Movie Hunks of the Fifties: The Stuff of a Young Gay Boy's Fantasies

When I was young and a gay boy (as I might not have recognized at the time!), I saw many of the movies of the time. I know I used to go to Saturday afternoon matinees at the neighborhood movie theater, which cost 30 cents. I could go on about the presentation of movies at that time, because it differed in a number of ways from these days; but that's not my main subject here.

I really wanted to talk about my boyish crushes on some of the handsome movie hunks of the time, particularly the singing ones in the musical shows. I think I was as much impressed by rich, manly voices as I was by handsomeness or good physical builds.

Also, I was even smitten by one or more male comic-book characters. One such that I can remember the name of was called "Big Ben Bolt"; but in this piece I will concentrate on a few movie stars.

The first male star from the 1950s (when I would have been from 8 years old to my early teens) was Gordon MacRae. MacRae is best known for his singing and acting role in the movie version of the musical Oklahoma! which he made in 1955, when he was 34; and Carousel, another musical, the next year. I don't know what age he was when the photo above was taken.

Another is Howard Keel who appeared in the musical Annie Get Your Gun, made in 1950. Internet Movie Database (IMDB) says about him,

He was the Errol Flynn and Clark Gable of "golden age" movie musicals back in the 1950s. With a barrel-chested swagger and cocky, confident air, not to mention his lusty handsomeness and obvious athleticism, 6'4" brawny baritone Howard Keel had MGM's loveliest songbirds swooning helplessly for over a decade in what were some of the finest musical films ever produced. . . .

This one, at least, is a tall man. I don't know if it mattered to me at the time (I doubt it since I think I only realized I like tall men much later), but Gordon MacRae was only 5'8".

Besides Annie Get Your Gun, Keel was also in Show Boat (1951), Kiss Me Kate (1953), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954). I think I saw at least the last two in their own day. (Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, I think--to digress a little bit--shows just how manly, and certainly energetic, men dancing can be.)

Another one was John Raitt, who co-starred with Doris Day in Pajama Game, 1957. (Incidentally, the great majority of the promo photos for this film feature Doris Day, probably because cheesecake was thought to sell much better than beefcake--showing that, in those days, producers and promoters of movies had little suspicion that gay men might comprise an important part of their audience and their fandom. But again that would be another subject.)
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Footnote: The block quotation and much of the factual data here are from Internet Movie Database.

Copyright (c) 2011 by Richard Stein