When I was planning episodes, a friend suggested that I talk about lavender marriages. Lavender marriages were essentially fake Hollywood marriages set up by studios, agents, or the actors themselves to hide a star’s sexuality or clean up their image. I know that lavender marriages and queerness in early Hollywood are really salacious and fun to talk about, but I couldn’t immediately figure out how to casually bring up the subject. And then I remembered Alla Nazimova and, folks, we've got ourselves a great episode on a queer producer, director, and actress who was said to be one of the best actresses of her day. Let’s talk about Alla Nazimova and her groundbreaking silent film with an allegedly all-gay cast, Salome. Happy Pride!
“Alla Nazimova - AFI Catalogue Spotlight”. June 1, 2023. https://www.afi.com/news/alla-nazimova-afi-catalog-spotlight/
“Alla Nazimova”. IMDB. Accessed on May 16, 2024. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0623417/
Anger, Kenneth. Hollywood Babylon. Dell Publishing, 1975.
Longworth, Karina. “Rudolph Valentino (Fake News: Fact-Checking Hollywood Babylon). January 29, 2019. https://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2019/1/29/hollywoodbabylon
Pacheco, Diego Pineda. “Critically Acclaimed Films that Roger Ebert Disliked”. Collider. April 25, 2024.
https://collider.com/roger-ebert-worst-acclaimed-movies/
Reise. “The 10 Most Sexually Prolific Lesbians and Bisexuals in Old Hollywood.” Astro Straddle. July 7, 2016. https://www.autostraddle.com/10-old-hollywood-stars-who-enjoyed-scissoring-343227/
Shokin, Samantha. The Founding Mother of Sapphic Hollywood. Tablet Mag. June 1, 2022.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/alla-nazimova-sapphic-hollywood
Turnbull, Martin. “Salome”. JSTOR. https://www.loc.gov/static/programs/national-film-preservation-board/documents/salome.pdf
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/02/mercedes-de-acosta-the-poet-who-had-affairs-with-the-20th-centurys-most-famous-women