Back in the day, William “Billy” Haines was one of the biggest of Hollywood stars, but you may never have heard of him. I hadn’t until I saw an earlier production of this play, which tells his story.
Discovered in a talent competition run by Goldwyn Pictures in 1922 and put under contract, Haines at first only got minor roles, but his personality and 'boy next door' good looks saw him become a star and, with the help of elocution lessons, succeeding in talkies, but, though as MGM’s PR man Howard Strickling tells his bosses Billy is tailor-made to please the ladies, there’s a problem: he is gay and doesn’t sufficiently hide it.
Though in a live-in relationship with Jimmy Shields, a young man he met in New York, that doesn’t stop Billy from cruising Los Angeles’ Pershing Square, and, after being caught in the YMCA with a sailor he picked up there, his career is at risk when Louis B Mayer delivers an ultimatum.
The first act of Macor’s play maps Billy’s career and features his Hollywood friends. On the one hand, we have Strickling (Peter Rae) at work keeping unwanted comment out of the papers, while screenwriter Victor Darro (Peter Rae doubling) is rehearsing Billy and co-star Marion Davies in a duologue that amusingly satirises the awkward transition from silent movie style to talkie. On the other, we see Jimmy left bored at home, living he says “in a golden prison” and wincing at Billy’s infidelities, each guiltily followed by the gift of a watch. (What does Jimmy do with them all?) Hugo Pilcher gives Billy such charm and well-formed chest that you see why audiences like him, and Jimmy forgives him.
The second act sees Gwithian Evans making a stronger statement as Jimmy and taking on more narration. Billy is now confronted by an irate Mayer (Dereck Walker convincingly explosive), with Olivia Ruggiero as Pola Negri, whom MGM wants Billy to marry: she is as OTT as the real one.
Carole Lombard (another cameo from Olivia Ruggiero) is one of the friends who, as she moves in with new man Clark Gable (with whom Billy also claims to have had a fling), helps set Billy on a new career beside Jimmy. Marion Davies helps out after Billy and Jimmy are attacked by KKK homophobes.
What Mayer meant to be extinction removed Haines from Hollywood history until 1986, when Ted Turner’s purchase of MGM freed his films from oblivion. “Look what happened to Billy Haines” may not be as effective a warning to stay in the closet as it used to be, but The Tailor-Made Man is a reminder of just how strong homophobia can be, and Robert McWhir’s intimate staging gives it firm focus.