boys in the band

[taylorky]

we rented and watched a movie last night called boys in the band.it is a pretty old flick both funny and sad. each of the characters reminded me of people that post here......many michaels and harolds...has anybody ever seen it,and what did u think of it.tell me it's not representative of gay life..... taylorky@08:55-01/15/03

[Guest msagget]

The film has the exact same cast of the off broadway play which I believe was done in the late 60s. It was the first gay themed play that I ever saw and I was just astonished at what I also perceived to be a reproduction of people I knew. There was a revival of this play in NY two or three years ago. It was well received and I did see it but it didn't have the effect the original had.

The film was very well made and again, had the original New York cast. Interesting to note that several of the actors are now dead. Most died of aids. The actor who played Emory (I forget his name) is the one who went on to become the most famous...made several movies and tv shows. He died a short while ago. "Cowboy", who I had the pleasure of meeting at Fire Island and danced with at the then famous "10 West" died a few years ago. The actor who played Michael also died . Leonard Frye (the birthday boy) was in the film "Fiddler on the Roof" is no longer with us. One of the actors became somewhat famous (again, can't think of his name) and is now married to Lucie Arnez.

Many criticized this film because they found it downbeat. I was in the minority in liking it. It opened many doors re: Gay themed movies, etc. It was the "Love Valour Compassion" of its' day.

[Guest Bitchboy]

I loved the movie. No, it's not necessarily representative of gay life today, but it's a bit of history that should never be shoved too far back in our minds. I didn't have the luxury of seeing the original off-Bdwy production, but I did see the revival a few years ago. It knocked my socks off (that's what I get for wearing socks with sandals anyway! ... just kidding, of course). This just reminds me that I want to go rent the film again.

 

By the way, the guy who married Lucie Arnaz is Lawrence Luckinbill. He played the guy who had been married in the film, a basketball coach I believe. He's still very much alive and did a recent one-man show based on Teddy Roosevelt.

[+ Cash4Trash]

Cliff Gorman played Emory. He had an Oscar nomination years later for playing Lenny Bruce in "Lenny". I too saw the revival - it's an important work in our history but a bit of a museum piece. I'm always fascinated by the character of Donald(?)he opens the show as the best friend and has exactly nothing to do by the second act. Sits there and

looks interested...must bore the actor to death. But it's a paycheck.

[CT Dick]

I have seen the movie and the play within the last ten years and loved them both.

 

But x( when I was trying to come out in the early 70's I saw the movie and it scared me back into the closet for several years. Like so many str8's then and now, I thought that was what gay life was like.

 

Dick

[+ Lucky]

"I thought that was what gay life was like"

Well, I did too. All that bitchiness. Aren't we relieved to find that it is not?

[+ deej]

I've never seen the movie. Been hearing for years that I should, but I never had the chance. Think I'll put it on my NetFlix.com list.

 

But it's interesting hearing a young man's opinion all these years later, and how reactions over the years may have changed.

 

Thanks, Taylor!

[OneFinger]

> ...All that bitchiness.

 

I didn't know FFF was in that movie!?!?! :+

[Luv2play]

That film came out when I was still stuggling with my sexual identity and I took every opportunity during that period to see any film with a gay angle, and there were surprisingly quite a few. Boys in the Band was remarkable in that it addressed the gay lifestyle head-on, whereas many other films of the period were more oblique, such as Sunday, Bloody Sunday with Glenda Jackson or Reflections in a Golden Eye with Liz Taylor(of all people!). Many years later I saw Boys on television and I thought it was dated, especially the self-loathing aspect. But, it was still a fascinating film with a rich cast of characters. BTW haven't been to a Hollywood film for years as I think what is produced today is simply trash (IMHO anyway). Thanks for jogging my memory.

[Guest Raffy]

>Cliff Gorman played Emory. He had an Oscar nomination years

>later for playing Lenny Bruce in "Lenny".

 

OOPS!

 

Gorman played Lenny on Broadway in 1971-72.

Dustin Hoffman starred in the 1974 movie.

 

Here's an interesting fact from IBDB.com (InternetBroadwayDataBase) regarding the stage production of "Lenny":

 

Assistant to [Tom] O'Horgan [the director]: Harvey Milk

 

bob

[foxy]

I remember reading an artice in the NY Times about the revival of of the stage production of "Boys in the Band". They interviewed a number of gay men to get their reaction to the play. Guys in their 50's and older said "we used to be like that, but we aren't any more", guys in their 30's and 40's said "we were never like that", guys in ther 20's said "we're exactly like that".

[Guest Fin Fang Foom]

>> ...All that bitchiness.

>

>I didn't know FFF was in that movie!?!?! :+

 

My favorite moment of the movie is when Harold finally arrives, sees his "gift" (the whore) and says: "Who is she? Who was she? Who does she hope to be?"

 

For some reason, I think of that quote whenever Donnie makes a post.

 

Nostalgically yours,

 

FFF

[+ Cash4Trash]

Taking this opportunity to suggest some of the better gay films available. 1) Long Time Companion 2) Wild Reeds (France)and Taylor your education will never be complete until you see "Scorpio Rising".

Any other suggestions?

[taylorky]

>Taking this opportunity to suggest some of the better gay

>films available. 1) Long Time Companion

 

 

we did watch long time companion...........a real tear jerker....even for a cold hearted slug like me; it really affected jeff,but he's just really pussified about stuff like that anyway .........now without being cruel.........who on the board would you think most resembles the characters in boys in the band ??? i would say harold is f.f.f.., cooper is hank,.......y'alls turn...........taylorky@09:04-01/18/03 ewwwwwwwwww WTF am i doing up so early

[Guest Fin Fang Foom]

>i would say harold is f.f.f.

 

I would say you're right.

 

Acurately yours,

 

FFF

[Guest Kenny021]

"i would say harold is f.f.f."

 

Right on.

 

I also really enjoyed Love Valour Compassion. I saw the original "off broadway" version with Nathan Lane and saw the Broadway version with same cast, only Mario Cantone playing the Nathan Lane part. He was almost as good.

When the movie was made, it appears Lane and Terrance McNally were not on speaking terms (can't remember the reason) and Jason Alexander was cast in the "Lane" role. All the others were the original broadway cast. In my humble opinion, Alexander did not do the part justice. It was a good movie but Alexander was miscast.

[Cooper]

who on

>the board would you think most resembles the characters in

>boys in the band ??? i would say harold is f.f.f.., cooper is

>hank,.......y'alls turn...........taylorky@09:04-01/18/03

....... hmmmmmmm, Taylorheheheky, You have quite an imagination kid! OK, if it makes you happy, I'll play the part of hunk school teacher "Hank". However, I reserve the right to choose my 3 love interests in the movie: "Larry", "Emory" and "Alan"... Here are my picks: for ALAN: Benjamin (Bruno's friend) Nicholas, for Larry: Dan "best-fuck" Dare, and for Emory: Gabe the Spirit of St. Louis...

:+ Taylor, what role best resembles you?

[taylorky]

:+ Taylor, what role best resembles you?

 

 

 

lol ummmm jessssshhhhhhh none of them i guess , maybe the cake delivery guy.....and thats only cause i don't think i'm like any of the others in the cast..before i wrote this i asked jeff which one he thought i was like ............he said all the evil ones.......he thinks michael,larry,and harold were evil..and he said take the worse of each of them and thats me...........not true not true i am a puppy dog...a warm cuddly puppy dog........lol.taylorky@16:10-01/18/03

[+ Lucky]

RE: warm cuddly puppy dog

 

I already have a warm cuddly puppy dog, taylor. Can't you be the sizzling hayseed stud?

[Will]

When Taylor introduced this thread the other day I got so excited that I started writing a response immediately. It got longer and longer. Only on the periphery of what passes for my mind did I remember that Rick Munroe and others had warned me to write first in a word-processing program and then copy it to the post. I forgot. Or I got so involved in what I had to say that I didn't do it. Sure enough, my hand slipped, I hit a bunch of keys, and – zap – off sailed my limpid prose into a cyberspace sunset. Rather than start up again, which wasn't on at the moment, I've waited a few days to see if the thread is still alive. It is. And so I'm back.

 

Taylor's inquiry galvanized my attention for several reasons. From his initial post I gathered, first, that BOYS IN THE BAND had not been a familiar title; second, that he assumed that it had been a stand-alone movie; third, that he had no idea whether it had been famous or prominent in its own time; and, fourth, that he didn't know what to make of it as an image of gay life in the early 1970s.

 

Taylor's inquiry seems also to have interested a lot of other people as well as me, and so I'm writing down some observations on the course of serious gay literature – literature as art, I mean, not merely entertainment – that I'll post as a separate thread so that people can read it or not, as they choose.

 

My major concern is the widespread lack of knowledge of what I'd regard as fundamental to understanding why large numbers of young and not-so-young gay men today think about themselves, each other, and the rest of society from the viewpoint of their homosexuality. The self-confidence implicit in the ease with which "gay" and "queer" occur as neutral terms in everyday speech is a sudden and even revolutionary phenomenon. It emerged only about thirty-five years ago and over the past few decades it has grown with, thank God, the speed and vitality of kudzu. That is why few people born after 1970 can have had much opportunity to know from their own experience how extraordinary this consiousness is.

 

So my thread will be titled "Gay 101: An Introduction to Gay Literature." All I want it to be is useful. I'm not a professional student of literature; I'm not beating a drum or tooting a horn; I have no stake in what I want to say. I do confess, however, to an increasingly urgent desire to pass on what I know to younger gay men, men who have the right as well as the need to know the history of who they think they are.

[taylorky]

make no mistake .........even though i kid and even rag some people on this board........i have nothing but the utmost respect and admiration for those of you that suffered over the years to bring us the freedoms we (gay people) enjoy today. it is or should be greatly appreciated by all of this generation..........taylorky@18:34-01/18/03

[+ Lucky]

"When Taylor introduced this thread the other day I got so excited that I started ........immediately. It got longer and longer."

 

Will sure knows how to get my attention!

[taylorky]

RE: warm cuddly puppy dog

 

>I already have a warm cuddly puppy dog, taylor. Can't you be

>the sizzling hayseed stud?

 

 

 

ME a stud.ROFLMFAO.......now that is a stretch.. a hayseed pffftttt LOL.....taylorky@18:37-01/18/03

[VaHawk]

How about "Front Runner" for a novel and "Streamers' for a movie? http://216.40.249.192/mysmilies/contrib/corky/corkysm48.gif

[taylorky]

>How about "Front Runner" for a novel and "Streamers' for a

>movie?

 

 

we watched ..johns tonight.we also got streamers but not watched it yet...........now on to johns ......this is going to sound really sick but in spite of all the shit they had to put up with....i thought their life was really sort of exciting.i would'nt want to live like that (and it's still hard to believe people do) but on some base level it was attractive.......not the violence of course...but maybe the fact that the violence was omnipresent,the day to day attempt at survival....it made more sense when i was just thinking it,in black and white it looks pretty lame.........anyway lukas hass was cute and reminded me of a kid we run with.....anybody see johns ...what did y'all think of it........taylorky@22:41-01/19/03