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In 1933, when the fairy was the most visible representative of American gay culture, Warner Bros.' 42nd Street portrayed its lead character, Julian Marsh, as a "masculine homosexual" who lent a gay sensibility to the film's narrative and the musical numbers that animated it.
In 42nd Street (1933), the popular Warner Bros, backstage musical, two Broadway impresarios hire Julian Marsh (Warner Baxter) to direct their revue, Pretty Lady. As days pass, doubts and tempers rise. "What is this, amateur night?" Julian snarls as the company nears the finish line. "Have we been rehearsing for five weeks, or did I dream it?" Matters worsen when Dorothy Brock (Bebe Daniels), the star, sprains her ankle. The show must go on, though, and does, triumphantly and, in both senses of the word, gaily.
The movie's happy ending is as predictable as the paper-thin story, but the exuberance of the songs, gags, staging, and performances more than compensates for the clichés. Variety called the film, which opened in March 1933, coincident with Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration as president, a "money picture for any type of house, and the more cosmopolitan the site the better. Which means it'll be a big grosser."1
The forecast was sound, the picture timely. According to Mark Roth, the Warner Bros, musicals reflect an ailing nation's yearning for both community and (in stage directors like Julian Marsh) strong leaders. Leo Braudy also explores the role of authority (the "larger story" of 42nd Street "is the need for a supervising control that will bring out what is best in every individual") and, beyond that, touches on the male-female oppositions and compromised sexual identities that Lucy Fischer and Martin Rubin address in more detail. No one, though, including Rubin and Fischer, has explored the unusual characterization of Julian Marsh as that rara avis of the American studio era, the masculine homosexual.2
In the 1920s and early 1930s, as the growth of capitalism and urbanization accelerated the formation of same-sex communities and same-sex contacts, New York was (according to one observer) "overrun" by fairies. They were seen capering in the streets and bathing on the beaches. They were written about in the press, featured on vaudeville and burlesque bills, and catered to in clubs and bars in Harlem...