Photo courtesy of Netflix
Although Hollywood strained to avoid risking controversy during the studio system’s Golden Age, insiders were privy to many secrets. Most of them concerned sexuality and most of those related to homosexuality. An active if always precarious gay subculture flourished within the 1930s-‘50s movie industry, sheltered by protective publicity agents but increasingly threatened by nosy gossip columnists and scandal rags.
The Netflix series “Hollywood” is inspired by the salacious underworld the studios kept concealed. It’s set just after World War II and follows several ambitious young people just arrived in Los Angeles, their heads filled with dreams imbibed at the picture houses in their faraway hometowns. Reality is crueler than anticipated but they press on undeterred in their quest to become actors, directors and screenwriters.
Liberties are taken by “Hollywood,” yet the overall concepts are drawn from what’s known. Really, there was a gas station in LA whose attendants sexually serviced men and women alike. Really—the pimping gas station where “fill ‘er up” had double meanings actually existed. Director George Cukor really held gay bacchanals around his pool on Sundays. Rock Hudson shuffled into LA as Roy Scherer Jr. and was molded into a hetero-romantic star with the help of his agent.
“Hollywood” is often funny; its down with the period’s cars, costumes and interiors; and gets at the American social problems reflected by the movie industry. Black and Asian directors and writers need not apply. Actors of color were slotted into narrow stereotypes. And gays? Well, they formed an always endangered yet powerful force within the industry, casting couches included. Much of the raunchy behavior shown so explicitly in “Hollywood” (where’s the Production Code when you need it?) comes down to the exploited becoming the exploiters. The cast is eager and includes such familiar faces as Laura Ruth Harrier (“One Life to Live”) and David Corenswet (“The Politician”).
