The Hollywood Sewing Circle: My Dream Sewing Circle

Lesbian Sewing Circles & Lesbian Parisian Salons

Bring back lesbian (Hollywood) sewing circles. Swiping, utterly, sucks! Tipsily, I've registered on dating sites but next day, lost my mojo on interacting. Bring me back to sipping fizz with my fab sewing circle pose in Soho gay bars, First Out... queer indie clubbing at the Ghetto & Popstars and, being introduced to sewing circle friends of friends or eyes meeting across the dancefloor...

Though relieved to be born in this time - WOW, I would have liked to have hung out in the Hollywood Sewing Circle and Natalie Barney's salon (without any dramas - me, a good girl) ......

Natalie Barney's Salon:
Openly out, Natalie Barney (a wealthy American poet and writer) ran a weekly salon from her home in 20 rue Jacob, Paris, where many of the coolest 20c artists, intellectuals and writers hung out, from the early 1900s until the late 1960s. Fabulously over the years, she hosted hundreds of famous guests including Colette, Gertrude Stein, Isadora Duncan... as well as artists Auguste Rodin, poet T.S. Eliot, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and arts patron Peggy Guggenheim, among others. Dance performances, literary readings, musical concerts and plays were held there. Perhaps this inspired my fav Pet Shop Boys video / track "Being Boring" and their lyric "She was never being boring, as she was never bored" (a quote from Zelda Fitzgerald)?

The Hollywood Sewing Circle:
There is contention as to who came up with the term "The Hollywood sewing circle". Alla Nazimova (a Russian-American actress) is credited as coming up with term "The Sewing Circle" as a discreet code for lesbian or bisexual actresses. Thereafter, Marlene Dietrich secretly called her group of Hollywood lesbian and bi women stars, her "Sewing Circle". As documented by Axel Madsen in his book The Sewing Circle (1996), this included a surprising array of key Hollywood stars: Greta Garbo, Tallulah Bankhead, Katherine Cornell, Barbara Stanwyck, and Joan Crawford. Others whose secret lives were divulged, include: Maude Adams, Lynn Fontanne, Myrna Loy, Edith Head, Janet Gaynor, Jill Esmond, Elsa Lanchester, Isadora Duncan, Laurette Taylor, Libby Holman, Marjorie Main, Agnes Moorehead, and Dame Judith Anderson. They met at one another's Hollywood houses for lunch, conversation and... aye! Mercedes de Acosta (a playwright...) seems to have struck it very lucky there.

Caveat
Holy Moly! This Lockdown 2 project got so much bigger than I intended! I am a collator & cropper - certainly not a writer :( Please forgive any unbeknown favouritism. I confess, and so not meant rude, I am into multi visual cinema and sound beats but lack the attention to read and watch, few-scene theatre. Moreover, and shame on me, I am a still a behind the scenes supporter on all things. My dream lesbian sewing circle is v personal to me but not meant detrimental to all the stellar woman who have stood so gallantly for our lesbian community.

Special Shout Out...
In my dream Sewing Circle, to... Annie Leibovitz who appeared at her opening during an Edinburgh International Festival. She autographed a beautiful postcard of her slick pic of Olympic Diver, Greg Louganis, for me. Of course I was too tongue-tied to say how awesome I thought her work was (had no idea she was cake!). Hurrah, she spelt my name wrong (it is Germanised) so she wrote a v sweet and treasured, sorry amendment. Blown-up, it is displayed in my flat so hugely, proudly. Thank you Annie Leibovitz - you so rock!