Butch in Progress

[K] Young Man with a Horn is the 1950 biopic about legendary jazz cornetist Bix Beiderbecke played by Kirk Douglas and, so far, I realize that there is absolutely no reason you would be interested in that film unless you are a film buff/jazz fan. That is, until you realize that his love interest, and later wife Amy North, played by Lauren Bacall and her oh-so-husky voice… is gay.

I don’t even mean the subtextual gay, where she’s miserable, because she’s trapped in a straight marriage and doesn’t understand, why she’s miserable. We’re speaking Gay with a capital G, as in: has the hots for a fellow female painter, and will eventually leave him to go to Paris with “this girl I met” (Katherine Kurasch) and spend her life in sapphic bliss. (See video)

While it all is very “blink and you’l’ miss it subtle”, there is no denying that this is a

• mainstream film(!), 
• produced in the 50s(!), 
• in which Lauren Bacall plays s a lesbian(!) 
• with a happy ending(!!!!).

Take that (11 years younger) Children’s Hour!

^{The moment Bix understands, Amy has more or less already packed for Paris…}

Even before you meet Amy’s lover, for whoom she will leave her drunkard husband, you’re gaydar will be set to high alert, as Doris Day (yes, she would be good reason, too, but we’re concentrating on something else here) warns Bix about her friend Amy by telling him:

“if I can only make you believe that I didn’t come here because I’m hurt or jealous…Amy isn’t a stage door pick-up, I know her much better than you do, Rick…she’s a strange girl and you’ve never known anyone like her before, I can understand all that…but inside, way inside, she’s all mixed up…” (DorisDay.net)

^{If Bix knew anything about the movies, he wouldn’t have picked the lady in black….}