Speaker 1: Hollywood sex scandals are kind of a guilty pleasure, but
Speaker 1: guess what, they're nothing new. Back in the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: there was a massively popular leading man who was forced
Speaker 1: to marry his agent secretary to hide the fact that
Speaker 1: he was gay. And how about the affair between the
Speaker 1: nineteen forties and fifties Oscar winning movie star and her
Speaker 1: Oscar nominated director that led to marriage and then to
Speaker 1: divorce after he caught her in bed with his son
Speaker 1: who was just thirteen years old. Can't make this stuff up.
Speaker 1: I'm Patty Steele. Sex cells, especially when it's off screen.
Speaker 1: Next on the backstory. The backstory is back. Hollywood sex
Speaker 1: scandals always titillate us, even if we don't want to
Speaker 1: admit it. We've heard about those involving movie superstars, and
Speaker 1: we love a peek inside that beautiful, sexy, moneyed world.
Speaker 1: But some of those stories go beyond a little flirtation
Speaker 1: or even a more intense liaison, have led to broken
Speaker 1: marriages and some to crimes that destroyed careers and lives.
Speaker 1: Let's start with the silent film comedy legend Fatty Arbuckle.
Speaker 1: It was September of nineteen twenty one, Fatty had it all.
Speaker 1: He just signed a million dollar a year deal for
Speaker 1: three years the equivalent today of about seventeen million bucks
Speaker 1: a year to star in eighteen silent films. A friend
Speaker 1: planned a three day celebration for him at the Saint
Speaker 1: Francis Hotel in beautiful San Francisco. So there are private rooms,
Speaker 1: lots of food, and plenty of liquor despite prohibition, and
Speaker 1: lots of uninvited guests begin to show up, including a
Speaker 1: woman named Maud Delmont and a twenty five year old
Speaker 1: named Virginia. Repe At first, Fatty tells friends he doesn't
Speaker 1: want those women there because it might tip the cops
Speaker 1: off to their quote unquote gin party. Maud was a
Speaker 1: madam in Virginia, was a model, clothing designer, want to
Speaker 1: be actress, and especially a party girl. So the party
Speaker 1: heats up. Matty isn't worried about anything at this point
Speaker 1: other than being alone with Virginia. They have a few
Speaker 1: drinks together, and according to Maud, Fatty pulls Virginia into
Speaker 1: a nearby room, saying I've waited for you and now
Speaker 1: I've got you. Half an hour goes by and then
Speaker 1: Maud so she hears Virginia screaming the door is locked.
Speaker 1: She kicks at it until Fatty finally opens the door
Speaker 1: with a big grin on his face, and Maud sees
Speaker 1: Virginia sprawled on the bed, moaning in pain. They call
Speaker 1: a doctor, who treats her and then leaves. Virginia stays
Speaker 1: at the hotel for a few days, but she gets
Speaker 1: worse and is finally taken to a hospital. She dies
Speaker 1: there a few days later of a ruptured bladder. Faddy
Speaker 1: was arrested and sat in jail without bail for three
Speaker 1: weeks while the newspapers had a field day with him.
Speaker 1: He finally told his side of the story, saying that
Speaker 1: after he had a few drinks with Virginia, she became hysterical,
Speaker 1: complaining she couldn't breathe. He said, she then started to
Speaker 1: tear off her clothes, said he thought she was drunk,
Speaker 1: and that he actually was never alone with her and
Speaker 1: had witnesses to prove it. Fatty was charged with manslaughter
Speaker 1: and went to trial. Now, the problem is the key
Speaker 1: witness for the prosecution was Maud the Madam, and she
Speaker 1: had a pretty crummy reputation, including a criminal history involving
Speaker 1: fraud and extortion. Turns out she'd bring young women to
Speaker 1: parties to entertain wealthy men, and later she'd accuse them
Speaker 1: of rape and then blackmail them. To make the case
Speaker 1: even worse for the prosecutor, The defense had telegrams that
Speaker 1: Maud had sent to lawyers in San Diego and Los
Speaker 1: Angeles that said, we have Fatty Arbuckle in a hole here,
Speaker 1: chance to make some money out of him. Eventually, after
Speaker 1: three trials, the case against Fatty was dismissed, but his
Speaker 1: career was destroyed. Then there's Rock Hudson, gorgeous superstar of
Speaker 1: the fifties, sixties, and seventies. He was the dreamy guy
Speaker 1: in classic movies like Giant, Magnificent, Obsession, and rom coms
Speaker 1: like Pillow Talk. By the seventies and early eighties, he
Speaker 1: starred in hit TV shows like McMillan and Wife and Dynasty.
Speaker 1: But his career hit a snag back in nineteen fifty
Speaker 1: five when a gossip magazine called Confidential started sniffing around
Speaker 1: his private life. They wanted to do a bombshell story
Speaker 1: about Rock being gay, which in those days could have
Speaker 1: destroyed his career. His agent decided something had to be
Speaker 1: done now. Back then, to protect their moneymakers, studios and
Speaker 1: their fixers, like agents, would arrange what were called lavender marriages.
Speaker 1: That meant they would pay somebody off who was willing
Speaker 1: to get married to a star who was in the
Speaker 1: closet and wanted to stay there. Rock's agent persuaded his
Speaker 1: own secretary, Phyllis Gates, to marry Rock right away. It worked,
Speaker 1: and it kept Rock's career intact, although the pair divorced
Speaker 1: a few years later. While there are recordings taken by
Speaker 1: a private eye of Phyllis a using Rock of picking
Speaker 1: up boys, he managed to keep his secret until he
Speaker 1: was diagnosed with AIDS in nineteen eighty five. And finally,
Speaker 1: there's the story of Gloria Graham. Now funny enough. While
Speaker 1: you might not know her name, you would definitely recognize
Speaker 1: her if you like classic flicks. She starred in movies
Speaker 1: like It's a Wonderful Life, The Big Heat Oklahoma, and
Speaker 1: The Greatest Show on Earth. And she won an Oscar
Speaker 1: for the Bad and the Beautiful. But Gloria had a
Speaker 1: thing for men. She couldn't get enough of them, and
Speaker 1: it cost her her reputation. While working on a film
Speaker 1: in nineteen forty nine, she fell for her director, Nicholas Ray,
Speaker 1: who later would get an Oscar Nod for directing the
Speaker 1: James Dean classic Rebel Without a Cause. Gloria wound up pregnant.
Speaker 1: Problem was she was already married, so she got a
Speaker 1: fast divorce in Vegas so she could then marry Nicholas
Speaker 1: before the baby arrived. So what happened to them? Well,
Speaker 1: of course, the excitement petered out, as it sometimes does,
Speaker 1: and the marriage ended in nineteen fifty two when Nicholas
Speaker 1: walked in on Gloria in bed with another man, or
Speaker 1: actually a boy named Anthony, who happened to be Nicholas's
Speaker 1: son and who happened to be just thirteen years old
Speaker 1: at the time. Jeez, how crazy is that? Weirdly, it
Speaker 1: didn't end there. Right after the divorce, Gloria quickly married
Speaker 1: somebody else for about five minutes, and then when young
Speaker 1: Anthony turned twenty one, he became Gloria's fourth and final husband,
Speaker 1: staying with her for fourteen years. That marriage way outlasted
Speaker 1: her other marriages and certainly outlasted her career. It was
Speaker 1: a crazy life for those early Hollywood stars. While the
Speaker 1: movie studios did everything to protect them and make them
Speaker 1: look more beautiful and larger than life. The press and
Speaker 1: the public loved seeing them fall apart, and that's when
Speaker 1: the studios got tired of them and abandon them. You
Speaker 1: got to wonder why we get a thrill out of
Speaker 1: watching these stars rise and just as much of a
Speaker 1: thrill out of watching them fall. Do you have a
Speaker 1: story you'd like me to take a deeper dive into
Speaker 1: and share. Please DM me on Facebook at Patty Steele
Speaker 1: or on Instagram at reel Patty Steele. I'm Patty Steele.
Speaker 1: The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks, the Elvis
Speaker 1: Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer is Doug Fraser.
Speaker 1: Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new episodes every Tuesday
Speaker 1: and Friday. Feel free to reach out to me with
Speaker 1: comments and even story suggestions on Instagram at real Patty
Speaker 1: Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele. Thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The pieces of history
Speaker 1: you didn't know you needed to know.