Hello there!
I hope you're having a delightful holiday season, which will hopefully be made even more delightful by this week's bonus video in which we take a look at a (possible) Rock Hudson reference in the movie Hail, Caesar! ... and also gossip a bit about Clark Gable and Spencer Tracy. Plus, a little sneak peek at the intervi...
2023-12-24 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostAs we veer ever closer to Christmas, this week's episode of the Sewers of Paris podcast is a dive into the archives for a chat with Scott Shoemaker. Along with his partner Freddie, Scott’s great passion is live weird theater, which manifests in such projects as an ongoing series of live shows in which he plays a boozy pill-popping ver...
2023-12-21 17:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Time once again for the monthly feedback video! This is a video series that is free to everyone on Patreon, and that started as a way for me to respond to questions ... and has now sort of morphed into Patrons trading their recommendations for great stuff to watch.
So! If you like the kind of stuff that I make, here's mo...
2023-12-20 18:21:40 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, I'm going to show you some clips that were a little too salacious for my Rock Hudson video: A recording of a call where he (apparently) is arranging an amorous encounter, and some VERY frank language from an ex-boyfriend about Rock's, uh, gifts.
Also! A little sneak peek at my next video...
2023-12-17 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is New York comedian Justin Randall, who was a very different person when he moved to the big city a few years ago. Back then he was a closeted actor, and the idea of coming out seemed like a distant dream — and ...
2023-12-14 17:00:08 +0000 UTC View PostWe have two guests on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast: Filmmakers Melina Maerker and David Miller are the co-creators of a new documentary entitled We Live Here: The Midwest, which follows a variety of brave families enduring challenging c...
2023-12-07 17:00:10 +0000 UTC View Post
Well hello there!
I've got a great big hour-long video about Rock Hudson coming your way next week, but in the mean time here's a video about his incredible agent -- the notorious Henry Willson, one of the sleaziest creeps in Hollywood history. Henry's specialty was representing unbelievably handsome men (and taking advantage of them) and ...
2023-12-03 17:00:09 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Lucas Hilderbrand, author of the new book The Bars Are Ours, which provides a deep look at the history of gay bars. Before ...
2023-11-30 21:16:54 +0000 UTC View Post
As I'm sure you're aware, Rock Hudson is probably best known for the romantic comedies he made in the 1950s and 1960s with Doris Day (and a bunch of other actresses). But something kind of peculiar about these movies, which are all about heterosexual romance, is how often they slip queer subtext into the stories. And sometimes it's not even that...
2023-11-26 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostA new biopic just debuted on Netflix entitled Rustin, about the incredible life of Bayard Rustin — a civil rights leader who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. And this week, we’re diving into the Sewers of Paris archives to hear my 2017 interview with Bayard’s surviving partner, Walter Naegle, as well as with filmmaker M...
2023-11-23 19:57:31 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
I took a quick research-trip down to Los Angeles this week to visit the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' archives, and did my best to untangle all the lies, myths, and misdirections surrounding the marriage of Rock Hudson -- a closeted film star whose career began in the 1950s, when queer figures were force...
2023-11-19 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is historian Eric Gonzaba, whose fascinating work includes the Wearing Gay History archive — a collection of vintage queer t-sh...
2023-11-16 17:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video, we're diving into the coded double-talk in some 50s-era tabloids. What's the REAL agenda behind these magazines? It's not always as it seems, and I have a hunch that some articles about hunky himbo Tab Hunter were designed more to manipulate the star than share anything substantive with the audience.
<... 2023-11-12 17:00:05 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris is an old friend. I first met Tim Sheridan about a decade ago, when we were both writers trying to figure out how to make a living doing what we loved. Well, it took some time, but we both figured it out. Today, Tim’s the celebrated writer of major movies and comics, from Justice League to He-Ma...
2023-11-09 17:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Jon Ginoli, who started the band Pansy Division in the early 90s. Jon was responding to a lack of queer music in the punk scene and a lack of punk music in the queer scene, and with the help of his bandmates he was among the first to successfully marry those two separate worlds — firs...
2023-11-02 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! In this week's bonus video we're exploring the fairy-tale wedding of Rock Hudson, and by "fairy-tale" I mean that it was largely imaginary. In the 1950s, queer people had to go to extraordinary lengths to hide in plain sight, and Rock (and his unpleasant agent, Henry Willson) did everything they could to keep an exposé about his ho...
2023-10-29 18:19:16 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on The Sewers of Paris podcast this week is actor Ray Stewart, who first came to my attention in the role of Darryl Driscoll on the '70s sitcom Barney Miller. Ray played half of a same-sex couple at a time when such characters were vanishingly rare. But you’ve also seen him on everything from The Bob Newhart Show...
2023-10-26 22:01:56 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video we're taking a little peek at the love life of Tab Hunter -- and some of the very expensive lengths to which he went to keep those loves hidden. Tab's boyfriends include actor Anthony Perkins and ice skater Ronnie Robertson, as well as a blackmailer or two, and the movie studios had to work around th...
2023-10-22 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Karel Bouley. Back in the 90s, Karel and his partner Andrew Howard were the first openly queer couple to host a major market drive time radio show in the US. And after Andrew unexpectedly passed away in the early 2000s, Karel helped change California laws around suing for wrongful death...
2023-10-19 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View PostI’m speaking this week with Wilson Paulino, who co-hosts the Wilferland podcast with his partner Fernando. Wilson grew up in a pretty idyllic tourist town in the Dominican Republic, where life was good … as long as he didn’t talk about who he really was. Quietly close...
2023-10-13 16:00:07 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Time once again for the monthly feedback video, a series that is free to everyone on Patreon and that started as a way for me to respond to questions ... and has now sort of morphed into trading recommendations for great stuff to watch.
So! If you like the kind of things that I make, here's stuff recommended by oth...
2023-10-11 16:00:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, we're diving into the tub with Alfred Hitchcock to explore the famous shower sequence in Psycho -- how he made it, why it looks so good, and why the numerous imitators never quite measure up.
Backup link in case the video doesn't play: 2023-10-08 16:00:05 +0000 UTC View Post
In honor of the start of October, the spookiest month, for this week's Sewers of Paris podcast we’re diving into the archives to hear my 2015 interview with Jamie Mauer ... whom you may also know as Rantasmo, the creator of the Needs More Gay YouTube series. Jamie grew up loving unsettling stories — like a lot of queer peop...
2023-10-06 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, we're exploring the wild, creative, often-cutthroat party games invented by puzzle-masters Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins. Stephen of course you know from West Side Story, Into the Woods, Company, Sweeney Todd ... and Anthony you know from Psycho and its sequels, or per...
2023-10-01 16:00:10 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Frank Abate, who’s about to open the first shelter and community center for queer youth in the Dominican Republic. He’s been working on this project for a long time, with the help of many fellow activists, and it hasn’t been easy. But Frank’s drawn inspiration from many sources,...
2023-09-28 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
In this week's bonus video, we're taking a look at some highlights from the life & career of Anthony Perkins -- in particular, how guarded he had to be while being interviewed by Mike Wallace in the 1950s. On the outside, he was a young 20-something heartthrob, but secretly he was romancing another Hollywood hunk, Tab Hunt...
2023-09-24 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris is Scott Mainprize, a two-spirit author, lawyer, and instructor based in Ottawa. Scott’s been walking in multiple simultaneous worlds his whole life, and he’s always found himself drawn to stories of characters doing the same — starting with a childhood interest in the movie The Little M...
2023-09-21 16:00:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there!
Have you heard heard about Orry-Kelly, the man who swaddled Bette Davis' chest while (maybe) stealing Cary Grant's heart? Orry is responsible for some of the most memorable costumes of the 20th century, and also some of the juciest gossip. There's a lot we can never know for sure about Cary Grant, his once-close companion ... ...
2023-09-17 16:00:06 +0000 UTC View PostMy guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Tate Barkley, whose new memoir comes out next week and is entitled Sunday Dinners, Moonshine, and Men. It’s the story of a closeted kid growing up...
2023-09-14 16:01:08 +0000 UTC View Post
Hello there! This week Ollie and I have QUITE a bonus video for you: This is the story of Joani Hannon, a queer woman whose name isn't widely known today, though it absolutely should be.
Joani and her brother David were gay siblings who ran a queer bar in Los Angeles in the 1950s, at a time when it was super dangerous to do so. She also pl...
2023-09-10 16:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post