During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Austrian Empire, a man stood out for his violent tactics in suppressing the revolutionaries: Julius Jacob von Haynau, an Austrian general who earned the nickname, the Hyena. News of his brutality, particularly against Hungarian women, excited much anger in the English public. It was 1931, and the air in Chicagos 57th Street art colony crackled with sexual tension. After her husband responded to the affair by committing suicide (by gunshot, though according to the police he took the time to strip naked before shooting himself), the press speculated whether Jean had been involved in some manner or another. Katharine Hepburn was interred in Connecticut, thirty-six years after Tracys death. Florida, which attracted northerners who were eager to escape winter weather, also became a paradise for land speculators, who bought properties at cheap prices and sold them for large profits. She drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and dabbled in bohemianism. Homosexuality being illegal, a trial proceeded which scandalized the city. The 1950s slang In Like Flynn, meaning one had it made, failed to take into account his legal difficulties over underage women. Divorced again, Tone began pursuing Barbara Payton, another actress who was also involved with an actor and former boxer named Tom Neal. 'Petting parties' added some steam to Jazz Age soirees. The two had tried to keep their affair a secret, as Fairbanks was also married. There are many reasons why mysteries in the 1920s may have remained unsolved. Publisher Methuen was nervous off the bat, fearing the UKs Obscene Publications Act of 1857 would bring trouble; they even resorted to edits without Lawrences knowledge. Whether Olive was aware of Jacks medical problem is debated, though he had his mercury with him when the couple spent time together in Paris in the summer of 1920. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Warren Harding appointed several distinguished people to his cabinet, such as _ as Secretary of State., Harding gave appointments to _ and _ from Ohio, which lead to corruption and numerous scandals., The most famous scandal, the _ Scandal, concerned bribes for leasing navy oil reserves in Wyoming and California. Witnesses gave accounts of Saurins supposed crimes, which included eating strawberries and cream (the wicked woman!) Cleveland will go down in history as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, but his first term in office was nearly waylaid by a campaign scandal. She was 30 years old. Several leading ladies were counted among the customers as well, including Talalluh Bankhead, Jean Harlow, and Barbara Stanwyck. Hollywood studios did not again employ her until 1956, six years after the scandal, when she appeared in the film, Anastasia. These men were celebrated for their pluck, courage and daring, says Nate Hendley, author of the 2016 book The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts and Swindles in American History. Harding's campaign slogan, "A return to normalcy," aptly described American politics for the entire period. But Hardings scandalous behavior didnt end when he left his bedroom. Library of Congress. Francis managed to maintain a level of privacy by providing a stipend to local authorities, reportedly about 40% of the income from her business. Thaw was no prize himselfhe had a reputation as a cocaine fiend and woman-beaterbut the public nonetheless sided with him over White, who was married at the time of his indiscretion (Nesbit, who would marry Thaw later, was not then attached). The prowlers were soon connected to President Richard Nixons reelection campaign. This gave the lie to the LAPD theory that she had exited the car to insert a hose into the exhaust pipe, the other end feeding into the cabin in which she died from carbon monoxide inhalation. Taylor's murder became a nationwide scandal & proof to many of Hollywood's depravity . READ MORE: The First Birth Control Pill Used Puerto Rican Women as Guinea Pigs, Flappers at the bar of Isa Lanchesters nightclub in London, 1925. The proliferation of get-rich-quick scams in the 1920s was so intense that titans of industry began to worry about the con artists' and fly-by-night firms' corrosive effect on the system, even if. The next day Rappe died of peritonitis, the result of a ruptured bladder. He attempted to remarry Joan Crawford when he was dying of cancer in the 1960s, but she demurred, though she did care for him in his last days, and arranged his funeral when he died in 1968. Several of the men involved in the pedophilia ring including Somerset fled the country to avoid prosecution. In 1949 the married Bergman (her husband was neurosurgeon Petter Lindstrom) began an affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini (an earlier affair she had with American actor Gregory Peck was kept hidden at the time). Hoover used, or rather abused, his position as head of the FBI to keep files on stars, directors, producers, and reporters indeed on anyone whom he considered possibly subversive or anti-American. 1920. Some of the speculators never actually went to Florida themselves. She cut her hair short, wore dresses that showed off her fashionably slender figure, used daring slang and dated multiple men before marriage. History, FBI.gov. Tracy was buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, alongside his wife Louise. Franchot Tone derailed his own career by becoming enmeshed in several scandals in the 1930s and 40s. Eve Golden. Public outcry in America was strong, and Senator Edwin Jackson railed against her in the US Senate. (The judge disagreed, sentencing them to 6 months inprison, but that got overturned on a technicality.) Julian attracted $2 million from 40,000 small investors, and actually used it to drill wells and open a chain of gas stations. She entertained American troops during the Second World War, protested against segregation in the US Armed Forces, and was generally regarded as one of the leading actresses of her generation. Michelle Vogel. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Harvard Theatre Collection. She was committed to an asylum. After an outcry and trial, all copies were burnt and their sale prohibited.. Payton vacated the marital home and returned to Neal, and Tone, perhaps wisely, decided to resolve the issue in court rather than in another bout. The married (and very Catholic) Kennedy was soon involved in an extramarital affair with the actress, one which saw him maneuver to dominate her career, her social life, and her financial affairs. Warren G. Harding's secretary of the interiorto oil tycoons Edward L. Doheny and Harry F. Sinclair.Fall, who had received as much as $400,000 in bribes, became the first . Seeing the names of Americas favorite stars dragged through the proverbial mud, especially in the bygone days when an actor or actress was a Movie Star, has long been a cheap thrill for the American public. They were eventually acquitted in terms of criminal liability, but civil penalties were assessed. Bakers trial caused discussion over the British class system since it was argued, quite rightly, that if hed been in third class, hed have gotten away with it. The latter was soothed by Payton and Tone marrying after he recovered. Its popularity was such that it was in high demand in reruns for years, and eventually was adapted as a full-length motion picture in the early 1980s. At least occasionally, those business leaders fretted about the potential threat posed by Soviet communism.. There was, after all, that pesky fact that he was a foreigner (Flynn was Australian) and xenophobia was at its height in the early days of the Second World War. The revelations caused unflattering comment on her character in the papers. In Chicago, Leo Koretz, an immigrant from Bohemia, made a mint selling shares in supposedly lucrative rice plantations in Arkansas that didnt actually exist, as well as in a logging company that he claimed owned land with oil beneath it. But when it came to relationships with the opposite sex he was less gifted. November 21, 2015, Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. She probably didnt mind that much, since she and Millais had eight children together. The woman who found the body thought that the scene was so grisly that it had been set up using a mannequin for the purpose of shocking the police and witnesses. The trial played to a packed courtroom. Eventually, the practice faded. But it was no mannequin. When William Charles Yelverton met, wooed, and ultimately became twenty year old Theresa Longworths lover, he ruined her in the eyes of Victorian society because they werent married. Sex with minor females those under the age of 18 in California was statutory rape, and Flynn found himself so charged by not one, but two underage young ladies, threatening his reputation, his career, his marriage, and his freedom. To save her virtue, though the train was in motion, she escaped to the step outside the first class railway carriage and clung there, screaming for help. In 1921, Fatty Arbuckle was accused of raping and killing Virginia Rappe. She neither confirmed nor denied her sexuality, referring to herself in one interview as ambisexual. Landis later attempted to deflect the blame for the accident, claiming that the cause of the accident had been in part a special effects fireball detonated by an underlying erroneously, an error for which he was never charged. She got the matrimonial ring in a secret church ceremony in 1857. Explore American politics in the 1920s to understand why this was a period of transition and corruption. Payton and Neal became engaged after Tone won a divorce over the issue of adultery, but the marriage never came off. Hepburn was from upper-crust New England stock, presenting a prim, proper, and athletic image to her fans, who had for several years been involved in a relationship with Howard Hughes. He denied the adultery. Alarmingly for many, petting was popular among both wild flappers and average young women during the 1920s. The boys of today must be protected from the young girl vamp, complained a New York mother to the New York Times in 1922. Her death created a sensation in Hollywood, both from her manner of accomplishing it and the note which she left behind. Paget went on to build a playhouse so he could perform with a hired repertory company: His specialty was a fluid, vaguely erotic dance routine. After his departure from the scene Swanson was nearly broke, virtually unemployable following the debacle of her most recent film, and soon to be divorced by her irate husband. He proceeded to spend his windfall on complete frivolity that captivated the public and press: He collected silk gowns, covered his bedroom in velvet, and even modified his cars exhaust to spray perfume. Evelyn Nesbit arrived in New York City in 1900 as a 15-year-old ingnue, climbing the social ranks and forging a modeling career. Library of Congress. Intentionally or not, the message that filtered down to the public was: Be bold. The jury found him not guilty; he resumed his pulpit, and spent the next decade campaigning for presidents and commenting on public affairs. Despite all the goodwill equity he had built up over the years, the public was aghast when Beecher was accused of sleeping with a married parishioner in 1872. During her acting career, she also became well-known to the authorities, being involved in numerous automobile accidents, to the point that her studio bosses provided her with a chauffeur and insisted that she use him. The collective skirts of Victorian society were practically blown off by the news that married socialite Lady Harriet Mordaunt had been carrying on with the Prince of Wales and other partners in 1870s Warwickshire. Instead, she ended up, as they say in movieland, on the cutting room floor, her part eliminated, her work rejected (according to most stories of her suicide, in fact, she wasnt cut out of the final print of the film until after her death, though her fourteen-minute appearance had been reduced to four). When Charles demanded a divorce, Harriet attempted to evade a separation by claiming insanity, eating coal, and smashing dishes. But even the innuendo collected by Hoover for personal reasons often took a backseat to the scandals which emerged from the stars decadent lifestyles. Eyman, Scott. The Teapot Dome Scandal was an American political scandal of the early 1920s. Once citizens had crossed that moral line and started frequenting illegal speakeasies and buying black-market booze, they naturally became more receptive to sleazy but enticing pitches to invest in get-rich-quick schemes., READ MORE: How Prohibition Put the Organized in Organized Crime. To the queens fury, the married Prince of Wales was called upon to testify about his relationship with Lady Mordaunt in open court. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images. As described in a Los Angeles Times review of Jules Tygiels 1994 book The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties, one of the most audacious promoters was Courtenay Chauncey C.C. Julian, who bought newspaper and radio ads in which he cajoled, Youll never make a thin dime just lookin on.. Check out 11 scandals that caused more than one decent citizen to nearly drop her hand fan. It was particularly egregious if you happened to be a feminist or an atheist, which Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh were, respectively. Thelma Todd with Chico Marx in the 1932 film Horse Feathers. From Al Capone to Bonnie and Clyde, these famous gangsters of the 1920s prove that they just don't make criminals like they used to. All Rights Reserved. But they also came to an end because the flappers who dared to pet in public helped make open sexual expression more commonplace. But not everyone approved of the fashions and fads of these newly liberated young women. Now considered the. It was to have been her big break. In 1932 she told an interviewer that she had accepted a film part only so that she could sleep with Gary Cooper, though she substituted a common four-letter word for sleep with in the interview. Silent film star Pickford tested her audiences adoration of her by committing an unthinkable act: She divorced her husband, Owen Moore, in 1920, and married Douglas Fairbanks less than a month later. Young female wannabe stars were frequent guests to his office so that he may evaluate their skills. The rise of cheap, sensational newspapers in the nineteenth century meant that shocking scandals weren't just whispered about behind fluttering fans and raised teacups. When she was introduced to film director Irving Thalberg, for whom she was to star in a Hollywood production, she asked him, How do you get laid in this dreadful place? Supposedly a sneering Thalberg told her to ask anyone. The Life and Times of a Leading Lady. The growing demand for petroleum to fuel automobiles also led to oil drilling schemes concocted by promoters who mailed out literature and handed out flyers that promised a fabulous return. By 1904, his spending had so far outpaced his bank account that he sold most of his belongings to pay off his debtsnot even his parrot was safe from creditors. The First Trial of the Century Evelyn Nesbit arrived in New York City in 1900 as a 15-year-old. It was the body of Elizabeth Short, who became known as the Black Dahlia in the sensationalized aftermath of her murder. LAPD. FBI. Many wanted to use this valuable oil source. Probably there exists no more famous icon of Hollywood than the sign which spells that name in the Hollywood hills. Others claimed Olive committed suicide after learning of the reason her husband carried the mercury with him on his travels. Swanson was a walking scandal for most of her Hollywood career, at least during its so-called Golden Age, but today is considered one of that eras greatest stars. Among her lovers was the Prince of Wales (Queen Victorias eldest son, heir to the throne, and later King Edward VII). Why? 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The newspapers made this incident Hollywood's first truly major scandal. Dina Di Mambro, Classic Hollywood Bios. In 1936, the wife of Max Baer, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World (and eventually the father of Max Baer Jr, who portrayed Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies), named Jean as one of the women with whom her husband had been unfaithful to his marriage. Mordaunt confessed to her husband, Charles, after her child was suspected of having syphilis. J. Edgar Hoover, with his penchant for keeping records damaging to the reputations of anyone he deemed too powerful and influential, ensured the FBI was active in Hollywood for decades, collecting what should have been private information in order to protect the nations morals. Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images. Wikimedia. The Biggest Political Scandals in American History - HISTORY The Biggest Political Scandals in American History From adulterous affairs yielding secret children to hotel break-ins and. After some likely exclamations of I say! and protracted harrumphing, both Gordon-Cumming and the prince were dragged through public mud. Future: Heaven only knows what.. September 4, 2011, Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty. Although even the most avid movie fan today is likely unaware of Thelma Todd, the actress appeared in more than seventy films, performing with luminaries including the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. She wasnt, though she later bore him two sons. The two sons she bore later in the marriage brought into question her accusations that Charles ignored her completely, but the press and the public were easily persuaded that Chaplin was an abusive monster, a profligate womanizer, with a taste for young girls (an image he could not escape). His magnificent moustaches were torn, his clothes ripped off, and the dread Hangman of Arad, abandoning his dignity, fled to a nearby inn for sanctuary. She died that night, in considerable pain, as a result. A scene from the film The Soul of Youth, the director of which, Desmond Taylors murder was never solved. Online, Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy. Instead they hired young agents who stood out in the hot sun and convinced buyers to put down a non-refundable down payment on a parcel. She did not attend Tracys funeral for the same reason. Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle in a scene from 1921s Brewsters Millions. His arrest had the newspapers dubbing him, the Boy Jones. Despite increased security, he would cause more furor over an apparent inability to stay away from the palacehe was caught again in 1841 and sentenced to hard labor. It was among the most well-known and popular brothels in Hollywood, with several of the leading stars of the day counted among its satisfied clientele. According to acquaintances when together they fought constantly and with equal exuberance. In the third, he was acquitted, though the press and the public had long before convicted him. Some said that Jack deliberately placed his medicine where his wife would confuse it with nostrums of her own and thus take it accidentally. Cleveland was still able to capture the vote by owning up to the incidentthough he was a bit of a glutton for punishment, later marrying a woman 27 years his junior while still in the White House. Actor Vic Morrow (right) with Ric Jason on the set of the popular 1960s series Combat!. But Kellerman rejected this notion, preferring a tighter one-piece suit that left the arms and legs bare. Bergman chose to remain away from America for many years. With newly-minted Wall Street millionaires flaunting their mansions and opulent lifestyles in a style akin to the protagonist of F. Scott Fitzgeralds 1925 novel The Great Gatsby, it was easy for an average Joe to dream big and envision parlaying a few dollars in hard-earned savings into a similarly vast fortune. Warned by her father to avoid men and alcohol in New York, she told an interviewer, He never said anything about women and cocaine. It was she who uttered one of the most deflating political put downs of all time, referring to Republican Presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey as resembling the little man on the wedding cake. Their trial was a sensation. Here are some of the greatest scandals to emerge from Hollywood during its Golden Age. However, the plethora of old Hollywood scandals that have since come to light prove that the movie industry has always been a dark place behind its bright lights. Others, however, have faded into obscurity, even though the public indulged in their salaciousness during their heyday. The first highly-publicized Hollywood scandal, the September 1920 drug overdose death of archetypal movie flapper Olive Thomasshe had starred in The Flapper earlier that yearhad excited the yellow press and shocked the public, but it was nothing compared to what came next: The Arbuckle Affair. He called Rossellini vile and unspeakable and demanded that the couple, not set foot on American soil under our immigration laws. From 1941 until his death, the two maintained an affair which was an open secret in Hollywood. Tone was beaten soundly, with his opponent inflicting a broken cheekbone and nose, a concussion, and a no doubt severely bruised ego. They were let off with stern warnings. American actors such as Gloria Swanson (b1899), Mary Pickford (b1892), and Clara Bow (see below) would make their names in the silent films of the 1920s, joined by the likes of Gary Cooper (b1901) John Gilbert (see below) and the British actor Charlie Chaplin (b1889). Jean Harlow with actor Ben Lyon in a promotional still for the film Hells Angels, 1930. Scandals, such as the Harding Administration Scandal and Teapot Dome Scandal, and illegal activity, such as the gangster Al Capone, became eminent and symbolized corruption of the 1920s. Wikimedia. It turned street-corner thugs such as Al Capone into millionaires. He insisted their marriage was invalid because of their religious differenceshe was Catholic and she was Protestant. Actress Jean Harlow was a scandalmongers dream, openly flaunting her sexuality on screen to the point that new censorship restrictions were written to curb her filmed allure. and more. The shocking expose not only opened the floodgates for other women to declare similar affairs, it actually ended up getting Clinton impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice. The queen had recently given birth to her first child. Nene Adams is a published author, editor, historian, and American expatriate living in the Netherlands in a mnage trois with her book collection and her lovely partner.