By Dale Olson

(Editor's note: Dale Olson is the legendary Hollywood press agent who counted among his clients Laurence Olivier, Steve McQueen, Gene Kelly, Shirley MacLaine, and Rock Hudson. In honor of the 25th anniversary of AIDS, Olson spoke at length with IN Los Angeles magazine about how Hudson, the closeted Hollywood leading man, dealt with having AIDS in 1985, becoming a hero of AIDS awareness. Olson represented Hudson for six years until his death on Oct. 2, 1985. Olson, who is also deeply involved with The Actor's Fund, is currently writing a memoir.)

Rock and I became very friendly. He was very dependent upon me for advice so we talked every single day and saw each other almost every day ... But I had no idea that he had been going [to UCLA Medical Center] to have certain treatments. But what I did observe was that he was losing a lot of weight. He was not the same jocular Rock Hudson that I knew. And one day I said, “Rock do you have AIDS?” He said, “Of course not. I'm anorexic and I'm trying to get rid of that. I'm not eating and I'm not doing well. And they can't seem to find out what it was.” I accepted that, if for no other reason than I think I wanted to accept it, just the way everybody else would have.

One day he called me all excited because Doris Day [with whom Hudson starred in “bedroom” comedies in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s] had called and wanted him to do this show. And I said, “You can't do it.” By that time I was pretty sure that I knew what was happening but I did not confront it again. He said, “No, I have to do this. Doris wants me and I really want to do this.” We argued, but I could not win. He had just finished doing Dynasty and he was still looking quite good. But nobody had seen him since.

Rogers & Cowen was handling Doris Day's show for Christian Broadcasting and they wanted to do a press conference ... I said, “Rock, I don't think you should do it.” He asked why? I said, “Because you look terrible.” He said, “It's our reunion and I want to do it.”

He was in very bad shape when we took a little plane to go to Carmel [for the press conference]. He was barely able to talk and moving with difficulty. We arrived late. Doris was already speaking to the press. There was an audible gasp as we walked into the room. Rock looked ravaged. But not one journalist asked him if he was ill. They protected his privacy. They didn't know it was AIDS at the time. But they knew something was wrong.

Doris was amazing. The look on her face and in her eyes when we walked in was disbelief and then she reverted to being an actress ... [Later] I spoke to Doris and said, “Look we have a problem here. I need you to have breakfast with Rock and talk to him because he needs help and he does not want to face this.” She said, “I can see it. I understand.”

That breakfast lasted, I think, four hours. Afterward, we went to the hotel. We were going to have dinner -- then he asked me to come over for a drink. I walked in and the fire was going and he had six vodkas on the rocks, which is my drink, and six scotches on the rocks, which is Rock's drink, and that night he told me the whole story and his problems and he admitted that he had been infected. We talked about that and we talked about his life and we talked about what was going to happen and I said we would try to work through this. The next day he got up at six and started working on the first episode for the series. He worked for probably an hour and then had to rest and Doris accommodated that.

Rock maintained constantly that he was not aware of when, how, or who had infected him. But hearsay, not direct conversation, was that he was highly active sexually. No one has ever been able to determine exactly what happened.

On the plane returning to Los Angeles, he turned to me and said, “I'm going to Paris tomorrow for treatments because Doris has insisted that I go and she's talked me into going.” He said he was going to the Pasteur Institute. I asked him if that's where he went when we were at the film festival [the year before] and he disappeared for an hour every day. He said, “Yes, I was going for treatments and now I'm going back.” I asked why he hadn't gone before this. He said, “I was afraid that somebody would find out and I just didn't want this to be public.” I said, “OK, we're still going to try to keep this from the public,” and I issued a statement saying Rock Hudson was going to Paris for treatments for liver cancer. It wasn't incorrect in that he did have liver cancer, but [without the statement] he would not have left his home. He wanted to protect his image.

And we wouldn't have done it [announced Hudson had AIDS] except on the day of his arrival in Paris when he checked into the Ritz Hotel, he collapsed in the lobby. They took him to the American Hospital and a day after I got a telephone call from Mark Miller, his secretary, saying, “The hospital discovered that Rock has AIDS and they're furious because they hadn't been told.” And as a result, when they were examining him, they were not cognizant of fluids. They accused us of lying and endangering medical personnel, insisting that we announce he had AIDS and if we didn't, they would. So I almost panicked. But he was protected from the media at the hospital.

He was alert and aware that he was very ill. I told him what was happening. He didn't say anything. I told him, “it's going to be terrible. I hired a very well known Parisian publicist and wrote her statement: “We are very sorry to announce that Rock Hudson has acquired immune disease and is undergoing treatment at the American Hospital in Paris. We have no further information at this time.” Very simple. She read the statement, and then she said, “But he has been cured!”

I fell on the floor. This is not a curable disease. How can you say that? The hospital tried to give their statement through her -- that he was being treated with so and so -- and she thought that meant he was cured.

Well, that created a huge thing so I had to have my own press conference and that became my life for six or eight months. But this involved a disease that nobody understood, that involved what some people would call lewd behavior. This was going to be ugly. Rock and I talked back and forth until finally I said, “Rock, I don't know what to say to you. But all of this has happened in the late stages of the disease. I've had long conversations with Dr. Gottlieb and there's no cure for this disease. And I think you probably know this -- but I'm going to say it: You're going to die. And if you're going to die, let's turn this around. Let's turn you into a hero who is going to help many, many other people.” He said, “Sure. But how?” I said, “You're going to have to admit this. The whole world is going to have to understand that up to now, this disease has been ignored because they've called it the gay disease. But they've proved that this is a sexual disease that can attack anybody, regardless of who you are and how prominent you are, how wealthy you are. You're going to be the person who's going to make people pay attention because you're the first major international celebrity who's gotten this. And if Rock Hudson, who has everything in the world and the ability to get any kind of medical treatment you want -- and that's not going to help -- then let's get some money for AIDS research and let's get something done.” And he said, “Yes, I want to do that” [But, he said] “issuing statements is not enough. You have to let people know you're speaking for Rock Hudson.”

I did research so I knew what I was talking about. And I only did 20/20 with Barbara Walters because I didn't want it to look like a planned publicity campaign. My message was to the public to get behind this and to government officials and Mr. President -- it's time you recognize what this is and give some money for medical research and end this scourge. Rock Hudson is dying for you. I know that sounds corny and dramatic. But I wanted that message out and so did he.

Then I got a telephone call from President Reagan. There had been no word from the White House about AIDS, even though AIDS had been around for four years at that time. So I got the call asking how Rock was and -- we knew each other -- and he said, “I don't know very much about AIDS but I've been hearing you on television and I know that Rock is very sick. How sick is he? And just what does this mean? And can I talk to him?”

I said, “Well, it's much more serious than you realize, Mr. President. A lot has to be done and frankly I'm so glad you are interested because it has to be done by people like you. You have to give us some money. You have to have Congress give us some money for research.”

I arranged for when Rock was going to be alerted and they talked, apparently for about 20 minutes, on the phone. That's a lot for a presidential call. I think he also spoke with doctors at the hospital so he got to see for himself that this was a most severe situation. I'm not sure that [the U.S. Department of] Health and Human Services really cared, to be perfectly honest. I think they all thought that this was a gay disease and to be very blunt about it, I think there were a vast number of people who very likely thought it's going to get rid of a lot of gay people who we really shouldn't have around anyway. The people with the power were ignoring it. They were sweeping it under a rug and I didn't want it swept under a rug. I was talking about my friend and if it could happen to him -- I could happen to anybody.

Shortly after [Reagan spoke with Hudson] the White House announced that the government was setting aside $40 million for AIDS research -- the first money to come out of the government. And that all came about because of Rock Hudson, because his ability was such that people began to understand that this was a disease that had to be looked after.

After that a lot happened. People rallied and demanded that something be done. Fund-raisers were held. Elizabeth Taylor said she wanted to start a foundation. That was great. Elizabeth came to the house every single day. She would sit with Rock and talk with him over dinner. She was valiant. She was really devoted. [Rock donated $250,000 to start a research foundation that was eventually merged with AmFAR.]

Rock Hudson was a hero of AIDS awareness because, when confronted with his death from this terrible scourge, he willingly and enthusiastically agreed to have his story be the focal point of making people aware that AIDS could hit anybody in the world. If he was going to die, he wanted to make his death worthwhile.