Brasselle was known throughout Hollywood for his brash, cocky, overbearing manner; he'd hoped to get his big break by starring in The Eddie Cantor Story in 1953, but the film was so bad (and Brasselle's performance even worse) that his movie career was finished before it really began. In 1963, without any prior experience in the field, Brasselle was suddenly named to producer status at CBS, and three of his expensive projects were given prestigious slots in the 1963-64 season. All failed miserably, including his own Keefe Brasselle Show, which was ridiculed as a masterpiece of mediocrity.
Oh, incidentally, Brasselle and CBS president James Aubrey were inseparable buddies at the time.
Aubrey's sobriquet, "The Smiling Cobra," was apparently well-deserved: not simply a ruthless executive, Aubrey seemed to take sadistic delight in purposely being cruel to others, particularly the cast and crews of shows he cancelled. A notorious womanizer, rumors swirled about his physical mistreatment of his many girlfriends.
So, were the real-life Aubrey and Brasselle involved? No one involved is still alive; but it's a tantalizing mystery nonetheless. Their thick and fast friendship certainly was curious to even casual onlookers: there were never two more polar opposites. And for all her sensationalism, Jackie Susann was a gal who probably knew more true dirt on the subjects of her romans a clef than they would care to admit.
Our fascination with this proposed liason stems from two facts: 1) Gossip about who was gay or bisexual in Old Hollywood makes us wet ourselves; and 2) We think James Aubrey was sexy in that totally early 1960's Mad Men kind of way.
So sue us.
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