“I’m a dyke. So what? Big deal!” So decrees gin-riddled, moon-faced octogenarian actress Patsy Kelly, star of Rosemary’s Baby and The North Avenue Irregulars. The Big Deal is that the now-deceased Kelly had firsthand knowledge of what Tallulah Bankheaad liked to do with her pussy (she preferred frequent “pubic massage”), and anyone with that sort of information deserves at least the 20-page interview printed here, famous or not. The other subjects are Marjorie Main, Nancy Kulp, Barbara Stanwyck, Capucine, Dorothy Arzner, Edith Head, Sandy Dennis and Dame Judith Anderson. Actually, said lesbians don’t contribute as much firsthand gossip as one would like, but this is more than compensated for by the inclusion of bitchy testimony from first-class fishwives like Elsa Lanchester (apparently not a lesbian), and Paul Lynde (Lynde: “Agnes Moorehead? One of the all-time Hollywood dykes!”). And with the exception of frosty Miss Barbara Stanwyck, they all seem to have something interesting to say. Aside from Patsy Kelly, the best interviews here are with Marjorie Main (famous for her Ma Kettle character, a sort of butch Mother Hubbard) and the fabulously evil Dame Judith. Worth owning for the title alone.
MG
Publisher: Barricade
Hardback: 320 pages
Illustrated