Sunday, February 15, 2009

Where's my wheelchair?


Mrs. Dina Van Gelder: Hello, Barney.
Barney Chavez: Good afternoon, Mrs. Van Gelder. It's been an unpleasant day. Your husband pays me to run his plantation, not to be killed by the heat.
Mrs. Dina Van Gelder: It's part of the job.
Barney Chavez: Rubber is going up in price every day. I can't get enough workmen. When I do they run away to go into business for themselves. Now, when they had slaves ..........
Mrs. Dina Van Gelder: Aren't we all slaves?
Barney Chavez: Sure.
Mrs. Dina Van Gelder: Not me. I'm free.
Barney Chavez: You call this freedom, with bars in front of the windows?
Mrs. Dina Van Gelder: You are a fool. You are as free as you feel. Would you like a free feel.
Barney Chavez: Sorry I am gay.
(Bride of the Gorilla, 1951)

10 comments:

ricpic said...

His pre-chubby days. Although Virginia Mayo (I think that's Virginia, might be wrong) could give even a member of the other team a chubby.

blake said...

Wait, Raymond Burr was gay?

dr kill said...

Is that a guayabera you're wearing, or are you just glad to meet me?

ricpic said...

I think so, blake. At least wikipedia confirms it.

Randy said...

You didn't know that, Blake? LOL! Anyway, it is one of the reasons he bought the Pacific island he did. He and his partner weren't bothered there. They were together for 40+ years I think. That didn't stop some relative trying to get hands on their money when Burr died. Fortunately, Burr and his partner had good legal advice, so the greedy relative didn't win, unlike more than a few similar cases with which I am familiar (usually involving family members who disowned their gay relative while alive).

I'm also guessing you didn't notice Burr's eyeliner in the original Perry Mason series.

Anyway, he was lucky it didn't come out in those days, particularly as William Hopper (Paul Drake) was gossip columnist Hedda Hopper's son.

Freeman Hunt said...

Yeah, but was he gay the way people like to say that Spencer Tracy, Cary Grant, and Randolph Scott were gay? You know, the kind of gay where you're actually not gay and no one who knew you well says you were gay, and there's no evidence that you were gay but lots that you were straight, but people want to think you're gay, so they confirm it based on the thinnest of rumors from the most biased of sources.

Or was he authentically gay?

Randy said...

Oh, he was gay alright. The lawsuit after his death is a matter of public record. It was no great secret towards the end of his life, for that matter. Barbara Hale (Della Street) has talked about it.

blake said...

I'm starting a rumor that Portia di Rossi is straight.

I have the same evidence that everyone who says all those other guys are gay: I'm attracted to her, therefore she must be straight.

Michael Haz said...

Freeman - You mean like Abraham Lincoln was gay?

Darcy said...

Huh. I missed that info about Raymond Burr. Terrific actor, and I didn't notice the eyeliner either, but it must have given him that intense look, which I loved.

I really enjoyed "Ironside".