Tab Hunter Confidential

By: Amos Lassen

The story of matinee idol Tab Hunter from teenage stable boy to closeted Hollywood star of the 1950s.
(The content of this post was taken from sources that are not my own.

"Throughout the 1950s, Tab Hunter reigned as Hollywood's ultimate male heartthrob. In dozens of films ? and in the pages of countless movie magazines ? Tab's astonishing looks and golden-boy sex appeal drove his fans to screaming, delirious frenzy, making him the prototype for all young matinee idols to come. ??Bristling against being just another pretty face and wanting to be taken seriously, Tab was one of the few to be able to transcend pin-up boy status. He earned his stripes as an actor to become a major movie star and recording artist.?? But throughout his years of stardom, Tab had a secret. Tab Hunter was gay, and spent his Hollywood years in a precarious closet that repeatedly threatened to implode and destroy him. Now, Tab's dramatic, turbulent and ultimately inspiring life story has become an explosive documentary feature directed by Emmy award winning filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz.?? The film has the unique advantage of exclusive, unprecedented access to Tab Hunter himself who shares first hand, for the first time, what it was like to be a studio manufactured movie star during the Golden Age of Hollywood and the consequences of being someone totally different from his studio manufactured image. We will trace Tab's dizzying rise to Hollywood super-stardom, his secret life in an era when being openly gay was unthinkable, and his ultimate triumph when the limelight finally passed him by.?? Punctuating Tab's on screen presence will be rare film clips and provocative interviews with friends and co-stars including John Waters, Clint Eastwood, George Takei, Debbie Reynolds, Robert Wagner, Portia de Rossi, Noah Wyle, Connie Stevens, Robert Osborne, and dozens more.?? 'TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL' is an important piece of Hollywood's hidden history. (The Film's website)."
"As the documentary Tab Hunter Confidential is set to premiere this month at the SXSW Film Festival, Vanityfair.com has been granted a look at a teaser reel, which you can watch above. In this slick, savvy, rollicking, and eye-popping film, Hunter, the former matinee heartthrob, aged 83, speaks with more frankness than ever before about the travails of being a closeted actor in Hollywood in the 1950s.

"Tab is much more comfortable in his own skin now talking about his private life," insists producer Allan Glaser, Hunter's partner and business associate for three decades, explaining how the film-six years in the making-picks up from where the actor's 2005 memoir left off. "He was more guarded in his book because he never discussed his sexuality [publicly] before. But to hear him talk firsthand about his relationship with [actor] Tony Perkins and others is fascinating." The documentary, by director Jeffrey Schwarz (I Am Divine), also presents contemporary interviews with are a parade of Hunter's peers, including Clint Eastwood, John Waters, Debbie Reynolds, Lainie Kazan, Connie Stevens, Robert Wagner, and George Takei.
"Tab Hunter Confidential" is not only brave for its candor and enlightening for the social context it provides, it is also a delightful eyeful, using ingeniously edited vintage clips and employing rarely seen still photos in that lush, three-dimensional format pioneered in the film The Kid Stays in the Picture. Though Tab has anything but a light touch, employing some of the same tabloid conventions that it decries or spoofs, it wears its camp loosely, like a dazzling cape. The kid can't help it. (From "Vanity Fair" Magazine , March 5, 2015).
"In the 1950s, Tab Hunter is number one at the box office and number one on the music charts. He is Hollywood's most sought-after star and America's boy next door. Natalie Wood, Debbie Reynolds and Sophia Loren are just a few of the actresses he is romantically linked to. Nothing, it seems, can damage his skyrocketing career. Nothing, that is, except for the fact that Tab Hunter is secretly gay. Now, Tab Hunter's secret is out. In TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL we will meet, for the first time, the real Tab Hunter as he shares with us the whole story of a happy, healthy survivor of Hollywood's roller coaster."