July 7 1899– NYC born George Cukor is a major player in a scene in one of my favorite films, Gods & Monsters (1998),when gay director James Whale, played by gay actor Ian McKellen, brings his hot gardener stud to a party at Cukor’s home, with Princess Margaret as an honored guest. So well filmed & telling, director Bill Condon claims he shot the budget wad on that scene, but it was worth it.
Cukor’s private life was well known in Hollywood. His Sunday afternoon pool parties were legendary in gay circles, having been described at lurid detail by some of the party guests, including gay writer John Rechy. His home, decorated by gay actor-turned interior designer William Haines, was the spot for Hollywood homosexuals to gather. The close knit group included Haines & his partner Jimmie Shields, Alan Ladd, Somerset Maugham, James Vincent, screenwriter Rowland Leigh, costume designers Orry-Kelly & Robert Le Maire, & actors: John Darrow, Robert Walker, Anderson Lawler, Robert Seiter & Tom Douglas. Frank Horn, private secretary to Cary Grant, was a frequent guest. Cukor & his sophisticated, artistic friends socialized with their boyfriends, often hustlers, rough trade, actor wannabes, or ambitious artists & writers, who saw his parties as way into the exclusive Hollywood life.
My favorite anecdote: Hunky, young Forrest Tucker, who was straight, would show up at Cukor’s infamous Sunday afternoon parties & swim naked in the pool for the viewing pleasure of Cukor’s famous gay guests: W. Somerset Maugham, Noel Coward, Cecil Beaton & other assorted influential gays of the art, literature, & film scenes. Tucker realized these men were important contacts. He was one of the many up & coming young studs who were willing to make a naked appearance for the sake of their careers. Among the group was handsome, hunk, hairy Aldo Ray, whom Cukor seemed to like well enough to cast him in Pat & Mike & The Marrying Kind with Judy Holliday.
Cukor’s personal reputation has suffered from these anecdotes. Rechy:
“Cukor was a catty, sometimes cruel queen who was as gifted at separating his private & public personas as he was at making films.”
Yet among his close friends, those important enough to Cukor to have his home filled with their photographs: Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Lauren Bacall & Humphrey Bogart, Claudette Colbert, Marlene Dietrich, Laurence Olivier & Vivien Leigh, Stanley Holloway, Judy Garland, Gene Tierney, Noël Coward, Cole Porter, James Whale, Edith Head, Norma Shearer & Irving Thalberg, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, Aldous Huxley, Ferenc Molnár, Christopher Isherwood & Don Bachardy, & BFF Somerset Maugham.
As a sort of closeted gay artist in Hollywood, one of Cukor’s constant themes in his films was how to reconcile a double life. His movies often feature an outsider or artist always at odds with his or her own gayness & the limits imposed by society. For Cukor this break with what society expected seems to represent real happiness. In Holiday (1938), Cary Grant rejects his rich, stuffy fiancée in favor of her spinster sister, played by Katharine Hepburn, who turns out to be a bohemian, free-thinker like him.
Cukor was often dubbed a “women’s director”, but he also was great directing men. He was the first to show Cary Grant as a romantic comedian in Sylvia Scarlett (1935), & he gave the first boosts to the careers of Jack Lemmon, Aldo Ray, Tom Ewell & Anthony Perkins as well as Hepburn & Angela Lansbury. He directed W. C. Fields, Lew Ayres, Spencer Tracy & James Mason to performances that should have won each of them Oscars. He directed James Stewart, Ronald Colman & Rex Harrison in performances that did. Plus: Max Carey in What Price Hollywood?(1932), John Barrymore in Dinner At Eight, (1933) Grant in Holiday & The Philadelphia Story (1940), Ronald Colman in A Double Life (1947), Spencer Tracy in Adam’s Rib (1949) & Laurence Olivier in Love Among The Ruins (1975). All these actors were found to have new, interesting dimensions to their screen personas with Cukor’s smart, shrewd & sympathetic direction.
Among his most very best & most personal films: Little Women (1933), The Marrying Kind (1952), Pat & Mike (1952) & A Star Is Born (1954). None of these films is glossy, but all are cinematic, none of them started as plays in the theatre.
Cukor usually filmed stories from the viewpoint of a female main character. This is true in his Hepburn/Tracy romantic comedy Pat & Mike, just as it is in more obviously female-centric stories such as the classic Little Women or the thriller Gaslight (1944). Cukor’s emphasis on strong women, along with Clark Gable’s “ick factor” over Cukor’s homosexuality, are probably the reasons for the Cukor being fired from Gone With The Wind (1939) by producer David O. Selznick. He directed what is possibly the quintessential Gay Film, The Women (1939), with stars Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Paulette Goddard, Joan Fontaine, Lucile Watson, Mary Boland, Virginia Grey, Marjorie Main, plus Stephen Rutledge, Butterfly McQueen, & Hedda Hopper.
All of his life, Cukor fought an inferiority complex based on his less than handsome looks, weight & a life in an anti-Semitic America. His biggest non-secret was his gayness. Among the major directors of the Golden Age of Hollywood, only Cukor & James Whale were, more or less, basically openly gay. He directed more than 50 films & was nominated for 5 Academy Awards for Best Director, winning for My Fair Lady (1964). His first nominations were for 2 of the 10 films he made with Katharine Hepburn, Little Women & The Philadelphia Story (1940).
“You direct a couple of successful pictures with women stars, so you become a ‘woman’s director’. Direct a sentimental little picture & all you get is sob stuff. I know I’ve been in & out of those little compartments. Heaven knows everyone has limitations. But why make them narrower than they are?”
Cukor’s final credits finally rolled in 1983, 2 years after his last film Rich & Famous. Cukor is buried in an unmarked grave at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery.
My favorite Cukor Film is Philadelphia Story. My Favorite Cukor moment would be Cary Grant’s speech on human kindness to haughty Katherine Hepburn as haughty Tracy Lord.
What is your favorite Cukor moment?
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