Did Esther Williams ever recant her story about Jeff Chandler?

About his cross-dressing...that she was forced by her editor to make it up to sell more books?

I read this on some obscure blog but haven't heard anything official.

Where's the truth?

Esther is a drunk.

Jeff Chandler and Joan Crawford frequently wore each other's gowns.

Does Esther make appearances any more, wet or otherwise?

Not only did she not recant, she continues to insist the story is true, even when confronted by others who say she's a liar.

The same thing with Christina Crawford; people who were around when she was growing up all said what she wrote about Joan was a lie, an exaggeration, but she insists to this day that it's all true...

Uh, why would she recant the story if the story is true?

Why would she make up a story about Jeff Chandler to sell books? Hardly anyone today knows who Jeff Chandler is. He's almost totally forgotten.

She lived an amazing life and has plenty of REAL dirt to share...why would she need to make things up?

Do editors really encourage libel lawsuits in order to sell books?

Jane Russell was a friend of Esther's and a friend and co-star of Jeff's.

When Esther came out with the story, Jane insisted that it was untrue. She said Esther had come to her with woes of her romance with Jeff in the 1950s but never mentioned the cross-dressing until she had to sell some books decades later. And there's never been another person to verify Esther's lie.

You can't libel the dead r6.

Whether you believe Esther or not, her bio Million Dollar Mermaid is a great dishy read.

She is very frank and graphic about her sexual liaisons with Victor Mature, Fernando Lamas and Jeff Chandler and also tells some ribald stories of her encounters with Mickey Rooney, Gene Kelly, Johnny Weissmuller, Joan Crawford and Bette Davis.

She is clearly a complex woman.

"She said Esther had come to her with woes of her romance with Jeff in the 1950s but never mentioned the cross-dressing until she had to sell some books decades later"

Again, it is really hilarious that some people think she would lie about someone as forgotten as Jeff Chandler in order to "sell books"

There are lots of better ways to sell books than to lie about people the public does not care about

If people know who she is then they're familiar with old movies. If they're familiar with old movies, then they know who Jeff Chandler was.

That was the audience that was buying the book.

Her stories about Gene Kelly I don't think were ribald, at least as far as them ever hooking up. He was an asshole to her during the filming of Take Me Out to the Ballgame, though. He had wanted Judy Garland (who didn't?) for the film and had to settle for Esther. He teased her unmercifully. And once during a two shot, with the two of them sitting on a couch, Gene was bitching that she appeared taller than he was. SHE WAS. So Esther said "Just tuck a foot under your ass and you will sit up taller." It pissed him off, perhaps making him think she was condescending to him. He had a real star complex, by all accounts. No love lost between Gene and Esther.

"If they're familiar with old movies, then they know who Jeff Chandler was."

No. I know plenty of film buffs who have never heard of him or seen his movies (most of which aren't very good).

If she was going to make up a story she would make one up about a much bigger name.

[quote]No. I know plenty of film buffs who have never heard of him or seen his movies (most of which aren't very good).

Then they're not really much of an "old film buff" are they? At the very least they should be aware of Joan Crawford and "Female on the Beach". That's Gay 101 or are every one of your old film buffs straight?

I read it, and she seemed to have some axes to grind with some dead people whom she felt did her a wrong turn (one recollection had her spying Joan Crawford alone on a darkened stage, sobbing because her fans had deserted her... hmmm). She was always competitive and didn't like to be one-upped.

Esther clearly had a chip on her shoulder all those years as being typed as a novelty swimming star.

One of the aspects of her book that I found fascinating was her talking about how she and other big female stars of the era dealt with working their pregnancies (and miscarriages and abortions) into their studio contracts and schedules.

Esther was raped by a family friend as a teenager. Something like that would cloud one's outlook on life in general.

Anyone who would pick up a book on Esther Williams would know who Jeff Chandler was.

I didn't, R18. I knew the MGM ladies, the musical men, and the biggies like Bogie, Jimmy Stewart, Spencer Tracy, etc. but didn't know Chandler.

I'm mid-way to being an eldergay (25). I've only recently found out who Jeff Chandler was (his What's My Line? is on youtube). Whereas, I've long been aware of Esther Williams (the swimming movie star!?!), though I've never seen any of her movies.

Esther had a lot of strange stories. She said Lamas was too macho to accept her kids from a prior marriage, so they could never come over. Her son was 15 and she would drive over every night and make sure he ate and then she would go home to Lamas.

Jeff Chandler was recognizeable to everyone during his time.

Unless he was disguised as Fifi, the naughty French maid, R22.

Jeff Chandler was a 6'4" gorgeous hunk of beefcake with thick curly silvery hair and he was often photographed to show off his massive hairy chest.

Sadly, his only 2 movies of note would probably be Joan Crawford's Female on a Beach and Kim Novak's Jeanne Eagels. He was mostly cast in B Westerns and often played Native Americans with bad wigs and shaved chests.

He never made any comedies though he shows quite the flair for it in that What's My LIne? youtube clip referenced above.

I guess anything is possible, but it's very difficult to imagine him as a cross-dresser!

Jane Russell whom I did adore when she was a young star via Howard Hughes...became a right wing Religious bitch in later life...no wonder she would deny the JC stories...too left wingy!

Chandler had a MASSIVE monster cock that he used liberally. He fucked Crawford on the beach and everywhere else. His uber thick cock is the reason Esther Williams married him. Many have commented on it.

EXCEPT, R26, Esther never married Jeff. She married Fernando Lamas.

She and Jeff just shared a wardrobe...

[quote]He never made any comedies though he shows quite the flair for it in that What's My LIne?

Jeff Chandler was a regular on "Our Miss Brooks" as Eve Arden's b/f Mr. Boynton. He appeared regularly on radio drama and comedy.

At the time Esther's book was released, Jeff Chandler was still well-known.

Every Sunday night, our local NPR station features radio shows from the 40s and 50s with stars like Olivia de Haviland, Spencer Tracey, Peter Lorre, Claudette Colbert, Jeff Chandler, Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Loretta Young, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, etc., etc. Hollywood stars reached into homes of people who never went out to a movie. Young people today, look at IMDB and have no idea of all the radio drama and comedy work done by stars of old.

Jeff = HOT!

"That's the the Queen of Hearts, Jeff- on top"

Oh Jeff, you're just too big for polka dots!

Why should she re-can't? How would a lez like Jane Russell know anything intimate about Jeff? None of these embarrassed people were in Esther's bedroom. That's like Newt Gingrich's claim that "none of our friends" agrees with his ex wife.

Esther is a no-talent cunt. A one trick pony on and off film.

R26, any evidence of your fantasy "massive moster cock?" Didn't think so.

Dream on.

They all make up stories to sell books. Every single movie star does.

[quote]When Esther came out with the story, Jane insisted that it was untrue. She said Esther had come to her with woes of her romance with Jeff in the 1950s but never mentioned the cross-dressing until she had to sell some books decades later. And there's never been another person to verify Esther's lie.

I wasn't there, so I don't know, but if Esther was bitter about the end of the relationship or felt ill-used in some way, she wouldn't have been the first person or the last to smear the reputation of an ex.

And regardless who we think is believable, it's both curious and telling that literally no one else confirms her story.

But who could confirm the story? If he had guy pals who shared his fetish, obviously they wouldn't be coming forth to verify Esther's story. I guess if Jeff showed himself off to other women, they are too discreet and/or kind to verify. Or everyone else is dead but Esther.

Jeff just seemed like such an innocent guileless soul...it doesn't seem fair to besmirch his reputation, true or not.

No, but she did recunt it.

Jeff's daughters were asked by Peter Graves about it during Jeff's "Biography" episode. I I think they sidestepped it. Did anyone else see it?

I just find it hard to believe so many people buy the story wholeheartedly, based on only one allegation, and that from an ex-lover who is reported to have had a troubled relationship with him.

If it were true, there should have been rumors long before Esther's book. Dressmakers, shopowners, whatever passed for a personal shopper in those days, other lovers, etc.

The man got around and apparently fucked a lot of women, but only one says he cross-dressed.

There are rumors about many, many people from that era in Hollywood alleging every imaginable kink and proclivity, so it lacks credibility to suggest everyone was too circumspect and polite to suggest such a thing about Chandler.

They weren't too reticent to gossip about Kirk Douglas being a rapist or Rock Hudson being gay or Dorothy Lamour liking black men or the dozens of other people we've all heard about.

Dorothy Lamour liked black men??

WTF?

Jeff was Jewish posing as WASP. Why has this not been mentioned?

It was no secret that Jeff's real name was Ira Gosselman. His real name was as well known as Archie Leach, Norma Jean Baker, Betty Perske and Bernie Schwartz.

Whether Jeff cross-dressed or not we'll never know since no one has come forward to corroborate Esther's story.

Unlike that other famous Hollywood cross-dresser, Dan Dailey. There have been many people who have, since his death, come forward and outed him as both a transvestite and a homosexual, including Betty Grable, Andre Previn, and now Scotty Bowers.

I had a huge crush on Chandler when I was a little girl and he was certainly NOT Mr. Boynton on Our Miss Brooks. And why wouldn't he cross dress? I read the book a long time ago and thought Esther Williams came across as a great old broad.

Robert Rockwell was Mr. Boynton on the Our Miss Brooks TV series but did Jeff Chandler play him on the earlier radio series?

WEHT Robert Rockwell? I went to college with his son in the (early!) 70s and he was a hottie!

Anyone serious about old films knows who Jeff Chandler was. I've known since I was a kid. If they haven't seen any of his films (or think they haven't!)they must surely have read about him in all the info there is on Old Hollywood. He was famous for being extremely tall, very grey, and having a deep, gravelly voice and piercing eyes. He's also famous for dying on the operating table after an incompetent doctor cut an artery by mistake - he bled to death. I think some people just haven't done their homework, so quit whingeing!

Dan Dailey's cross dressing is far from confirmed, FFS.

Esther William's memoir is about as reliable as Mickey Rooney's and Shelley Winter's...ie. not much.

R2, what did Jeff do about the extra room in the shoulders?

R48, Andre Previn in his autobiog wrote about intercepting Dan Dailey on the way to the "It's Always Fair Weather" premiere, with Dan drunk as a skunk and in full drag. With Dan's wife right there - she fully supported her husband's fetish.

And of course, there are photos in Hollywood Babylon II of Dan in drag.

None of this evidence, however, has ever come to light about Jeff Chandler...

R48, Dan Dailey's cross-dressing was reportedly witnessed by a long-dead colleague of mine (who could easily have read about it in Kenneth Anger's work). But I am absolutely confident that Esther Williams stands head and shoulders above Mickey Rooney.

What I find so unbelievable about Esther's Jeff Chandler story is that he would expose his proclivity to her, of all people.

She hardly had the reputation, even back then, as being a sympathetic pushover. She was known for fucking extremely macho men like Fernando Lamas and Victor Mature. What could he have been expecting or hoping her reaction to be?

It all sounds so fishy!

a bump for Esther and Jeff

Esther's best picture that came up when I did a Google search.

R52, nothing about Esther Williams was fishy. Or even fish-like. And Jeff Chandler WAS macho. No one said he was a convincing cross dresser. Esther's POINT was that he was too big (and burly, and testosterone-filled) for polka dots.

Is it warm in here?

[quote]I just find it hard to believe so many people buy the story wholeheartedly, based on only one allegation, and that from an ex-lover who is reported to have had a troubled relationship with him.

Because this is Datalounge, silly. People here WANT to believe that Chandler loved to dress in drag. Therefore, it's got to be true and if you question it, you'll die in a grease fire.

[quote]You can't libel the dead

Yes you can, family members have sued over things like this. Because some stars, like Elvis and the Three Stooges have fame long after they died, and their relatives still cash in on it.

Rose Marie wrote that “Jeff Chandler was a great guy, but he was no singer. He put together an act and we opened at the Riviera. He came with a conductor, piano player, light man, press agent, and manager. None of it helped”. And “Everybody raved about Jeff’s singing, but let’s face it: He really didn’t sing very well. He definitely had guts to open in Vegas”. He left to work on a movie after three and a half weeks.

He most likely was a cross dresser. Russell was very homophobic, in response she said:

"I've never heard of such a thing. Cross-dressing is the last thing I would expect of Jeff. He was a sweet guy, definitely all man.

See how she equates homosexuals with mincing and prancing and being sissies.

[quote]Because this is Datalounge, silly.

R56 = Another pathetic self-hating creep trying to claim everyone on DL thinks alike.

r57 you talk about Jane Russell like she was some uninformed rube from the sticks.

When she defended Jeff, she had spent decades on film sets with all sorts of men...gay, straight, effeminate, macho, etc. Her opinion is certainly more trustworthy than yours and at least equal to Esther's.

Esther describes at least two of her husbands in that book as being extremely well endowed (Gage, Lamas).

Betty Grable never confirmed Dan Dailey's cross dressing after Dailey died, R44. Betty died in 1973, Dailey in 1978.

The "Crawford crying on the set" took place on the soundstage of TORCH SONG, Joan's first Technicolor starring film (barring her cameo in IT'S A GREAT FEELING) and her return to MGM. So she was in a kind of career plateau/limbo, trying to regroup, having had her long term contracts with Metro then Warners, but at that point not signed to the kind of deal to which she was accustomed.

Esther gave Joan a gag gift that was nothing like the massive hearts and flowers everyone sent welcoming Crawford back to MGM, so there may have been some mutual resentment there.

--Queen who has read nearly every book mentioned in this thread

Esther's recollection of Joan is even crueler than her recollection of Jeff.

[quote]Then they're not really much of an "old film buff" are they? At the very least they should be aware of Joan Crawford and "Female on the Beach".

Mary! You tell them off! Everyone knows, the three films every film buff must see are Citizen Kane, The Godfather, and Female on the Beach! How dare they claim to be film buffs when they've not seen all three!

I think Esther made it up.

I don't think Esther Williams was sufficiently imaginative to make it up. If it wasn't true, it came from one of her editors.

just watched silk stockings ,,, seems to me esther williams was not very well liked based on the skewering she got in that movie ...

I think Esther is all wet!! When I was a little girl I had a crush on Jeff Chandler..... still love him now forty some years later. Even if he was a crossdresser, it would not change anything. I think she took a cheap potshot. I find her unbelieveable!

I don't know.

But Jeff Chandler one hot gorgeous Jewish hunk of man, in a dress or out.

[quote]Again, it is really hilarious that some people think she would lie about someone as forgotten as Jeff Chandler in order to "sell books"

It is really hilarious that someone is so stupid that they can't comprehend that Jeff Chandler was still very well remembered when she wrote the book.

[quote]Betty Grable never confirmed Dan Dailey's cross dressing after Dailey died.

If she had, it would have made front page headlines all around the globe. "Betty Grable speaks from the grave."

Esther Williams was NOT in "Silk Stockings" R65.

That was Fred Astaire, Cyd Charise and Janice Paige.

r68, just because you remember him doesn't mean 99% of the population does, so why don't you check the facts before you stupidly label other people as dumb? You seem pretty dumb yourself.

If she wanted to make up a story about someone - why him?

And, again, why would she need to say that to sell books? Of all the things you could make up - why that?

I think the assertion that she is lying is motivated by homophobia - people see cross-dressing as "gay" (even though transvestism, by its very nature, is a fetish limited to straight men) and people don't want to admit that someone they like or admire might be "gay"

Here I thought Esther was a goody two shoes and it turns out she was a big ol size queen.

[quote]just because you remember him doesn't mean 99% of the population does, so why don't you check the facts before you stupidly label other people as dumb? You seem pretty dumb yourself.

It's NOT about who remembers him TODAY, Moron. It's the fact that he was well remembered WHEN SHE WROTE THE BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In case you're wondering, R71, she didn't write the book last week. The book isn't being released tomorrow. There's not going to be an Esther Williams autograph party on Saturday. Are you still working on that GED?

What Esther wrote is fact.

Esther was adorable. Jeff was a 'mo.

Why reopen this thread from 5 years ago?

This is the most DL thread ever. I was reading Jeff Chandler's Wikipedia after seeing a striking photo of him online, and I knew when I read that Esther accused him of cross-dressing that there would be a DL thread on it. Complete with a pun that she never re-cunted her story!

Jeff was hot. Every Datalounger imagines they were Joan in this pic.

Like Joan, he had negative ass.

Who wrote the Wiki entry for "Because of You."

[Quote] They marry and Christine is a downright sexy newlywed on her honeymoon.

This thread makes me miss the Datalounge of 2012 😢

Jeff was in a boxibg film called "Iron Man" (circa 1950) with Rock Hudson. Hot. It's on YouTube.

^^^boxing

They look nothing alike. Did Jeff Hunter also favor chiffon?

[quote]Why reopen this thread from 5 years ago?

Now it's from EIGHT years ago.

[quote]I get Jeff Chandler confused with Jeffrey Hunter

Me too. And throw in Jeffrey Lynn as well.

Technically, it was never closed.

It must be the weekend. The thread bumper is back.

"Yes you can (libel the dead), family members have sued over things like this. Because some stars, like Elvis and the Three Stooges have fame long after they died, and their relatives still cash in on it."

The second sentence is true, the first is not. You cannot libel the dead. One can sue if they think their dead famous relative was libeled, but they cannot win, the case would be thrown out of court. If you disagree, produce a link or two.

SO WHAT if Esther Williams said Jeff Chandler was a cross dresser? If he was, I would guess he'd be doing it in private, so these testimonies from people like closet case religious freak Jane Russell are not valid. And, please don't even try to convince anyone that old Jane was sleeping with Jeff.

I'm not the person you're talking to, R89, but this paper published by DePaul says that in certain jurisdictions, an estate like Elvis's could sue on the grounds of libel being an infringement of their publicity rights.

So yes, an estate can sue for libelous content in some circumstances.

There is absolutely NO proof that Jeff liked polka dots.

And I should know!