Wisecracker

The Life and Times of William Haines, Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Star

By: William J. Mann

Narrated by: Bo Foxworth

In 1930 William Haines was Hollywood's #1 box-office draw - a talented, handsome, and wisecracking romantic lead. Off screen, however, protected by a careful collaboration between studio and press, he was openly gay with reporters and studio chiefs alike. Here is Haines's virtually unknown story - rich with detail, revelations, and scandal - about silent movies and talkies; his lover Jimmie Shields, and their fifty-year relationship (Joan Crawford, their best friend, called them "The happiest married couple in Hollywood") and the enforcement of the Production Code and establishment of the Hollywood closet, which led to the blacklisting that ultimately doomed Haimes's film career.

Wisecracker sweeps from gay pool parties to the excitement of early talkies to Haines's infamous encounter with gay-bashing white supremacists in 1936. He survived the scandal to emerge as a top interior decorator to the stars and to such clients as Nancy Reagan and Walter Annenberg, who employed him for the American Embassy in London. With a cast of characters running from Tallulah Bankhead to Betsy Bloomingdale, from Clark Gable to William Randolph Hearst, Wisecracker is an astounding piece of newly discovered gay history, a chronicle of high Hollywood, and - at its heart - a great and enduring love story.

©1998 William J. Mann (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

glimpse into the past

really enjoyed this view to the past. much of the narrative felt like speculation... but it was plausible enough that the underlying theme resonated with me. I recommend this book.

A Story That Needed To Be Told

What a fascinating life! Yet so few people really know of William Haines today. The author is right when he states that when you come down to it, this is a love story of a couple who just happen to be of the same sex. No different than the great enduring marriages you hear or read about from the humblest to the mighty. Joan Crawford was right in stating that their's was "The happiest marriage in Hollywood."

If there was one thing that I'm at odds with, and even Mr Haines is guilty of this, is that William Haines is considered a film actor primarily in the silent film era who became a famed interior decorator. I see him as the opposite, a world famous interior decorator who earlier in life did some work in film.

I've seen some of his films and they are okay, with the best one being Show People. Even today, it holds up as being a very good film, and had Haines not been his own worse enemy and took acting seriously, he could have gone on to become a great character actor, even with his lost hair and this weight gain.

I think the book is recorded well, with the exception of glaring edits with variable sound quality.

Great story of old Hollywood

I knew little of this Hollywood star of the silent era and how he became a legend. I have toured the Annenberg estate in Palm Springs.

Writer focuses on how history is made by the bold and while he died three years after Stonewall, he is a part of gay history.

A deep dive into LGB Hollywood

This is as much a story about Hollywood in the 1920s, '30s as a biography of a man and his spouse of almost 50 years. I enjoyed it and the narration was excellent!

william haines

What made the experience of listening to Wisecracker the most enjoyable?

the book brought painted a vivid history of life in Hollywood from the early 1920's. I listened to it in black and white...I enjoyed every minute of it...and I liked Williams Haines very much. I was sorry when the book ended....