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TAB HUNTER CONFIDENTIAL
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
One of the biggest screen idols of the 1950s speaks
out about the scandals, the successes, and the sacrifices
that came with being every woman’s fantasy and
the pin-up boy for millions of star-struck teenage girls.
Art Gelien, an introverted and extremely attractive
young boy, was discovered by a Hollywood agent and transformed,
with the help of studio publicity hacks, into Tab Hunter,
Movie Star. This book tells how it happened, and what
it felt like to be created, packaged and sold to the
American public. How it felt to appear on-screen, off-screen,
and on every newsstand in America with the biggest leading
ladies of the day—Linda Darnell, Natalie Wood,
Debbie Reynolds, Lana Turner, and Rita Hayworth—while
dealing with the reality of being gay in a time when
the word didn’t exist.
The book is the result of a two-year collaboration between
Tab Hunter, now 74, and author Eddie Muller.
SAYS EDDIE
Tab was great to work with, completely devoid
of any movie star vanity. The project came about when
Tab read my profile of his friend Evelyn Keyes in Dark
City Dames. He thought it was dead-on, and called
to ask if I'd be interested in co-writing his story.
What I appreciated was that he clearly wanted a collaborator,
not a ghostwriter. And the process was delicate at times-Tab
had spent so long not talking about being gay that it
was a real revelation for him to discuss it so frankly.
Helping somebody put their legacy down on paper is a
pretty heavy responsibility, and I'm glad it all worked
out so well.
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