Have you ever heard of a Lavender Wedding? It’s not super common these days, because it’s no longer a huge taboo for a Hollywood star to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or gender non-conforming. But that was certainly not the case in the Golden Era of Hollywood.

▬Contents of this video▬
00:00 - Intro
00:44 - Rudolph Valentino and Natacha Rambova
02:53 - Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine
04:25 - Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates
06:22 - Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli
07:52 - Outro

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From the 1920s, and continuing for many decades, Hollywood was not a place where it was okay to be publicly gay. That wasn’t necessarily true in the town itself, where attitudes towards expansive sexuality were fairly progressive. But the businesses that ran the town, aka the movie studios, knew that the general public was a different issue altogether. They suspected, probably correctly, that American audiences wouldn’t be supportive of stars who were openly gay. And as such, they wouldn’t buy tickets to their movies. And, just as with many decisions throughout history, the issue was financial. The studios felt they couldn’t afford to have openly gay stars. So they introduced so-called "moral clauses" into their contracts with their actors and actresses.

These not only were guidelines on general behavior but also about open sexuality. Stars were expected to be straight. And if they weren't, they were expected to act like they were. Thus was born the era of “lavender marriages.” These were arranged marriages between one or more people who were gay, bisexual, or gender non-conforming, in an effort to hide their true identity. It was a common thing for a star to be known around town as homosexual, but for the rest of the country to assume they were straight. And when the public saw them in these sham marriages, their assumptions were ‘confirmed.” So check out this video, where we go over some of the most famous, and dubious, lavender marriages in the old days of Hollywood. Some of them might just surprise you!

Old Hollywood Stars Who Hid Their Sexuality With Fake Marriages

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