Top 10 Biggest Old Hollywood Scandals
#10: The Way Tallulah Bankhead Lived Her Life
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If Bankhead was around today, she’d be the celebrity we’d all be “keeping up with.” Her personal life garnered plenty of attention, especially her candidness in discussing sex and sexuality. The actress boasted many male and female partners and apparently once accepted a film role just to bed actor Gary Cooper. Bankhead had four abortions and was 31 when she had a hysterectomy. The MI5 also investigated her alleged entanglements with male Eton students. Additionally, she was very open about her substance use. It’s worth noting that the actress came from a distinguished political family in Alabama. Although she ruffled many feathers, she was too busy living her best life to care.
#9: Clark Gable’s Secret Love Child
While filming the 1935 flick “Call of the Wild,” Gable’s co-star Loretta Young became pregnant, rumoredly with his child. However, Gable was married then, and Young worried that if the studio found out, they’d force her to terminate and ruin both their careers. Young disappeared for a while and kept the baby hidden for about 19 months, eventually claiming to have adopted the child. However, the infant shared her dad’s features, and Young even had her ears surgically pinned back to hide the likeness. Years later, Young’s daughter-in-law Linda Lewis shared that a 1998 episode of “Larry King Live” led Young to understand that her child had been conceived during a non-consensual interaction.
#8: Peg Entwistle [aka Hollywood Sign Girl] Struggled with the Pressures of Hollywood
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In September of 1932, a woman went hiking near the famous Hollywood sign. She came across a jacket, a shoe and a purse containing a note. Sadly she soon spotted the lifeless owner of the items, British actress Peg Entwistle, further down the mountain. Initially a Broadway actress, Entwistle headed to Los Angeles after scoring roles in Romney Brent’s play “The Mad Hopes” and later the feature, “Thirteen Women” — the latter marked her (posthumous) film debut. Shortly after being told that RKO wouldn’t be renewing her contract, Entwistle told her uncle, who she was living with, that she was going to the drugstore and then meeting some friends. Instead, she climbed the Hollywood sign and tragically ended her life. She was subsequently nicknamed the “Hollywood Sign Girl” by tabloids.
#7: J. Edgar Hoover Kept Tabs on Celebrities
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Having the top job in the FBI comes with significant power and responsibility. Mr. Hoover apparently prioritized keeping tabs on anyone he deemed might hold “un-American,” a.k.a Communist values. Sure, it’s the FBI’s job to protect their country, but not all of Hoover’s intentions were supposedly rooted in patriotism. Apparently, he kept personal files on high-profile individuals to use as blackmail. In some cases, he allegedly even deliberately leaked information. Some notable subjects include Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe, Walt Disney, and Marlene Dietrich. It wasn’t just Hollywood A-Listers he tracked either, leading some to believe this fodder helped him hold onto his job for so long. The files were destroyed very quickly after his passing.
#6: Fatal Working Conditions
As you may have guessed, health and safety weren’t exactly top priorities back in the day. The movie-making world of 1925 to 1930 was reportedly linked to almost 11,000 injuries, 55 of which were fatal, in California. Howard Hughes, director of the 1930 flick, “Hell’s Angels,” wanted the film’s aerial shots to be both believable and spectacular and paid a great deal to pull it off. And no, we don’t just mean the millions of dollars it cost. Hughes, an aviation enthusiast and a record-breaking pilot, decided to perform one of the film’s most dangerous stunts himself. This resulted in a fractured skull, and he had to undergo surgery. However, a mechanic and three stunt pilots paid the ultimate price for Hughes’ vision.
#5: William Randolph Hearst’s Yacht Party Ends in Tragedy
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In 1924, prolific Hollywood silent filmmaker Thomas H. Ince died after attending William Randolph Hearst’s Yacht party. Rumors began to swirl around the mysterious circumstances of his untimely demise. One account suggests that Hearst believed his partner, Marion Davies, was also involved with the silent movie legend Charlie Chaplin. Side note: she had also reportedly been linked to Ince. In jealousy, Hearst intended to shoot Chaplin but got the wrong guy. We’re sure that story sold many papers, but it’s probably untrue. The more likely story is that Ince suffered from ill health, and perhaps this night of raucous partying was too much for his weak heart to bear.
#4: The Mysterious Circumstances of George Reeves’ Death
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According to LAPD reports, on June 16, 1959, the “Superman” actor suffered a fatal gun wound. The official report stated that it was self-inflicted. After hanging up his superhero cape, Reeves apparently struggled personally while looking for work. However, many believed there was foul play, and some pointed fingers at his fiancee, Leonore Lemmon. Lemmon and her guests reportedly waited 45 minutes before calling the cops after hearing the gunshot. Actor Fred Crane supposedly stated that Lemmon returned to the room, saying, “Tell them I was down here.” Another theory is that Hollywood bigwig Eddie Mannix ordered a hit on Reeves, who allegedly had an affair with his wife, Toni Lanier. But with no fingerprints on the weapon, this mystery remains unsolved.
#3: Charles Chaplin’s Problematic Marriages (Especially His 2nd Divorce)
Chaplin was married four times, and two of his brides were minors. His second wife, Lillita MacMurray, a.k.a Lita Grey, was in her mid-teens when they started dating. They quickly married in 1924 to avoid a scandal and keep Chaplin out of prison after she became pregnant. In 1927, during their divorce proceedings, Grey claimed that Chaplin had tried to force her into an abortion. She also described the “revolting, degrading, and offensive” way he treated her. Grey was awarded the then unusually large divorce settlement of $825,000, and Chaplin’s career never really recovered. This wasn’t his only scandal, either. In the early 1950s, the actor moved to Switzerland after the U.S. denied him re-entry over his political beliefs.
#2: MGM’s Treatment of Judy Garland
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Judy Garland appeared in dozens of movies for MGM. Back then, child labor laws weren’t really adhered to. Instead, the studio forced her to take “pep pills” to keep her energized during long shoots— these were also used to control her weight. While filming “The Wizard of Oz,” various studio executives would body shame the actress, driving her further toward a reliance on these substances. Garland won a special Academy Award for her performance as Dorothy Gale and was launched into stardom, becoming her generation’s “girl next door.” But at what cost? Supposedly this was the catalyst for the substance use disorder that would tragically take her life.
Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
The Infamous Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher & Elizabeth Taylor Love Triangle
How Would You Feel if Your Husband & Close Friend Were Hooking Up Behind Your Back?
Marilyn Monroe & the Kennedy Brothers
It’s Believed That Monroe Was Involved with John & Robert Kennedy, But the Lack of Evidence Has Raised a Few Eyebrows
Alfred Hitchcock’s Treatment of Tippi Hedren
The Actress Believes the Movie Maker Tried to Punish Her for Rejecting His Moves on Her
Child Star Jackie Coogan Sued His Parents for Keeping His Millions in Income for Themselves
After Legal Fees, He Was Left with $126,000, but His Case Prompted The California Child Actors Bill
Walt Disney Takes Nazi Propaganda Creator Leni Riefenstahl on a Tour of the Disney Lot
He Was in the Minority of Those Who Didn’t Boycott Her Visit & Even Showed Her “Fantasia” Storyboards
#1: Multiple Stars Were Coerced into Terminating Pregnancies
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Back in the day, it was almost like an unspoken rule that the birth of a child meant the death of a career. Ava Gardner, who terminated two pregnancies, wrote in her 1990 autobiography, “MGM had all sorts of penalty clauses about their stars having babies.” This procedure was not yet legal to the average American woman, yet film studios readily used them to control their female stars. Or, as one unnamed source put it, “Abortions were our birth control.” Apparently, in some cases they also added clauses giving them the right to decide when or even whether their stars could marry. Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Dorothy Dandridge, and more were all victims of the studios’ rules.
