Old Hollywood gossip & stories

[shellie]

Some of you probably know about this already but today I learnt about an actress who worked with Elvis who later became a Nun - Dolores Hart. She wrote a book and there was also a short documentary made about her which was nominated for an Academy Award. She attended the ceremony in her habit.

There was another actress he worked with in Jailhouse Rock called Judy Tyler. She was one of the 'It' Girls of the day and was known as a singer/actress and dancer. They got close on the set of JR and there are differing stories about whether they fooled around or not. Officially, nothing happened as she was married and he supposedly had a rule for him and the Memphis Mafia about staying away from married women. Those who knew her also denied it saying she only had eyes for her husband but others, including friends of his said something definitely went on.

She was seen as a rising star and many thought she would go on to have a big career, even appearing on the cover of Life Magazine alongside other up-and-coming actresses including Jayne Mansfield. Unfortunately, like Jayne, her life ended in a car accident. A few days after filming for JR ended, she and her husband were driving home from Hollywood to New York and had to swerve to stop hitting a car with a trailer but ended up crashing into another. Judy who was only 24, died instantly with the report being she was split in half. The passenger of the other car died as well, while her husband passed the next day in hospital. When he found out, Elvis was seemingly inconsolable and told a reporter 'Nothing has hurt me as bad in my life.' He couldn't face the funeral and for a while, he was unable to watch the film as it upset him so much. A song was also written about her called Goodbye Little Star.

 

[OwlAtTheMoon]

Has anyone watched Double Indemnity?

Day off and rainy afternoon so watching Sunset Blvd, and amazon recommends Double Indemnity

Many times! One of the best noirs ever. Barbara Stanwyck is utterly, devilishly brilliant in it. Hope you enjoy x

 

[Dollylovesshoes]

This is brilliant thread.

This is another sad story Frances Farmer.

Farmer, Frances (1913-1970)

Seattle-born actress Frances Farmer, a rising star in the 1930s, is remembered today more for her unfortunate life story than for her once promising career. Talented and beautiful, Farmer was also wi

www.historylink.org

 

[shellie]

Joan Crawford was an said to be an appalling abusive mother to her adopted children.

And Grace Kelly (later Princess Grace of Monaco) was reputedly quite free with her favours

The reason I believe Joan's daughter is there were adults who witnessed it. I think it was a secretary or someone who came forward and said she did treat Christina & Christopher differently from the younger girls and there was abuse. Over the years others have spoken about what they saw as well as people who defended her claiming they never saw anything. Then there was Bette Davis whose daughter BD claimed she abused her, was in league with the devil etc. Even people who didn't like Bette said they didn't believe the stories BD was claiming, more so since she herself did an interview saying Bette was a wonderful mother and she would use what she learned from her to raise her own children. She also changed the story a few times which is always a red flag.

As for Grace, yeah she was a goer and was often called out for it by the same people who didn't bat an eyelid when the men were caught doing the same. She had a weakness for older men and many think it was the age-old thing of looking for a paternal figure as her dad...her whole family were assholes. Her parents still preferred the other children even after she became famous. Seemingly when her dad was asked what he thought of her winning the Oscar, he said he would have expected it from his other kids but not Grace and said his other daughter was better. He even said he never thought Grace would be the one supporting him in old age and after her engagement to Rainier was announced, her mother did a 10-part tell-all in the paper about her....charmers huh?








I think her rep for going with men who were involved was part of the reason she 'met' Prince Rainier. He was seemingly told he had to marry in a certain amount of time or Monaco would go back to France so quite a few women were 'interviewed' One was supposedly Marilyn Monroe and Grace got it


. I think in time, they did come to care for each other but it was seemingly common knowledge the two of them had other partners during the marriage.

 

[Mothballs]

Alan Ladd was another shortie wasn’t he ?

Yes he was. He also had a sad life due to growing up in a very poor household. His mother committed suicide in front of him which eventually turned him into an alcoholic.

 

[thegirlscout]

I wonder if he got the same colour and the double eyelashes too?

She had a condition called distichiasis I believe (or there is thought that this is why she had such thick eyelashes). I wonder if she got any of the bad side effects from this condition such as eyelashes growing into her eyes. On Google images it looks very painful!
Found some photos of him from when he was younger. He only died a few years ago at the age of 91!

 

[Rockin' Robin]

I'd love to read Mommie dearest, the biography written by Joan Crawford's daughter. They made a film out of the book, with Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. The irony is there are rumours that Faye Dunaway isn't exactly sweetness and light. Some good casting there then!

 

[Madge2022]

Apologies if already posted,but found this interesting, and shocking article on Shirley Temple.

The Sinister, Untold History of Shirley Temple

This year, Netflix released Andrew Dominik's Marilyn Monroe biopic, Blonde, with the lead being played by Ana de Armas. From the moment the film hit the festival scene, it had audiences talking about Monroe's mistreatment in Hollywood and her celebrated yet tragic legacy. All of this talk about...

www.cinemasters.net

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

Jane Russell was absolutely stunning.

I don't know if it's the black and white photography, lighting or make up but the women of that era were just so striking.

 

[Sunraged]

If anyone wants to read an amazing book about the life and death of Marilyn Monroe, read "The Assasination of Marilyn Monroe", by Donald Wolfe. It's mind blowing, and intersperces evidence in and amongst the story.

The stuff about Frank Sinatra and his mob buddies drugging and raping her, while filming it in order to bribe here to keep her mouth shut, is just terrifying.

Stunning woman, but completely broken by life.

 

[FenellaTheWitch]

 

[Ohflip]

Audrey Hepburn‘s eating disorder began during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. My mum saw her dancing in the West End after the war and said Audrey was the thinnest person she had ever seen.

 

[StripperVicar]

Is there any insider information on Marilyn Monroe?

It was rumoured that Marilyn suffered from Endometriosis, but it wasn't really a known condition. It would account for the extremely heavy periods, painful sex and numerous miscarriages. She underwent so many surgeries down there, the adhesions alone would have been agony.
All caused by being repeatedly raped from a young age in foster care.

 

[LaBlonde]

Oliver Reed! I went to the pub in Malta where Oliver Reed died, and it almost felt like a pilgrimage.

He died of a heart attack in a bar after downing three bottles of Captain Morgan's Jamaica rum, eight bottles of German beer, numerous doubles of Famous Grouse whiskey and Hennessy cognac, and beating five much younger Royal Navy sailors at arm-wrestling. His bar bill for that final lunch time totalled 270 Maltese lira, almost £450. Ridley Scott (the Director of Gladiator, the movie that he was shooting at the time)settled the Bar bill and still has the receipt.

my god i went to his wikipedia and the write up about it actually made me quite sad:

The actor Omid Djalili, who was also in Malta at the time of Reed's death filming Gladiator, said during an interview in 2016: "He hadn't had a drink for months before filming started...Everyone said he went the way he wanted, but that's not true. It was very tragic. He was in an Irish bar and was pressured into a drinking competition. He should have just left, but he didn't."[65] Having made a number of promises to Ridley Scott prior to filming, including that he would not drink during production, Reed worked around this by only drinking on weekends. Co-star David Hemmings was a long time friend of Reed's (they appeared together in the 1964 film The System), and in 2020 Scott stated, "David Hemmings (Cassius) promised to look after him and said to me [upon his death], I'm really sorry, old boy".[66]

it’s incredible he managed to last as long as he did with his drinking though.

 

[cee-bee]

Old Hollywood scandals are my jam, I love them. So many stories you think are too weird and incredible to true, yet they actually are true!
One of my favourites coming to mind is the story of Clark Gable and Loretta Young's baby. They had an onset affair (I think he was married at the time, if memory serves), she got pregnant but as a staunch Catholic she didn't want to have an abortion and didn't want to give the child up for adoption either. She left Hollywood for a few months and came back with this tall tale about adopting two infants, but one of the adoptions fell through, so she was just left with little baby Judy. I don't think any Hollywood insiders really believed her, and Judy was teased at school about Gable being her father. She met him twice growing up, but it wasn't until he'd died and she was getting married that Loretta told her the whole truth

it wasn’t an affair, Loretta was raped/date raped. She didn’t realise it at the time, it wasn’t until her daughter in law explained what date rape was that she understood that’s what happened between her and Clark Gable. She honestly believed it was up to women to fend off men’s sexual advances and it was therefore their personal failing if they didn’t succeed. That’s entrenched misogyny for you. You can be raped and go your whole life thinking it was your fault. Poor Loretta.

(edit: just realised someone already pointed this out as I’m v late to this thread but always worth pointing out again I guess 🫣)
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Audrey Hepburn‘s eating disorder began during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in WWII. My mum saw her dancing in the West End after the war and said Audrey was the thinnest person she had ever seen.

I saw Audrey’s Oscar dress at Kensington palace recently… the wait was tiny. Absolutely tiny. It looked like a child’s dress. Poor Audrey, I really do think she must’ve had some sort of eating disorder bourne out of the trauma of WW2

White floral Givenchy dress of Audrey Hepburn - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Dollylovesshoes]

Jean Harlow was another poor soul.

 

[thegirlscout]

Reading a book about Grace Kelly and I hate to say it but…
View attachment 2439614
I don’t blame her, some of her men were might fine! And she got David Niven and I love him. But she had like 3 boyfriends on the go at once! And she had an affair with Bing Crosby when his wife was dying of cancer.
Just to reassure you I think all the men were hoes too. And it was worse as they were married and much older. I just didn’t realise how deep in the hoe depths Grace was.

Just finished the book I was reading (it’s Grace Kelly: The Secret Life of a Princess by James Spada) and I have to say I’m happy Grace had some fun in her hoe period because her life was absolutely miserable. Her parents were the worst, she and Rainier should not have married, she was isolated in a country where the locals didn’t think she was good enough, she struggled with French so much that she never became 100% fluent, she had no friends near her, was totally lonely, her husband was having affairs towards the end and she turned to alcohol. She found some relief in her charity work, her flower pressing artwork and her poetry tours but that’s a small consolation for such a dreadful time. And she died when she was only 52! She never got a chance to have happiness. Gosh, it’s actually quite sad. I know she was blessed with beauty and born into wealth but it wasn’t a fairytale like most presumed.
Here’s a photo of Grace in 1978 at an art exhibition showcasing her flower pressing art. I get from the book that this was such a godsend for her and she throughly enjoyed herself when she was creating her pieces so I wanted to finish this post on a happy note.

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The story about Onassis was in the Robert Evans book The Fat Lady Sang. Onassis partnered with a consortium who were operating the Monte Carlo Casino and wanted to turn it from a gambling den to a money machine. According to Evans, Onassis told Rainier, “Get off your royal ass and find yourself a bride. The right bride could do for Monaco’s tourism what the coronation of Queen Elizabeth did for Great Britain.”

Aristotle Onassis-Orchestrated Fairytale Wedding of Grace Kelly, Prince Ranier - The Pappas Post

Grace Kelly’s fairytale wedding to Prince Rainier III in 1956 was simply a glitzy business deal masterminded by Aristotle Onassis to transform impoverished

pappaspost.com

After finishing the book it did mention about the power Onassis had over Monaco and how him and Rainier butted heads. Just looked up the book you mentioned - will add it to my reading list

 

[Jelly Bean]

View attachment 2412091View attachment 2412092
Didn’t realise how much Vincent Price looks like Brucie!

Great photos.
Them spelling out LUX must mean LUX Radio theatre shows. My husband listens to them endlessly on some podcast or other. Plays with incredibly famous people like James Stewart, Cary Grant and Bette Davies for eg. Sponsored by LUX soap. They always have an incredibly clunky ad 'Miss Lauren Bacall, may we ask you the secret of your soft skin?'
'Why yes I use LUX soap. So luxurious. And affordable too'.

 

[Clovis]

Mae was one of a kind. Although she started her film career at 40, Mae had a firm rule about never playing a character older than 28, even when in her 80s!

 

[Fishwife]

Dirk Bogarde did not become big in Hollywood probably because he was gay but his memoirs are very well written and worth reading. There was a lot more to him than being a matinee idol. He was part of the advance party to relieve Belsen concentration camp and wrote about it very movingly.