The Sewing Circle: Hollywood's Greatest Secret: Female Stars Who Loved Other Women

by Axel Madsen

Book Overview

Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, and Barbara Stanwyck--to name a few--maintained their images as glamorous big-screen sex symbols complete with dashing escorts, handsome husbands, and scores of male... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559722754
• ISBN13: 9781559722759
• Release Date: December 1994
• Publisher: Birch Lane Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

A MUCH NEEDED BOOK FOR YOUNG LGBTQ YOUTH!

The information in this book is pretty accurate. I do a lot of autobiographical and biographical reading, and there is an exceptional amount of overlap from this book to my other books. Personally, I believe, EVERYONE should read this book. Knowledge is power! All children, especially LGBTQ youth, should read this book. It would have meant the world to me to have had this book to read as a teenager.

Entertaining and Thorough

This book did a good job of capturing a time when the film and the art world hadn't completely disconnected, the biggest stars were women, and to be a movie star was still considered a little shady. The studios covered up drug addiction and homosexuality and other scandals and arranged marriages for their stars so they could appear normal to the public.This book focuses a lot on Greta Garbo and her girlfriend Mercedes de Acosta, (a woman who really got around, female movie star-wise), but it also devotes chapters to familiar names like Judy Garland, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Stanwick, and Joan Crawford. During the 20s and 30s, most of them were able to carry out discreet affairs much like many male homosexuals as at that time Hollywood was such a different place, full of artists and forward-thinking people. "The Sewing Circle" focuses on a fascinating era in film hustory that existed before the forced conformity and communist wicth-hunting of the 1950's.

a review of the sewing circle.

This book is very good and well worth a look at. The sociogists theorys are dicey at times, but apart from that its great.

I Wish I'd Had This Book When I Was Younger

What a great book. Younger gays need more books like this to give them a sense of their history and their place in it. If you know a young gay person do them a favor and buy them this book. And a note to the reviewer below who complained about the book being "rife with typos", if you knew anything about book printing you'd know that has nothing to do with the author. I'm sure he made the corrections but the printer ignored them. Ignore the typos and pay attention to the story.

Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are

After reading this book, I went out and bought several more copies for friends. It's about time someone stopped the Hollywood Game of "They're Icons. Let Them Rest In Peace." It's well known within private circles that the women Axel Madsen supposedly "outs" were lesbian but because of the homophobia that exists (and still exists...look at the outrage to Ellen DeGeneres' coming out) they couldn't be open about their private lives. I've read the other reviews of this book and can only shake my head that people are so upset because their shining "stars" weren't as they imagined them. Get over it! People have a right to lead their own lives and this excellent book has the honesty to finally tell these stories. Needless to say there's also a lot of great "dish". Enjoy.