Let's Talk About Van Johnson (2024)

Have to admit if one liked fresh freckled faced "All American" young men Van Johnston in his day fit that bill. I for one didn't know he was gay until rather recently.

Last years spent living in Sutton Place area of Manhattan (long an area full of well off and adjacent gay men), before going onto an assisted living facility in Nyack where he died.

Have heard stories Van Johnson in later years was one of those stately old queens of CA or NY. Always nicely dressed but giving off a vibe from a different era, sort of like your grandfather.

As one of many gay men on the down low during Hollywood's studio system days, one wonders if Van Johnson ever tricked with any of others like Roddy McDowell, Rock Hudson, etc....

IIRC Van Johnson was great pals with Lucille Ball. He certainly was talented, maybe not Oscar award winning level, but could hold his own I should say.

Last Time I Saw Paris was probably first film starring Van Johnson ever saw. Was a PBS late night broadcast and was up ill with flu.

His character was a dick, but Van Johnson was very attractive and charming.

Johnson has been the subject of or appeared in a number of DL threads over the years. (Old Hollywood talk is a DL staple, and occasionally we get some great insights.)

The story of Van Johnson, Keenan Wynn, and their "shared wife" Evie alone is worth a Google search, if you're curious.

R5

Thanks for the tip. Did search for Van Johnson on DL before starting thread, but nothing came up. Then again should have known the search function on this site isn't what it ought to be.

"Shuffle ball change...."

Now those are three words you don't hear often nowadays. Well outside of dance classes.

Found it!

Have been schooled, never bother with DL searches. If you want to find archived threads use Google or any decent search engine. They sniff out and archive everything.

Van Johnson turned down the role of Harold Hill in "The Music Man" as it was prepared to be produced on Broadway, as did Eddie Albert among others.

After Robert Preston triumphed in the role on Broadway, Van saw the light and played Harold Hill in the West End in London when it opened there. I believe Eddie Albert did the U.S. national tour.

Van Johnson, Peter Lawford, Robert Walker, and Tom Drake rose up the ranks at MGM because all its established male stars went off to war. These new leading men were all kind of bland and lacked sexual allure, but I guess American audiences needed sweet and wholesome during those troubling times.

I've mentioned this in past threads, but I've encountered him a couple of times during his elder years and he had this prissy, haughty air about him. His manner of speech was affected old Hollywood, he wore ascots and what appeared to be bronzer or makeup on his face.

He and Judy Garland are so perfectly paired in "In the Good Old Summertime" it's too bad they only did one film together. They both are better than usual in it.

This is a very well acted scene, my favorite in the film.

I recently read a book on Johnson (MGM’s Golden Boy by Ronald Davis) and it was fairly well researched and published by a university press, so it wasn’t the usual slapdash, copy and paste bio. The consensus is that Van was gay but deeply closeted and was not willing to risk that and lose his stature at MGM. There were a lot of stories about him at 14 and 15 in Rhode Island hooking up with sailors.

In the early 1960s, after he had transitioned from movies to musical theatre, he began to have more gay relationships. When he opened the original West End production of The Music Man he began a relationship with a featured chorus boy, Ben Stevenson. This was the relationship that really ended his marriage to his wife, Eve. The affair was fleeting but Stevenson (that's a photo of Ben Stevenson) went on to have a very long and prestigious career in ballet: he was the longtime Artistic Director of the Houston Ballet and was very chummy with the Bush family.

Johnson had what seemed like a lonely, miserly life in NYC (Sutton Place) and then Nyack, antagonizing his step-children and daughter frequently.

R32

Get her, she found her pride, heaven knows where she got if from .....

Bitch a free drink is a free drink. Day a fine young thing goes into an establishment and no free drinks are forthcoming, then you might as well be dead. That's a sure sign you've peaked and are over.

R35

"“In January 1947 Evie and Wynn were finally divorced, and the following day she and Johnson were wed. Although rumours quickly circulated that the MGM chief Louis B. Mayer had ordered the union to cover up potential scandal, the truth is cloudy. The writer Arthur Laurents states in his memoirs, ‘A sunny male star caught performing in public urinals once too often was ordered by his studio to get married. His best friends, a young comedian and his wife, divorced so that he could marry the wife.’"

@ R27 from same link above....

'“In 1960 Evie sued Johnson for divorce, citing cruelty and his causing ‘grievous mental suffering’, and a few weeks later she sued Wynn for ‘fraud and breach of contract’ in their property settlement and for failing to pay child support. She was briefly reconciled with Johnson and travelled with him to London in 1961 when he starred on stage in The Music Man, but the couple finally parted when Johnson began an affair with a member of the show’s cast. Ned Wynn writes that his mother told him that Johnson had left her ‘for a man – a boy, really. He’s the lead boy dancer.'” Their eventual, acrimonious divorce (Johnson called it ‘the ugliest divorce in Hollywood history’) was made final in 1968.”"

[quote]Ned Wynn writes that his mother told him that Johnson had left her ‘for a man – a boy, really. He’s the lead boy dancer.'”

This is from "We Will Always Live in Beverly Hills" by Ned Wynn. The book is pretty good but mostly about Ned (who cares) and his life as a Hollywood brat who has no motivation or drive and falls into drugs and transcendental meditation (or trance and dental medication). The book is not available as an ebook so I ordered it. I thought there'd be more dirt on the relationship between Keenan and Van but Ned really only talks about how their lives changed and then mentions the above very brief revelation about Ben Stevenson (who is not named). Evie Wynn/Johnson eventually became Van's agent and fucked his career up big time by making outrageous demands.

The book "The Lion of Hollywood: The Life and Legend of Louis B. Mayer" begins with the story about how he manipulated the marriage of Van Johnson and Evie. Just like Universal did with Rock Hudson, according to Evie. She said she was in love with Van, and Mayer promised to keep Kennan working so that he could afford to pay child support. Evie claimed she was in love with Van, and had no idea he was gay. If she didn't marry him, then Keenan would be out of a job, basically.

Keenan was always working, and would send Evie to parties and premieres with Van. He thought Van was safe around Evie, lol.

I'm just confused about the state of the Keenan Wynn marriage. Was it already floundering before LB Mayer interfered in it? Were there stories of Keenan fooling around with men other than Van?

I met Van way back in 1970 when I was an apprentice at a summer stock theater. He would chat me up backstage and was very sweet, not sexually threatening at all. But I was a cute young 20 year old (who looked like a teenager) and probably of no serious interest to him. I remember he always wore red socks, even in the middle of the summer.

I think we have to be more tolerant of men like Van who rose to stardom in a world where they had no choice but to be closeted.

It's remarkable to me that there are still gay actors who feel compelled to remain closeted in this day and age. Young British actors like Jonathan Bailey, Russell Tovey and Andrew Scott, to name just a few, really are role models.

R53

Here we go again....

There was no question of Van Johnson ever "coming out". Furthermore you cannot compare life of a man born just after turn of last century to one born say even in 1950 or 1960.

Like Tom Tryon and many other gay actors in Hollywood back then and some would say even today coming out is just not an option.

More to the point under old studio system if Van Johnson came out is career would have been effectively over. MGM would have dropped him, and it would be highly unlikely any other major studio would pick him up.

Yes, gays like Arthur Laurents did come out saying "fuck the consequences", but there were consequences and repercussions. Maybe not huge by some people's standards, but never the less...

Am betting many of you all would be bitter as will if forced to remain in that closet. Van Johnson couldn't (or didn't far as one knows) even have that outlet of private gay parties like Rock Hudson, Roddy, and others. Nor like Anthony Perkins a queer ménage à trois living arrangement with a two gays and one female acting as beard.

By time Van Johnson began to remotely feel comfortable about that side of his life, he was already >50.

Just about everyone who worked at MGM in the 40s and 50s spoke about it being an extraordinary gilded cage. The actors were well paid and coddled by the studio, they lived in luxurious surroundings and received all the trappings of fame, but they were expected to follow a strict code of conduct, and being gay was absolutely a career killer. When you are carrying a secret that, had it become public, would destroy all of that life in an instant, you become obsessive about hiding it. Johnson was not alone - Rock Hudson, Cesar Romero, Ramon Novarrro, Tab Hunter, and many others all played the game.

Johnson was a popular actor, perhaps a bigger star than his talents would warrant. So in his case, the loss of his cover would have been devastating. Indeed, he spent most of his post-Hollywood career coasting on his star image in dinner theater and stock.

He lived in New York in a penthouse at 405 East 54th Street, an elegant apartment building that was known for having many gay tenants -- it was jokingly called "4 out of 5." That alone was almost a coming out statement in those times, but it was about as far as Johnson would go. I don't know that he had any long-term relationship with a man.

[quote]blind June Allyson

Didn't that make it difficult to change her bladder pads?

[quote] There were a lot of stories about him at 14 and 15 in Rhode Island hooking up with sailors.

Such a charmed youth he had!

r27 Here's a recent pic of Stevenson.

Life's a bitch sometimes.

R71

Tony Perkins, Grover Dale and Helen Merrill all lived together in a New York City townhouse. First two were lovers, third acted as "mistress" of the house as sort of beard.

We've discussed this before on DL. Please keep up.

R67 At the onset of WWII, when he was a nobody actor, he avoided the draft by checking the "I'm gay" box.

As he soon became a well-known actor he started to worry this could affect his career, and when he suffered serious injury in an accident he asked whether he could switch the basis of his military exemption to the aftermath of the accident.

The FBI got wind of this and started an intensive investigation to determine whether he lied in initially checking that box. The FBI file contains a long and intensely personal interview in which he successfully convinces the agents it was no lie.

J Edgar must have really gotten off reading that file and knowing the sort of control it gave him.

Schuyler Johnson is still with us (aged 73), but you don't hear much about or from her these days.

She's discussed in this old DL thread on Van Johnson

[quote] Always nicely dressed but giving off a vibe from a different era, sort of like your grandfather.

As we will all do should we live as long.

r86, that has some interesting dish:

Miss Van used to hang out the Golden Bull resturant next to SS Friendship ( the oldest gay bar in LA.) He used to get completely shit faced . Clutch desperately at the cute waiters, slober on about how he sucked off Clark Gable. He always wore a blue blazer and a cravet. He had florescent day glow orange hair that would put Lucy to shame.He'd get fallin down drunk and we'd wind up calling him a cab and one of us would follow him up to Bel Aire in diving his Caddy. Good tipper but a rather sad ole queen.Some of the waiters laid on their backs for 5 minutes until he passed out. It was an easy Grant. Oh well . May Miss Van RIP.

Wow, it's so sad that actors couldn't be who they really were back then!

I'm glad things are so much better today!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to make passionate love to my hot girlfriend

I don't mean to be Dora Dumbfuck, but is "Schuyler" pronounced "SKY-ler", or "Shoo-ler"?

It's a dopey name, mo.

Also this photo I found looks like the worst double date in history! Is there enough booze to make this a fun night out?

R84 NPH is no where near butch enough to play a young or even middle aged Van Johnson

Shame is then wife along with agent screwed Van Johnson out of doing Elliot Ness. Watch the "Untouchables" on MeTv and think VJ would have been excellent.

R27

More than you know, and Ben Stevenson wasn't the only victim by far.

Simon Gallaher went from this...

There are now and have been for ages elder gays just like Van Johnson at certain watering holes such as Townhouse.

You really cannot be too hard on these stately old queens. One must remember these gays came up in our father's , grandfather's or even great grandfather's time when world was just a different place.

Aside from being gay many of these men had all sorts of issues. Van Johnson's mother left home when he was three (she had a drinking problem, and sounds like his father threw her out or something). Van never forgave his mother for leaving, worse he was left with a father that while did love him in his own way, just wasn't the warm and cuddly sort. Van Johnson's father wanted his son to become a violinist. Van spent hours alone practicing something he really didn't like.

When you look at that childhood it's no wonder (if true) young Van was out cruising sailors for tricks at 16 or 17.....

As another poster stated end of studio system/golden age of Hollywood hit actors and actresses who came up in that scheme hard. They went from being steadily employed (under contract) to basically having to fend for themselves. There was just no way Van Johnson was going to come out then for a host of reasons.

[quote] He lived in New York in a penthouse at 405 East 54th Street, an elegant apartment building that was known for having many gay tenants -- it was jokingly called "4 out of 5."

I read that somewhere and thought it was hilarious. Where did you read it? I can't find the source (someone's memoir?).

VJ was that odd holdover from the Golden Years of Hollywood for whom there was no right place by the time summer stock, nightclubs, and cabaret acts were no longer in vogue except for certain pockets that managed to survive. Where was one to go except for television, and in the most dreadful period of television imaginable -- the 1970s and 80s? So many of the shows were crap but were built around names and former stars who could no longer carry a movie. He did say, rather sardonically, that all his peers owed a great debt to "Angie" for keeping so many of them active by having them perform on "Murder, She Wrote."

R107

What a great story, and you're a great son!

Whatever else people may say about Van Johnson, he exuded that old Hollywood studio system charm towards his fans. He never forgot that old nugget of wisdom of theater and later film people that it is the pubic who put you (the actor) where you are. If they stop attending your performances you're done.

His escapades in cruising young men not withstanding don't think have ever read or heard of Van Johnson being rude or unkind to a fan. By all accounts Van Johnson was great in La Cage!

R109

Didn't write quote you responded to, but can answer your query.

Matt Crowley (wrote play "Boys In The Band..", lived at 405 East 54th street along with many other gays back in the day. He explained "405" became "4 out of 5" because that was the ratio of gay to straight tenants.

That area of mid-town east from Third avenue east to Sutton from about 42nd street north to low 60's was once a huge gay area of Manhattan, this going back to 1950's if not before. There were gay bars, restaurants, clubs, and of course by the 1960's or so the famous stroll for gay hustlers at 53rd street and Third avenue.

Today only bar left is Townhouse, but there is a reason why that place is where it is and remains.

Further to R 114's post, the area along Third Avenue in the 40s and 50s was home to what was known as the "bird circuit," a string of gay bars with names like The Blue Parrot and The Swan. It was a very oppressive time and the bars were mafia-run. They would often hire women to sit near the window in an attempt to disguise the otherwise all-male clientele. But there was always the treat of a police raid. There is a subway stop at 53rd and Third and the line runs from Queens and goes down through Chelsea and the Village. So it was a very convenient spot for men to meet. Once the El was demolished in 1955, real estate values skyrocketed in that part of town. The police began patrolling the area aggressively and a series of raids put the bars out of business., and high-rise office buildings went up, essentially destroying the neighborhood feel of the area.

You can still sense a bit of what it was like on the block of 53rd Street between Third and Second Avenues.

So VJ was very much in his element living over there.

[quote]Matt Crowley

His name was MART, not Matt.

When I was a kid, Van Johnson came through town in "Showboat" playing Cap'n Andy.

There was a group of us kids in a few of the numbers. I heard the chorus boys talking about how he liked to stand behind them and touch them and whisper stuff in their ears. He would also step on the toes of anyone who got in front of him.....some of the girls cried because he would really put all of his weight on their toes.

"Don't get between me and my audience," he would tell them.

When he was on location for THE CAINE MUTINY, he kept asking his tall red haired stunt double, Tom Hennesy to come up to his room to fuck him.

Tom tried to be nice but finally had to tell him to fuck off!

R118 . . .

The Governor & J.J.

1969 ‧ Sitcom ‧ 2 seasons

"The man had star quality."

*

He's dancing with Bremer, r127, who did not...

r139 Poor Gene was so embarrassed about playing queer he always stressed his marriage and family in every interview.

He seems gay to me in the reruns of Burke's Law on YouTube, trying to be Cary Grant but not quite pulling it off.

Gene was quite good in La Cage. Engaging and charming. Hearn tried hard but in the end he was miscast as a queen. At the time it was still very unusual for a straight actor to take on a gay part. Not unheard of, but still rare. Most were worried people would think they were gay. That's why Barry and Hearn stressed their happy family lives offstage. In the original cast George and Albin never kissed, just hugged.

They had a lot of trouble casting those parts. People they wanted turned them down left and right, esp. closeted gay performers.

Georges was written with Robert Preston in mind. Herman had tailored the songs to his voice. They were almost stunned and more than disappointed when he turned it down, since had openly played gay in V/V. But that's why he declined. After being so successful as Teddy in V/V, he was afraid of getting typecast as the go-to guy for a lovable old gay. It was a legitimate concern back then. In fact though, he loved the show and the part and thought about it long and hard before passing.

And Gene's singing was fine. They felt very lucky to have gotten him after Preston passed.

"And Gene's singing was fine. They felt very lucky to have gotten him after Preston passed."

John McMartin would have been excellent.

Gene Barry was also still an incredibly handsome man when he appeared in LA CAGE. That helped the "romance" enormously.

More about the aforementioned Dan Dailey, please! Wasn't he rumored to be gay or a closet transvestite?

Saw a younger Gene Barry on some 1960's television program was watching on MeTV, may have been Alfred Hitchcock. Didn't know who he was until credits, but the voice sounded familiar. Yes, he was a very attractive young man...

Gene Barry and Van Johnson were same age, both having been born in 1919.

George Hearn sang his big La Cage number "I Am What I Am" dressed in a tux at that year's Tony awards which was televised.

There was much confusion and noise in certain quarters as to why he didn't perform in drag. Some say it was because he was also going to present that evening. Others claim network wasn't to keen on the idea (these are the same people that squashed Anita Morris doing her Call From the Vatican number because the costume and performance was deemed indecent for television). Still more say the very hetro George Hearn (five wives including Dixie Carter) wasn't to keen on doing drag period and didn't want to be too closely associated with that art or even being gay.

Would have to look it up but don't think George Hearn ever did "Za-Za" in drag unless on stage, period.

Gene Barry , Robert Stack and Tony Franciosa all starred in the revolving series "Name Of The Game". Each week the show focused on one of the, with Susan Saint James being the common link for all three. Though Gene appeared in Burke's Law and Bat Masterson as well, I'll always think of him as the first "guest murderer" in Columbo.

Though Humphrey Bogart, Fred MacMurray and Jose Ferrer all had flashier roles, Van Johnson was actually the main character in "The Caine Mutiny", and did a pretty decent job.

Bombshell Betty, R165? Or just bombed as usual? Bottoms up, Betty, you old bar rag.

(Seriously, she's terrible.)

[quote]Elder gays will also fondly remember Gene Barry from Burke's Law, in which he played a playboy millionaire private eye and the weekly suspects were always an exciting array of Hollywood has-beens.

It was an early Aaron Spelling show. That Hollywood has-beens formula was successfully transferred to other shows like "Fantasy Island," "The Love Boat," and "Murder, She Wrote."

Looking back at George Hearn in La Cage, he's really terrible.

He is completely miscast for starters.

[quote]Van Johnson was actually the main character in "The Caine Mutiny"

I'd forgotten that, R163, He did do well in the role, it's one of my favorite oldie movie.

Better clip.

Van Johnson was certainly good looking then, he must have gotten plenty of action during WWII.

Though tastes have changed, during WWII and the years that followed, Van and June Allyson were touted by MGM in roles that presented them as the perfect young American couple, the hope of the future, representing the ideals we fought for during the war. Whatever we think about them, they were actually very popular and well-liked by their colleagues in Hollywood.

June's inexplicable popularity is being discussed on another DL thread about the film THE WOMEN (she starred in a 1950s musical remake of the film).

I wonder if ole Van was turned on by the kinky scene in his BATMAN tv show episode as the "minstrel" when he has batman and robin tied up one on top of the other to a barbecue pit as they rotate around and around and their crotches first robin, then batman, then back to robin, then back to batman are plainly shown off as Van's character the minstrel watches then rotate and spin?!...

highly pervy, kinky, homoerotic scene!.... it helped that the "belts" they used to strap in both adam west and burt ward were literally placed right above their crotches ensuring blood flow to their nether regions and making them both bulge!

Van was in a serious car accident in 1943 during the filming of A Guy Named Joe; he had a metal plate put into his head and, despite extensive plastic surgery, had a nasty scar on his face that was hidden with makeup for the rest of his career. MGM wanted to replace him in the film but co-star Spencer Tracy insisted that the movie be put on hold until Johnson had recovered.

For The Caine Mutiny (1954), Johnson decided not to hide his scar as he felt it added to his character.

No, r188, the earlier one which I believe was taken in 1943. 2oth Anniversary or maybe the 25th?

It's interesting that Irene Dunne is present in the photo as I believe she was never a contract player but was appearing in a current film.

R187

Irene Dunne had nothing to do with putting "A Guy Named Joe" into filming hold while Van Johnson was on injured list. Well not directly anyway.

It was Spencer Tracy who convinced studio to hold up production after Van Johnson was injured in that automobile accident for for months. Furthermore both Tracy and director Victor Fleming agreed to pull in their claws and treat Irene Dunne better than they had previously.

Though Tracy originaly wanted Ms. Dunne in the picture, once shooting began both he and Fleming behaved rather beastly towards her, in many instances reducing Ms. Dunne to tears. This tension was clearly evident in scenes that had been shot before Van Johnson's accident.

With that agreement in place studio used those four months Van Johnson was away to retake certain scenes that previously weren't their best due to the bullying of Ms. Dunne.

That is an incredibly powerful document to read in 2021, r197. How did that get released, even now?

The enormous strength and sadness it took to write those pages on the record comes through for me. We, as contemporary entitled gays, should all read this and see what hell life was like, even for a privileged movie star like Van.

Thanks for posting. I hope everyone here takes the time to read it.

Yes, that's the file. Sad reading really: to think the Government put someone under that sort of microscope to force that sort of "confession."

Cryptome originally hosted the unexpurgated file but quickly took it down, and Cryptome very rarely takes stuff down.

Heartbreaking to read that statement (and rest of file for that matter) may be to us, but remember Van Johnson was requesting to be disqualified from military service during war time. Many assume getting out of draft/military service was simple as showing up wearing perfume and acting too twee, and or just saying "I'm a homosexual", and military said fine.. next... There could be and often was more to things that that.

Every eligible American male within age range was expected to serve his country when/if called. A good number of men who wanted to join up but for various reasons were qualified as 4F or something and couldn't, still tried to find a way into some sort of military service.

Against that backdrop Van Johnson and others who said they were gay and wanted an out often got the side eye. It's the old joke of Corporal Clinger of M*A*SH running around in dress desperately trying to get out of military, but it never worked.

Van Johnson couldn't have foretold that automobile accident would occur a few years later after ticking that "gay" box for draft board. From a cursory reading of linked FBI file that is what caused him grief later. Going back after the accident to say it was because of injury he shouldn't serve (and trying to retract the gay thing IIRC), caused a few ears to perk up.

When La Cage first opened. there was such anticipation that some friends and I got tickets for the last preview, so we could brag about having already seen it. At intermission we all looked at one another and agreed it was weak and tedious, and hoped the second act would be better. It wasn't.

I never understood the adulation for that show.

La Cage was a gay love story on Broadway that straights weren't only not bothered by, but loved including many of the gray hairs who come in for matinee performances from the burbs.

HIV/AIDs was revving up at time show opened and would indeed claim many of the dancers and others connected with show. George Hearn tells in interviews how awful things were. Coming in and each day this or that dancer or whoever out due to illness, notices on boards posting who was in what hospital, death notices.....

As for La Cage not being a "great" show, it sure won a fuck ton of awards both OBC and subsequent revivals. It may not have been everyone's cup of tea, but at least La Cage provided something to show gays weren't all evil and deserved to die for "putting their dicks where they didn't belong...."

I was watching an old Rosalind Russell movie on YouTube called 'Never Wave at a WAC' (1953). It was a rather silly thing, a vanity project for Ros, produced by her husband Freddie Brisson. The reason I was watching is because my mother, who was a WAC, told me that she was among the WACS marching in the movie.

Anyhow, there's a party scene in the beginning where Ros is playing the social grand dame in Washington, and Evie Wynn Johnson pops up for a few seconds. Ros asks her where her husband is, and she says he's doing something at the Smithsonian. Evie looked matronly, but then none of the women in that scene were young.

Evie Wynn Johnson never looked like the kind of woman to set a heterosexual man's heart aflame, much less the kind to come between two heterosexual BFFs dueling for her hand in marriage.

No, she looks like the kind of woman you marry when LB Mayer is literally holding a gun to your head, saying "It's time to get married, you big pansy."