Mae's Men: Baring Cary

In the film "I'm No Angel" (1933), CARY GRANT was treated to Mae West's rolling innuendo.
• • MAE WEST: "I like a sophisticated man to take me out."
• • CARY GRANT: "I'm not really sophisticated."
• • MAE WEST: "You're not really out yet, either."
• • How many folks in Hollywood realized that the debonair British actor born in Bristol was gay?
• • Gary Cooper, that straight-shooting womaniser, declared Grant ambiguous.
• • Marlene Dietrich marked Grant an F for fag after Blonde Venus (1932).
• • According to book reviewer Chris Petit, Cary Grant was the invention of a sarcastic Englishman with the improbable name of Archibald Leach. Leach was the finest physical specimen ever to come out of Bristol and as Grant he became one of the great inventions of the 20th century, to Hollywood what Ralph Lauren would be to the garment trade, selling a carefully tailored variety of ersatz Englishness. . . .
• • In his biography, Marc Eliot maintains Archie Leach was fundamentally homosexual and resurfaced in times of crisis and disorientation in Cary Grant's life: his master's voice. Grant had a propensity for dragging-up at costume parties and a stated preference for women's underwear, worn for practical reasons (easier to rinse and dry, saving on hotel laundry bills). Eliot claims the actor Randolph Scott was Grant's housemate and lover, but this old chestnut remains unproven despite Eliot's best efforts, and owes a lot to Grant's cultivated ambiguity. . . .
— — excerpt from this book review — —
• • Cary Grant by Marc Eliot (434 pp, Aurum, £18.99)
• • The concept of Cary by Chris Petit
• • Saturday — — 21 May 2005
• • The Observer — — http://books.guardian.co.uk/

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