5. Katharine Hepburn
Alleged relationships/lovers: Elissa Landi, Irene Mayer Selznick, Phyllis Wilbourn, Laura Harding (heiress into the United states Express fortune), Jane Loring (movie editor), Judy Hollywood, Billie Burke
As a young child, Katharine shaved her mind and passed “Jimmy, ” and as a grown-up super-famous actress, had been understood on her boyish attire and bohemian attitude. Her agent’s wife that is third to Hepburn as “that dykey bitch. ” Her relationship that is first was together with her university buddy Laura Harding.
4. Alla Nazimova
Alleged relationships/lovers: Jean Acker, Natacha Rambova, Eva Le Gallienne, Mercedes De Acosta, Dolly Wilde, Bridget Bate Tichenor, Glesca Marshall, Grace Darmond, Dorothy Arzne
Stage actress Alla Nazimova cointed the word “The Sewing Circle, ” discussing her number of lesbian, bisexual, or bi-curious Hollywood women. She held “outlandish parties” at her Sunset Boulevard property, the famous hangout that is queer given that Garden of Allah, that was changed into a resort in 1926. Alla ended up being unusually open about her relationships with ladies and had been instrumental in introducing the professions of Sewing Circle people Jean Acker and Natacha Rambova. Alla lived along with her partner Glesca Marshall from 1929 until her death in 1945.
3. Marlene Dietrich
Alleged lovers/relationships: Edith Piaf, Greta Garbo, Mercedes de Acosta, Claire Waldoff, Tallulah Bankead, Claudette Colbert, Barbara Stanwyck
Marlene Dietrich had been a glamorous Hollywood extrovert of whom movie critic Kenneth Tynan had written, “She has sex but no gender that is positive. Her masculinity appeals to females along with her sex to males. ” Dietrich ended up being a large fan of homosexual Berlin within the 1920s, and after going towards the states and becoming certainly one of Hollywood’s female stars that are biggest, had lots of affairs with women and men. She even went far beyond by having affairs with guys who’d had affairs with women she’d also had affairs with.
2. Tallulah Bankhead
Alleged lovers/relationships: Greta Garbo, Hope Williams, Beatrice Lille, Patsy Kelly, Katherine Cornell, Billie Getaway, Libby Holman, Hattie McDaniel, Eva Los Angeles Gallienne, Barbara Stanwyck, Mercedes De Acosta.
Tallulah Bankhead, most commonly known as being a phase actress but additionally prolific in radio, television and film, had been crass, hilarious, and unapologetic about her sex, an outbound alcoholic and medication addict whom “sought intercourse of each variety constantly, hungrily, and without booking. ” Actress Hope Williams, at 19, initiated Tallulah that is 16-year-old into realm of lesbian sex and she took to it pretty damn quickly. It is difficult to get any lesbian or woman that is bisexual of period that is maybe perhaps perhaps not rumored to have experienced a thing with Tallulah. She married star John Emery for four years after which never ever hitched once more again. She didn’t discover the Kinsey Report remotely astonishing, declaring, “I’ve had numerous momentary love affairs. Many of these impromptu romances have actually been climaxed in a fashion maybe not generally speaking condoned. I go into them impulsively. We scorn any notion of these permanence. We your investment temperature linked using them whenever a unique interest occurs. ” She had been considered “unsuitable for the general public” by the Hays Committee because of her “Verbal Moral Turpitude. ”
1. Mercedes de Acosta
Alleged lovers/relationships: Greta Garbo, Alla Nazimova, Katharine Cornell, Isadora Duncan, Eva Le Gallienne, Marlene Dietrich, Ona Munson, Eleonora Duse, Barbara Stanwyck, Tallulah Bankhead, Salka Viertel, Eva Hermann
Enjoy and screenwriter Mercedes de Acosta had been the Shane of her period, bedding almost any lady-loving-lady within the western Hollywood area. Ahead of being a bisexual seducer associated with movie stars, she was just a little woman whom thought she had been a little kid. Her mother utilized to phone her “Rafael. ” Alice B. Toklas stated of de Acosta, “Say what you will really about Mercedes, she’s had the most crucial females of this 20th century. ” She had love that is lengthy with actress Eva Le Gallienne, Alla Nazimova and Isadora Duncan. Her many relationship that is legendary though, ended up being with Greta Garbo. She married a heterosexual guy in 1920 but insisted the marriage stay personal and had been particularly frowning when carried within the limit that night.
Here’s a glossary with information on a number of the other ladies from the Chart: