Hunt Stromberg Jr. (May 16, 1923 – November 24, 1986) was a Broadway, radio and television producer best remembered for the discovery and casting of Maila Nurmi as Vampira, and for producing the 1973 film Frankenstein: The True Story.
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Hunt Stromberg Jr. (May 16, 1923 – November 24, 1986) was a Broadway, radio and television producer best remembered for the discovery and casting of Maila Nurmi as Vampira, and for producing the 1973 film Frankenstein: The True Story.
The irony about the entire homosexual hush-up of the 1950s and 1960s was that gays and lesbians found more creative work in early television than in the movie industry, and there were real opportunities for gays on the small screen. Gay actors, writers, and production designers found acceptance of their work in TV. One homosexual screenwriter—Jack Lloyd—wrote for 77 Sunset Strip, The Red Skelton Show (for more than a dozen years), Love American Style, and The Brady Bunch. CBS TV vice president Hunt Stromberg Jr. also gay, was the longtime network supervisor of Green Acres, Lost in Space, and The Beverly Hillbillies. Social journalist William J. Mann revealed that even technical fields, which were "implicitly off limits to gays in the movie studios", saw major gains for homosexuals. By 1964, gay industry involvement could no longer be hidden, and one tabloid, Inside Story, ran this headline: "How the Homos Are Ruining TV." A particular portion of the article dripped venom, to wit: "Nobody knows for sure how many pansies there are in TV. But things have gotten so out of hand in this new Sodom on the Coaxial Circuit that you can't tell the he-men from the she-men without a scorecard.... Right now the twisted twerps not only are in a position to tell you what you can see as entertainment, they are recruiting others of the lavender set to give it to you! Their numbers are legion. The shocking fact about homosexuality in TV is this: the queers make no effort to hide their twisted tendencies." Because of such moral panic, the deliberate suppression of gay discourse remained intact. Even a passing mention of homosexuality on American primetime 1950s television would be unceremoniously cut, not only by Helffrich and NBC but by censors at the other networks, too. Period. No appeal.
Hunt Stromberg Jr. was born in Los Angeles, California, on May 16, 1923, the son of legendary Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and independent producer Hunt Stromberg. He began his career as a producer with the successful revival of Victor Herbert's The Red Mill in 1945 - which, at age 23, made him the youngest producer on Broadway. He followed-up with revivals of The Front Page in 1946 and Sally in 1948.[1] In the early 1950s Stromberg was program director for KABC-TV, a Los Angeles ABC-TV affiliate, and was looking for a host for a late-night horror movie program. He remembered seeing a beautiful, wasp-waisted woman win first prize at a masquerade ball dressed as a ghoul. After months of searching he tracked down actress/model Maila Nurmi and in 1954 they created Vampira. An overnight, nationwide success, the oft-copied character was to remain popular for decades.[2] By the late 1950s Stromberg was a protégé of James Aubrey and followed him to CBS when he became top programming executive there, involved with such shows as The Beverly Hillbillies, Hogan's Heroes, Gilligan's Island, Green Acres, and Lost in Space.[3] Due to corporate in-fighting, he brought about the cancellation of The Judy Garland Show, and together with Aubrey was ousted from CBS in 1965.[4] As an independent TV producer Stromberg turned to the horror genre and produced Frankenstein: The True Story in 1973, which is "Considered by many to be the finest film version of this classic tale."[5] Following that project, he began work on a made-for-TV film adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, which was never completed. (His father had produced the 1940 MGM adaptation of the novel, starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson.)[6] In 1980 he executive produced The Curse of King Tut's Tomb and at the time of his death held the movie option for Robert Bloch's book Night of the Ripper.
Hunt Stromberg Jr. was married to Marilyn Elwell from 1947 to 1949. He died on November 24, 1986, in Los Angeles, California of a ruptured aneurysm.[7]
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