Top 10 Biggest Old Hollywood Scandals 

Not mentioned: Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle/Virginia Rappe scandal.

Lupe Vélez and Judy Garland stories, and lack of safety on the sets

Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys

Was every old timey man a monster?!

Possibly the whole Woody Allen and Soon-yi Previn business. Excessively creepy situation and reeks of grooming. He has the image of a charmingly awkward sort, but that really shatters the fairly innocent perception one might have of him. Also all the blatant underage stuff in general.

Yes and became a succesful diplomatic woman!!!

So...even back then, Hollywood's filled with pedophilic creeps?

Well she also had a baby at that time and had a toxic marriage to John Agar, who was an alcoholic. So glad she met the love of her life and didn't fall into the dark side of child stars when they got older.

The videos of temple in baby hooker stories are available on you tube.

Child pornography!

forget the star... that entire film is a modern day safety nightmare. It's a damn good thing that it turned out as well as it did because it wasn't worth what its people went through

Let's no forget the dangers long time with cancer due the fake snow was toxic.

​@Manuel Tapia yep, that was straight up asbestos 😢

Those people at MGM should have been locked up for the way they treated Judy

Let us not forget that the original tin man had to be hospitalized because the original silver makeup was just terrible stuff.

Yes they deserved love and caring. I think some things don't change

It's actually a bit worse than the video makes it out to be, because the drug use was initiated by Judy's mother, though MGM certainly didn't discourage it.

"Abusive" doesn't begin to describe how the old Hollywood studio system treated actors, especially young actresses like Judy Garland and Elizabeth Taylor.

And the people who harmed them, prison time.

But her debauched, boozing and drug-taking life meant she died before she was old. She also looked ten years older than she actually was.

Me too

And saddly only was the starting of that!!!

Me too.

Same. It's different watching it now when you know what Judy went through. 😐

There was a documentary, that basically highlights that the entire film shoot was a dumpster fire. It is crazy to watch.

I'm I'm wondering where their parents were? They were the ones responsible for their children's safety and well being. Crazy.

I remember that my mom had the book, 𝑫𝒆𝒕𝒐𝒖𝒓 by Cheryl Crane, which was autobiographical and centered on her stabbing Johnny Stompanato to death when Cheryl was only 14. He was a small-time gangster who Cheryl apparently overheard threatening to kill her mother. It was considered Justifiable Homicide, but Cheryl was still sentenced to juvenile detention. I’d flip through it, and I did read some of it (ADD makes it REALLY DIFFICULT for me to read an entire book from cover to cover). I’ve always been very curious with and fascinated by old Hollywood.

It’s because the video was made by someone under 40 who seems like they just learned what old Hollywood was and made a lazy list of events that were not even known when they happened.

Speculation is the mom did it but the daughter copped to it to save her mom.

Me too

Yes! This was crazy!!

I love it how Judy cared about Marilyn. She understanded her problems because she has been through it also. They both deserved better❤

What? Really? I don't know that they know each other 😮

Fatty was framed. Poor man was destroyed by the very public he lived to entertain.

Bette was also said, in her day, to physically resemble Peg Entwistle. I've read that in a few places, and heard her say it in at least one interview.

I am a huge Bette Davis fan, but I never heard about this! Thanks for the info.

@@benkenobisgirl She's my second favorite actress after Katharine Hepburn.

It's been really fascinating for us to work on!

That should be number one! They got condemned by the Pope for crying out loud 😂

They need to make a part 2 to this

Scandals!😮😢

Contraception/pregnancy prevention wasn’t easily available or reliable back then. The contraceptive pill was made more available and reliable after the 1960s. Also, women were basically treated like they didn’t have reproductive choices or reproductive rights back then. Forced termination of pregnancy was part of the misogynistic patriarchal system in American society that treated women like cattle. It wasn’t just Hollywood that did that.

I'd really like to know who your dad's father was!

Joe McCarthy was RIGHT!

I had expected that to be in there... it reminds me of actors in the 18th and 19th century who would die of lead-poisoning because it was used in stage-make up and again, nobody realized the danger.

Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead, John Wayne, Dick Powell. Yes, over 200 on the set in Utah, 90 people, including Hayward, Moorehead, Wayne and Powell.. 46 of them died.. unfortunately the 4 aforementioned. ALL Great Actresses/ Actors, but Ms. Moorehead was my favourite!!!! 💜⚘️

I know, I was shocked that the Arbuckle Trial was not on here. That is the most well known Hollywood Scandal in history

It should’ve been number 1. It’s one of the big reasons the production code was put into effect.

Was expecting that to be on here!

@@sterlingross919 no it’s not, the Fatty incident happened more then a decade before the Hayes Code.

@@alexflowers97 You are correct. What I meant is that when the Production code was first introduced, Arbuckle's trial was considered one of the more prominent examples of the "moral decay" of hollywood. The trial also led to the beginning of Hollywood's self-censorship that eventually culminated in the Production code. I appreciate the Jean Harlow profile pic, btw. She's my favorite!

Hedy Lamar, most emphatically, did not have pale blue eyes.

Do you think that she's the spirit that people have seen near the Hollywood sign?

Actress June Allyson & Lana Turner's daughter Cheryl both spoke in TV interviews about witnessing abuse. Cheryl said Lana knew when she told her, but said "you don't talk about your coworkers in this industry". Christina's brother backed her story up. It's also mentioned in Kirk Douglas's autobiography that when dating Joan, he saw the children strapped to their beds at night. By the time she adopted the twins, the 2 older children were packed off to boarding school. Joan married a wealthy Pepsi exec so her declining career wasn't such an issue & she'd cut down on her drinking.

A lot more people confirmed her awful behavior. She had to buy her children because it was recognized she was a narcissist and unfit to be a mother.

She was a great actress but horrible mom.

I'm guessing that from her obsession to be an famous actress, and a perfectionist, and other narcissist behavior, she more than likely was abusive to her children, some woman are just too selfish to be a mother!

Yes. I've read that story too.

Great movie.😅

He made her a star. She was a television talent at best. None of his other leading ladies complained about him like she did.

@@tricivenola8164 What’s your point then? That she made it up? When she stood up to him he killed her career! Every other actress he worked with was probably terrified he’d do the same to them!

She's not considered 'old Hollywood'

Happened in 1981.

@@huchlvr Really?

@@freya8133 That's NOT 'old Hollywood'. OH is considered pre-1960.

He’s not “old Hollywood”.

@@missmayflower Sal Mineo's murder, then. Before Crane's, presumably by a rent boy.

He was found bludgeoned to death in 1978. His murder was never solved.

he never got many good acting jobs after Hogans heros, maybe a bit of type cast and his reputation for being a perv

It's technically unsolved, but anyone familiar with the case knows that his friend John Carpenter killed him (not the director).

Both FDR and Harry Truman despised Hoover and tried to fire him bit Hoover used blackmail on his political opponents.

@@michaelverbakel7632 not surprised

Rumor has it that Hoover was being blackmailed by the Mafia over his closeted "lifestyle"...

It should have been investigated! Much as I admire bad-ass women in history, if we reversed the genders and a male Hollywood star was shagging female schoolgirls, he would be kicked out of the country and tried for rape!

@@annoir It was a long time ago. They wouldn't have done it.

I agree - but I don't think that counts under "Old Hollywood". Having said that, I recognise you weren't saying that it did. Just clarifying in case of confusion 🙂

@@dontbefatuousjeffrey2494 there's a book called Hollywood Babylon published in 1959 that details past sorded events. Interesting reading.

@@captlazer5509 Yeah... the book itself is sordid. Kenneth Anger was pretty far from a reliable researcher - it's not exactly a respected book, I'm afraid 😕

And they're back doing it today with better technology. Extremely frightening.

Yes let's no forget that they forced take pills to Made her awake and to sleep imagine how damage done to her body!!!!

I think Vivian Leigh died in similar fashion, only difference, was that she was a few years older but still 😢

@@sdmurphy20 I remember reading that she died of tuberculosis, but you are right, like Judy she had several health problems.

Her drug addiction didn't exactly help her health.

@@sdmurphy20 Leigh had tuberculosis?

Loretta and Clark epitomize a lot of what was wrong with Hollywood. Myrna Loy was Clark’s best friend and closest confidante. You can see the love and affection they have for each other in how they look at each other. Genuinely platonic. She spoke about how much he hated the public role he was expected to play, to be the “man’s man,” yet behind closed doors, he loved to read poetry aloud. He was a soft-hearted man. He himself said he didn’t know why he was a big deal when he ate and slept and went to the bathroom like everyone else (he really said that-the *bathroom*). Yet he was expected to play a role at all times. Loretta was too, in a time when men were supposed to be aggressors and women were supposed to coyly refuse and then give in, as that made it more okay. You see, she didn’t *want* to, but my oh my, that big, handsome man won’t stop and so it must be okay. That kind of bullshit. And men were expected to play that part. You take a situation where real people are expected to live pubic lives that doesn’t match who they are, and it gets to be impossible even for them to know what’s real and what’s make-believe, even among themselves. James Dean and Marilyn Monroe are both known to have struggled severely enough with this that it contributed to their deaths. And that leads to a situation like Loretta and Clark, where they both had roles, where she really didn’t want to, but felt she had to, and he very likely didn’t know if it was real or pretend any more than she did. Keep in mind, the studio would order their stars to get married, and they did. Clark, while being seen as “the king of Hollywood,” wasn’t someone with the power to ruin her life, like a studio exec (in fact, the his studio would punish him if they thought he was getting difficult). The aftermath sucked. She felt understandably violated even though she couldn’t admit that at the time, didn’t want an abortion, had to go into hiding, and then Clark had to treat his own daughter like a stranger. There’s nothing to indicate he could have ignored his own child had he been given a free choice that wouldn’t harm real people. Clark is treated like a villain these days when the reality is an abusive system’s demands made them unable to tell what was real from what was just roles to play and that forced them to hide their real thoughts and feelings, even from each other. Combine that with already-toxic societal expectations, and it’s amazing we haven’t heard so much worse all the time. I really put the culpability on those in charge of the system, not on the people who likely played coy instead of saying No or the people who thought the truth was act. It was a fucked system, and Hollywood still does it today, especially with teenagers.

"Returned" a child? That poor child

I remember when Kit Culkin was barred from the Fox lot because he was so obnoxious. And his awful wife too. They had seven kids and worked them like dogs. One of them, I think it was Macauley, later famously sued them for "divorce." The only nice stage parent I ever heard of was George DiCaprio, a prince among men.

Mary Astor, the supposed ace fellatrix of Hollywood.

She never did an entire football team though.

Poor Clara was treated so poorly by her bosses, and was so maligned.

Especially in a dress and high heels.

He's not considered 'old Hollywood'.

1922 was pre Golden Age

That happened before "the golden age" they're talking about

She wasn't Old Hollywood. She was a 50s actress. Old Hollywood, for me, is 1930s and 1940s.

@@susi-emily She was in "It's a Wonderful Life." 1946

No she wont

wow...maybe there was a reason why Prince Rainier didn't want Grace to continue her acting career he must have known something but just didn't tell her

Genius filmmaker though.

Not "Hollywood", as is not to do with movies. Elizabeth Short wasn't an actress.

@@susi-emily She wasn't a SUCCESSFUL actress. But yes, she considered herself an actress. Google it.