In the Oscar-winning musical The Broadway Melody, Turpe (played by Drew Demorest) is a gay costume designer who loves and is proud of his work.
If he always seems agitated, it is because he feels that his work is not taken seriously enough, orperhaos it is due to his queerness–he’s a sissy!
One woman associates his queerness with lavender, which was a code for beimng gay at the time.
Many gay characters are associated with lavender in early films–or seen wearing the color in later movies-0as a way to label them as queer.
The film was released during Hollywood’s pre-code era, in which queer characters existed on screen.
Later, in the summer of 1934, they would be banned by the Hays Code (which had already existed, but wasn’t fully enforced yet).
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