It's difficult to gauge how much having to hid his sexuality with other men effected Johnnie Ray but when Confidential magazine, a celebrity-driven popular magazine known for outing stars, revealed that he was, it was a serious problem circa the early 1950's. The story also quoted a psychiatrist who said he was a success because his stage antics were abnormal and that he had a "toxic" effect on teenagers. (pages 161-163)
Johnnie's people worked to save his reputation and career. These were not the days to become a Gay Icon. (I have wondered who cut out pages and made remarks on the copy of the book I got as they must have wanted to censor it.) The Johnnie Ray Foundation for Hard of Hearing was set up to change the focus on the man, to acknowledge his hearing loss, and set him up to be more of a hero. No doubt about it, Johnnie Ray was a trooper and would always be. Twentieth Century Fox movie studio signed him up and put him in a movie, There's No Business Like Show Business, that included in its cast, Marilyn Monroe.
"Johnnie was friendlier with Monroe than anyone else in the cast. He first met her during his Ciro's engagement. "she had problems getting a date," Johnnie said. "Because for most men, the fear of being rejected by Marilyn Monroe was just too much for the male ego. So they didn't ask. ... "Women see reflected in me all of the emotion and tenderness that, unfortunately, the American male doesn't have time for today." (pages 178-179)
Though divorced, ex wife Marilyn Morrison, perhaps never out of love or obsessed with Johnnie, accompanied him to the premier of the film. There was even talk of a re-marriage.
Johnnie's team emphasized his talent, mentioning that he had written over a hundred songs and also was a short story writer who hoped to write a TV show for himself. They also pitched untruths and misinformation aimed at making friends with some of the singers who were considered peers - or maybe competitors - not revealing his love of jazz and blues music. Scandal magazines continued to take aim at him. He also made television appearances on variety type shows and some of the top comedians took a funnier spin on his performances. Then in the spring of 1956 he was the mystery guest on the game show, "What's My Line?" Though in the four years since she first saw him perform in 1952 had included a number of articles in which she was critical of him, Dorothy Kilgallen swooned over Johnnie. She'd lead a glamorous life since 1938 and had been married since 1940. Her marriage was not good. Now Dorothy's columns were pro-Johnnie.
..."No less frequent were surprise gifts, a series of deliveries from the likes of Cartier (a pair of diamond and sapphire encrusted cuff links( and Steuben (crystal decanters engraved "Johnnie's vodka" and "Just Gin." ... Johnnie reciprocated with bunches of her favorite flowers, the exotic lavender rose. "They were steel blue and gorgeous... (page 212)
"Johnnie's life suddenly gained the context and security it had lacked. With Dorothy at his side, the treat of scandal and opprobrium melted away, as did her own long-stifled yearnings. Together they walked on air. Even more surprising, to her friends, they walked in Central Park. Dorothy actually went so far as to don slacks for these rambles, a supreme concession. No stranger to the best-dressed lists.. her staunch high fashion/little lady wardrobe aesthetic was well known as it was influential." (page 213)
... 'When Dorothy let her hair down, the reversal was positive. She remained a first-rate journalist, but also became a round-heeled libertine of the highest order. ... When Johnnie became her lover, the climaxes shared were explosively, incalculably nurturing. It was an ecstacy which shattered the psychic walls Dorothy had laboriously erected in an attempt to mask her own, beautiful running dog self - the very same moon howling, careless primitive Johnnie had released long before, and built his career on. Together, Johnnie and Dorothy crashed out of reality and into their personal dimension. Given the Star Psychology's fantastically presumptuous, narrow-channeled thought process, they indulged themselves in a display of splendid excess." (page 215)
Jonny Whiteside's writing in his book Cry is so creative, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. When it comes to focusing on Dorothy's strange death that silenced her when her dogged determination may have been to reveal the truth of the J.F.K. assassination, however, it is Mark Shaw's book that takes the big prizes.
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