kermit-official

[kermit-official]

Carleton Carpenter as flamboyantly gay photographer Russell Paxton tells Ann Sothern (as Liza Elliot) and Luella Gear (as Maggie Grant) all about the gorgeous male model he has in his studio in the television adaptation of Kurt Weill's Lady in the Dark, originally broadcast by NBC on September 25th, 1954. This was a very early example of lgbtq+ representation in mainstream media and Carleton's over-the-top portrayal of the character was daring for the era, leaving viewers with no other option than to accept that his character was gay---not "ambivalent 1950s, is he or isn't he?" gay, but in your face "I lust over men, tra-la-la-la-la-la! I don't care if you like it or not" gay. Carleton, who was openly bisexual, clearly ran with the part, camping it up and having fun while imbuing the character with the freedom he gave himself in his personal life during the buttoned-down 1950s.

Born in Bennington, Vermont in 1926, Carleton caught the acting bug early after serving as a Seabee in the U.S. Navy during World War II (where he fell in love for the first time with a fellow Seabee named Costello, a relationship which was emotionally intense but never consummated). Arriving in New York City in January of 1944, Carleton soon after scored a part in the David Merrick Broadway play Bright Boy. Instantly grabbing attention in the opening scene when he walked out wearing nothing but boxer shorts with a towel around his neck and stepped across a bunch of beds to look out a window, his long legs carrying his lanky six-foot-three frame across the stage like an Olympic sprinter caught everyone's eyes. Garnering laughs from the audience, his good looks also earned him both male and female admirers, with one wealthy older bachelor offering to pay his way through college. "He kept calling backstage," Carleton later recalled with a laugh. "All the guys would group around and say, 'Your old guy that wants to send you to college is on the phone!' One of them said, 'Well, that's what you get for coming onstage with nothing on but your shorts and a towel around your neck when the curtain goes up!'" Unbothered by the attention, Carpenter (nick-named "Carp") was fully aware that he liked both women and men and already had experience with both under his belt. "I slept with as many women as I did men, I guess," he stated in a 2017 interview with Matthew Rettenmund for the Boy Culture website, adding with a laugh, "I really didn't keep count." Entirely comfortable with who he was, Carleton never attempted to hide his bisexuality. When asked if he ever worried that being open about it would hurt his career, he breezily replied: "Never crossed my mind."

Working in early TV shows, modeling for magazines, and cast in a number of Broadway plays in the late-1940s after the success of Bright Boy, Carp was surprised one night when a famous screen star made a visit to his backstage dressing room. "I was taking my wig off and somebody knocked and there stood Cary Grant! My feet wouldn't move. He's saying how much he enjoyed me in the show and going on and all I could say was 'thank you'. He climbed three flights of stairs and I'm waving my wig at him. He said he would like to take me out and buy me a drink. In the meantime, I'm looking over at my rotten jeans on my dressing table and I thought, 'My God.' And I did have a date. I wanted to tell him I had a date but maybe all three of us could go out, but as soon as he heard the word 'date,' the door slowly began to close and he was gone. I've thought about maybe he wanted a piece of ass — he might very well have. He was a gentleman's man as well as a ladies' man."

Carleton was brought to Los Angeles by producer Louis de Rochemont to play a supporting role in the movie Lost Boundaries in 1949. Signed by MGM shortly afterwards, he made a splash singing the novelty song Aba-Daba Honeymoon with Debbie Reynolds in the musical Two Weeks with Love in 1950, a song which Carlton sneakily introduced to the film's producer and which earned a gold record for the pair when it reached number three on the Billboard charts in 1951. Among his eight films for MGM, one of his leading roles was starring in the 1952 Stanley Donen comedy Fearless Fagan opposite Janet Leigh. Based on a true story, Carleton played a young man who raised a lion cub and tried to hide the full-grown lion on a military base after he was drafted into the army. He also starred with Jan Sterling in the 1952 MGM western Sky Full of Moon as a cowboy named "Tumbleweed" who arrives in Las Vegas and gets caught up in the world of gambling.

After leaving MGM in 1953, Carp continued working in stage, television, and radio productions. He also established himself as a successful songwriter, composing the numbers Christmas Eve, I Wouldn't Mind, Ev'ry Other Day, Cabin In the Woods, A Little Love, and Come Away in addition to writing special material for Marlene Dietrich, Kaye Ballard, Hermione Gingold, and his pal Debbie Reynolds. Remaining lifelong friends with Debbie, he attended events with Reynolds and her children Carrie and Todd after her divorce from singer Eddie Fisher in 1959, and Debbie presented Carleton with his lifetime achievement award from the Hollywood film organization Cinecon in 2012, joking with him onstage by saying: "You know, you and I are gonna be singin' Aba-Daba Honeymoon when we're both a hundred years old!" Devastated by her passing in 2016, he later said: "It was awful. I had over a hundred messages on my machine when I got home, and I was very sick."

During the 1960s and 1970s, Carleton continued to work on stage and in films, appearing in the groundbreaking lgbtq+ play The Boys in the Band in 1968, and starring as "Miss Untouchable" opposite Rue McClanahan, Fannie Flagg, and transgender actress Candy Darling in the gay-themed movie Some of My Best Friends Are... in 1971. He also became a successful author in the 1970s and 1980s, writing the popular mystery novels Deadhead, Games Murderers Play, Cat Got Your Tongue?, Only Her Hairdresser Knew, Sleight of Deadly Hand, The Peabody Experience, and Stumped. His last work as an actor was in a play in 2015, and he published his autobiography The Absolute Joy of Work: From Vermont to Broadway, Hollywood and Damn Near 'Round the World the following year. Remaining healthy and active into his 90s, Carleton passed away peacefully of natural causes at his home in Warwick, New York on January 31st, 2022 at the age of 95. "I just loved the work, honey," he stated about his long and varied career near the end of his life. "That was always the thing with me — I didn’t care anything about all of the glop that went with stardom."

[kermit-official]

imagine dealing w an international crisis involving precious artifacts and someone is like ‘don’t worry I know a guy’ and it’s a dorky connecticut college professor named henry who slips into his slutsona and suddenly he’s capable of saving the world w the power of his whip & fedora

[kermit-official]

(via $4.6 billion and 40,000 jobs lost—thanks to the artistry of our politicians. : r/clevercomebacks)

[kermit-official]

“trans people in sports is such a complex issue” it really isn’t. make the sports skills-based instead of segregated by gender. “ohhh but so many people’s lives depend on their sports for scholarships” okay then let’s make university universally funded so people don’t have to worry about paying for it based on how well they can throw a ball. how are you not keeping up

[kermit-official]

The Mummy (1999) dir. Stephen Sommers

[kermit-official]

my friend just told me that there's a secret second dashboard that solely contains posts from people you've turned on post notifications for, and when i click the link in the messages it opens it within the tumblr app, so the tumblr app also has a secret second dashboard for post notification blogs, and the only way to access it is to open the link for it within the app.

i literally love tumblr

[kermit-official]

All from @mattxiv on Instagram.

[kermit-official]

US Helplines:

Depression Hotline: 1-630-482-9696

Suicide Hotline: 1-800-784-8433

LifeLine: 1-800-273-8255

Trevor Project: 1-866-488-7386

Sexuality Support: 1-800-246-7743

Eating Disorders Hotline: 1-847-831-3438

Rape and Sexual Assault: 1-800-656-4673

Grief Support: 1-650-321-5272

Runaway: 1-800-843-5200, 1-800-843-5678, 1-800-621-4000

Exhale: After Abortion Hotline/Pro-Voice: 1-866-4394253

Child Abuse: 1-800-422-4453

UK Helplines:

Samaritans (for any problem): 08457909090 e-mail jo@samaritans.org

Childline (for anyone under 18 with any problem): 08001111

Mind infoline (mental health information): 0300 123 3393 e-mail: info@mind.org.uk

Mind legal advice (for people who need mental-health related legal advice): 0300 466 6463 legal@mind.org.uk

b-eat eating disorder support: 0845 634 14 14 (only open Mon-Fri 10.30am-8.30pm and Saturday 1pm-4.30pm) e-mail: help@b-eat.co.uk

b-eat youthline (for under 25’s with eating disorders): 08456347650 (open Mon-Fri 4.30pm - 8.30pm, Saturday 1pm-4.30pm)

Cruse Bereavement Care: 08444779400 e-mail: helpline@cruse.org.uk

Frank (information and advice on drugs): 0800776600

Drinkline: 0800 9178282

Rape Crisis England & Wales: 0808 802 9999 1(open 2 - 2.30pm 7 - 9.30pm) e-mail info@rapecrisis.org.uk

Rape Crisis Scotland: 08088 01 03 02 every day, 6pm to midnight

India Self Harm Hotline: 00 08001006614

India Suicide Helpline: 022-27546669

Kids Help Phone (Canada): 1-800-668-6868

FREE 24/7 suicide hotlines:

Argentina: 54-0223-493-0430

Australia: 13-11-14

Austria: 01-713-3374

Barbados: 429-9999

Belgium: 106

Botswana: 391-1270

Brazil: 21-233-9191

China: 852-2382-0000

(Hong Kong: 2389-2222)

Costa Rica: 606-253-5439

Croatia: 01-4833-888

Cyprus: 357-77-77-72-67

Czech Republic: 222-580-697, 476-701-908

Denmark: 70-201-201

Egypt: 762-1602

Estonia: 6-558-088

Finland: 040-5032199

France: 01-45-39-4000

Germany: 0800-181-0721

Greece: 1018

Guatemala: 502-234-1239

Holland: 0900-0767

Honduras: 504-237-3623

Hungary: 06-80-820-111

Iceland: 44-0-8457-90-90-90

Israel: 09-8892333

Italy: 06-705-4444

Japan: 3-5286-9090

Latvia: 6722-2922, 2772-2292

Malaysia: 03-756-8144

(Singapore: 1-800-221-4444)

Mexico: 525-510-2550

Netherlands: 0900-0767

New Zealand: 4-473-9739

New Guinea: 675-326-0011

Nicaragua: 505-268-6171

Norway: 47-815-33-300

Philippines: 02-896-9191

Poland: 52-70-000

Portugal: 239-72-10-10

Russia: 8-20-222-82-10

Spain: 91-459-00-50

South Africa: 0861-322-322

South Korea: 2-715-8600

Sweden: 031-711-2400

Switzerland: 143

Taiwan: 0800-788-995

Thailand: 02-249-9977

Trinidad and Tobago: 868-645-2800

Ukraine: 0487-327715

(Source)

[kermit-official]

CATO: "New nonpublic data from ICE indicates the government is primarily detaining individuals with no criminal convictions of any kind...93% had no violent convictions... 65% no criminal record at all."

[kermit-official]

the tiktok itself is funny but i’m deeply obsessed with this dog

[kermit-official]

People just watching the movie for the first time: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

Long time fans of wicked: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

The actors who have played Glinda or Elphaba: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo specifically: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

Gregory Maguire himself: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

Every person ever to work on Wicked book movie or musical: Glinda and Elphie are so gay for each other

Some people who are very in denial: they’re friendship is so straight and pure

[kermit-official]

Nice people make the best Nazis. Be mean, be tough, have a fascist tooth/skull collection.

[kermit-official]

[kermit-official]

[kermit-official]

Sometimes it feels like you've lived your whole life in a house that's always a little bit on fire. Like it's usually just in one room and you make sure to wet the walls around it so it doesn't spread and that usually works. You were expected to take more responsibility over fire containment when you were like seven because it's not like you can expect your parents to always be 100% on guard about making sure the whole house doesn't catch fire, and you figure that's just how things are like.

And sometimes as a kid you visit your friends' homes and some of then whisper to you - grimacing with embarrassment - about how they're not supposed to tell anyone this, but there's a whole room in their house that's currently on fire. And you're like yeah it's ok I'm not supposed to tell people about the way our house is a little bit on fire all the time, too. And then you visit some other friend's house and there's no trace of fire anywhere, and you think "wow, these people are really good at hiding their house fire."

And one day you show up to work like "hey sorry I'm late, I forgot to wet the walls before going to bed last night and my whole house burned down", and you're startled by the way people react, acting like that must be the worst thing that has ever happened to you. And you're just like "chill, it's been years since the last time this happened, and it wasn't even that bad this time", and that just makes people more shocked, acting like that's the weirdest and most concerning thing they've ever heard anyone say, which only confuses you more.

And then someone tries to explain to you that people aren't supposed to have an ongoing house fire. Most people actually never experience a house fire in their lives. Like not even once. Not even a little bit. The normal amount of having your house be currently on fire is zero.