Pride and a Pair of Showgirls

Until a few days ago I completely forgot that this is Pride month. June also happens to be Marilyn Monroe's 100th Birthday. Since Marilyn was an outspoken champion of gay rights decades before it became socially--and professionally--acceptable for celebrities to do so, I decided to feature her as one of our 2026 Pride cover girls. Even though she died in 1962, Marilyn is an enduring icon for gay and straight audiences alike: there's a radiance and vulnerability about her that continues to fascinate us today. My other cover girl is Jane Russell, Marilyn's co-star in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Russell also happened to be a (lower key) gay ally who celebrated her birthday in June--this month would mark her 105th birthday. Jane Russell's impact was never as phenomenal as Marilyn's but, at one time, she was one of Hollywood's highest paid stars. My grandpa--the John Wayne western-loving cowboy/rancher/dedicated hedonist--certainly adored her: his last wife--herself an ex-showgirl--bore an uncanny resemblance to Jane Russell. 

Perhaps the crowning achievement of both its leading lady's careers, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is, needless to say, a very gay-friendly film. Directed by the protean Howard Hawks (Rio Bravo, The Big Sleep, Bringing Up Baby, The Thing From Another World, Sergeant York, His Girl Friday, Land of the Pharaohs), Blondes is a showcase for the talents of its leading ladies, costume designer William Travilla, choreographer Jack Cole and musical-lyricists Jule Styne, Leo Robin, Hoagy Carmichael and Harold Adamson. 

Filmed in glorious Technicolor, the movie features Monroe in peak bombshell mode as diamond digger, Lorelei Lee, a lovably acquisitive stage performer whose beautiful, blonde head is not nearly as empty as she makes out. Russell, as her brunette counterpart, Dorothy Shaw, is statuesque and solid, gorgeous but down-to-earth. Dorothy, in fact, is decidedly not a material girl: she just wants to connect with a Regular Joe who loves her--preferably a Regular Joe who is tall, dark and handsome. When Lorelei's lovestruck fiancee, Gus, packs her off to Paris with a letter of credit and an admonishment to behave herself, Dorothy tags along to keep an eye on her best friend whose billionaire soon-to-be-father-in-law is determined to prevent his son from marrying. 

Sure enough, no sooner have the ladies boarded their Europe-bound luxury liner then Lorelei is scouting around for a wealthy escort to make for a smoother (and glitzier) Trans-Atlantic crossing. She scours the ship's passenger list for single men with the words "and valet" following their names, and comes across one promising candidate who, much to her dismay, turns out to be the 8-year-old heir to a vast fortune. Played with deadpan hilarity by child-actor George Winslow, Henry Spofford III is a delightful character who later manages to help get Lorelei out of one of the many jams she's managed to get herself into. It isn't long before Lorelei sets her sights on the very rich diamond mine owner, Piggy, a horny, aged tycoon whose wife, Lady Beekham, is less than thrilled by her husband's affection for a woman she (correctly) assumes to be a fortune-hunting (not quite) dimwit. 

Meanwhile, Dorothy has been distracted by the U.S. Olympic gymnastic team, a disciplined, sveltely muscular crew who indulge her flirty song-and-dance numbers without really responding with the amorous enthusiasm she's looking for. After all, they, quite suggestively, have to get to bed (presumably together) by 9 p.m. It's a hoot when the boys show up in flesh-colored leotards to perform a set utilizing trapezes, balance beams, a pommel horse and still rings. Leaping athletically from one piece of equipment to the other, the troupe's sensuous dance moves (and their utter obliviousness to Dorothy singing in the foreground) strongly suggest that Dorothy is most definitely barking up the wrong tree(s). And those flesh-colored leotards...when that scene first appeared I could have sworn that the members of the U.S. Olympics gymnastics team were bare-naked. I actually did a double-take before remembering that this film was made in 1953 and Darryl F. Zanuck would have burnt 20th Century-Fox to the ground before featuring naked players, much less naked male players who were subtly, but unmistakably, more interested in each other than either of the female stars. (Actually, it's questionable whether or not Zanuck even got the gay subtext). It's telling when a dejected Dorothy sings "Ain't There Anyone Here For Love?": Doubles anyone? Courts free. Two out of three anyone? Doesn't anyone wanna play? 

Of course, there is someone named Malone who wants to play but Dorothy doesn't take him seriously at first. He's tall, dark, and handsome-ish, reasonably in shape, but not quite the physical specimen she has in mind. Until, at last, she does. The catch is that Malone turns out to be a PI hired by Gus's father to try and catch Lorelei involved in a shipboard indiscretion, hopefully prompting his son to end this disgraceful affair. Unfortunately, this doesn't come to light until the pair have fallen head over heels for one another. Oops! 

Once the proverbial shit hits the fan, Lorelei and Dorothy find themselves cast adrift in Paris, cut off from Gus's fortune and the letter of credit that has enabled them to splurge at high end stores like Schiaparelli, Dior and Balenciaga before even attempting to check into their luxury digs at the Ritz. With their financial resources shut down, the two friends find themselves out on the streets serenading a jovial band of Parisians at a sidewalk cafe. 

Before you can say putain de bordel de merde, the ladies find themselves performing in a high-end nightclub, which is where Lorelei performs the movie's most enduring--and highly influential--number, "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend". Surrounded by a bevy of tuxedoed male dancers (including George Chakiris and Robert Fuller), Lorelei swirls and gyrates as she is borne from steps to piano and back again, seductively cooing her devotion to the titular gems. It's a terrific number that has inspired performers from Madonna to Megan Thee Stallion, Nicole Kidman to Ryan Gosling(!). Smiling and coquetting in that tight, dazzling pink dress, Marilyn Monroe never looked better. 

Prior to this, however, Lady Beekham's fabulous diamond tiara was stolen before everyone disembarked in Paris (Piggy, actually, rather reluctantly "gifted" it to Lorelei, who is not about to return it) and voila! la police are now closing in on their chief suspect. 

It's all pretty silly and predictable but it's also enormous fun! Aside from our June birthday stars, there's the wacky Charles Coburn who is properly piggy (though upper-class piggy) as Piggy, a wry Norma Varden (familiar to avid moviegoers of yesteryear for her amusingly snooty roles) as Lady Beekham, Tommy Noonan (who I confused with a Disney regular named Tommy) as Gus, and Elliott Reid as Russell's main squeeze, Malone. 

With it's glamorous costumes, witty songs and dialogue, sly gaiety and terrific performances, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is the perfect film to launch Pride 2026! Even if I'm a bit late to the party.