Top 10 Biggest Old Hollywood Scandals of the 1940s
They're the Hollywood scandals that rocked the 40s. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’ll be looking at celebrity gossip and shocking stories that scandalized the public throughout the ‘40s.
Transcript
00:00 "We took a common decision that we would oppose this committee and that we would try and destroy it legally in the courts."
00:10 Welcome to Ms. Mojo, and today we'll be looking at celebrity gossip and shocking stories that scandalized the public throughout the 1940s.
00:18 "Warner Brothers had fallen behind in their payoffs and the district attorney at the time decided to make an example not only of Errol Flynn but of the entire studio system."
00:29 Number 10. Robert Mitchum's arrest.
00:32 "For a man who appears to be clever, you can certainly act like an idiot."
00:34 "That's one way to be clever. Look like an idiot."
00:37 In 1948, Robert Mitchum was at the height of his career.
00:40 After a string of successful movies that established him as a star of the film noir genre, Mitchum hit the headlines for a whole different reason.
00:48 Together with actress Lilla Leeds, he was busted for possession of marijuana at a party in the Hollywood Hills.
00:54 Mitchum admitted that he knew he quote "would get caught sooner or later" and that he felt he was quote "ruined."
01:00 "And I said it's too late Howard, you know it's already in the papers, therefore it's true. So if I beat it, it's gonna cause, it's gonna embarrass a lot of people."
01:11 The story was reported far and wide, but Mitchum's career survived the scandal.
01:16 He served most of a 50-day jail sentence at a prison farm in Los Angeles County before returning immediately to work.
01:22 "Well I couldn't play for instance Eagle Scouts or Baptist Preachers, but I'll tell you one thing, it certainly enlisted an enormous number of new fans."
01:37 Number 9. The de Havilland and Fontaine feud.
01:41 "A feud implies continuing hostile conduct between two parties. I can't remember an instance where I instigated hostile behavior."
01:52 Hollywood sisters Olivia de Havilland and Joan Fontaine won recognition and renown thanks to roles in a host of classic films, from Rebecca to Gone With the Wind.
02:01 However, they never shared the screen. This was reportedly due to a fierce sibling rivalry and strong dislike for one another.
02:09 "We were rivals long before we thought of being actresses. It was the way we were brought up and I'm sorry about it, I wish it hadn't been so."
02:18 Undoubtedly, it was blown out of proportion by the press, but by their own accounts, the sisters were established rivals.
02:25 According to Fontaine, the tensions were there almost from the beginning, with the two seemingly in competition with one another and constantly pointing fingers.
02:34 Whatever the truth of their relationship, the family feud was fuel for the Hollywood gossip and fascinated fans for years.
02:41 "He is a lion and I am a tigress and they don't get along."
02:46 8. Rita Hayworth and Prince Ali Khan
02:49 From Grace Kelly to Meghan Markle, a beautiful actress and a handsome prince always make headlines.
02:55 Rita Hayworth's relationship with Prince Ali Khan, a socialite and Pakistani diplomat, caused a wave of publicity across the globe.
03:02 "The prince was, in Rita's own words, magical. She said, 'We danced and we danced and we danced. I like to think we never stopped.'"
03:12 The couple met at Cannes in 1948 and married a year later. However, at the beginning of their relationship, Hayworth was still technically married to actor/director Orson Welles.
03:22 "Would your highness care to gamble?" "Gamble? She's done it for a living."
03:26 The marriage had broken down, but some fans still condemned Hayworth's perceived infidelity.
03:31 Plus, as the gossip columns never ceased to remind the public that Khan was a Muslim and a foreigner.
03:36 Despite the drama, the actress made a triumphant return to Hollywood in the early 1950s.
03:41 "You realize the fault isn't mine, that you are to blame. You want what you can't have, and you're all the same."
03:55 7. Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh
03:59 British actors Laurence Olivier and Vivian Leigh were at the height of their Hollywood careers when the news of their relationship broke.
04:05 "He was kind of like a shadow around the set. He'd sort of appear and disappear. The public would not look kindly on the fact that they were having an adulterous relationship. So it was kept very, very quiet."
04:20 Leigh was fresh from her Oscar-winning role in Gone With the Wind, while Olivier had recently starred as Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights.
04:27 Their affair began in 1937, and by 1940, they had each divorced their former spouses and married each other.
04:34 "Dear and foolish."
04:36 "Why foolish? You love me, don't you? Well then, it's settled."
04:49 In a letter to Leigh, Olivier wrote, quote, "We are a popular scandal, or rather a public one."
04:54 The adulterous beginnings were condemned by many, but their love story was ultimately tragic,
04:59 partly due to Leigh's struggles with her mental health.
05:01 Nevertheless, the pair became one of Hollywood's most iconic couples.
05:05 "Say that you could never leave me."
05:07 "I can never leave you."
05:08 Number 6. Frances Farmer's downward spiral.
05:12 In the 1930s, Hollywood actress Frances Farmer made a name for herself, both in theater and the movies.
05:18 She starred opposite some of the biggest names of the day, including Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, and Tyrone Power.
05:24 However, as the decade turned, her career began to suffer due to bouts of depression, erratic behavior, and alcohol use disorder.
05:31 "Your nerves are stretched tight, almost to the breaking point.
05:34 On the sound stages, your brilliant mind fails you now, and you become more and more uncooperative,
05:39 less and less competent. Resentment against you mounts in all quarters until no more parts are offered you."
05:46 In 1942, Farmer was arrested after she was pulled over and suspected of driving under the influence.
05:52 Over the next year, further charges followed, of assault, disorderly conduct, and resisting arrest.
05:58 "I didn't think then, and I still don't, that I was actually sick, but there were so many people who
06:05 seemed to think I was mentally ill that I just had to find out why, and find out whether it was my fault, what was happening."
06:11 She was eventually admitted to mental health hospitals, where she was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia,
06:17 and subjected to treatment. Although Farmer later returned to acting,
06:21 this period of her life became a major part of her legacy.
06:24 "I don't blame the hospital at all. I think they did everything in their power to
06:30 take care of the enormous number of people they had, but I really don't think it helped me much."
06:35 Number 5. Bogart and Bacall.
06:38 "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
06:44 [Whistling]
06:56 Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall first met on the set of To Have and Have Not in 1944.
07:01 She was a young girl from the Bronx taking on her first leading role. He was a 45-year-old married
07:07 man, raised on the Upper West Side and already established as one of Hollywood's biggest stars.
07:11 Within a year, the iconic duo were married. They remained so until Bogart's death in 1957.
07:17 "I was so mad about him that I just, I was like a fool, I was an idiot, you know, and I was,
07:23 and he, he was more than I ever thought I would ever have in my life."
07:29 The Casablanca actor and his previous wife had been dubbed, quote,
07:32 "the battling Bogarts" by the media, and the gossip columns eagerly followed the breakup
07:37 of their relationship. Bogart and Bacall, meanwhile, were soon hailed as one of
07:41 Hollywood's greatest love stories.
07:43 "Oh, I like that. Except, except for the beard. Why don't you shave and we'll try it again."
07:57 Number 4. The Berry Case and Charlie Chaplin's Final Marriage
08:01 An icon of the silent film era, Charlie Chaplin's popularity took a knock during the 1940s
08:07 as details of his torrid personal life began to hit headlines.
08:11 "The details of his sex life are just about as controversial and disturbing
08:15 as those of Harvey Weinstein's. But since he lived in an era when scandals were often covered
08:20 up by studio press agents and fixers, he got a free pass to do just about whatever he pleased."
08:25 Chaplin was married four times. He was in his late 20s when he married the much younger Mildred
08:30 Harris, his mid-30s when he wed an even younger Leta Gray, his late 40s with 21-year-old Paul
08:37ette Goddard, and finally, he tied the knot with Una O'Neill at the age of 54. At this time,
08:43 he was already embroiled in a scandalous paternity suit with a young actress named Joan Berry.
08:48 "Chaplin was arrested for immoral purposes under the Mann Act, having allegedly taken
08:52 Berry across state lines before seducing her. He was eventually acquitted,
08:56 but the establishment was gunning for his blood."
08:58 As the actor was suspected of communist leanings, the FBI fed information about the Berry case to
09:04 the press. When it was all over, Chaplin and O'Neill went on to have eight children together.
09:09 "I live with Una. The depth and beauty of her character are a continual revelation to me."
09:15 Number 3. The Hattie McDaniel Oscar Controversy
09:19 African-American actress Hattie McDaniel took home the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in
09:23 1939, making her the first black Oscar winner. "There's no question that the fact that she was
09:29 the first black, not just actor, but any kind of artist, to win an Academy Award was a real
09:35 milestone in the Academy's history and in film history."
09:39 But her triumph was not the breakthrough moment it should have been. She may have been applauded
09:44 for her stellar performance in Gone With the Wind, but she was barred from the Atlanta premiere,
09:48 along with all of her black castmates. Their images were also removed from all posters and
09:53 promotional materials in the South, which was still governed by the Jim Crow segregation laws.
09:58 "She lived in that parentheses of sanctioned discrimination. It was a dirty time in American
10:06 history." At the Oscars, McDaniel was seated at a separate table from the rest of the cast,
10:10 and was once again discriminated against when they went out afterwards to a white-only club.
10:15 The next black woman to win an Oscar would be Whoopi Goldberg in 1990.
10:20 "I tried to make sure that I can explain to people that there's a whole history where people
10:27 are not represented. And so we have to say we're trying to do better now."
10:34 Number two. Errol Flynn is taken to court.
10:37 "From this night on, I use every means in my power to fight you. Chicken!"
10:42 This infamous actor was best known for his swashbuckling roles in films such as The
10:47 Adventures of Robin Hood and Captain Blood. He also had a scandalous reputation as a womanizer.
10:53 In 1942, the dark side of Flynn's character was brought into the public's consciousness
10:58 when he found himself facing two separate charges of sexual assault. The trial was
11:02 highly publicized, and the two underage girls who had come forward were shown no mercy by Flynn's
11:07 defenders. "Gisela stacked the jury with sympathetic women and set out to destroy the
11:13 reputations of the two teenagers." Their characters were dragged through the mud, and the actor was
11:18 eventually acquitted. One of the victims later described how the jury had looked adoringly at
11:23 Flynn, quote, "as if he was their son or something." "I hate him more than anyone else in the world."
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11:45 Number one. The Hollywood Ten.
11:47 During the 1940s and 50s, a red scare swept America, promoted by Senator Joseph McCarthy,
11:53 among others. Fear and propaganda led to the persecution of many left-leaning individuals,
11:58 in government and beyond. "Our industry was under attack. Every headline, every newscast,
12:06 even newsreels, was blazing the news that Hollywood movies were filled with secret
12:12 communist propaganda. And there was a panic in the industry." In Hollywood, an entertainment
12:18 industry blacklist barred many creatives from working, due to their political affiliations,
12:23 whether real or suspected. In the fall of 1947, a group of writers and directors who refused to
12:29 testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee were charged with contempt of court,
12:34 fined, and jailed. "Why didn't we avoid all this? Why didn't we answer the questions yes or no,
12:40 as the committee demanded? Because we wanted to challenge the right of the committee to ask such
12:46 questions." This group, who became known as the Hollywood Ten, were fired from their jobs,
12:51 ostracized from Hollywood, and used as an example to others who refused to toe the line. The
12:56 blacklist finally ended in 1960, but many careers had been irreparably damaged. "The blacklist
13:04 was a time of evil, and no one who survived it came through untouched by evil."
13:14 [Music]