SPOTLIGHT by bill biss
William J. Mann
“The GayesT auThor on The Face oF The PlaneT”
It was an unexpected Christmas present that brought my attention to William J. Mann. I had wanted a book on the noted
director of The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind, Victor Fleming, but under the tree was How To Be a Movie Star: Elizabeth
Taylor in Hollywood. Pleasantly surprised, as this was a book on Taylor that I hadn’t read and it looked intriguing, I finished
it over the next several days. Mann’s attention to detail and innovative way of arranging the chapters in the book led me
to interview him. Mann is an outstanding biographer. His previous book called Kate: The Woman Who Was Hepburn was
named “one of the 100 Notable Books of the Year” by The New York Times. He also is an award-winning novelist and has
written four books on the lives of gay American men. Most recently one called Object of Desire. William’s approach, ethics
and imagination all come into play for this uber-successful gay author.
The Rage Monthly: I really enjoyed the way you approached Elizabeth Taylor’s life in the con- somebody like a Joan Crawford. She was the perfect kind of creature to work in
text of the title “How To Be a Movie Star” and the content inside. Establishing the contacts of the studio system. Elizabeth Taylor was not. She always hated it. She never liked
people interviewed in the book, did you present this idea up front of how you planned to do the regimen of it. For someone who sold her image so brilliantly, she never really
this book? That the premise of this book would not be just another biography of many? followed the studio’s playbook on how to do that. She did it her own way. She was
William J. Mann: Exactly, because there’s been so many of them. In fact, when always chaffing and couldn’t wait to get out of that studio system to create the
my editor suggested to me after I finished up my book on Katharine Hepburn, business model that ultimately replaced it.
he said, “What do you want to do next?” I said, “Well…I don’t know. Give me some Rage: One of the most fascinating chapters in the book is the one on the time period of film-
ideas.” He said, “How about Elizabeth Taylor?” My first reaction was it’s been done ing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 1965. You actually spoke with the director Mike Nichols?
a million times before. He said, “What if we call it ‘how to be a movie star?’ Then, WJM: Yes I did. He was terrific. I really enjoyed doing that chapter. I also had
the gears started turning in my head and I said, “I get ya. I see where you are going the personal diary that was kept by Ernest Lehmann who was the producer
with this.” It was going to be very different. It wasn’t going to be a retelling of all and screenwriter so he recorded some really interesting moments of the day.
the marriages, the divorces and the scandals. I was trying to understand how she So I had some very good, very fresh, up-close sources for that chapter. That’s a
did it and the machinery of stardom back then and how she helped evolve it to tough movie as in your emotions go up and down…it’s difficult. Yet, it’s brilliantly
what it is today. directed and brilliantly acted. It’s magnificent.
Rage: Yes. There were numerous times where you described her as “shrewd” in regards to Rage: You are also a well-known writer of gay fiction. Your first book was called The Men From
getting the first $1,000,000 salary for Cleopatra and the breaking down of The Hayes Code the Boys and then you wrote a biography of William Haines [gay silent film star and interior
with Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Taylor set the groundwork for the current stars of today. decorator] called Wisecracker.
WJM: She really helped create that template of stardom that we still have today. WJM: That’s right. I’ve pretty much gone back and forth from fiction to non-
Where your private life is just as important if not more important than what you fiction.
do on screen. She kind of created the business model too. She came out of the Rage: Where did this ability to jump back and forth creatively come from?
studio system where they used to put actors under contract. Then with Cleopatra, WJM: I started off as a journalist. That’s how I was making my living. I sold the pro-
she and her agents created this business model. She had very smart agents who posal for Wisecracker because I’d been writing for film journals and Architectural
said, “How about you get a contract where you get a percentage of the box of- Digest. So it wasn’t my intent to just write film biographies…I really saw myself as
fice?” In a sense, it was changing the way that Hollywood did business. She was at a novelist. I had been working on The Men From The Boys for several years. Shortly
the forefront of all of that. after I sold the proposal for Wisecracker, I then sold my novel. I thought I’m going
Rage: It’s also remarkable that she was able to make a transition from child star to teenager to stay a novelist now. But Wisecracker did pretty well and they wanted me to do
to femme fatale and have such a long-lasting career as always a star. a sequel. Suddenly I found myself with this dual career. The Men From the Boys did
WJM: The studio system was fabulous in many ways. It was a very proficient pretty well and they wanted another one. I have two different publishers so I’ve
and productive system for making movies and making stars. There is an awful got a double career going on. It wasn’t intentional but it’s just kind of the way it
lot of good that came out of the studio system. Some people thrived with it… worked out.
38 RAGE monthly | February 2010
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