Full Article Text
BORN ARTHUR GELIEN IN NEW
York, Tab Hunter has been a teen idol,
pop star, an acclaimed actor, and now
with the publication of Tab Hunter Confi
dential: The Making of a Movie Star-he
can probably add best -selling author to his resume.
In his book, Hunter talks about his storied career, in
cluding the film version of Damn Yankees, being a
gay actor in private, and his renown as "The Sigh
Guy" who was swooned over by girls in public. What
this 74-year-old icon wants to talk about most, how
ever, is the true love of his life: horses. He recently did
just that with Show Circuit's Michael Giltz.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ When it comes to show
jumping, legendary
leading man Tab Hunter is
the real deal-and yes,
he performed his own
equestrian stunts on
the big screen.
Interview by Michael Giltz
Story produced by Diedre Johnson
Photographs by Harry Langdon
for Show Circuit
". l~ •
Hunter aboard Sign Painter, 1970
FAlL 2005
Show Circuit: You have said that you prefer horses to people.
Hunter: Horses have been my whole life. They've been my touch
of reality in an unrealistic world.
sc: Horses also tie into your Hollywood mythology. Is it true
you were discovered in a stable?
Hunter: I was shoveling you-know-what. I was a stable boy at
the Dubrock's Riding Academy in California when I was about
12 [when he met Dick Clayton, James Dean's agent].lt was
across the street from the Horse Palace, where I went to my
first horse shows and I fell in love with hunters and jumpers.
I'd hitch out there on the weekends as a kid with my girlfriend
Mary Lou. I worked as a stable boy just so I could get extra
money to ride.
sc: How did you fall in love with horses in the first place?
Hunter: My brother got me started. I had a brother who was
eleven months older, and he opened that world to me. I was
kind of frightened of everything. I was just an idiot kid, and he
really exposed me to the love of my life-horses.
sc: Did he just ride for fun?
Hunter: Oh yeah, he was into all sports. My mother was always
encouraging us to do things like that. She said, "You've got to ex
pose yourself to so many different things throughout our lives.
Just don't live in a shell:' And of course it was difficult because I
was living in a shell.
sc: Why do you think you were good with the horses? What was
your talent?
Hunter: The communication was terrific. And then when I
was sneaking across the street to the Horse Palace, the hunters
and jumpers became my favorite. Of course, I loved them all.
Then I went to work for a man by the name of Rudy Smithers
who had a one-eyed paint horse called Rex. I used to ditch
school, and that's how I got to see all the people like Barbara
Worth [Oakford], Clyde Kennedy-all the big guns of the
show circuit in those days.
sc: How long have you known George Morris, the new chef d' e
quipe for the U.S. Show Jumping Team?
Hunter: I've known George since he was a junior rider. In fact,
George and I used to ride together whenever I would be back
East. I remember one time we were riding in Long Island and
he was riding a little bay horse. He said, "Tab, they want to put
this horse on the team, but I don't know." I said, "I don't know,
Georgie. He's awful good. He's terrific." And it was the horse
that Billy Steinkraus won the gold on called Sinjon.
sc: Do you know Frank Chapot?
Hunter: I know Frank, but not real well. But of course his wife
Mary Mairs-I knew Mary in California because we used to all
show horses [together]. sc: What did you love about hunters and jumpers?
Hunter: The jumpers I found very exciting because there's
such an incredible communication between horse and rider.
Going around courses with fences was fabulous. Of course, it's
totally different today with all the FEI rules. Then it was just
touches and out, and knockdowns and faults.
sc: The showmanship?
Hunter: Not so much the showmanship; it was the marriage of
horse and rider. Some horses were spectacular.
sc: I think the first film where you rode was probably 1953's
Gun Belt, which was about your third film.
Hunter: Yeah, I did ride in that. And that's when I met Jack Con
nors, one of the top stuntmen in the business who also used to go
on the horse show circuit. His wife Kay and I have become very,
very close. I had horses with Jack and Kay for years. He was the
first one to tell me, "Look kid, they've got a double out here to do
a lot of that stuff you want [to do]. Let the double do the job and
SHOW CIRCUIT § FAlL 2005
you can go in for the close-ups, and then you're not cheating
that guy of a paycheck!" 1'd never even thought about that.
SC: You were always gung-ho to do your own stunts?
Hunter: Oh yeah! It was like playing cowboys and Indians.
The next film I rode in was The Burning Hills with Natalie
Wood. I had a chestnut mare I'd bought. She'd been green
jumper champion at Del Mar. The mare was interesting. Her
name was Swizzlestick. She was a bit of a bitch. She had a cyst
on her ovaries that didn't make her very pleasant.
sc: That would make anyone cranky.
Hunter: [laughs] Finally, when The Burning Hills came along,
I told Jack Warner I wanted to use her. I was told the studio
didn't use mares. But I used her and she was fantastic. In fact,
she was so good, I used her next in a film called Gunman's
Walk, which is really a good film that's totally slipped through
the cracks. And then I used her again in They Came To Cor
dura with [Gary] Cooper and Rita Hayworth. Swizz turned
SHOW CIRCUIT out to be a damn good movie horse.
sc: Why didn't studios use mares?
Hunter: I guess they could get a little mare-ish. They mostly
used geldings.
SC: There's no end to the people in Hollywood who are seri
ous about horses. William Shatner, Betty Buckley, and so
many others.
Hunter: We used Bill [Shatner] in our TV special Hollywood
on Horses. Probably the most knowledgeable about horses was
[director] John Huston, who had been Master of the Hounds
for the Galway Blazers. So we spoke about horses a lot. And
Fred Astaire had race horses.
SC: Was being a serious horseman helpful in keeping rumors
at bay in Hollywood about being gay?
Hunter: I hated the press because they were always so unkind.
Geraldine Page grabbed my arm once and said, "If people
FAlL 2005
r
HOLLY\i\ OOD I-IORSEIVI AN
don't like you, that's their bad taste:' I said, "Gerry, I will never
forget that:' And I think that's something that everyone can
apply to their lives. I believe that very strongly.
sc: Did you ever help a fellow actor learn how to ride?
Hunter: I helped Natalie a little bit before The Burning Hills.
She had a little fear of horses; she wasn't crazy about them. I
took her to Clyde Kennedy's, and we rode a few times.
SC: You just found her the right gentle horse to get her started on.
Hunter: Exactly. It's all about the ABCs and getting a person
comfortable. You're so right about that.
SC: We've got some shots of you jumping in a show without a
helmet. Were helmets optional when you started competing?
Hunter: No, they weren't ... no, they weren't. Helmets are very
important. Of course, in those days we did a lot of things dif
ferently [laughing]. We also didn't have perfect distances going
down to our fences. It wasn't five strides down to so-and-so
and six across to here. It was more by-the-seat-of-your-pants.
SC: How was the horse Coach that you showed?
Hunter: Coach was a good horse; he was a tough horse ... very
difficult; he was either on or he was off. He didn't belong to
me. I showed him for some people that owned him. He had
done a lot in Canada and done quite well. When he was on, he
was very good. But he was very inconsistent.
SC: In your memoir, you talk about some of the people in Hol
lywood you were very close to, like Anthony Perkins. What
horses were you particularly fond of?
Hunter: There were a number of horses. I had a horse called
Collector's Item that I showed in California that I bought out
of Chicago, where my friend Katie Lindsay is a steward. She
called me on this horse. I flew there in the middle of the night,
jumped him, was very impressed, and bought him on the
spot. He won the first class he was in, and everyone wanted to
buy him. I sold him to my friend Joan on the condition that I
have first right of refusal. That was a very, very good horse. As
far as hunters, I had a horse called Sign Painter that was
nice-very attractive.
SC: I'm sure you remember the first horse you were able to buy
from your earnings as an actor.
Hunter: I do. I was down at Del Mar with our group from the
barn, and I was grooming and riding but not showing. Clyde
found this one bay horse. Earlier, my friend Maggie got drunk
at a beach party and wound up in jail. I saw her and said, "Mag
gie, what are you doing here?" She said, 'Tm out on bail." And I
said, 'Tm going to call my next horse 'Out On Bail;" and I did!
SC: Of the actors you worked with or knew, who was the best
rider?
Hunter: Without a doubt, Linda Blair. Collector's Item's first show in California
SHOW CIRCUIT 8 FALL 2005 i'i -
~ ~ :r: ... n ,- !"
... '0
~-f 8
At the Santa Barbara Horse Show (I.-r.): Diane Grad,
George Morris, Tiffany Traurig, Hunter, and J. J. Smith.
A spread in a 1950s fan magazine Hunter (I.) doing his own stunts in Gunman's Walk, 1958
Riverside County Fair
SHOW CIRCUIT ® FALL 2005
I-lOLl JY\TOO)) I rOltSE~I"\ N
SC: We know some of the highlights of your movie career-
1955's Battle Cry, 1958's Damn Yankees. What are your person
al highlights of your riding career?
Hunter: Gosh, I don't know. Having a horse that went on to the
Olympics was nice. I had a horse Nob Hill-I didn't show him;
I wish I had-but Max Bonham showed him back East and
won the Cleveland Grand Prix. Nobby was a good horse. Win
ning at the Cow Palace was quite nice. I was also a judge with
the AHSA in the 1970s and also did some riding clinics at that
time. Today, I go to the shows, and it's fabulous that we have
such quality horses and the horsemanship has gotten so much
better. But we're still not up to where Europe is. When I lived in
Europe, I used to go out [to ride 1 all the time. When I was in
Egypt, I would ride in the Egyptian cavalry, and I'd ride in
Rome. It was fabulous to see how they were doing and what
they were doing. You learn a lot seeing the way they work their
horses. I'm so pleased now that George [Morris] is the chef d'e
quipe of our team. He's like me-we're very dramatic and have
very hard heads.
SC: So he'll be able to inspire the team.
Hunter: Oh, no question about that. It's always a pleasure to
run into George.
SC: Your current horse Harlow, what breed is she?
Hunter: I wasn't riding for a while. I had a horse Mark My
Word that I sold. He did very well with my godchild; he shows
a lot in the Grand Prix. But now, Harlow .. .I came to Santa
Barbara and my friend Ann had horses. They were nice horses,
but they were not my kind of horses. But this paint mare
named Spot just took a liking to me. She was so funny, she
made me laugh. I started to ride her and she broke me up.
She'd see me and start nickering and come running to me. I'd
say, "Sweetheart, you're not the kind of horse I really like." But
she loved me, and I started taking a liking to her. But when my
friend Ann was still alive, I thought maybe we could breed this
mare and give Ann something to look forward to. We tried to
get the horse bred, and it didn't work. Ann passed away and left
me Spot, and the next stud I liked, I bred the mare to him and
got a fabulous baby by him that I named Harlow, and it looks
just like the mare. Spot was just one of those happy horses that
made you feel good. Unfortunately, she colicked, and we oper
ated on her. The next day she was fine, and I was happy to see
her. But then she took a turn for the worse, and we had to put
her down. Broke my heart. She really won me over. Who is to
know what will or will not work for you. You've got to try them
and play with them and have fun with them.
SC: In Hollywood, you have people trying to win you over
constantly, and you can never know who you can trust.
Hunter: I was pretty fearful.
SC: It must have been a relief to know when a horse was trying to
win you over that you didn't have to worry about their agenda. Hunter: That's very true ... very true. No matter how hard you
want to make it work with a horse, if it isn't meant to be, it isn't
going to happen.
SC: How often do you ride these days?
Hunter: I don't ride that much at all. I rode a couple of weeks
ago. I ride once in a blue moon.
SC: Did you ever feel you could ride as much as you wanted?
Hunter: I never could. When I was in England, I used to ride a
great deal. When I was on a film, I would hunt. Anneli Drum
mond -Hay was a dear friend of mine. She'd won at Badminton
[Horse Trials] in 1963, and then she turned into a show jump
ing rider. Anneli was fabulous. In fact, it was her aunt that
raised whippets, and that's when I first fell in love with whip
pets. [Hunter owns two whippets, Olivia and Katie.]
SC: Did the agent Henry Willson pick Hunter or did you sug
gest that?
Hunter: Actually, there would be no Tab Hunter if it weren't
for Dick Clayton, my closest friend. I met him when I was a
stable boy. He's 90 years old now and was an agent for Jimmy
Dean, Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson-the list
goes on and on and on. He's like my brother, my father, my
mentor. When he was still an actor, he took me to my first
Broadway show. Dick introduced me to Henry Willson because
he wasn't an agent at the time. "We've got to tab you some
thing;' is what Henry said. And Dick said, "Well, he rides
hunters and jumpers." So I always say it could have been Tab
Jumper instead of Tab Hunter!
SC: If you could go back and do anything differently, what
would it be? Devoting your life completely to horses?
Hunter: At one point, I was ready to give up Hollywood and go
back to Virginia and horses.
SC: This was in the '70s?
Hunter: This was in the
'60s. Horses were so im
portant to me. I learned a
lot about people from
being around my horses.
I wasn't comfortable
around people. I was
comfortable around the
animals.
Tab Hunter Confidential:
The Making of a Movie
Star (Algonquin; $24.95),
by Tab Hunter with Eddie
Muller, was published Oc
tober 14 and is available in
bookstores nationwide. • by TAB HUNTER lNith EDDIE MULLER
SHOW CIRCUIT § FALL 2005
York, Tab Hunter has been a teen idol,
pop star, an acclaimed actor, and now
with the publication of Tab Hunter Confi
dential: The Making of a Movie Star-he
can probably add best -selling author to his resume.
In his book, Hunter talks about his storied career, in
cluding the film version of Damn Yankees, being a
gay actor in private, and his renown as "The Sigh
Guy" who was swooned over by girls in public. What
this 74-year-old icon wants to talk about most, how
ever, is the true love of his life: horses. He recently did
just that with Show Circuit's Michael Giltz.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ When it comes to show
jumping, legendary
leading man Tab Hunter is
the real deal-and yes,
he performed his own
equestrian stunts on
the big screen.
Interview by Michael Giltz
Story produced by Diedre Johnson
Photographs by Harry Langdon
for Show Circuit
". l~ •
Hunter aboard Sign Painter, 1970
FAlL 2005
Show Circuit: You have said that you prefer horses to people.
Hunter: Horses have been my whole life. They've been my touch
of reality in an unrealistic world.
sc: Horses also tie into your Hollywood mythology. Is it true
you were discovered in a stable?
Hunter: I was shoveling you-know-what. I was a stable boy at
the Dubrock's Riding Academy in California when I was about
12 [when he met Dick Clayton, James Dean's agent].lt was
across the street from the Horse Palace, where I went to my
first horse shows and I fell in love with hunters and jumpers.
I'd hitch out there on the weekends as a kid with my girlfriend
Mary Lou. I worked as a stable boy just so I could get extra
money to ride.
sc: How did you fall in love with horses in the first place?
Hunter: My brother got me started. I had a brother who was
eleven months older, and he opened that world to me. I was
kind of frightened of everything. I was just an idiot kid, and he
really exposed me to the love of my life-horses.
sc: Did he just ride for fun?
Hunter: Oh yeah, he was into all sports. My mother was always
encouraging us to do things like that. She said, "You've got to ex
pose yourself to so many different things throughout our lives.
Just don't live in a shell:' And of course it was difficult because I
was living in a shell.
sc: Why do you think you were good with the horses? What was
your talent?
Hunter: The communication was terrific. And then when I
was sneaking across the street to the Horse Palace, the hunters
and jumpers became my favorite. Of course, I loved them all.
Then I went to work for a man by the name of Rudy Smithers
who had a one-eyed paint horse called Rex. I used to ditch
school, and that's how I got to see all the people like Barbara
Worth [Oakford], Clyde Kennedy-all the big guns of the
show circuit in those days.
sc: How long have you known George Morris, the new chef d' e
quipe for the U.S. Show Jumping Team?
Hunter: I've known George since he was a junior rider. In fact,
George and I used to ride together whenever I would be back
East. I remember one time we were riding in Long Island and
he was riding a little bay horse. He said, "Tab, they want to put
this horse on the team, but I don't know." I said, "I don't know,
Georgie. He's awful good. He's terrific." And it was the horse
that Billy Steinkraus won the gold on called Sinjon.
sc: Do you know Frank Chapot?
Hunter: I know Frank, but not real well. But of course his wife
Mary Mairs-I knew Mary in California because we used to all
show horses [together]. sc: What did you love about hunters and jumpers?
Hunter: The jumpers I found very exciting because there's
such an incredible communication between horse and rider.
Going around courses with fences was fabulous. Of course, it's
totally different today with all the FEI rules. Then it was just
touches and out, and knockdowns and faults.
sc: The showmanship?
Hunter: Not so much the showmanship; it was the marriage of
horse and rider. Some horses were spectacular.
sc: I think the first film where you rode was probably 1953's
Gun Belt, which was about your third film.
Hunter: Yeah, I did ride in that. And that's when I met Jack Con
nors, one of the top stuntmen in the business who also used to go
on the horse show circuit. His wife Kay and I have become very,
very close. I had horses with Jack and Kay for years. He was the
first one to tell me, "Look kid, they've got a double out here to do
a lot of that stuff you want [to do]. Let the double do the job and
SHOW CIRCUIT § FAlL 2005
you can go in for the close-ups, and then you're not cheating
that guy of a paycheck!" 1'd never even thought about that.
SC: You were always gung-ho to do your own stunts?
Hunter: Oh yeah! It was like playing cowboys and Indians.
The next film I rode in was The Burning Hills with Natalie
Wood. I had a chestnut mare I'd bought. She'd been green
jumper champion at Del Mar. The mare was interesting. Her
name was Swizzlestick. She was a bit of a bitch. She had a cyst
on her ovaries that didn't make her very pleasant.
sc: That would make anyone cranky.
Hunter: [laughs] Finally, when The Burning Hills came along,
I told Jack Warner I wanted to use her. I was told the studio
didn't use mares. But I used her and she was fantastic. In fact,
she was so good, I used her next in a film called Gunman's
Walk, which is really a good film that's totally slipped through
the cracks. And then I used her again in They Came To Cor
dura with [Gary] Cooper and Rita Hayworth. Swizz turned
SHOW CIRCUIT out to be a damn good movie horse.
sc: Why didn't studios use mares?
Hunter: I guess they could get a little mare-ish. They mostly
used geldings.
SC: There's no end to the people in Hollywood who are seri
ous about horses. William Shatner, Betty Buckley, and so
many others.
Hunter: We used Bill [Shatner] in our TV special Hollywood
on Horses. Probably the most knowledgeable about horses was
[director] John Huston, who had been Master of the Hounds
for the Galway Blazers. So we spoke about horses a lot. And
Fred Astaire had race horses.
SC: Was being a serious horseman helpful in keeping rumors
at bay in Hollywood about being gay?
Hunter: I hated the press because they were always so unkind.
Geraldine Page grabbed my arm once and said, "If people
FAlL 2005
r
HOLLY\i\ OOD I-IORSEIVI AN
don't like you, that's their bad taste:' I said, "Gerry, I will never
forget that:' And I think that's something that everyone can
apply to their lives. I believe that very strongly.
sc: Did you ever help a fellow actor learn how to ride?
Hunter: I helped Natalie a little bit before The Burning Hills.
She had a little fear of horses; she wasn't crazy about them. I
took her to Clyde Kennedy's, and we rode a few times.
SC: You just found her the right gentle horse to get her started on.
Hunter: Exactly. It's all about the ABCs and getting a person
comfortable. You're so right about that.
SC: We've got some shots of you jumping in a show without a
helmet. Were helmets optional when you started competing?
Hunter: No, they weren't ... no, they weren't. Helmets are very
important. Of course, in those days we did a lot of things dif
ferently [laughing]. We also didn't have perfect distances going
down to our fences. It wasn't five strides down to so-and-so
and six across to here. It was more by-the-seat-of-your-pants.
SC: How was the horse Coach that you showed?
Hunter: Coach was a good horse; he was a tough horse ... very
difficult; he was either on or he was off. He didn't belong to
me. I showed him for some people that owned him. He had
done a lot in Canada and done quite well. When he was on, he
was very good. But he was very inconsistent.
SC: In your memoir, you talk about some of the people in Hol
lywood you were very close to, like Anthony Perkins. What
horses were you particularly fond of?
Hunter: There were a number of horses. I had a horse called
Collector's Item that I showed in California that I bought out
of Chicago, where my friend Katie Lindsay is a steward. She
called me on this horse. I flew there in the middle of the night,
jumped him, was very impressed, and bought him on the
spot. He won the first class he was in, and everyone wanted to
buy him. I sold him to my friend Joan on the condition that I
have first right of refusal. That was a very, very good horse. As
far as hunters, I had a horse called Sign Painter that was
nice-very attractive.
SC: I'm sure you remember the first horse you were able to buy
from your earnings as an actor.
Hunter: I do. I was down at Del Mar with our group from the
barn, and I was grooming and riding but not showing. Clyde
found this one bay horse. Earlier, my friend Maggie got drunk
at a beach party and wound up in jail. I saw her and said, "Mag
gie, what are you doing here?" She said, 'Tm out on bail." And I
said, 'Tm going to call my next horse 'Out On Bail;" and I did!
SC: Of the actors you worked with or knew, who was the best
rider?
Hunter: Without a doubt, Linda Blair. Collector's Item's first show in California
SHOW CIRCUIT 8 FALL 2005 i'i -
~ ~ :r: ... n ,- !"
... '0
~-f 8
At the Santa Barbara Horse Show (I.-r.): Diane Grad,
George Morris, Tiffany Traurig, Hunter, and J. J. Smith.
A spread in a 1950s fan magazine Hunter (I.) doing his own stunts in Gunman's Walk, 1958
Riverside County Fair
SHOW CIRCUIT ® FALL 2005
I-lOLl JY\TOO)) I rOltSE~I"\ N
SC: We know some of the highlights of your movie career-
1955's Battle Cry, 1958's Damn Yankees. What are your person
al highlights of your riding career?
Hunter: Gosh, I don't know. Having a horse that went on to the
Olympics was nice. I had a horse Nob Hill-I didn't show him;
I wish I had-but Max Bonham showed him back East and
won the Cleveland Grand Prix. Nobby was a good horse. Win
ning at the Cow Palace was quite nice. I was also a judge with
the AHSA in the 1970s and also did some riding clinics at that
time. Today, I go to the shows, and it's fabulous that we have
such quality horses and the horsemanship has gotten so much
better. But we're still not up to where Europe is. When I lived in
Europe, I used to go out [to ride 1 all the time. When I was in
Egypt, I would ride in the Egyptian cavalry, and I'd ride in
Rome. It was fabulous to see how they were doing and what
they were doing. You learn a lot seeing the way they work their
horses. I'm so pleased now that George [Morris] is the chef d'e
quipe of our team. He's like me-we're very dramatic and have
very hard heads.
SC: So he'll be able to inspire the team.
Hunter: Oh, no question about that. It's always a pleasure to
run into George.
SC: Your current horse Harlow, what breed is she?
Hunter: I wasn't riding for a while. I had a horse Mark My
Word that I sold. He did very well with my godchild; he shows
a lot in the Grand Prix. But now, Harlow .. .I came to Santa
Barbara and my friend Ann had horses. They were nice horses,
but they were not my kind of horses. But this paint mare
named Spot just took a liking to me. She was so funny, she
made me laugh. I started to ride her and she broke me up.
She'd see me and start nickering and come running to me. I'd
say, "Sweetheart, you're not the kind of horse I really like." But
she loved me, and I started taking a liking to her. But when my
friend Ann was still alive, I thought maybe we could breed this
mare and give Ann something to look forward to. We tried to
get the horse bred, and it didn't work. Ann passed away and left
me Spot, and the next stud I liked, I bred the mare to him and
got a fabulous baby by him that I named Harlow, and it looks
just like the mare. Spot was just one of those happy horses that
made you feel good. Unfortunately, she colicked, and we oper
ated on her. The next day she was fine, and I was happy to see
her. But then she took a turn for the worse, and we had to put
her down. Broke my heart. She really won me over. Who is to
know what will or will not work for you. You've got to try them
and play with them and have fun with them.
SC: In Hollywood, you have people trying to win you over
constantly, and you can never know who you can trust.
Hunter: I was pretty fearful.
SC: It must have been a relief to know when a horse was trying to
win you over that you didn't have to worry about their agenda. Hunter: That's very true ... very true. No matter how hard you
want to make it work with a horse, if it isn't meant to be, it isn't
going to happen.
SC: How often do you ride these days?
Hunter: I don't ride that much at all. I rode a couple of weeks
ago. I ride once in a blue moon.
SC: Did you ever feel you could ride as much as you wanted?
Hunter: I never could. When I was in England, I used to ride a
great deal. When I was on a film, I would hunt. Anneli Drum
mond -Hay was a dear friend of mine. She'd won at Badminton
[Horse Trials] in 1963, and then she turned into a show jump
ing rider. Anneli was fabulous. In fact, it was her aunt that
raised whippets, and that's when I first fell in love with whip
pets. [Hunter owns two whippets, Olivia and Katie.]
SC: Did the agent Henry Willson pick Hunter or did you sug
gest that?
Hunter: Actually, there would be no Tab Hunter if it weren't
for Dick Clayton, my closest friend. I met him when I was a
stable boy. He's 90 years old now and was an agent for Jimmy
Dean, Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson-the list
goes on and on and on. He's like my brother, my father, my
mentor. When he was still an actor, he took me to my first
Broadway show. Dick introduced me to Henry Willson because
he wasn't an agent at the time. "We've got to tab you some
thing;' is what Henry said. And Dick said, "Well, he rides
hunters and jumpers." So I always say it could have been Tab
Jumper instead of Tab Hunter!
SC: If you could go back and do anything differently, what
would it be? Devoting your life completely to horses?
Hunter: At one point, I was ready to give up Hollywood and go
back to Virginia and horses.
SC: This was in the '70s?
Hunter: This was in the
'60s. Horses were so im
portant to me. I learned a
lot about people from
being around my horses.
I wasn't comfortable
around people. I was
comfortable around the
animals.
Tab Hunter Confidential:
The Making of a Movie
Star (Algonquin; $24.95),
by Tab Hunter with Eddie
Muller, was published Oc
tober 14 and is available in
bookstores nationwide. • by TAB HUNTER lNith EDDIE MULLER
SHOW CIRCUIT § FALL 2005