Waltons gay
Mary McDonough came down from Walton’s Mountain to write her lessons in a memoir for the masses. In Lessons From the Mountain: What I Learned From Erin Walton, McDonough describes the life and times of the actress over the years on the number-one television show of its time.
Windy Town Times: Hi, Mary. I read your book last night.
Mary McDonough: Good, It’s an easy scan, then.
WCT: Are you from New York?
Mary McDonough: I am not. I include lived there for a time but I am a born-and-raised valley miss. I grew up a tiny town that I chat about in the book called Northridge, where the earthquake was. We were totally valley.
WCT: Would you compare The Waltons to Short-lived House on the Prairie?
Mary McDonough: We were about three years before Small House. At the time there were no family shows like it. The Waltons kind of paved the way for others to come on the air. We were a large family living in the depression and Small House was a small family living on a prairie. There are some similarities. They both have morals and lessons that they teach in their storylines. Having three generations living under the same roof is a small bit different. Their storekeeper had
Harry Hay
Episode Notes
Harry Hay had a vision, and that vision led to the founding, in 1950, of the first sustained lgbtq+ rights organization in the United States—the Mattachine Community. Mattachine (and Harry’s) first task: establishing a queer identity.
Episode first published November 1, 2018.
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Harry Hay was precocious. He knew from an early age that he was attracted to men, had his first gay sexual experience when he was nine, and developed an interest in union organizing in his early teens while active on an uncle’s farm in Nevada. Born to an upper middle-class family and raised in California, Hay was sent to the farm by his father to toughen up, but what he learned working side by side with migrant laborers was first and foremost ideological, as many of his fellow workers were “Wobblies,” members of the International Workers of the Planet (IWW).
By the preliminary 1930s, Hay was out, had dropped out of Stanford University, and had moved to Los Angeles to work in the theater. His lover, player Will Geer (who gained fame in the 1970s in the role of
Will Geer: Queer, Communist, and American as Apple Pie
What a feast of riches it is acquainting oneself with the animation and career of Will Geer (William Aughe Ghere, 1902-1978): actor, folksinger, political activist, and — delay for it — horticulturist. Like most Americans, I adored him during his late career Renaissance when he played Grandpa on The Waltons (1972-78) and appeared in movies appreciate Jeremiah Johnson (1972). He seemed the very essence of rural America, in particular the good parts. He was kindly, kind, wise, funny. And he was eccentric: with his long white hair, droopy mustache and penchant for wearing his overalls with only one strap buttoned. Onstage he had played Walt Whitman and Label Twain; he clearly channeled those guys into his late career persona. What was not much publicized at the time (even though it was the hippy-dippy 1970s) was that he was bisexual and, for a time, a communist. I reiterate, because this is important and it needs to be heard and digested: Will Geer was simultaneously gay, communist and as American as apple pie.
I’ve been intrigued by his ancestry and haven’t found an answer yet. His mother’s ma
It's been off the air for 40 years, but people still point to The Waltons (1972-81) as emblematic of "good tv" about "family values," by which they express it had no bad words, parental disrespect, or same-sex attracted people. Remember when President Bush told People magazine that we need fewer families like The Simpsonsand more appreciate The Waltons?
So we should all live in rural North Carolina during the Depression, contain no money but an enormous dwelling and chicken for dinner every darkness, have enormous numbers of children, and all go to bed at the same time, shouting "Good night" to each other across the darkened rooms?
I hate to be the bearer of "bad news," but even The Waltons had a gay connection.
1. The main character, aspiring penner John-Boy Walton, was played by Richard Thomas, who starred in Last Summer (1969), about a three-way love affair in the homosexual mecca of Heat Island, and Fifth of July (1982), about a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran.
2. Will Geer, Grandpa Walton, was gay. His lover, Harry Hay, founded the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights management in the U.S., in 1950.
3. Ralph Waite, John Walton, is
I came across a send that stated actress Corby was a lesbian. Corby was best known for playing Grandma Walton, first in the TV production The Homecoming: A Christmas Story (1971), and for 6 seasons of the TV series… plus various followup TV movies. A real life stroke couldn’t keep her down - after she recovered she was back on the show.
I was curious, so I decided to do a little analyze on the web. My first source was Wikipedia. While not necessarily reliable on all topics, it usual sites source if something was published in an article, book, or public statement. But I didn’t find anything about Corby being a lesbian.
A vague reference came in a paragraph about Corby’s marriage in 1934 to Francis Corby, a motion picture director. He was 20 years older than her and they divorced in 1944 without having children. Curiously it add “In 1954, Corby met Stella Luchetta”. The source is from the LA Times that provides the added detail, “She is survived by her friend of 45 years, Stella Luchetta.”
“Survived by” comments are usually reserved for relatives and in Hollywood “friend” can be code for partner or lover.
I searched further. A couple blogs mentioned Corby swore like a sailor and