When Gomer Pyle Married Rock Hudson: The Secret Life of Jim Nabors

hi there how are you on christmas eve 1962 american television was blessed with a bundle of joy a gas station attendant named gomer pyle pretty sharp huh played by an unknown young actor named jim nabors gomer debuted as mayberry's friendly mechanic on the andy griffith show he lived in the back room of the filling station with no need for fancy comforts when i seen it in the snow took it right out and plucked it and cleaned it and set it right on the far an uncomplicated man he always greeted the world with a simple wide-eyed wonder my grandma moves faster than that well bless her heart by most standards he was a sweet but unremarkable guy not particularly adept at his job me i don't do no engine work but he had a hidden talent that none of his neighbors saw coming and as we gently roll all things delight mayberry's mechanic had a hidden side but that's nothing compared to the hidden side of the actor who portrayed him i really didn't ever think i'd make it over his 55-year career jim nabors cultivated a wholesome folksy persona from playing gomer on multiple sitcoms to appearing as himself on variety shows to singing every year at the start of the indianapolis 500 but behind the scenes jim neighbors harbored a secret that would have scandalized the country and ruined his career if it was ever found out and in fact it nearly did when rumors spread about his relationship with another closeted actor hey i'm matt i make videos about pop culture and this time i want to tell you the story of jim nabors a scandalous fake marriage that nearly ended his career and a real-life romance that was kept secret for decades jim nabors was born in june of 1930 in a little alabama town called silicona he was the youngest of five siblings and it was the middle of the great depression his family didn't have much we lived in a three-room house and my grandmother lived with us the family raised their own chickens for food his mother worked at a truck stop his father worked odd jobs like unloading freight and eventually his dad got appointed as the town's police officer silica was so small that jim's father was the only police officer in town and he seldom even bothered to arrest people oh no no no he didn't put him in jail he just took him home everybody loved my daddy everybody even from a young age jim stood out from his older siblings he had debilitating asthma and he couldn't play with the other kids because i remember you know looking into their face when they would be over me and i couldn't breathe jim spent a lot of his childhood years indoors in particular going to movie theaters where he developed a love of big hollywood musicals and my dad would always would be able to manage to find me a dime to go to the theater and then it went up to 15 cents as he got older jim's obsession with movies developed into an urge to perform whenever he could and then he would sing at home and play the piano and ruth and i'd say mother make him hush he's saying in glee club he learned to play the clarinet he performed in plays he entered dance contests he loved to be the center of attention i took up dancing jitterbugging and things like that there was another aspect that set him apart one that he couldn't share even as a child jim knew that he was gay but in the deep south of the 1930s and 40s it just wasn't something he could talk about at the time homosexuality was seen as a crime and a sickness people tried to cure it with electroshock therapy lobotomies and weird medical experiments like monkey testicle implants but there was one place where homosexuality was tolerated celebrated even and that was enclaves in big cities like new york and los angeles jim was born at the start of the pansy craze a period where gay culture bars and drag shows flourished in big cities if you wanted to live comfortably as a queer person a big city was your best bet and even though the pansy craze only lasted a couple of years when it was over there were still sizable gay enclaves in major cities like a lot of young people then and now jim dreamed of growing up and escaping from his small town he clearly had a gift for entertaining and he wanted to pursue a showbiz career even way back then it sort of triggered my fantasy of becoming maybe a performer so with dreams of seeing his name in lights naturally when it came time to enroll in college he went with business administration you know growing up in a small town in alabama in your wildest dreams you know if you even ever told anybody that you were thinking about going to hollywood you know they would have laughed me right out of town but even as he was studying business jim couldn't stay out of the limelight he'd show up at nightclubs and get up on stage to sing he appeared in comedy shows in college even when he went out with friends he'd wind up performing before the night was over they'd have jimmy up and he would be he would start out singing hillbilly and then he'd go into opera for a lot of queer people learning to be funny or entertaining could be a form of defense a way to get people to like you instead of turning on you and for jim it was a way to develop a public persona that everybody liked seemed like this and top like that yes you know and uh it was a total dichotomy you know but uh it was it sort of helped me develop for character after he graduated jim decided he had to at least give showbiz a shot so he moved to new york to try to get onto broadway but he was so southern that nobody knew what to do with him on one occasion he went to an audition in a producer's hotel room dressed in clothes that his mother had sent from alabama and i leaped into the room lord god how you doing there well they thought i had escaped from a mental institution and they never did give me a chance to audition or anything just ushered me right out of their apartment his bad audition seemed to confirm that he wasn't cut out for showbiz jim struggled to find a job and make ends meet and eventually he got a job as a secretary at the un that didn't work well either and so i'd answer that secretary general's office well they would try out different languages on me never knowing i was speaking english not only had he failed to break into showbiz people in new york couldn't even understand him before long he was out of money and he had to move back to the south he took a job editing film for a local news station where he was paid 65 bucks a week his dreams of being a performer it seemed would always be just that dreams but things were rough for him in the south too his asthma started to get worse it was still the weather the climate and he decided that he would go west he'd heard the air was better on the west coast so he and his sister got in a car and started driving from alabama to california as they got closer to the pacific coast jim realized something incredible had happened for the first time in his life he could breathe we were in new mexico i suddenly got pulled off the side of the road and tears were streaming down my face and i didn't realize i was crying and i said it's the first time i've ever been able to take a full breath jim got to la in 1958 and landed a job as an editor at nbc he used the money urn to help support his family back home he sent my mother and my sister and me a string of pearls and he sent my daddy a 100 bill he was so proud of that what his family didn't know is that jim was barely making ends meet during his first year in la he lived in a one-room apartment he didn't tell anyone but some weeks he couldn't afford food and he was literally starving but he never let on to his family or his friends by day he worked at nbc and by night he'd perform at a nightclub in santa monica called the horn telling jokes and singing words started to get around l.a about the guy who combined a country accent and operatic arias sing and then talk like yes people didn't know what i did one night he got an invitation to appear on the steve allen show steve allen was the first host of the tonight show and he helped launch the careers of a bunch of comedians this could be jim's big break and my mother said well what are you going to do and i says i'm going to sing this operatic aria and there was silence on the other end of the phone my mother said you can't sing viewers loved him after that jim decided to take a chance on breaking to showbiz one more time and he quit his day job to focus on comedy clubs for a while he worked alongside other emerging comics like jonathan winters and bob newhart and woody allen and one night he had to get up on stage at the horn in santa monica when andy griffith started the andy griffith show was in the audience i'll never forget what he said to me after the show he he said i don't know what you do but so you do it very well on his show andy griffith played the sheriff of a tiny little southern town he was looking to expand the cast and he thought that jim's southern drawl and friendly persona would be a perfect fit so they brought jim on for a one episode appearance as a gas station attendant jim had a lot riding on this he was still brand new to professional acting up until now he'd only ever performed for friends and in little nightclubs and had only been on tv once the andy griffith show was watched by 13 to 14 million people it was one of the most popular shows in the country with no full-time job and almost no money to his name this was a make or break opportunity the first day on the set andy announced to everybody that i had never worked or had never acted or done anything like that and he said so you all be patient with him jim's episode aired on december 24th 1962 and audiences loved him producers quickly arranged to make him regular bringing back for five more episodes that season and 17 episodes the next season i think what works so well with gomer is that the andy griffith show's whole vibe was of a tiny southern town which is exactly where jim had grown up the son of a real-life small town sheriff jim could just draw on his childhood to bring gomer to life gomer that was just beautiful oh i was just caterwauling producers realized pretty quickly that they could incorporate jim's incredible voice into the gomer character as well and that's what really set him apart [Music] the cast used to tour with a live version of the show and andy recalled the reaction that jim would get when he came out to sing the band hit and that boy started to sing and you could feel the hair rising on everybody in that audience and i walked out back on the stage and they'd blew me every night even though viewers loved him behind his back not everyone was so nice with close friends jim was open about being gay and unlike other closeted actors of the time he never pretended to date women so as he gained fame that meant unwanted attention there's an account of how jim was treated on the andy griffith show in a book by ron howard these days you might know ron as the narrator on arrested development or is the director of the da vinci code and the han solo movie but back then little ronnie howard played opie and his son ron's parents were close friends with jim nabors and ron once asked them why the crew called gym names here's an excerpt from ron's book dad i said one day what is a homo he instantly understood the context and he offered his usual plain spoken response jim is attracted to men instead of women dad said and they call that homosexuality this was my introduction to the very concept of queerness mayberry was a small town but for those of us who actually spent our days there it contained the whole of human experience it was honestly pretty risky for jim to be open at all in the 1960s this was still pre-stonewall and even though jim was living in a city with some more tolerance for gays than the deep south it was still commonplace for queer people to be arrested even for an ordinary citizen being outed could mean losing your job your home getting cut off from your family now that jim was becoming nationally known he faced extra scrutiny gay actors when they were found out typically never worked again for example in the 1930s silent film star william haynes was blacklisted for movies when he refused to stay in the closet in the 1950s tabloid threatened to out leading man rock hudson so he married his agent secretary so he could deny the rumors the same year that jim joined the andy griffith show there was a nationwide rumor that homosexuals were secretly working to undermine the state department and closer to home there was an effort that year to stamp out homosexuality in hollywood led by the la city council and lapd jim had finally landed the role of a lifetime on one of the most popular shows on television but it would all have been over in an instant if the public found out that their beloved gomer pyle was played by a gay man for the time being even though it was an open secret on set the viewers remained blissfully unaware and jim star continued to rise producers could tell they had something good on their hands everybody knew by then jim could sing and i went in aaron's office and i said aaron we better do something for jim neighbors because he's about to bust out and somebody's going to if we don't cbs wanted to keep him around so they came up with a new show for him and even though he was popular this was still a big gamble by the network jim was still very new to showbiz and he'd only been a side character now they were talking about centering a whole new series around him i almost fainted you know when they wanted to do a spin off with me on may 18 1964 the andy griffith show aired an episode in which gomer leaves mayberry to join the marines an episode that served as a backdoor pilot for his new series gomer pyle usmc which joined the regular cbs lineup a few months later in the span of just two years jim had gone from an obscure novelty nightclub act to a major tv star starring jim nabors as gomer pyle every episode involved gomer causing sitcom mayhem on a military base there's always a reason for him to break out into song sing pile but sergeant i just wild singing that's an order just thought from the very first episode the gamble on giving jim his own show paid off the gomer pyle show was as big a hit as andy griffith even beating it in the raiding some years one reason it was a show about the military in the late 1960s that never acknowledged the vietnam war it was an escape from the real-life horrors on the news a return to a simpler time here's how producer aaron rubin responded when people suggested that the show deal with current events you're not going to go to vietnam and show body bags and get laughs out of that when you say escapism peer pure escapism of course the closest they ever came to being topical was an episode where gomer meets some hippies and by the way do you recognize the hippie with the long hair how many seas must sell rob reiner meathead on all in the family director of the princess bride and many years later one of the main funders of the lawsuit that legalized gay marriage in california jim played gomer for the better part of a decade but by the late 60s he was ready to try something new in 1968 he told cbs that he wanted to leave the show he was a big money maker for the network so executives were not thrilled but jim insisted and he had enough clout by that point that he could call the shots cbs created a new show for him a variety show where he could showcase more of his talents and bring on his performer friends every week from now on it's so long going high gym knifers with a variety format he could work with any performer he wanted to comedy stars like phyllis diller movie stars like debbie reynolds and emerging musical acts ladies and gentlemen my friends the jackson five that was the jackson's first appearance on national television jim had a ton of truly great guests on his show i've collected some of my favorites into a bonus video that i'm posting on patreon head over to patreon.com to check that out so once again jim's show was a hit not as big as a sitcom but still with ratings consistently in the top 30. it was on this show that jim formed a friendship with another variety show star working the next stage over the connection between studios was the men's room in the ladies room so i'd just run through the ladies room and go over on his set and watch what he was doing at the time and vice versa jim and carol burnett became close friends and appeared on each other's shows many times over the years carol actually wound up saving jim's life many years later and we'll get to that in just a bit for the time being they became fast friends you can often see them making each other crack up i didn't [Music] boss you may fire me for this but another of jim's guests wound up turning into a big problem rock hudson was a huge film star appearing in some of the biggest hits of the 50s and 60s during that time he narrowly managed to avoid being outed and behind the scenes he and jim spent a lot of time together they vacationed together they went to the theater i've never seen any evidence that they were anything more than friends but in the early 70s a rumor started to circulate that they were not only romantically involved but secretly married it's hard to say how that got started according to rock hudson a group of gay men in huntington beach sent out party invitations with a joke line about rock marrying jim taking the last name of jim's character so he'd be rock pile however it began in the spring of 1971 the rumor got out of hand it was picked up by gossip magazines repeated by radio djs even parodied in mad magazine back then a rumor like that could have easily ended rock and jim's careers especially since at its heart there was a little kernel of truth both actors really were gay but because of the intense stigma of the time they had to deny everything rock gave interviews where he said that none of it was true jim's people arranged interviews and gossip magazines about what a ladies man he was the two friends even had to stop working and spending time together rock later spoke about how much it hurt that they had to end their friendship in order to protect their careers eventually the rumor died down but the damage had been done a few months later jim's variety show one of the top rated shows on television was quietly cancelled it's hard to say for certain that the rumors directly caused the cancellation cbs canceled a lot of its southern and rural themed sitcoms that year andy griffith green acres beverly hillbillies lassie petticoat junction hee-haw all gone the country was going through a massive cultural upheaval from the civil rights movement to political unrest over vietnam to shifting demographics in cities and suburbs for years most of cbs's programming refused to reflect those changes and the network increasingly looked like it was stuck in the past so in 1971 the head of cbs robert wood wiped out all of the rural shows a move that became known as the rural purge as one of the actors from green acres put it cbs cancelled everything with a tree including lassie for decades after there were almost no new sitcoms set in the south that's probably one reason why designing women feels so different from other shows in the 1980s when it would have fit right in on cbs prior to 1971. jim's variety show wasn't that rural but he had a southern accent and he was still closely associated with gomer and andy griffith that plus the rumors that him circulating about his homosexuality for years likely contributed to the cancellation now there is an upside to the royal purge which is that it opened the door to more modern shows on cbs all in the family mash the bob newhart show mary tyler moore the jeffersons they were generally more diverse and tended to show women and more positions of power and not only that but all of those shows featured episodes with queer characters most of which i've talked about elsewhere on this channel this was a huge shift from the older shows that avoided controversial topics from a show like gomer pyle that ignored the vietnam war to show like mash that satirized the us military so i think on balance the rural purge was necessary for tv to keep up with changing culture still it was a rough time for jim it does drag you down tremendously after losing a show jim's future was a little unclear was that it he had a good run maybe it was over at first he headed out on the road to do some live shows in las vegas reno and figure out what came next what came next were his friends who stepped up and made sure to cast him in their projects carol burnett brought him onto her show for the first episode of every new season she told people he was a good luck charm well i was thinking how much fun it'd be to do a musical sunny and share cast on their show hi sailor you knew in town julie andrews on hers [Music] he was in almost every movie that his friend burt reynolds made he's got a lot of influence out there his episode of the muppet show is particularly good this is also when jim started what would become his longest running gig singing at the start of the indianapolis 500 every year it started in 1972 with an invitation so last minute he had to write the lyrics on his hand and then he was invited back the next year and the year after and became an annual tradition for literally decades as it turns out jim didn't need to worry about a show being cancelled his friends stood by him and kept him booked and busy through the 70s and into the 80s and then in the early 90s jim's friends went even further by saving his life it was a few weeks before christmas in 1993 and jim felt himself slowing down he was tired all the time he didn't know why his skin was losing its color his eyes were sunken his limbs were starting to swell when he went to get medical care a doctor ordered to go to the mayo clinic right away that's when he found out that his liver had almost completely shut down due to hepatitis b infection he needed a liver transplant right away or else he'd only have a few months left to live he was just so near death some of it i just went over my head the first person jim told was a sister when they gathered for christmas the second person was his friend carol burnett i mean it did not look good and um i just said i'm not going to lose you carol leapt into action making calls and researching liver specialists he didn't want me to tell anybody but i i did she says the best guy in the world for this transplant thing is uh is at ucla and i've just talked to him and so forth and says they're waiting for your call the doctor's name was gary gitnik an internationally renowned gastroenterologist and he took neighbors on as a patient dr gitnik saw that neighbors was otherwise in great health he lived pretty clean never getting to drugs or alcohol and he put jim on an organ donor list still there was no guarantee he'd be picked matches were made by a computer algorithm that only looked at factors like blood type and antigens and distance now jim just had to stay healthy long enough to find a solid match when you're waiting for a transplant you can't in good conscience pray for one because someone has to die for you to live for the next few weeks jim's friends from all over the world flew to his side to look after him he was looked after by dom deluise marilyn horn phyllis diller and florence henderson he was really on his last legs jim looked like was over then late one night in february the call came they found a match jim went into surgery the next day he went under not knowing if he'd survived the operation and as he came around he says the first thing you heard was a nurse saying you're gonna be fine that started a long recovery process jim had a home in hawaii and he retired there to take care of himself and recuperate for a long time he stepped out of the public eye except for one regular gig every year coming back to sing at the indy 500. it is my privilege to introduce to you mr jim nabors [Applause] then in 2013 jim found himself back in the headlines actor jim nabors who's lived in hawaii for more than 40 years married his longtime male partner earlier this month just after marriage equality was legalized in washington state jim married his partner stan cadwallader at the fairmont olympic hotel in seattle i'm 82 and he's in his 60s and we've been together for 38 years stan was a firefighter when they met in 1975 and for decades as jim was appearing on variety shows singing at live shows even fighting for his life only close friends and family knew about stan they kept their relationship out of the public eye for nearly 40 years i'm not ashamed of people knowing it's just that it was such a personal thing i wanted to i didn't tell anybody i've never made a huge secret of it at all and i can't really blame them for protecting their privacy when they first met it was just a few years after the rumors spread about jim and rock and forced the two friends to stop spending time together in the 1970s if word had spread about jim's relationship his actual relationship with the real love of his life it would have almost certainly ended both jim and stan's careers and it's possible the stigma of the time would have come between them forcing them to distance themselves from each other for their own protection as difficult as it must have been their secrecy probably protected them until they finally felt safe enough to tell the world it's pretty obvious that we have no rights as a as a couple i just said well you know what my age is uh probably the best thing to do so how'd the world respond joyfully with open arms fans around the world congratulated the happy couple they got a lovely profile in the local paper and the news even appeared in his hometown alabama newspaper where the verdict was that the couple was very sweet jim passed away peacefully in his sleep in 2017 at the age of 87. he outlived the days when rumors of a marriage nearly ended his career and finally celebrated his real-life love story without any fear in 2014 one year after jim and stan married jim was invited back to sing at the indy 500 one more time before he retired from the gig for good thank you jim we love you we'll miss you and we'll never forget you jim left us so many funny appearances and amazing performances i've gathered some of the best including some goofy outtakes in bonus videos over on patreon head over to patreon.com mattbaume to watch that and hours more bonus videos big thanks to everybody who makes these videos possible and now if you'll excuse me i'm going to be discussing gomer with homer pile shell slam shazam stop remembering tv and get back to work

Channel: Matt Baume

Views: 3,319,627

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Id: EQMn2gOqoJw

Length: 25min 9sec (1509 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 28 2021