Mastodawn

If #GrandpaWalton were alive today, #TrumpSucks and friends would have him #Blacklisted! #WillGeer was a #GayActivist and a #Communist who stood up for #Immigrant rights! And was targeted back in the day! THIS IS NOT A NEW THING FOR THE USA!

#USPol #TheWaltons

DoomsdaysCW Jan 1

#Gay #Communist and #UnionActivist! Grampa Walton — #WillGeer: a #Radical with Woody Guthrie, et al

"[Will Geer] began his acting career touring in tent shows and on river boats.

"Geer was also the lover of #GayActivist #HarryHay. In 1934, Hay met Geer at the Tony Pastor Theatre, where Geer worked as an actor. They became lovers, and Hay credited Geer as his political mentor. Hay and Geer participated in a milk strike in Los Angeles, where Hay was first exposed to #RadicalGay #Activism in the person of '#Clarabelle,' a #DragQueen who held court in the Bunker Hill neighborhood, who hid Hay from police.

"Geer made his Broadway debut as Pistol in a 1928 production of Much Ado About Nothing, created the role of Mr. Mister in Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock, played Candy in John Steinbeck’s theatrical adaptation of his novella Of Mice and Men, and appeared in numerous plays and revues throughout the 1940s. From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies, including Winchester ’73, Broken Arrow, Comanche Territory (1950) and Bright Victory.

"Geer became a member of the #CommunistParty of the United States in 1934. Geer was also influential in introducing Harry Hay to organizing in the Communist Party.

"Geer became a dedicated activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like #BurlIves and #WoodyGuthrie (whom he introduced to the People’s World and the #DailyWorker; Guthrie would go on to write a column for the latter paper). In 1956, the duo released an album together on Folkways Records, titled Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie. In his biography, fellow organizer and gay rights pioneer Harry Hay described Geer’s activism and outlined their activities while organizing for the strike. Geer is credited with introducing Guthrie to #PeteSeeger at the ‘Grapes of Wrath’ benefit Geer organized in 1940 for #MigrantFarmWorkers.

"Geer did summer stock at the Pine Brook Country Club located in the countryside of Nichols, Connecticut with the Group Theatre (New York) studying under Lee Strasberg.

"Geer was blacklisted in the early 1950s for refusing to testify before the House Committee on #UnAmerican Activities. As a result, Geer appeared in very few films over the following decade. Notable among them was Salt of the Earth which was produced, directed, written, and starring blacklisted Hollywood personnel and told the story of a miners’ #strike in New Mexico from a pro-#union standpoint."

#TheWaltons #GrandpaWalton #GBLTQ #GBLTQActors #Activists #RedScare

Grampa Walton — Will Geer: a Radical with Woody Guthrie, et al – Out Your Backdoor

DoomsdaysCW Jan 1

Speaking of #TheWaltons, both Grandma and Grandpa Walton were gay (well, the actors were!)

‘The Waltons’: Married TV Couple Grandma & Grandpa Were Both Actually Gay

by Dana Daly
Published March 7, 2023

"#EllenCorby and #WillGeer brought veteran acting skills as Grandma and Grandpa Walton respectively. Indeed, The Waltons never even considered recasting the elderly couple when each fell on hard times with their health. They became an inseparable unit on screen. However, in their private lives, each was actually gay and in homosexual relationships of sorts.

"Both also maintained a front. They may have fallen elsewhere along the spectrum of who they felt attracted to, but it’s actually widely believed both their marriages acted as safeguards against harassment and damage to their careers. Learn more about the other life lived between the two iconic grandparents."

https://doyouremember.com/142128/grandma-grandpa-walton-gay

#GLBTQ #GLBTQActors

'The Waltons': Married TV Couple Grandma & Grandpa Were Both Actually Gay

On-screen, Ellen Corby and Will Geer played Grandma and Grandpa Walton, but both were actually gay, with Ellen Corby gay in real life, protecting their careers.

DoYouRemember?

DoomsdaysCW Jan 1

#TheHunt. Written by #EarlHamnerJr who gave us #TheWaltons. Hamner wrote a number of episodes of #TheTwilightZone!

@startrek @MirrorAyako

https://rodserling.com/earl-hamner-the-forgotten-twilight-zone-writer/

Sue Kerr Oct 5

Still streaming #TheWaltons and my favorite moment was Esther Walton aka Grandma threaten "I will turn Methodist" when the Baptists want to hire another organist. Oh that Ellen Corby can crack a line ...