Bette Bourne Interview

Rock Hudson was the ultimate Hollywood hunk but in the 1950’s & 60’s his career was perpetually under threat from Confidential Magazine, every gay actor’s nemesis and only one man stood between stardom and oblivion.

BETTE BOURNE is HENRY WILLSON the ‘Fairy Godfather’ of TinselTown in the World Premiere of ‘ROCK’ by Tim Fountain. It tells the story of Willson and Hudson’s relationship. It’s the story of a Hollywood full of homosexuals hiding their identities. A bygone era. Or is it?

Outnorthwest chatted to the legendary Bette Bourne before he began rehearsals for the play which premieres in Liverpool and features at queerupnorth next month.

INTERVIEW

Henry Willson’s early years would strike a chord with many young gay boys, that of being forced into a world of sport only to find escape in the dream of Hollywood.
“I have that in common with Henry Willson; we both had fathers that tried to make us straight. My father sent me to a very butch East End school in Hackney and I loved it because they were all my type. I was in love with the captain of the football team and various young men would proposition me in scripture class and we would go behind the bike sheds, it was great fun. My father had no idea of any of this.”

Did you always plan to be an actor?
“I’ve been a performer since I was 4 but my first professional role in theatre was as a dead body in an Agatha Christie play, but I made sure I put on full make up, I was very dedicated.”

Bette came out in 1970. How different was it for him compared to actors who say they have had problems coming out because they thought it would harm their career?
“It did harm my career I didn’t do anything for 6 years until I started my own group. People were literally crossing the street to avoid me and I still find that happens and people are embarrassed to talk to me. That’s gone on for the last 30 years but you are you are.”

You were part of The Gay Liberation Front too weren’t you?
“People in the theatre said to me you’re mad you mustn’t get involved with the Gay Liberation Front, you must not come out publicly, endless older men and women tried to hammer this into me, but the meetings at GLF were so exciting. I couldn’t keep away and I have been involved ever since. There are times when I dig my heels in, you do enough compromising.

The story of Rock Hudson does seem to re-ignite our fascination with the sexual orientation of movie stars and by the amount of gossip in celebrity magazines you would think that little has changed since the days of Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter.
“There are a lot more actors out now then in the 1950s and 60s but it is difficult, especially for gay men and women who are considered romantic leads. If they have a career like Rock Hudson’s that depended on his good looking ‘heterosexual’ profile. Both Tab Hunter and Anthony Perkins were lovers who had to pretend they were straight and depended on romantic leads like Perkins in the film ‘Desire under the Elms’ with Sophia Loren. He was this gorgeous creature, running around in his underwear and you just wanted to tear them off him, but he was as gay as a goose. I wish more actors would come out, famous actors with very high profiles, it would make it so much easier for the rest of us.”

Why do you feel that the public is so fascinated to know about the sex lives of celebrities?
“Juicy gossip is something that everyone is interested in with varying degrees. People fantasize about movie stars and women in particular don’t want to fantasize about male stars who go to bed with men. “

Henry Willson had a reputation for preying on young male actors didn’t he?
“I get the feeling from what we are doing in the play that the sexual thing wasn’t as important to him as it was to others like the movie moguls who used to have sex with young starlets and promise to put them in pictures. With Henry Willson it wasn’t really a condition of where ‘you get your kit off or your out’ although he was happy to sleep with these young men. Henry was a bit of a queen but not so worried about having sex with the boys, he wasn’t like the Confidential magazines suggested.

When I was younger I was very pretty and older men took me out but they didn’t want to have sex with you, you were more like an ornament to them, something like a badge to show off. I was a young actor playing in the West End and older men would take me out somewhere smart to hang out with people like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones .I went out with Brian Epstein for six months and we had a very nice time but he didn’t want to have sex, he just wanted a companion. There were a lot of men like that and there were others who you knew you’d have to put out for and it depended if you wanted to do that or not.”

Why do you think it was so hard for Willson to recover from Rock Hudson sacking him?
“Rock was his biggest client and the word got out that if you went with Henry Willson’s agency you were automatically labeled a queer. People who had him as an agent denied they ever even knew him. He didn’t realise how Hollywood was changing, he thought it would be the same studio system as it was in the 1940s and it changed in the 60s. He went on spending money but the money eventually ran out. Rock gave him money when he was in a bad way but he ended up in an unmarked grave without a penny to his name.

The essential shape of the play is that Henry is one of the most powerful agents in Hollywood at the beginning and Rock is an unknown. They meet and gradually Rock becomes the highest grossing film star from 1957 through to the early 60s but because of the possibility of scandal Rock sacks him but he visits him later and sees he has descended into alcoholism.”

If you want your audience to take away one message from the play what would it be?
“I hope a feeling of understanding of that incredible period that these people lived in and that people in the closet live in and the message is to keep coming out, but it is kind of a historical thing as people don’t know how much we had to hide in the 1950s. I was a young man then and you hid everything, it was very important not to show any signs of homosexuality and especially in the movies but even on the stage. I was very closeted right though the sixties it was such a relief to come out, my whole identity fell into place.

On 30th May Bette Bourne will be inducted into the House of Homosexual Culture Hall of Fame with a red-carpet gala event celebrating his legendary career as a drag performer, activist and actor. How does this make him feel?
“I don’t know a great deal about it, I know there is a ceremony. I’ve never been inducted before. Hope they don’t dip me in the water and ruin my make up.”