Created by Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan, Netflix’s brand new series Hollywood details the Golden Age in Hollywood, California post-World War II. It features some of the era’s most iconic figures while also exposing the biases against people across race, gender, and sexuality. Hollywood is a historically based series and in episode three, “Outlaws,” it features the gay director George Cukor and his famous pool parties.
Recently, Ryan Murphy has produced several documentaries on gay life in the United States for Netflix such as A Secret Love and Circus Of Books. Hollywood may be a mostly-fictional dramatization rather than a documentary, but its ensemble cast does feature several actors in the roles of real-life people. “Outlaws” features some of Hollywood’s most recognizable names such as Tallulah Bankhead (Paget Brewster) and George Cukor (Daniel London). As the episode draws attention to the exuberant and lavish pool parties that Cukor threw, it also shines a spotlight on the homosexual underground of Hollywood during postwar America.
In the series, Ernest “Ernie” West (Dylan McDermott) explains that Cukor’s parties are a safe haven for homosexual men to express their sexuality without fear of being put under arrest or beaten by police. He emphasizes that gay men are perceived as outlaws and the pool parties that Cukor throws are one of their only means to come together as a community. What West is describing is the truth of Hollywood during postwar America, especially in regards to homosexuality and the importance of Cukor’s parties to gay people in the community.
George Cukor’s Gay Pool Parties Really Happened
George Cukor was a director active in Hollywood from 1930 until 1981. His filmography includes films such as Little Women (1933) and Romeo and Juliet (1936). Cukor was born in the Lower East Side of Manhattan on July 7, 1899, and his first entrance into the entertainment business was on Broadway with The Great Gatsby by Owen Davis. In 1929, he left New York and headed to Hollywood to pursue his dreams of becoming a director.
In Hollywood, it was an open secret that George Cukor was gay. In the mid-1930s he was a prominent director and unofficial head of the underground gay subculture that existed during one of the worst times in history to be gay in America. His Sunday pool parties were regarded as an affair meant for boys only. While Hollywood depicts them as serving the purpose of allowing gay men to have open sex, Cukor’s parties were also meant to provide a space for gay men to gather without fear.
The truth of George Cukor’s pool parties is that they allowed him and fellow homosexuals to freely gather with one another alongside trusted friends in the industry. Furthermore, Cukor’s parties helped open the door for more gay men to get roles in Hollywood by networking and forming unforgettable bonds with one another. Hollywood showcases important figures and moments in Hollywood history throughout the series, but especially in “Outlaws.”