On the night of December 2, 1966, filmmaker Shirley Clarke and a tiny crew convened in her apartment at the Hotel Chelsea in New York City to make a film.
There, for 12 straight hours they filmed the one-and-only Jason Holliday as he spun tales, sang, donned costumes and reminisced about good times and bad behavior as a gay hustler, sometime houseboy and aspiring cabaret performer.
The result is a mesmerizing portrait of a remarkable, charming and tortured man, who is by turns hilarious and heartbreaking. Ingmar Bergman called it “the most extraordinary film I’ve seen in my life.”
When it first screened in a sneak preview, the audience included Tennessee Williams, Robert Frank, Thomas Hoving, Amos Vogel, Norman Mailer, Andy Warhol, Arthur Miller, Elia Kazan, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, Rip Torn, Geraldine Page and Terry Southern. But for decades, Shirley Clarke’s powerful and transgressive Portrait of Jason was unavailable and its original elements were thought to be lost.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
It’s now available on DVD and Blu-ray via Milestone Films.
Below, preview a clip and find the trailer from this largely forgotten piece of queer history:
https://youtu.be/Xy8LgcAO_D8″ width=”420″ height=”315″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”>
h/t: Dangerous Minds
hassia
The thing is Queerty, contrary to a lot of your readers, black people have contributed a lot to the progress of the gay community. This despite Jim Crow, segregation, e.t.c. Many white gays, spent their time sitting in the closet. Yet they are the first to tell you how homophobic the African American community are. ‘Which of course would matter if they had power. Now I know a lot of you knee jerk queens will scream look at the black churches, look at the rappers. LOL, I will always say, was it black people forcing gays to have electro treatment, was it black people that criminalised gay behaviour? Was it black people that wrote the laws on discrimination? No, yet that will not matter for most they will brush aside statements from the likes of Ann Coulter, Rush,Pat bucahnen e.t.c,because for some reason they are individual, yet being black one can only be monolithic.
bingobingo
I admittedly had never heard of him before, but this looks really interesting.
Bauhaus
Very intriguing.
Mykaels
Oh my god yes!
Giancarlo85
@hassia: Bayard Rustin is one name that comes to my mind that many white gays would rather erase from history.
Clark35
@hassia: The so called black/AA “community” is still highly homophobic and has been for decades.
hassia
@Clark35: Yeah, because the so called white Americans are so overwhelmingly accepting of homosexuals.
Glücklich
@bingobingo:
Same here.
NJjoe
This does look interesting and I’d like to see it. I’ve never heard of him either.
Clark35
@hassia: Indeed they are, they’ve been a lot more accepting for decades more than black people have as the black/African-american “Community” is extremely homophobic and biphobic even still today in 2015.
hassia
@Clark35: Do you have facts to back that up, or just feelings? My google fingers are exhausted looking for anti gay legislation, that became law, written by black legislators.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Had no idea this gentleman existed, and my own existence was the poorer for that. I love a good raconteur — a criminally under-appreciated art form. Just imagine if he, Truman Capote and Quentin Crisp were ever together in the same room!
moldisdelicious
@hassia:
1+, tell them man. I’m so sick of seeing the racism and hate given towards blacks and nonwhites in the gay community and folks acting like being gay, gay pride and whatever is a white thing.
It’s hilarious to see how folks will swear on their grandmom grave that white people can never be homophobic yet homophobia and all this anti-gay shit came from them. Hell damn near all the articles on homophobia are of white people. Yet they make us black people to be so a damn threat like we were the ones that made laws against gay people when none of us had anything to do with that.
This is why I don’t even take most of these dudes seriously because they’re too full of shit.
These losers are so lame and insecure with themselves that they have to turn something that is about liking the same sex into a skin color thing, hating on us blacks and nonwhites and trying to make white people to be superior. Can’t really engage or even build with anybody that has that way of thinking.
boufano
It’s a remarkable foray into a life lived in the margins that underscores how important it is that those who have the opportunity to live openly and freely from a young age understand the importance of not forgetting who came before them. Simple as that.
Masc Pride
Someone paid for him? I don’t buy it. Bet at least 11 of the 12 hours are full of lies and delusions.
MarionPaige
The film’s concept seems like a lot of pressure and “responsibility” to lay on one person’s shoulders; point a camera at the guy, turn the camera on and say “now be outrageously entertaining and representative of both your race and the gay community”.
How many people (even people with talent and acting training) could pull that off?
It reminds me of all these times we’ve seen how awful and boring actors are when they don’t have scripts before them.
Philip Hopbell
How is this “forgotten?” I often refer to this film and there are many articles written about it. Or is the writer just just becoming aware?
Giancarlo85
@Masc Pride: Always the same snarky bullshit from MASK closet pride.
Tackle
@hassia: We’ve had our differences in the past, but here, I’m in agreement with you. I suggest that you ignore: @Clark35: it’s a waste of time to argue with a r@cist & a fool. He’s been at this for yrs, with the same r@cist drivel about Blacks being the most homophobic. And using different names.
And to add to your point, what if Kim Davis was Black? You would about 20 Clark’s coming out of the woodwork’s,indicting the whole Black community, on the actions of one. These past two weeks on Queerty, we’ve seen a rash of homophobia: From “Kim Davis”,
To Kentucky clerk “Casey Davis”, “Ted Cruz”, ( No gays allowed business owner) “Jeff Amyx”.
Pastor “Nate Oyloe”, and Donald Trump. Not a single word was said about r@ce. And that’s the way it should be. Judging people by the content of their character, as individuals and not as a group.As @Clark35:,and many in the gay community has proved, generalizations is one of the basic consensus for being prejudice.
SonOfKings
My first thought was, “where has this fabulous man been all my life!” I’d never heard of him, but I thank Queerty (regardless of the intent) for bringing him to my attention. I would love to see a talented actor bring his personality back to life in the form of a caberet act like the “real Jason” always wanted. I would pay to see that.
He sort of reminds me of the sesoned Black Queens I met when I first came out into the gay club scene. I remember how they used to hold court in the back of the bar, entertaining with wild stories and observations about life.
McShane
I remember samples of him in old mixtapes, that I got from fanzines.
https://youtu.be/XJi9c-yynCs
Shawn McKinney
Very “Men on Film!”
Franklin
@Masc Pride: You know everyone was young once. Also, just because something may not be your flavor doesn’t men it isn’t someone else’s.
Isaac P
I haven’t seen the film, but a friend who is a film historian has said that the filmmaker took advantage of Jason Holiday by continuously plying him with alcohol during the entire 12 hour interview. He progressively gets more inebriated during the filming and that it becomes less a documentary than exploitation of a man who wanted some recognition. I think it will be interesting to see, as it is a window into a certain time and place, and from a demographic that did not receive much attention at the time. I think it’s worth seeing, but keep in mind that we don’t entirely know Shirley Clarke’s motivations in filming Holiday.
lykeitiz
@hassia: Are you happy with yourself? By getting the very first comment, you hijacked what should have been a conversation about this man, and made it about your dislike for white people. That’s very common here. See any article about the upcoming “Stonewall” movie for an example. A little secret: White people could care less about your delusional revisionist history.
hassia
@lykeitiz: And you have just proved my point.
Giancarlo85
@lykeitiz: “White people could care less about your delusional revisionist history.”
They are just busy creating their own.
Look at how anti-equality amendments (not just regarding marriage) have passed… whether it be by vote or in the legislature. Mainly straight white males supported these anti-equality laws. Without the support of straight white males, many of these laws would have been unsuccessful.
Tracy Pope
@hassia:
You said “…contrary to a lot of your readers…”.
The truth would be “a small number of very vocal race-baiting, self-loathing readers”.
Your comment veered off after that into some diatribe about whites blaming black churches & rappers and the same white anti-gay mouthpieces every sane LGBT person – no matter the color of their skin -is wary of.
Yet you managed to say nothing about what the article is about.
Tracy Pope
I don’t know very much about Jason Holliday except that a friend tried to convince me there was a character on the show In Living Color loosely based on him. I’m looking forward to seeing this.
@Isaac P: I hope your friend is incorrect but the world being what it was in 1967 I wouldn’t be surprised.
Bauhaus
@McShane:
What a find! Trenton Makes The World Takes. The bridge and sign are still there, and he’d get an even bigger laugh out of it today.
reallygoodthings
@Isaac P: You’re right. She plied him with drugs and alcohol. It was completely exploitative. He used her too because I believe he enjoyed being the “star” of the movie, but it went on for hours and she kept giving him booze and even calls drug dealers to come over with heroin.
reallygoodthings
And as a side note, everyone try to see the new Stephen Winters film “Jason and Shirley” starring Jack Waters – a “re-imagining” of the filming of Portrait of Jason. It’s absolutely brilliant and Jack Waters does a star turn as Jason Holliday, and lays bare the inner workings of the power play, on both sides. It will be showing at the Museum of Modern Art in New York Oct 20 – 27. A must see!!
Masc Pride
@Franklin: Highly doubt he looked much different in his youth. Robert Redford is old as dirt now, but you can still tell he was a hot piece in his younger years. Plus, add in that Holliday seems like the type that totally likes to exaggerate for attention. I bet he actually paid a few people to screw him. lol
Franklin
@Masc Pride: We get it. He’s everything you don’t like. Fem and black. That doesn’t mean that the wasn’t someone somewhere that’d be into him and willing to pay, especially considering how hard it was to find gay people in the 1950’s and 60’s. As for people looking different in their youth, I’d like to ask you to compare the younger and current pictures of pictures of Ozzy Osborne, Keith Richards, Tevin Campbell, Jeremy London, Bobby Brown, Redman, and D’Angelo for starters.
Pete
This would be about the same time Chelsea Girls was filmed. Do we get some Brigid Berlin on random access?
Realitycheck
@Franklin: Thank you, I suspect Jason was rather handsome in his days, as far as his flare and perhaps his way of coloring his stories it is nothing more then a clever survival skill.
I cannot even begin to immagine what the man must have gone trough his life to survive, but he did and there he is telling us some of his experience with an incredible personality shining through.
Calebspapi
Two things of importance should be noted. However this man looked then or at anytime in his life is none of our business. He obviously didn’t ask for or require your self righteous approval, just like the millions more that make up our community. The comments about his looks are examples of the venom which is so pervasive with gay males. But just remember one thing, the exact way you feel and speak of this individual, many are saying the same or worse about you.
As for the first commenter’s statements about race, the way he was attacked for saying what is notably true, shows just why and how much it needs to be said and repeated.