Was Myrna Loy a Lesbian?

With those ridiculously thin eyebrows she looks like a twink from 2020!

I do like the 30s' style. It's very artistic and ethereal. It's not meant to be close to reality, I guess.

I always heard she preferred the company of women.

I actually found her homophobic. I read a story once that a young actress whom she was mentoring was riding with her on a streetcar and the girl asked her about some women she had encountered and were they perhaps Lesbians? Loy made a dismissive remark that would have discouraged the girl if she herself was Lesbian. Something like, "You know what you are, and you are not one of them, so just forget about it".

On the other hand, she was friendly with Natasha Rambova who was certainly Lesbian-friendly and probably knew other early Hollywood lesbians. I've never heard any rumors about her and she was married 4 or 5 times to men, so I doubt she was Lesbian or bi.

Really, R3? Any details? I read that she penned a decent autobiography before she died. Maybe she mentions something there?

Women who have been married 4 or 5 times to men can not be lesbian/bisexual.

Closet cases often have a jerk reaction when spoken to about homosexuality so who knows... Also all of her marriages were very short-lived.

She never ate MY snatch!

R4 That's a very bitter bisexual thing to say. She was a staunch liberal and hated Ginger Rogers, I remember reading once.

You’ve never seen ANY of Myrna Loy’s movies?!?!?!

You have no right to post on Datalounge!

Haha, at least I intend to, R10! Don't take my gay card just yet!

Wasn’t there a story floating around DL that Myrna, past her prime, was picking up guys in hotel bars with the “I used to be an actress” line?

No, R12. That was Helen Lawson.

OP start with Manhattan Melodrama - a great pre-code film.

Oooh, I read that gangster John Dillinger, who was a huge Loy fan, just HAD to see Manhattan Melodrama when the police was doing a search for him. They found him and shot him dead in the cinema.

"I actually found her homophobic."

We all know that THAT means!

Lots of gays are homophobic, especially if they're in some position where they consider being gay to be unthinkable. I never heard any gay rumors about Loy, just enjoyed her films, but a lack of rumors doesn't make her straight. Women of that era thought exploring their sexuality was somehow wicked and that homosexuality was evil, and it's possible for a lez-bi gal of that era to have lived and died without ever getting it on with another woman. All we really know is that she never made a go of heterosexuality, which doesn't make her a lez. Plenty of heterosexuals are bad at it.

I saw her in Don Juan in Hell along with Misters Edward Mulhare, Kurt Kaznar, and Ricardo Montalban. I got them to sign my program at the stage door.

Democrat

Great actress

She was very anti-racist - an unusual stance for the time - and lobbied for black people to be cast as something other than servants. She also strongly objected to being typecast as an Asian-face in those awful costume dramas of the era. She comes across as very moral and decent, so I doubt she really was homophobic. Maybe that remark to the young protegée reflected some lesbian drama she experienced behind the scenes. Certainly sounds like she knew what she was talking about.

FUCK OFF R18 and R19 and stop making everything about fucking race and politics!

It's possible she was heavily-closeted. If so, it was not cool for her to project her self-hatred onto that young girl. Also, she was vicious toward Christina Crawford when Crawford came out with her stories about Joan. I bought Loy's bio because she was my favorite actress at the time and I thought I admired her, but after reading some things about her I was really disillusioned. I found her somewhat arrogant, bossy, and possibly repressed or homophobe. None of the above has anything to do with politics or race. Do you know how many assholes are "racially progressive" or even black?

R6 it's not very likely, that's all. Didn't she allegedly have several abortions? Yes, it's possible, but not likely a Lez would go through all that when she didn't have to.

I don't recommend Manhattan Melodrama at all. Myrna at her best was in Love Crazy or Double Wedding with Bill Powell or Best Years of Our Lives.

How DARE you suggest that, OP. There is absolutely no concrete evidence that Myrna Loy was a lesbian or had same sex experiences, none whatsoever. There is no reason to trash the memory of a great film actress with your salacious accusations. NONE!

Wowww, R20, simmer down a little, will ya? Why does a comment about race trigger you so freakishly much? It's just a little strange, is all.

R6, R21, Cary Grant married and divorced many times, and even became fixated on Sophia Loren in a chaste (yes it was according to SL) relationship. Not likely a homo would go through all that when he didn't have to?

Here is a fascinating interview with an elderly, regal and still stunningly beautiful Myrna Loy who tells Dick Cavett how she got her Hollywood break.

Apparently, it was two women who made everything possible to get her through the door - allegedly homo- or bisexual Natacha Rambova, who was fascinated by a photo ov Loy, and casting director Minna Wallis, of whom Barbara Sinatra says, “Minna Wallis, [producer]Hal Wallis’s sister, was a casting director at Warner’s, and she had all the stars go through her casting couch." Wallis also pushed the careers of Garbo and Cary Grant.

Myrna is aristocratic, classy and very powerful, sitting in a bit of a manly pose with her arm draped over the back of her chair. And she never lets a man interrupt her. A very interesting lady indeed.

And here is the photo thst made Rambova notice Loy.

*sorry about the typos! I was upset that today DL is really trying to prevent me from posting links.

SCHLORP!