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Speaker 1: You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts.

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Speaker 1: Listener discretion advised. On the evening of November fifth, nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty four, Florence Cotts got ready for bed as usual,

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Speaker 1: a thirty seven year old secretary living on Quiet Wearing

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Speaker 1: Avenue in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. Cotts put her curlers in,

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Speaker 1: slipped under the covers, and turned off the lights. It

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Speaker 1: was a Friday, so maybe she even planned to sleep

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Speaker 1: in the next day, but she wouldn't get the chance.

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Speaker 1: In the middle of the night, Florence's door exploded inward

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Speaker 1: in a shower of wood and glass. Before she could react,

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Speaker 1: a group of men rushed in. A blinding light flashed

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Speaker 1: in her face. Florence huddled in her bed, paralyzed by

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Speaker 1: fear and then nothing. She heard one of the men yell,

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Speaker 1: we've got the wrong place. They turned around and ran

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Speaker 1: out through her kitchen, breaking glasses and leaving a mess.

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Speaker 1: Once she was certain they were gone, Florence called the police,

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Speaker 1: who couldn't make heads or tails of the event. It

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Speaker 1: must have been an attempted burglary. An officer told the

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Speaker 1: terrified woman she was lucky to have escaped unhurt, and

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Speaker 1: because she hadn't seen any of the men's faces blinded

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Speaker 1: by the bright lights they'd shown, there wasn't much for

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Speaker 1: the police to go on. The case wasn't likely to

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Speaker 1: get solved. Florence learned she would just have to live

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Speaker 1: with the fear. But less than a year later, a

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Speaker 1: shocking break in the case arrived from an unusual source

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Speaker 1: a tabloid magazine. In September nineteen fifty five, Confidential magazine,

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Speaker 1: the tops celebrity scandal sheet in the country, published a

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Speaker 1: story about the break in at Florence Cott's apartment. It

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Speaker 1: might seem like a strange story for a celebrity magazine

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Speaker 1: to care about, but Confidential had good reason. The men

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Speaker 1: who had broken into Florence's apartment that night, the article claimed,

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Speaker 1: were none other than Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio. In

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Speaker 1: the article titled the Real Reason for Marilyn Monroe's Divorce,

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Speaker 1: Confidential explained how the famous singer and the Yankee star

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Speaker 1: had come to be there. Florence Cotts, it turned out,

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Speaker 1: lived in the same small apartment building as one of

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Speaker 1: Marilyn Monroe's friends, an actress named Sheila Stewart, Joe DiMaggio,

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Speaker 1: still reeling from his in Monroe's divorce, had become convinced

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Speaker 1: that Monroe was using Stuart's apartment to meet with the

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Speaker 1: man he thought Monroe had left him for. Acting on

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Speaker 1: information from the private investigator he'd hired and likely fueled

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Speaker 1: by more than a few drinks, DiMaggio had enlisted some friends,

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Speaker 1: including Sinatra, to help him catchman Row in the act.

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Speaker 1: It was a sloppy plan, and it had unsurprisingly gone

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Speaker 1: very wrong. Instead of going into Sheila Stuart's apartment on

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Speaker 1: the second floor, the group had broken into the first

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Speaker 1: floor home of Florence Cotts. So Florence finally got some

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Speaker 1: answers about what had happened to her that night, and

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Speaker 1: she eventually got some reparations. She sued DiMaggio, Sinatra, and

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Speaker 1: the other men and got a settlement. But the story

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Speaker 1: of the Wrong Door Raid, as it came to be known,

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Speaker 1: was far from over because California officials had some questions

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Speaker 1: about how Confidential magazine had gotten their story. In February

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, California State Senator Fred Graft held a

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Speaker 1: series of hearings to determine if Confidential had gotten the

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Speaker 1: story by paying off a private investigator. You might be

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Speaker 1: wondering why would a state legislature care where a scandal

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Speaker 1: magazine got its stories from. Well, Confidential Magazine wasn't just

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Speaker 1: any scandal magazine. It was one of the most powerful

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Speaker 1: publications in the country, with a reader base in the

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Speaker 1: millions and the ability to ruin a star's career with

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Speaker 1: a few carefully worded sentences. People all across America worried

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Speaker 1: that Confidential's salacious content would corrupt the country's youth. In California,

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Speaker 1: politicians and entertainment executives worried that its shocking stories would

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Speaker 1: destroy the lucrative movie industry, and so by nineteen fifty seven,

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Speaker 1: the studios and the government were lo looking for ways

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Speaker 1: to take the magazine down. The state Senate hearings into

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Speaker 1: the Wrong Door Raids story were only the first step.

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Speaker 1: Three months later, in May nineteen fifty seven, a grand

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Speaker 1: jury convened by the ambitious California Attorney General Pat Brown,

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Speaker 1: indicted Confidential, along with several key employees and partner businesses, on,

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Speaker 1: among other things, charges of conspiracy to commit criminal libel

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Speaker 1: and conspiracy to publish obscene and indecent material For years,

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Speaker 1: Confidential had held Hollywood hostage, using a network of informants

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Speaker 1: to dig up dirt on America's biggest celebrities. But now

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Speaker 1: Hollywood was fighting back with the assistance of the government.

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Speaker 1: The ensuing trial would put the right of freedom of

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Speaker 1: the press into question because Confidential stories were nasty, no doubt,

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Speaker 1: but the magazine would claim they were all true, and

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Speaker 1: could publishing the truth, no matter how indecent, ever be

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Speaker 1: a crime. Americans were about to find out. Welcome to

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Speaker 1: History on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week

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Speaker 1: the State of California v. Confidential. Confidentials creator and publisher

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Speaker 1: Robert Harrison was no stranger to scandal. After coming up

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Speaker 1: as a reporter for the New York Gossip Rags, Harrison

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Speaker 1: had gone into business for himself, creating a number of

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Speaker 1: so called girly magazines, publications filled with images of scantily

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Speaker 1: clad women. Harrison was a hands on magazine executive, regularly

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Speaker 1: acting as a photographer for his magazines and sometimes even

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Speaker 1: posing in photos himself. He was also an ambitious man.

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Speaker 1: When his girly magazines failed to make ends meet, Harrison

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Speaker 1: began casting around for a new, more profitable concept, and

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Speaker 1: he found it on television. Throughout nineteen fifty and nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty one, a Senate committee led by Senator estes Ki

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Speaker 1: Fauver investigated the state of organized crime in America in

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Speaker 1: a series of hearings that were broadcast live on television.

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Speaker 1: Americans were glued to their TV screens as a procession

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Speaker 1: of mobsters testified in front of the committee. The March

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty one hearing in New York attracted an estimated

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Speaker 1: thirty million viewers. Harrison was also inspired by the Confidential

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Speaker 1: series of books, which came out between nineteen forty eight

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Speaker 1: and nineteen fifty two and profiled different American cities New

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Speaker 1: York Confidential, Chicago Confidential, and so on. The Confidential series

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Speaker 1: claimed to reveal what was really happening in these cities.

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Speaker 1: The books shocked their readers with depictions of crime, sex,

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Speaker 1: and debauchery happening allegedly in the heart of every city.

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Speaker 1: They had a distinct point of view, As historian and

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Speaker 1: law professor Samantha Barbis puts it in her book on

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Speaker 1: the magazine Confidential Confidential, the Confidential books were racist, sexist, homophobic,

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Speaker 1: and largely false. They were also best sellers. Seeing the

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Speaker 1: public interest in the Key Father hearings and the Confidential books,

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Speaker 1: Harrison had a realization the American people craved this kind

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Speaker 1: of content, the story behind the story, a glimpse into

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Speaker 1: the private lives of public figures and the dirty underbelly

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Speaker 1: of modern life. Thus Confidential Magazine was born. The first

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Speaker 1: issue of Confidential, which hit newsstands in September nineteen fifty two,

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Speaker 1: set the tone for what was to come. The cover,

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Speaker 1: printed in lurid, eye catching blue, yellow and red, featured

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Speaker 1: giant headlines that leapt from the page. Photographs were grainy,

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Speaker 1: blown up, and unflattering, and like that of its namesake

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Speaker 1: book series, the magazine's content was sleazy, shocking, and bigoted.

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Speaker 1: This type of magazine focused on expose's and gossip were

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Speaker 1: often called scandal magazines. Confidential wasn't the only scandal magazine

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Speaker 1: on the market, so Robert Harrison had to find a

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Speaker 1: way to set it apart plan a lie. If his

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Speaker 1: reporters couldn't find juicy enough stories, they could just make

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Speaker 1: up better ones. Early issues of Confidential featured completely invented

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Speaker 1: tales of sex and crime, bolstered up by posed or

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Speaker 1: composite photos. But even Bonker's creations like a mob barun

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Speaker 1: grave robbing ring couldn't boost the magazine's circulation. Harrison needed

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Speaker 1: a new angle. In the summer of nineteen fifty three,

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Speaker 1: he found it. In the August issue, Confidential ran an

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Speaker 1: article about the relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe,

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Speaker 1: who were then dating. The piece, called why Joe DiMaggio

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Speaker 1: Is Striking out with Marilyn Monroe, alleged that Monroe's mentor,

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Speaker 1: the seventy six year old co founder of twentieth Century Fox,

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Speaker 1: Joe Shank, was interfering in the relationship, either out of

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Speaker 1: concern for Monroe's career or because Shank was sleeping with

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Speaker 1: Monroe himself. The magazine heavily implied it was the latter,

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Speaker 1: and Americans ate it up. Confidential circulation doubled overnight. Harrison

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Speaker 1: knew he was onto something. If people liked reading about

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Speaker 1: the secret lives of mobsters, they loved reading about the

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Speaker 1: secret lives of movie stars. Throughout the rest of nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty three and nineteen fifty four, Confidential increasingly focused its

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Speaker 1: coverage on Hollywood. We've got to have more Hollywood stories.

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Speaker 1: Harrison told his staff, the hotter, the better. A decade earlier,

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Speaker 1: it would have been impossible for a magazine like Confidential

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Speaker 1: to get the kind of Hollywood stories they wanted. For

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Speaker 1: the first half of the twentieth century, Hollywood had been

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Speaker 1: tightly managed by the movie studios. Studios controlled every step

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Speaker 1: of the film business, from production to distribution, and they

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Speaker 1: controlled the lives and images of their contracted stars with

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Speaker 1: the same iron fist. The only way for journalists to

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Speaker 1: get access to stars was to play along with the

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Speaker 1: studios and to produce the kind of positive coverage they wanted.

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Speaker 1: But by the nineteen fifties, the studio system was crumbling.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen forty eight, Supreme Court decision United States v.

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Speaker 1: Paramount Pay Pictures, Inc. Had ruled that the studios held

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Speaker 1: an unfair monopoly. Studios were forced to give up control

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Speaker 1: over many aspects of the business, dealing them a serious

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Speaker 1: financial blow. At the same time, the rise of television

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Speaker 1: had decreased movie attendance. As the studios lost power, their

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Speaker 1: threats to blackball journalists who didn't cover stars in the

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Speaker 1: right way lost weight, and the stars who were used

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Speaker 1: to the studios covering up their bad behavior were suddenly

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Speaker 1: very exposed. The gossip cup was running over, and Confidential

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Speaker 1: was ready to catch every last drop. Harrison began coordinating

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Speaker 1: a network of informants across Los Angeles. Everyone from sex

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Speaker 1: workers to police officers to studio employees, and even movie

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Speaker 1: stars themselves soon learned that Confidential would pay well for

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Speaker 1: good dirt. Confidential paid nannies to spy on employer's wressers

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Speaker 1: to listen in on client conversations, and waiters to remember

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Speaker 1: who wait with whom to get their stories. Confidential equipped

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Speaker 1: its sources with all sorts of spy gadgets, including bugs

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Speaker 1: to tap phone lines and watches that held hidden recorders.

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Speaker 1: Harrison's niece, Marjorie Meade and her husband Fred eventually moved

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Speaker 1: to Los Angeles and established a company called Hollywood Research, Inc.

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Speaker 1: Which coordinated and organized the information coming in from tipsters.

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Speaker 1: Harrison had correctly gauged the public's interest in Hollywood Gossip.

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Speaker 1: By nineteen fifty five, the magazine's circulation was close to

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Speaker 1: four million. Most copies were passed along to additional readers,

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Speaker 1: and estimated four readers per copy, putting Confidential's readership at

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Speaker 1: close to sixteen million people, or one in every ten Americans.

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Speaker 1: With that kind of audience came great power. Confidential stories

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Speaker 1: could make or break a star's career. A March nineteen

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Speaker 1: fifty five story about an alleged interracial romance between the

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Speaker 1: white actress Ava Gardner and the black singer dancer Sammy

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Speaker 1: Davis Junior led to Gardner's films being boycotted and banned

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Speaker 1: in parts of the country. Two months later, a story

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Speaker 1: about the actor Rory Calhoun's criminal past and how he

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Speaker 1: had turned his life around thanks to religion earned Calhoun

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Speaker 1: eight thousand fan letters and completely revitalized his career. As

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Speaker 1: Confidential's influence grew, the movie studios increasingly came to view

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Speaker 1: the magazine as a threat. The studios were more vulnerable

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Speaker 1: than ever. Their profits were down and their audiences were straying.

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Speaker 1: People also thought Hollywood was corrupting the country's morals. The

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Speaker 1: studios even faced a Senate inquiry into whether movies could

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Speaker 1: be tied to a rise in juvenile delinquency. The last

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Speaker 1: thing Hollywood needed was a magazine digging up all of

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Speaker 1: the industry's buried bodies. In the mid nineteen fifties, the

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Speaker 1: studios decided to fight back and they were prepared to

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Speaker 1: fight dirty. In the summer of nineteen fifty five, studio

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Speaker 1: publicity heads met in secret at the Beverly Hills Hotel

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Speaker 1: to discuss the Confidential problem. Shortly after the meeting, one

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Speaker 1: of the publicists traveled to New York to meet with

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Speaker 1: Confidential editors. Wouldn't it be better for everyone, he asked

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Speaker 1: the editors if the magazine focused on athletes, or politicians,

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Speaker 1: or really anyone besides Hollywood stars. Confidential editors laughed him

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Speaker 1: out of the office. This straightforward approach having failed, the

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Speaker 1: publicists moved on to something more cloak and dagger. Enlisting

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Speaker 1: movie producers and an actress to help them, The publicists

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Speaker 1: cooked up an elaborate trap for Confidential. The team planted

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Speaker 1: gossip about the actress, backing up their story with witnesses.

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Speaker 1: They made sure the story eventually got to Confidential via

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Speaker 1: a chain of tipsters. When Confidential sent a private investigator

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Speaker 1: to look into the story, everything seemed to check out.

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Speaker 1: But had Confidential run it, they would have been vulnerable

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Speaker 1: to an enormous libel suit because the story the publicists

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Speaker 1: had planted was entirely, verifiably false. At the last minute,

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Speaker 1: though the magazine had doubts and killed the story. The

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Speaker 1: studios were foiled again. If they couldn't control Confidential, the

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Speaker 1: studios decided maybe they could control the flow of information

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Speaker 1: out of Hollywood. Each of the six largest studios agreed

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Speaker 1: to contribute to a fund which would pay for private

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Speaker 1: security force to monitor star's behaviors and interfere with Confidential's

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Speaker 1: information gathering network. But the studios eventually balked, fearing that

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Speaker 1: Confidential would discover their plans and attack. A plan to

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Speaker 1: blacklist anyone thought to be a Confidential informant was abandoned.

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Speaker 1: For similar reasons, Celebrities, sick of having their dirty laundry

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Speaker 1: aired in the magazine's pages, wanted the studios to fight harder.

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Speaker 1: Many stars felt powerless on their own. They had the

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Speaker 1: option to file libel suits against Confidential. Yes, but there

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Speaker 1: were a number of reasons not to. First, a suit

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Speaker 1: could draw attention to the very thing that the stars

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Speaker 1: hoped to keep hidden. Filing a suit would only give

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Speaker 1: Confidential the publicity they want, said Marlon Brando, and maybe

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Speaker 1: I'd get an award of eight cents. There was also

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Speaker 1: the that a suit would provoke Confidential into spilling even

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Speaker 1: more information about the star. It was well known that

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Speaker 1: Confidential often published only parts of the stories they received

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Speaker 1: from tipsters, holding on to the most damaging titbits as

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Speaker 1: insurance against legal action. And finally, there was the problem

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Speaker 1: of jurisdiction. Confidential was a New York based company. Most

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Speaker 1: of the stars it wrote about lived in California and

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Speaker 1: filed their rare libel suits against the magazine in that state,

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Speaker 1: suits that judges quickly dismissed, saying that California did not

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Speaker 1: have jurisdiction over a New York company. The New York

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Speaker 1: courts were notoriously backed up, and filing there might have

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Speaker 1: meant a year's long wait to be heard. As stars

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Speaker 1: considered how best to deal with Confidential, the studios escalated

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Speaker 1: their battle to the federal level. In August nineteen fifty five,

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Speaker 1: several studio heads reached out to Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield

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Speaker 1: with a bold request. They wanted the Post Office to

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Speaker 1: revoke Confidential's mailing privileges. One movie producer was alleged to

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Speaker 1: have told Summerfield, unless they take away Harrison's mailing privileges,

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Speaker 1: this industry is done. For Summerfield, who saw obscenity as

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Speaker 1: one of the gravest threats to American society. Had his

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Speaker 1: own reasons for disliking Confidential. On August twenty seventh, he

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Speaker 1: issued a withhold from dispatch order on the November issue

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Speaker 1: of Confidential. Under the order's terms, no issue of Confidential

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Speaker 1: could be mailed without first being reviewed by the Post

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Speaker 1: Office and being found free of improper content. The determination

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Speaker 1: of whether content was or was not improper was entirely

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Speaker 1: up to the Post Office. Harrison responded by filing suit

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Speaker 1: against Summerfield, and a judge eventually ruled in the magazine's favor,

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Speaker 1: saying that the Post Office was violating the magazine's right

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Speaker 1: to do process by threatening to ban it with no notices,

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Speaker 1: charges or hearings. Confidential had won again. The fight with

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Speaker 1: the Post Office had even raised the magazine's profile and

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Speaker 1: with that, its circulation. But a raised profile also brought

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Speaker 1: unwanted scrutiny. The studio executives were not alone in their

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Speaker 1: concerns about Confidential. Segments of the American public were worried

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Speaker 1: about the effect scandal magazines might have on the nation's morals.

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Speaker 1: To some, these magazines seem to represent everything wrong with

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Speaker 1: the country. As one Californian told the newspaper, quote, all

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Speaker 1: scandal magazines should be taken off the market. They are

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Speaker 1: a menace to society. They caring nothing but trash, and

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Speaker 1: that is no good for our youth. Scandal magazines weren't

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Speaker 1: the only target for criticism. Many Americans worried about the

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Speaker 1: effect of any reading materials that freely discussed hot button

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Speaker 1: topics like sex, violence, and race. Throughout the nineteen fifties,

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Speaker 1: many communities set up review boards which determined if publications

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Speaker 1: were inappropriate. If they were found to be so, local distributors,

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Speaker 1: including booksellers, newsstands, and libraries were strongly encouraged not to

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Speaker 1: carry these items under the vague threat of legal action.

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Speaker 1: What about freedom of the press, you might ask. Here's

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Speaker 1: one magazine writing on that very question in nineteen fifty seven. Quote,

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Speaker 1: the framers of the Constitution never meant the First Amendment

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Speaker 1: to protect filth peddlers who poisoned minds. And this magazine

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Speaker 1: wasn't the only one to take this position. Many journalists

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Speaker 1: and publications believed that scandal magazines like Confidential were not

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Speaker 1: entitled to the same legal protections as more traditional publications.

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Speaker 1: They feared that aligning themselves with scandal magazines could end

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Speaker 1: up damaging their own rights. Back in Hollywood, the studios

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Speaker 1: sent that the tide of public opinion might be turning

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Speaker 1: their way. In October nineteen fifty six, when Harrison appeared

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Speaker 1: on The Tonight Show to defend Scandal Magazine's the audience

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Speaker 1: booed him it was time for the studios to strike.

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Speaker 1: In December nineteen fifty six, MGM released Slander, a movie

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Speaker 1: about an unscrupulous scandal magazine publisher unfairly ruining the life

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Speaker 1: of a well meaning actor. The movie was melodramatic, it

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Speaker 1: ends with the publisher's mother killing him, disgusted by what

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Speaker 1: her son has become, and flopped at the box office,

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Speaker 1: but its heavy handed message did not go unnoticed. Slander

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Speaker 1: quote reeks with the motion picture industry's long pent up

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Speaker 1: sense of vengeance, wrote Texas's Amarillo Globe. Harrison responded in

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Speaker 1: a typically cheeky fashion, hiring models to picket the movie

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Speaker 1: outside a Broadway theater holding signs that read Slander is

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Speaker 1: unfair to Confidential. But the studios weren't done there, though

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Speaker 1: their attempt to get Confidential through the post office had failed,

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Speaker 1: they now recognized the power of governmental attacks on the magazine.

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Speaker 1: In January nineteen fifty seven, the California State Senate formed

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Speaker 1: a committee to investigate the practices of private detectives in

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Speaker 1: the state. Or at least that was the committee's alleged purpose.

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Speaker 1: In reality, the committee had been formed at the behest

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Speaker 1: of the studios and planned to look into how Confidential

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Speaker 1: got its stories. This was the committee mentioned in the

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Speaker 1: prologue that looked into the wrong door raid at Florence

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Speaker 1: Cott's apartment. The committee's investigation eventually fizzled out in March,

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Speaker 1: with lead Senator Fred Kraft declaring that though the magazines

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Speaker 1: were a quote national disgrace, the field is beyond this

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Speaker 1: scope of a single state legislature. But the state's war

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Speaker 1: on Confidential was far from over. California Attorney General Pat

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Speaker 1: Brown announced that his office, in tandem with the Los

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Speaker 1: Angeles County District Attorney, would now be pursuing charges against Confidential.

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Speaker 1: Brown said his decision was motivated by a desire to

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Speaker 1: protect children from the magazine. He also claimed that Confidential

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Speaker 1: Quote caused divorces and broken homes and led to blackmail,

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Speaker 1: but behind the scenes, the studios were again pulling the strings.

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Speaker 1: Brown was pursuing a run for governor, and the film

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Speaker 1: industry had made it clear to him that they would

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Speaker 1: look favorably upon a candidate who supported their crusade against Confidential.

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Speaker 1: In May nineteen fifty seven, Brown and Los Angeles County

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Speaker 1: District Attorney William McKesson convened a grand jury to look

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Speaker 1: into Confidential. On May fifteenth, the grand jury indicted Confidential

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Speaker 1: members of its staff, its printer and distributor, and its

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Speaker 1: sister Magaze Whisper on four charges, including conspiracy to commit

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Speaker 1: criminal libel and conspiracy to publish obscene and indecent material.

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Speaker 1: Robert Harrison addressed the charges directly in an editorial and Confidential,

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Speaker 1: this magazine is under assault in the California courts. Harrison wrote,

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Speaker 1: this is a determined effort initiated by a segment of

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Speaker 1: the motion picture industry to get this magazine. He positioned

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Speaker 1: the Confidential as a brave truth teller, a publication unafraid

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Speaker 1: to reveal to the American people what the elite did

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Speaker 1: not want them to know. Is an American jury going

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Speaker 1: to get us for daring to tell that truth? Harrison asked,

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Speaker 1: we don't believe so his assumptions would soon be put

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Speaker 1: to the test. Confidential's trial was scheduled to begin in August.

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Speaker 1: It almost ended before it started, though, because it seemed

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Speaker 1: that both sides had lost their appetite for the fight.

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Speaker 1: Throughout the summer, Harrison's lawyers had been issuing subpoenas for celebrities.

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Speaker 1: Most stars had managed to avoid the summons, flipping out

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Speaker 1: of back entrances, heading to Las Vegas, even leaving the country,

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Speaker 1: but some hadn't. Dean Martin, Launa Turner, and Gary Cooper

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Speaker 1: were among those who had received subpoenas. Studio executives panicked.

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Speaker 1: The last thing they wanted was for their biggest box

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Speaker 1: office draws to have to confirm or deny their sins

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Speaker 1: under oath. Arthur Crowley, the high powered Los Angeles lawyer

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Speaker 1: running the defense, knew just what he was doing. I

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Speaker 1: want to make it clear that the reputations of many

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Speaker 1: persons will suffer if this case goes to trial, because

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Speaker 1: we are going to offer the truth as a defense,

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Speaker 1: he stated. Studio executives heard Crowley's message loud and clear,

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Speaker 1: and they started to have second thoughts about the trial.

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Speaker 1: George Murphy head of the Motion Picture Industry Council, approached

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Speaker 1: the prosecutors and urged them to reach a compromise. The

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Speaker 1: defense was receptive. Harrison knew that this trial, no matter

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Speaker 1: the outcome, would be enormously expensive, so the two sides

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Speaker 1: came to an agreement. Confidential would stop focusing on celebrities

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Speaker 1: in exchange for some of the charges being decided by

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Speaker 1: a judge and others being dropped. But Judge Herbert Walker

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Speaker 1: rejected the deal. The state had brought charges for good reason,

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Speaker 1: he said, and this compromise didn't do enough to address

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Speaker 1: those charges. The trial would proceed. Stars and Confidential executives

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Speaker 1: alike held their breath. No matter who won the case,

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Speaker 1: everyone knew scandal was sure to ensue. On August second,

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven, the trial began at the Los Angeles

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Speaker 1: Superior Court. Robert Harrison wasn't there. In fact, only two

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Speaker 1: of the people charged and the grand jury indictment were present.

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Speaker 1: All summer, Confidential's lawyers had been battling to prevent the

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Speaker 1: extradition of their clients from New York, and they had succeeded.

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Speaker 1: The face of Confidential at the defense table would not

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Speaker 1: be its infamous publisher Harrison, but his niece Marjorie Need

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Speaker 1: and her husband Fred. Marjorie and Fred had flown back

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Speaker 1: into Los Angeles in May to surrender, and Marjorie, decked

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Speaker 1: out in furs and diamonds, had asked reporters, then, don't

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Speaker 1: you think this whole thing has a little to do

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Speaker 1: with destruction of freedom of the press? Now she sat

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Speaker 1: quietly in the courtroom, her dyed red curls and large eyes,

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Speaker 1: drawing admiring looks. The prosecutors, William Ritzy and Clarence Lynne,

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Speaker 1: presented quite a contrast to the glamorous Meads. Ritzy, a

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Speaker 1: Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, and Lynn, an Assistant Attorney General,

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Speaker 1: were both serious religious men. Lynn taught Sunday school back

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Speaker 1: home in San Francisco, and they weren't letting the spotlight

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Speaker 1: dazzle them. Though the trial had largely come about due

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Speaker 1: to political pressure, Ritzy and Lynn were confident that the

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Speaker 1: law was on their side. One of their first jobs

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Speaker 1: was making the connection between the meds and confidential clear,

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Speaker 1: given that the Meads were the only defendants present. That

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00:29:31,480 --> 00:29:36,080
Speaker 1: connection came, the prosecutors claimed, through a company called Hollywood Research,

401
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Speaker 1: This was the Los Angeles business that organized and followed

402
00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:43,280
Speaker 1: up on informants tips and sent them back to Confidential.

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00:29:44,240 --> 00:29:47,120
Speaker 1: The magazine had long claimed that Hollywood Research was a

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Speaker 1: completely independent organization. This was part of their strategy of

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00:29:51,040 --> 00:29:54,640
Speaker 1: claiming to have no corporate presence in California, thus making

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Speaker 1: it harder for stars to sue them. But the prosecution

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00:29:58,520 --> 00:30:02,280
Speaker 1: thought otherwise, and they had good reason to think so,

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Speaker 1: because Hollywood Research had been run by none other than

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Speaker 1: Marjorie Mead. The prosecution took several steps during their case

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Speaker 1: to prove their point, submitting phone records that showed a

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Speaker 1: huge volume of calls between the Confidential office and the

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Speaker 1: Hollywood Researching Office. They also brought out a witness, Paul Gregory,

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Speaker 1: who claimed that Marjorie Mead had extorted him over keeping

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Speaker 1: a story out of Confidential. Gregory's testimony had provided a

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Speaker 1: dramatic moment. As he testified about Marjorie, she began to sob,

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Speaker 1: and once the jury left the room, she collapsed entirely furious.

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Speaker 1: Her husband, Fred had stalked over to the prosecution table

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Speaker 1: and slamming his fist down, yelled at prosecutor Ritzy, you

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Speaker 1: must want to win this case pretty bad by putting

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00:31:01,720 --> 00:31:07,280
Speaker 1: that lying character on the stand, Ritzy was unfazed. The

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00:31:07,320 --> 00:31:10,800
Speaker 1: defense would later provide records proving that Meade could not

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Speaker 1: have been with Gregory when he claimed she had the

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Speaker 1: biggest scores for The prosecution's argument about the California Confidential

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Speaker 1: connection actually came during Fred Mead's own testimony. He revealed

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Speaker 1: that Harrison had been the one to suggest that he

426
00:31:26,640 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: and Marjorie get into the gossip business. Harrison had even

427
00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:34,760
Speaker 1: given them money to get started on cross Ritzy got

428
00:31:34,880 --> 00:31:38,800
Speaker 1: need to admit that Marjorie's brother was the company's vice president,

429
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: and that the supposedly independent Hollywood Research had only ever

430
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:51,360
Speaker 1: sold information to two magazines, Confidential and its sister magazine, Whisper.

431
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:57,360
Speaker 1: Whatever the exact nature of the relationship between Hollywood Research

432
00:31:57,560 --> 00:32:03,160
Speaker 1: and Confidential Engine, true prosecutors were right. Hollywood Research had

433
00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: been set up by the magazine. It was clear from

434
00:32:06,640 --> 00:32:10,240
Speaker 1: the testimony that the Needs were involved in this business

435
00:32:10,440 --> 00:32:13,880
Speaker 1: up to their necks, and in the course of this business,

436
00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,760
Speaker 1: the Needs and the rest of the Confidential crew, the

437
00:32:17,800 --> 00:32:24,160
Speaker 1: prosecutors claimed, had conspired to commit obscenity and libel. The

438
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: prosecutors now set out to prove these charges. First up

439
00:32:29,320 --> 00:32:34,240
Speaker 1: the question of obscenity. What is obscene material. That's a

440
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 1: hard question to answer, a question that even the law

441
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:41,040
Speaker 1: struggles with, because what makes something obscene is often subjective

442
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:45,320
Speaker 1: in California law. At the time, material was obscene if

443
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:49,720
Speaker 1: quote it has a substantial tendency to deprave or corrupt

444
00:32:49,760 --> 00:32:54,640
Speaker 1: its readers by inciting lascivious thoughts or arousing lustful desire.

445
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,280
Speaker 1: In other words, if it turned people on. The magazine

446
00:32:59,280 --> 00:33:02,480
Speaker 1: had been charged with not just the publication of obscene material,

447
00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:06,320
Speaker 1: but also the conspiracy to publish it, meaning that two

448
00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:09,680
Speaker 1: or more people had arranged knowingly to commit the crime.

449
00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: So now Ritzie and Lynne had to prove not only

450
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:17,160
Speaker 1: that Confidential had published obscene material, but also that they

451
00:33:17,200 --> 00:33:21,680
Speaker 1: had knowingly done so. The prosecution argued that Confidential had

452
00:33:21,720 --> 00:33:25,680
Speaker 1: done just that. They brought Ronnie Quillen, a sex worker

453
00:33:25,720 --> 00:33:30,280
Speaker 1: and frequent Confidential tipster, to the stand. Quillen testified that

454
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,240
Speaker 1: Harrison had wanted stories quote primarily dealing with the sexual

455
00:33:34,280 --> 00:33:38,520
Speaker 1: activities of celebrities, and that he'd made it clear that quote,

456
00:33:38,880 --> 00:33:42,080
Speaker 1: the more lewde and lascivious the story, the more colorful

457
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:46,520
Speaker 1: the magazine, But the defense rebutted that notion, claiming that

458
00:33:46,560 --> 00:33:49,360
Speaker 1: the magazine had always been careful not to cross the

459
00:33:49,440 --> 00:33:53,040
Speaker 1: line into obscenity, and how had they defined that line.

460
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:57,160
Speaker 1: Daniel Ross, one of the magazine's lawyers, explained that he

461
00:33:57,240 --> 00:34:01,080
Speaker 1: and Robert Harrison had compared the magazine to others published material.

462
00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:06,080
Speaker 1: To prove Ross's point, proudly, the defense attorney submitted into

463
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:09,360
Speaker 1: evidence a whole stack of books which Ross claimed to

464
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 1: have used to learn what the public found acceptable in

465
00:34:12,040 --> 00:34:15,919
Speaker 1: terms of obscenity. The stack included best sellers like John

466
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:21,000
Speaker 1: Steinbeck's East of Eden and Grace Mettalius's Peyton Place. Whether

467
00:34:21,160 --> 00:34:24,279
Speaker 1: or not these books made senses benchmarks for obscenity, and

468
00:34:24,520 --> 00:34:28,000
Speaker 1: more importantly, whether or not Confidential had ended up publishing

469
00:34:28,080 --> 00:34:31,560
Speaker 1: obscene content despite these precautions would be up for the

470
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:36,360
Speaker 1: jury to decide. The next charge was libel. The state

471
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,359
Speaker 1: had again gone with a conspiracy charge, so they would

472
00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:42,760
Speaker 1: have to prove two things. That the magazine had published

473
00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:46,120
Speaker 1: afammatory material and that it had done so with intent,

474
00:34:46,920 --> 00:34:50,040
Speaker 1: Because the magazine was charged not with civil libel but

475
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:53,520
Speaker 1: with criminal libel, a little used charge that basically doesn't

476
00:34:53,560 --> 00:34:56,600
Speaker 1: exist today, the burden of proving whether or not the

477
00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: stories were true fell to the magazine. Prosecutor Clarence Lynn

478
00:35:01,440 --> 00:35:04,600
Speaker 1: had said when the charges were announced that he didn't

479
00:35:04,600 --> 00:35:06,680
Speaker 1: think the magazine would be able to prove that their

480
00:35:06,719 --> 00:35:11,120
Speaker 1: stories were true. Like many people, he seemed to assume

481
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:15,560
Speaker 1: that Confidential was sloppy in their standards, publishing anything, no

482
00:35:15,640 --> 00:35:22,520
Speaker 1: matter how questionable, as long as it sounded good. But

483
00:35:22,640 --> 00:35:27,200
Speaker 1: in that assumption, Lynn was very wrong. Though Confidential had

484
00:35:27,239 --> 00:35:31,080
Speaker 1: started out by publishing made up stories, once they graduated

485
00:35:31,120 --> 00:35:34,840
Speaker 1: into the world of Hollywood gossip, Robert Harrison had wanted

486
00:35:34,880 --> 00:35:38,920
Speaker 1: to make sure that Confidential was legally safeguarded. When the

487
00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:43,040
Speaker 1: magazine decided to move forward with a tip, private investigators

488
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:46,600
Speaker 1: were hired to double check the information. We have to

489
00:35:46,640 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: have the exact type, exact date, everything documented just in case,

490
00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:55,840
Speaker 1: Harrison said. Then the magazine's lawyers would prepare affidavits for

491
00:35:55,880 --> 00:36:00,399
Speaker 1: their sources to sign, which read quote, I swich that

492
00:36:00,440 --> 00:36:03,160
Speaker 1: all the events described in the above story are true

493
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:07,160
Speaker 1: and that I was a participant in these events. Based

494
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:11,000
Speaker 1: on these affidavits, confidentials writers would then put together a piece,

495
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 1: but the legal review wasn't over yet. Lawyers would now

496
00:36:16,280 --> 00:36:20,040
Speaker 1: check over every word of a story, often demanding rewrites

497
00:36:20,160 --> 00:36:24,560
Speaker 1: or deletions. Their oversight was so intensive, one reporter said

498
00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,640
Speaker 1: that he once requested a disclaimer that an article was

499
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 1: an attorney's work, not his own. Writers quickly learned that

500
00:36:32,120 --> 00:36:37,440
Speaker 1: the best approach was to imply conclusions, not state them outright,

501
00:36:37,960 --> 00:36:44,160
Speaker 1: in order to protect themselves from liability. Confidential, the testimony suggested,

502
00:36:44,840 --> 00:36:49,560
Speaker 1: was very, very careful with the truth, but two of

503
00:36:49,600 --> 00:36:53,560
Speaker 1: the trials most eye catching witnesses would reveal that Confidential's

504
00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:58,680
Speaker 1: fact checking process was not infallible. Hollywood's fears about stars

505
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,880
Speaker 1: being called by the defense hadn't materialized. Defense lawyer Arthur

506
00:37:02,920 --> 00:37:06,040
Speaker 1: Crowley didn't want to risk being bound by the testimony

507
00:37:06,080 --> 00:37:11,160
Speaker 1: of witnesses who might perjure themselves to protect their reputations. However,

508
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:16,200
Speaker 1: there were some stars who wanted to testify. Their names

509
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:24,120
Speaker 1: were Maureen O'Hara and Dorothy Dandridge. O'Hara, an actress, came

510
00:37:24,160 --> 00:37:26,640
Speaker 1: to court to respond to a March nineteen fifty seven

511
00:37:26,719 --> 00:37:30,200
Speaker 1: article titled quote it was the hottest show in town

512
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:35,160
Speaker 1: when Maureen O'Hara cuddled in Row thirty five. The article

513
00:37:35,280 --> 00:37:39,840
Speaker 1: alleged that O'Hara had had a sexual encounter with a

514
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,759
Speaker 1: lover in the back row of Grammin's Chinese Theater in

515
00:37:43,840 --> 00:37:48,720
Speaker 1: Los Angeles. O'Hara vehemently denied it, and she had proved

516
00:37:48,719 --> 00:37:51,319
Speaker 1: to back up her denials. On the same day that

517
00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:54,880
Speaker 1: Confidential claims she was getting busy in Los Angeles, O'Hara's

518
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:59,279
Speaker 1: passport showed that she had been in London. Dorothy Dandridge,

519
00:37:59,480 --> 00:38:04,080
Speaker 1: a singer actress, also testified. Confidential had published an article

520
00:38:04,200 --> 00:38:07,040
Speaker 1: called only the Birds and the Bees Saw What Dorothy

521
00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 1: Dandridge Did in the Woods, claiming that Dandridge had had

522
00:38:10,600 --> 00:38:12,880
Speaker 1: sex with a man in the woods near a resort

523
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:17,560
Speaker 1: in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Now, Dandridge appeared on the stand,

524
00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:21,240
Speaker 1: stating for the court that what Confidential claimed could never

525
00:38:21,360 --> 00:38:25,560
Speaker 1: have happened. Dandridge was black, and the man the story

526
00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:29,480
Speaker 1: alleged she had had sex with was white. During the

527
00:38:29,520 --> 00:38:32,880
Speaker 1: period in which she had been in Lake Tahoe, Dandridge explained,

528
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:37,359
Speaker 1: racial prejudices there had not only precluded her from interacting

529
00:38:37,360 --> 00:38:40,799
Speaker 1: with white people, but also from walking freely around the

530
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,720
Speaker 1: resort grounds. She couldn't have even gone into the woods,

531
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,640
Speaker 1: let alone met a white man there, so Confidential was

532
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 1: not infallible. But had they meant to defame the subjects

533
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:57,400
Speaker 1: of their articles. Opinions on that varied. One disgruntled former

534
00:38:57,440 --> 00:39:00,480
Speaker 1: reporter testified that he had wanted to hear those he

535
00:39:00,520 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 1: wrote about, while others claimed that they were just reporting

536
00:39:03,719 --> 00:39:07,360
Speaker 1: facts like any other news publication. The real blame for

537
00:39:07,440 --> 00:39:11,280
Speaker 1: any damage done, when witness said, lay with the movie studios,

538
00:39:11,360 --> 00:39:15,800
Speaker 1: who did not enforce the moral clauses in their stars contracts. Again,

539
00:39:16,160 --> 00:39:21,719
Speaker 1: it would be up to the jury to decide. In

540
00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 1: closing arguments, the prosecution doubled down on their themes. They

541
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:31,080
Speaker 1: pointed out the familial and financial bonds between Confidential and

542
00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:35,759
Speaker 1: Hollywood Research. They argued that Confidential had no motive for

543
00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:40,279
Speaker 1: exposing scandal other than financial gain. They railed against the

544
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:45,280
Speaker 1: low morals of the magazine. Look at them, shouted William Ritzy,

545
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:50,160
Speaker 1: pointing his finger at Marjorie and Fred Mead. They are

546
00:39:50,239 --> 00:39:54,719
Speaker 1: the self appointed purveyors of filth and gossip in the

547
00:39:54,800 --> 00:40:00,360
Speaker 1: United States. For the defense, Crowley fought back, Oh, was

548
00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:04,920
Speaker 1: Confidential so much different, so much worse than any other publication?

549
00:40:05,040 --> 00:40:09,400
Speaker 1: He asked, what about girly magazines with their erotic content.

550
00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:15,640
Speaker 1: Why wasn't the government pursuing them unlike those magazines, Crowley continued,

551
00:40:15,920 --> 00:40:20,360
Speaker 1: confidential is accepted by the community. It is sold over

552
00:40:20,440 --> 00:40:24,319
Speaker 1: the counter, not under the counter. And then he brought

553
00:40:24,400 --> 00:40:29,000
Speaker 1: up another point, one that had nearly gotten lost amongst

554
00:40:29,080 --> 00:40:34,600
Speaker 1: the discussion of celebrities and gossip and smut, the issue

555
00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:40,879
Speaker 1: of free speech. The prosecution wants to indulge in censorship,

556
00:40:41,520 --> 00:40:45,720
Speaker 1: to do your thinking for you. Who is the prosecutor

557
00:40:45,800 --> 00:40:49,160
Speaker 1: to tell you what you can and can't read? He asked,

558
00:40:50,200 --> 00:40:53,440
Speaker 1: If you find my client's guilty, Crowley told the jury,

559
00:40:54,160 --> 00:40:58,359
Speaker 1: you will be taking a precious piece of liberty. Would

560
00:40:58,400 --> 00:41:01,880
Speaker 1: this plea be enough? After more than a month of

561
00:41:01,960 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 1: testimony and nearly thirty witnesses, the trial ended and the

562
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:11,360
Speaker 1: decision was left in the jury's hands. Soon it became

563
00:41:11,440 --> 00:41:15,319
Speaker 1: clear that it would not be a quick deliberation. One

564
00:41:15,440 --> 00:41:20,520
Speaker 1: day passed, and then another, and then another. The jury

565
00:41:20,560 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 1: returned to the courtroom to ask Judge Walker some clarifying questions.

566
00:41:24,920 --> 00:41:28,720
Speaker 1: They left again. Things were getting heated amongst the jury.

567
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: At one point marshals had to step in. Several jurors

568
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,760
Speaker 1: had allegedly threatened to throw another juror out of the window. Finally,

569
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:41,920
Speaker 1: after a then record breaking fourteen days of deliberation, the

570
00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:45,440
Speaker 1: jury returned to the courtroom on October first, but they

571
00:41:45,440 --> 00:41:48,960
Speaker 1: still had no verdict. They were hopelessly stuck, they told

572
00:41:49,040 --> 00:41:53,560
Speaker 1: Judge Walker, and could not reach a unanimous verdict. Reluctantly,

573
00:41:54,120 --> 00:41:58,440
Speaker 1: he declared a mistrial. Later, it would emerge that the

574
00:41:58,520 --> 00:42:01,600
Speaker 1: jurors had voted seven to five in favor of conviction

575
00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:05,120
Speaker 1: on the charge of conspiracy to commit criminal libel and

576
00:42:05,239 --> 00:42:10,200
Speaker 1: eight to four on conspiracy to publish obscenity. Now the

577
00:42:10,280 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 1: government had the option to retry Confidential, but did they

578
00:42:14,400 --> 00:42:26,440
Speaker 1: want to publicly? California Attorney General Pat Brown was quick

579
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:30,399
Speaker 1: to declare his desire for a retrial, but privately he

580
00:42:30,480 --> 00:42:32,920
Speaker 1: wanted the whole thing to be over and done with,

581
00:42:33,400 --> 00:42:35,799
Speaker 1: and so did the studios who had first urged him

582
00:42:35,840 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: to take the case. The trial had been expensive and exhausting.

583
00:42:40,840 --> 00:42:44,040
Speaker 1: He wrote to Prosecutor Clarence Lynn on October ninth and

584
00:42:44,280 --> 00:42:48,480
Speaker 1: urged him to settle the case with Confidential. Publicly, Robert

585
00:42:48,520 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 1: Harrison was thrilled by the trial's outcome. He threw a

586
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:55,240
Speaker 1: lavish dinner to celebrate Arthur Crowley in New York City

587
00:42:55,560 --> 00:43:01,360
Speaker 1: and hired a violin player to serenade him privately. Was terrified.

588
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:06,480
Speaker 1: The first trial had cost him an estimated three and

589
00:43:06,600 --> 00:43:11,680
Speaker 1: a half million dollars in legal fees in today's money.

590
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:15,400
Speaker 1: He was worried that another trial would ruin him and

591
00:43:15,560 --> 00:43:20,279
Speaker 1: perhaps even land his niece Marjorie in jail. So when

592
00:43:20,280 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: the prosecutors reached out to discuss a deal, Harrison was receptive.

593
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:28,799
Speaker 1: The lawyers got to work hammering out terms. Meanwhile, Pat

594
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:32,120
Speaker 1: Brown announced his run for governor. He was elected less

595
00:43:32,160 --> 00:43:36,520
Speaker 1: than a year later and served two terms. On November twelfth,

596
00:43:36,640 --> 00:43:41,279
Speaker 1: Judge Burton Noble approved a proposed deal between California and Confidential.

597
00:43:42,000 --> 00:43:45,120
Speaker 1: The terms were simple. The state would drop all charges

598
00:43:45,400 --> 00:43:49,080
Speaker 1: except the count of conspiracy to publish obscenity. A judge

599
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:52,960
Speaker 1: would determine the magazine's guilt on this charge based on

600
00:43:53,080 --> 00:43:57,480
Speaker 1: the grand jury and trial transcripts. In exchange for the

601
00:43:57,560 --> 00:44:02,200
Speaker 1: reduced charges, Confidential agreed to stop publishing exposes about celebrities.

602
00:44:02,800 --> 00:44:05,880
Speaker 1: They also agreed to take out ads publicly announcing this

603
00:44:06,040 --> 00:44:11,399
Speaker 1: change in editorial direction. In December, Judge Noble found Confidential

604
00:44:11,520 --> 00:44:15,680
Speaker 1: and her sister magazine whisper guilty of conspiring to publish obscenity.

605
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:20,319
Speaker 1: Each magazine was fined five thousand dollars. Where were the

606
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:24,720
Speaker 1: studios in all of this? During the trial, Now aware

607
00:44:24,840 --> 00:44:29,120
Speaker 1: that taking the legal route ran the risk of unwelcome exposure,

608
00:44:29,800 --> 00:44:36,800
Speaker 1: the studios had created another internal anti scandal magazine committee members,

609
00:44:37,080 --> 00:44:42,640
Speaker 1: including a politically ambitious actor named Ronald Reagan, brainstormed measures

610
00:44:42,640 --> 00:44:47,040
Speaker 1: to fight Confidential and its cronies. In mid October, they

611
00:44:47,080 --> 00:44:51,359
Speaker 1: announced a campaign to root out magazine informants. We will

612
00:44:51,440 --> 00:44:55,640
Speaker 1: organize effective opposition to fight these people, writers, said one

613
00:44:55,640 --> 00:45:04,640
Speaker 1: committee member. But their efforts proved unnecessary because though Confidential

614
00:45:04,680 --> 00:45:07,239
Speaker 1: had made it through the trial, they had not come

615
00:45:07,280 --> 00:45:11,280
Speaker 1: out of the battle unscathed. In the spring of nineteen

616
00:45:11,320 --> 00:45:14,720
Speaker 1: fifty eight, the magazine revealed its new approach to readers.

617
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:18,320
Speaker 1: We're quitting the area of private affairs for the arena

618
00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,600
Speaker 1: of public affairs. Read the announcement. If wiseacres say we've

619
00:45:22,640 --> 00:45:26,919
Speaker 1: retreated from the bedroom, we'll say, yes, that's true. From

620
00:45:26,920 --> 00:45:29,880
Speaker 1: now on, we'll search the thoroughfares of the globe for

621
00:45:30,000 --> 00:45:34,880
Speaker 1: stories of public interest. These so called public interest stories

622
00:45:35,320 --> 00:45:38,960
Speaker 1: including gems like what's wrong with the oil burner in

623
00:45:39,000 --> 00:45:43,120
Speaker 1: the White House Basement and Penicillin Can Save Your Life.

624
00:45:43,880 --> 00:45:49,040
Speaker 1: Unsurprisingly failed to interest the public at all. Circulation numbers

625
00:45:49,280 --> 00:45:55,400
Speaker 1: collapsed after three issues of the new Confidential. Robert Harrison

626
00:45:55,480 --> 00:45:59,440
Speaker 1: had had enough. He wanted a magazine that drew attention,

627
00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:03,440
Speaker 1: that started conversations, and most of all, that made money.

628
00:46:04,200 --> 00:46:08,160
Speaker 1: Under their restrictions placed by the California Deal, Confidential could

629
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:12,360
Speaker 1: no longer be that magazine. Plus Harrison was now facing

630
00:46:12,440 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 1: a number of celebrity libel lawsuits. He announced that he

631
00:46:16,480 --> 00:46:20,760
Speaker 1: was selling the magazine. The new publisher tried to revive interest,

632
00:46:20,960 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: but couldn't find an audience. The magazine steadily lost readership

633
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:30,520
Speaker 1: and eventually folded. Many people saw Confidential's collapse as a

634
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:35,239
Speaker 1: victory for American morality. One newspaper editorial put it like this,

635
00:46:36,239 --> 00:46:39,520
Speaker 1: these magazines still may not be fit for most living rooms,

636
00:46:40,000 --> 00:46:42,080
Speaker 1: but it is generally agreed that they are not quite

637
00:46:42,080 --> 00:46:45,160
Speaker 1: so bad as they were before. The heavy expenses of

638
00:46:45,200 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 1: the trial appear to have made the publishers and editors

639
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:53,320
Speaker 1: of Confidential and her scandalous sisters more conscious of their responsibilities.

640
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,440
Speaker 1: But other observers were concerned about the potential chilling effects

641
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:03,000
Speaker 1: of the trial, the journalist Maurice Solitau expressed these fears

642
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:08,400
Speaker 1: governmental power has been used to alter the editorial content

643
00:47:08,480 --> 00:47:11,680
Speaker 1: of a national magazine. It has been shown that the

644
00:47:11,719 --> 00:47:15,759
Speaker 1: cost of defending such a charge is so expensive that

645
00:47:15,800 --> 00:47:20,560
Speaker 1: by merely threatening an indefinite series of prosecutions, any publication

646
00:47:20,680 --> 00:47:24,240
Speaker 1: can be put to death. Regardless of one's personal opinion

647
00:47:24,239 --> 00:47:27,680
Speaker 1: of Confidential, many may regard the use of the judicial

648
00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:32,000
Speaker 1: power to muzzle a magazine any magazine, as an act

649
00:47:32,040 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 1: discouraging freedom and controversy. Fortunately, Zlatao's views were not immediately realized.

650
00:47:39,840 --> 00:47:43,320
Speaker 1: In the decade after the Confidential trial, the American public

651
00:47:43,360 --> 00:47:46,799
Speaker 1: and the judicial system seemed to lose their appetite for censorship.

652
00:47:47,560 --> 00:47:50,880
Speaker 1: Many of the local and state level literature review boards

653
00:47:51,200 --> 00:47:55,759
Speaker 1: which served as de facto censorship organizations, disbanded, usually due

654
00:47:55,840 --> 00:47:59,680
Speaker 1: to court rulings against them, but censorship has never fully

655
00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:03,400
Speaker 1: vanied from our landscape. Recently, the country has seen a

656
00:48:03,520 --> 00:48:06,480
Speaker 1: rise in community efforts to ban or censor books from

657
00:48:06,480 --> 00:48:11,200
Speaker 1: public and school libraries. The American Library Association reported in

658
00:48:11,239 --> 00:48:14,279
Speaker 1: September twenty twenty three that the first eight months of

659
00:48:14,320 --> 00:48:18,000
Speaker 1: that year contained the highest number of book challenges since

660
00:48:18,000 --> 00:48:21,000
Speaker 1: it began recording the data in two thousand and three,

661
00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:25,080
Speaker 1: the number of book challenges had already nearly doubled between

662
00:48:25,120 --> 00:48:30,319
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two. Unlike Confidential, which

663
00:48:30,400 --> 00:48:35,319
Speaker 1: was invested in reinforcing racist, homophobic, and sexist stereotypes, most

664
00:48:35,360 --> 00:48:38,480
Speaker 1: of the publications being challenged today are those that explore

665
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:42,560
Speaker 1: or are supportive of gender, racial, and sexual diversity. But

666
00:48:42,680 --> 00:48:45,319
Speaker 1: the question at the heart of all these challenges has

667
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:49,359
Speaker 1: remained the same. Who chooses what the public gets to read?

668
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:54,000
Speaker 1: The American Library Associations Deborah Caldwell Stone is a statement

669
00:48:54,040 --> 00:48:58,440
Speaker 1: about book challenges. Said quote, to allow a group of people,

670
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:02,239
Speaker 1: or any individual, no matter how powerful or allowed, to

671
00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:04,960
Speaker 1: become the decision maker about what books we can read

672
00:49:05,400 --> 00:49:08,480
Speaker 1: or whether libraries exist, is to place all of our

673
00:49:08,560 --> 00:49:12,359
Speaker 1: rights and liberties in jeopardy, Or, as Arthur Crowley put

674
00:49:12,400 --> 00:49:15,600
Speaker 1: it in the Confidential Trial, who is the prosecutor to

675
00:49:15,600 --> 00:49:22,719
Speaker 1: tell you what you can and can't read? There are

676
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:27,440
Speaker 1: some lighter parallels between Confidential and today too. Though Confidential

677
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,400
Speaker 1: itself may not have lasted long, it set the tone

678
00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:33,320
Speaker 1: for nearly all of the celebrity gossip we consume today.

679
00:49:34,160 --> 00:49:38,520
Speaker 1: Before Confidential and other scandal magazines like it. Hollywood stars

680
00:49:38,560 --> 00:49:43,760
Speaker 1: had highly polished images. Confidential revealed the truth behind the glamour.

681
00:49:44,719 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 1: Once the truth was out, there was no going back,

682
00:49:48,200 --> 00:49:51,760
Speaker 1: and many stars decided that it was better to capitalize

683
00:49:51,800 --> 00:49:54,960
Speaker 1: on the public's interest in their foibles than try to

684
00:49:55,000 --> 00:49:59,280
Speaker 1: deny them. In nineteen sixty four, Robert Harrison was profiled

685
00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:02,560
Speaker 1: in esquire Ma magazine and told the reporter quote, you

686
00:50:02,600 --> 00:50:06,120
Speaker 1: couldn't put out a magazine like Confidential again because movie

687
00:50:06,120 --> 00:50:09,799
Speaker 1: stars have started writing books about themselves. They tell all.

688
00:50:10,280 --> 00:50:14,760
Speaker 1: No magazine can compete with that. Many magazines, of course,

689
00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:19,359
Speaker 1: have tried. From confidentials Ashes Rose Publications has varied as

690
00:50:19,520 --> 00:50:23,000
Speaker 1: The National Inquirer and People Magazine, as well as online

691
00:50:23,040 --> 00:50:26,960
Speaker 1: gossip sites like TMZ and television programs like Entertainment Tonight.

692
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 1: Robert Harrison, for all his quirks, knew what news sold,

693
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:35,960
Speaker 1: and as I sit here now telling the story of

694
00:50:36,000 --> 00:50:40,560
Speaker 1: the hidden forces at work behind his magazine's trial, I

695
00:50:40,640 --> 00:50:44,319
Speaker 1: can't help but think of some of his words. I

696
00:50:44,480 --> 00:50:49,160
Speaker 1: sincerely believe the basic vehicle of the story behind the

697
00:50:49,239 --> 00:50:53,399
Speaker 1: story will be here long after we are all dead.

698
00:50:55,480 --> 00:50:59,319
Speaker 1: That's the story of California. V Confidential Stay with Me

699
00:50:59,400 --> 00:51:01,800
Speaker 1: after the Break to learn more about the tragic rise

700
00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:04,839
Speaker 1: and fall of one of the magazine's star writers, who

701
00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:11,839
Speaker 1: embodied many of the nineteen fifties darkest trends. In the

702
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:15,799
Speaker 1: spring of nineteen fifty three, Robert Harrison was looking for

703
00:51:15,840 --> 00:51:18,239
Speaker 1: a reporter to write a hit piece about one of

704
00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:22,040
Speaker 1: his loudest critics, the New York Post editor James Wexler.

705
00:51:22,920 --> 00:51:26,640
Speaker 1: None of his usual freelancers would do. Harrison wanted to

706
00:51:26,719 --> 00:51:30,879
Speaker 1: highlight Wexler's youthful membership in the Young Communist League, and

707
00:51:31,040 --> 00:51:34,360
Speaker 1: thus wanted a noted anti communist journalist to write the piece.

708
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:37,600
Speaker 1: So he reached out to the source of all things

709
00:51:37,640 --> 00:51:43,920
Speaker 1: anti communists, the office of Senator Joe McCarthy. Three years earlier,

710
00:51:44,120 --> 00:51:47,120
Speaker 1: McCarthy had made national news by declaring that he had

711
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:50,520
Speaker 1: a list of hundreds of Communists working at the State Department.

712
00:51:51,600 --> 00:51:56,759
Speaker 1: Since then, he had ruthlessly and often baselessly accused hundreds

713
00:51:56,760 --> 00:52:01,759
Speaker 1: more Americans of Communist sympathies, ruining reputations and lives with

714
00:52:01,840 --> 00:52:05,600
Speaker 1: his hearings in the Senate. One of the main sources

715
00:52:05,640 --> 00:52:08,840
Speaker 1: of information for these hearings was a prominent anti communist

716
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:13,359
Speaker 1: journalist named Howard Rushmore, who now worked for McCarthy. When

717
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:16,680
Speaker 1: Robert Harrison called McCarthy's office in the spring of nineteen

718
00:52:16,719 --> 00:52:19,799
Speaker 1: fifty three, it was with Rushmore that he wished to

719
00:52:19,840 --> 00:52:24,080
Speaker 1: be connected. Rushmore had not always been an anti communist.

720
00:52:24,800 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 1: In fact, he had once been a passionate communist. Born

721
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:33,480
Speaker 1: on July second, nineteen twelve, in Sheridan, Wyoming, Rushmore grew

722
00:52:33,560 --> 00:52:37,799
Speaker 1: up in profound poverty. As a young reporter in Missouri,

723
00:52:38,080 --> 00:52:41,640
Speaker 1: he had been radicalized by witnessing both terrible working conditions

724
00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:45,400
Speaker 1: and the lynching of a young black man. Rushmore was

725
00:52:45,480 --> 00:52:48,920
Speaker 1: desperate for a better world and admired the conviction with

726
00:52:48,960 --> 00:52:54,120
Speaker 1: which communist organizations railed against injustice. By the nineteen thirties,

727
00:52:54,280 --> 00:52:57,400
Speaker 1: he was prominent in the communist movement and served as

728
00:52:57,480 --> 00:53:01,680
Speaker 1: film critic for the major communist newspaper, Daily Worker. But

729
00:53:01,760 --> 00:53:05,359
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine, Rushmore had a catastrophic falling out

730
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:08,319
Speaker 1: with the Communist Party over his positive review of the

731
00:53:08,360 --> 00:53:12,440
Speaker 1: film Gone with the Wind. Other Daily Worker employees accused

732
00:53:12,520 --> 00:53:16,920
Speaker 1: him of being racist and of sympathizing with the Confederacy. Outraged,

733
00:53:17,080 --> 00:53:20,719
Speaker 1: Rushmore left both the paper and the Party and decided

734
00:53:20,719 --> 00:53:25,800
Speaker 1: to devote himself to destroying communism in America. His rise

735
00:53:25,880 --> 00:53:28,960
Speaker 1: in the anti communist movement was just as swift as

736
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:31,960
Speaker 1: it had been in the communist movement. He was hired

737
00:53:31,960 --> 00:53:35,160
Speaker 1: by the right wing journal American Newspaper and became the

738
00:53:35,200 --> 00:53:39,480
Speaker 1: country's first full time reporter on the communist movement. By

739
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:43,680
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, With his anti communist expertise established, Rushmore

740
00:53:43,680 --> 00:53:47,759
Speaker 1: became a popular witness for government investigations. He was a

741
00:53:47,840 --> 00:53:51,360
Speaker 1: key witness in the House on American Activities Committees' hearings

742
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:55,640
Speaker 1: on communism in Hollywood. In nineteen fifty three, Senator McCarthy

743
00:53:55,719 --> 00:54:03,319
Speaker 1: made Rushmore his research director. His power seemed limitless, but

744
00:54:03,520 --> 00:54:07,759
Speaker 1: under the surface cracks were appearing. Rushmore was an alcoholic

745
00:54:07,840 --> 00:54:12,640
Speaker 1: with violent tendencies. He had a prickly personality, a combative nature,

746
00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:16,160
Speaker 1: and a condescending manner. He also had a tendency to

747
00:54:16,200 --> 00:54:20,240
Speaker 1: fabricate evidence. Once, he had claimed to have an FBI

748
00:54:20,360 --> 00:54:23,799
Speaker 1: report showing that whe hundred and fifty government employees in

749
00:54:23,960 --> 00:54:27,759
Speaker 1: Washington State were Soviet spies. When the FBI asked him

750
00:54:27,800 --> 00:54:30,400
Speaker 1: to produce this report, he gave them a letter he

751
00:54:30,520 --> 00:54:34,000
Speaker 1: himself had written, and he would eventually lose his job

752
00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:36,640
Speaker 1: with McCarthy after it was revealed that he was using

753
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:39,680
Speaker 1: private testimony from the Scent hearings for his articles in

754
00:54:39,719 --> 00:54:44,280
Speaker 1: The Journal American. After agreeing to write that first article

755
00:54:44,400 --> 00:54:49,000
Speaker 1: for Confidential onn Wexler, Rushmore had contributed occasionally to the magazine,

756
00:54:49,440 --> 00:54:53,319
Speaker 1: writing mainly anti communist expose is Like the Strange Death

757
00:54:53,360 --> 00:54:58,080
Speaker 1: of J. Robert Oppenheimer's Red Sweetheart. Rushmore thought the tabloid

758
00:54:58,080 --> 00:55:00,960
Speaker 1: business was beneath him, but when and the Journal American

759
00:55:01,080 --> 00:55:05,359
Speaker 1: fired him in nineteen fifty four over personality and pay disputes,

760
00:55:05,760 --> 00:55:11,320
Speaker 1: he came to Confidential full time. Eventually, Rushmore became Confidential's

761
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:15,279
Speaker 1: chief editor. His main passion was exposes of stars for

762
00:55:15,360 --> 00:55:20,440
Speaker 1: communist leanings or homosexuality, but he'd chafed against Harrison's requirements

763
00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:22,960
Speaker 1: that he also report on what Rushmore saw as a

764
00:55:23,000 --> 00:55:27,480
Speaker 1: less consequential celebrity gossip. In turn, Harrison was annoyed by

765
00:55:27,560 --> 00:55:32,080
Speaker 1: Rushmore's obsessive focus on politics. By nineteen fifty five, the

766
00:55:32,120 --> 00:55:35,320
Speaker 1: two men had fallen out, and Rushmore left the magazine

767
00:55:35,360 --> 00:55:39,839
Speaker 1: that September under less than amicable terms, though Confidential gave

768
00:55:39,880 --> 00:55:43,239
Speaker 1: him severan's pay and promised to assume liability for any

769
00:55:43,320 --> 00:55:47,200
Speaker 1: libel suits on articles published under his watch, as he

770
00:55:47,239 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 1: had done with the Communist Party. Rushmore became determined to

771
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:54,520
Speaker 1: destroy the organization he felt spurned by. He took his

772
00:55:54,640 --> 00:55:58,719
Speaker 1: severance pay and bought a plane ticket to California, where

773
00:55:58,760 --> 00:56:01,840
Speaker 1: he met up with an A. Turneri, who was representing several

774
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:06,480
Speaker 1: celebrities in suits against the magazine. He would eventually testify

775
00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:10,000
Speaker 1: at Pat Brown's grand jury hearings, where his testimony that

776
00:56:10,200 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 1: quote some of the stories are true and some have

777
00:56:13,120 --> 00:56:15,560
Speaker 1: nothing to back them up at all, would go a

778
00:56:15,600 --> 00:56:18,239
Speaker 1: long way towards convincing the grand jury to bring an

779
00:56:18,239 --> 00:56:23,719
Speaker 1: indictment against Confidential. At the trial, Rushmore testified for the prosecution,

780
00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:28,720
Speaker 1: continuing his assault on the magazine. When Arthur Crowley pressed

781
00:56:28,800 --> 00:56:32,200
Speaker 1: Rushmore on cross about his goals in writing for Confidential,

782
00:56:32,680 --> 00:56:36,640
Speaker 1: asking did you have this specific intention yourself to injure someone?

783
00:56:37,280 --> 00:56:41,400
Speaker 1: The lawyer clearly expected a no, but Rushmore shocked Crowley

784
00:56:41,400 --> 00:56:45,560
Speaker 1: in the courtroom by replying, I certainly did. Though Rushmore

785
00:56:45,600 --> 00:56:48,640
Speaker 1: seemingly got what he wanted with the destruction of Confidential,

786
00:56:49,320 --> 00:56:52,919
Speaker 1: the trial also ruined him. This was the second time

787
00:56:53,000 --> 00:56:56,439
Speaker 1: he had publicly turned against an organization that had employed him,

788
00:56:56,920 --> 00:57:00,560
Speaker 1: and no one could trust him anymore. THEO. Willson, who

789
00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:03,000
Speaker 1: reported on the trial for the New York Daily News,

790
00:57:03,520 --> 00:57:08,680
Speaker 1: called Rushmore quote a professional turncoat on the skids. He

791
00:57:08,760 --> 00:57:12,960
Speaker 1: was unemployable, unlikable, and sinking ever deeper into the bottle.

792
00:57:13,840 --> 00:57:17,000
Speaker 1: When prosecutor Clarence Lynn approached Rushmore in the fall of

793
00:57:17,080 --> 00:57:20,920
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty seven about testifying in a potential confidential retrial,

794
00:57:21,520 --> 00:57:25,120
Speaker 1: he found a broken man, he told me. Lynn said

795
00:57:25,560 --> 00:57:28,480
Speaker 1: that he thought he had been ruined by his activities

796
00:57:28,480 --> 00:57:32,360
Speaker 1: in the Confidential trial. Much of Rushmore's anger ended up

797
00:57:32,400 --> 00:57:35,800
Speaker 1: being channeled against his wife, Francis, who he physically abused.

798
00:57:36,760 --> 00:57:41,400
Speaker 1: On January third, nineteen fifty eight, the worst happened. Rushmore

799
00:57:41,520 --> 00:57:44,360
Speaker 1: killed Francis and then himself in a taxi in New

800
00:57:44,440 --> 00:57:48,600
Speaker 1: York City. Robert Harrison received the news in another taxi

801
00:57:49,000 --> 00:57:51,360
Speaker 1: on his way home from the airport. The driver asked

802
00:57:51,440 --> 00:57:53,840
Speaker 1: him if he'd heard the news that the publisher of

803
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:57,760
Speaker 1: Confidential had just shot himself. Harrison, who was actually the

804
00:57:57,760 --> 00:58:02,440
Speaker 1: publisher of Confidential, was baffled. Howard Rushmore's story is a

805
00:58:02,480 --> 00:58:05,760
Speaker 1: sad and sordid one, but his journey also tells us

806
00:58:05,840 --> 00:58:08,480
Speaker 1: so much about the country he lived in. As a

807
00:58:08,520 --> 00:58:11,200
Speaker 1: young man, he witnessed terrible things and hoped for a

808
00:58:11,200 --> 00:58:14,560
Speaker 1: better world. When he could not achieve that, he set

809
00:58:14,600 --> 00:58:17,760
Speaker 1: out to watch the world burn. He wrote the progressive

810
00:58:17,800 --> 00:58:21,560
Speaker 1: wave of the nineteen thirties, rallied behind nationalist causes in

811
00:58:21,600 --> 00:58:24,800
Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, and played on fears during the Red

812
00:58:24,840 --> 00:58:28,800
Speaker 1: Scare in the nineteen fifties. He recognized the country's interest

813
00:58:28,880 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 1: in celebrities, and he made money off of it, but

814
00:58:32,000 --> 00:58:35,440
Speaker 1: it sickened him too. He was a mess of contradictions,

815
00:58:35,640 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 1: a difficult man, and despite his protests that Confidential was

816
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:42,520
Speaker 1: beneath him, there is probably no better avatar for the

817
00:58:42,560 --> 00:58:48,680
Speaker 1: magazine's potent brand of scandal. Thank you for listening to

818
00:58:48,840 --> 00:58:52,560
Speaker 1: History on Trial. The main sources for this episode were

819
00:58:52,600 --> 00:58:58,040
Speaker 1: Samantha Barbas's book Confidential Confidential, The Inside Story of Hollywood's

820
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:03,320
Speaker 1: notorious scandal magazine and Henry E. Scott's book Shocking True

821
00:59:03,400 --> 00:59:08,160
Speaker 1: Story The Rise and Fall of Confidential, America's most scandalous

822
00:59:08,240 --> 00:59:11,760
Speaker 1: scandal magazine. For a full bibliography, as well as a

823
00:59:11,760 --> 00:59:15,680
Speaker 1: transcript of this episode with citations, please visit History on

824
00:59:16,000 --> 00:59:21,960
Speaker 1: Trial podcast dot com. History on Trial is written and

825
00:59:22,040 --> 00:59:25,800
Speaker 1: hosted by me Mira Hayward. The show is edited and

826
00:59:25,880 --> 00:59:29,840
Speaker 1: produced by Jesse Funk, with supervising producer Trevor Young and

827
00:59:29,960 --> 00:59:35,760
Speaker 1: executive producers Dana Schwartz, Alexander Williams, Matt Frederick, and Mira Hayward.

828
00:59:36,320 --> 00:59:39,560
Speaker 1: Learn more about the show at History on Trial podcast

829
00:59:39,760 --> 00:59:43,400
Speaker 1: dot com and follow us on Instagram at History on

830
00:59:43,520 --> 00:59:48,920
Speaker 1: Trial and on Twitter at Underscore History on Trial. Find

831
00:59:48,960 --> 00:59:54,280
Speaker 1: more podcasts from iHeartRadio by visiting the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

832
00:59:54,640 --> 00:59:57,440
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.