The secret lives of LGBT characters from old films is finally revealed!
THE GUIDE TO LOST QUEER CINEMATIC CHARACTERS
Volume III: the Fantastic and FeareD
Bakin, Thomas (The Incredible Petrified World) b. 1922, d. 1989
|
Thomas Bakin, heir to the Bakin Flour Co. fortune, rejected his family’s expectations in favor of pursuing a passion for tennis. While his father was displeased by Bakin’s disinterest in the family business, it was his mother who became particularly concerned when his relationship with his tennis instructor evolved into something more intimate. Although she was largely indifferent to her son’s cocaine habit, she found his homosexuality unsavory. To sever the relationship, she enlisted large men to convince the instructor to leave Chicago for the East Coast. Undeterred, Bakin followed the man, but soon received a message from his mother threatening to disinherit him unless he appeared publicly with a woman. In response, Bakin entered into a relationship with reporter Dale Marshall, whose acerbic wit reminded him of his mother. The two became engaged in 1958.
In 1957, Bakin’s life took a dramatic turn when irradiated locusts devastated the wheat fields of the Midwest, driving up wheat prices and ultimately forcing the Bakin Flour Co. into bankruptcy. Faced with both the collapse of his family’s business and the dissolution of his engagement, Bakin ended the relationship with Marshall by letter. Marshall, who was working in the Caribbean, subsequently discarded the engagement ring into the ocean. Disillusioned and desperate to escape his lost fortune and ongoing addiction, Bakin rekindled his relationship with his tennis instructor. After the repeal of California’s sodomy laws, the couple relocated to Palm Springs, where they opened a resort catering to gay tourists. Bakin’s legacy within LGBT sports history is marked by his support for tennis legend Bill Tilden, despite Tilden’s arrests for soliciting minors. Bakin provided financial assistance to Tilden during his career downturns and was one of the few to attend Tilden’s funeral in 1953, offering a rare gesture of loyalty when many others had turned their backs on the disgraced athlete. |
Zutai (The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake) –b. 1843 d. 1959
  Among the Jívaro tribe of the Loreto region of Peru, Zutai served as an assistant to the shaman, often securing rare plants for his medicinal brews. The Jívaro were headhunters and greatly feared, especially by Europeans. Wilfred Drake, who owned a trading station in the upper reaches of the Amazon, took vengeance on the tribe after they captured his agent. Every Jívaro male and male child was slaughtered except for the witch doctor, who escaped, and his faithful Zutai, whose return to the village had been delayed because of a tryst with famed Peruvian botanist Cesar Guisse. Through black magic, the shaman and his assistant gained immortality at the cost of their soul. The shaman vowed that each male Drake would be murdered and beheaded once they reached their sixth decade. Before the turn of the 20th century, the shaman sewed Zutai’s lips shut, resembling the bound mouth of a shrunken head. The shaman claimed this was to prove his helper no longer needed sustenance, but some whispered it was punishment for Zutai’s shortcomings in certain intimate rites. When he was not helping his master’s heinous deeds, Zutai studied Bolivian Sign Language and dubious Kegel exercises for personal enrichment. By 1959, only two male descendants of Drake lived. One was beheaded, as per the shaman’s curse, while the other, with the help of an American police inspector, managed to destroy both ageless Jívaro.
|
|