WEBVTT - Henry Willson "The Man Who Invented Beefcake" 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:03.440 This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:12.680 not be suitable for young audiences. 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:17.560 In twenty seventeen, Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:21.520 sexual abuser. Many brave women came forward and told their stories. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.200 They exposed one of Hollywood's most powerful moguls as a 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:30.880 vicious sexual predator who operated horrifically and seemingly without consequences. 0:00:31.240 --> 0:00:34.680 But Weinstein was standing on the shoulders of monsters. For 0:00:34.800 --> 0:00:39.000 so many years, those monsters remained unchecked in Hollywood, shielded 0:00:39.000 --> 0:00:41.760 by the millions of dollars they made for their studios. 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.519 Sex for fame is not new. In fact, it's as 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.000 old as Hollywood itself. Today, we'll look at the career 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.120 of Henry Wilson, the Hollywood agent who specialized in spotting 0:00:53.200 --> 0:00:57.000 young actors with star potential. He would whine and dine them, 0:00:57.040 --> 0:01:00.600 and then if they wanted stardom badly enough, he would 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.480 take them home to bed. Legend has it that Henry 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.520 Wilson used the promise of fame to lure dozens of 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.280 handsome young men onto his casting couch. He made stars 0:01:10.319 --> 0:01:13.000 of more than a few, and created a whole new 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:17.559 genre of male eye candy. That came to be called Beefcake. 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:22.120 Henry's legend faded after he died, but recently he was 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:26.000 given another fifteen minutes of fame in Ryan Murphy's Netflix 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.959 series Hollywood. Jim Parsons won an Emmy nomination for his 0:01:30.120 --> 0:01:34.240 highly fictionalized portrayal of Henry Wilson and his discovery and 0:01:34.319 --> 0:01:38.800 sexual coercion of Rock Hudson. In today's episode of Variety Confidential, 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:43.040 will open Variety's archives to separate fact from fiction about 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.920 Henry Wilson, a deeply closeted, sexually abusive agent and starmaker 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:52.520 in mid century Hollywood. From Variety and iHeart Podcasts, I'm 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:56.320 Tracy Patton. This is the secret history of the Casting Couch. 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:03.480 Today's episode Closet Monster, The Man who invented Beefcake, and 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:08.880 with Me Today's Matt Donnelly, Variety Senior Entertainment and Media writer. Welcome, Matt. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:11.239 Thank you so much for having me, and it's great. 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.920 To have you here to get your Hollywood perspective and insights. 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:17.000 You know the cliche of there's nothing new under the sun. Yes, 0:02:17.080 --> 0:02:19.560 I think that's particularly true in terms of the methods 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:22.639 and the mechanics of the casting couch. For instance, there's 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:25.200 a term we use in journalism. Catch and kill. Has 0:02:25.200 --> 0:02:27.040 become so prominent in the past few years that that 0:02:27.160 --> 0:02:30.160 was actually the title of Ronan Pharaoh's book about sexual 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:33.440 predators in the entertainment industry. What it basically means is 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:35.520 is that a power broker will trade the cover up 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:38.800 of one piece of very salacious information by trading another 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:43.040 incredibly slatious piece of information. In this Henry wilson saga 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.320 catch and kill has an especially sort of odious place 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:49.240 in his career. He practically patented a technique to do 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:51.080 this nearly three quarters of a century ago. 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:54.400 Indeed, and for those unfamiliar, Henry Wilson was a talent 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.240 agent and manager who worked in Hollywood from the nineteen 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:00.520 thirties to the sixties. Wilson had scored big as an 0:03:00.560 --> 0:03:03.520 agent with stars like Lona Turner and Tab Hunter, but 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.320 Rock Hudson was the jewel in his management crown. He 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.359 couldn't afford a whiff of scandal to damage the luster 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.200 of this major leading man. There was a problem, however, 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:20.440 rock Hudson's homosexuality. Inevitably, stories about Hudson's gay trysts surfaced 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:24.919 and Confidential magazine was eager to expose Rock's gay relationships, 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.960 so Henry Wilson swung into action with catch and Kill, 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:32.760 and he sacrificed the careers of lesser stars or those 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:35.920 who had parted ways with him. Among the victims were 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.240 Tab Hunter, who had severed his business ties with Wilson, 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.200 and his important but more expendable TV star Rory Calhoun. 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:48.040 Wilson leaked Calhoun's criminal record to Confidential magazine, and he 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.440 provided proof that Hunter had been caught at a gay party. 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:56.360 Rock Hudson's secret remained safe thanks to Wilson's methods, but 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.320 these two other actors saw their careers hugely damaged by 0:04:00.360 --> 0:04:02.000 his catch and kill methods. 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:04.920 Well, let's dive in. Tell me about Henry's early life. 0:04:05.080 --> 0:04:08.520 Yes, he was born in nineteen eleven in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.880 outside Philadelphia. His father was Horace Wilson, vice president of 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.480 the Columbia Phonograph Company, a precursor to Columbia Records. 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:17.680 So they were pretty well off. 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:20.679 Yes, they were wealthy enough to send him to boarding 0:04:20.720 --> 0:04:24.360 school and then to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, and then 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.320 after college he went to work writing gossip items for 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.160 Variety in New York. He got a byline on some 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:32.240 of them, which was good for a kid right out 0:04:32.240 --> 0:04:35.360 of college. He moved to Hollywood in nineteen thirty three 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:39.039 and found work writing for Photoplay, The Hollywood Reporter, and 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:43.040 New Movie Magazine. In nineteen thirty four, that experience led 0:04:43.080 --> 0:04:45.640 to work as a talent agent for a small firm 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.880 in Beverly Hills. He was twenty four then, and his 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:51.160 job was to find young talent. 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:55.840 Oh, it's a little embarrassing. He worked at Variety. That's 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.120 a pretty good entry level job, though, so, which obviously 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.000 would give him some visibility in the industry. 0:05:00.360 --> 0:05:03.560 Yeah, he apparently did very well. Variety announced two years 0:05:03.640 --> 0:05:06.760 later that Henry had been hired by the Zeppo Marx Agency. 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:09.839 Before he opened the agency, Zeppo had been the fourth 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.320 brother in the world famous Marx Brothers comedy act, along 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:17.200 with Graucho, Chico and Harpo. Zeppo got tired of playing 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.920 the straight man to his brother's zany antics. He quit 0:05:20.960 --> 0:05:23.360 the act in nineteen thirty three and opened what became 0:05:23.480 --> 0:05:25.279 a successful talent agency. 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:28.039 But his next job was even more fastigious, wasn't it. 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:30.760 He went to work for David ozelsnig Yes. 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:34.720 From Variety again. On June thirtieth, nineteen forty three, Henry 0:05:34.760 --> 0:05:39.080 Wilson had joined Vanguard Films, Selznick's new production company as 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.080 head of the talent division. Selznick had produced some of 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:45.360 the biggest movies in Hollywood history, the original King Kong 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.440 in nineteen thirty three, the original A Star Is Born 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:51.760 in nineteen thirty seven, and Gone with the Wind in 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:55.640 nineteen thirty nine, one of the highest grossing movies of 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:59.120 all time. Not bad, yeah, but he was infamous for 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.160 his out of control spending in his compulsive gambling. By 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:07.200 April nineteen forty nine, Vanguard was underwater. Selznik closed it 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:10.760 that spring and auctioned its assess for five hundred thousand dollars. 0:06:11.320 --> 0:06:13.719 Henry went to work in new talent development for the 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:17.039 Famous Artists Agency, one of the top agencies in town. 0:06:17.560 --> 0:06:21.160 Later he handled new talent for Worldwide Management. He also 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:24.200 operated several independent agencies over the years. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:26.760 So Henry made quite a name for himself as an 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:29.960 aggressive agent. He was incredibly committed to his clients. Is 0:06:29.960 --> 0:06:30.320 that right? 0:06:30.720 --> 0:06:33.480 Yes, it is, and he seems to have insinuated himself 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.919 into their lives. He became their friend, the parent, the protector, 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:39.360 and in many cases their lover. 0:06:40.000 --> 0:06:42.360 And by the way, some of them became huge stars. 0:06:42.360 --> 0:06:44.360 I mean, it doesn't get bigger than Lana Turner, Rock 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:45.599 Hudson or Natalie Wood. 0:06:45.839 --> 0:06:50.280 Absolutely. Henry was Lana Turner's first agent. She was Judy Turner, 0:06:50.400 --> 0:06:52.760 a student at Hollywood High School when she was signed 0:06:52.760 --> 0:06:56.159 by the Zeppo Marx agency and assigned to Henry. After 0:06:56.200 --> 0:06:59.279 a makeover, her name was changed from Judy to Lana. 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.440 The camera loved her, and Henry easily found walk on 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:06.640 rolls for her, but none of those small, non speaking 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.760 parts resulted in a contract. Eventually, a producer at Fox 0:07:10.800 --> 0:07:15.280 told Henry she can't act. Henry said, I didn't say 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:18.200 she could act. I said she could be a movie star. 0:07:18.800 --> 0:07:22.720 And that summed up his approach. The acting can be 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.040 added later, he would say. Henry knew that sex appeal 0:07:26.120 --> 0:07:29.320 was often more important on screen than acting ability. He 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:32.720 also knew that that was true only up to a point. 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.920 To achieve stardom, young actors would have to study acting, 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.400 which is what Lana Turner did. After she learned the ropes, 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.640 MGM put her under contract. She appeared in more than 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.520 fifty movies over the years, almost always in the starring role. 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:50.920 Many of them were hits like The Postman Always Rings 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:54.200 twice in nineteen forty six and Imitation of Life in 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:57.880 nineteen fifty nine. She was nominated for Best Actress for 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:01.880 Peyton Place in nineteen fifty seven. Natalie Wood was twelve 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:05.200 years old when Henry became her agent. She already appeared 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.360 in a dozen movies by then. Her breakthrough was at 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.640 age nine in Miracle on thirty Fourth Street. Eventually, Henry 0:08:12.640 --> 0:08:15.440 helped her land the role of James Dean's love interest 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:19.360 in Rebel Without a Cause. Natalie Wood appeared in twenty 0:08:19.400 --> 0:08:22.440 five movies after that. They included hits like All the 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.800 Fine Young Cannibals in nineteen sixty, Splendor in the Grass 0:08:25.800 --> 0:08:29.200 in nineteen sixty one, The Original West Side Story in 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:33.439 nineteen sixty one, Gypsy in nineteen sixty two, and others. 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:36.960 Now Henry's first important discoveries as an agent were two 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.840 men who later made it really big on television. 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:42.920 And before Henry renamed them, they were Robert Moseley Junior 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.960 and Frank McCown. Afterward, they became famous as Guy Madison 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:51.160 and Rory Calhoun. Both men were muscular and beefy and 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.920 incredibly good looking. Guy Madison was photographed shirtless dozens of times. 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:59.520 A gossip columnist coined a new term for Guy's physique 0:08:59.600 --> 0:09:04.640 photo He called them beefcake. Guy and Rory were inexperienced 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.360 in acting, but loaded with sex appeal. In both cases, 0:09:08.400 --> 0:09:11.880 the acting did come later. Both men had successful careers 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.320 in television in the nineteen fifties. Guy Madison starred in 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.720 Wild Bill Hiccock from nineteen fifty one to nineteen fifty eight, 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:22.480 and Rory Calhoun in The Texan. In the late nineteen fifties, 0:09:23.120 --> 0:09:25.440 Henry Wilson had a run of good luck placing his 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:29.559 clients as leads in television series. Along with Guy and Rory, 0:09:29.920 --> 0:09:33.760 Henry represented Guy Williams, who starred in Zoro, Don Durant 0:09:33.840 --> 0:09:36.920 starred in Johnny Ringo, Nick Adams in The Rebel, and 0:09:37.000 --> 0:09:39.599 Craig Stevens and Peter gunn So. 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:42.440 Two of Henry's later discoveries, were both blondes who became 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.480 teen idols in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He discovered 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:48.439 Troy Donna Hue formerly Merril Johnson Junior in the fifties, 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:51.840 and he signed tab Hunter formerly Arthur Glean in nineteen 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:53.120 forty nine. 0:09:52.880 --> 0:09:55.440 And Troy Donahue had a surfer boy look that made 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.640 him a teen heartthrob in the early nineteen sixties. In 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.960 nineteen fifty nine, appeared in Imitation of Life with Lana 0:10:02.040 --> 0:10:05.640 Turner and A Summer Place. In nineteen sixty two, he 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:09.280 starred in Rome Adventure with Suzanne Pluchette, who he later 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.360 married briefly, and he appeared in Palm Springs Weekend with 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:16.040 Connie Stevens. Tab Hunter had acted in high school plays, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:20.080 but had no acting ambition until he was discovered. In 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:24.560 his case, the acting followed fairly quickly. He eventually appeared 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:28.040 in more than fifty movies, often in lead roles, and 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:31.320 then in nineteen fifty seven he became a teen idol 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.400 with the release of Young Love, a number one pop 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:37.960 hit in both the US and UK. Other hits followed. 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:41.640 Tab Hunter hosted his own television show in nineteen sixty 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.960 and sixty one. He returned to movies in nineteen eighty 0:10:44.960 --> 0:10:48.480 four when he appeared in John Waters's Lust in the Dust, 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:53.360 playing opposite a fearless drag performer called Divine. 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:56.120 And Yet Henry's biggest discovery was, of course, Rock Hudson. 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:00.559 Yes, Rock said later, it was September nineteen four seven. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.080 I don't think anything important ever happened to me until 0:11:04.080 --> 0:11:07.680 I walked into Wilson's office that day. His name was 0:11:07.760 --> 0:11:11.240 Roy Fitzgerald before Henry gave him a makeover. He had 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:15.359 exceptional good looks and, like the others, no acting experience 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:19.080 or natural talent. But Henry believed in him. He spent 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.160 thousands of dollars on turning the former truck driver into 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:25.360 a movie star. He paid for acting and vocal lessons 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.400 in capped Rock's teeth. He also paid for Rock's room 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:31.960 and board, and bought him a whole new wardrobe. But 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:36.560 Rock's first big audition was a disaster. The casting director 0:11:36.600 --> 0:11:39.440 at MGM and Henry were friendly. She told him she 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:43.240 couldn't cast Rock because he was too effeminate. Henry taught 0:11:43.280 --> 0:11:45.800 him how to be butch, how to smile, how to walk, 0:11:46.000 --> 0:11:49.760 cross his legs, even how to smoke a cigarette. When 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:54.240 he was done, Henry Wilson really had invented Rock Hudson. 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.000 But with Rock, the acting part really did come later. 0:11:57.120 --> 0:12:00.600 Yes, yes, At first, Rock was cast in a series 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:04.520 of adventure films, cowboy pictures, and war movies, and then 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:07.480 he had a major breakthrough in nineteen fifty four with 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:12.400 the melodrama Magnificent Obsession. That movie made him a bona 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.600 fide star, but it was his role in the nineteen 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.520 fifty six epic Giant with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean 0:12:19.720 --> 0:12:22.240 that made him an A list movie star. 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:25.880 Both Rock and James Dean got Oscar nominations that year 0:12:25.880 --> 0:12:28.840 for Best Actor, and the ap named Rock number one 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:30.120 at the box office that year. 0:12:30.480 --> 0:12:33.800 And later he made romantic comedies co starring Doris Day 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.559 that were big hits. He moved to television in the 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:40.280 nineteen seventies and became the highest paid actor in TV, 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:44.200 starring with Susan Saint James in McMillan and Wife, which 0:12:44.320 --> 0:12:47.720 ran from nineteen seventy one to nineteen seventy seven. In 0:12:47.840 --> 0:12:51.600 nineteen eighty four, he joined the cast of Dynasty. He 0:12:51.679 --> 0:12:54.680 began to drink heavily again and then quit all together 0:12:54.760 --> 0:12:56.680 when he was diagnosed with HIV. 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.439 So Henry had many other clients, and arguably he had 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.160 sex with most of them. Like almost all casting couch 0:13:03.160 --> 0:13:05.960 abuse back in the day, Henry's went unreported. He was 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:06.920 never held accountable. 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:08.920 Yeah, and it was complicated by the fact that he 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:12.199 was deeply closeted, like all gay people were back then. 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:15.439 But it is possible that Henry's sexuality and his casting 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:19.280 couch abuses were an open secret in Hollywood. The powerful 0:13:19.280 --> 0:13:21.600 men who depended on him for a steady supply of 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.880 fresh talent had good reason to protect him, and of 0:13:24.960 --> 0:13:29.200 course many of them had casting couch abuses of their own. 0:13:30.040 --> 0:13:34.280 But that dynamic changed after nineteen fifty eight, when Rock's wife, 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.400 Phyllis Gates, hired a private eye to bug their home 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:40.960 above the Sunset Strip. She planned to use the recording 0:13:41.000 --> 0:13:42.440 as leverage in their divorce. 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.160 So three years earlier, rumors about rock sexuality had put 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:48.840 his career at risk, and Henry sprung into action. He 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:52.440 convinced Rock to marry Phyllis, the secretary in Henry's office, 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:54.960 and that wedding took place in November nineteen fifty five 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:56.760 at the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel. 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.280 Yeah, and it probably seemed like a brilliant plan at 0:13:59.280 --> 0:14:03.040 the time, but the strategy quickly fell apart in the 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:07.680 aftermath of the divorce. Henry's sexuality was exposed, he became 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:12.960 radioactive to his most important prospective new clients, handsome young men. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:16.400 A new actor hoping for stardom could not afford to 0:14:16.440 --> 0:14:20.480 be associated with homosexuality without a robust ci and tell 0:14:20.520 --> 0:14:26.880 of new potential stars. Henry's value to the industry slowly evaporated. 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:29.800 So Phyllis's recording may have well brought him down right. Yes. 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:33.480 By nineteen fifty eight, Phyllis could no longer tolerate Rock's 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:36.920 addiction to gay hookups. He was putting his career and 0:14:36.960 --> 0:14:40.680 their movie star lifestyle at risk, so she decided to 0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.800 sue for divorce. Phyllis knew she needed leverage, otherwise it 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.520 was her word against theirs. She said, he said. She 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:53.080 hired legendary Hollywood private investigator Fred Otash to bug their house. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.280 Although the transcript was not made public until nineteen seventy six, 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.640 it is likely that word got out that Rock had 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.200 admitted on the tape that he'd slept with Henry to 0:15:03.200 --> 0:15:07.120 help his career. Phyllis got almost everything she wanted in 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.120 the divorce, so there was no public expose of Rock 0:15:10.200 --> 0:15:14.320 Hudson's sexuality or his sham marriage. The majority of his 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:17.960 fans never knew any of it, and it didn't affect 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.840 his career. Inside the industry, it was a different story. 0:15:22.400 --> 0:15:26.120 The scandal led to a gradual erosion of Henry's value 0:15:26.120 --> 0:15:30.560 to producers. It tainted his agency's reputation and exposed his 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:35.800 male clients past and present to accusations of homosexuality. It 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:39.920 gradually reduced Henry's access to new talent and drove prospective 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.640 new clients to other agencies. Troy Donahue said that he 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.520 didn't sign with Henry until after he was under contract 0:15:46.520 --> 0:15:50.280 with Universal. Henry was still very well connected in Hollywood, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.400 he said, but I didn't want to be indebted to him. 0:15:53.680 --> 0:15:55.160 He had this reputation. 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:57.920 So there are very few first hand accounts of Henry 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.960 Wilson's casting couch abuses, which is you're in most cases 0:16:00.960 --> 0:16:02.080 before the me too movement. 0:16:02.480 --> 0:16:05.920 But Tab Hunter wrote about Henry and his autobiography, tab 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:09.440 Hunter Confidential. The book was published in two thousand and five, 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:12.280 the same year he came out as gay. In the book, 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:15.640 tab wrote about his time as Henry's client and described 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:19.960 Henry's casting couch tactics. He said Henry's routine was to 0:16:20.040 --> 0:16:23.440 whine and dine young men his prospective clients at a 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:27.680 list night spots like chasen' Ciro's or the Macombo. After 0:16:27.760 --> 0:16:30.120 dinner and drinks, he would make a pass. If the 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.880 guy was unreceptive to his advances, Henry would get out 0:16:33.880 --> 0:16:36.280 of it by saying, come on, you know, I was 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:40.120 only joking. But if the young actor was receptive, they 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:43.920 would adjourn to Henry's house. Tab wrote that's how Henry 0:16:43.960 --> 0:16:49.320 earned his less than sterling reputation as Hollywood's lecherous gay Svengali. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:53.080 I wasn't comfortable with his sexual shenanigans, he said, but 0:16:53.200 --> 0:16:56.000 I did play along up to a point. Henry had 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.320 a magnetic personality, but it certainly wasn't strong enough to 0:16:59.440 --> 0:17:02.760 lure me up onto the casting couch. I knew exactly 0:17:02.840 --> 0:17:06.320 where my line was drawn. Late in his life, Troy 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.720 Donahue denied rumors that he was gay. He blamed them 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.399 on the fact that he and tab Hunter looked similar 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.840 and had similar names. He said, people confused meet with 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.200 tab Hunter. His being gay created problems for me, and 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:21.880 that's where the story started interesting. 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:25.480 Neither Guy Madison nor Rory Calhoun never commented on whether 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:29.040 Henry demanded section them but Rory did accept Henry's invitation 0:17:29.080 --> 0:17:30.679 to spend two weeks with him in a cabin in 0:17:30.680 --> 0:17:32.360 the San Gabriel Mountains, And. 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:35.200 There were rumors about them back then, but they both 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:37.280 had active romantic lives with women. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.760 Well, there were straight actors who slept with Henry. Dennis Hopper, 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:43.480 who was not Henry's client, said that wanta be actors, 0:17:43.480 --> 0:17:46.040 both gay and straight, had sex with Henry hoping for 0:17:46.119 --> 0:17:47.120 a chance at stardom. 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:50.600 Yeah, and Henry's assistant confirmed that. He said Henry had 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:53.440 gay clients who did not sleep with him, and heterosexual 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.120 clients who did, And I thought this was interesting. Henry 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:01.160 advised his straight clients to sleep with male and directors. 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:03.480 He said, it will take you longer if you don't. 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:06.800 If they objected, Henry would tell them you're an actor, 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:08.919 so act, you know. 0:18:09.000 --> 0:18:12.359 Tony Curtis, who was also not Henry's client, said, the 0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:15.760 whole town knew what Henry Wilson represented. Everybody who went 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:18.960 with him had to sexually express himself to Henry. I'm 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:21.840 putting it nicely. With Henry, it was almost mandatory. 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.240 And Roddy McDowell, the British actor, who also was not 0:18:25.359 --> 0:18:29.399 a client, was disgusted by Henry's casting couch tactics. I 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.920 often think what would have happened if I signed with him, 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.760 McDowell said. Farley Granger, who came out as bisexual in 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:38.679 two thousand and seven, agreed it was awful what he 0:18:38.760 --> 0:18:42.199 made his clients do. Men like Rock and young actors 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.920 weren't the only victims of Wilson's callous approach to career management. 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.680 Before he was the Beefcake King. Wilson biographer Bob Hoffler 0:18:50.760 --> 0:18:54.120 notes that Wilson served as a virtual pimp for studio 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.560 bigwig Darryl Zanik and played a role in trying, unsuccessfully, 0:18:58.600 --> 0:19:02.639 as it turns out, to recruit young actresses to Xanik's 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:06.600 casting couch. During the shooting of nineteen forty four's romantic 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:10.520 drama Since You Went Away, Selznik tried to bet all 0:19:10.600 --> 0:19:15.359 three headliners, Claudette Colbert, Jennifer Jones, whom he would later wed, 0:19:15.760 --> 0:19:19.680 and even Shirley Temple, but Wilson's efforts warn enough to 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.639 procure their sexual favors for his lecherous boss. 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:26.360 You know, abuse, especially sexual abuse, often takes a toll 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.080 on the victims in the form of alcoholism or drug use. 0:19:29.240 --> 0:19:31.440 You know, for gay people living in the closet back then, 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.439 there was also potential for psychological damage caused by stress 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:35.480 from fear and rejection. 0:19:35.640 --> 0:19:37.840 Yeah, and Henry Wilson was both a product of his 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:40.560 time and a promoter of a toxic system that he 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:44.240 profited from. One could speculate it destroyed him, along with 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:47.120 the many gay people whose lives were damaged by being 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:50.200 forced to live in the closet. He won't be gay 0:19:50.240 --> 0:19:52.800 when I get through with him is a famous Wilson 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:56.159 quote that says it all. Tab Hunter, who claimed he 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.800 fended off Henry's advances, was a social drinker. He didn't 0:19:59.800 --> 0:20:03.679 me experiencing alcoholism or drug abuse in his book. On 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.520 the other hand, Troy Donahue, who denied he was gay, 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:09.840 succumbed to alcohol and drug abuse. He did get sober 0:20:09.840 --> 0:20:12.080 in nineteen eighty two when he was forty six, and 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:16.399 lived another nineteen years. Rock Hudson was a heavy drinker 0:20:16.440 --> 0:20:19.439 and smoker. After a heart attack in nineteen eighty one, 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.399 he cut his fifteen drinks per night to two, but 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.520 only for a while. He began to drink heavily again 0:20:26.600 --> 0:20:30.000 and then quit altogether when he was diagnosed with HIV. 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.280 Henry Wilson did abuse drugs and alcohol. His substance abuse 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:38.240 problems became worse after the Rock Hudson scandal affected his business. 0:20:38.560 --> 0:20:41.880 He continued working into his sixties, but his business failed 0:20:41.920 --> 0:20:46.640 in the end. Eventually, Henry Wilson lost it all. He'd 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:50.520 spent everything he'd ever made. In nineteen seventy four, with 0:20:50.600 --> 0:20:53.439 his health failing, he moved into the motion picture and 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:57.600 television country house and hospital. He died there on November two, 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.000 nineteen seventy eight, from cirrhosis of the life liver. He 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:05.720 was sixty seven years old. So, Matt, after hearing all 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.199 of this, what have you learned about Henry Wilson that 0:21:08.280 --> 0:21:10.040 you might not have thought about before? 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.440 Well, first of all, thank god he's not working now 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:16.639 all I can say. But no, honestly, I think it's 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.880 an incredibly sad story. And I also think that what's 0:21:19.920 --> 0:21:23.119 really worthy about telling a story like Henry Wilson's is 0:21:23.160 --> 0:21:26.040 that we see that victims come in all shapes and sizes, 0:21:26.160 --> 0:21:28.320 and there are probably a lot of young men whose 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:31.119 careers and hopes and identities were dashed because of this 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:34.400 sort of predation and also playing on their worst fears. 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:37.639 It's just a really yet another incredibly dark chapter in 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:38.640 the history of this town. 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:41.120 Yeah, and as we said at the top, a lot 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.400 of people know Henry Wilson because they watched Ryan Murphy's 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:48.040 Hollywood series on Netflix. But first, for those who haven't 0:21:48.040 --> 0:21:50.399 seen the series, Matt, can you give us a gist 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:51.080 of the plot? 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:53.840 Sure? So, Ryan Murphy cast Jim Parsons, you know, the 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:56.560 beloved star of the Big Bang Theory, to play Wilson, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:58.840 and I think a pretty brave role as the sort 0:21:58.840 --> 0:22:00.840 of lecherous you know, all the things that we just heard. 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.080 Henry Wilson was Jim sort of embodied, and we saw 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:08.480 laid bare the horrible practices he used to manipulate, control 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.520 and ultimately bully promising young men in this town to 0:22:12.640 --> 0:22:15.960 fit his sexual predation, to sort of abuse and to 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:17.120 also profit from. 0:22:17.600 --> 0:22:20.600 And you know what's so interesting to me about Ryan 0:22:20.720 --> 0:22:25.440 Murphy's series is he has said this that he created 0:22:25.440 --> 0:22:29.360 a what if scenario so people who don't know the 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:31.800 real history of what it really was like back then, 0:22:32.520 --> 0:22:36.240 this is a fantasy of what could life have been 0:22:36.560 --> 0:22:41.520 like if gay men were allowed to walk the red 0:22:41.560 --> 0:22:45.280