"Oh my God, that's the smallest one I've ever seen," Tab Hunter says.
The gregarious, almost 84-year-old actor is referring to my recording device. We're sitting in the private shopping area at Macy's as apologetic staffers wheel racks of designer menswear back and forth. But nothing distracts him from enthusing about Tab Hunter Confidential, the documentary playing at Frameline that's based on the memoir he co-wrote 10 years ago with film historian Eddie Muller.
"I'm thrilled it's happening. You have no idea!" Hunter says. "I heard the book is on The New York Times best-seller list. I can't believe it! It's already been there."
It's at the No. 9 position, to be exact — a rare feat after an interval of nearly a decade. But while many Eisenhower-era matinee idols and pop stars have long since faded to complete obscurity, nothing keeps interest in Tab Hunter down for long. The charismatic heartthrob who played opposite Sophia Loren and dated Anthony Perkins was once in such demand that Warner Brothers started its music division just to keep him in-house.
Born Art Gelien, Hunter is a San Francisco native who grew up in the Avenues, "learned to swim at Sutro's, and kept a horse in Pleasanton when there were pastures out there." He's a lifelong practicing Catholic who never championed any political causes, and remains a private person, famously reluctant to open up about his sexuality, or even to gossip about the stars.
When I mention that, judging by the film, it looks as though Debbie Reynolds still has a crush on him, he demurs.
"I don't know about that! Deb and I go back to when she was playing the French horn in the Burbank High School band. Warner Brothers put her under contact, dropped her, and she went on to MGM and became a big star. But I remember she was just a little Burbank girl."
Point taken, although I'm pretty sure I just made Tab Hunter blush.
Partially to conceal his sexuality — he'd been spotted at what the tabloids labeled a "limp-wristed pajama party," although he tells me the incident was "total bullshit" — and partially because it was part of his job description, the studio habitually fixed him up on dates with Reynolds, Natalie Wood, and other ingenues. While there was obviously no TMZ, photographers accompanied them at all times, yet they were able to sneak some intimacy out of the spotlight. It's almost dizzying to hear his reminiscences, if only because it's entrancing to hear someone casually refer to Tallulah, Tennessee, and Chita by their first names only. (The one time the permanently boyish Hunter ever grew facial hair, it was to play Christopher in Tennessee Williams' The Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore, opposite Tallulah Bankhead.)
But since Tab Hunter Confidential played at Frameline, and since most people under 50 probably know Hunter best from Polyester, I had to ask about Divine.
"Divine I had met once socially," Hunter said. "I believe at David Hockney's or some place. I was a big fan. John [Waters] said, 'How would you feel about kissing a 350-pound transvestite?' I said, 'I'm sure I've done a hell of a lot worse!'"
Hunter considered Divine among his favorite leading ladies, "right up there with Geraldine Page, Natalie, and Sophia [Loren]," and they went on to make Lust in the Dust, a spoof of Westerns that involved Hunter doing "a very poor take on Clint."
If opportunity knocked in the form of a new John Waters film, would he do it again?
"I'd do anything for John, I think he's just wonderful. I remember when I said I'd do [Polyester], an agent said, 'You can't do that! Don't tell anybody you're doing a John Waters film!' I said, 'I've got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.' We can't stand by the side of the pool and just look at it. We've got to jump in."
Comments are closed.
