One of the cool things about my job is that I sometimes come across artifacts of movies that are virtually completely forgotten! Today I was entering some vintage stills, and I came across this one from a movie called Children of Loneliness from 1937.
I had never heard of it, and after much research, I found out it was the first U.S. movie with an openly gay character! Here is what I discovered: Children of Loneliness, the 1937 Richard C. Khan romantic love triangle gay lesbian homosexual pseudo-documentary (perhaps the first U.S. movie with an openly gay character; the central female character is afraid she may be a lesbian, and she goes to a psychiatrist who tells her to give up those thoughts and marry a football player!; there is a homosexual male character who is "in the closet"; the movie is surprisingly frank in dealing with these characters, but both end up dead by the end of the movie!) starring S. Dana Hubbard (as himself), Morgan Wallace, Luana Walters, Jean Carmen, and Sheila Loren. I found the following excellent synopsis of the movie on an Internet chat board: "Children of Loneliness (US 1937) was an independently made (and little seen due to state and local censor boards) adaptation of the lesbian novel 'The Well of Loneliness', with an open lesbian character, and a closeted gay male character. Naturally, both are dead by the end of the picture. The copyright submission for the picture included this statement from the filmmakers: 'Children of Loneliness is an educational and scientific presentation of an absorbing subject that deals with the manifestations, evil associations and mental complexes that affect and misdirect normal adults into channels resulting in homo-sexuality. It points out in vivid form and manner the fact that it is an acquired anomaly requiring only the influence of some exciting cause to become manifest, among such causes being those associated with fright, improper training, evil associations and mental complexes. In their effort to satisfy their desires these unfortunate people often stoop to the most loathsome practices. Children of Loneliness points out the part that Society plays in the development of normal children into normal humans, and eloquently brings out the potent fact that society cannot cure those who have been so misguided by simply ignoring and refusing to discuss them. The story of these inverts is a tragic one and reveals the known fact that these people are mentally sick and their only hope lies in treatment by competent physicians.'" Certainly, this seems to be a fascinating movie with an important historical context, and yet it has been pretty much lost to history, except by the most dedicated of historians and film buffs. If anyone has EVER seen anything else from this movie, please let us know! Incidentally, the IMDb lists this movie as being called "The Third Sex" and being from 1934, and TCM lists this movie correctly as being from 1937, but lists a 1934 movie called "The Third Sex", but we strongly suspect that the movie was definitely from 1937, and that "The Third Sex" is either a re-release title (perhaps from "Something Weird"), or it is simply a tagline that was used in the 1937 advertising (there is a newspaper ad pictured in "The Celluloid Closet" for this movie, and it is clearly a tagline on that ad), and was never used in its first release. -- Bruce Hershenson and the other 29 members of the eMoviePoster.com team P.O. Box 874 West Plains, MO 65775 Phone: 417-256-9616 (hours: Mon-Fri 9 to 5 except from 12 to 1 when we take lunch) our site <http://www.emovieposter.com/> our auctions <http://www.emovieposter.com/agallery/all.html> * Complete Buyer Protection <http://www.emovieposter.com/unused/20120625ad_emovieposter_no_buyer_beware_buyer_warranty.jpg> - *No time limit on our guarantees & *NO* buyer beware * Hershenson Help Hotline <http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/20120906_mcw_ad_hershenson_help_hotline_forsite.jpg> - *Direct line to Bruce (our owner!) for urgent problems Also, please read the following three pages of in-depth* Customer Reviews *of our company * - Page 1 <http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page1.jpg>, Page 2 <http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page2.jpg>, Page 3 <http://www.emovieposter.com/images/announcements/buyerreviews_page3.jpg>*, which shows you in our customers' own words exactly what makes our company and our auctions so very different from all others! Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com ___________________________________________________________________ How to UNSUBSCRIBE from the MoPo Mailing List Send a message addressed to: [email protected] In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
