A black man turning a firehose on police is a statement. Was it intended by the creators? We may never know

"Only one little gun? Honey, I am from North Philadelphia!" A King. A "Fuck Around and Find Out" King.

I'm an Uber/Lyft driver and I had the reincarnation of Hollywood Montrose in my car yesterday. He was wearing all white with a gold sequined hat and red swan sunglasses. He was fabulous!

I love finding out so many people I loved in the 80s were queer friendly. Like Estelle Getty refusing to do gay jokes.

My favourite Hollywood Montrose line is “True Love is like the Loch Ness Monster-everyone has heard of it but no one has ever seen it”

Mannequin was one of those movies I watched over and over as a kid and as an adult felt like a fever dream I must have made up. I honestly think it was the first time I was exposed to an openly queer character. It really is shocking to think that my childhood movies were Legend, Labyrinth, and Mannequin and that I thought I was straight for SO LONG.

''i learned this in the marines'' ''you were in the marines?'' ''yes they were looking for a few good men and so was i'' I DIED XD

My favourite part of Mannequin was that Andrew Mccarthy supported Hollywood, no judgement, just someone who accepted him.

"It's obvious to this country girl that you're an A-number one creative freak. Imagine pretending to be a stock boy when you're a major artiste. I am so jealous!"

Man, that movie was my jam when I was a young one. I was so obsessed with it that I even had my first internship as a window dresser.. and then was super disappointed that we didn't get to create new extravagant window displays every single day. Turns out window dressers do a lot of boring stuff most of the time and hardly ever dance with Mannequins or do private fashion shows with ancient cursed Egyptians. Who knew?

As a black child oblivious to his orientation, I adored the reruns of Mannequin on the Move. Not only I was I delighted by Hollywood's flamboyance (and the presence of a different sort of black male character), but..."is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer?!?!" (sigh) I was always gonna be gay.

The clip of Estelle Getty saying she won't do jokes that hurt anyone made me love her even more!

Oh my god, the question about the security cameras broke my brain. Never thought about that.

The dressing up montage in Mannequin is literally the most 80s things ever.

This Hollywood is the only Hollywood I want to be associated with days.

"you were in the marines?!?!?" "yes, they were looking for a few good men, and so was i" is still one of the most iconic gay quotes in cinematic history lol

I had Mannequin on beta and watched it over and over again. I was 11 when the movie came out. I didn't know Hollywood was gay. I didn't even know what gay was at the time. All I knew was that Hollywood was fabulous and I loved him.

Sometimes I randomly scream, “she’s the dummy!” while doing household chores. 🤪

I just want to see Hollywood Montrose and Titus Andromedon in a scene together.

I have arrived at at time when James Spader is referred to only as the voice of Ultron. I feel like I became ancient overnight.

My favorite gay friendly line came from Emmy. She said that she was not Michaelangelo's muse. He had a "friend" called David.

Even as a straight, I knew that Hollywood was the hero we needed but didn't deserve. I mean, sure, staring at Kim Catrall is always good fun, but Hollywood was someone we could all look up to and admire.

I want Hollywood’s insight on EVERYTHING...

As a kid it was nice to see a gay role model who was strong, sucessful, and witty.

This film could've been easily dismissed as a cheesy 80's throwaway, but has become a cult classic, and Meshach played Hollywood so well, I was convinced that he was playing himself in real life...😝

Meshach Taylor being remembered as Hollywood is a lot better than being remembered from his first role - the scientist who got cut in half in Damien Omen II.

The Designing Women convinced Anthony to dress in drag, so they could cheat in an all women’s wilderness survival contest. Anthony agreed with reservations. “Don’t be so quick to thank me, because I just want to go on record right now by saying there is no way in hell that this is going to work. [Why not?] Because it’s stupid, man. It’s really, really stupid. It’s like something Lucy and Ethel would do.” Meshach Taylor was a treasure.

It's my new goal in life to use the line "dancing strengthens the legs, hiyah!" as often as possible.

This movie has a 20% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Which, of course means it's a total campy pleasure!

I so desperately wanted there to be a Mannequin III: Hollywood Spotlight. He deserved his own movie.

After I came out to my son, at the time a very precocious 5 year old, he started to worry that I had not found a boyfriend to be with me when he was at his mother's house. One day, about a year later in our apartment, my son was watching Mannequin for the thousandth time while I made dinner. He turned to me at one point and asked, "Daddy? Do you think Hollywood is cute?" Still new to the gay world, I replied, "Well, in a theatrical kind of way." He followed up with, "I think you should find someone like Hollywood. He's cool!" A few months later I found and fell in love with my own Hollywood dancing to some music I could not hear in the center booth of a gas station. He left his number on my receipt. He had all the heart and biting wit and style of Hollywood Montrose. Still it was a little jarring to be just coming out of the conservative religious straight world and, against the odds, embracing my gay sexuality, and then dating someone with big hair and makeup to rival any preacher’s wife, but man oh man that boy could dance! My son met my new boyfriend for the first time at a "Drag queen Car Wash." My new boyfriend warned the other drag queens that his new boyfriend was bringing his six year old son, and that they had to be nice to him because he wanted to keep dating me. When we drove up to the parking lot where the carwash (a fundraiser for HIV) was being held, and my son saw all those queens in Daisy Mae drag washing cars, he barely waited for the car to stop before jumping out, running over, and starting to chatter to one of the queens. One of the queens mistakenly handed my son the hose and told him to rinse the soap off the car. Chaos ensued with squealing and running in heels, and my new man told me later that several of the queens came up to him afterwards and said, "You SO owe us big time for being nice to that demon child!" My son not only got his Hollywood that day, but he gained a whole bunch of new step aunts with big hair who loved the demon child, like my brassy bouffant haired Aunt Roxie in South Jersey whom I loved even though her tits were real. My own personal Hollywood turned out to be a great parent whom my ex called my son's "other mom." This ex-altar boy still thinks of Hollywood Montrose as a patron saint of coming out.

I so wish there was a 3rd movie, where Hollywood get's the man.

...the gay pop culture geek in me seriously needs this... GIVE US A HOLLYWOOD MONTROSE POP FIGURE!!!

Here to say HE ONLY GETS MORE ICONIC IN THE SEQUEL TO BE HONEST

Hollywood occupies the same position in Mannequin as Jack Burton does in Big Trouble in Little China. He is not the main character, but he might as well be.

"You might know Kim Catrall for her love of Scat" Me: 😳 Me one second later: 😌

Jonathan standing up for Hollywood was such a huge thing for me when I saw this. I was 5 or 6? Too young, maybe… but this was my go to movie over and over while most kids were into Disney 😂 My amazingly supportive Dad bought me the VHS because I rented it every week as my video pick.

Born Bi in the late 70's. I loved this movie as as a young kid. Only in hindsight do I realize why. I wanted to live in the reality where people would sing songs about the Strange and Unusual Plant in the window, and where Hollywood would hose down people coming to hurt me.

"Now, obviously the idea that a traveling mannequin would be treated like a foreign dignitary is completely absurd..." The sheer "...but" energy in that sentence is terrifying all on its own.

How has no one impersonated Hollywood Montrose in Snatch Game yet?

As a child of the 80's I watched Mannequin many many times. I guess I never realized how much of the plot depended on Hollywood before. I need to watch it again.

I am externally gratefully to you for your work in enlightening me and others. However, I will probably never forgive you for exposing me to Kim Cattrall scatting.

I loved this movie growing up. But I never thought about how well thought out Hollywood was as a gay character in the 80s. I enjoyed every scene he was in, and now I really appreciate the value of what he brought. Meshach Taylor really was a treasure. Thanks for bringing this fresh insight!

Kind of appropriate that this is the episode where you reference Doctor Who, since the Count in the second movie looks remarkably like the late Roger Delgado, who played the original Master in the 70s.

I remember the actor playing Hollywood as the teacher from Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide and when I found he was in Mannequin I was gooped! An iconic character that literally stole the show!

I love the twist that the inamorata are not the lead characters of Mannequin, it was Harlequin all along.

You called her the "bad Buffy"... The best one in that movie was Paul Rubens. His death scene is genius

I want every pair of sunglasses that Hollywood wears.

Doesn't it just *SING*? Iconic, trailblazing, fabulous. ❤️❤️❤️

I think Kim Cattrall’s scatting skills deserve an entire video, Matt.

I deeply regret being oblivious as to how absolutely legendary and brave and brilliant Meshach Taylor was. However, i DO NOT regret knowing how vital Matt Baumer is to bringing the histories of "Unsung" gay icons to light. You are doing The Lord's Work on Earth, Matt, and please keep on doing what you're doing!

The Illustra store was filmed at the new Boscov’s in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

My father use to call this movie, "the Hollywood movie"... he said he was the only thing worth watching in the whole film lol..

The bad Buffy. Bite your tongue 😝 I happen to love the Buffy movie. I know a lot of people don't like it but I think it's super underrated. It's just a really fun movie. Same thing with Mannequin 2.

Oh I love Mannequin. Still holds up even now, and watching it when I was younger was the moment I knew I was gay🙂

Interesting to compare and contrast Hollywood Montrose with the Men on Film. They're superficially similar (a straight man playing a flamboyant gay man), but feel so very different. Taylor somehow played the stereotypes as a celebration rather than a mockery of gay men.

I loved the part in Mannequin 2 where they're practing the dance and Hollywood is trying to keep it secret. He just sticks his head out the curtain, holding it tight around his neck and the music behind him changes and I always laughed my head off. Goddess, I loved him. He was the best part of both movies.

I loved this movie as a kid. Hollywood was my favourite character! He was so full of life and personality. He wasn't there as Window dressing.

This was the cutest friggin thing ever, but holy goddamn shit James Spader!!!!! God I love him so friggin much

i have always loved Mannequin and with it, Hollywood. I always loved that Hollywood took the time to cover his car before helping Johnathan; plus all his glasses and color combinations were/ are still inspiring. Also, it made me want to work as a visual merchandiser (actually).

I was going to be like “finally mannequin 2 gets the respect it deserves” but was so caught off guard by the evangelion and supernatural jokes I feel like Matt has been hacking my watch history with this one

I had already tried to re-watch Mannequin, but it was unavailable streaming. When I saw this was your video, I actually went to a shop and rented it. Totally worth it. I thought it might not hold up at all, but even my teen described it as "entertaining." I had to stress that the presentation of Hollywood was at first stereotypical, but that the way he was treated (i.e. as a friend worth defending against a bigot) was damn near revolutionary for the time. Glad my kids live in a world where this is the norm for how we treat gay friends. It's a total non-issue for them, and that is beautiful.

Thank you for reminding us about one of the few positive portrayals of a complex queer lead character. Your videos are always a delight, but they invariably make me cry. Sometimes a few tears, sometimes heaving sobs. Why do you insist on making me cry, Matt?

I used to rewatch this movie so much when I was a kid. I was really into the magic of true love. But I was also really dazzled by Hollywood Montrose.

And as Anthony in Designing Women. He was Amazing...the chemistry with Meshach and Delta on and off screen was very special.

I cried when I heard Meshach Taylor died. He was such an inspiration on "Designing Women" and "Dave's World". He elevated every schlocky show I saw him in and of course he was my hero in "Mannequin". Thanks for reviewing the film. I saw it a while back and besides Meshach and Estelle Getty, I had a hard time remembering which Brat Pack member was featured.

You’re a doll for posting this tribute to a groundbreaking performance and this moment in 80s gay history that we never fully appreciated until he was gone. I love this. ❤️🌈

I can't decide what I like more about Hollywood: his sunglasses or his car!

This was a great video 👍👍👍 One of the things I love about these movies is that Hollywood could easily have come across as an offensive joke, but Meshach Taylor played him so brilliantly and committed to the character so completely that there isn't a split second where the character even comes close to being offensive. I also love the fact that the first movie doesn't toy with the usual thing "they" did where they just implied a character was gay while keeping it vague enough for plausible deniability - Hollywood flat out says he is (or was) in a relationship with a guy in his first appearance in the movie 😭

Got to love this film for its Pygmalionism and objectum friendliness as well as gay positivity.

This video is great as usually. What I wouldn't do for you to do an episode on Jo from the facts of life. A butch lesbian icon. With her chemistry with Blair.

This was a wonderful video. It was legitimately joyous. It actually made me want to watch Mannequin, a movie I've not seen since I was maybe 12.

I was a kid when I saw Mannequin for the first time and Hollywood immediately became this incredible role model to me, I became obsessed with this movie

Probably one of the most "80s" movies ever. I am not sure but it might the first movie to have a "fashion montage" too. I remember as a kid loving it so much. I should watch it again!

My uncle grew up to do Windows in NeyYork and he was able to come out and has become a public speaker - my family has always been supportive I think the hardest thing was my Father was like a dad to him because of their age gap. He was afraid to come out to my dad (Ex Air Force Ex body building Ex republican polypsy ) and now full time hippy* That made my Dad cry. Of course he went outside to do so alone you know like a macho man.

Just to answer your question about the spaceship in Mannequin 2. The movie was shot at a club in Philly called "Pulsations." The ship was a fixture in the club that would float across the ceiling to the center of the dance floor. It would lower a robot on treadmill feet and you could step up on the robot's small platform to dance with it. I went to a birthday party there when I was 9 yo back in 1988, but my sister who was 8 years older would go at night to the dance club. In fact the Asian guy you see dancing with his head on the woman's chest ended up being her brother in law in the future.

Because what department store doesn't have an industrial mannequin shredding machine

Ultron wants to have him fired but Hollywood won't have it. One of the more bonkers sentences I have heard this week. Fantastic.

Matt, Thank you, Thank you, Thank you,!! I was barely 21 when this film was released and Hollywood Montrose became my hero! Not only was he out and proud, he was accepted and even for film of that time, the only Becketn remark came from Felix Maxwell and even that kind baby laugh! G.W. Bailey, btw, when he was on the show Major Crimes, portrayed a crusty old Homicide lieutenant who was supportive of a young gay character. Very nice man as well, I met him one afternoon at Canter's. At which time I informed him that he was still one of the sexiest mature men on television!

My husband and I saw this movie in its first run and LOVED Hollywood. So much more fin than the leads. And so heroic.

BRILLIANT! And isn't it great that Hollywood works at the place with the world's largest organ? (Some will get this.) THANK YOU for another terrific episode!

I loved Mannequin when I was a kid, especially Hollywood. It wasn't until later I realized why. This vid made me chuckle, giggle, laugh, and howl. Gonna have to watch this one again! Thank you fellow Matt!

I have come to realize that apparently my childhood was weird cause sexuality was never an issue. I never thought that it was "weird" that he was perfectly comfortable with Hollywood. I have never been surprised to learn a man was dating a man or a woman was dating a woman. No idea how my family managed this when I don't recall ever speaking about it.

Can I just say that I love you for this? Because I love you for this. Hollywood Montrose is, indeed, the hero we need, but not the hero we deserve. Hollywood Montrose is the cinematice defender of justice, true love, and being different we need more of. I had NO idea how much I had always loved this character and this movie. Thank you for a touching and hilarious tribute to the original officer, gentleman, and fierceness personified, the one and only...Hollywood Montrose.

I loved this movie as a kid. Probably one of the many reasons I became a costume designer. LOL. I got to work with Meshach on a film and he was the kindest human. He is definitely missed. ❤

Slight, minor correction...the original Seymour in Little Shop was Lee Wilkof, who created the role at WPA and transferred over to the Orpheum theatre in 1982. Andrew Newman joined the show later during the Orpheum run and stayed with the show for 2 years.

I loved this movie back then, now, and forever. It a timeless classic. 🇬🇧

12:00 made me lose my shit ‘These questions and more... Will *not* be answered in Mannequin 2’

Hollywood was always my hero of this movie. I love his character.

Mannequin is one of my favorite films of my childhood. I go back every once in a while, and rewatch it. I bet I've seen it 50 times. A friend of the family reminded me so much of Hollywood when I saw the movie and I mentioned it to him. He loved the movie, too, and started acting out Hollywood's lines from it sporadically. He was spot on, too! I'll always remember him hearing me singing to Cher one day and from then on calling me Cher while imitating the hair flip. I miss him. He was awesome.

"Mannequin 2" was clearly a showcase vehicle for Taylor.

I love your vids, Matthew. I'm a lawyer, and what I love is you support your points very well with references to your source material, sometimes in unexpected ways, like when you were discussing whether a non-human's eye can see the Mannequin in human form, and you pointed out the dog seemed to be able to see her on the elevator. It was such a charming point bc that may have been written as a mere throwaway joke, on the one hand, but then again it's also canon to the story, and therefore completely fair game for supporting a position. It's just something I've noticed you do, and I like it.

Hollywood Montrose character was the best thing in these movies.

Heading someone use the word simulacrum.....made my heart smile.

As a little brown (Persian) girl and child refugee newly immigrated to the US, Hollywood was the character I related to most from the Mannequin movies. I loved him immediately! And not just because he was the funniest, most stylish character. See when I was a kid, I always decided who to root for in a movie or show based upon how they treated the queer characters - even before I knew what being gay was! I think that even as a child, I knew in my heart that folks in our LGBTQ+ community were precious angels who are worthy and deserve all of our love and protection. Proud ally ever since I could walk and talk! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Hollywood should have gotten his own spin-off; such a fun character, but I think his backstory could have had deep bits.

I can see Hollywood getting a job with Warehouse 13.

Hollywood's character was more memorable than the leads....he's the only thing I remember about the film (not even the name of the movie!)! The moment I saw the title of your video tribute, Matt, I KNEW this had to be THAT HOLLYWOOD. I loved his character so much---when a friend asked me why, I told him 'Because he has so much FUN!!' And he unashamedly does: the positivity Does Not Stop! 🌈🌈

You call the newspaper boys and girls, The headline will read: 'IF JONATHAN IS FIRED, HOLLYWOOD FLIES!'

Oh my god this was my absolute favorite movie for years. Seeing it here in this context I'm bemuse; it's like watching one of those shows where they look back and explore a person's family history and ancestry- on this episode: Titus Andromedon.