New Bio Spills Code of Gay '50s Hollywood

The closet is a dark and stuffy place.

From Reuters:

Henry Willson, the agent who masterminded Rock Hudson's career along with those of such other Hollywood hunks -- straight and gay -- as Troy Donohue and Tab Hunter, had rules for his gay clients.

"No two men can live together and have a career in Hollywood," he advised one of his actors in the '50s. "It is not allowed. You'll ruin it all if you live with this other man."

If Willson, who died in 1978, were still alive, Hollywood's changing attitudes toward homosexuality would probably leave him at a rare loss for words. Although no A-list star has yet emerged to challenge Willson's long-held belief that the public will not accept an openly gay leading man, in most other respects the scene has changed dramatically.