R.I.P., C.N.R.

[fflo]

  Charles Nelson Reilly

I didn't know he was queer when I was a kid. I didn't know Paul Lynde was queer. I didn't know funny men doing that flamboyant thing were reflecting anything about sexuality.

When my buddy's brother reported having witnessed Neil Sedaka at a party asking Mick Jagger whether he could kiss his fingers, I dismissed the story as so improbable as to be certainly a lie.

I would have bet money I'd never seen a lesbian on TV.

Comments

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

There's somebody whose fingers I wanna kiss!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I take it you don't mean Charles.

[bigfinedaddy.livejournal.com]

I loved him so. He was so charming on Match Game, especially the ones that were filmed after lunch when he and Brett were SO SO very drunken and silly. He was delightful. I can't be too sure, but I believe that even I knew he was gay, even as a child. And I have the world's faultiest gaydar. And Paul Lynde? Come on, now. But Neil Sedaka is absolutely hot-off-press news to me. I had no idea. I hear laughter in the rain.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I have the world's faultiest gaydar.

really? this is news to me. mine ain't fine-tuned, that's fer sure.

I don't really "know" about Sedaka, but it hardly seems surprising. And ooh, how i love a rainy day & the happy way i feel insi-i-ide.

[bigfinedaddy.livejournal.com]

Also, I hope Charles' death won't embolden Jim J. Buttocks to try once and for all to don the CNR tiara. Sir, you're no Charles Nelson Reilly!

[fflo.livejournal.com]

I am unfamiliar with that particular Buttocks....

[madush69.livejournal.com]

Jm J. Bullock was Monroe on The Ted Knight show and he's been trying to horn in on CNR for 25 years.

[vjsmom.livejournal.com]

Well, now I'm sad. What a fun guy he was. Oe seemed to be from the perspective of a kid watching him goof around with the other fun folks on the Match Game.

Fannie Flagg!

[kohkae.livejournal.com]

Fannie Flagg made a number of appearances on Match Game. I think she was probably my first TV lesbian siting although I didn't know it at the time. I remember thinking CNR and PL were different than other men, but I had no idea why.

A few years back we use to watch Match Game reruns on the Game Show Network a lot. Wow, the different things you notice as an adult that you don't catch as a kid. Especially that they were all a bunch of drunks. Pretty fun stuff.

Never really thought about Neil Sedaka, though yeah, it makes sense. My question is who in the hell would want to kiss Mick Jagger's fingers? Yuck.