TODAY IN QUEER TV HISTORY

PRIVATE SECRETARY - 5/27/1956, CBS

Gay-coded roles were the specialty of comic actor FRANKLIN PANGBORN (1889–1958), who made a career playing prissy, giddy, cheerful characters in 1930s–40s movies and later on television.

In a few episodes of PRIVATE SECRETARY, he guest stars as Henry Hollis, originally seen as a fussy secretary though here he has opened a photo studio and changed his name to Armond for business purposes.

Henry was the type of "prissy, polite, elegant, highly energetic, often officious, fastidious, somewhat nervous" role that Pangborn played for years, "prone to becoming flustered but essentially upbeat." (That apt description comes from the Wikipedia article about him.) He appears in this scene with this sitcom's star, Ann Sothern. The episode is "Susie's Crusade."

https://youtu.be/FpUINewy5m8

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