While we tend to think of Hollywood actors living the high life while surrounded by riches, most aren’t that lucky and indeed some die completely broke and in need of help to pay for their funeral. One of those was Johnny Arthur, whose funeral was paid for by the Motion Picture & Television Fund Home, but sadly they didn’t have the money for a headstone.
Now that’s been remedied, 61 years after he died. His grave marker will be unveiled at 3pm on Sunday, November 25, at Valhalla Memorial Park in North Hollywood.
What makes this of interest to gay readers is not just that’s it’s believed Arhur was gay himself, but also that he specialised in playing timid, fey, sissy characters during the silent era. While these would be seen as offensive stereotypes nowadays, at the time he was one of a select group of actors (such as Edward Everett Horton and Tyrell Davis) who gave gay people at least a small amount of visibility on screen. He appeared in generally over-the-top fey roles in movies like The Desert Song, Going Wild, and The Monster, as well as having success on stage in musical comedy and variety in both Britain and the US.
However, when the Hays Code came in during the early 30s, it made it much more difficult for those who played ‘gay’ characters. All depictions of what was deemed ‘sex perversion’ were banned from the screen, and while some asexual sissy characters survived, they became much rarer and suddenly actors who’d spent decades specialising in these roles found work had dried up. Arthur continued to act but generally found himself in much smaller roles playing a wimp. Indeed his stature in Hollywood shrank so much that he didn’t even get a screen credit for most of his later roles. That may well be why Arthur had no money to pay for his own funeral.
Scott Michaels of Dearly Departed Tours was behind the fundraising campaign for a proper headstone for Johnny Arthur (something he’s done for other bygone cult-film stars). He says “I think of Johnny Arthur as the gay ‘StepinFetchit’. “Some consider his un-PC roles offensive, but he was providing the public one of the first glimpses of a gay man. He deserves our respect. He took the bullet for us.”
If you want to see Johnny Arthur in action, we’ve embedded the complete 1934 movie The Ghost Walks below (we can do that because it’s out of copyright), in which he starred.
This isn’t news, it’s publicity for Michaels. Mr. Arthur may or may not have been Gay. Does it matter? The Hayes Code didn’t in any way harm the careers of men who played tinid parts for humor. Changes in movie-goer taste did. As to the Golden Years, surrouded by riches, try reading ‘Death In Hollywoodland’ for a more realistic view of the tragic lives so many Hollywood stars experienced. It’s true that StepinFetchit furnished comic relief in his films, as did Mr. Authur. The difference is that StepinFetchit was a millionaire at one time in his life.
This was a truly good deed provided by “Death Hags” – fans of Michaels’
Findadeath.com and DEARLY DEPARTED TOURS. They did the same thing for Willie Best, Susan Cabot and Schlitzie Surtees. Nobody should be forgotten. After the Hays Code, unapologetic gays vanished from films for decades. Luckily Johnny Arthur kept working as emasculated married wimps. I am glad that he is now has a proper grave marker.