This month, two examples of LGBT representation in forgotten places. And I must be intentionally vague about the first one.
Fritz Leiber’s short-story “The Two Best Thieves In Lankhmar” (published in 1968) features his classic fantasy swordsmen Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser who are again their own worst enemies as well as best friends. They have acquired a stash of jewels they are trying to sell but things (of course) go awry.
Set in Leiber’s fantasy world of Lankhmar the story does feature some LGBT characters but if I revealed more it would give away the story’s surprises, and the LGBT characters are not the surprise! The big question for the reader is; to whom does the story’s title refer?
A literal Grand Master of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fritz Leiber (1910-1992) is not as well known to the general public today as he should be. He coined the term “Sword and Sorcery” and Fafhrd and the Mouser may be as much of a spoof of the Conan-type as anything else. As well known for his horror stories as anything else this is the only example of Gay characters in his stories I have found so far. But the very cisgender Leiber who lived in an arts district in San Francisco and welcomed all kinds of people into his home might have used more LGBT characters if he’d been writing in a later era.
(I must thank You Tube vlogger “Liam’s Lyceum,” for clueing me to the Leiber story.)
We’re still in San Francisco but we’ve moved back in time a bit for our next example.
Candy Matson (Phone # YUkon 2-8209) was a female private eye before that was cool. In the late 1940s, early 50s toward the end of the Golden Age of Radio Drama she was the main character of “Candy Matson,” (A.K.A. “Candy Matson YUkon 2-8209”) a half-hour weekly radio series starring Natalie Parks as the tough female San Francisco private eye with a sense of humor. She is definitely heterosexual (she has a sometimes boyfriend) and most of her relationships are strictly platonic and all business. Including Rembrandt.
Her good friend Rembrandt Watson (voiced by Jack Thomas) is a professional photographer who is often drafted by Candy to help her out with some aspect of a case. And Rembrandt certainly comes off as coded as Gay, even if they couldn’t say that in 1949. He’s not swishy but he certainly is “flamboyant.” The radio show may have gotten away with it because as a photographer Rembrandt can be considered an eccentric artist. And San Francisco, where the show was set and recorded and broadcast, was no stranger to openly LGBT characters in real life, even back then.
And contrary to what was often done; Rembrandt’s probably being Gay is not the butt of any joke. The audience doesn’t laugh at him, they laugh with him at his exasperation as he is continually dragged away to reluctantly help Candy. Sometimes by being her photographer as she pretends to be working for a real estate magazine so she can get into an apartment that is laid-out just like one she can’t get into where suspicious activity is taking place. Sometimes pretending to be her boyfriend. (!!!) On at least one occasion, filling in for a missing Department Store Santa Claus.
One aspect of Rembrandt that is played for laughs is his love of wine. The joke is that he is constantly having to leave his next drink to help Candy out. That would not fly as a source of humor today.
There were about two years worth of episodes of “Candy Matson,” of which only a handful survive and are all available on You Tube and a few other places online. Fun, breezy mysteries, likable characters, clever plotting and solid acting. They are all delightful listening.
Even the ones without Rembrandt.
Here’s a link to the Candy Matson series on You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27p6WhacJe4&list=PLlUoyloCGlWwdeCAYD1KFilf27G_bxuMK
Fritz Leiber’s collections are easy to find all over the Web.
Jeff Baker’s fiction and non-fiction have appeared in the online ‘zine “RoMMantic Reads” among other places, and he has a story in the May 2024 issue of “Schlock Webzine.” https://www.schlock.co.uk/ He blogs about reading and writing sci-fi, fantasy and horror around the thirteenth of each month in this same space. He has been listening to classic radio shows since his local stations broadcast them when he was about twelve years old. Jeff regularly posts fiction on his blog https://authorjeffbaker.com/ and wastes time on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063555483587 and on Mastodon as “Mike Mayak.” https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@MikeMayak