In an interview with his friend Andy Cohen, journalist Anderson Cooper, 55, tells Andy he realized he was 'totally gay' at the age of 11 when he saw Richard Gere shirtless on the Broadway stage in 'Bent', back in 1977. Cooper explains he went with his mother's two gay friends to see the show (his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt didn't go), and in the opening scene where a guy gets out of bed naked, Cooper realized he was gay. Afterwards, the three of them met Gere in his dressing room (one of his mother's friends knew Gere) and Gere was shirtless - Cooper couldn't even ask him to sign his Playbill because he couldn't speak and couldn't stop staring at his chest. Cooper finally told this story to Gere ten years ago, and he says Gere was 'tickled'.
I saw that production. I think Gere was also naked in it. Have a playbill he signed. I remember we had to send them in through the stage door and wait for them. Gere did not come out and sign or greet fans afterwards.
It must have been shocking for an 11 year old kid to see, no matter how smart or mature he was at the time. Could he understand the story, or was he just watching the naked actors on stage ?
Were they allowing 11 years olds in to see the recent revival of TAKE ME OUT, or was there an age requirement ?
An 11 year in the 1970s was enormously different than an 11 year old in 2022. We were very street smart, savvy, and aware of things. I saw A CHORUS LINE three times in June 1975. I was 10 years old. Did I get the grown-up references? Absolutely not, but boy did I love what I understood at age 10. Parents in the 70s were doing their own thing and didn’t censor nor dissect everything. If you saw boobs in a movie, you saw boobs. No big deal. Anderson Cooper saw a bare chested actor. He didn’t see a hardcore gay porn film. His sophisticated mom had her gay friends take her son to a Broadway play. Just another night for that family. No one blinked an eye. Life was life. Now a 17 year old has a tracking program on their phones. In the 1970s you knew you had to be home when the street lights turned on. Your parents weren’t spying on what you were doing. You had to take responsibility for yourself… or else.
Brody, I gotta ask. You're aware that the kids growing up in the 70's are the ones that now have tracking programs on their 17 year old kids phones, right? Kids are still aware of the world, parenting styles have just changed.
BrodyFosse123 said: "An 11 year in the 1970s was enormously different than an 11 year old in 2022. We were very street smart, savvy, and aware of things. I saw A CHORUS LINE three times in June 1975. I was 10 years old. Did I get the grown-up references? Absolutely not, but boy did I love what I understood at age 10. Parents in the 70s were doing their own thing and didn’t censor nor dissect everything. If you saw boobs in a movie, you saw boobs. No big deal. Anderson Cooper saw a bare chested actor. He didn’t see a hardcore gay porn film. His sophisticated mom had her gay friends take her son to a Broadway play. Just another night for that family. No one blinked an eye. Life was life. Now a 17 year old has a tracking program on their phones. In the 1970s you knew you had to be home when the street lights turned on. Your parents weren’t spying on what you were doing. You had to take responsibility for yourself… or else."
This is true. I grew up in the 70s, too. Our generation was trusted more (than the kids of today) and had more responsibilities. I think that made us more mature than the younger kids of today.
thedrybandit said: "Brody, I gotta ask. You're aware that the kids growing up in the 70's are the ones that now have tracking programs on their 17 year old kids phones, right? Kids are still aware of the world, parenting styles have just changed."
I disagree with this. The kids growing up in the 70s are now in their 50s (like myself and Anderson Cooper). Most of our generation had children born in the 90s, so our off-spring is now in their late 20s and early 30s, if not a little older.
I believe the generation who were born in the late 80s and grew up in the 90s now have kids who are 17.
FYI: both Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen didn’t adopt their children. They are both the biological fathers of their children. They used a surrogate. THAT’S the simple reason why their children look like them.
Maybe people are conflating it with his unexpected full frontal nudity in American Gigolo later? I hadn’t realized how much of a cultural moment Gere hanging dong had been until You Must Remember This did an episode about it.
I don’t know who Gere played but Wolf is completely naked in the production. Also, while it’s not porn, it does have a sexually explicit verbal exchange between the two men in the camp.
The 70s were a different time for parents for sure. Also I’m sure Gloria wanted her son exposed to all types of art and culture.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
Was Remar the actor who opened the play by getting out of bed next to Gere fully naked ? I probably wouldn't have been able to follow the story myself, after that.
people need to recognize that Michael Gross - who would go on to greater fame as “Steven Keaton” on “Family Ties” originated the role of drag queen “Greta” in this original 1979 Broadway production.
uncageg said: "I saw that production. I think Gere was also naked in it. Have a playbill he signed. I remember we had to send them in through the stage door and wait for them. Gere did not come out and sign or greet fans afterwards."
Gere was not; James Ramar was. I saw the production also. It was really excellent. David Duke should have won the Tony as Gere’s fellow prisoner / love interest.