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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 1, 1986)
Rock Hudson — to live and die in Hollywood by W. C. McRae I can im agine tw o reasons fo r reading Rock H udson’s biographies. Som e readers m ig h t hope fo r an uplifting tale o f Hudson’s valor in the face o f AIDS. Others, m ore irreve rent (like m e), m ig ht com e looking fo r gossip about gay Hollywood. N either expectation is rewarded in Sarah D avidson's Rock Hudson: His Story, o r in Jerry O ppenheim er and Jack Vitek’s Idol. In these hastily w ritten biographies, the real — and m o rbid ly curious — story scarcely even involves Hudson. Rather, these books relate the petty intrigue, lies, and deception that surrounded Hudson. He rem ains a cipher flo a tin g before the friends, the house, the details and props that become the foreground in these fascinating but repellent stories. H udson rem ains a cipher because there was very little to him to begin with. Both biographies detail his “ oh-gosh” boyhood in the M idwest in a single parent hom e, his hard w ork as a young actor caught w ithin the “ S tudio Property” network, and his rise to international stardom in such film s as Giant and Pillow Talk. T his is the stuff o f flu ffly H ollywood press packets, and the writers, while detailing the early years o f H udson’s career, are at som e pains to “ deepen” the gush w ith vignettes dredged up fro m fellow actors, and in David son's case, fro m Hudson him self. B ut the ploy doesn’t w ork, because the m ore Hudson is illum inated by his friends in recollections as a wrt, hale com panion, and bon uiueur, the m ore relentlessly obvious it becom es that H udson was a dork. Unwittingly, it seems, the very stories drawn from life that are m eant to consolidate ou r evaluation o f Hudson as a great guy, instead portray him as a niggardly, shallow m an whose looks bought him a de gree o f adm ittance and endearm ent that his scant personality and talent would never allow. N o m ajor gay scandals are revealed in the biographies, though som e are alluded to. G eorge Nader, a hunk actor fro m the ’50s, does com e o u t o f his clo se t M ost interest ingly, though, is seeing Hudson against a background o f other swishy gay Hollywood types, and especially the gay coterie that served as Hudson's social fam ily. C om pared to the hand-flutterers around him , Hudson com es across as full-bodied, virile, and very sexual. He cou ldn’t throw a party, he couldn’t cook, he had bad taste. Hudson, to the friends th a t seem ed to idolize him , m ust have been a fascinating anom aly, a seem ingly real man w ho liked to get it o ff — and often — with blond, blue-eyed hunks. The am bivalence one feels about Hudson increases to unhealthy curiosity when the chapters on AIDS begin, at w hich point the tw o biographies part com pany. D avidson’s is the authorized version, and was w ritten with H udson’s perm ission, and, however slight his participation. (He died about a m onth after he com m issioned D avidson.) M ore im portantly, it was com pleted w ith the aid and (one feels) supervision o f H udson’s life-long handlers, including actor George Nader, secretary Mark M iller, and long-tim e lover Tom Clark. These authorities on Hudson’s life — they were close friends fo r m ost o f H udson’s 30 years In Hol lyw ood — apparently w ouldn’t speak to Idol O P E N E VER Y DAY This month we celebrate our Sixth Year serving the community... authors O ppenheim er and Vitek, w ho went to oth er friends o f Hudson fo r details, m ost o f it — bitchy, catty s tu ff— concerning, and at the expense of, the team w riting the authorized biography. A nd herein lies the real story. The last year and a ha lf o f H udson’s life — to w hich David son devotes 27% o f her book and to which Idol devotes 38% — becom es painful read ing. A nd not because o f AIDS. Hudson is anything bu t brave and fo rth rig h t in his deal ings w ith the disease, and as his story be com es increasingly m edical in nature, the narrative is left open to bystanders. Anyone w ho had anything to do w ith Hudson while living begins jockeying to be in just the right po sitio n at his death. (Especially since they all know these biographies are being w ritten.) In both books, a sense o f real suspense is developed, m ostly fro m the ho rro r o f watch ing the avarice and self-advertisem ent o f H udson’s friends. First, M arc Christian, H udson's last lover, sues the Hudson estate fo r $ 14 m illion due to his exposure to AIDS. C hristian is portrayed by partisans O p pen- . . . an d we ce le b ra te th e e m p lo y m e n t a n n ive rsa rie s o f m a n y m e m b e rs o f o u r sta ff. T h e e x c e lle n t se rvice th a t m a n y c u s to m e rs c o m p lim e n t us on is d u e to th e e xp e rie n ce an d p o sitive a ttitu d e th a t th e se in d iv id u a ls b rin g to th e ir w o rk. MICHELLE WEST 3 years PAUL FYFIELD 2 years KATHY MORGAN 2 years BEVERLY HUBBARD 1 year THACH CHEA SUON 2 years STEVE SAVOIE I year SCOTT McKELLAR I year OLD WIVES’ TALES Restaurant 13 0 0 E ast B u rn s id e 1 « 2 3 8 -0 4 7 0 PROFESSIONAL C o u n s e l in g p h o e n ix rising 223- 8299 fo r L e s b ia n s and G a ys In d ivid u a l C o u p le & G ro u p heim er as a sim ple but honest student caught up in m achinations only super-lawyer, Marvin M itchelson, could rescue him from . Christian prom otes him self as being profound and in te llig e n t however, C hristian com es across as a naive and self-deluded chum p. Hudson ap parently never dem anded intelligence — or even identity — from his sex partners. A ccording to Davidson, C hristian was a hustler and blackm ailer w hom Hudson, tho ug h initially beguiled, cam e to fear and loathe. He endured C hristian on the property (the apartm ent over the garage) because C hristian threatened Hudson w ith exposure to the national Enquirer. Idol, in its turn, defends C hristian, claim ing he and Hudson were m aking it in the sack un til ju s t m onths before H udson’s death (C hristian says he didn’t know about H udson’s AIDS condition until news o f it was released to the m edia, hence his lawsuit). Idol also reports fits o f self-conscious in dignation by H udson’s friends who weren’t (once H udson was ill), included in the inner sanctum . Miller, fo r instance, com es under attack fo r his som ewhat Byzantine procedure o f draw ing up lists o f acceptable sick bed visitors and posting up to three sets o f guards before H udson's hospital room . A nd at the very end, Pat and Shirley Boone were sum m oned by one o f H udson’s nurses to pray fo r him . The day before he died, the B oones were dressing Hudson in Sunday- g o -to -m e e tin ’ clothes, thu m ping him with Bibles, falling to the flo o r speaking in tongues. A servant noted th a t Hudson didn’t "lo o k at all com fortable.” H udson dies as Ross H unter collapsed o f g rie f theatrically — and strategically — in fro n t o f the press in H udson’s driveway; S hirley Boone babbled in tongues on his floor, Elizabeth Taylor’s security guards sur round the house, and Marc C hristian was dialing M arvin M itchelson on the phone. Suddenly, one experiences the sinking feeling th a t this is gay Hollywood. N either biography is very good, from a literary p o in t o f view. Idol resorts to the cheesy-m ost o f pop-psychology to undergird its narrative, depicting Hudson throug ho ut as a lost adolescent destined to be gay by his up bringing. Hudson, says Idol, exhibited “ be havior th a t flourish( es ] in the gay com m unity — the prom iscuity, the lack o f co m m itm e n t the unbridled sexuality— [w h ich ] resemble nothing so m uch as protracted adolescence.” It’s no w onder the finagling w hich surrounded H udson’s death resem bles nothing so m uch as a custody battle. D avidson's authorized version is the better book, her drab, unadorned prose style often perfectly highlights the outrageousness o f the celebrity com m ent on Hudson. She is unbelievably disingenuous about gays, how ever, cla im ing in an interview in the Advocate th a t she had “ never been close to a gay person." However sym pathetic she m ay be ("Is this book good fo r gays?” she asks), she tends to exam ine Hudson, his friends, and the po litics o f gay issues as if they were all m oths disinterestedly circling a flam e. O ne leaves these books not having m uch o f a feeling fo r Hudson. We becom e fam iliar w ith his riddles, his characters, his roles, his jokes — in short his evasions. And th a t fo r a gay m an passing as stra ig h t was as real as H udson ever g o t H udson is credited w ith giving the AIDS epidem ic a face as a sort o f AIDS poster boy. However, Hudson doesn’t em erge from the pages as any kind o f hero. These are dark, dark stories that tell us m ore o f ego-ridden H ollyw ood, a sewage dum p against which H udson is measured and found wanting — and uninteresting. Just O ut. September, 1986