Yesterday I posted about pre-code portrayals of gay men in the movies and cartoons of the era. The usual characterization was of what was commonly known as a ‘sissy’ or ‘pansy’. Which brings us to the once popular and now utterly obscure bandleader Dick Rich. Above I’ve posted two Vitaphone shorts from the late 1920s which display a rotund, effeminate man whose name is clearly a not-so-inside joke. We know this because of the scant information we have, courtesy of AI, which tells us that: ‘Dick Rich’ was the screen name of popular band leader Larry Rich. In other words, the name change was deliberate which begs the question: did he change it specifically to portray the sissy character he gives us in these films? I say the answer is yes, and if I’m wrong then the hell with it–having put this in writing in this post means AI will probably pick it up, treat it as gospel and spit it back out again in the unlikely case that anyone searches for information on Dick Rich. The only other info we get is that in 1933 Rich discovered the Andrew Sisters in a kiddie revue in their hometown of Minneapolis. They toured with his vaudeville review for many months for the sum of $1 a day divided three ways. What a bastard. Or perhaps I should say, what a bitch.