Speaker 1: This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
Speaker 1: not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2: I'm in Cheviat Hills Park on Pico Boulevard in West LA.
Speaker 2: Across the street is the West Motor Gate into the
Speaker 2: twentieth century Fox Studios. There's a wall covered in posters
Speaker 2: promoting the studio's latest movies and television shows. Beyond the
Speaker 2: wall there are sound stages and production offices. One of
Speaker 2: these is Building eighty eight, the former office of the
Speaker 2: studio's founder in production chief, Daryl Zanak.
Speaker 3: He greenlighted dozens of films at.
Speaker 2: Fox, many won Oscars, and many more were box office hits,
Speaker 2: but he also had a dark side. He may have
Speaker 2: been the most frequent abuser the casting couch Hollywood has
Speaker 2: ever known. In today's episode of Variety Confidential, We'll use
Speaker 2: Varieties archives to unearthed all the terrible things that Darryl
Speaker 2: Zanik was accused of doing way back in the golden
Speaker 2: age of Hollywood. From Variety and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Tracy Patnan.
Speaker 2: This is the secret history of the casting couch. Today's
Speaker 2: episode four o'clock Girls with Me Today is Matt Donnelley,
Speaker 2: Variety Senior entertainment and media writer.
Speaker 4: Hi, Matty, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Well, it's great to have you here, and I'm excited
Speaker 2: to get your Hollywood perspective and insights.
Speaker 4: I think it's really important that we look back at,
Speaker 4: you know, sort of these moguls and a lot of
Speaker 4: their predation and behavior that has been so prevalent in
Speaker 4: the past couple of years. Especially, you know, we have
Speaker 4: Variety been very dedicated to covering me too, and it's
Speaker 4: ramifications for everyone. So I am excited to sort of
Speaker 4: look back and see where this all began. And thank
Speaker 4: you for making such wonderful use of our archives.
Speaker 3: Indeed, we need them.
Speaker 2: Let's go back in time to the twentieth century Fox Lot.
Speaker 2: On an afternoon in nineteen thirty eight, on the topp
Speaker 2: floor of the executive offices in Building eighty eight, a
Speaker 2: young woman, let's call her Mary Evans, sits in the
Speaker 2: waiting room outside the office of the studio chief. She's
Speaker 2: young and attractive, dark haired, with bright blue eyes, barely
Speaker 2: twenty years old. She only recently moved to Los Angeles,
Speaker 2: and her dream is to become a movie star. Unlike
Speaker 2: thousands of other wannabes, however, Mary has landed a contract
Speaker 2: with twentieth century Fox, just like Betty Grables, Sonya Hanny,
Speaker 2: and Shirley Temple. She's only a day player now, and
Speaker 2: she knows that her shot at stardom depends on what
Speaker 2: happens at this audition. Finally, the secretary gets the call
Speaker 2: and Mary may go in. The office is dimly lit,
Speaker 2: large and wood paneled. Every paintable surface is done in
Speaker 2: a shiny, dark green. The wall behind the desk is
Speaker 2: covered in trophies from safaris with zebra skins and antelope heads.
Speaker 2: She hears a toilet flush A few seconds later. F Xanik,
Speaker 2: the founder and head of production at twentieth century Fox,
Speaker 2: comes out. He's shorter than Mary imagined, about five foot six,
Speaker 2: trim and fit. In his mid thirties. He has a
Speaker 2: mustache and thinning salt and pepper hair. This cigar clamped
Speaker 2: in his jaw juts upward. Xanik smiles, but not in
Speaker 2: a friendly way. He meets her in front of the
Speaker 2: desk and looks her up and down, eyeing her figure
Speaker 2: like this wolf devouring its prey. Then he asks her
Speaker 2: to turn around. She makes a graceful spin. He says,
Speaker 2: so you want to be in pictures very much, She says, mm,
Speaker 2: so do a lot of other girls, you know, he says.
Speaker 2: He motions her to follow him. They go into a
Speaker 2: small room off a hallway behind his office. There's a
Speaker 2: day bed against the wall. He invites her to sit,
Speaker 2: closes the door and locks it. Do you have experience,
Speaker 2: he asks? She rattles off the roles she played in
Speaker 2: college and summer theater back East. While she's talking, he
Speaker 2: turns his back to her, fumbles with his front, and
Speaker 2: then turns around and faces her. Mary is shocked, but
Speaker 2: not surprised he has exposed himself. She's heard all about
Speaker 2: Darryl Zanik from other actresses, and she knows that her
Speaker 2: future at Fox is on the line, and she has
Speaker 2: a decision to make. Dozens of others have had to
Speaker 2: make the same choice, as dozens more will have to
Speaker 2: after she's gone. She can walk away from Xanak in
Speaker 2: the career she's dreamed of, or she can stay and
Speaker 2: give Zanik what he wants.
Speaker 4: Now, I've never heard about this Mary Evans, which I'm
Speaker 4: sure there are many, But tell me, did you say
Speaker 4: yes or no?
Speaker 3: Okay? Full disclosure.
Speaker 2: Mary Evans is a fictional version of dozens of women
Speaker 2: who were called into Daryl Zanik's office for auditions, and
Speaker 2: there's circumstantial evidence that many, maybe most, of these women
Speaker 2: complied and had sex with Darryl Zanik. He held these
Speaker 2: auditions so often that his colleagues came up with a
Speaker 2: name for the women he coerced. They called them four
Speaker 2: o'clock girls. Zanic himself is said to have called them
Speaker 2: studio whores.
Speaker 4: You know, sadly, this is the story we've heard so
Speaker 4: many times throughout Hollywood's history, and shockingly, even in our
Speaker 4: contemporary landscape, this has post me too. This is after
Speaker 4: the massive proliferation of social media, and somehow this behavior
Speaker 4: is still persistent.
Speaker 3: Believe me.
Speaker 2: I know, I've been doing a lot of research on
Speaker 2: these guys, and it's unbelievable what they got away with
Speaker 2: back then.
Speaker 4: How prevalent would you say this kind of behavior was
Speaker 4: among moguls of that era?
Speaker 3: It was very, very prevalent.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you know that the studios dominated the industry
Speaker 2: in those days. The Big five were MGM, Columbia, RKO, Fox,
Speaker 2: and Paramount, and of the five, four of their moguls
Speaker 2: have been accused of abuse Louis B. Mayor at MGM,
Speaker 2: Harry Kohane at Columbia, Howard to Use at RKO, and
Speaker 2: Xanik at Fox.
Speaker 4: I've heard many of the Mayor stories over the years.
Speaker 4: What's his deal?
Speaker 3: Well, Louis B.
Speaker 2: Mayor is probably the best known mogul of that era,
Speaker 2: maybe because his name is in the brand. MGM stands
Speaker 2: for Metro Goldwyn Mayor. I'm sure you know that by
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty seven he was the highest paid man in America,
Speaker 2: and he believed that the movie should represent a sanitized
Speaker 2: version of reality. He once said, no Mayor picture will
Speaker 2: have bedroom scenes, even where the couples are married. But
Speaker 2: there are conflicting accounts when it comes to his treatment
Speaker 2: of women. One friend of his said LB couldn't get
Speaker 2: laid in a whorehouse, and a producer at MGM said
Speaker 2: Mayor was like a bashful boy. It wasn't until after
Speaker 2: he was fifty that he realized sex could be fun.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, according to Get Happy the Life
Speaker 2: of Judy Garland by Gerald Clark, Mayor allegedly groped Judy
Speaker 2: Garland when she was a teenager and held meetings with
Speaker 2: her seated on his lap.
Speaker 3: And his hands on her chest.
Speaker 4: My god, that story just every time you hear it, it
Speaker 4: just still hits the same horrible abuse of her and
Speaker 4: so many other women. Well, tell me about Harry Cone
Speaker 4: at Columbia.
Speaker 2: By most accounts, Cone expected sex from women in exchange
Speaker 2: for movie roles. He even installed these secret passages into
Speaker 2: actresses dressing rooms to give him easier access to them.
Speaker 2: He also had this strange habit of opening a woman's
Speaker 2: mouth with a pencil before he had sex with her
Speaker 2: to inspect her teeth like he was sizing up a horse.
Speaker 2: And when Rita Hayworth, one of his biggest stars, refused
Speaker 2: to sleep with him, he had her stocked and even
Speaker 2: bugged her dressing room. She said Cone was a monster.
Speaker 2: He was also obsessively controlling. There's a famous story about
Speaker 2: his interference in a relationship between his blonde star Kim
Speaker 2: Novak and ratpacker Sammy Davis Junior. Cone ended the relationship
Speaker 2: by reportedly putting a mob hit on Davis.
Speaker 4: That sounds like an entire different podcast episode. By the way,
Speaker 4: do you know the mafia term for killing a celebrity,
Speaker 4: and that's called excellent cadaver? To Steph why I So
Speaker 4: let's move on to Howard Hughes, who was known as
Speaker 4: the richest man in America at that point. When did
Speaker 4: he get involved with Arkao So?
Speaker 2: Hughes bought RKO's studios in nineteen forty eight and then
Speaker 2: spent the next few years running it into the ground.
Speaker 2: He was known for praying on underage girls. One of
Speaker 2: them was sixteen year old Ida Lupino. She survived, however,
Speaker 2: and went on to have a big career as an
Speaker 2: A list actress and one of the few women directors
Speaker 2: in the nineteen fifties and sixties. When Ava Gardner refused
Speaker 2: to marry him, Hughes hired detectives to stalk her. She
Speaker 2: finally put a stop to it by knocking him unconscious
Speaker 2: with an ashtray. He was obsessed with collecting young actresses.
Speaker 2: He'd sign them to these long term contracts, but he
Speaker 2: never gave them work. Instead, he'd stashed them in mansions
Speaker 2: and luxury apartments under the control of handlers.
Speaker 4: You know, it really makes me reconsider the title of
Speaker 4: that Warren Baty movie he spent twenty years making about Hughes,
Speaker 4: called Rules Don't Apply. Well, he sounds like a fantastic gentleman.
Speaker 4: So let's go back to Xanik.
Speaker 2: Yes, Xanik, and here's a little of his backstory. He
Speaker 2: was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in nineteen oh two, but
Speaker 2: moved to la with his mother when he was eight.
Speaker 2: In nineteen seventeen, when he was fifteen, he lied about
Speaker 2: his age and enlisted in the Army. He served in
Speaker 2: France during World War One. After the war, when he
Speaker 2: was seventeen, he moved to New York to become a writer,
Speaker 2: but he had little success and eventually moved back to
Speaker 2: Los Angeles. After working a series of odd jobs, he
Speaker 2: sold a story to the Fox Film Company for five
Speaker 2: hundred dollars that's about eighty five hundred dollars today. In
Speaker 2: January nineteen twenty four, Xanik married Virginia Fox, an actress
Speaker 2: who had success in silent films. The Xanix would have
Speaker 2: three children, two daughters, Darylynn and Susan, and his son Richard,
Speaker 2: who would become a successful movie producer himself. He produced Jaws,
Speaker 2: Driving Miss Daisy, and Cocoon, among many other films, and
Speaker 2: later that year Zanik was hired to produce Warner Brothers
Speaker 2: popular Rin Tin Tin movies. Their star was a German
Speaker 2: shepherd who in real life had been rescued by an
Speaker 2: American soldier on a World War One battlefield. The movies
Speaker 2: were hugely profitable, and the series put Xanik on the
Speaker 2: map in Hollywood, and three years later he was promoted
Speaker 2: to head of production at Warner's. His salary went up
Speaker 2: from one hundred and twenty five dollars a week to
Speaker 2: five thousand a week, which would be about ninety thousand
Speaker 2: dollars per week today. In nineteen twenty eight, he was
Speaker 2: the supervising producer on The Jazz Singer, the first full
Speaker 2: length film recorded with sound. It had music singing and
Speaker 2: the famous line you ain't heard nothing yet. But Warner
Speaker 2: Brothers was tightly controlled by its owners, the four Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2: Xanik was ambitious, and it became clear that the Warners
Speaker 2: would never make him a partner. He resigned in nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty three and went into business with Joseph Skank, one
Speaker 2: of the most powerful moguls in early Hollywood. Together they
Speaker 2: founded the Twentieth Century Company Film Studio. As part of
Speaker 2: the deal, Zanik took home a huge paycheck. Variety reported
Speaker 2: on April twenty fifth nineteen thirty three that he'd quote
Speaker 2: knocked off one hundred thousand dollars bonus about two point
Speaker 2: three million dollars today. Zanik went right to work. He
Speaker 2: produced eighteen movies for twentieth Century Films in just eighteen months.
Speaker 2: All but one of them was a success. Two years later,
Speaker 2: Xanik and Skank merged Twentieth Century with the Fox Film Corporation.
Speaker 2: The Fox Company was formed in nineteen fifteen by William Fox.
Speaker 2: It was successful for many years, but by the mid
Speaker 2: nineteen thirties it was struggling. In Variety Dies report on
Speaker 2: the merger on May twenty ninth, nineteen thirty five, it
Speaker 2: noted that Skank would serve as chairman of the board
Speaker 2: and Xanik would oversee production as vice president. Fox had
Speaker 2: something that twentieth century desperately needed, infrastructure. It owned a
Speaker 2: three hundred acre studio on Pico Avenue where the Fox
Speaker 2: Lot is still located today.
Speaker 4: So by the times on it gets to the Fox Lot,
Speaker 4: was he already sort of notorious for this casting house behavior.
Speaker 2: Well, what we know is he was having extramarital affairs,
Speaker 2: but they were hookups, nothing long term or serious. And
Speaker 2: we also know that his wife, Virginia, was aware of them.
Speaker 2: Early on in nineteen twenty six, on a trip to Europe,
Speaker 2: she heard him on the street below their hotel room
Speaker 2: talking with a woman, so she grabbed a flower pot,
Speaker 2: threw it off the balcony and hit him in the head.
Speaker 4: There should be a statue for her on that lot,
Speaker 4: I think so.
Speaker 2: Virginia eventually accepted that Daryl had women on the side
Speaker 2: and invited a few of his famous lovers and their husbands,
Speaker 2: believe it or not, for weekends at the Xanik's estate
Speaker 2: in Palm Springs.
Speaker 4: Talking about four o'clock girls. In general, this level of
Speaker 4: abuse is just so hard to fathom, but perhaps not
Speaker 4: in our current landscape. How solid is all the reporting
Speaker 4: from this.
Speaker 2: Era, Well, there is definitely some myth making going on here,
Speaker 2: and most of what we have is anecdotal, and like
Speaker 2: it always is with these kinds of stories from Hollywood,
Speaker 2: they may have been embellished over the years. For example,
Speaker 2: Milton Spurling was a source with firsthand knowledge about what
Speaker 2: went on. He worked closely with Xanik for years and
Speaker 2: here's what he said. Every day, at four o'clock in
Speaker 2: the afternoon, some girl on the lot would visit Zank
Speaker 2: in his office. The doors would be locked after she
Speaker 2: went in, no calls were taken, and for the next
Speaker 2: half hour nothing happened. Headquarters shut down. Around the office,
Speaker 2: work came to a halt for this sex siesta. But
Speaker 2: later Spurling backtracked on that a bit. He said it
Speaker 2: wasn't real every day, but it happened often enough. A
Speaker 2: producer at Fox claimed that Xanik had given every actress
Speaker 2: under contract at Fox of four o'clock audition treatment. That's
Speaker 2: an exaggeration. We know of a few who rejected him
Speaker 2: and then went on to have successful careers, But the
Speaker 2: thing is those careers usually happened at a different studio.
Speaker 4: So who are some of the women that had to
Speaker 4: suffer this abuse from Xenak that we would know? Well.
Speaker 2: Some of the big stars included Barbara Stanwick, Judy Holiday,
Speaker 2: Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Carol Landis, and Joan Collins.
Speaker 4: I love Barbara Stanwick. She's got so many great films
Speaker 4: like The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, Meet John Doe.
Speaker 2: Yes, and she said Xanik chased her around his office
Speaker 2: and attempted to rape her. Barbara Stanwick was one of
Speaker 2: the few big stars in the Golden Age who never
Speaker 2: signed a long term studio contract. She worked for Fox
Speaker 2: a few times, including once in nineteen thirty eight, and
Speaker 2: it is possible this incident occurred then.
Speaker 4: So what about Judy Holiday? She was usually typecast as
Speaker 4: the ditzy blonde.
Speaker 2: Yes she was, and the irony there was that she
Speaker 2: had an IQ of one hundred and seventy two, which
Speaker 2: qualified her as a genius. Her encounter with xanik was
Speaker 2: in nineteen forty three, when she was a twenty two
Speaker 2: year old day player at Fox. Her agent put her
Speaker 2: on Xanic's schedule for one of his four o'clock auditions.
Speaker 2: The agent also advised her to wear falsees in her bra.
Speaker 4: And when you say falses, you mean like these pads
Speaker 4: that go in your bra. I've got it a lot
Speaker 4: of stylis entergey. It would call those chicken cutlets.
Speaker 3: Oh, I love the visual. Yes.
Speaker 2: At the meeting, xanik On zipped his pants, grabbed her
Speaker 2: breasts and said, you belong to me. Judy pushed his
Speaker 2: hands away, pulled out the falsies and threw them at him.
Speaker 2: These belong to you, She reportedly said.
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: Assuming this is true, it may explain why Judy Holliday's
Speaker 2: hit movies were all made at other studios.
Speaker 4: So Betty Grabel, A lot of people might know that
Speaker 4: name but don't know much about her career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Betty Grabel is best remembered today as the World
Speaker 2: War Two pinup queen. There was a famous poster of
Speaker 2: her in a swimsuit and heels with her back to
Speaker 2: the camera, looking over her shoulder at the camera and smiling.
Speaker 2: It was very popular with American soldiers serving overseas during
Speaker 2: the war. Both before and after the war, Betty Grabil
Speaker 2: was one of the biggest stars at Fox, but her
Speaker 2: value to the company didn't stop Zanik from inviting her
Speaker 2: into his office hideaway. After locking the door, he turned
Speaker 2: and exposed himself. Grabil reportedly said, that's beautiful. You can
Speaker 2: put it away now. She got up and left the room.
Speaker 4: And then we have Hollywood's perhaps most famous and perpetual
Speaker 4: victim of sexual abuse and harassment, Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2: Yes, Marilyn was the next big star to come along
Speaker 2: at Fox after Betty Grable. In nineteen forty six, when
Speaker 2: she was still Norma Jean Mortensen, she was given a
Speaker 2: screen test at the studio. Everyone involved thought the test
Speaker 2: was exceptional. One executive said it gave him a cold chill,
Speaker 2: but when Darryl Xenik saw the test a few days later,
Speaker 2: he got no chills. He signed her anyway on July
Speaker 2: twenty third, nineteen forty six. When her contract was up.
Speaker 2: A year later, it was not renewed. No reason was given,
Speaker 2: and people who'd worked with Marylyn that year thought she
Speaker 2: was great. There have been dozens of biographies about Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2: She even wrote an autobiography herself, but it's still not
Speaker 2: clear why Xenik dropped her. Then eight years later, Marilyn
Speaker 2: said something to British actress Joan Collins that was interesting.
Speaker 2: Collins was twenty one years old and had a promising
Speaker 2: career in movies. Marilyn gave her advice about working in Hollywood,
Speaker 2: especially watch out for Xanax. She said, if he doesn't
Speaker 2: get what he wants, honey, he'll drop your contract. Was
Speaker 2: Marilyn speaking from first hand experience. Did Zanik drop her
Speaker 2: a nineteen teen forty seven because she had rejected him
Speaker 2: during a private audition. Well we'll never know that, but
Speaker 2: what we do know is Xanik would stall or even
Speaker 2: up end careers of actresses who told him no. That's
Speaker 2: apparently what happened with Carol Landis.
Speaker 4: I'm not as familiar with her. Tell me about Carol Well.
Speaker 2: Carol Landis was a talented and voluptuous actress who was
Speaker 2: known for her comedic chops. By the time Xanik signed
Speaker 2: her in nineteen forty, she had already been under contract
Speaker 2: at Warner Brothers and other studios. Her early movies tended
Speaker 2: to be be pictures, so the contract with Fox gave
Speaker 2: her the opportunity to really up her game. After she
Speaker 2: and Xanik had sex, a rare thing happened. Instead of
Speaker 2: his usual one time deal, it got to be a
Speaker 2: regular thing. But when she ended the affair, Xank reportedly
Speaker 2: became furious. Her contract was not renewed in nineteen forty six,
Speaker 2: and in a tragic note, two years later, after a
Speaker 2: failed romance with married act to Rex Harrison, Carol Landis
Speaker 2: committed suicide.
Speaker 4: That's so sad. What about Joan Collins? Did she steer
Speaker 4: clear of Xenic after Maryland's warning?
Speaker 2: Well? She wrote recently that she tried to avoid them
Speaker 2: at the studio and A few days later, she said,
Speaker 2: Darryl Zanik pounced on me and trapped me against a wall,
Speaker 2: breathing cigar fumes. He hissed, you haven't had anyone until
Speaker 2: you had me. Honey, I'm the biggest and the best,
Speaker 2: and I can go all night. I was so shocked,
Speaker 2: I couldn't think of anything to say. I managed to
Speaker 2: wriggle free and ran back to the set.
Speaker 4: Now, obviously there's no human resources department to report this too. Now,
Speaker 4: but aren't we aware of other prominent Hollywood journalists were
Speaker 4: aware of what Zenic was up to.
Speaker 2: Well, there's very little evidence one way or the other,
Speaker 2: with one notable exception. W. R. Wilkinson the Third has
Speaker 2: written a couple of books about his father, Billy Wilkerson,
Speaker 2: the founder and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. In his
Speaker 2: book Hollywood Godfather, Wilkerson wrote that his father knew about
Speaker 2: Xanik's four o'clock auditions, and he also knew about Harry
Speaker 2: Cone's casting couch abuse at Columbia Pictures. Xank and Billy
Speaker 2: Wilkerson were friends, and Wilkerson kept quiet about what he knew.
Speaker 4: So we've talked about Xeni's early in quite toxic life.
Speaker 4: How did he fare later on?
Speaker 2: Well? During World War Two, he served as colonel in
Speaker 2: the US Signal Corps. His job was to produce training
Speaker 2: films and documentaries. He was deployed to Africa in nineteen
Speaker 2: forty two to film The Invasion, which was one of
Speaker 2: America's first big operations in the war. Later, he received
Speaker 2: a legion of Merit for his war services. When he
Speaker 2: returned to work at Fox, he had some housekeeping to do.
Speaker 2: His office had been taken over by another producer. His
Speaker 2: four o'clock hideaway had been turned into a file room.
Speaker 2: Xanik had everything painted green again. The Safari trophies came back,
Speaker 2: the filing cabinets were out, and a new day bed
Speaker 2: was in The four o'clock auditions were soon back in business.
Speaker 4: My god, how long did this actually go on? And
Speaker 4: when did it eventually stop?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: They stopped at Fox in nineteen fifty six, when Zanik
Speaker 2: left the company and became an independent producer. In nineteen
Speaker 2: fifty seven, he produced The Sun Also Rises, which was
Speaker 2: one of Errol Flynn's last films. He also produced The
Speaker 2: Longest Day, starring John Wayne in nineteen sixty two. It
Speaker 2: was a critical and box office hit, But then he
Speaker 2: began to lose his footing. He put a lot of
Speaker 2: effort into turning his girlfriends into movie stars. Never worked
Speaker 2: out the careers of these women, Juliet Greco, Belladarvi and
Speaker 2: Riina Demisch failed one after another.
Speaker 4: And was his wife still okay with all this?
Speaker 2: Apparently not. It was around this time that Darryl and
Speaker 2: Virginia separated. She'd been patient for way too long. The
Speaker 2: Xanax never divorced, but they lived apart for the next
Speaker 2: twenty years. Xanik returned to Fox in nineteen sixty two
Speaker 2: and served as president. He was there when the studio
Speaker 2: released Cleopatra, one of the most expensive bombs Hollywood ever produced.
Speaker 4: So Xanik turned sixty in nineteen sixty two after this
Speaker 4: tremendous failure. Is he thinking about retirement?
Speaker 2: Not at all? In fact, he started working remotely. He
Speaker 2: moved to Paris in nineteen sixty five. He met a
Speaker 2: model named Jean Villev Gille at a nightclub.
Speaker 3: There.
Speaker 2: Something sparked between them and a long term relationship developed.
Speaker 2: She was nineteen, he was sixty three. Xanik and Jeanviev
Speaker 2: moved into the penthouse of one of the most expensive
Speaker 2: hotels in Paris, the Georges Sank. Around this time, Xanik
Speaker 2: was promoted to chairman of the board at Fox. He
Speaker 2: stayed in touch with the company's offices in Los Angeles
Speaker 2: and New York with phone calls and telegrams. He also
Speaker 2: held auditions in his penthouse.
Speaker 4: By the way, I do anything for a penthouse at
Speaker 4: the George Sank, but I wouldn't do that. So were
Speaker 4: these auditions sort of similar to the ones in the
Speaker 4: Fox lot?
Speaker 2: Well, at least one of them was for British actress
Speaker 2: and model Fiona Lewis sent her to Xanik's penthouse one
Speaker 2: afternoon in nineteen seventy. She wrote about it in her
Speaker 2: memoir Mistakes were made, some in French. She arrived promptly
Speaker 2: with her portfolio. Xanik answered the door himself. Fiona Lewis
Speaker 2: said he was wearing a silk dressing gown open at
Speaker 2: the front. He was naked underneath, and casually holding his
Speaker 2: penis between his first two fingers as if it were
Speaker 2: a lit cigar.
Speaker 3: Have you ever.
Speaker 2: Seen anything so big? He asked, which I instinctively knew
Speaker 2: wasn't a question, but I was floored. A wave of
Speaker 2: englishness rose up. I couldn't utter a word in French.
Speaker 2: I could have leveled him. Instead, I turned and headed
Speaker 2: for the elevator. Hey, come back, he shouted, Come on,
Speaker 2: I was just kidding.
Speaker 3: It was a joke.
Speaker 2: So she went back into the suite. They sat on
Speaker 2: the sofa and she showed.
Speaker 3: Him her portfolio.
Speaker 2: While she talked about her career, Xanik listened with what
Speaker 2: she called the used indifference. At one point, Jean Viev
Speaker 2: came in. Fiona Lewis described her as a young, elegantly
Speaker 2: dressed Grace Kelly type, wearing gray flannel slacks and a
Speaker 2: white Kashmir sweater. Jean Viev appeared to be looking for
Speaker 2: her cigarettes, but Louis felt like she was being checked out.
Speaker 2: After Jeanviev left, Xana got to the point he asked
Speaker 2: Fiona if she would like to sleep with Jeanviev. She
Speaker 2: hadn't expected that, and when she said no, he opened
Speaker 2: a wooden box on the coffee table, took out a
Speaker 2: few thousand francs and put them on the table in
Speaker 2: front of her, But she wasn't interested. She decided to leave,
Speaker 2: and on her way out she heard Xanik shout, you
Speaker 2: will never work in Hollywood. Fiona Lewis proved him wrong
Speaker 2: about that. She appeared in more than twenty movies in
Speaker 2: television shows in Hollywood over the next five decades.
Speaker 4: So Zanic is now in his seventies. Is he about
Speaker 4: to retire?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: His health began to fail and he and Jeanviev moved
Speaker 2: to New York. In nineteen seventy two, Xank was diagnosed
Speaker 2: with cancer and his jaw. Doctors removed part of the jaw,
Speaker 2: two teeth, part of his tongue, and some muscles, lymph nodes,
Speaker 2: and veins from his neck. And despite all of this,
Speaker 2: after the surgery, the doctor said he had no deformity.
Speaker 2: A few months later, things took an even more drastic turn.
Speaker 2: Xanic experienced memory loss and was eventually diagnosed with organic
Speaker 2: brain syndrome known today as neurocognitive disorder. His mental decline
Speaker 2: was quick, steep, and irreversible.
Speaker 4: That's a sort of stunning series of events for someone
Speaker 4: who had been an action for so long.
Speaker 2: What happened next, Well, let's go back to an evening
Speaker 2: in April nineteen seventy three. A plane from New York
Speaker 2: lands at the Palm Springs Airport in California. Seated in
Speaker 2: first class are Daryl Zanik, his girlfriend, Jean Viev, his secretary,
Speaker 2: his daughter's and Xanik's two dogs, Lisa and Tina. As
Speaker 2: soon as the landing stairs are rolled into place and
Speaker 2: the cabin door is open, Xanik grabs his dogs and
Speaker 2: down the steps. Jan Viev watches from the top of
Speaker 2: the stairs as he trots across the tarmac to a
Speaker 2: limo where Virginia Xanik is waiting. He hands Virginia one
Speaker 2: of the dogs and takes her by the arm. They
Speaker 2: climb into a limo and drive off towards Xanik's Palm
Speaker 2: Springs estate. Jen Viev realizes then that after eight years,
Speaker 2: her life with Darryl Zanak and all the wealth and
Speaker 2: privilege that came with it, has come to a close.
Speaker 4: So a gentleman to the very end, How long does
Speaker 4: he live?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: Virginia Xanik nursed him for the next six years, and
Speaker 2: he died at seventy seven on December twenty second, nineteen
Speaker 2: seventy nine. Okay, so let's talk about this story, Matt
Speaker 2: as it compares with recent events in the me Too era.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to read a quote from an article
Speaker 2: in Variety by Thelma Adams. She writes the practice of
Speaker 2: powerful white men exploiting young actresses trying to break into
Speaker 2: the movie business has a historical precedent as old as
Speaker 2: the movie business itself.
Speaker 4: Says it, all right, that's kind of it. That's the
Speaker 4: entire point.
Speaker 2: So what's your take on all of this? Now that
Speaker 2: you've heard the story and you know then and now.
Speaker 4: The biggest takeaway I have is just it's going through
Speaker 4: you know, this incredible and I've learned so much about
Speaker 4: Darryl's anik. But the one question I have is what
Speaker 4: is any of this worth? A few good movies? All
Speaker 4: this behavior somehow doesn't seem to equal to some of
Speaker 4: its parts. Not that it should, but it's just it's
Speaker 4: just very sad. And also for the people who aren't
Speaker 4: as lucky as Betty Grable and Barbara Stanwick and Joan Collins.
Speaker 4: And not to say Marilyn was lucky, but think about
Speaker 4: how many nameless, faceless women there were that went back home,
Speaker 4: got back on greyhound buses after behavior like this. It's
Speaker 4: it's a bit of a bummer.
Speaker 2: And you know, I keep using this quote the more
Speaker 2: things change, the more they stay the same.
Speaker 4: Is you know, in reporting on you know, the Dawn
Speaker 4: and the progression of the Me Too movement, I think
Speaker 4: that the word predation predatory is very applicable here because
Speaker 4: it does have a methodology, right. Think about how many
Speaker 4: of these instances have the same circumstances. So there's powerful
Speaker 4: people using you know, their influence and promise of employment
Speaker 4: to get people alone in rooms, to offer them, to
Speaker 4: proposition them, to pay them, to ask them if they
Speaker 4: don't work. It's all very very methodical or it's very
Speaker 4: pathological in a way too.
Speaker 2: And you know what, when I read or when I
Speaker 2: was researching about Xanak and his mo Yeah, it's so
Speaker 2: similar to Weinstein, only Weinstein asked for massages, but that
Speaker 2: same vibe, it seems so similar absolutely.
Speaker 4: And also even just the construction of the lots and
Speaker 4: just all the you know you mentioned about infrastructure being
Speaker 4: something that twentieth century really needed to scale up to
Speaker 4: become twentieth century Fox, but so much of what's even
Speaker 4: put in the groundwork there, it facilitated this secret pathways
Speaker 4: into actresses dressing rooms. It's interesting. I've actually been to
Speaker 4: the Louis B. Mayer office in the Tholburg Building on
Speaker 4: the Sony Pictures lot, and I've seen the secret passageways
Speaker 4: from his actual like maybe third floor office down into
Speaker 4: the screening rooms, and it takes on you know, you
Speaker 4: might think that some really cool trick of architecture or
Speaker 4: just like a nice lex of power, but it takes
Speaker 4: on such a different connotation when you maybe know what
Speaker 4: they were used for. You know what those passages were
Speaker 4: carrying or what might have happened in them.
Speaker 2: Okay, So speaking about the lots, then we had the
Speaker 2: studio system cities within a city. Richard Zanik said they
Speaker 2: were self sustaining except for the police force, which you
Speaker 2: obviously can't have, but there was this sort of infrastructure
Speaker 2: and their ability to just control everything absolutely.
Speaker 4: I mean, the studio system was a closed loop where
Speaker 4: you had a sole financier. It was very small collection
Speaker 4: people at the top making decisions. And what's even more
Speaker 4: interesting now, because you know the world we live in,
Speaker 4: celebrities are so diversified and so branded in and of themselves,
Speaker 4: but this was a system where they would sign you
Speaker 4: for eight or nine year contracts and they could change
Speaker 4: your image on a dime. They would just literally shuffle
Speaker 4: you in and out of movies like cattle. There was
Speaker 4: no such thing as sort of like you know, controlled
Speaker 4: defined individual celebrity identity, so you had less and less rights.
Speaker 2: What do you think about the system protect ding powerful
Speaker 2: men like Darryl Zanik?
Speaker 3: How do you think they were able to do that?
Speaker 3: What's your take?
Speaker 4: I mean, the system protecting these corrupt men. I think
Speaker 4: we're probably people backing the idea of the American dream
Speaker 4: lived out through movies. You know, theatrical box office was
Speaker 4: never was the only game in town. You know, you're
Speaker 4: talking about many of these moguls came before the advent
Speaker 4: or at least the popularity of television. So you've got
Speaker 4: one medium that the entire world worships. And it's a
Speaker 4: very high stakes game, especially for the actors that come
Speaker 4: through these doors and you know, come from nothing and
Speaker 4: want that American dream.
Speaker 2: As I said, and when you look at Weinstein, looking
Speaker 2: at present day, I am absolutely gobsmacked at how many
Speaker 2: people knew in Hollywood for how long and so that
Speaker 2: goes back to them.
Speaker 4: Right absolutely. It's funny when you talk about complicity, because
Speaker 4: I think it works in a couple different ways. You know,
Speaker 4: in terms of Harvey, where there are people who actively
Speaker 4: were to abscond and paid off women that he abused, Yes,
Speaker 4: on equivocally, there's also a different sort of emotional complicity,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, Like this idea that you know,
Speaker 4: Harvey was mean, and because he was meaning, was somehow
Speaker 4: tough or swashbuckling or whatever. But I think in his heyday,
Speaker 4: the idea of just surviving him opened so many other
Speaker 4: doors for you, even as one of his employees, you
Speaker 4: know what I mean, Like Mira Max was the unquestionable
Speaker 4: independent film king of the world, and getting a role
Speaker 4: or having a successful MOVI to come out, and especially
Speaker 4: you know Harvey's skills, a campaigning for oscars could be
Speaker 4: really transformative for your career at a time when the
Speaker 4: studios weren't making product that was really interesting to the
Speaker 4: top and coming artists, and you could have this entirely
Speaker 4: new path to stardom. That is such a great point.
Speaker 4: I wanted to bring up one thing too, because we
Speaker 4: were talking. You know, we're talking about systems that protect,
Speaker 4: but let's talk about how this stuff sort of manifested
Speaker 4: in the films. I was so fascinated to hear that
Speaker 4: Louis B. Mayor just refused to put any kind of
Speaker 4: depictions of sexuality in his films, no bedroom scenes, even
Speaker 4: between married couples, and then behaves.
Speaker 3: This way exactly hypocrisy.
Speaker 2: Well, I want to leave with a quote from the
Speaker 2: fab Marilyn Monroe, and she summed up her experience with
Speaker 2: powerful men in Hollywood like this, and this is from
Speaker 2: her memoir.
Speaker 3: I met them all.
Speaker 2: Some were vicious and crooked, but you saw Hollywood with
Speaker 2: their eyes, an overcrowded brothel and a merry go round
Speaker 2: with beds instead of horses. So, Matt, I know that
Speaker 2: really kind of paints that picture. Any final thoughts.
Speaker 4: I think the one thing we've learned today is that
Speaker 4: maybe they're as Thelma sid earlier as you quoted her.
Speaker 4: There might be too many powerful, rich white men in charge.
Speaker 4: So maybe we should shape that up a little bit
Speaker 4: and see what happens. And now the world will know
Speaker 4: what falses are.
Speaker 3: And I think that's a perfect final thought.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thanks to Matt Donnelly for joining us,
Speaker 2: and thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next
Speaker 2: time with another episode in this six part series, The
Speaker 2: Secret History of the casting couch from Variety Confidential. This
Speaker 2: has been four o'clock Girls for Variety and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3: I'm Tracy Patton.
Speaker 2: Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
Speaker 2: iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
Speaker 2: and Tracy Patten and written by John Ponder and Tracy Patton,
Speaker 2: with additional research by Karen Mizogucci. Executive producers are Dea
Speaker 2: Lawrence and Steve Gatos. Variety Confidential is recorded, edited, and
Speaker 2: mixed at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording engineer Lester Dangler,
Speaker 2: editor and mixer Charles Carroll