Happy Halloween From Hollywood's Past

 In honor of Halloween, here is a look back at some publicity photos from Holllywood's past, that remind us that riding the wave of a trend (even an annual one) to capture some attention is an idea that has been around long before social media. 

 

A couple of things you're likely to notice? 1.Nary a man in sight. While men were often called on to pose for publicity photos, they were more often called in for photos that could be used for multiple occasions, to point up their masculinity, edge and dashing heroics. Typical holiday shots, whether for Thanksgiving, Halloween, and even Christmas, were reserved almost exclusively for women.

Of course, some of this was related to their use as pin-ups, and many of them were obvious opportunities for a "cheesecake" shot. And yet, children were the occasional subjects of Halloween portraits as well, so it's just as likely that the hesitancy to associate a male star with anything that could be conceived of as frivolous or undignified.

While it was perfectly acceptable for B- Movie and serial stars to be "caught" in the act of showering, or for even most highly ranked male stars to be seen lounging at their pool, to go in for a sitting and pose amongst props? Nope. 

This is not to say that the women of Hollywood were treated carelessly. Their images were catered to as much as that of the matinee idols, and each photo conveyed the image they were carefully constructing.  tone of the photo was chosen to convey  The more revealing photos were usually reserved for contract players who had yet to make a real impact, and models/aspiring actresses being shot by independent photographers. In the case of Yvonne DeCarlo, the shot above, available in 1946, was distributed just after DeCarlo had just appeared in Salome, Where She Danced, as the seductive title character, but prior to that she had mostly performed in uncredited roles. 

You may also have noticed that the setups are often quite simple. Many times similar props were distributed to celebrities and in some cases the very same set-up was employed by different stars, as these photos were not intended to have a particularly long lifespan. Even when the set-design is more elaborate, the costumes used were often pieced together using recycled pieces from prior films (just in case the witch's hat in the photo below, featuring Judy Garland in 1941, seems familiar)

Happy Halloween/LGBT History Month!

 October, with the packed, double punch of being the month leading up to Halloween and all of its many flavors of creepy and being LGBT History month, has got to be my favorite of the year. Yes, there's December and February, both truly lovely in my estimation, but October is when the leaves turn russet and when the weather turns crisp and cool, and when you are practically obligated to indulge in ghost stories, monster movies, and the darker mysteries of the human experience. But, when you add in LGBT History month, it adds a very different flavor to the recipe, and as a result, I am finding myself torn. I vascilate from daily readings of Vito Russo's masterpiece "The Celluloid Closet" to nightly viewings of the latest ghostly televised series by "The Haunting Of Bly Manor". I want to sing out the praises of some of our lesser known queer entertainers, and pour forth with all the recommendations I have for past sitcom Halloween episodes that deserve special attention. All of this simply acts as a pre-amble to say, get ready for some split personality posts, that likely won't seem contradictory to many of you, seeing as Halloween has always had an indefinable appeal to the gays, possibly because it's a day when everyone steps into someone else's shoes for an evening. Gay people have often had that experience forced upon them, to always wear the bland brown leather shoe when one's heart longs for the violet suede. Halloween was always an opportunity to slip on a more decadent persona that we wouldn't have dared to allow ourselves otherwise, and if someone questioned it, we could always escape to the refuge of joining in the spirit of the holiday. And now that it's easier to publicly admit the side of ourselves that don't conform to the arbitrary whims of the greater society, Halloween allows us to push those boundaries further. 

At its best, Halloween is festive, decadent, and daring. It's a celebration of bravery, and of laughing at the unknown and therefore frightening things that haunt the corners of our imagination. And since LGBT history month celebrates those who came before us and braved the very real dangers and oppressions to make life better for themselves and those like them, maybe it's not the worst fit after all.