Old School Hollywood Gossip

[christina126]

^interesting about Grace.
I find a lot of this stuff hard to believe but its fun. I guess someone can write an absurd book like this since these people aren't alive anymore to defend themselves.

 

[KhaoticKharma]

I have a hard time believeing many of these, but I'm notoriously naieve.


I love that Bette Davis one though. She and Joan Crawford were some bad b!tches though, so it really doesn't suprise me...

 

[iluvjeisa]

Old school H-Wood gossip is the best because there was no TMZ or Perez, so people got away with some crazy mess! All of them would probably have a breakdown if they had to survive the media now...

Then wait till you hear the Ancient gossip

Well, during the 10s/20s/30s there were plenty of stars involved in huge scandals. Stars were enormous, but also quite replaceable - suddenly, stars that the movie studios were pushing for would no longer be popular because of journalists' writings of their decadent lifestyles, or as a result of their poor performance.

The numerous scandals the 10s, 20s and 30s probably lead to that the relationship between Hollywood and the tabloids became more symbiotic, and stars weren't dissected the way they used to be. Of course, that has since changed again...

Examples...

1) Olive Thomas. Ziegfeld girl and the original flapper. Married to movie star Jack Pickford. At the age of 20-something Olive died in 1920 from - probably by accident - ingesting her husband's syphilis medication after a night out in Paris. He died 13 years later from chronic kidney disease caused by drugs, alcohol and syphilis medication.

2) Roscoe Arbuckle. Comedian, director and screenwriter whose career ended in 1921 after he was accused of killing actress Virginia Rappe through rapturing her womb by the use of a champagne bottle. He was acquitted. Many feel that he was wrongly accused, and that Hearst publications lead his character assassination. Arbuckle died in 1933.

3) Alma Rubens. Movie star whose career ended due to ****in problems. After escaping from a treatment facility and being arrested, she died as a result of pneumonia in 1931.

4) Barbara la Marr. Actress and writer, known as the "Girl who was too beautiful", proudly professed that she slept only two hours a night. A child actress at 7, dancer at 14, writer at 20 and movie star from her early 20s. She died in 1926 as a result of "too strenuous dieting" according to her reps, but more likely tuberculosis brought on by her issue with ****in.

5) Jean Harlow. The first blonde bombshell, married MGM producer Paul Bern, who committed suicide in 1931 after 2 months of marriage when Jean was filming with Clark Gable. She died of kidney failure in 1937 at age 26.

6) Wallace Reid. One of the biggest male stars in Hollywood in the 1920s. Weakened immune system as a result of *****ine addiction lead to his death from flu in 1922. His wife spent years professing the dangers of "medicine".

7) Jeanne Eagles. Acclaimed actress who was posthumously awarded the Academy Award after succumbing to either an overdose or acute alcohol poisoning in 1929.

8) Mabel Normand. Possibly silent film's most celebrated comedienne, co-wrote some of Chaplin's earlier movies. Among her numerous indiscretions: Director William Desmond Taylor was murdered shortly after Mabel left his home 1922, her chauffeur shot and wounded her lover 1924 and she died, exhausted from many years of hard partying, from tuberculosis in 1930.

9) John Gilbert. One of the biggest silent film stars, portrayed as the great lover. He was publicly abandoned by Greta Garbo and his voice did not carry in the talkies, but instead induced open laughter in his previously smitten audience. Gilbert succumbed to alcoholism and died in 1936.

10) Marie Prevost. She had a successful career until the talkies, where her thick accent proved to difficult. She died from acute alcohol poisoning and malnutrition in 1937.

(Olive Thomas,michellevogel.com; Barbara la Marr,silentsaregolden.com;Alma Rubens,silentsaregolden.com)

 

[LUXXX]

It's always so shocking that Jean died from kidney failure...at 27.

I read a new book about Greta Garbo and it said that for 8 months she didn't report to work at MGM and it was covered up as her holding out for more money, but in reality they say it may have been a pregnancy with John Gilbert's baby. There's a few other conspiracy theories but that sounds the most likely since her first pic back featured her covered in a big coat.

here's the book... http://www.amazon.com/Greta-Garbo-C...bs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1211893583&sr=1-2

 

[Deborah]

2) Roscoe Arbuckle. Comedian, director and screenwriter whose career ended in 1921 after he was accused of killing actress Virginia Rappe through rapturing her womb by the use of a champagne bottle. He was acquitted. Many feel that he was wrongly accused, and that Hearst publications lead his character assassination. Arbuckle died in 1933.

Good lord.

 

[diorelle]

Dang Grace Kelly seemed like such a nice girl! James Dean totally gives me the tortured homo vibe!

 

[mishahoi]

holy moly, interesting stuff!

 

[mkd1187]

Dang Grace Kelly seemed like such a nice girl! James Dean totally gives me the tortured homo vibe!

He is even hotter now..

 

[iluvjeisa]

That brings us to the sad epitaph of "Rebel without a cause":

James Dean - well, you know.
Natalie Wood - drowned at age 43 (1981), accidentally.
Sal Mineo - murdered at age 37 (1976).

Natalie in an interview about James Dean in the (late? 70s

 

[LUXXX]

Natalie Wood was allegedly raped by Kirk Douglas. That story has been around forever, everytime there is a post about her on ONTD, that story pops up...

 

[ednafrau]

i love this post!!! thank you

 

[iluvjeisa]

Natalie Wood was allegedly raped by Kirk Douglas. That story has been around forever, everytime there is a post about her on ONTD, that story pops up...

That's terrible.

 

[wheneveriwakeup]

The James Dean/pedophilia rumor makes perfect sense, actually...
Esp. since he was supposedly molested for several yrs. by a Catholic priest
he befriended as a young boy...
So sad about him, though...
He was a very unstable, yet beautifully brilliant man...

Natalie Wood's story is so terrible, too...

 

[Romy B]

I read in Natalie Wood's biography that she was indeed raped.

 

[silk skin paws]

Natalie Wood was allegedly raped by Kirk Douglas. That story has been around forever, everytime there is a post about her on ONTD, that story pops up...

I've heard this one before

 

[Deborah]

Wheres this James Dean paedophile rumour? Did I miss that one?

 

[LUXXX]

Elizabeth Taylor has said that James Dean was gay but I don't fully believe that. She said during Giant, she and Rock Hudson had a bet to see who could bed him first.

 

[eternitygoddess]

I've read from many sources that Grace Kelly was very very promiscuous, despite people thinking she's a saint now.

 

[justlooking]

^ me too. Whenever i see her, as attractive as she is, i just think of the s-word. :shrug: I read she was a 'tiger in the bed'

 

[LUXXX]

I read a bio on Grace and she was promiscuous...in fact her career was almost over in Hollywood before it even got started because she had an affair with a married man. His wife made a big deal and she was only saved because her father hired some PR guy to help her image.

One of the other stories was that she would just take guys back to her room and strip her clothes off right away...and that she lost her virginity to her friend's husband. Mmmmhmmmm....