Was billie burke gay

Burke was married to producer Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. and resided at Beverly Hills, California. She is best known to modern audiences as Glinda the Good Witch of the North in the MGM film musical The Wizard of Oz (). But there were times, more times than I prefer to recall when he made a woman eager for his approval by a mere look, or a small expression, or by a slight grasp of her elbow, a low mumbling request to dance.

Flo loved flowers and had the gardens around the house planted with hyacinths and daffodils, 24 blue spruce trees, and an English box hedge at the gate. Burke returned to New York at 22 after doing a series of well-received musical comedies on the West End. Her career as the red-headed comedienne with a daffy personality was established on both sides of the Atlantic.

Flo never pursued any woman. I tell you: I know better. Burke was 24 when she bought an estate in Hastings-on-Hudson in New York in which she named Burkeley Crest, lavishly decorated with English and Italian antiques. A fashion leader, Burke patronized the couturier Lucile who dressed aristocracy, royalty and celebrities, and she garnered a devoted female fan following.

The story of one noted dancing girl about how Flo Ziegfeld used to batter down her door is a confection of sheer poppycock. Billie Burke Mary William Ethelbert Appleton " Billie " Burke[1] (August 7, – May 14, ) was an American actress who was famous on Broadway and radio, and in silent and sound films.

Due to living in an era where it was even more challenging to be an LGBTQ+ member than it is today, Billie and Dorothy reportedly embarked on a secret relationship. [13] It has been reported that in Dorothy Arzner and Billie Burke were living together. All 20 chapters have been lost.

The relationship between the two was never confirmed by either party, but it is historically considered an open secret in Hollywood (Burke’s profile on Turner Classic Movies lists Arzner as a “companion”). The two married in and two years later, their daughter, Patricia, was born.

Although the film industry’s gays and lesbians had freedom, they did not--until the s--have any real degree of make or break power. Billie Burke was the legendary actress who portrayed Glinda the Good Witch of the North in "The Wizard of Oz." Her real life was one of enchantment—and agony.

Billie was the daughter of a circus clown and show business was in her blood. I have even come across a word which, in regard to him, is not only vulgar but incredibly inaccurate. 'The Wizard of Oz' actor Billie Burke reportedly had an affair with female director Dorothy Arzner.

That was all the effort he ever had to make. Jerome Kern conducted the orchestra at the New York screening of Part 1. Johnson in In , the stock market crashed. Burke made her final screen appearance in Sergeant Rutledge (), a western directed by John Ford. But Ziegfeld was an inveterate womanizer and the marriage was an unhappy one.

Although Billie threatened to leave him several times, she stayed with him until his death. He was cool and aloof and difficult. Her father worked for the P. Barnum circus and the whole family went on tour with him, ending up in London where Burke made her stage debut in The School Girl at age Miss Burke made the hit of the evening.

Arzner, the only successful female director during Hollywood's golden age, was romantically linked to stars including Alla Nazimova and Billie Burke. Burke was signed to a Hollywood contract with Jesse L. Lasky in , and the following year, she appeared in her first film, Peggy, in which she played a New York socialite transplanted to Scotland, setting a path towards the characters she would be best known for playing — upper-class women in light romantic roles.