Old Hollywood gossip & stories

[Venuslurker]

Hmm Frank Sinatra may have helped his mate out but I don't think he was a "nice guy". Sounds like he had an extremely violent temper abs was controlling with women including that odd relationship he had with a very young Mia Farrow.

 

[Ennui]

Love the joke at the end.

 

[thegirlscout]

I found it painful how Audrey Hepburn’s parents treated her - both were ardent admirers of Hitler (they in fact missed her 6th birthday to go and visit him) and her father later abandoned her. During the abandonment he was suspected of funding or working with a company that funded the Third Reich. He was arrested and imprisoned in England under Defense Regulation 18B, as he was considered an enemy of the state for his membership in “the British Union of Fascists and as an associate of foreign fascists”. He was interned for the duration of WWII. When Audrey found him years later in Ireland, she insisted on paying his medical bills when he became ill. Her mum was such a big fan of Hitler she had a photo of him and her framed and displayed in their house. Look how they all suffered due to the Nazi’s. Yet Audrey’s mum fraternized with the German soldiers in the open and even organized a cultural evening in Dusseldorf. She was suspected by the Dutch resistance (the same resistance Audrey raised money for) of being part of the Gestapo and she worked in a German Red Cross hospital looking after ill German soldiers. She used to proudly display the swastika and German eagle in her house too.

 

[acorns56]

Such a great thread, I went to live in LA for a year in my early twenties and subsequently became obsessed with old Hollywood.

 

[Piff paff puff]

Just thought I'd upload this lady, British actress Judy Campbell, mother of the recently deceased Jane Birkin. I didn't know of Judy and that she was the muse of Noel Coward such a beauty, just like Jane was.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

Mae West played Mae West until the day she died.

Has anyone seen her last film 'Sextette'? Absolute bonkers film. She was in her late 80's and decided to cast a 34 years old Timothy Dalton as her husband who was desperately in love with her. The film also had all her characters ex husbands and suitors all fawning over her. She thought she was still fabulous and quite right too!! Apparently no one ever knew her real age. It was all guess work.

 

[LaraQ]

Gene Tierney and Ava Gardner were hands down the most beautiful women in Hollywood.

 

[Topaz]

Do you listen to “You Must Remember This” there’s an episode of CG focusing on him and Carole Lombard and one on Loretta Young.

Ooh I LOVE You Must Remember This The Carole Lombard one was so tragic, she was apparently rushing to get back home to Gable because she was worried about him cheating with Lana Turner. I love Lana Turner movies but she herself seemed to constantly attract trouble and create drama. Katie Price could never

 

[Piff paff puff]

I really don't know anything about Marilyn Monroe and assumed she would be a rubbish actress but she had a part in a barbara stanwyck film, her first I think and I really changed my mind. It wasn't a big role but she made it seem like it was, she was really natural and Charismatic.

 

[MrsBsDayOff]

Just reading about Maximilian Schell who died a few years ago and shocked to find out he's been accused of sexual abuse by both his niece and daughter. Sounds credible too. Can't look at him the same way now in films.

There was similar claims with Yves Montand and Klaus Kinski. Great actors but vile child molesters apparently

 

[Jelly Bean]

roger moore - still somehow classy even when cursing

didn’t niven’s first wife die in a really sudden and tragic way too? (i’m thinking she hit her head during a party game but i can’t remember).

i always loved that there was a huge wreath at his funeral from the staff at heathrow in recognition of how kind and what a gentleman he always was to the staff there.
---


i just read another article about how awful his second wife was and how much roger moore in particular hated her and saw this:

“The Mail also reports that in a 1970 interview at London’s Connaught Hotel, she repeatedly interrupted and corrected his version of events, adding: "I’ve heard all these stories a thousand times and they bore me to death."

David replied: "Then please go away and die, darling."

Yes his first wife Primmie died in a game of sardines (I think?) at Tyrone Power's Hollywood home. She thought she was going to hide in a cupboard, but the door lead to the cellar with very steep stairs and she fell down them and died instantly.
His second wife Hjordis was a horror and made his life a misery, especially when he was ill with a wasting disease. Vicious and spiteful
Another Roger Moore story - when DN was very ill he managed two lengths of their swimming pool. He told Hjordis who said 'well aren't we a clever boy'.

 

[House of Tea]

Loving reading this thread.

I was quite a precocious child and read lots of books on old Hollywood when I was a teenager. You have taken me down memory lane.

The David Niven books, amusing and entertaining, are rumoured to be much embellished for entertainment. His second wife was horrendous to him though, Roger Moore’s autobiography is well worth a read and he covers it.

They periodically show old Parkinson episodes. Saw a couple recently - he was interviewing Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon on separate shows. Spoke about Marilyn. It was well known she was a nightmare to film with. Both said they had no surprise when she died, it was inevitable, she had an air of sadness and fragility about her. They hinted she was known to be mentally unwell.

I love seeing old Niven interviews on Parky too. Urbane and amusing, not many around like that now.

I once had a Saturday job in a shop as a teenager- served Christopher Walken - odd alien like character. Also served Richard Harris. Odd clothes, included those checked chef trousers.

Oliver Reed - mesmerising but a git. He also began the affair with his last wife when she was 16 and he was 42. Creepy.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Wow. That is quite the look
Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and children Kelly and Jamie Leigh.

Btw I watched the Oscars last night and felt such a massive sense of nostalgia over the lack of big movie 'stars' with their glamour and mystique. No offence to actors now, but there is just that certain something missing now.

 

[Jelly Bean]

Reminds me of Ernest Hemingway times etc.

Yes! Very much so.

Happy Sunday everyone.
Here is Marlon Brando with a sausage dog for you.

 

[Practically Perfect]

If anyone gets the chance read The Moons a Balloon by David Niven. Just a wonderful raconteur and genuine man by all accounts. It is hilarious as well. It's written as of he cannot quite believe he is acting in Hollywood movies.

Wash your willy in the sink over there duck (or words to that effect when he was at school and fell in love with the prostitute)

Bette Davies ( my girl ) is in a film called the Old Aquaintance, well she had run off with her co stars husband (or vice versa, I cant remember) and there is a part of the film where she has to shake the co-star and my sources say (bette davies book) that she chinned her for real. Everytime i watch it i chuckle.

My fave line though is: Liz Taylor married to Eddie Fisher, goes to film Cleopatra in Rome and meets Richard Burton. Falls in love. They are at it like rabbits in her Rome apartment, Eddie rings and Richard answers:

Eddie: What are you doing in my apartment?
Richard: Fucking your wife.

Sky Arts has hundreds of docs on all the old greats. The Joan Fontaine one explains the feud with her sis in her own words. Awks. Love Joan for Rebecca and Jane Eyre so #TeamJoan

My fave scandal though has to be Lana Turner and the daughter killing the lover. ( i also agree great films, Peyton Place, Imitation of life etc)

 

[Silverback]

Keith Richards (Stones) was accosted by Marlon Brando for some sex in the 1960s. (from Keith Richards Book 'Life')

So Brando might have been bisexual or gay... heh.

Brando was well known for being gay. I won’t link it but there is a famous pic of him with a cock in his mouth!

 

[NineTails20]

I'd encourage anyone interested in Old Hollywood deaths to go on over to the Find A Death directory. It's a treasure trove of information and good old fashioned gossip. A quick warning though; there's photos of dead people over there. I'd avoid the photos in the Jeffrey Dahmer article if I were you.

Directory (The Famous List) - Celebrity Deaths: Findadeath

The Findadeath Directory of deceased celebrities. Dearly Departed Tours and Celebrity Deaths: Findadeath.

findadeath.com

 

[LaBlonde]

That sad story became the plot device of an Agatha Christie novel, The Mirror Crack'd.

so it was! i had no idea - just read the wikipedia article about the film version

i think i got muddled that it was the fan herself who met tierney again later. it appears it was another fan who recounted the story:

Sometime after the tragedy surrounding her daughter's birth, the actress learned from a fan who approached her for an autograph at a tennis party that the woman (who was then a member of the women's branch of the Marine Corps) had sneaked out of quarantine while sick with German measles to meet Tierney at her only Hollywood Canteen appearance. In her autobiography, Tierney wrote that after the woman had recounted her story, "I stood there for a very long minute. There was no point in telling her of the tragedy that had occurred. I turned and walked away very quickly. After that, I didn't care if I was ever again anyone's favorite actress".[19]

 

[Dollylovesshoes]

I have a book with really lots of gossip,fabulous stories,I was given the book by a friend of my aunt in the States.

original book Kenneth Anger.Love it.

 

[thegirlscout]

Saw this on Instagram and thought I’d share!

David O.Selznick (producer of "Gone With The Wind") was the president of the Mayfair Club at the time and asked Carole Lombard to head up the annual ball, as she was known for throwing the best parties in town. As chairman, Lombard chose to make it a white ball where all ladies were asked to wear white gowns, and the men white ties. White flowers of every variety filled the room. Attendees of this elite affair included Clark Gable, Marion Davies, Joan Crawford, Buster Keaton, Barbara Stanwyck, Claudette Colbert, Gloria Swanson, Bing Crosby, and many more. And then Norma Shearer appeared. Shearer, arriving in grand style was quite the sight in a skimpy, bright red dress designed by MGM costume designer Adrian. Lombard was furious and had to be talked out of marching over to Shearer and kicking her out or throwing a drink on that dress. It was then that Lombard delivered a the line: "Who does Norma think she is - the house madam?"