Screened Out: Playing Gay in Hollywood from Edison to Stonewall

Review

A finely nuanced analysis of how gays and lesbians were presented on screen from the 1920s through the 1970s. -- G.M. Kramer, Lambda Book Report
Richard Barrios has turned his amused, intelligent eye to the depiction of gay men and lesbians in pre-Stonewall Hollywood films...Barrios has compiled hundreds of queer cinematic examples, from the little-known Algie, the Miner (1912) to the iconic The Boys in the Band (1970). His comments are shrewd and his coverage complete. Following up on Vito Russo's The Celluloid Closet, Screened Out reminds us that film has continued to hold up its strange mirror-alternately reflecting, repressing, ridiculing, suggesting, condemning, questioning, and even, on occasion, accepting. -- Reed Woodhouse, outFront Books
Building on the legacy of The Celluloid Closet , Barrios manages to be both encyclopedic and breezy; taking the reader on a comfortable and well documented tour of 20th century American screen images of homosexuality. Screened Out is must-have for film buffs and queer buffs and will be the standard reference work and source for all future work in this area. -- Esther Newton, author of Margaret Mead Made Me Gay
Screened Out is a comprehensive and lucidly written contribution to the history of queer images in Hollywood films, rich in sharp analysis and fresh perspectives. It is also a must-read for anyone trying to make sense of the cultural climate leading up to the Stonewall riots, which ushered in the modern gay rights movement. An important book and a terrific resource. -- Michelangelo Signorile, Author or Queen in America
Exhaustive and well-researched, as well as a compulsively fun read. -- Marrit Ingman, The Austin Chronicle
Along the way, [Barrios] introduces some wonderfully oddball films that will be heating up my VCR. -- Steve Weinstein, New York Blade News
Barrios's work here is invaluable, and more necessary than ever before...By giving this history of queer images in mainstream American culture, Barrios has illuminated the present as well as the past. -- Michael Bronski, ThePhoenix.com

About the Author

Richard Barrios, a native of Louisiana, lives in New York City. He is the author of A Song in the Dark: The Birth of the Musical Film. He holds degrees in cinema studies, music history, and literature, and has worked in the film industry and music publishing.