Liberace's Open Secret

For a good part of the 20th Century, homosexual performers and actors in the United States went to great pains to hide their true sexuality. Homosexuality was frowned upon in American society, to the point that it was included in the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a sociopathic personality disturbance, and sex between two people of the same sex was banned under the sodomy laws of the time. It should then come as no surprise that famed pianist, singer, and actor Liberace spent his entire life denying that he was gay. What makes Liberace's case unusual is that his costumes, style, and manner were so flamboyant that many at the time probably at least thought he was gay. Indeed, throughout his life scandal sheets and gossip magazines, both in the United States and United Kingdom, often implied he was gay.

Władziu Valentino Liberace was born on May 16, 1919, in West Allis, Wisconsin. He came from a musical family. His father played French horn, while his mother had been a concert pianist. Liberace was only four years old when he began playing piano. In high school, he played jazz piano with a group called The Mixers. He played at cabarets and even burlesque palaces, even though his father disapproved. It was from about 1942 to 1944 that he moved from performing straight classical pieces to what he called "pop with a bit of classics." Billed as "Walter Liberace," he appeared in two Soundies, "Tiger Rag" and "Twelfth Street Rag." Throughout the Forties, his act became more flamboyant, including the addition of a candelabra and performing in white tie and tails. 

It would be television that would really place Liberace on the map. After having made appearances on such shows as The Arthur Murray Party, Cavalcade of Stars, and Four Star Revue, he received his own show. The Liberace Show debuted in 1953  in syndication and proved to be very popular. Following The Liberace Show, Liberace continued to appear on television, on everything from The Perry Como Show to I've Got a Secret to Batman to The Monkees. He had his own show again in 1969, a summer replacement show that ran on CBS in the time-slot usually occupied by The Red Skelton Show. He didn't slow down in the Seventies, appearing in everything from The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour to The Muppet Show. Liberace appeared in movies as well, including Sincerely Yours (1955), When the Boys Meet the Girls (1965), and The Loved One (1965). 

At the height of his career in the Fifties, it was not unusual for the aforementioned scandal sheets and gossip magazines to intimate that Liberace was gay, something that he always denied. It was in 1956 that Daily Mirror columnist Cassandra (in reality William Connor) strong suggested that Liberace was a homosexual, writing that Liberace was "...the summit of sex - the pinnacle of masculine, feminine and neuter. Everything that he, she and it can ever want... a deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavoured, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love." Liberace sued the Daily Mirror for libel. The trial lasted for three weeks, during which Liberace testified that he was not gay and had never taken part in homosexual acts. In the end, Liberace won the case and was awarded £8,000 in damages. It was because of this case that Liberace coined his catchphrase, "I cried all the way to the bank!"

If the Daily Mirror had intimated that Liberace was gay, the notorious gossip magazine Confidential very nearly came out and said it. The July 2, 1957 issue of the magazine featured a story titled "Why Liberace's Theme Song Should Be 'Mad About the Boy." The story dealt with an anonymous press agent who claimed that Liberace had made a play for him while the two were alone in a hotel room. Liberace  filed a $20-million libel suit against Confidential. Ultimately, the case was settled out of court.

Liberace would continue to deny that he was gay even after homosexuality had become more acceptable in American society and even after it became fairly obvious that he was, in fact, gay. In 1982 Liberace's 22-year old former chauffeur Scott Thorson,who claimed to be the pianist's lover for five years, filed a $113 million palimony suit against him after Mr. Thorson had been fired.  The case was eventually settled out of court and Liberace continued to deny that he was gay. 

Liberace died on February 4, 1987 at the age of 67. It was on February 10, 1987, that the Riverside County coroner revealed the cause of his death to be cytomegalovirus pneumonia caused by AIDS. Although it had not been made public at the time, he had been diagnosed as HIV-positive in August 1985. In an interview on The Joy Behar Show, actress Betty White, who had been friends with Liberace, revealed that he was gay and his managers often used her as a beard to rejoin the rumours that he was a homosexual. 

Today it might seem odd that Liberace denied he was gay his entire life, even after the 1982 palimony suit by Scott Thorson. It might seem even more odd given Liberace was so flamboyant that his act is a prime example of high camp. While it might seem odd now, it must be taken into account that the height of Liberace's career took place during the Lavender Scare, a moral panic over homosexuality that even resulted in people working for the government losing their jobs. It was fully possible that if irrefutable evidence got out that Liberace was gay, it could have meant the end of his career. As to why he continued to deny he was gay, one has to suspect that this was due to habit. Even after homosexuality was no longer the bugbear it had been, Liberace may have feared that if the public knew of his sexuality, he might no longer be able to work. What makes this sad is that much of Liberace's appeal is that he was so flamboyant, so campy. While being gay may have proven to be a detriment to his career during the Lavender Scare, it may actually have proven to be a blessing later on. As it is, despite his denials during his lifetime, Liberace remains an icon in the LGBTQ+ community. 

Happy Juneteenth 2026

On June 19, 1865 that Major General Gordon Granger  of the United States Army arrived in Galveston, Texas where he was to take command of the Union troops there to enforce the emancipation of the slaves there. Juneteenth is then also known as Emancipation Day or Freedom Day for that reason. It has been celebrated in Texas since 1866 and in 2021 it was made a Federal holiday. I want to wish everyone a happy Juneteenth!

Happy Juneteenth!

A Valentine for Karen Valentine

(This post is part of the 2026 Luso World Blogathon hosted by Crítica Retrô and Spellbound with Beth Ann)

The title "America's Sweetheart" has been applied to a number of actresses over the years. For a brief time in the late Sixties and early Seventies, it could have easily been applied to actress Karen Valentine, who played student teacher Alice Johnson on the comedy-drama TV series Room 222. If you ask many younger male Baby Boomers (who may have seen Room 222 in its first run) or older Gen Xers (who may have seen it in reruns) about their boyhood crushes, chances are good Karen Valentine numbers among them. What separates Miss Valentine from many actresses who have borne the title "America's Sweetheart" is that she was not of Northern European descent.

Karen Valentine was born on May 25, 1947, in  Sebastopol, California. Her father was Portuguese in descent. It was her paternal grandfather who Anglicised the Portuguese surname "Valentin" to the English surname "Valentine." Her paternal grandmother's name was "Avellar." Her mother was of Italian descent, her maiden name being "Casassa." Miss Valentine grew up on a chicken farm in Sonoma County, California.

At age 16, Karen Valentine competed in the Miss Teenage America pageant. While she did not win the pageant, she did win the talent portion of the pageant for her comedic lip-sync routine to "Blame it on the Bossa Nova" by  Eydie Gormé. A talent scout was backstage and told her that she was going to get a very big surprise. It was then as the ceremony was taking place that host Bud Collyer (best known as the voice of Superman on radio and the original host of Beat the Clock and To Tell the Truth) announced that Ed Sullivan had been watching the show and wanted it announced that Karen Valentine would be on his show in two weeks." Karen Valentine then made her television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show on November 10, 1963, performing her "Blame It On the Bossa Nova" routine. She would appear on The Ed Sullivan Show one more time, this time performing "You Can't Get a Man with a Gun" from Annie Get Your Gun. Her second appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was a bigger production than her first, complete with dancers and a full orchestra.

Following her appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, Karen Valentine was the resident Dream Girl on the short-lived daytime beauty pageant television series Dream Girl of '67. She also appeared on The Dating Game, which didn't prove to be a particularly good experience. She later referred to the whole ordeal as "sleazy." 

She would have a much better experience on the television movie Gidget Grows Up in 1969, on which she became the fifth actress to play Frances Elizabeth "Gidget" Lawrence. Her father was played by Bob Cummings and the rest of the cast was filled by such big names as Edward Mulhare, Nina Foch, and Paul Lynde. The movie was loosely based on the novel Gidget Goes to New York by Frederick Kohner. In Gidget Grows Up, Gidget leaves college after two years and becomes a guide at the United Nations in New York City. The show was meant to be a pilot for a new Gidget series. Given it was produced by Harry Ackerman, it may have also been meant as a sequel to the 1965 sitcom, Gidget, although in my humble opinion Karen Valentine looks nothing like Sally Field beyond both being petite and brunette.

While Gidget Grows Up did not result in a new series, Karen Valentine would find herself cast as a regular on a TV series in 1969, Room 222. Initially it must have seemed unlikely to Miss Valentine that she would get a part on the show. She met with a casting director who simply noted her height, the colour of her hair and the colour of her eyes, and nothing more. She did not hear anything for several months when she was called back to audition with producer Gene Reynolds for the role of student teacher Alice Johnson. Miss Valentine thought the audition went wrong from the beginning. She had her sunglasses on top of her head, so that when she went to set her purse down, her sunglasses fell on the floor. When she went to pick her sunglasses up, the pages of her script went flying everywhere. The entire situation actually impressed Gene Reynolds, who saw in her attempt to handle it a good deal of comedic timing, as well as the fact that Karen Valentine's bumbling matched that of Alice Johnson.

Room 222 debuted on September 17, 1969 on ABC. While its ratings were middling at best, the show received critical acclaim and developed a loyal following. As to Karen Valentine, she won an Emmy Award for her role as Alice Johnson on Room 222 for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Comedy in 1970 and was nominated again for an Emmy in 1971. 

It was while Karen Valentine was on Room 222 that she made guest appearances on The Bold One: The New Doctors; Laugh In; Love, American Style; and Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law. ABC was eager to capitalize on Karen Valentine's popularity, and as a result a pilot for the prospective series The Karen Valentine Show was shot. The pilot featured Miss Valentine as the assistant to Buddy Loudon (Charles Nelson Reilly) of the Buddy Loudon Public Relations Firm. While ABC did not pick up the pilot, Karen Valentine did receive her own show in the form of the short-lived sitcom Karen. On Karen, she played Karen Angelo, an employee of the liberal citizen's lobby Open America in Washington, DC. The show debuted on January 30, 1975 and lasted only 13 episodes. 

Karen Valentine would never again be a regular on a TV show, but she was hardly absent from the small screen. Through the years she did several TV movies, some of which are remembered to this day. She starred in the comedy Western The Daughters of Joshua Cable, playing the pickpocket Charity, who along with a prostitute and a thief are hired by a fur trapper (the Joshua Cable of the title, played by Buddy Ebsen) to pose as his daughters in order to keep his land. She played a stewardess in the TV movie Coffee, Tea, or Me?, based on the book of the same name. Among her best known TV movies is The Girl Who Came Gif-Wrapped. Karen Valentine played the girl of the title, a small-town beauty queen who is sent to the publisher of a men's magazine as a gift as a joke. Despite the title, it was a rather sweet-natured romantic comedy rather than anything salacious. In Muggable Mary, Street Cop, she played the police officer of the title. Notably, she appeared in the original movie pilot for The Love Boat.

Of course, Karen Valentine would also continue to make several guest appearances over the years. On the Starsky & Hutch episode "Fatal Charm," she played an obsessive stalker. After having appeared in the pilot, she later guest-starred on two episodes of The Love Boat. She played a nun on an episode of Mike Hammer. In the Murder, She Wrote episode "Murder Through the Looking Glass," she played a Department of Special Security (a fictional spy agency) operative. She also guest starred on such shows as The Twilight Zone (1985), Monsters, The Untouchables (1993), Cybill, and Family Law.

Amazingly enough given her popularity on the small screen, Karen Valentine only appeared in three feature films. She was the female lead in the 1975 film Forever Young, Forever Free, She may be better remembered for two Walt Disney comedies in which she appeared. She played the female lead, school marm Jenny, in the Western comedy Hot Lead and Cold Feet. She also appeared in The North Avenue Irregulars, playing one of the ladies of a church who decide to combat the mob. 

While Karen Valentine was Portuguese in descent, for most of her career she played characters who were Northern European in descent (Gidget and Alice Johnson on Room 222 being prime examples) or Italian in descent (Karen Angelo on Karen and several guest appearances). Sadly, this is not unusual, as it is rare to see characters of Lusitanic descent on television shows or movies unless they are from Portugal or Brazil. Character actor Nestor Pavia, whose parents were from Portugal, spent his career mostly playing Hispanic characters, with only a few roles in which he played characters of Portuguese descent.

Regardless, Karen Valentine still maintains a legion of fans who never quite got over their boyhood crushes on her. For many she will always be remembered as Alice Johnson on Room 222, the perky, clumsy, and absolutely adorable student teacher. Throughout her career, she also played many other roles, from a deranged stalker on Starsky & Hutch to a street cop in the TV movie Muggalbe Mary, Street Cop to a government agent on Murder, She Wrote. While she will always be remembered as Alice, she played a wide array of other roles as well. 

The Ann Miller Collection at Julien's Auctions

Long time readers know that I am a huge fan of dancer, actress, and pinup girl Ann Miller. With that in mind, I have good news for my fellow Ann Miller fans. More than 200 items from the personal estate of Ann Miller are going up for auction on Friday, June 26, 2026. The auction is being conducted by Julien's Auctions in conjunction with Turner Classic Movies. 

The Ann Miller Collection includes a wide array og items from her career in movies, on television, and on Broadway. There are several photographs, some of which were signed by Miss Miller herself. There are scripts, including a script for Mulholland Drive (2001) signed by director David Lynch, scripts from Miss Miller's appearances on The Dinah Shore Chevy Hour and The Jonathan Winters Hour, and a 1969 annotated script from the Broadway musical Mame. As might be expected, there are items related to Ann Miller's work as a dancer, including the red tap shoes she used in the famous 1970 Great American Soup commercial (directed by Stan Freberg) and taps from the tap shoes she used in the 1940s. There are also several handbags, gowns, documents, and even personal correspondence.

If you're an Ann Miller fan interested in buying one of the many priceless items from the Ann Miller Collection or if you just want to browse, just click on the following link: "The Ann Miller Collection."

William Williams in Repeat Performance (1947)

Joan Leslie and Richard Basehart

Repeat Performance (1947) is unusual among film noirs. First, it blends elements of fantasy (namely time travel) with film noir. Second, among its characters is William Williams (played by Richard Basehart in his movie debut), a coded homosexual who is distinct in that he is portrayed somewhat sympathetically at a time when many coded homosexuals were portrayed as villains. 

Repeat Performance (1947) opens with actress Sheila Page (Joan Leslie), standing over the body of her dead husband, Barney (Louis Hayward). She flees to a party where she asks her friend William Williams for help. William suggests that they visit theatrical producer John Friday (Tom Conway) to seek his advice. As Sheila and William are going up to John's apartment, she suddenly finds herself thrown back in time to exactly a year ago, from New Year's Eve 1946 to New Year's Eve 1945. She then finds herself living 1946 again and seeking to change things for the better.

Repeat Performance (1947) was based on the 1942 novel of the same name by William O'Farrell. The novel differs a great deal from the book. In the book it is actor Barney Page who strangles to death his costar Fern Costello and is then forced to live the past year over. In the movie, Barney is a playwright and  he is killed by his wife Sheila Page. As to Sheila, in the book she is an alcoholic who committed suicide. William Williams is also dramatically different in the book. He is a mildly insane cross-dressing poet who goes by the name "William and Mary." For the movie, he remains a poet who apparently has some mental disorder, but he was changed from a crossdresser to a coded homosexual. For those unfamiliar, with queer coding, it is assigning traits stereotypically assumed to be queer to a character without coming out and saying that they character was queer. 

In Repeat Performance (1947), Williams Williams is Sheila's friend and close confidant. When she realizes she has killed Barney, it is to William she goes for help. Along with theatrical producer and friend John Friday, he is one of two people to whom Sheila confides that she believes she has jumped backwards in time. Overall, William is portrayed very sympathetically. He has a good deal of with and seems bemused by most situations. William is sensitive to the needs of others, so it is little wonder that Sheila confides in him. He is fiercely loyal to his friends, and stands by Shelia throughout the movie.  William is also a bit eccentric, and even claims to be "quite mad." In truth, as a poet who lives for his art, it might be more accurate to say that the is just little out of touch with the harsh realities of life. To wit, William has no difficulty accepting that Sheila travelled back in time or that Destiny may just guide people's lives. Despite his empathy for others, William may also be a bad judge of character in some cases.  He makes the mistake of accepting the patronage of Mrs. Eloise Shaw (Natalie Schafer), a rich woman who supports young male artists, presumably in expectation that she will get something in return. 

While William is largely portrayed sympathetically, to some degree William Williams conforms to a trope quite common from the Thirties well into the Seventies, where by homosexuality was related to mental illness. He tells Sheila very early in the film that he is "quite mad." Of course, here it must be kept in mind that homosexuality itself was considered a mental disorder in 1940s. It would even be included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as a sociopathic personality disturbance when it was first published in 1952.  By the standards of the 1940s, William would have been considered mad simply because he was gay.

As it is, despite Willliam's claim to be "quite mad," he often seems to be the most reasonable person in Repeat Performance. While he is eventually committed to an insane asylum in the film, the circumstances under which this is done seem suspect to me. First, we are told that "it was Mrs. Shaw's fault" that William was committed. Earlier in the film, when Mrs. Shaw offers a concert tour to a pianist, she comments how some young talents she had "inspired" have been "ungrateful" while looking directly at William. It seems possible that Mrs. Shaw got William committed merely out of spite and that, despite William's claims, he really isn't crazy at all. Quite simply, as a homosexual (and possibly a poet as well), he was a victim of the times. 

While William may or may not be mad, in the end he is portrayed much more sympathetically than other coded homosexuals in movies from the Golden Age of Hollywood, to the point that it can be argued that he was one of the heroes of Repeat Performance (1947). His portrayal is certainly much more positive than that of other coded homosexuals in films from the era, from Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Waldo Lydecker in Laura (1944) to Brandon Shaw and Philip Morgan in Rope (1948). Even given the movies plays with the trope of homosexuals and mental illness, the portrayal of William Williams in the film was a small step forward for the portrayal of gay men in American films.

Sixty Years Ago Today "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones Hit No. 1 in the US

It was sixty years ago on this date that "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones hit no. 1 on the BillboardHot 100. It is certainly one of the all-time most popular Rolling Stones songs and it has been my favourite Rolling Stones song since childhood. I already did a somewhat in-depth post on the song years ago, so I won't repeat myself, but I would like to discuss something that wasn't really relevant at the time I made the original post.

Ever since I was a kid, I knew that "Paint It, Black" was about death. To be more precise, it is about someone whose love has died. While I loved the song, for most of my life I really couldn't identify with it. All of that changed on August 30, 2018. Immediately following Vanessa's death, I listened to "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones, as well as "I Don't Believe in Love" by Queensrÿche, "Gone Away" by The Offspring, and "Don't Go" by Matthew Sweet, on repeat. Quite simply, given the song is about loss and grief, I could identify with it in a way I had never been able to before in my life. Beyond the fact that it is an immensely listenable song, I have to think the fact that it is about loss and grief is the reason it has remained so popular. Quite simply, anyone who has gone through extreme grief can identify with the song.

Here's the official lyric video for "Paint It, Black" by The Rolling Stones. I have to point out that they have one error with regards to the lyrics. The line is not "Don't wanna see the sun/Flyin' high in the sky," but rather "I wanna see the sun/Blotted out from the sky," which IMHO has a much darker connotation.

Godspeed James Handy

James Handy, who appeared in such films as Arachnophobia (1990) and The Rocketeer (1991), was murdered by the son of his girlfriend on June 3 at the age of 81.

James Handy was born in New York City on March 19, 1945. He began his acting career in the late 1970s. He made his television debut in two guest appearances on the soap opera Ryan's Hope. He made his movie debut in Taps in 1981. In the Eighties, he guest starred on such shows as Search for Tomorrow; CBS Schoolbreak Special; ABC Afternoon Specials; Spenser: For Hire; Our Family Honor; Cagney & Lacey; Popeye Doyle; Matlock; Stingray; Wiseguy; Hard Time on Planet Earth; Mancuso, FBI; Midnight Caller; and Equal Justice. He appeared in the mini-series Doubletake and A Dangerous Life.He appeared in the movies The Verdict (1982), Brighton Beach Murders (1986), Burglar (1987), Jake's M.O. (1987), Bird (1988), K-9 (1989), and Arachnophobia (1990).

In the Nineties, he appeared on the TV shows Equal Justice; Reasonable Doubts; The Young Riders; Quantum Leap; The Commish; The Fifth Corner; Angel Street; Wings; Civil Wars; Murder, She Wrote; The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles; Silk Stalkings; L.A. Law; Picket Fences; NYPD Blue; Under One Roof; Beverly Hills, 90120; Melrose Place; The X-Files; Walker, Texas Ranger; The Pretender; Promised Land; EZ Street; Law & Order; Early Edition; Dellaventura; Prey; Profiler; To Have and To Hold; ER; L.A. Doctors; Third Watch; and Gideon's Crossing. He appeared in the movies The Rocketeer (1991), Point of No Return (1993), Guarding Tess (1994), Rave Review (1994), Jumanji (1995), Murder in Mind (1997), Gang Related (1997), Every Dog Has His Day (1998), Deterrence (1999), and Unbreakable (2000).

In the Naughts, James Handy guest starred on the shows U.C.: Undercover; The West Wing; Becker; The Practice; Breaking News; Without a Trace; MDs; The Dead Zone; Crossing Jordan; E-Ring; Cold Case; Commander-in-Chief; Alias; The Closer; Smith; Raising the Bar; The Lynch Pin; Criminal Minds; Castle; and The Young and the Restless. He appeared in the movies 15 Minutes (2001), The Donor (2001), The Trip (2002), Ash Wednesday (2002), Rounds (2008), The Waiter (2010), and Lifted (2010).

In the Teens, James Handy appeared on the shows Touch; Vegas; CSI: NY; Rizzoli & Isles; Mulaney; Documentary Now!; and NCIS: Los Angeles. He appeared in the movies Logan (2017), Thru: The Hereafter Remains Unknown (2017), and Suburbicon (2017). In the 2020s, he appeared in the movies Senior Entourage (2021), Street to Table (2022), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). 

James Handy played a wide variety of roles, some of which were only on screen for mere moments. He played everything from priests to law enforcement officers to politicians. He was an FBI agent in The Rocketeer, the sarcastic county coroner Milt Briggs in Arachnophobia, and CIA director Arthur Devlin on the TV show Alias. Even when he was on screen briefly, James Handy made an impression. He was a fine actor who leaves behind a career filled with solid performances.