Sunny Skies, a Lost Gay Classic from 1930

[@pavementpounder7502]

I think there is very clearly a gay subtext in the film. Benny practically swoons when Jimmy is showing him how to sweet talk. Just the whole potrayal etc. Low key gay characters were common in 30s Hollywood.

[@jamesmiller4184]

Yeah, E.E. Horton and Franklin Pangborn. They and a few others were referred-to as 'the Hollywood sissies.' This would have been before even Aunt Charlie's 'tween Selma and the Blvd. Only Horton made it into the Grade A's, I think. (Now, Horton tho WAS the real deal. My dear step dad was his man-servant! LOL!)

[@kathrynfauble9053]

@James Miller There is no evidence Edward Everett Horton was gay. Here are direct quotes from a 1968 interview with him when he was past the age of 70. “Nobody's older than I am. Oh, a few people are, but they are not in circulation." “I never married. However, I have not given up hope. This is leap year [1968], you know."

[@RB-tq4uu]

@@kathrynfauble9053 There's a lot of evidence that suggests he was gay. Plenty of people just didn't want the media to know because they didn't want the hassle and negative reaction that would bring.

[@sufyanlowel4631]

@@kathrynfauble9053 yep. he just didn't met the right girl yet 😐

[@PapaPeregrine]

Benny Rubin was my grandmother's cousin! What a find!

[@shugahcaine4137]

He was my father's great uncle's sister's fourth cousin. What a coincidence.

[@bbrown333]

...technically makes you a cousin of his, non?

[@arjanterveen9534]

it 's make's you a wonderfull person! But he still one of greates actor!

[@PapaPeregrine]

@@arjanterveen9534 I wish more of his work was available to be seen!

[@phil2u48]

@@bbrown333 if he was grandmother’s first cousin, then he would be a second cousin, twice removed (2 generations back).

[@ryanblack3285]

Despite the confusion over the title, it was interesting to see how they made films 100 years ago. It made me think of my grandmother who was born in 1925.

[@zyxw2024]

Isn't that special.

[@jazzvictrola7104]

It was my mother's era, she was born in 1902.

[@jamesmcinnis208]

​@@jazzvictrola7104 You win.

[@steveliveshere]

Director Norman Taurog. He was a prolific filmmaker everything from 'Huck Finn' to 'Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine' including a number of Elvis movies.

[@philipk917]

I haven't watch the entire film yet but I plan to. A daring 1930's movie and a gem as you say. I've already heard a number of subtle and nuanced Gay innuendos and/or Double Entendre lines of dialogue. Thanks for sharing.

[@jamesmcinnis208]

You haven't watch?

[@michaelmcgee8543]

This movie needs remastering and restoration.

[@pumbaaj]

"Wings" is another great silent film with a gay subtext. It was also nominated for "Best Picture".

[@barndancer6149]

"I'm from Texas, too!" "What part?" "All of me." Lmao

[@JamesBrown-ij1px]

Wow. I've never heard of this film. I must watch it! Thank you for posting!

[@regionalmoderator8125]

Back in the good old days when you were your own social media

[@ladyrachel13]

Benny Rubin was in numerous I Dream of Jeannie episodes in the 1960s.

[@stevencantrellzenroom7383]

One obviously gay but his straight friend was very cool and brotherly about it It was sweet I didn’t hate it

[@thomasdelvin3683]

all nerds are not gay

[@jamesmiller4184]

In these here days, the thing to be was "Collegiate"! Standard equipment for getting along in it was 1. sweaters with a letter on it, this making the striving would-be collegiate a "letterman". 2. A beanie. 3. A raccoon coat (even IF made of rat fur) and, 4. a girl, ostensibly, and here making a BIG LOUD SHOW of the merry campus chase. (And too, even IF acting intensely 'otherwise' say, while out of popular eye-shot?) OH! How well I remember it all! Music of the time had really creative instructive stuff in it such as: ". . . she was foot-loose and fancy-free; her DECKS were cleared for ACTION!" (Get it? Decks? Action? And, what might we not understand about "cleared"?) It was all good-to-go during the Twenties (even the newsboys were buying-and-selling stocks!) but with the onset of the Thirties, only the survived swells (hi-hats/hi-brows) really prospered and made-exceeding merry, all the rest just defaulting into 'survival mode.' BUT! We had our radios, our cheap talkies and, one another. We got through it somehow. . : .

[@superkppnva2651]

I love old movies like this 😄

[@ungrateful-66]

Such white skin with such dark hair! So cool. Haven’t seen anything like this in a long time. Thank you.

[@bbrown333]

You know they work heavy make-up, right?

[@richardgreiner9264]

I see a close friendship but nothing gay about this movie .

[@glenncordova4027]

I think they wore heavy green pancake make-up because it showed up well on the film of the time.

[@glenncordova4027]

​@@richardgreiner9264 I think both men and women, wore maskara, eye liner, rouge and lipstick. It was a different time and people in the film industry were constantly experimenting and innovating. It was a very interesting time. Sound had just been introduced and color movies were just beginning. First with colored gels

[@scotnick59]

Rubin was the tour bus driver for Lucy and Ethel in Beverly Hills

[@algiles881]

They really knew how to make films in those days. They knew - they just didn't bother.

[@nadyarossi5102]

Love that old-timey music!

[@immaggiethesenilegoldenret7918]

It’s great, isn’t it! One of the best in the 20th Century! Long live The Jazz Age!

[@jamesmiller4184]

@@immaggiethesenilegoldenret7918 Ditto that same here!

[@jazzvictrola7104]

That's what my channel is all about!

[@glenncordova4027]

Love the girl with the ukulele. 😃

[@michaelmcgee8543]

This was Tiffany's contribution to early talkies that focused on college themes in 29 - 30. There was nothing gay about it . Not even a hint.

[@lajas46]

The guy with the beanie looks and acts so much like PEE WEE HERMAN

[@zacklove3794]

I thought of Pee Wee Herman right off the bat...

[@sufyanlowel4631]

Gay!

[@user-wc7mo9uo9o]

Rex Lease and another guy were also rivals in another movie " Borrowed wifes". Both movies are very enjoyable.

[@arjanterveen9534]

I like this movie! Special the way of dancing!

[@jamesmiller4184]

Her's were first-class Charleston moves!

[@arjanterveen9534]

@@jamesmiller4184 Great actor; Benny Rubin...!

[@beeckyd4466]

I love this sooo much!!

[@manuelhernandez589]

I haven't finished to watch this video yet and I cannot say this is the case but I think that in the past "gay movies" could've been presented as the story of two men "best friends" whose friendship was so strong that no women would be able to interfere in their relationship.

[@barndancer6149]

Actually, Hollywood knew well that the gay subplot would be understood by the audience. Most people in 1930 understood what they were seeing, even though it wasn't as socially acceptable as now. It was at this time before the 1932 restrictions came into play that filmmakers pretty well had no holds barred, and the content was getting pretty "sophisticated".

[@albear972]

Back in the good old days when 30 year olds went to college. They must have had some danged good symposiums back then too.

[@sneakerfreak2002]

More like 45

[@moorek1967]

Actually, it was fairly common back then, I think in the 1950s was when it became more for teenagers. But considering becoming a doctor or lawyer requires more university, then it would make sense.

[@thomasdelvin3683]

@@sneakerfreak2002 lots of people back then actually looked much older

[@badpiggies988]

They were *very good friends*

[@carretou]

Merci pour cette découverte

[@daneford8585]

Betty boop !?

[@howardturner2905]

An hour I'll never get back. Not sure what there was to censor?

[@Fantomas4616]

lol. For today standard it's nothing. Possible only people from that era can understand the context and those little "gay" moments.

[@dennyg7474]

Nothing new between men and women since the beginning of time. I admire the courage of the producers to promote this film before the Hays code censorship.

[@glenncordova4027]

The film industry like the theater before it was always suspect according to Christians of the time. Acting was considered a form of deception. In playing a role you are portraying yourself as something you aren't. The Bible says, "Thou shalt not bare false witness"

[@vaslav030547]

I wouldn't say this was a gay movie. Bi maybe? Camp and funny definitely. Loved the gags at the start. I'm from Texas too! Really which part? All of me! If your down by the lake sometime, drop in!. The dance sequences were brilliant, showing the comedy that Wilson Kepple and Betty must have copied later. Certainly this movie is a treasure.

[@barndancer6149]

Oh it was definitely gay all right and intended to be so, but they always had to portray gays as being "redeemable" by portraying them to be interested in women as well.

[@glenncordova4027]

That first dancing couple were fantastic. The idea was that he didn't know how to dance with a woman. You have to be a great dancer to dance that badly. LOL 😅

[@andrewgibbon-williams7974]

Just watch the hats - and how they use'em. How did hat-manners go out of fashion?

[@ChoppedLiver]

Andrew Gibbon-Williams JFK killed the hat industry. He was super stylish and seldom wore a hat, and that was the end of it.

[@andrewgibbon-williams7974]

Guess he never needed a hat with all that hair. Wonder how it looked when Miss Monroe ruffled through it. Interesting thought.

[@brianw9129]

@@ChoppedLiver Never made the connection with JFK and hats. Good to know, thank you.

[@timetravellingbunny3952]

@@ChoppedLiver That entire generation stopped wearing hats after WWII long before JFK became president. He was merely doing what his contemporaries were doing with respect to hats. For the last forty years men have been pretending they are still in high school by insisting on wearing "lids" where ever they happen to be. What they wear are lids and not hats because a hat is not worn while eating in a restaurant. Men who wear lids haven't the courage or maturity to wear a real hat.

[@gilgameshofuruk4060]

@@timetravellingbunny3952 Society has gone to crap since people stopped wearing hats.

[@MooPotPie]

Irene "Greta" Granstedt first gained notoriety and widespread media attention in April 1922 after she shot her 17-year-old boyfriend, Harold Galloway, with a pistol she borrowed from a friend. Granstedt, then only 14 years old, claimed in interviews that the shooting was accidental, a claim that coincided with Galloway's own story of the incident.

[@goosiechild]

dammit. you sent me down a wikihole.

[@christoohunders5316]

It's not lost gay classic, it's the first draft of Forrest Gump !

[@bellebeauty67]

Christoo Hunders lol!!!! I thought the same thing!

[@williamsnyder5616]

"Tiffany" Productions was a "Poverty Row" studio. This film was probably made for no more than $25,000. Benny Rubin, who played the young Jewish kid, had one quality production around this time., "Rain or Shine," an early Frank Capra film. He was in one quality film, "HereComes Mr. Jordan," which was nominated for Best Picture in 1941.

[@STC614]

How can I get a copy of this?

[@GlendenningCram]

Found this on ebay: www.ebay.com/p/25046021796

[@Seekyourtruth777]

Minute 40 ( all the men are the same even 100 years ago ) 😢😢😢

[@jerryofsanfrancisco]

It is a comedy of it's time.

[@jamesmiller4184]

And oh!-oh!-oh! that jive!

[@scarlettwitman2028]

Are the men wearing eye shadow?

[@pitchblack1x]

Not gay as homosexual meaning...

[@BuffTaanJai99]

Do you know of any more old gay films?i love them

[@frankpeter6851]

Maybe try "different from the rest" A german silent film.

[@OriginalRocketJock]

Just Imagine 1930

[@carolinalopes8048]

I have a bigass playlist on letterboxd if you are intrested, but try "sex in chains (1928)!!!!

[@iulianecsulescu6296]

@@carolinalopes8048 yessss please what is your letterbox?

[@Boychick2023]

​@@carolinalopes8048...I would like it too...pleeeese!...

[@Arthur_McGowan]

Why not 480p?

[@jeanniefergie7624]

Back then gay meant happy

[@pavementpounder7502]

Well if Betty Boop don't turn ya nothin will!

[@stevecannon1774]

Absolutely not a gay movie. It is a very cute movie though. There are 2 great songs. One is "Gotta have a boy." The other would be something like "Must be love". They are just great and you can see a great example of a flapper dancing and why they were called flappers.

[@barndancer6149]

The deliberate, chosen naivete of straight people never ceases to amaze and amuse me.😅

[@dsan5825]

Gay = Happy

[@danielgatchell871]

good god... 95 years ago next year

[@mickmill3314]

Benny has the characteristics of pee wee Hermann

[@hexum7]

Benny is a blatant stereotype of a Jew- nebbishy and feeble

[@pices229]

I liked the movie but not one thing was gay about it. Glendenning Cram is either Homophobic or ignorant to friendship between close friends of the same sex.

[@bajemo359]

Don’t let the makeup fool you.

[@eugeniasyro7315]

A 1930 Pee wee Herman.

[@TheBlizzardcat]

When the word gay was not in the derogatory.

[@mikeelmira]

Ed Miller some people have made it derogatory, not the gays but it’s sometimes used to to describe something negative or weird. Not sure if that is what Maine living is talking about.

[@TheBlizzardcat]

Yes

[@christianfrancoisdohmenchr638]

Manners! 😁😉 Petty though that a certain way of conduct is history, too...

[@bevisfaversham2669]

there is nothing gay about this film.

[@kino1344]

Calling this a "gay classic" is a stretch - first 'talking bromance" is more to the point. Either way, the near-century-old 'Sunny Skies' breaks a lot of rules and challenges a few stereotypes. Had it been released a few years later, emboldened Hays Code censors would have left great curls of its footage on the cutting room floor.

[@laggent]

ah funny not much has changed in the story telling/movies. Sure shows how little humanity has grown. I think we all should feel embraced about that This movie is almost one hundred years old its like 2 steps forward and 3 steps back Hearing some of you saying negative things is odd. The movie did have an odd feel about it The men were on the feminine side and the women on the butch side. Is it a gay film, Its a football Movie I wonder was that how it was.

[@tangogent]

The anti-Semitism herein is pretty insufferable. I'm glad that the stereotypes of this film would no longer be tolerated, let alone found amusing.

[@lululuna1224]

I'm sitting here watching this and I'm thinking this is sad, wrong and not funny, I'm not liking it not at all. So I scrolled down to comments to see if anyone else was having similar thoughts as I and your comment was the first didn't go any further after that. Then I'm thinking, " well this was made in 1930 and .........", but it didn't make any difference. Agree with your words totally. Sad how the world was with so much prejudice and judgements against other people in many ways then and even sadder that there are still the same things happening. There is a bit of difference from then to now but ............... People say, " it is better then it was ", and it is (somewhat, because there should be none) but people, organizations, politicians etc., hide how they truly feel. Which for people like this will rarely mprove on their ignorances, but this is very harmful especially with people with power. We all have to face God in the end !!! Life would be so much better for everyone if prejudice, critical judgements, etc., we're no longer. Blessings to all, even the ignorant, short minded, prejudice ass**les and you all know who you are !!! ☮️🙏💜

[@benlucas3625]

I guess you never heard of Jerry Lewis, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Adam Sandler and a bunch of other Jews who played up their Jewish Schtick. It's called humor.

[@goosiechild]

get bent, Mrs. Broflovski. and greetings from Israel.

[@jamesmiller4184]

@@benlucas3625 They're really high on their virtue-signaling trips. More usually than here, it was the Jewish folk that were razzing best the Gentility! Ha! (Here we might profitably think -- Eddie Kantor -- old Banjo Eyes and, the Marx Bros. Inc. with perennial target, society pillar Margaret DuMont -- the INSULTS those boys laid on that poor woman!) Ignore the silly signalers, they've likely zero humor-sense.

[@thomasdelvin3683]

if you recognize it as part of their cultural heritage then how is is anti Semitic. dont get your side curls all up in a bunch.. let em wave proud and free. the abuse or skits are no more than lewis and martin decades later/ or "Who's on first"? with Abbott and Costello, maybe written by jewish writers. dont try to deny history just because it embarrasses you. its evolution. we all go through it. its how we got to where we are.. wherever that is

[@Arthur_McGowan]

Could you upload this without the denoised soundtrack? And at 480p?

[@BikeVermont71]

Nothing gay about this movie, even the quimby boy is straight.

[@goosiechild]

@violamateo lol that's true. what the hell did he mean by that??

[@riverajoseph81]

There’s nothing gay about this film. I would know... I AM GAY. Just two straight guys caring for each other. It’s called friendship. Lol

[@outtherelivinginthepub1973]

Very misleading title 😤

[@georgettedelovely]

I wanna find a boyyyyyyyy 🎶🎶🎶

[@martinalbert1910]

Look at all the children in the comments who think this is in fact not a gay film.

[@stephenlynch1159]

So silly to call this a gay movie. I’m gay and I saw nothing gay about it at all. They are two types - the jock and the misfit comic relief.

[@gregmunro1137]

Wow, if you are calling this a lost gay movie-- it isn’t and you need to change the title correctly or I’ll be notifying KZbin . I’m tired of this click bait crap. Check your darn facts before you upload and title something incorrectly!

[@jamesmiller4184]

A bit over-the-top with petulance here. What's eating at you, Greg?

[@phil2u48]

I found it difficult to follow.

[@bessamemucho]

Did not see the movie but decided to join discussion )))

[@alankent]

Fine film. Not sure what was gay about it. The idea that two men can be close friends?

[@spoonerpurple]

back then the word gay was used a lot it ment happy aaaaah fooled ya

[@hexum7]

They don't make them l like this anymore. .......THANK GOD

[@0912805]

Wonderful

[@axvgeek6333]

Gay in the sense of the 1930’s. Happy not gay in the present.

[@GlendenningCram]

No, gay in the sense of now. See glencram.com/sunny-skies-lost-gay-classic-1930/

[@kl.1993]

It's "fake news" to refer to this movie as being a "gay film". It is simply not the truth. My guess is that whoever wrongly referenced this film as being a gay film, is simply, completely unfamiliar, with the sort of films that were made in the early 1930's. This film is typical of a particular genre of films, that were made back then. There are no gay themes or references in the film, whatsoever. It just stems from a different era - one with which, I am very familiar. Most people are unfamiliar with these sorts of films. These sort of films, weren't the best ones, from that era, but they were cheap and easy to make. For that reason, and because they were generally popular, plenty such films, were made in the early 1930s. The use of sound in films, was still, very new in those years.

[@geoespar2]

The campus is UCLA

[@jamesmiller4184]

Really? I did not recognize it. How things have changed there.

[@bornagooch]

a bit to corny for me .

[@DavidLS1]

It's no Call Me By Your Name.

[@jimmyl324]

Sounds like baby snooks....

[@roderickfernandez5382]

If this is a lost gay film it should have stayed lost first of all it's not a gay film the only good thing about this film is Babe Cain and I'd watch anything with babe Cain in it and she didn't do that many films but she's just wonderful Marceline day the young college student she looks at least 35 years old and the big doofus was a lot dark red lipstick is probably the gayest of all. Now that's just my review I've only watched about 15 minutes so take it for what it's worth nothing. I will keep watching now to see how gay it gets

[@RubenDario-hr4iq]

Not gay.

[@XX-gy7ue]

?

[@davidbondehagen1616]

How is this a gay movie . ? A goofy guy (comic Benny Rubin), who has a girlfriend, admires the big man on campus . So what. (Though they look a little fruity in the lipstick they had actors wear in early movies)

[@glenncordova4027]

Benny was, "coconuts for his girl", he just "needed help" from his friend Jimmy on how to act with her.

[@JustABowlOfCherries]

Homosexual, not Gay!

[@antonionavarro9929]

gay?

[@enriquebonifacino9939]

Nothing to do with gay in its modern meaning.

[@johnchance3689]

Rex Lease ("Cavalcade of the West") and Robert Livingston ("The Vigilantes are Coming!") in their pre-Western days...Rex sings some songs, but most of the movie is painful to watch....otherwise stereo typical and formulaic film making.... Benny Rubin doing semi gay schtick.....

[@melvinfulton7485]

thank God, i read the reviews rather than suffer trying to wade through 7 minutes of this crap.

[@jamesmiller4184]

We thank God that you did too.

[@BigBirdy100]

I couldn't watch it. It started out strange and went to tedious with typical goofy dimwit 1930s humor of a slapstick nature. (Ice in the glass)

[@danielthomas791]

...a piece of crapola.....a waste of time....sorry I started to try to watch it...…….

[@jamesmiller4184]

Car chases and explosions are your stuff, right? Ahh, our youth!

[@darryltennile5574]

Gay classic 😂😂🤣🤮