"In the beginning, there was Raymond 'Teasy-Weasy'. He was the first celebrity hairdresser, the first of the television crimpers, who got his name from the way he backcombed for his Saturday evening TV show back in the Fifties. 'We'll do a teasy-weasy here, and a teasy-weasy there,'"
"Every Saturday afternoon, in living rooms all around the country, whole families would sit transfixed by the feats of a man sporting a pencil thin moustache, lurid satin suit, scarlet nail polish and crimping tongs."
"In the Fifties the TV show Quite Contrary became a hit, and its star, "Teasy Weasy" Raymond, the first celebrity hairdresser. The format was simple. Every week he would wheel out a model exhibiting his latest gravity-defying hair-style. Mr Teasy Weasy would then dance around his living mannequin, explaining how to get a chignon "just so" in his faux French accent, trailing plumes of cigarette smoke in his wake."
"Raymond 'Teasy-Weasy' Bessone, was the first man to publicly announce he was gay, certainly on TV. Unfortunately he made a mess of his big moment, if you excuse the terminology, when he declared: "I am homosexuality"! ... Realising his mistake, he then laughed like a girl ... which didn't suit his urbane and debonair look"*
"From there, as I recall, he went to Raymond "Teasy Weasy". Raymond was a great cutter of hair but used to conceal his technique of cutting by working in cubicles with his clients and starting at different parts of the head to confuse anyone watching him."
*Note: I was not able to find anything else about this, and supposedly no copies of his show exist. Damn!
Here's a great photo and story from the photographer Roger George Clark.
Wait, "I am homosexuality"? Hmm:
"Even as late as the 1950s, Britain's first true celebrity hairdresser, Raymond "Mr Teasy-Weasy" Bessone, apparently still felt it necessary to adopt a transparently phoney French voice, sport a scarlet suit, red nail polish, a pencil moustache and an exaggeratedly long cigarette, and deck his Knightsbridge salon with gilt mirrors, chandeliers and champagne fountains despite, says Cox, being "born in Soho and, to put it politely, as heterosexual as they come".
"The massive increase was partly due to a new phenomenon, the arrival of the celebrity hairdresser. The first and most flamboyant of these was undoubtedly Pierre Raymondo Bessone, otherwise known as ''Mr. Teasy-Weasy'' Raymond. Born in Brixton in 1911, Raymond had learned his trade making false beards and moustaches in his father's barber's shop. Having honed his craft, he opened a salon in Mayfair and soon had a celebrity clientele. He was also the first hairdresser to showcase his talents on TV, wheeling out elaborate new styles on Saturday teatime telly. Millions of women were hooked by his outlandish outfits and false French accent. Overnight, he made British hairdressing glamorous and a trip to the salon an almost theatrical experience*. Read the rest of this article here.
From "Scum" 1979
Jackson: Oh look at that all over my hair!
Duke: Quiet, Jackson, or do we want Mr. Teasy Weasy in there with ya?
Jackson: Only washed it last night, Sir.
Duke: Quiet, you little poof and keep shoveling.
11 comments:
I've always wondered if some people don't pretend to be homosexual in some careers just because it's expected of them. The same way it's expected for sports heroes to be straight. Like that episode of Cheers where Norm becomes an interior decorator and can only get hired be pretending to be gay.
Kind of sad, when you think of it. To cater to a stereotype just to get and keep a job. It's just too bad we live in a world where we have to live up to stereotypes.
I'm just glad I don't have to live up to the internet stereotypes of those of us whom work in libraries just to keep my job. (Just until someone has the sense to realize I could be America's Susan Boyle and offers me a recording contract. LOL) Cause I am so not going to wear fishnets, stiletto heels, and micro-minis and I doubt headquarters will approve of a sound system that plays "boom-chicka-boomboom"....
But good lord, he was a hairdresser! People were always surprised when they turned out to be straight. And from what I read about his outfits at Ascot (where ladies hats' are outrageous - he must have been a queen!
You never know though. People think TE Lawrence - you know, "Lawrence of Arabia" - was a homosexual, but according to the historian whom wrote this book amongst several others he was actually only "gay for pay" - trading sex with men while in prison for better food and such for himself and his fellow inmates. And according to letters he sent his friends he thought sex with EITHER gender was a waste of good bodily fluids and energy. Apparently TE was more asexual then anything.
The fact is, unless you're in a person's bedroom you never know for sure. So unless someone has tape of Mr. TW with another guy he could just as well have been a straight man.
Far as I'm concerned, as long as you're doing it with a consenting adult and not a child, animal, or dead person, it's all good. I just hate stereotypes. Been the subject of too many myself. I try my best to not stereotype anyone.
Except cheerleaders. But that's because those bitches made my life hell in high school. ;-)
I had never heard of this fella before. Thanks for introducing him to me. He sounds like quite an interesting character.
I think there are some people who pretend to be one sexual orientation or the other for various reasons. There are those too that will engage in sex that doesn't interest them for money, etc.
As soon as it was mentioned that he was on camera with a cigarette while doing hair, it instantly conjured up one of my major childhood memories, which is the smell of Aquanet and Virginia Slims.
Exactly my point Keith. I've even known guys who've tried to keep "mysterious" about it and make people wonder which they swung. But get a woman with big breasts in a low cut top around them and you can see in their eyes which betray them that it's all they can do to refrain from falling face first into the woman in question's boobs and got "BPPPLLLTTTT!"
It's called acting. I mean, David Hyde Pryce whom played the Daphne-obsessed Niles Crane is gay IRL while the gentleman whom played Will in Will & Grace is married to a woman. (Or at least he was. I'm not a fan of the show as it played too much to stereotypes to be funny to me. And you know how Hollywood marriages are.) Patrick Stewart has also played gay men several times while IRL he is also married to a woman.
And it applies to other careers as well. People feel the need to pretend, to cater to a stereotype, just to keep up appearances. Because they feel if they don't, people won't patronize their businesses.
It's sad that people can't do the work they love and just be themselves. (Well, except in the case of pedophiles. Those monsters need to be locked up forever for the good of all children.)
I'll never forget one of the clients at the salon where I work wanting to introduce me to her "friend", David. After telling me many details about him during her shampoo, I escorted her to the stylist who told her abruptly, "Gene is far from being gay". One added benefit I receive from my work is I get to run my fingers through LADIES' hair...I don't think that fits the criteria for that "homosexual" thing does it?? lol.
Wow, I think my new band is called the Television Crimpers. Next step: learn an instrument.
Or, invent your OWN! Ray-mond patented quite a few of his own items.
Gene, you're different. The whole other type of hairdresser/hair man (think our Mr. Ray, Jay Sebring, or Warren Beatty in "Shampoo" who wasn't based on Sebring or Jon Peters, no matter how much he likes to say so, but another man, I'll find his obit soon.) Isn't it obvious from looking at Raymond that he's a big, nelly queen?
Then again, I don't really care - as long as they make me feel fabulous!
Try to remember, Donna, Rock Hudson was gay. (Though I understand the homosexual community doesn't want to claim him because apparently he was an asshole who purposely spread AIDS.) And my examples in my little speech in the other one to James about the professional football players whom were gay.
You can't tell just by looking. Some people put up a front just to keep their jobs. This could've been his front.
Think of it this way - what better way to get a chance to look at a woman's breasts without her feeling sexually harassed then by putting on a play act of being a gay man? She doesn't feel threatened or anything and meanwhile you're getting a big old eyeful of her tits. Imagine how many women in low cut tops a male hairdresser gets to see. She might even take off her top in front of him if he asks her to - claiming he doesn't want to get hair or water on it - heck, play his cards right and the role right, and a male stylist could end up seeing more boobies then Hefner.
I guess I fall into the category of Mary's "oldest", (the assistant to George in "Shampoo") as she claimed that he, "can't keep his hands out of ladies hair either".
For what its worth, Jami, I happen to be a leg man myself, so please dress appropriately for your appointment. (sorry to get off topic)
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