For Republican whack job Michelle Bachmann, It’s back to her day job as Satan’s secretary a Minnesota Representative, after the 55-year-old neo-fascist came in 6th in the Iowa caucuses, having received a terrifying 5% of the vote. She can also go back to her husband’s counseling practice (he’s not a licensed psychologist in Minnesota), where they attempt to transform homosexuals into heteros.
In a wild new biography, “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets: The Inside Story of America’s Most Troubled President,” former UPI Washington Bureau Chief Don Fulsom says that Tricky Dick liked dick, and was associated with the mob for more than 20 years before his 1968 erection, er, election, and that he had more than a “friend” relationship with associate Charles “Bebe” Rebozo.
You know this can’t be true, because nobody, and I mean NOBODY, would ever suck Nixon’s dick. It’s just not possible. Well, maybe J. Edgar Hoover. Okay, yah, Hoover.
Today’s Friday Face for Veterans Day is the positively delicious Franklin Pangborn of Newark, New Jersey, whose face you’ve probably seen if you’ve spent any time watching old movies.
Born in 1888, Pangborn served in World War I with the 312th Infantry, and despite his modesty, he was known as a hero of the Battle of Argonne.
He began his stage career appearing in stock. He arrived in Los Angeles in 1920 and continued playing stock at the 1,700 seat Majestic Theatre at 8th and Broadway, which was demolished in 1933. He appeared on stage and on screen with all of the great stars of the day, and would eventually work at nearly every studio. Cecil B. DeMille placed him under contract for several years.
He began in silent films with “Exit Smiling” in 1926, and was a favorite of Mack Sennett and Hal Roach.
By the 1930s, with his quick delivery and perfect diction, he was the character actor of choice to play frustrated hotel clerks, prissy department store salesmen and befuddled headwaiters — the “foremost interpreter of covert gay roles of the 30s and 40s,” says film critic Michael Guillen.
Here’s Pangborn in one of his typical roles, a brief appearance in “Hollywood Victory Caravan.”
During the days when homosexuality was not discussed, he appeared with W.C. Fields in “International House.” In one scene, pre-censorship, Fields has just arrived to the hotel in the Chinese city of Wuhu, but has no idea where he is. Pangborn, playing the hotel manager (of course) has this exchange with Fields:
Fields: Where am I?
Pangborn: Wu-hu!
Fields (giving him a sharp look and removing a flower from his lapel): Don’t let the posy fool you!
While some say he played a stereotype, he nonetheless played it, and how.
Here he is with Shirley Temple, in one of two films he did with her in 1938.
He was among the great company of players used time and again by the great comedy writer/director, Preston Sturges. If that name is new to you, do start watching his films. Start with “Sullivan’s Travels.”
Pangborn appeared in over 200 films.
Here’s his final performance from April 1958, on The Red Skelton Show, with John Carradine.
Franklin died following cancer surgery in July of 1958.
His star on the Walk of Fame is at 1500 Vine, on the East side, right at Sunset… not far from the Arclight.
For being fabulous in his own time, Franklin Pangborn is today’s Friday Face.
This not hot mess was sent down the runway during the Casa Blanca show at Charles Voegele Fashion Days in Zurich on Wednesday.
One should never wear a jacket and tie with shorts unless one is the 3-year-old ring bearer at a Kardashian wedding. And one should never wear yellow shorts and a pink shirt, unless one is a waiter at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville Restaurant in Orlando.
In related news, a fourth gay bashing occurred Monday in West Hollywood, the fourth in as many weeks. Be careful out there.
“Thomas Dworzak’s fantastic series of brightly colored, found photographs of Taliban fighters striking poses — some holding flowers and wearing enough black eyeliner to make a glam rocker proud. The boys and men had Afghan passport photographers make the portraits clandestinely in the late Taliban era, flouting strictures against figurative representation, then abandoned them when they fled the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. Dworzak found the photographs in a studio near his hotel in Kandahar.”
Watch one of the creepiest Turban Tuesday videos ever… right here. Click “play essay” on that page.
Lesbians and gays from all over the country lined up to be among the first to get married in New York.
Attorneys lined up to handle same-sex divorces.
Gay marriages have a better shot, so to speak.
According to figures released by the National Association of Gays and Lesbians, 50% of marriages currently end in divorce, but of gay and lesbian unions, only 17% end in divorce.
Among the factors accounting for the lower divorce rate among gays: not watching sports on TV.
