featuring (almost) the entire cast of RuPaul’s All Star Drag Race Season Two –minus Adore Delano. MC Shangela said of Adore during the show, she DID actually show up at the venue, took one look and said,
“I don’t belong here!“
JK. And All Stars Season 2 winner Alaska Thunderfuck was a no-show too. She was NOT throwing shade, but apparently is in the UK. However, taking a smoke break outside before the night began, I chatted with Katya who had JUST come from in England herself not two hours before and was looking FOXY and fierce in a gorgeous Alexander McQueen suit ($3000 retail!) She accessorized with killer heels, a tall pointy hat and mini-broom and reminded me,
“I’m a witch.“
Got it. It all went down at Stage 48 (a former horse stable) where fans got their chance to meet and greet Alyssa Edwards, Coco Montrese, Detox, Ginger Minj, Katya, Phi Phi O’Hara, Roxxxy Andrews, and Tatiana. I don’t know how they got them ALL there on one night –these queens are BUSY! (Btw, did you catch Shangela, Alyssa & Tatiana on Watch What Happens Live? Check it here.)
Fans got up close and personal and some really turned it out for Halloween and Ruben captured it. Everyone was super-nice considering what a mad crush it was. As the girls were leaving we tried to grab pics and Roxxy & Allyssa were ready to go. I asked Tatiana to jump into the shot and you can see below, we didn’t exactly get the best picture. Maybe it was my pushy fault. Anyway, the show itself was AMAZING too. More pics to come in the next post…
(Photos, Ruben Natal-San Miguel)
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What a fantastic place for a Halloween party! Here’s part 2 (check out part 1 here) staged by Voss Events at the legendary Madame Tussaud’s in Times Square and shot by Wowlebrity photographer Ruben Natal-San Migel. Pharrell, JT, P Diddy all FORCED to be in one weird set-up after the next. There were 9 floors of this madness. They hired a DJ called Lady Bunny –music sucked donkey dicks so we just went to another floor. It was still going strong when we hit the streets around 3 where Times Square was in full Halloween swing and we caught people passing by.
(Photos, Ruben Natal-San Miguel)
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Ruben working. He wore that wig about 15 minutes then I carried it the rest of the night…
I’ve lived in New York for longer than I care to say but I’ve never set foot in Madame Tussaud‘s in Times Square. Why would I? But boy is it a fantastic place for a Halloween party. The party was staged by Voss Events and I brought along Wowlebrity photographer Ruben Natal-San Migel who was like a kid in a candy store. (Or an image grabber in a wax museum on Halloween!) Feast your eyes. I had a little bite the minute I stepped into the elevator and shared a snack of an iconic Olympian a little later. It’s hard to tell who’s real in some of these shots. Willam performed but, unfortunately we missed it. (There were 9 floors!) We got a little photo moment, though. Have fun looking. If I can ever get through them all, there’ll be a part 2…
(Phtographs, Ruben Natal-San Miguel)
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Remember the ADORABLE kid who dressed as RuPaul’s Drag Race season 8 winner BOB the Drag Queen for Halloween? Well he got the SURPRISE of his life when BOB showed up to take him trick-or-treating in West Hollywood! So freakin’ cute.
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Meet Dr. Madonna! This WOWPresents partner has a P.H.D. (get your mind out of the gutter) in all things Madge! His devotion to the original Queen of Pop is nothing short of amazing. He also happens to be very easy on the eyes (swooooooon). Check out some of his fun videos below and don’t forget to subscribe to his channel here!
On The Beat:
Give Me (him) A Fan:
Dick Tracy:
Isn’t he dreamy?
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