Draft:The Sewing Circle-A Queer Hollywood Community
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What is the Sewing Circle? Who was part of it?
The ‘Sewing Circle’ as coined by Alla Nazimova and later Marlene Dietrich, was a euphemism used to describe a group of queer female hollywood stars and film crew, who formed a sapphic underground community in a time when they had to hide their true sexual identities. The main members were Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Joad Crawford, Tallulah Bankhead, Dorothy Arzner, Katherine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyk, Dolores Del Rio, Billie Burke, and Mercedes De Acosta. All part of the film industry during Hollywood's Golden Age, around the early and mid 20th century, the women connected on screen and off, forming a complicated community.
Queer Hollywood House Parties
The ‘Sewing Circle’ would meet at each other's houses for meals, for conversation, to connect with other queer women, and to form community. House parties were a common practice in the queer community when there were not many public queer spaces, or the queer spaces available were not inclusive to all intersectional identities. Additionally, queer spaces were often targeted and raided by the police as homosexuality was still criminalized. The fact that the members of the ‘Sewing Circle’ were Hollywood stars, meant that many did not want to be seen in public queer spaces as some worried about being exposed as queer and having their career, reputations, and sometimes relationships be damaged. Other members were more open about their sexualities, often expressing themselves through their work, but still kept their personal lives private.
A Few Important Figures in The ‘Sewing Circle’
Alla Nazimova who has been referred to as the “Founding Mother of Sapphic Hollywood”, was an incredibly successful Jewish Ukrainian actress who began her career at the beginning of the 20th century. While publicly she was married to a man and had many heterosexual relationships, in private she had love affairs with many other leading Hollywood women such as Dorothy Arzner. There were many rumors about Nazimova’s sexuality within Hollywood, many believing she was bisexual. As a result, some of her managers tried to paint her as dangerous and seductive to combat the narrative. As she gained popularity and acquired more autonomy she became one of the highest paid actresses in the world, at the time. As she became more comfortable with her fame and success, she began exploring more with queer relationships and would throw lavish parties, contributing further to the discourse surrounding her sexuality. Nazimova went on to work under her own production company, working in roles beyond the stage or screen as a director, producer, costume designer, editor and more. She also wrote many screenplays either written under a male pseudonym, or taken credit for by her then partner Charles Bryant. She created, directed, and starred in many films, plenty of which were queer-coded, some more successful than others. One being an on screen version of Oscar Wilde's play Salomé which was unsuccessful at the box office but is now considered a great piece of queer cinema. Her adaptation of Salomé was rumored to have an all queer cast as a tribute to the sexuality of Oscar Wilde, although that was never confirmed. The film contained drag performances, and same sex characters being flirtatious as well as of course, a queer Nazimova as the leading lady. Nazimova used her success to push the boundaries of the film industry, paving the way for many other members of the ‘Sewing Circle’ to explore their sexualities through creative expression in Hollywood. Eventually, Nazimova moved in with her lover Glesca Marshall making her a controversial figure for her seemingly fluid sexuality. She later died of a heart attack in 1945 with Marshall by her side. Her legacy lives on in countless ways in the film and queer communities. One of the first gay-owened bars created for the queer community was named after Nazimovas former estate and her character has been depicted in countless forms of media over the years since her passing.
Marlene Dietrich was a German actor and singer who landed her breakout role as a femme fatale in 1930, a persona she would be associated with for the remainder of her career. She left Germany for Hollywood and a contract with Paramount with whom she went on to make many films. She was married to Rudolf Sieber and together they had one child, Maria. They separated soon after their marriage and Dietrich went on to have many relationships with other queer women in the film industry such as Mercedes De Acosta and Anna May Wong. She would frequently use the term ‘Sewing Circle’ to refer to the gatherings of queer women in Hollywood who would meet in private to keep their sexualities more of a secret. Publicly, she had many romantic affairs with men such as Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and reportedly John F Kennedy. On screen and off screen she had an androgynous fashion style and personal expression, appealing to both men and women. She would often wear tailed tuxedos, top hats, and trousers, which was uncommon for women of her time. She was well known for being one of the first female actors to share an on screen kiss with another woman which paved a way for more open queerness in successful mainstream media. When WWII began, Dietrich greatly contributed to the war efforts by helping raise over a million dollars through the purchase of American war bonds. She also toured and performed for front line troops throughout the war, would volunteer at canteens for soldiers, and produced songs to be broadcast to Axis troops in an effort to contribute to their demoralization. Dietrich was globally recognized for her contributions to the war and was awarded with the Medal of Freedom from the US as well as received other awards for her efforts. Marlene Dietrich is known as a queer icon because of her fairly open bisexuality, her queer coded characters, and her progressive androgynous fashion.
Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress who gained stardom in Europe before moving to America to continue her career at the young age of 19. She subsequently became an international star. Garbo had grown up with financial difficulties and recognized the power she had acquired to change the trajectory of her life with her newfound fame. She negotiated well, giving her unprecedented control over the roles and projects she participated in. She was a mysterious figure, keeping her life fairly private. She had an accent and a deep voice making some nervous for her to speak in movies when the age of silent films came to an end. This did not prove to be a challenge for Garbo as she went on to win and be nominated for multiple Academy Awards. One notable film she starred in was Queen Christina which was about a Swedish monarch who was bisexual and dedicated to her work. Garbo related to the role and decided to take it on when her presumed lover and one of the writers, Salka Viertel, presented her the opportunity. The story follows Christina as she dresses as a man from a young age, allowing Garbo to explore her androgyny and sexuality through the character. Although in the end Christina ends up falling in love with a man who later dies, Garbo is not appealing to the male gaze. Garbo and Christina never waiver in their strength, as portrayed through the performance and their lives.
Dorothy Arzner was an American film director during the Hollywood Golden Age who was an open lesbian. She was one of the only female filmmakers in Hollywood at the time and was the first woman to direct a Hollywood sound film. She directed films with the studio that would later become Paramount, such as Dance, Girl, Dance, and Anybody's Woman. When she left Paramount to do her own freelance work she directed Christopher Strong, a gender-bending film starring Katherine Hepburn. Many of her films explored queer themes, and presented women in nontraditional ways such as condemning the institution of marriage, having children out of wedlock, and occupying traditionally male jobs and roles. Because of the scandalous and progressive nature of films in the Hollywood Golden Age, the Hays Code was introduced. The Hays Code prohibited certain language and behavior from appearing in film media. This restricted the ability of many filmmakers to create provocative, liberal art but Arnzner did not allow the code to impact the quality of her work. She continued to push conservative boundaries of what the code accepted on screen and continued to make films until she eventually left Hollywood and directed training videos for the Women’s Army Corps. She then proceeded to create many commercials for Pepsi-Cola, and ended her career as a teacher at UCLA’s film school. Throughout her career she had many relationships with notorious Hollywood stars such as Alla Nazimova, and Billie Burke who played Glinda in The Wizard of OZ. She later had a partner, Marion Morgan, who was a Hollywood dancer and choreographer, and they remained together for 40 years until Morgan's death in 1971. Arzner was a queer feminist pioneer in early filmmaking and her legacy lives on in the Hollywood film industry.
The ‘Sewing Circle’s Impacts on Queer Culture
Although many of the members of the ‘Sewing Circle’ kept their true sexualities hidden, they often alluded to their queerness through their artistic expression. This was recognizable to other members of the queer community while more subtle to others. Many of these queer actresses used their performances to express their gender, aligning with Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity. Many members such as Dorothy Arzner and Alla Nazimova worked together on films which is how they often met and connected in the first place. Through their subterranean community, sapphic Hollywood stars created a web of interpersonal romantic and platonic relationships. Often, these connections helped the women progress in the industry as they included each other in projects and inspired others to join their community. Publicly, many of these women were in relationships with men, but found belonging and community within the ‘Sewing Circle’. Many of the members kept their sapphic sexualities open secrets, allowing them to continue to find success in their careers, while also staying true to their sexual identities and expression. Although being queer was still stigmatized and frowned upon, these women used their star status to create a queer community with many intertwining relationships, connecting members of the ‘Sewing Circle’ together. Some members were more open with their sexualities than others, making them controversial but ultimately still well enjoyed by their audiences for their beauty, stage presences, and performances. These women allowed queer women all over America and the world to see queer representation on screen, on stage, and behind the scenes. They opened the door for more queer actresses and directors to express their sexualities through their art, overtly and discretely. They did not fit the mold of the traditional Hollywood starlets. They altered beauty standards for women, pushed the boundaries in the fashion world by wearing androgynous styles, and innovated the world of acting through the queer portrayal of the roles they were given. The ‘Sewing Circle’ helped revolutionize queer media and managed to create a queer community despite the stigmatization of being queer at the time, rebelling against the norms of the industry and society in general.
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