The one that caused the biggest scandal, however, occurred when she lost her third husband to a plane crash in 1957, and she found comfort in the arms of his old friend, Eddie Fisher. Freddie Prinze. Like many producers back in the day, Cohn was ruthless in demanding sexual favors from the actresses in his employ. Taylor's marriage to Eddie . In her own lifetime, she was hailed as a legendary actress, until she became better known for a scandal which shocked a society that was hooked on Bergman’s wholesome cinematic persona. September 19th, 2016 By Krysta Fitzpatrick. The small-town stars had Hollywood appetites! She spoke in a deep, clear voice and was unshaken by the aggressive cross-examination. Apparently, in 1935, film company MGM was blackmailed into paying $100,000 for the footage, following which the single existing copy was destroyed. Dylan Brown - Film Director, Animator. Acting opposite Marlon Brando in a 1955 musical, Sinatra mocked Brando’s new method acting as “crap” and even nicknamed Brando “Mumbles” for his manner of speech. However, that all changed in 1919 when an accident on the set of The Valley of the Giant caused Reid to live with such pain that he eventually became addicted to morphine. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, one woman decided that there was truly no such thing as bad press. Before Superman ever got his own movie, George Reeves played the legendary hero in an old television serial. Ruben Studdard was crowned the winner of "American Idol" season two, but the star only won the vote by about 130,000, according to Reality TV World. This meant that Presley only desired young girls who hadn’t had any sexual experience which could put pressure on himself. Sordid stories and whispered scandals reached their fever pitch in the golden age of Hollywood, when puritanical public morales masked hidden affairs and the rampant sexuality of the stars. 9 of Hollywood's Biggest Acts of Hypocrisy: China, #MeToo, Guns, Climate Change, and More. But whenever she tried to leave, they had violent arguments. Consider these stories, for examples. Rumors blamed her lover, Roland West, for murdering her, and even claimed that he’d confessed to her murder on his deathbed. © Copyright 2021 by Factinate.com. Join thousands of others and start your morning with our Fact Of The Day newsletter. West herself didn’t let it phase her, proudly proclaiming her support for LGBTQ rights by defying the censors of the time. The most persistent rumor to plague legendary “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” actress Joan Crawford throughout her career was that she starred in a sex tape when she was starting out in Hollywood. The Gay Sex Lives of Hollywood's Golden Age Stars Revealed in New Documentary Also: Parker Posey on whether the original Dr. Smith was gay! He was 24 when he died, having only performed in three films, two of which hadn’t even hit theatres yet. Although Catherine's successor Queen Anne Boleyn suffered an infamously dark fate, Aragon's own life was somehow even more tragic. One of the alleged victims was quoted as saying, “[The jury] just sat and looked adoringly at him as if he was their son or something.”, In the 1920s (and for a long time after), bisexuality was a dirty word in Hollywood. ONSCREEN she was the wholesome wise-cracking teenager with a talking cat and a tendency to cause havoc with magic spells.But away from the cameras Melissa Joan Hart - star of Sabrina the Teenage Witch - was a party animal who snogged girls at the Playboy mansion and got high on ecstasy. Comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was at a party with an unknown actress, Virginia Rappe, and they ended up in a hotel bedroom together. The Olympics are a time for the world to come together, but they're also a time left wide open for scandal. ", In her autobiography, Astor wrote that the press "had a Roman holiday" with the fake diary. Mindful of how this scandal would only draw further attention to herself, West decided to take advantage of the publicity. This is Confidential's story, detailing how the magazine revolutionized celebrity culture and American society in the 1950s and beyond. The move damaged transatlantic ties and, in particular, hit France as Australia . Hollywood Babylon. Small wonder that she went through a meltdown on Some Like it Hot. Leigh Davenport. Sex symbols were all discouraged from getting married, and getting pregnant was a definite no-no. You decide. His three films from that time have become highly acclaimed war pictures, though two of them were censored by the army for the touchy subject matter which Huston examined. On the last day of filming the movie Dodsworth (1936) at MGM, Astor was called into producer Sam Goldwyn's office. Hardy was the bully and Laurel was his bumbling straight man. Today, stars like Jodie Foster, Barry Manilow and Kristin Stewart maintain . Even back in Golden Age, juicy Hollywood scandals were just as common as today. Only three people were present to welcome Riefenstahl to the US, but none other than Walt Disney happened to be one of them. He impregnated the teenaged Lita Grey (whom Chaplin had first become interested in when he’d met her as a twelve-year-old). Therefore, the term “lavender wedding” came into being—a sham wedding with a partner which would serve purely to avoid suspicious talk. In the 1930s, adultery was cause for outrage—especially if committed by a woman. One persistent fact which people point to in the mystery of George Reeves’ death is that he died shortly after an affair with the wife of known Hollywood “fixer” Eddie Mannix—the kind of man who would arrange for shady things to be resolved behind closed doors. With such a star-studded cast and crew at the wheel, you’d be amazed at how this well-made film destroyed the people who made it. University of Nevada / Las Vegas University / Sands Hotel Collection. This was back in the days when rehab was an unacceptable scandal, so the studio swept the issue under the rug and did all they could to hide Reid’s substance abuse. Episode 10: Follies of 1938, Chapter 2: Kay Francis, Pretty Poison. Whether he was or wasn’t, it’s telling that Disney was the only studio head to meet with Riefenstahl. The judge banned him from Los Angeles. However, this position in Hollywood created a public which was eager to believe anything about this gorgeous starlet. Despite strong sales, West drew the ire of religious groups, whose protests led to the police raiding the theatre and arresting the cast, including West herself. Wood, age 43, was on a boat ride with her husband, actor Robert Wagner, and her “Brainstorm” co-star and rumored lover, Christopher Walken. But they used their squeaky-clean act to fool America and mask their twisted real lives! Zachery Ty Bryan, an actor best known for playing one of Tim Allen's kids on the ABC sitcom Home Improvement, is in police custody for allegedly strangling his 27-year-old girlfriend. From petty paybacks to insane acts of karma, these bitter people somehow found the most ingenious ways…. Astor wrote in brown ink which, at a distance, took on a purplish hue. When the judge ruled the diaries couldn't be admitted as evidence, Thorpe's lawyers released excerpts to the press. Silent movie star Pola Negri gave photographers everything they could ask for at the funeral for her lover, Rudolph Valentino. The story was used in an episode of FX’s show “Feud,” which was about Crawford. Astor later said she was pretending to be Edith Cortright, her character from Dodsworth. 1. Sex fixer to the stars lifts lid on scandal in Hollywood's golden age Scotty Bowers has kept quiet for 60 years but now, at 88, he's talking about bedding the biggest screen icons of the day Gun control is imperative, lockdowns are necessary, and burning fossil fuels is wrong. The incident remains one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of all time. Coogan sued them for the money in 1938, but after he paid his legal fees, he was left with only $126,000. Lang recovered in the hospital, Wanger served four months in jail, and Bennett’s career took a nosedive. From adulterous affairs yielding secret children to hotel break-ins and secret gun deals, scandal has always followed American politicians. Catherine of Aragon was King Henry VIII’s first wife and longest-lasting Queen of England. One of them, Let There Be Light, focused on PTSD and the psychological damage found in war veterans. According to IMDb, the film, known as “The Casting Couch,” showed aspiring actors and actresses at a Hollywood party, where they act out scenes from different movies. The great Myrna Loy was rumored to be a lesbian or bisexual, but there are those on DL who refute that. Davis backed down. Whatever the reason, we can all rest assured that Hollywood will always have more and more scandals cooking up for us. As a result, the story of him and the women he encountered is about not only the murkier shades of golden-age Hollywood, but also the ripples that still slither across today’s entertainment industry and our culture in general. American Idol has seen scandals ranging from racial allegations, eligibility concerns, affairs, and unfair contracts in the 19 seasons of the show. A more twisted rumor claimed that Turner hadn’t actually been threatened by Stompanato; she’d actually caught him in bed with her daughter! Martin "Marty" Weiss. At one point, sales executive David Ross and an accomplice sexually assaulted Douglas after forcing her to get drunk. In 1936, he married 21-year-old Paulette Goddard. Mannix ensured that the studio Ross worked for was never mentioned in the reports to suppress a scandal. The funnyman was charged with manslaughter but was eventually cleared after three trials. She was my shield.". The Biggest Scandals of the '90s There have been many vocal critics of the 58-year-old actor's apology, but MacFarlane is one celeb that has kept silent about the statement on social media. One of Clift’s last films was The Misfits, which was a commercial failure at the time, but which has since gotten a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. She was said to have slept with men and women, taken part in an orgy with the USC football team, and even performed bestiality. By the time filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl arrived in the United States in 1938, Nazi Germany had already launched its horrific assault on the Jewish population. Mabel Normand. For the first time, Tippi shares the entire story of her complicated relationship with Hitchcock, the man who discovered her talent but also became her obsessive tormentor. When she was arrested for corrupting the morals of America’s youth with her play Sex, Mae West was sentenced to ten days in prison, with the option of paying a fine instead of serving time. Clift’s career fizzled out after just a couple more movies, and five years after The Misfits was made, Clift was told by a friend that it was airing that night on television. Astor wouldn't be intimidated. One of the most famous examples of a famous Hollywood figure engaging in a lavender marriage to protect himself was Rock Hudson. I am unhappy and bored with him." Matt Barnes Tattooed Anansa Sims' Name On His Body. He was 24 when he died, having only performed in three films, two of which hadn’t even hit theatres yet. Do you question the accuracy of a fact you just read? Crawford played an amateur actress named Gloria. Young ended up leaving the country for an “extended holiday,” took the baby to an orphanage in California, then returned sometime later to “adopt” her biological child. When Douglas tried to press charges, MGM turned to their fixer, Eddie Mannix. Sunset Boulevard, the 1950 film noir classic directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, did a lot to change that and other myths of old Hollywood-like the real-life murder at the heart of the story. The three adults, including Mansfield, were instantly killed, while the sleeping children in the rear of the car suffered only minor injuries. 21 of 21. He was known to have sleepovers with his young clients and would insert himself fully into . 120. The press soundly criticized Sinatra’s actions, tarnishing his once-reasonably wholesome reputation permanently. It would be the last car ride of her life, as just before 2:30 AM, the car crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer, having failed to notice the trailer slowing down. These Old Hollywood scandals give another insight into what life, love and illicit liaisons were like for yesterday’s biggest stars of the stage and screen. "Our life was a series of explosions, usually over minor things," Astor wrote in her autobiography. 14 Nicole Brown Simpson & Ronald Goldman. He would receive two posthumous Oscar nominations, a record that nobody is likely to beat—we hope. Kennedy thus canceled a 1962 stay at Sinatra’s Palm Springs mansion, going to rival singer Bing Crosby’s house instead. “Although I didn’t want to find out the truth, I had to face up to it,” Reynolds said. 8. Found insideHere for the first time is the incredible true story of its making. In Sam Wasson's telling, it becomes the defining story of the most colorful characters in the most colorful period of Hollywood history. Riefenstahl’s own documentary Triumph of the Will, which filmed and glorified a huge Nazi rally held by Adolf Hitler at Nuremberg, had already come out and was well-known worldwide. Guinness allegedly warned Dean that “If you get in that car, you will be found dead in it by this time next week.” Guinness’ prediction proved horrifyingly accurate when Dean died seven days later. 1. During their time together on the film, Young became impregnated by Gable—clearly, a situation that’s ripe for scandal. Their extramarital affair (Gable was married to Maria Langham at the time) produced a daughter, Judy. Can you imagine if they’d been successful? John Huston was a legendary filmmaker who wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed and influential American films of all time, including The Maltese Falcon and The African Queen. century. Olivia Benson on, John Huston was a legendary filmmaker who wrote and directed some of the most acclaimed and influential American films of all time, including, Old Hollywood, like the rest of Western civilization at the time, was very cruel towards people who identified as LGBTQ—well, at least, slightly crueler than in the 21st. Here are Hollywood's biggest stars as they never wanted you to know them--all behaving very, very badly. But the truth is, Hollywood was never as glamorous as many of us tend to believe. Found insideThis is the gift book of the season for fans of classic Hollywood. American Idol: The Biggest Scandals In The History Of The Show. Aside from acting, Dean also had a passion for cars and driving as fast as possible. But intensive research by author and film historian Diana McLellan uncovered evidence of a possible affair during the filming of the 1925 silent German film “The Joyless Street.”. Mary Astor (at her best in bed), Fred Astaire (a terrible dancer in public), Greta Garbo ( a big fan of skinny-dipping), and . Before he made his directorial debut, a young Huston was busy trying to make it as a screenwriter when he struck dancer Tosca Roulien with his car, killing her. Harry Cohn was one of the big-time producers in Old Hollywood, actually serving as the inspiration for the movie mogul character Jack Woltz in The Godfather. In 1995, former President Bill Clinton began having an affair with a then-21-year-old Monica Lewinsky, who was an unpaid White House intern. Her unprofessionalism on that film set has become the stuff of legends, with Monroe showing up hours late to the production and constantly flubbing her lines, which led to breakdowns on Monroe’s part. In absence of the real diary, the press published excerpts from a pornographic forgery, which included the rumor that Astor rated her lovers on a scorecard. Caroline Praderio . 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