Random Old Hollywood Scandals That History Forgot (16 items)

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  (#6) Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, And Judy Garland Had Studio-Pressured Abortions

  In old Hollywood, the studios controlled the lives of actors, and they strongly believed a bombshell couldn't get married or, most especially, pregnant. When Jean Harlow became pregnant during an affair with William Powell, the studio arranged for her to enter a hospital under a pseudonym to "get some rest." 

  Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Judy Garland, Tallulah Bankhead, Jeanette McDonald, Lana Turner, and Dorothy Dandridge all had abortions arranged by the studios, often against their wishes. To quote Vanity Fair:

  "In the 1930s, vamp and man-eating thespian Tallulah Bankhead got 'abortions like other women got permanent waves,' biographer Lee Israel quips in Miss Tallulah Bankhead. When virtuous singing sensation Jeanette McDonald found herself pregnant in 1935, MGM studio boss Louis B. Mayer told Strickling to 'get rid of the problem.' McDonald soon checked into a hospital with an 'ear infection,' according to Fleming’s The Fixers."
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  (#2) Errol Flynn Stood Trial For Statutory Rape

  In 1943, Errol Flynn, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the late 1930s and early '40s, best known for roles in swashbuckling pictures like Robin Hood and Captain Blood, stood trial for statutory rape. 

  Flynn, once quoted as saying "I like my whiskey old and my women young," was accused of sleeping with two 17-year-old girls. He denied the charges, and his lawyers worked hard to turn the jury against the accusers. After he was found not guilty, one accuser was quoted as saying:  "[The jury] just sat and looked adoringly at him as if he was their son or something."

  The scandal did little to stop Flynn's appetite for younger women. At the courthouse during the trial, he met a 19-year-old he married. At the time of his passing, at age 50, Flynn was in a relationship with a woman he met when she was 15. 
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  (#1) Joan Crawford Starred In At Least One Adult Film

  Before she became a movie star, Joan Crawford appeared in at least one pornographic film. As the story goes, MGM spent years, and hundreds of thousands of dollars, tracking the movie down and destroying it. 

  Crawford was one of MGM's biggest stars, so when studio brass found out she starred in pornographic short Velvet Lips as a teenager, probably while underage, the gloves were off. Allegedly, MGM's notorious fixer, Eddie Mannix, partnered with the mob to track down extortionists asking $100,000 for the film. The extortionists were given a choice: accept $25,000 for all negatives or the mob would take them out and take the negatives. In another version of the story, Mannix simply shelled out $100k for the negatives. 

  When Crawford left MGM in 1943, she paid the studio $50,000, an unusual move. Many historians believe she paid the studio back for acquiring and destroying the negatives to Velvet Lips.
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  (#10) MGM Hooked Teenage Judy Garland On Pills

  During her time at MGM, Judy Garland was subjected to near endless abuse, including constant harassment from executives, like Louis B. Mayer, about losing weight. This resulted in Garland starving herself and getting hooked on diet pills. 

  Garland joined MGM when she was 13, and the studio's comments on her weight began not soon after:

  • At age 14, the studio told her that she looked like a "fat little pig with pigtails."
  • At age 16, an MGM executive told Garland she was "so fat she looked like a monster."
  • At age 18, Mayer pushed Garland on to a diet of black coffee, chicken soup, 80 cigarettes a day, and diet pills every four hours. 

  Garland lived the rest of her life with an eating disorder and substance addiction. 
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  (#13) Ted Healy, Creator Of 'The Three Stooges,' Was Beaten To Death Outside Of A Nightclub

  Hollywood has forgotten Ted Healy was the creator of The Three Stooges, and history has forgotten he died after sustaining a brutal beating outside a Hollywood club. A vaudevillian, Healy assembled the Stooges as sidekicks for his comedy act. By 1934, he had parted ways with them, and they went on to fame and fortune. 

  Healy, a heavy drinker, got in a fight outside the Trocadero Club in Hollywood in December 1937. He was, apparently, out alone celebrating the birth of his first child. A number of conflicting accounts of what happened that night (maybe December 21, maybe December 19) exist, making it hard to know the truth. Some claim Eddie Mannix helped clean up the scene, indicating some degree of studio involvement. 

  According to other reports, Healy's assailants were future James Bond producer Cubby Broccoli, mobster Pat DiCicco, and actor Wallace Beery. The autopsy, meanwhile, states Healy died of alcoholism, not the fight.  
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  (#9) Lana Turner's Mafioso Lover Was Slain By Her Daughter

  Lana Turner, a Hollywood star known for femme fatale roles, lived her own version of a sordid film noir tale of intrigue and betrayal. In 1958, her boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, a known mobster with ties to Mickey Cohen, was found stabbed to death in her home.

  Turner's 14-year-old daughter, Cheryl Crane, admitted to the deed, claiming she took a butcher knife to Stompanato's gut to protect her mother from his rage. In the coroner's inquest, Mickey Cohen was called as a witness, and Turner took the stand to detail the fatal night. The coroner's jury ultimately called the act a justifiable homicide.

  Though Turner continued to work, rumors swirled about the death. Some believed Crane was in love with Stompanato, while others suggested Turner took his life and forced her daughter to take the blame. 

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