Andy Williams Trying To Out Lesley Gore

She should have said, "I'm going to Sarah Lawrence to get so much pussy I'm shitting clit!"

Even as a little kid I hated him, and didn’t have strong opinions about much. Well, Aubergine was the prettiest color in the crayola box. So there’s two things I was certain about.

I shot the wrong guy.

[quote]Well, Aubergine was the prettiest color in the Crayola box.

I like blue bestest.

I always hated those corny dialogues and duets between young women and men old enough to be their fathers. Poor Lesley, she must have been mortified. She was too intelligent for dross like this.

I don't understand the line of questioning - there were TONS of separate women's colleges back then. Many of the Ivies had separate schools for women - Radcliffe, Pembroke, Barnard - because Harvard, Brown and Columbia were men only. Columbia only went co-ed in 1987!!

It was apparently an open secret in showbiz that she was a lesbian. Some men will always be so insecure that they need to humiliate women they can’t have. Dusty Springfield had similar trouble.

Sounds scripted to me.

If there is a hell, he’s there.

R7 - I'm pretty sure Lesley Gore was not an out lesbian at 19 in the mid 60's. You could be arrested - seriously - and sent to a mental institution.

She came out publicly in the early 2000's, after being partnered for over 20 years.

I think OP is reading way too much into this.

I also think OP is overreacting about this. But it's kind of embarrassing when Williams announces that they're about to sing the love theme from DR. ZHIVAGO, and he pronounces it "Laura's Theme." (It's actually Lara's Theme.)

[quote] But it's kind of embarrassing when Williams announces that they're about to sing the love theme from DR. ZHIVAGO, and he pronounces it "Laura's Theme." (It's actually Lara's Theme.)

I could simply die from shame!

Be a sarcastic bitch all you want, R12. The film of DR. ZHIVAGO was a huge hit, based on a novel that was a best seller. Even people who hadn't read the book or seen the movie knew the story was set in Russia, and probably knew the main characters' names. So to pronounce "Lara's Theme" as "Laura's Theme" made Andy Williams look really stupid.

He was "buried" here, you know.

Meaning his ashes were dumped in the water.

Here at 4.00.

I am more offended by his assumption only ugly young women go to women's colleges.

Wasn’t he nose picker Ethel Kennedy’s boyfriend in the 70s?

If you people can't tell that that whole exchange was scripted, I can't help you. It as all very actor-y down to her retorts. It was probably an in joke and she was trying to out herself.

Somebody scripted her trying to out herself? May have been scripted, but that doesnt make it less disgusting.

The choreographer must have hated her. ok, now I want you to walk backwards up these steps. In heels?!

[quote] [R7] - I'm pretty sure Lesley Gore was not an out lesbian at 19 in the mid 60's. You could be arrested - seriously - and sent to a mental institution.

I think it was kind of an open secret. Like Johnny Mathis or Johnnie Ray.

She looks like she's wearing a maid's outfit

Her voice was rather ordinary, not much range. But she was on so many shows you'd think she was the next Streisand. By the late-60s she was ovah.

She was cute and her voice was cute. Not really a fan of her songs, but she did well for herself. She pings from space and I think I knew that even back then. Andy Williams seemed to be on tv constantly without having any particular talent or attractive qualities. One of the few people that my entire family could agree on: none of us liked him.

"Andy, at Sarah Lawrence I'm getting more pussy than you could ever dream of!"

Oh no! Poor dykes. Getting just a fraction of the hate that gay men usually receive!

I love Andy. He reminds me of Christmas as my parents would play his Christmas album while we sat in front of the fire.

You know they've both been dead for years, right?

R23, You and your family seem to have been in the minority.

Re: Lesley Gore.

No, it was not "known," r20. No, you did not so "know," r23. We're talking about a teen-ager whose first hit was at age 16. What WAS well-known was that LG was a rich girl from Jersey.

I saw her in concert in 2010, and she was great.

[quote]What WAS well-known was that LG was a rich girl from Jersey.

Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City, into a middle-class Jewish family. The daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore, her family changed their surname to "Gore" soon after her birth.

It's her party, and she'll cry if she wants to.

These old videos are interesting to watch for the period production values, sets, costumes, and the dance moves.

The scripted humor is goofy, but generally innocuous.

Well, r30, before computers and thus Wikipedia, r29 is what her fans were told and therefore believed and "knew."

My post is in that context.

For those debating whether Gore's sexuality was an open secret, she's said before that she knew by college and "I just kind of lived my life naturally and did what I wanted to do. I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t put it in anybody’s face."

It was enough of an open secret that Bridget Fonda played a lesbian teen idol based on Gore in the 1996 film "Grace of My Heart." Here she is recording a coded love song to her girlfriend, "My Secret Love." It was cowritten by Gore herself.

R34, A 1996 movie? Ever heard of an "anachronism"? I am telling you, as a teen listening to Lesley Gore when SHE was a teen, that nobody in my generation thought she was a lesbian ("gay" wasn't a term).

"....a question nobody had really thought to ask in 1963...."

R35, that's the whole point. Her friends and close colleagues knew but the listening public didn't.

What shitty confusing times when you had to fucking guess who was gay. So so sad.

R6 NAILED IT

R10, sorry to disappoint you but Lesley was a good star lesbian all her life. She didn’t go to gay bars or talk about it - you didn’t have to. She wasn’t out, nobody was, but it could have easily been an open secret in show business like it was with dozens of stars.

Listeners didn't know Johnny Mathis was gay in the 50s or 60s, either. Everyone in the industry knew. Natalie Cole's older sister repeatedly begged her father (Nat King Cole) to set her up with Johnny Mathis. Finally fed up, Nat gently explained to his daughter how sometimes the man goes up inside the other man. A jealous Frank Sinatra used to call Johnny "The African Queen" behind his back.

Perhaps Andy Williams was trying to turn Lesley straight by suggesting she ought to seek out that rare co-ed college, ha ha.

I've been a Lesley Gore fan since 1963, and until she came out, it never occurred to me that she would have preferred Judy to Johnny.

I literally and figuratively laughed out loud and chuckled to myself when I learned that her feminist anthem 'You Don't Own Me' was written by (wait for it) a couple of guys.

R42, that’s because you believe in stereotypes

R30 more of the story

Gore was born Lesley Sue Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York City into a middle-class Jewish family.

The daughter of Leo Goldstein and Ronny Gore, her family changed their surname to "Gore" soon after her birth.

Her father was the owner of Peter Pan, a children's swimwear and underwear manufacturer and later became a leading brand licensing agent in the apparel industry.

She was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey and attended the Dwight School for Girls in nearby Englewood.

She also attended Sarah Lawrence College, graduating with a degree in American literature.

Lies. Les was ALL woman.

[Quote] What shitty confusing times when you had to fucking guess who was gay. So so sad.

Yes, R37 it certainly was

He was just being smarmy. It was obviously scripted though. Her dress was the real insult. Stylish young women did not dress like that in 1966. Maybe 1956.

Asshole, I hope he dies soon.

Oh, wait…

He had his hand on her waist long enough, she should have clobbered him.

WOW! Frau!

What a couple of creepy looking motherfuckers

Doesn't anyone remember that Andy Williams asked Stevie Wonder at the 1976 Grammys, "Can you see me?", which ended his job hosting the Grammys.

Odd but failrly demanding production of Lollipops, for such a dumbass tv show. She pulled it off - not that she was really singing - and segued cleanly into banter with smarm-king Williams. Even with him smirking and touching her. Impressive.

Moon River

Lesley Gore's sexual orientation was not on anybody's radar in the mid 1960s.

Wow r53 I was just about to post this. I remember that too. Stevie was either performing or accepting his award via satellite and they were having problems with the video feed. Then Andy asked that tone deaf question…my parents were pissed.

Mom hated Claudine Longet too - thought that she was a useless gold digger.

Everyone at the diner party crowded around the set.

That was awkwardly scripted, but so of its time. And I think the whole point was to let everyone know that Andy was a pussy hound (I know why I'd go to a girls school), then to out Lesley. I liked him a lot but then I read two passages in his autobiography where he talked about his erections. Normally that wouldn't bother me at all. But hearing it from him was a real turn off for some reason.

Williams looked like a compact, attractive guy with a lot of talent and charisma. His recording career was a long one. He was a big Democratic supporter, too. I wouldn’t have minded his life.

Williams was a Tea Party Republican by the end of his life. He called Obama a Marxist and appeared on Glenn Beck’s show.

R60, Williams was a registered Republican (his words). He was only friendly with the Kennedys because he liked Bobby Sr personally. That figures, R61.

R61 R62 scholars of ancient trivial history

Wasn't there some shady shit with his wife and him in the 70's?