Are you in the Sewing Circle? You might be wondering what even is that. It was considered a "secret club" of the women in Hollywood who were known to be lesbian or bisexual. It is believed that Marlene Dietrich came up with the term and it was used as code to determine whether or not a woman was gay. You might be surprised to learn that A LOT of old Hollywood starlets were rumored to be members of the Sewing Circle.
I should note that half of this is speculation. While some of these starlets absolutely did talk about their sexuality like Josephine Baker and Tallulah Bankhead, a lot of these women kept their relationships as secretively as they possibly could. Rumors got out, of course, and other stars enjoyed being coy about their romances (looking at you, Marlene!), but it was not a gay-friendly time in or out of Hollywood. As a result, a lot of this is conjecture. I'm not in the business of outing anyone, especially people who are no longer around to defend themselves, so keep that in mind with some of these. I'll make sure to let you all know who is a definite and who is a fun story.
According to the book Hollywood Babylon, Kenneth Anger described the Sewing Circle as "good time Charlenes" who are not necessarily open lesbians, but women who went both ways. Anger also cites Marlene as being the founder of the Sewing Circle. Marlene was a gender-bending star from Germany who wore a tux and kissed a woman in the movie Morocco. In 1932, Marlene Dietrich began wearing men's clothing offscreen, and, according to Anger's book, she began an affair with Claudette Colbert.
It IS true that Marlene Dietrich was an open bisexual and she had well-documented affairs with Mercedes de Costa, whom she called the most beautiful woman she has ever seen. It is, however, not actually provable that she had an affair with Claudette Colbert. There is literally one photo of the two stars together that people see as "proof" that the two of them were together...but a single photograph honestly doesn't say much.
Claudette Colbert was also married to one man for 30 years...but her hubby was jealous of her close friendship with her next-door neighbor (that many at the time assumed she was romantic with) and after her husband died her "friend" Helen O'Hagen moved in with her. Claudette left her estate to O'Hagen when she died. As a result, it could be theorized that she was also in a lavender marriage. But again, there's no real proof.
A lot of these stars were married because that was the societal expectation. Barbara Stanwyck was married to Robert Taylor and it was speculated that it was a lavender marriage, meaning a marriage that the studio sets up to keep any scrutiny off of its stars who might actually be gay.
Actor Clifton Webb affectionately called Stanwyck “my favorite Hollywood lesbian" and it was believed she was in a long-term relationship with her publicist Helen Ferguson. Stanwyck never talked about her sexuality, but she had fun dodging the questions about it. In 1962 Reporter Boze Hadleigh asked her if Hollywood stars were bisexual and her response was "I heard that Dietrich, Garbo, most of the girls from Europe, swing either way. Then I found out it’s true." When she was asked to clarify, she playfully said "next!" and they skipped the question entirely.
Marlene Dietrich supposedly had an affair with Greta Garbo before they came to the United States. It allegedly ended when Marlene was not very discreet about their affair which leads to Garbo basically shutting Marlene out of her life as much as she possibly could. Although others contend that it might have to do with her mentor director Josef Von Sternberg. Either way, America encouraged Marlene to really go for it - and she did. She slept with pretty much everyone.
Other speculated Sewing Circle members - speculated from rumors, diaries, and accounts from the time - include Janet Gaynor, Myrna Loy, Anna May Wong, Billie Holiday, Ruby Dandridge, Katharine Hepburn, Patsy Kelly, Hattie McDonald, Louise Brooks, Alla Nazimova, Dorothy Arzner and even Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe.
Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe?!
Yeah, can you believe it? She told her old therapist in a taped session - so there is evidence of this - “We went to Joan’s bedroom. She had a gigantic orgasm and shrieked like a maniac…next time I saw Crawford, she wanted another round…after I turned her down, she became spiteful.” WOW. Not only did Marilyn apparently sleep with Joan Crawford, but she sounds like she really knew what she was doing.
Marilyn Monroe has also been connected with Judy Garland, Anne Baxter, Jane Russell, and French sex kitten Brigitte Bardot, but the strangest story is one from Elizabeth Taylor's own diary where she alleges that Marilyn tried to seduce her.
Taylor said she was interested in seeing how far Marilyn would go, but she wanted to leave all the work up to Marilyn. We don't know how far the pair actually went, but they didn't hook up again and there are no other stories of Elizabeth Taylor hooking up with women. Marilyn, on the other hand, seemed to simply love love. She told friends that she had never orgasmed from a man, leading many to read between the lines, but my personal non-expert opinion is that Marilyn was a troubled woman who thrived on being the object of desire...and she was good at it. I don't doubt at all that she loved men and women. After all, who could resist Marilyn?
So was the Sewing Circle even real? It wasn't a weekly club or anything, but some of these women did have parties and get together where they were safe to intermingle.
