Newly out country western singer Chely Wright is proudly announcing her lesbianism on the covers of People, Curve, and The Advocate magazine. But commedienne Lily Tomlin could have been Time magazine’s first “Yep, I’m Gay” cover almost 35 years ago. ‘Cept, she didn’t.
“I was more insulted than anything. I felt it was a bribe: ‘We need a gay person, and we’ll take anybody!'” says Tomlin of the offer — which she turned down after her friend Vito Russo advised her that it might, yup, affect her career.
But it’s not like Tomlin was closeted at the time. Just not “on the cover of magazines out.” She was already living openly with her still-partner Jane Wagner and all but admitting her homosexuality in sketches on her 1975 comedy album Moden Scream.
Then she made it all up on Time‘s cover two years later in an article, which focused on her work and called Wagner her “friend and collaborator.” That’s so Annie + Susan, isn’t it?
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dvlaries
I had that album the month it came out (October 1975), and still do, and it’s still brilliant. (As were “This Is A Recording” (1971), “And That’s The Truth” (1972), and “On Stage” (1977). Lily should have made many more, but those four are still cherished. Somewhere among my 1500 aging VHS tapes are her animated Edith Ann specials too.
For the baby boomer generation, I consider Lily the lone surviving member of the upper-most pantheon of comedians, Richard Pryor and George Carlin now both sadly gone. Lily, these days, seems to prefer to work in scripted drama series, and she’s fine in them too.
Yes, we all figured out long ago she was gay, but I’m not sure how harshly she deserves to be judged for not stating it on record decades ago. In 1975, it still might have been a career-ender, and with genius like hers, I’m not sure I want to imagine the loss riding on that gamble.
Marc
Is Lily Tomlin still in the closet?
Cam
I like Lilly Tomlin and get that 1975 was a different time, but can we please stop the phony “Oh she was out at the time….just not “Magazine cover Out”. i’m sorry but when stories referred to her partner as her “Friend”. That is not being out. That said, again, I get that 1975 was a different time. It Really makes me respect people like MArtina Navritolova who came out back then. Still….it would have been a fantastic story back then I’m guessing!!
M
If Lily Tomlin had come out on the cover of Time in 1975, that would be pretty much all we would have heard from Lily Tomlin.
Instead, I got to see her be interviewed about her incredible (and incredibly long career) at The Lily Tomlin/Jane Wagner Cultural Arts Foundation at the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center a few weeks ago.
In the closet? You guys are nuts (and judgemental and cynical).
She is a champion in my book
Cam
No. 4 · M
In the closet? You guys are nuts (and judgemental and cynical).
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Look, I get it, she is a favorite comidianne of yours and that is great. But you can’t change the definition of words because it doesn’t fit with what you want to hear. When her partner is said to be a “Friend”, yes that is “In the closet”. If she wasn’t in the closet, then how could TIME magazine have asked her to come out?
eagledancer
I was proud to be a friend of Vito Russo—I met him when he did a screening of his Celluloid Closet when I was working with the Kinsey Institute. He wrote the book in 1981 on the film clips he used to show, documenting much of the history of gays and lesbians on film, and how the Hayes Code in the 1930s outlawed openly showing gays and lesbians in movies.
Vito died in 1990, but Lily Tomlin executive produced a DVD version of his work in 1995, and provided the narration, which was written by Armistead Maupin. In a review of the DVD, Michael Klemm wrote:
“Lily Tomlin has been criticized for years for having never publicly come out but it is obvious from listening to her on the disc that she is hiding nothing about her personal life with Jane Wagner.”
If you’ve never had a chance to see this DVD—there are some really funny moments where straight audiences missed a lot of very obvious stuff. I believe it also documents Cary Grant in a woman’s dressing gown, shouting “I’m Gay!” as the first time the word “gay” was used in a film.
Kieran
Two of the people I remember made me laugh the most growing up in 70’s were Paul Lynde and Lily Tomlin. Little did I know back then that these beloved comedians who made America a much funnier place were both gay. I wish I’d have known back then.
Boogiebear
She didn’t come out in 1975, not just because it might hurt her career. It was also because her and her partner might have been dead soon after.
blass
this lady has been my hera for decades…
and i read about her being out and about in gay magazines and such in the early 80’s… so … no… she didnt do a cover…. but she didnt cover up either… she was out… and proud… she just never did the media blitz thing…
whatta woman…
adele
It’s worth saying that one likely reason Lily didn’t come out so publicly as that her mother (also named Lily) lived in the Bible Belt. I used to sell her mom Girl Scout cookies–and all of us kids in the neighbourhood used to keep our eyes open for the younger Lily’s occasional visits. She started a restaurant there at one point as well to help out some family members.