Tab Hunter Confidential

I would go out occasionally

to a cockail party,

and I was fascinated by

all of what I saw there.

There were a few guys

dancing with a few guys,

a couple of gals dancing

with a couple gals.

It was just a party,

and people were

dancing and having a good time.

Paries like this were illegal.

And the nex think I

know the cops came in.

Doors burst open,

there they were.

They were arresting

a bunch of queers.

They took us down to

the police station.

I thought, oh, my

god, this is terrible.

I thought, what would my mother

think of my being arrested?

Will it affect this career

that I'm trying to get

stared in the motion pictures?

An attorney, Harry

Weiss, appeared.

He was well known

for taking care

of situations like that with

many, many Hollywood people.

And he said, you've got to be

a lot sharper than you are.

You're in Hollywood now.

You want to be an actor and

really laid down the law to me.

And then I was released.

I had no idea it was

going to jump up and be

thrown at me years later.

He's the young fellow

you've been waiting for,

ladies and gentlemen,

Tab Hunter.

MAN:
Six feet of

rugged manhood can

stir the hear of every woman.

Oh, my goodness,

I'm fabbergasted!

Tab Hunter.

MAN:
How do you shave, Tab'?

With Gillette Super

Speed of course.

Tab Hunter!

You tell me where I

can fne Tab Hunter.

Well, you do pretty good.

Gee, thanks.

MAN:
What do you like

about Tab Hunter?

Well, (LAUGHING)

quite a few things.

MAN (SINGING):
That clean

cut, unaffected Tab Hunter.

GIRLS:
Tab!

MAN (SINGING):
That

All-American boy.

Shocking, but true story of

a young man who found himself

overwhelmed by a

strange compulsion.

Hello, I'm Tab Hunter,

and I've got a secret.

Well, I would never have

talked about my personal life

in the 1950s.

Something the matter, kid?

What?

Oh, no.

No, not a thing.

TAB HUNTER:
I obviously

was very closeted.

And I'm sure it's a

very diffcult thing

to think, what's the problem?

But there was a problem.

It's been very diffcult

for me my whole life

talking about that side of me.

For me to come out

of myself like this

and to share all of this

is exremely diffcult.

I've never been as

open as I am with you

because it's been written

about and what the heck?

You know, I'm an old man.

You know, this my

life-- big deal.

(mum-nus)

When I count three, will all

of the ladies in the audience

please go, (SIGHING).

Tab, when I was young,

when I frst saw him,

looked-- beside acting, he

just was amazing looking.

Whoa, this was like a

fying saucer landed looking

like that cute-- beautiful,

California surfer,

handsome that every single girl

or boy wanted to make out with.

GIRL:
Are you Tab Hunter'?

Uh, yeah-- yeah.

I think I've died

and gone to heaven.

Kids and the fans

just gravitated to him

just like a magnet.

He was so popular, and so many

people just thought he was it.

And he was.

(LAUGHING) I'll bet.

He was as big as

they could come.

He had the star quality

and he had the x-factor.

Mr. Tab Hunter- Tab.

And in every picture they

managed to take his shir off.

(mum-nus)

Hey, kid!

Nobody could take their

eyes off Tab Hunter.

He was the All-American boy, and

nobody sold that image better.

He was the good-looking

sailor, or he

was the good-looking Marine,

and he was the good-looking Air

Force pilot.

I did so many

military flms that I

was waiting for the government

to send me a pension.

I mean, my gosh, I was

in uniform all the time.

Cigarette?

I saw him in "Battle Cry."

He played a young Marine

with Dorothy Malone.

They did have a love scene.

It caused a lot of

comment at the studio.

Let's take a dip in the pool.

We can't have one of

our young Marines having

an affair with a married woman.

Oh, really?

(mum-nus)

I think you're the most

beautiful woman I've ever met.

What was the one he

did was Sophia Loren'?

ANNOUNCER:
"That

Kind of Woman--"

"That Kind of Woman,"

yeah, and of course,

I adored her too, and I

thought, ooh, what a couple.

He doesn't look

old enough to drink.

I'm old enough to do anything,

With his charm and good looks

and his magnetic presence,

he was the embodiment of

youthful American masculinity.

Thank you very

much and thank you.

There he goes, the eligible

bachelor from Hollywood.

By now I'm used to

Tab Hunter, of course,

after all these years.

I grew up as Ar Gelien.

I was born in 1931--

July, 11,1931.

My mother's name

was Gerrude Gelien.

She was from Hamburg, Germany.

I always used to say she was

a poor-man's Marlene Dietrich.

She had two children--

my older brother,

Walt, who was 11

months older than me.

My mother and father did

not get along at all.

He was terribly abusive to her.

Once my mother

left my father, it

was a lot of burden,

a lot of stress

for a single woman raising

two children in those days.

She was very strict.

One moment she could

be very explosive,

and the other moment she could

be terribly tender and dear.

My mother worked like a dog.

She held, sometimes, two jobs.

She wanted to create

an environment

of a family and a

home, and that was very

imporant to her and to us.

I was lost as a kid in

many ways-- introvered.

And I was exremely shy.

I was never comforable

around people.

It made me very nervous.

My brother was

quite the opposite.

My brother I looked

up to a great deal

because he could handle

every situation very well.

He was always prompting me on.

Otherwise I'd have stayed in

my shell much, much longer.

We were raised as Catholics.

My mother put us in parochial

school, where we had nuns.

She just was really,

really concerned

about our own development--

mental, physical,

and spiritual.

I loved going to church.

I did sing in the choir.

Benediction was always wonderful

to me, and mass was in Latin,

and I loved that.

It was a good place to

go and become a par

of something that moved me.

ANNOUNCER:
It's "The Black

Swan," starring Tyrone Power,

in his lustiest role as

the daring Captain Waring.

Of course I went to

movies all the time.

I lived at the movies.

There was an aura

about movie stars.

It was quite wonderful.

They were total escapism.

I loved that.

Movies was a world away.

I did feel I was

different from other boys.

The word gay was not

around when I was a kid.

They used derogatory

terms- fairy, queer.

And I might even have

said that about someone,

not wanting to be

different, wanting

to be like everyone else.

I was always taught

if there's something

bad just push it from your

mind, push it from your mind.

So I never confronted those

things, even though it was

there and was very powerful.

I hated myself.

I went to confession.

And this one priest made me feel

like I was the most miserable

person that ever lived.

After my confession I fed

from the church completely,

even though it was

something I really loved.

I came away from that

more fearful than ever.

I when John Burroughs Junior

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