ROGER EDENS WAS A GIFTED COMPOSER AND ARRANGER who gave a new look to movie musicals through his work with the Arthur Freed unit at the MGM studios. He was mentor and friend to many in the entertainment industry, including Judy Garland.
Edens came from a large family in Hillsboro, Texas. The youngest of eight brothers, he was born Rollins Edens on November 9, 1905. Unlike his rambunctious siblings, Edens was of an artistic and studious nature. His parents, though not well-off, managed to scrape together enough money to finance his education at the University of Texas.
Upon graduation, Edens found work playing piano on a cruise ship. A manager from new York heard him and helped him land a job with a jazz band. Edens, who always enjoyed a close relationship with his family, brought his widowed mother to stay with him on Long Island.
At this time, Edens changed his first name to Roger. The reasons for this are unclear, but William J. Mann suggests that it is "possible he considered 'Rollins' just too precious, too dandy, for the hard-drinking, womanchasing world of orchestras and musicians."
Edens moved on to a job with the Red Nichols Orchestra, which played at the Alvin Theater on Broadway. In a dramatic turn of events, Edens was called from the orchestra pit to the stage when Ethel Merman's pianist suffered a heart attack before the second performance of George and Ira Gershwin's Girl Crazy, in 1932.
Impressed by Edens's work, Merman employed him as her accompanist and arranger for her next show and for her nightclub act. When she headed for Hollywood, she brought along Edens to be music director for Roy Del Ruth's Kid Millions (1934), in which she would star.
Also moving to California was Edens's wife, the former Martha LaPrelle, whom he had dated in college. Their marriage was characterized by long periods apart, since her job as a buyer for a fashion house entailed extensive travel. According to Edens's nephew J. C. Edens, his aunt "never cared much for Hollywood." Even Edens's closest friends in California rarely saw her. The couple soon separated and eventually divorced.
Edens meanwhile had attracted the attention of MGM producer Arthur Freed when the latter heard him play at the audition of a singer. Freed was not much impressed by the singer but instantly recognized Edens's skill as a composer and arranger. He quickly hired him as a member of his creative staff.
The Arthur Freed unit was a team of talented composers, arrangers, lyricists, choreographers, and other artisans who set the standard for movie musicals during their golden age, from the late 1930s to the early 1960s. Because so many members were gay, the Freed unit was known in the industry as "Freed's Fairies."
Freed, who was not gay, never intended to create a team of gay artists, nor were all the members of the Arthur Freed unit gay. But Freed wanted a first-rate team, and he hired without regard to sexual orientation. The many gifted and gay members of the team, in addition to Edens, include songwriters Cole Porter and Frederick Loewe, choreographers Robert Alton and Jack Cole, and directors Charles Walters and the closeted Vincente Minnelli.
Edens became the heart and soul of the Freed unit, and Freed had the utmost confidence in him. Production assistant Lela Simone stated that "Freed did not occupy himself with details because he had Roger and he knew that Roger was going to do the best job there is." Freed's reliance on Edens is reflected in his decision to elevate him to the rank of associate producer on a number of films, beginning with Minnelli's Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). It was extremely rare in Hollywood to move from a job as a musician to one in production.
Edens's first film with Freed was Victor Fleming's Reckless (1935), for which he was musical supervisor. During his career, Edens worked on over forty films as composer, musical director, producer, or a combination of these. His long list of credits includes Robert Z. Leonard's The Great Ziegfeld (1936), Fleming's The Wizard of Oz (1939), Busby Berkeley's Babes in Arms (1939), Minnelli's Cabin in the Sky (1943), Charles Walters's Easter Parade (1948), Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's Singin' in the Rain (1952), and George Cukor's A Star Is Born (1954).
The Freed unit, with Edens at the helm, created a new kind of musical. Whereas, previously, musical movies had been essentially stories interrupted by the occasional song, Edens insisted that "songs in film musicals should be part of the script itself." In the Freed unit, songs fit seamlessly into the plot.
Hollywood honored Edens with three Academy Awards. His first, for Easter Parade , was followed in rapid succession by Oscars for Donen's On the Town (1949) and George Sidney's Annie Get Your Gun (1950).
Edens played an important part in the career of gay icon Judy Garland. The two met in 1935 when Edens was called in to replace Garland's father, Frank Gumm, an amateur pianist, at Garland's audition at MGM. Edens was quick to appreciate her talent and became not only her musical mentor but also a lifelong friend.
Edens wrote a song for Garland to sing at Clark Gable's birthday party in 1937. It not only delighted Gable but also favorably impressed the producer of Del Ruth's Broadway Melody of 1938 (1937), who had Garland sing it in the film.
After working with Garland on a couple of other projects, Edens served as musical director for The Wizard of Oz and also as rehearsal pianist for Garland. Garland's daughter Lorna Luft credits Edens with teaching her mother to have the courage to show her vulnerability in her performances. "Without Roger," she commented, "we might never have had 'Over the Rainbow,' at least not the way we remember it."
Edens continued to contribute to Garland's professional success. He provided her "Born in a Trunk" number for A Star Is Born -uncredited, because he was under exclusive contract to MGM and the film was a Warner Brothers production.
Edens and Charles Walters were also indispensable in arranging Garland's triumphant 1951 vaudeville act at the RKO Palace Theatre, which won rave reviews from the critics.
Edens's professional star continued to rise. Freed chose him as producer of two movies, Donen's Deep in My Heart (1954), featuring the music of Sigmund Romberg, and Funny Face (1957).
By this time, the heyday of the movie musical was waning, and various members of the Freed unit had moved on. Edens worked on a few more films, notably Walters's The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964) and Kelly's Hello, Dolly! (1969), but also pursued other opportunities. During the 1960s, he renewed his professional association with both Garland and Merman, penning material for their nightclub acts. He also coached Katharine Hepburn for her performance in Alan Jay Lerner and André Previn's stage musical Coco in 1969.
Edens succumbed to cancer on July 13, 1970, in Hollywood.
Edens's career is a stunning success story, the more remarkable because his achievements came in an era of widespread homophobia. Gay performers sometimes resorted to "lavender marriages" or invented fictitious wives to conceal their sexual orientation. Even working behind the scenes and in the congenial atmosphere of the Freed unit, Edens, according to Mann, kept a photo of his ex-wife on his desk for years though he was living openly with another man.
Mann also recounts a touching recollection of Frank Lysinger, an MGM messenger whom Edens had befriended around 1939. Edens often invited him to dinner along with Lena Horne and musical director Lennie Hayton — a gathering of two "officially unsanctioned" couples, since studio head Louis B. Mayer had forbidden Horne, an African American, and Hayton, who was white, to date each other. Edens, who championed Horne at the studio, also tried to bring happiness to her personal life.
This kindness and compassion was typical of Edens's character. His collaborator and longtime friend Kay Thompson described him as "a darling man," and Michael Morrison, another friend and the business partner of gay actor William Haines, commented that "all sorts of people were drawn to him."
Edens was a model of professional success and personal dignity.
-Linda Rapp
Eder, Bruce. "Roger Edens." http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=88652&mod=bio.
Fricke, John. Judy Garland: The World's Greatest Entertainer. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1992.
Kenrick, John. "Edens, Roger." www.musicals101.com/who2d.htm.
Mann, William J. Behind the Screen: How Gays and Lesbians Shaped Hollywood, 1910-1969. New York: Viking, 2001.
Musical Theater and Film; Cabarets and Revues; Garland, Judy; Minnelli, Vincente; Porter, Cole
PERHAPS FEW INDIVIDUALS WERE LESS LIKELY TO create the public image and oversee the career of the world's most famous rock group than Brian Epstein. Born on September 19, 1934, into a family of affluent Jewish furniture merchants in Liverpool, Epstein seemed destined for a career in the family business. He was attracted, however, to such "unmanly" pursuits as fashion design and the stage, which, along with his closeted homosexuality, put him at odds with his family's aspirations.
Epstein left school at sixteen to work at one of his family's stores until he was called up for military service in 1952. After only a year of duty, he was discharged for unspecific psychiatric reasons. Epstein subsequently enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, but before completing his studies he returned to his family's business, where he became the manager of the store's record department.
It was in this capacity that, in October 1961, he first heard of the Beatles, a Liverpool band whose fans were seeking their recordings. Epstein was unable to locate these records and, intrigued by the mystery, ventured into the Cavern Club, where he encountered John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and drummer Pete Best.
Within two months, although he had no entertainment or managerial background, Epstein had signed the group to a contract. Over the next year, he transformed the group's image from leather-clad ruffians to "Mods" attired in fashionable suits with longish hairstyles, creating, in effect, an androgynous look for his protégés.
Epstein also successfully negotiated the Beatles' first recording contract with EMI Parlophone, replaced Best with Ringo Starr, and became the manager of various other successful Liverpool acts, including Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cilla Black, and Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas.
By 1964, when the Beatles and his other acts took America by storm, Epstein seemed to personify worldly success. He was, however, living in an almost constant state of anxiety lest his homosexuality— and his attraction to rough and often abusive young men—become public knowledge, as male homosexual acts were still illegal in Britain at the time and any scandal might negatively affect the Beatles' career.
It has often been suggested that Epstein's devotion to the Beatles was based on an unrequited love for John Lennon. Speculation about a possible affair between them has existed since the two vacationed together in Spain in 1963; Christopher Münch's film The Hours and the Times (1991) suggests that the two men did share a sexual liaison on this vacation.
In 1966, the Beatles decided to stop performing live and concentrate solely on studio recording. Although this decision resulted in such breakthrough recordings as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), Epstein felt that he had effectively lost control of the band and suffered from acute depression, exacerbated by drug and alcohol abuse.
On August 27, 1967, Epstein was found dead in his London home from a barbiturate overdose. Although his death was ruled accidental, many have presumed it was a suicide. Ironically, he died a month to the day after legislation decriminalizing homosexual acts between adult men went into effect in Britain.
For three decades following his death, Epstein was vilified by the popular music world as a controlling figure who tried to suppress the Beatles' creativity—and who was accused, falsely, of having cheated the group out of millions in income. In this, the fact that the world would not have heard of the Beatles had it not been for Epstein's relentless efforts on the group's behalf was heedlessly overlooked.
In recent years, however, his reputation has been reconsidered, and perhaps he will at last receive the honor due to the creator and manager of the group that permanently changed perceptions of popular culture.
—Patricia Juliana Smith
Brown, Peter, and Steven Gaines. The Love You Make: An Insider's Story of the Beatles. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983.
Coleman, Ray. Brian Epstein: The Man Who Made the Beatles. London: Viking Penguin, 1989.
Davies, Hunter. The Beatles. Second ed., revised. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.
Epstein, Brian. A Cellarful of Noise: The Autobiography of the Man Who Made the Beatles. New York: Pocket Books, 1998.
Geller, Debbie. The Brian Epstein Story. London: Faber and Faber, 2000.
Shillinglaw, Ann. " 'Give Us a Kiss': Queer Codes, Male Partnering, and the Beatles." The Queer Sixties. Patricia Juliana Smith, ed. New York: Routledge, 1999. 127-143.
Popular Music; Rock Music
AWARD-WINNING ROCK SINGER AND SONGWRITER Melissa Etheridge has not only managed to carve out a spectacularly successful career as a popular mainstream performer, but she has also become a lesbian icon and activist for gay and lesbian causes. With a style characterized by intense emotion and unbridled energy, Etheridge has become one of the most distinctive artists in rock music.
She was born in Leavenworth, Kansas, on May 29, 1961. Her father, John Etheridge, was a math teacher and athletic director at the local high school, and her mother, Elizabeth Williamson, worked as a computer specialist for the U.S. Army at Fort Leavenworth.
Etheridge's fascination with music began early. When she was eight, her father bought her her first real guitar, a six-string Harmony Stella, and arranged for her to take lessons with Don Raymond, who had been a big-band jazz guitarist. By the age of ten, Etheridge was beginning to write songs.
When she was eleven, "Missy" Etheridge gave her first public performance, singing with two friends at a talent show in Leavenworth. By the age of twelve, she was playing and singing with adult musical groups, doing mostly country and western material. She was also learning to play more instruments-piano, drums, saxophone, and clarinet.
After high school, Etheridge attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. Her roommate in the dormitory was a lesbian who introduced her to women's bars and afforded her the opportunity to talk freely about her sexuality.
Etheridge had realized that she was a lesbian at the age of seventeen but, coming from a family in which emotional matters were not much discussed, had never broached the subject with her parents or publicly acknowledged her homosexuality.
Etheridge did not remain long at Berklee. She began singing in bars and eventually dropped out of college.
Realizing that Boston was not the ideal place to launch a career in rock and roll, she resolved to go to Los Angeles. First, however, she returned home to Kansas to earn money for the trip to California.
Etheridge got a job as music assistant at the Army chapel at Fort Leavenworth. She also began meeting and dating other lesbians in town, on one occasion inviting a woman home to spend the night. The following morning Etheridge found a note from her mother that referred to her "psychological illness" and warned her "not [to] bring that girl over here anymore" if she wanted to continue to live in the house.
Neither Etheridge nor her mother ever mentioned the letter, but Etheridge was deeply disturbed by it and turned to the Army chaplain for guidance. He cautioned her that some people would condemn her but said he could not believe "that God would have invented a love that could be wrong" and urged her to be true to herself. Etheridge called this "one of the most valuable lessons of my life."
By the eve of her twenty-first birthday she had saved enough money for the planned move to Los Angeles. Before leaving for California, she came out to her father, who had already guessed it and who expressed his support.
In Los Angeles Etheridge initially stayed with an aunt. She also made contact with two paternal uncles and learned that they were gay. Etheridge's uncles introduced her to the gay community in Los Angeles.
Etheridge soon found a job playing at a women's bar in Long Beach, where she developed an appreciative following. She worked in other bars as well, including Vermie's in Pasadena, where some loyal fans brought a soccer teammate, Karla Leopold, to a show in the hope that she would persuade her husband, Bill Leopold, a manager in the music business, to represent Etheridge. Bill Leopold was indeed impressed when he heard Etheridge perform. He became her manager, and began attempting to secure a recording contract.
Although several companies expressed some interest, no record deal was immediately forthcoming, but Leopold did get Etheridge a songwriting contract with Almo/ Irving Music. Songs by Etheridge eventually became part of the soundtrack of four movies: Scenes from the Goldmine (1987, directed by Mark Rocco), Weeds (1987, directed by John Hancock), Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael (1990, directed by Jim Abrahams), and Boys on the Side (1995, directed by Herbert Ross).
In 1986, Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records, heard Etheridge perform and was eager to sign her for his label. He was less than pleased, however, when he heard the initial version of her first album. Producers had added keyboard tracks that yielded a pop sound completely uncharacteristic of Etheridge.
In hopes of salvaging the project, Etheridge, drummer Craig Krampf, bassist Kevin McCormick, and engineer Niko Bolas rerecorded all the material in just four days. The second version, which captured the energy and spontaneity of Etheridge's live performances, met with Blackwell's approval.
While awaiting the release of the album, Etheridge went on tour in Britain and Europe. In Germany she visited Dachau and was moved by the sight of the uniforms with pink triangles that had been worn by prisoners. She was dismayed that there was no memorial to the homosexual victims of the Holocaust.
In 1988, Etheridge's self-titled debut album was greeted with favorable reviews. Critics praised the vitality of her music and compared her to Janis Joplin, a performer whom Etheridge acknowledges as an important influence on her work.
While on tour promoting the album, Etheridge made a video of the song "Bring Me Some Water." The associate director of the project was Julie Cypher, who would become Etheridge's longtime partner.
At the time, however, Cypher was married to actor Lou Diamond Phillips. Etheridge and Cypher felt an immediate attraction to each other, but Cypher was still trying to maintain her troubled marriage. Not until January 1990 did she leave Phillips and move in with Etheridge.
Meanwhile, there were important developments in Etheridge's career. "Bring Me Some Water" was nominated for a Grammy in 1989, and Etheridge's second album, Brave and Crazy , was released the same year. Etheridge's songs received increasing play on the radio, and her videos appeared frequently on the cable music network VH1. Both of the first two albums eventually went platinum, selling over a million copies each.
In January 1993, Etheridge, who had performed at some campaign events for Bill Clinton, was invited with Cypher to the president's inauguration. They attended the Triangle Ball, the first inaugural celebration for gay men and lesbians. After her friend k.d. lang introduced her to the crowd, Etheridge declared,"I'm real proud to say I'm a lesbian."
Etheridge's spontaneous decision to come out publicly received press coverage but had no adverse effect on her career. Two months after the announcement, she won her first Grammy for "Ain't It Heavy" from the album Never Enough . Her fourth album, Yes I Am , released later in the year, was enormously successful. It included the hit song "Come to My Window," which would bring her another Grammy in 1994.
Etheridge was named the Advocate's Person of the Year for 1995. Her fifth album, Your Little Secret, debuted in the top ten on the charts. She began publicly addressing social issues such as same-sex marriage, saying that as soon as any state legalized it, she and Cypher would be "first in line."
In November 1996, Etheridge and Cypher appeared on the cover of an issue of Newsweek devoted to gay families. Cypher gave birth to the couple's first child in February 1997 and to their second in November 1998. Etheridge adopted the children in order to secure full parental rights.
Etheridge had not previously used her music as a political vehicle, but the murder of gay student Matthew Shepard in October 1998 led her to write "Scarecrow," a song that decried the homophobia that had caused his death.
In 1999, Etheridge became the host and narrator of a reality-based series on the Lifetime network, "Beyond Chance," a show about improbable reunions, rescues, and paranormal events. Although a rock star seemed an unusual choice for the role, producers felt that the storytelling ability Etheridge had shown as a songwriter suited her well for the job.
In 2000, Etheridge and Cypher broke up. In a creative approach to child custody, they bought houses on backto-back lots so that their children could go from one to the other at will.
Etheridge has had an extremely successful career as a musician, selling over twenty-five million records worldwide, performing in concert to enthusiastic audiences, and appearing in videos and shows such as MTV's Unplugged, where she sang duets with Bruce Springsteen, whose music was an influence on hers.
The passion, intensity, and emotion of Etheridge's performances and the sincerity of her lyrics have won her the admiration of many fans, but lesbians have especially responded to her fearless expression of raw emotion.
Even since coming out publicly, however, Etheridge has not written a specifically lesbian love song. Although her songs have sometimes been interpreted as referring to her lesbianism (as in the title of her album Yes I Am), she disavows such interpretations, which she sees as limiting. In her songs, she prefers to use a genderless you when referring to her beloved. Explaining this choice in an interview in the Advocate, Etheridge said, "I don't want to cut anybody out. I don't want to alienate anyone."
In this aim she has succeeded. As music journalist and Etheridge biographer Chris Nickson notes: "Her songs speak to everybody, showing that whether heterosexual or gay, we share the same emotions—that at the heart of it all, it's passion and love that matter, not sexual orientation."
In 2002, Etheridge released a DVD entitled Live...and Alone. The title refers to the artist's summer 2001 concert tour, on which she performed without any backup musicians.
Happily, however, she is no longer alone in her personal life, having recently acknowledged a relationship with Tammy Lynn Michaels, an actress who appeared on the WB television series Popular. Together since 2002, the couple exchanged wedding vows on September 20, 2003, in Malibu, California.
A minister from the nondenominational Agape Church presided at the ceremony. Etheridge and Michaels consider themselves married, though they were not able to get a marriage license in California at the time. Both women were attended by their mothers, who lit candles and held the wedding rings until it was time for the couple to exchange them.
Etheridge released a new album, Lucky, in early 2004.
Like her 2001 album Skin, written in the wake of her breakup with Cypher, Lucky is a mirror of her life, but this time reflecting her newfound joy.
—Linda Rapp
Aarons, Leroy. "All Eyes on Us: From Newsweek to Seventeen, Mainstream Magazines Have Begun to See Lesbians and Gays as We Really Are." Advocate, January 21, 1997, 76.
Castro, Peter, and John Griffiths. "A House in Harmony." People, September 5, 1997, 57.
de Vries, Hilary. "Rock Steady." InStyle 8.8 (July 2001): 208-211.
Einhorn, Jennifer H. "Melissa Etheridge: New Queen of Devastation." Sojourner: The Women's Forum 14.9 (1989): 34.
Etheridge, Melissa, and Laura Morton. The Truth Is...My Life in Love and Music. New York: Villard, 2001.
Hensley, Dennis. "Shedding Her Skin." Advocate, May 8, 2001, 30.
Hogan, Steve, and Lee Hudson. "Etheridge, Melissa." Completely Queer: The Gay and Lesbian Encyclopedia. New York: Henry Holt, 1998. 204.
Keck, William. "Melissa Etheridge, Making the Most of 'Beyond Chance.' " Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2000.
Kelly, Christina. "Melissa Etheridge." Rolling Stone, November 13, 1997, 159.
Kurt, Michele. "Melissa Etheridge and Julie Cypher: Proposing Marriage...in Full." Advocate, February 28, 2000, 35.
Larkin, Colin, ed. "Etheridge, Melissa." The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music. New York: Guinness Publishing, 1995. 1360-1361.
Nash, Alanna. "Rock Mama." USA Weekend, November 8, 2002.
Nickson, Chris. Melissa Etheridge. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1997.
Sculley, Alan. "Melissa Etheridge Feels 'Lucky'; On her New CD, She Dumps the Negativity of the Past and Shares a Sense of Happiness." Riverside (Calif.) Press Enterprise, February 13, 2004.
Steele, Bruce C. "Melissa & Tammy: A Love Story." Advocate, January 20, 2004, 50.
Walters, Barry. "Melissa Etheridge: Rocking the Boat." Advocate, September 21, 1993, 50.
"We're a Family and We Have Rights." Newsweek, November 4, 1996, 54.
Wieder, Judy. "Melissa Etheridge: The Advocate's Person of the Year on 1995's Battles, Triumphs, and Controversies." Advocate, January 23, 1996, 64.
Popular Music; Rock Music; Music Video; Women's Music; Indigo Girls; Joplin, Janis; lang, k.d.