Merv Griffin- A Life in the Closet

by Darwin Porter

  Invitation to a three-way with

  Aldo Ray

  During the decades to come, as his own career took off, Merv watched with sadness as Aldo's own career began a long, slow, and painful decline. Hollywood’s appetite for his particular brand of machismo had waned. Near the end of his career, Aldo even appeared in a porn movie, Sweet Savage. When he was dying of throat cancer in Martinez, California, Merv secretly paid a number of his exorbitant hospital bills that even Aldo's family didn't know about.

  ***

  Although Merv had met most of the supporting players in The Charge at Feather River, he still hadn't been introduced to Guy Madison, the star of the film. To Merv, the handsome actor was the epitome of the post-World War II male sex symbol. “Ever since I'd seen Guy in Since You Went Away in that sailor uniform, I'd had the hots for him,” Merv told Roddy. “I even had three beefcake pictures of him from the late 40s nailed to my bathroom wall. Guy's pecs did for me what Betty Grable's legs did for a lot of homesick GIs during World War II.”

  Incidentally, the word “beefcake” as it applies to a male sex symbol was actually coined by Sidney Skolsky, the Hollywood columnist, to describe Guy Madison.

  At the wrap party that Gordon Douglas threw for the cast of his film, Merv, from across a crowded room, spotted Guy standing in the corner. The rest of the party was rather formally dressed, but Guy appeared in tightfitting blue jeans and a white Tshirt which revealed the outline of his pecs. For Merv, it was love at first sight. On wobbly legs, he found himself heading across the room to shake Guy's hand. “I would gladly have eaten his toe jam as well,” he later told Roddy. “In person he looked even more edible than in his photos.”

  “I'm Merv Griffin,” he said extending his hand and holding onto Guy's just a bit too long.

  “I'm Guy Madison,” the icon said, flashing his famous smile. “My agent, Henry Willson, wanted to call me Guy Dunhill, but named me for my favorite baker, The Dolly Madison Bakery. Dolly was a bit much, so Henry came up with Guy.”

  “Hell, one newspaper referred to me as Mary Griffin.”

  “Maybe we should team up, Dolly & Mary, and take our act on the road,” Guy said jokingly.

  This secret language between them, so familiar to closeted gays of the 1950s, was music to Merv's ears. As he later predicted, “That Guy Madison hunk can be had.”

  That became more evident when Guy invited him to go with him to one of Henry Willson's notorious pool parties that weekend. As Merv related to Roddy the following day, “In the case of Guy Madison and Merv Griffin, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  Prior to his appearance in Hollywood, Guy had previously pursued several macho professions that appeal, at least in their fantasy versions, to gay men, including telephone lineman and a sailor in the U.S. Coast Guard. In the closing years of World War II, when he was on leave from active duty in San Diego, his striking good looks and manly physique had caught the eye of Henry Willson, who in addition to having a voracious appetite for handsome young men, was also head of talent for David O. Selznick.

  Guy (actually Robert Mosely of Bakersfield, California) immediately fell, partially undressed, onto Henry's casting couch. After doing his duty for Henry and his career, he signed a personal management contract. The agent promised him, “I'll make you the biggest movie star in Hollywood.” Guy (a.k.a. Robert) foolishly believed him.

  After Guy finished his tour of duty in the Coast Guard, he joined Henry's stable of “Tom of Finland” stars, all of them marginally talented actors known for their stunning male beauty. Originally Henry was going to call his new discovery “Rock Madison,” but decided to reserve the name Rock for some future actor.

  Henry succeeded in getting Guy cast in a small part as a sailor in the sentimental 1944 tearjerker, Since You Went Away, starring Claudette Colbert. Homosexual men and teenage girls, figuratively speaking, “fell out of the balcony” when Guy made his appearance in this Selznick film.

  At the time Merv became romantically involved with the actor, Guy was married to the bisexual actress, Gail Russell, though their troubled relationship was heading for the divorce courts.

  Guy arrived at Merv's house on a Friday night before the big pool party at Henry Willson's home on Saturday. “We didn't roll in the hay right away,” Merv later told Johnny Riley. “Guy spent a good part of the evening talking about his failed marriage to Gail Russell. She was deep into her alcoholism whenever she wasn't involved with her affair with John Wayne or whatever hot female tamale she'd picked up on Santa Monica Boulevard.”

  All Aboard!

  Two views of beefcake Guy Madison

  In the course of their first evening together, Merv was astonished to learn the sheer numbers of male actors Guy had slept with. They included Robert Mitchum, with whom he'd costarred in Till the End of Time (1946). Guy also confessed to having conducted an ongoing affair with Rory Calhoun, another handsome young star in Henry's stable. The two actors had met on the set of Massacre River in 1949. At the time of his involvement with Merv, Guy surmised that Rory “will fall into the clutches of Marilyn Monroe.” It had already been announced that Rory, Marilyn, and, ironically, Robert Mitchum would all be on location together, costarring in River of No Return (1954), and Hollywood insiders were already speculating about the romantic and sexual imbroglios to come.

  “I sympathize with you,” Merv said. “It's hard to compete with Marilyn Monroe.”

  The actor complained that his career “as a serious actor” was going nowhere since he'd been cast in the hit TV series, The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok. ”

  “That gutbelly on my sidekick, Andy Devine, grows bigger every day,” Guy said, “and his voice sounds more and more like it needs oiling.”

  The following morning Merv dutifully reported the details of his night with Guy to Roddy McDowall in their ritual morning phone chat when they exchanged notes from their affairs of the previous evening.

  “Unlike Rock Hudson, who can be brutal, Guy is a gentle lover,” Merv said. “But I fear he's beyond my reach. The competition for him is too much for me. Guy's not only got a wife, but Rory Calhoun keeps popping in and out of Guy's life, that is if Marilyn Monroe doesn't steal him away.”

  “My dear boy, call it a fling and enjoy it for what it is,” Roddy advised. “You don't have to install every guy you meet in a rosecovered cottage as the love of your life. Take delight, as I do, in playing the field.”

  On the morning of the day that Guy had offered to take Merv to Henry's pool party, Merv received a phone call from San Francisco. At first he thought it was from Johnny Riley. But it was from Bill Robbins, his San Mateo school buddy, whom he hadn't heard from in months. Bill and Merv's other friend, Paul Schone, had not been able to find much work as dancers in San Francisco and wanted to move to Los-Angeles. Bill asked Merv if he and Paul could take over his guest bedroom until they found work. Without hesitation, Merv invited both of them to come down — “and stay as long as you want.”

  “We dance better than Gene Nelson,” Bill said. “Like you, I think we're gonna take Hollywood by storm.”

  Rory Calhoun

  “I'm not exactly taking Hollywood by storm,” Merv warned. “Instead of a tropical hurricane, it's more like a twentysecond summer shower.”

  ***

  Guy Madison escorted Merv to the door of Henry Willson's house, where they were ushered inside by a maid and directed toward the pool. Here Merv was astonished to see at least fifty of the handsomest young men he'd ever seen in one assemblage in his life.

  Most of the men were in the skimpiest of bathing attire, some in bikinis that were more like the flimsy caches-sexe “sex-hiders” then prevalent in St-Tropez on the French Riviera. Some of them were completely nude.

  In a pair of conventional bathing trunks, Rock Hudson was the first to greet Merv, giving him a wet, sloppy kiss before introducing him to the actor George Nader. To Merv, George looked as well built as Rock and even sexier.

  Guy
ushered Merv over to meet the host, Henry Willson, before disappearing into a bedroom to change into his own swimming trunks.

  At long last Merv was chatting amicably with the most notorious homosexual in Hollywood. At first Merv was intimidated by Henry and feared he'd say something stupid to the agent, which he did. “Mr. Willson, your reputation has preceded you.”

  “Don't believe those rumors that I'm a lecherous, dirty old queen,” Henry said, smiling. “I take a bath every day—never alone, of course—so you can strike dirty from my list of credits.”

  Despite the tinges of awkwardness which marked the beginning of their conversation, Merv and Henry were soon talking with candor and animation as if they'd known each other for years. It was another example of Merv's ability to form an instant friendship with a kindred spirit.

  Although the gay talent agent was known for his discoveries, including Rock Hudson, it was clearly evident from the beginning that he had no sexual designs on Merv. Merv was young and handsome at the time, but he hardly fitted Henry's concept of “the beefcakes” he preferred. It was obvious that Henry knew exactly what was going on in his stable of boys, because he complimented Merv on “seducing two of the most fuckable guys in Hollywood, Guy and Rock. You must have some hidden talent that's not immediately apparent.”

  With no need for pretense with Henry, Merv said, “I'm a great cocksucker. Word of a talent like that spreads fast along the Hollywood grapevine.”

  That made Henry laugh, and he patted the seat on the chaise longue beside him, inviting Merv to sit down “for some serious girl talk.”

  In the fading afternoon of a hot California day, that chat between Henry and Merv would become one of dozens they would share over the years that followed. Merv would later recall that “Henry was the ugliest man at poolside that day. Fortunately, his bulky bathing suit covered up a lot of sins.” Henry had a hawkish nose which evoked a bird of prey sniffing out his next meal, and a protruding lower lip that implied a deep capacity for petulance. And like the famous New Yorkbased Broadway columnist, Dorothy Kilgallen, Henry had no chin. Frank Sinatra had famously referred to Dorothy as “the chinless wonder,” but the same appellation could easily have applied to Henry. Merv also noted Henry's “feminine hips” and sloping shoulders, with legs shorter than those of Elizabeth Taylor.

  Sensing that Merv was evaluating him physically, Henry said, “I don't need male beauty to seduce a boy, gay or straight. In Hollywood you need power, and if you've got that, you can have virtually any actor, even if he's straight. You'd be surprised how many straight guys drop their pants and show you a hardon if you've got a part for them in a movie.”

  Time after time, the press on Henry was the worst in Hollywood, and it had even been suggested by some of his critics that he “exuded evil.” Even Merv's best pal, Roddy McDowall, had warned him that “Willson is like the slime that oozes from under a rock you don't want to turn over.”

  Rock Hudson had told Merv that “Henry operates the longestrunning gay casting couch in the history of Hollywood.” Since it was obvious that Merv wasn't Henry's type, he didn't have to face the possibility of going to bed with this rather repulsive creature and could get on with their friendship.

  But for reasons he never fully understood, Merv liked Henry. Or, if not that, he was at least tantalized by the possibilities that Henry held out for him before the sun faded that afternoon.

  “I'll toss you my rejects,” Henry said, “and don't take that the wrong way. My rejects are some of the sexiest men in the world. I've got more handsome, beefy young guys in my stable than I can handle, and they're all horny and hot.”

  “I'm ready, willing, and able to host as many as you can send over to my bachelor pad,” Merv claimed.

  “I'm a flesh peddler, baby, and that's all I'll ever be,” Henry said. “Before sending a guy out on a job, I always take a pound of that flesh for myself.”

  Henry Willson

  courting Harry Truman's daughter

  Margaret in 1954.

  What would her father have said?

  “My kind of guy,” Merv said.

  To this day, the question has remained unanswered: “What did Henry Willson see in Merv Griffin? His movie career was going nowhere, and instinctively Henry knew that Merv would never be one of the stallions in his stable.

  Henry later told Rock Hudson, who conveyed the impression to Merv: “I sensed naked ambition in Griffin, although he disguises it as Mr. Nice Guy,” Henry said. “I latched onto him like a dinosaur ready for lunch because I sensed that this boy one day is going to be big in this town. I bet he ends up a producer or something, perhaps the owner of a studio. I have this feeling the kid is going to be making billions one day, and that I'll be knocking on his door with my latest big dick discovery. He is not going to make it in front of the camera, but in back of the camera. I'm never wrong about these things.”

  On the afternoon he met Henry, Merv asked for career advice. “Do you think I could get better roles if I shed a few pounds?”

  “Don't worry about it, kid,” Henry advised. “Become a producer—that's where the money is. Hell, you can put one of these movie star boys under contract for $200 a week, maybe $300. There's no money in that.”

  You just named my present salary,” Merv said.

  “When a big dick on a great body is trying to break into films, they can be had for twenty bucks a night, ten if they're hungry. If you become a producer, you don't have to worry about your weight. Look at me. I like my liquor, good food and lots of it. Let Rock and Guy spend all day in a gym — not me. When I got into the business, I looked positively epicene. People said I looked like Vincente Minnelli—God knows what Judy Garland saw in that faggot. Now that I've put on a few pounds, they say I look like Alfred Hitchcock. It's not your weight, but your influence that matters in Hollywood.”

  Merv wanted to make the rounds of the party, like his “date” for the evening, Guy Madison, was doing, but something compelled him to hang out with Henry instead. “I'll invite you to go to Ciro's with me,” Henry promised, “maybe the Mocambo. You'll meet plenty of pretty boys from Florida to Kansas, from Texas to Montana. I like to get them while the smell of hayseed is still on them. Not a bad life, huh?”

  “Sounds great,” Merv said.

  “Just a word of advice, though,” Henry said. “At midnight always promise a boy that you'll turn him into a movie star. In some cases you might even carry through on that promise when you become a big producer. But even if you don't plan to do that, always feed a boy in the morning after you've had him every which way. Not just toast and jam, but waffles, bacon, a threeegg omelet. Never let a boy leave your bed hungry and go out to face a day in the Hollywood jungle.”

  “That's good advice I'll carry with me until the day I die,” Merv said.

  The chat with Henry was interrupted by a blast of music. Merv recognized the recording at once. It was a recording of his friend Rosemary Clooney singing a duet with Marlene Dietrich. From a bedroom and behind beaded curtains emerged Rock Hudson and George Nader, each wearing only a pink bow tie with cherryred polka dots.

  Standing at the edge of the pool in front of the awed young men, Rock as Marlene and George as Rosemary lipsynched the Dietrich/Clooney song. At the end of the number, the bathers around the pool roared their approval.

  For their finale, Rock and George waved their big dicks at the cheering audience.

  ***

  In his description to Johnny Riley of the Henry Willson pool party, Merv remembered meeting the livein lover of Rock Hudson, although he could not recall the young man's name. The handsome Korean War vet, still in his 20s when he met Merv, might have been “Jack Navaar,” a pseudonym created by certain biographers to protect the identity and privacy of Rock's companion.

  Jack, as he will be called, was engaged at the time in a hot, passionate affair with Rock and was jokingly referred to as “Mrs. Rock Hudson,” even though it was suspected that he was actually bisexual, and may have marr
ied and fathered children later in life.

  He could be seen driving around Hollywood in Rock's buttercup yellow convertible, and the movie star supported him financially. Ever faithful to Rock, Jack stayed home and cooked a hot dinner for Rock when he returned from the studio. In her own highly unreliable memoirs, Phyllis Gates, the only woman Rock ever married, referred to Jack by the name of “Bill McGiver.”

  It is doubtful if Jack Navaar is still alive today to set the record “straight” about his affair with Rock.

  Sara Davidson, with Rock's blessing, drafted a memoir with him when he was dying of AIDS. She described Jack as “tall, lean and fit, with blond wavy hair, blue eyes, and a beautifully sculpted, heartshaped face.” This fits the description of the young man Merv met around Henry Willson's pool on that long ago day.

  On the day of the party, Jack appeared so distraught that Merv asked him if anything was wrong. “Rock's gonna be a big star,” Jack said. “Henry Willson and everybody else in Hollywood knows that.”

  “Yes, isn't it wonderful?” Marv responded. “I should be jealous.”

  “It may be wonderful for Rock,” Jack said, “but not for me. Willson told me today that when Rock becomes a star, we can't live together any longer. He's worried that Confidential will expose our relationship. That could ruin Rock's career before it gets off the ground. He loves me and I love him. He once told me he'd give up a fucking career in Hollywood to run off with me. But I don't think he meant it. It looks like I'm going to get my walking papers.”

  “That's the price of stardom,” Merv said.

  That response was just a little too glib and flippant for Jack, who turned and walked away. Merv never saw him again.

  Jack's situation—he was eventually kicked out of Rock's house and cut off from any money—touched Merv in a deep, disturbing way. When he got to know Henry Willson better, Merv asked the agent if the Jack/Rock affair might have implications for his own life.