Classic Movies Through an LGBT Lens

As host of Here's Hollywood, Tony Maietta offers behind-the-scenes dish, highlights LGBT contributions to Hollywood's golden era, and finds the gay subtext in the performances of Bob Hope.

BY Trudy Ring

November 16 2012 5:49 AM ET

Tony Maietta

While growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, Tony Maietta watched a lot of classic Hollywood movies on television. So when he moved to Los Angeles as a 20-something in the 1990s, he brought some film-fueled fantasies with him.

“I thought I was going to see William Holden at the Brown Derby, Robert Taylor at the Farmers Market,” he jokes. He soon realized that the only way he could live in the golden-age Hollywood he loved was to be a film historian. Having written and lectured on the movies, appeared in documentaries, and hosted film events, he’s now sharing his cinematic knowledge with TV viewers as host of Here’s Hollywood.

In the program — an original production of Here TV, owned by Here Media, also the parent company of The Advocate — Maietta views vintage movies through an LGBT lens.