Farley Granger to receive
award at film festival

By Nathan Lerner
For the Times

The name Farley Granger harkens back to a bygone era of Hollywood. The veteran actor is scheduled to be at the 2007 Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, where he will receive this year’s Artistic Achievement Award.
Ray Murray, a longtime Northeast resident, is the festival’s artistic director. How did he choose Granger as the honoree?
"It was by accident, actually," he said. "I read an article on him in the New York Times, came into the office with it, and asked our press person, Lewis Tice, to try to contact him. He did and Mr. Granger was quite receptive to coming down for an event."
Murray extolled Granger, "Having him is also a special treat because he comes from the Hollywood world of yesteryear, where homosexuality was kept undercover. It is great having young out directors and actors, but to have an actor who went through the Hollywood system and had his homosexuality an open secret and is now ready to speak openly about is amazing and rare for our festival."
What does Murray admire most about Granger’s body of work?
"His two Hitchcock films really stand out, Rope and Strangers on a Train," Murray said. Interestingly, his performances in these two films offer a gay viewer subtle gay undertones — Rope, where the homosexuality is right under the surface and in Strangers, where it percolates throughout."
According to Murray, "Granger lived the classic Hollywood lifestyle and — where he could during his youth — be open about his sexual orientation to those around him. And that he gets the last laugh by being able to write about it now and revealing his world to his fans and younger gay people of today."
Granger’s appearance coincides with the publication of his new memoir, Include Me Out: My Life From Goldwyn to Broadway. It chronicles Granger’s six-decade career as an actor. What inspired Granger to write the book?
"I felt that I had been there through the decline of the Golden Ages of movies, live television and theater, which made my story a bit unique," he said.
The title of Granger’s book is drawn from a famous malapropism, uttered by MGM studio tycoon, Samuel Goldwyn.
Throughout the book, Granger bristles with indignation, bemoaning how Goldwyn sabotaged his career. According to Granger, "He rarely made more than one film per year, which severely limited parts for me and made it impossible to grow my career like it could have at the larger studios.
Granger lamented, "I was constantly being offered bad to terrible scripts like Son of Ali Baba, which I turned down. I did not feel like it took guts to turn them down, it seemed more like common sense to me. I had no desire to become the young leading man of bad bodice rippers, or second-rate B films."
The book’s title has a dual meaning, reflecting the fact that it provides Granger with a vehicle to come out of the proverbial closet.
Did Granger have any qualms about disclosing his orientation?
"I have no reservations about my sexuality, he said."
How about divulging the identities of his partners?
Granger contended, "I have no reservations about discussing my various celebrity paramours. I either cared deeply for them at the time, or the attraction was so mutual that we had no reservations about going for it."
How has homophobia in Hollywood changed since Granger’s days there?
"It has gotten much better, but it still has a long way to go," he said.
With an air of confidence, he predicted, "In two more generations, it should be unimportant. Life won’t be as good as it should be until all closet walls come down!" ••
Farley Granger will receive the Artistic Achievement Award on Wednesday, July 18, at 7 p.m., at the Prince Theater. Following the presentation, the film Rope will be shown. For further information on the Philadelphia Gay & Lesbian Film Festival, visit www.phillyfests.com/piglff
Nathan Lerner sees more than 200 feature films a year. He welcomes feedback at culturevulture1@aol.com