“I am Myra Breckinridge, whom no man will ever possess.” Thus opens Gore Vidal’s provocative, irreverent, satirical novel about Hollywood, starring the supremely self-confident transsexual Myra. Vidal wrote Myra Breckinridge in four weeks; it “poured out of me” he noted. That said, he also commented that he struggled to get the dialogue right. Then, halfway through, he realized that Myra had been Myron—which resolved his difficulties. It was a surprising bestseller.

20th Century Fox not only acquired the rights but also hired Vidal to adapt his novel to the screen. However, studio executives soon had cold feet: Vidal's adaptations were repeatedly rejected, and novice writer-director Michael Sarne was brought in to bring the film to the screen. The result was not a happy one. Unsurprisingly, Vidal disowned it, calling it “an awful joke.” While the outline of the novel is there, the broader implications of Myra’s story are missing. Considered now to be a camp classic with an outrageous cast that includes none other than Mae West, the film and its colorful excesses fail to capture the nuances of Vidal’s original.