Gold dust gay

America had never seen anything like Gorgeous George. Television sets they buy because of him. The character was portrayed as a drag queen obsessed with films and everything gold, which is a parody of the Oscars statuette. Nearly 50 years later, little had changed.

Adding to this aspect of the gimmick, Goldust often quoted or made references to classic Hollywood films during his promos.

A Reader's Digest Poll will suggest he is better known than the President. Yet, amid the indignation the crowd worked themselves into over George's taboo behavior, they admired his daring too. But it was an act, George's biographer John Capouya said, that came with an ugly tinge.

But, like all things in wrestling that are successful, it bred copycats. In his business any strong reaction was a good one; homophobia was just another form of heat. Sure "Adorable" Adrian Adonis was fatter and Goldust weirder, but they were variations on a theme.

Muhammad Ali will claim he learned his trash-talking from him. He used his queerness and sexuality to manipulate the crowd and confuse his kayfabe opponents. And the audience response was sometimes beyond the pale :. Almost every territory, over the years, had its own version of Gorgeous George.

Gorgeous George was an accepted fact of life, practically an institution—if he was swishy he was a celebrated swish. Peroxide blond hair flopping comically, "Gorgeous" Wagner didn't walk to the ring as much as he pranced. The famous Chanel No.

It was a flamboyant act, one that turned Wagner, a journeyman at best as a clean cut and serious grappler, into the biggest star of wrestling's television golden age in the s. The WWE didn't venture far from George's template. For 12 years, George's was one of the leading acts in all of professional wrestling, especially in Los Angeles, where the cream of the Hollywood crop accepted him as one of their own.

George clearly invited the curses and shouts of "Queer!

What does the LGBTQ :

He will be named Mr. Television in His impact will go WAY beyond the ringed circle and television. He will be credited with introducing "camp" to the mainstream public. In Tacoma, Washington, the public safety commissioner investigated whether or not George was a threat to the public decency.

As historian John Nash explained, he didn't just star on television—he helped sell the medium to the masses :. When the company decided to make Goldust a hero, it first had him announce he wasn't really gay in the most emphatic way possible.

With that said, the character of Goldust was probably my first exposure to a gay queer male character having his own agency. He will be credited with selling more of them than even Uncle Milton Berle. It was a less-than-nuanced portrayal of homosexuality.

That was the sensitivity level at the turn of the century. Clad in lace, chiffon and silk, pink silk at that, he had his valet spray a custom perfume to mask the smell of the "peasants" at ring side.