Wisecracker: The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood's First Openly Gay Star
- Book Review,
by William J. Mann
Amazon.com
William Haines was one of MGM's biggest stars in the late 1920s, playing cocky but sympathetic wise guys in movies such as Brown of Harvard. He was as self-assured in real life: dropped by the studio in 1933 because he refused to hide his homosexuality, Haines became a successful interior decorator. Journalist William J. Mann perceptively links Haines's story to shifting attitudes in the movie industry, the gay community, and America as a whole. He also paints a tender portrait of the actor's love for Jimmie Shields, his companion from 1926 until Haines's death in 1973.
From Library Journal
The now-forgotten Haines made the leap from contract player to featured actor in 1926 and was Hollywood's top male moneymaker in 1930. But a combination of changing times and battles with Louis B. Mayer over his love life ended his career by 1936. Thereafter, Haines made a fortune as one of America's top interior designers without giving up his principles. Journalist Mann's detailed biography, based partly on interviews with gay Hollywood figures who knew Haines well, reveals a film community whose public and private faces rarely coincided. Haines and his partner's 50-year life together and that of other long-term gay Hollywood couples demonstrates a commitment rarely seen among any couples. Highly recommended for its vivid portrait of these overlapping communities.?Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., HoustonCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Rick Whitaker
...a biography more valuable for the times it covers than for the life it chronicles.... Haines ... has done good research and has written a lively book that fans of Hollywood gossip will love.
From Kirkus Reviews
Journalist and novelist Mann (The Men from the Boys, p. 669) nicely probes the American century's shifting mores in this biography of the nearly forgotten silent-film star William Haines. Haines's lifelong refusal to hide his homosexuality is the central theme here. Born in 1900 in small-town Virginia, he ran away from home at the age of 14 and opened a dance hall (possibly a gay brothel) in the nearby brawling factory city of Hopewell. Soon he arrived in Greenwich Village, where he befriended struggling show people, including Jack Benny and Archie Leach--the future Cary Grant and one of several gay actors whose efforts to conceal their sexuality Mann cites in sad contrast to Haines's forthrightness. Modeling work led to a screen test and relocation to Hollywood, where there wasn't yet much stigma against homosexuality--even he-man homophobe Clark Gable apparently had a romantic escapade with Haines. In 1926, Haines achieved stardom and fell in love with sailor Jimmie Shields, who would remain his companion until Haines's death in 1973. The actor developed a flippant ``wisecracker'' personality for the fan magazines in order to deflect attention from his failure to romance starlets: ``Wisecracking allowed him to walk the line,'' Mann notes. His close friendships with William Randolph Hearst and Joan Crawford were balanced by MGM boss Louis Mayer's moral disapproval, which was evidently the main reason for the cancellation of Haines's contract in 1933, even though in 1930 he had been the industry's top male star in box-office receipts. Haines thrived for 40 years in his second career, as an interior decorator; commissions from movie stars and, later, high-profile clients like Walter Annenberg and then-governor Ronald Reagan made him wealthy. As attitudes about homosexuality changed, Haines never hid his relationship with Shields and apparently rarely suffered for it. Insightful, packed with entertaining gossip, and an illuminating reminder that knee-jerk homophobia has not always been the American way. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Book Description
In 1930 William Haines was Hollywood's number-one box-office draw--a talented, handsome, romantic lead. Offscreen, he was openly gay. This bestselling biography captures the rich gay subculture of Hollywood before the Production Code--before studio intimidation led to the establishment of the Hollywood closet. Alone among his contemporaries, Billy Haines refused to compromise and was ultimately booted out by Louis B. Mayer. Forced to give up acting, Haines went on to become a top interior designer to the stars and to clients such as Nancy Reagan. By his side through it all was his lover, Jimmie Shields; their fifty-year relationship led their best friend, Joan Crawford, to call them the "happiest married couple in Hollywood." Wisecracker is an astounding piece of newly discovered gay history, a chronicle of high Hollywood, and--at its heart--a great and enduring love story.
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