WEBVTT - California v. Confidential 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:16.320 Listener discretion advised. On the evening of November fifth, nineteen 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:20.880 fifty four, Florence Cotts got ready for bed as usual, 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:25.479 a thirty seven year old secretary living on Quiet Wearing 0:00:25.600 --> 0:00:30.560 Avenue in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. Cotts put her curlers in, 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:35.839 slipped under the covers, and turned off the lights. It 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.040 was a Friday, so maybe she even planned to sleep 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.080 in the next day, but she wouldn't get the chance. 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:48.360 In the middle of the night, Florence's door exploded inward 0:00:48.440 --> 0:00:52.199 in a shower of wood and glass. Before she could react, 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:55.680 a group of men rushed in. A blinding light flashed 0:00:55.720 --> 0:00:59.720 in her face. Florence huddled in her bed, paralyzed by 0:00:59.760 --> 0:01:05.560 fear and then nothing. She heard one of the men yell, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:09.640 we've got the wrong place. They turned around and ran 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:13.720 out through her kitchen, breaking glasses and leaving a mess. 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:17.840 Once she was certain they were gone, Florence called the police, 0:01:18.280 --> 0:01:21.600 who couldn't make heads or tails of the event. It 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.000 must have been an attempted burglary. An officer told the 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:30.120 terrified woman she was lucky to have escaped unhurt, and 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.720 because she hadn't seen any of the men's faces blinded 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:36.640 by the bright lights they'd shown, there wasn't much for 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:40.160 the police to go on. The case wasn't likely to 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:44.080 get solved. Florence learned she would just have to live 0:01:44.240 --> 0:01:48.040 with the fear. But less than a year later, a 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:51.920 shocking break in the case arrived from an unusual source 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:58.920 a tabloid magazine. In September nineteen fifty five, Confidential magazine, 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.240 the tops celebrity scandal sheet in the country, published a 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:07.920 story about the break in at Florence Cott's apartment. It 0:02:08.040 --> 0:02:11.239 might seem like a strange story for a celebrity magazine 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.360 to care about, but Confidential had good reason. The men 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:19.160 who had broken into Florence's apartment that night, the article claimed, 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:31.160 were none other than Frank Sinatra and Joe DiMaggio. In 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.919 the article titled the Real Reason for Marilyn Monroe's Divorce, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:39.000 Confidential explained how the famous singer and the Yankee star 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.639 had come to be there. Florence Cotts, it turned out, 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:46.360 lived in the same small apartment building as one of 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:52.639 Marilyn Monroe's friends, an actress named Sheila Stewart, Joe DiMaggio, 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:57.040 still reeling from his in Monroe's divorce, had become convinced 0:02:57.040 --> 0:03:00.360 that Monroe was using Stuart's apartment to meet with the 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:04.160 man he thought Monroe had left him for. Acting on 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:08.679 information from the private investigator he'd hired and likely fueled 0:03:08.720 --> 0:03:12.720 by more than a few drinks, DiMaggio had enlisted some friends, 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:16.720 including Sinatra, to help him catchman Row in the act. 0:03:17.760 --> 0:03:20.960 It was a sloppy plan, and it had unsurprisingly gone 0:03:21.200 --> 0:03:24.920 very wrong. Instead of going into Sheila Stuart's apartment on 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.320 the second floor, the group had broken into the first 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.680 floor home of Florence Cotts. So Florence finally got some 0:03:32.840 --> 0:03:36.720 answers about what had happened to her that night, and 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:42.800 she eventually got some reparations. She sued DiMaggio, Sinatra, and 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:47.080 the other men and got a settlement. But the story 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:50.240 of the Wrong Door Raid, as it came to be known, 0:03:50.880 --> 0:03:56.360 was far from over because California officials had some questions 0:03:56.440 --> 0:04:01.240 about how Confidential magazine had gotten their story. In February 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:06.600 nineteen fifty seven, California State Senator Fred Graft held a 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.680 series of hearings to determine if Confidential had gotten the 0:04:10.800 --> 0:04:15.200 story by paying off a private investigator. You might be 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:19.440 wondering why would a state legislature care where a scandal 0:04:19.480 --> 0:04:24.800 magazine got its stories from. Well, Confidential Magazine wasn't just 0:04:25.080 --> 0:04:29.479 any scandal magazine. It was one of the most powerful 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:32.960 publications in the country, with a reader base in the 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.960 millions and the ability to ruin a star's career with 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:42.440 a few carefully worded sentences. People all across America worried 0:04:42.520 --> 0:04:48.320 that Confidential's salacious content would corrupt the country's youth. In California, 0:04:48.440 --> 0:04:52.840 politicians and entertainment executives worried that its shocking stories would 0:04:52.839 --> 0:04:57.520 destroy the lucrative movie industry, and so by nineteen fifty seven, 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.000 the studios and the government were lo looking for ways 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:05.880 to take the magazine down. The state Senate hearings into 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.320 the Wrong Door Raids story were only the first step. 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:14.440 Three months later, in May nineteen fifty seven, a grand 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:19.159 jury convened by the ambitious California Attorney General Pat Brown, 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:25.279 indicted Confidential, along with several key employees and partner businesses, on, 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:30.680 among other things, charges of conspiracy to commit criminal libel 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:37.160 and conspiracy to publish obscene and indecent material For years, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:42.279 Confidential had held Hollywood hostage, using a network of informants 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:46.520 to dig up dirt on America's biggest celebrities. But now 0:05:46.560 --> 0:05:50.360 Hollywood was fighting back with the assistance of the government. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.719 The ensuing trial would put the right of freedom of 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:59.960 the press into question because Confidential stories were nasty, no doubt, 0:06:00.720 --> 0:06:05.360 but the magazine would claim they were all true, and 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.479 could publishing the truth, no matter how indecent, ever be 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:16.120 a crime. Americans were about to find out. Welcome to 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:20.760 History on trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This week 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:31.960 the State of California v. Confidential. Confidentials creator and publisher 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.680 Robert Harrison was no stranger to scandal. After coming up 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.240 as a reporter for the New York Gossip Rags, Harrison 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:43.839 had gone into business for himself, creating a number of 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:49.600 so called girly magazines, publications filled with images of scantily 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:54.719 clad women. Harrison was a hands on magazine executive, regularly 0:06:54.760 --> 0:06:58.720 acting as a photographer for his magazines and sometimes even 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.680 posing in photos himself. He was also an ambitious man. 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:06.680 When his girly magazines failed to make ends meet, Harrison 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:10.480 began casting around for a new, more profitable concept, and 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:15.560 he found it on television. Throughout nineteen fifty and nineteen 0:07:15.640 --> 0:07:19.320 fifty one, a Senate committee led by Senator estes Ki 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:23.640 Fauver investigated the state of organized crime in America in 0:07:23.720 --> 0:07:27.640 a series of hearings that were broadcast live on television. 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.840 Americans were glued to their TV screens as a procession 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:37.440 of mobsters testified in front of the committee. The March 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:42.160 nineteen fifty one hearing in New York attracted an estimated 0:07:42.440 --> 0:07:48.320 thirty million viewers. Harrison was also inspired by the Confidential 0:07:48.440 --> 0:07:51.400 series of books, which came out between nineteen forty eight 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:55.800 and nineteen fifty two and profiled different American cities New 0:07:55.880 --> 0:08:01.080 York Confidential, Chicago Confidential, and so on. The Confidential series 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.520 claimed to reveal what was really happening in these cities. 0:08:05.080 --> 0:08:08.840 The books shocked their readers with depictions of crime, sex, 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.720 and debauchery happening allegedly in the heart of every city. 0:08:15.120 --> 0:08:18.960 They had a distinct point of view, As historian and 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.160 law professor Samantha Barbis puts it in her book on 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:30.200 the magazine Confidential Confidential, the Confidential books were racist, sexist, homophobic, 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:36.360 and largely false. They were also best sellers. Seeing the 0:08:36.400 --> 0:08:39.920 public interest in the Key Father hearings and the Confidential books, 0:08:40.200 --> 0:08:44.959 Harrison had a realization the American people craved this kind 0:08:45.000 --> 0:08:48.960 of content, the story behind the story, a glimpse into 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.920 the private lives of public figures and the dirty underbelly 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:59.520 of modern life. Thus Confidential Magazine was born. The first 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:03.640 issue of Confidential, which hit newsstands in September nineteen fifty two, 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.360 set the tone for what was to come. The cover, 0:09:07.559 --> 0:09:11.679 printed in lurid, eye catching blue, yellow and red, featured 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:15.840 giant headlines that leapt from the page. Photographs were grainy, 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:20.360 blown up, and unflattering, and like that of its namesake 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:25.360 book series, the magazine's content was sleazy, shocking, and bigoted. 0:09:26.320 --> 0:09:30.080 This type of magazine focused on expose's and gossip were 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:35.120 often called scandal magazines. Confidential wasn't the only scandal magazine 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:38.120 on the market, so Robert Harrison had to find a 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:43.280 way to set it apart plan a lie. If his 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:46.559 reporters couldn't find juicy enough stories, they could just make 0:09:46.640 --> 0:09:51.920 up better ones. Early issues of Confidential featured completely invented 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.520 tales of sex and crime, bolstered up by posed or 0:09:55.520 --> 0:10:00.560 composite photos. But even Bonker's creations like a mob barun 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:06.080 grave robbing ring couldn't boost the magazine's circulation. Harrison needed 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:10.720 a new angle. In the summer of nineteen fifty three, 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:15.200 he found it. In the August issue, Confidential ran an 0:10:15.320 --> 0:10:19.320 article about the relationship between Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:24.400 who were then dating. The piece, called why Joe DiMaggio 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:28.720 Is Striking out with Marilyn Monroe, alleged that Monroe's mentor, 0:10:29.200 --> 0:10:32.440 the seventy six year old co founder of twentieth Century Fox, 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.720 Joe Shank, was interfering in the relationship, either out of 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:40.679 concern for Monroe's career or because Shank was sleeping with 0:10:40.760 --> 0:10:44.880 Monroe himself. The magazine heavily implied it was the latter, 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:52.720 and Americans ate it up. Confidential circulation doubled overnight. Harrison 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.480 knew he was onto something. If people liked reading about 0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:00.160 the secret lives of mobsters, they loved reading about the 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.680 secret lives of movie stars. Throughout the rest of nineteen 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:08.439 fifty three and nineteen fifty four, Confidential increasingly focused its 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:12.680 coverage on Hollywood. We've got to have more Hollywood stories. 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:17.480 Harrison told his staff, the hotter, the better. A decade earlier, 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:20.880 it would have been impossible for a magazine like Confidential 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.560 to get the kind of Hollywood stories they wanted. For 0:11:24.640 --> 0:11:27.839 the first half of the twentieth century, Hollywood had been 0:11:27.880 --> 0:11:32.400 tightly managed by the movie studios. Studios controlled every step 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.160 of the film business, from production to distribution, and they 0:11:36.200 --> 0:11:39.600 controlled the lives and images of their contracted stars with 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.560 the same iron fist. The only way for journalists to 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.600 get access to stars was to play along with the 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.319 studios and to produce the kind of positive coverage they wanted. 0:11:51.320 --> 0:11:54.720 But by the nineteen fifties, the studio system was crumbling. 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.240 In nineteen forty eight, Supreme Court decision United States v. 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.920 Paramount Pay Pictures, Inc. Had ruled that the studios held 0:12:02.920 --> 0:12:07.240 an unfair monopoly. Studios were forced to give up control 0:12:07.280 --> 0:12:10.400 over many aspects of the business, dealing them a serious 0:12:10.440 --> 0:12:14.080 financial blow. At the same time, the rise of television 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:18.760 had decreased movie attendance. As the studios lost power, their 0:12:18.840 --> 0:12:22.040 threats to blackball journalists who didn't cover stars in the 0:12:22.200 --> 0:12:26.280 right way lost weight, and the stars who were used 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.680 to the studios covering up their bad behavior were suddenly 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:36.760 very exposed. The gossip cup was running over, and Confidential 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:42.000 was ready to catch every last drop. Harrison began coordinating 0:12:42.040 --> 0:12:46.240 a network of informants across Los Angeles. Everyone from sex 0:12:46.280 --> 0:12:50.360 workers to police officers to studio employees, and even movie 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:54.720 stars themselves soon learned that Confidential would pay well for 0:12:54.800 --> 0:13:00.400 good dirt. Confidential paid nannies to spy on employer's wressers 0:13:00.440 --> 0:13:03.960 to listen in on client conversations, and waiters to remember 0:13:04.040 --> 0:13:08.520 who wait with whom to get their stories. Confidential equipped 0:13:08.520 --> 0:13:12.040 its sources with all sorts of spy gadgets, including bugs 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:15.359 to tap phone lines and watches that held hidden recorders. 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:20.880 Harrison's niece, Marjorie Meade and her husband Fred eventually moved 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.480 to Los Angeles and established a company called Hollywood Research, Inc. 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:28.520 Which coordinated and organized the information coming in from tipsters. 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:33.439 Harrison had correctly gauged the public's interest in Hollywood Gossip. 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:38.000 By nineteen fifty five, the magazine's circulation was close to 0:13:38.240 --> 0:13:42.560 four million. Most copies were passed along to additional readers, 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:47.640 and estimated four readers per copy, putting Confidential's readership at 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:53.719 close to sixteen million people, or one in every ten Americans. 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:59.280 With that kind of audience came great power. Confidential stories 0:13:59.320 --> 0:14:03.320 could make or break a star's career. A March nineteen 0:14:03.400 --> 0:14:07.120 fifty five story about an alleged interracial romance between the 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.920 white actress Ava Gardner and the black singer dancer Sammy 0:14:11.000 --> 0:14:14.920 Davis Junior led to Gardner's films being boycotted and banned 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.160 in parts of the country. Two months later, a story 0:14:18.160 --> 0:14:21.600 about the actor Rory Calhoun's criminal past and how he 0:14:21.640 --> 0:14:24.960 had turned his life around thanks to religion earned Calhoun 0:14:25.160 --> 0:14:30.640 eight thousand fan letters and completely revitalized his career. As 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:36.360 Confidential's influence grew, the movie studios increasingly came to view 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:40.560 the magazine as a threat. The studios were more vulnerable 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:45.400 than ever. Their profits were down and their audiences were straying. 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:51.520 People also thought Hollywood was corrupting the country's morals. The 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:56.600 studios even faced a Senate inquiry into whether movies could 0:14:56.600 --> 0:15:01.120 be tied to a rise in juvenile delinquency. The last 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:05.200 thing Hollywood needed was a magazine digging up all of 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:10.160 the industry's buried bodies. In the mid nineteen fifties, the 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:15.400 studios decided to fight back and they were prepared to 0:15:15.600 --> 0:15:23.960 fight dirty. In the summer of nineteen fifty five, studio 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.960 publicity heads met in secret at the Beverly Hills Hotel 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:33.480 to discuss the Confidential problem. Shortly after the meeting, one 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.200 of the publicists traveled to New York to meet with 0:15:36.280 --> 0:15:40.840 Confidential editors. Wouldn't it be better for everyone, he asked 0:15:40.880 --> 0:15:45.200 the editors if the magazine focused on athletes, or politicians, 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:50.920 or really anyone besides Hollywood stars. Confidential editors laughed him 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:55.600 out of the office. This straightforward approach having failed, the 0:15:55.600 --> 0:16:00.680 publicists moved on to something more cloak and dagger. Enlisting 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:04.920 movie producers and an actress to help them, The publicists 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:10.040 cooked up an elaborate trap for Confidential. The team planted 0:16:10.120 --> 0:16:14.080 gossip about the actress, backing up their story with witnesses. 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:19.200 They made sure the story eventually got to Confidential via 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.359 a chain of tipsters. When Confidential sent a private investigator 0:16:23.400 --> 0:16:26.360 to look into the story, everything seemed to check out. 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:30.600 But had Confidential run it, they would have been vulnerable 0:16:30.720 --> 0:16:34.920 to an enormous libel suit because the story the publicists 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:40.280 had planted was entirely, verifiably false. At the last minute, 0:16:40.320 --> 0:16:44.680 though the magazine had doubts and killed the story. The 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:50.120 studios were foiled again. If they couldn't control Confidential, the 0:16:50.160 --> 0:16:53.960 studios decided maybe they could control the flow of information 0:16:54.120 --> 0:16:57.560 out of Hollywood. Each of the six largest studios agreed 0:16:57.600 --> 0:17:00.480 to contribute to a fund which would pay for private 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:05.200 security force to monitor star's behaviors and interfere with Confidential's 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:10.199 information gathering network. But the studios eventually balked, fearing that 0:17:10.240 --> 0:17:14.320 Confidential would discover their plans and attack. A plan to 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:19.040 blacklist anyone thought to be a Confidential informant was abandoned. 0:17:19.119 --> 0:17:24.720 For similar reasons, Celebrities, sick of having their dirty laundry 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.439 aired in the magazine's pages, wanted the studios to fight harder. 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:34.600 Many stars felt powerless on their own. They had the 0:17:34.720 --> 0:17:39.560 option to file libel suits against Confidential. Yes, but there 0:17:39.560 --> 0:17:43.800 were a number of reasons not to. First, a suit 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:47.000 could draw attention to the very thing that the stars 0:17:47.080 --> 0:17:51.160 hoped to keep hidden. Filing a suit would only give 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:56.040 Confidential the publicity they want, said Marlon Brando, and maybe 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.760 I'd get an award of eight cents. There was also 0:17:59.800 --> 0:18:03.359 the that a suit would provoke Confidential into spilling even 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.080 more information about the star. It was well known that 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.760 Confidential often published only parts of the stories they received 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.479 from tipsters, holding on to the most damaging titbits as 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:19.080 insurance against legal action. And finally, there was the problem 0:18:19.119 --> 0:18:24.440 of jurisdiction. Confidential was a New York based company. Most 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.639 of the stars it wrote about lived in California and 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:31.080 filed their rare libel suits against the magazine in that state, 0:18:31.760 --> 0:18:35.520 suits that judges quickly dismissed, saying that California did not 0:18:35.640 --> 0:18:39.440 have jurisdiction over a New York company. The New York 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:43.520 courts were notoriously backed up, and filing there might have 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.320 meant a year's long wait to be heard. As stars 0:18:48.359 --> 0:18:52.280 considered how best to deal with Confidential, the studios escalated 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:56.600 their battle to the federal level. In August nineteen fifty five, 0:18:56.840 --> 0:19:01.080 several studio heads reached out to Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield 0:19:01.119 --> 0:19:04.840 with a bold request. They wanted the Post Office to 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.840 revoke Confidential's mailing privileges. One movie producer was alleged to 0:19:09.880 --> 0:19:13.960 have told Summerfield, unless they take away Harrison's mailing privileges, 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:19.280 this industry is done. For Summerfield, who saw obscenity as 0:19:19.320 --> 0:19:22.399 one of the gravest threats to American society. Had his 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:26.800 own reasons for disliking Confidential. On August twenty seventh, he 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.680 issued a withhold from dispatch order on the November issue 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:35.360 of Confidential. Under the order's terms, no issue of Confidential 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.919 could be mailed without first being reviewed by the Post 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:43.680 Office and being found free of improper content. The determination 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.040 of whether content was or was not improper was entirely 0:19:48.200 --> 0:19:52.680 up to the Post Office. Harrison responded by filing suit 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:56.960 against Summerfield, and a judge eventually ruled in the magazine's favor, 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:00.360 saying that the Post Office was violating the magazine's right 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.800 to do process by threatening to ban it with no notices, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:08.800 charges or hearings. Confidential had won again. The fight with 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:12.000 the Post Office had even raised the magazine's profile and 0:20:12.119 --> 0:20:19.680 with that, its circulation. But a raised profile also brought 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.880 unwanted scrutiny. The studio executives were not alone in their 0:20:23.920 --> 0:20:28.159 concerns about Confidential. Segments of the American public were worried 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.720 about the effect scandal magazines might have on the nation's morals. 0:20:32.480 --> 0:20:36.040 To some, these magazines seem to represent everything wrong with 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:40.400 the country. As one Californian told the newspaper, quote, all 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.560 scandal magazines should be taken off the market. They are 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:47.040 a menace to society. They caring nothing but trash, and 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:51.680 that is no good for our youth. Scandal magazines weren't 0:20:51.720 --> 0:20:55.320 the only target for criticism. Many Americans worried about the 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:58.879 effect of any reading materials that freely discussed hot button 0:20:58.960 --> 0:21:03.640 topics like sex, violence, and race. Throughout the nineteen fifties, 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:07.920 many communities set up review boards which determined if publications 0:21:07.960 --> 0:21:12.200 were inappropriate. If they were found to be so, local distributors, 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:17.560 including booksellers, newsstands, and libraries were strongly encouraged not to 0:21:17.560 --> 0:21:21.000 carry these items under the vague threat of legal action. 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:25.800 What about freedom of the press, you might ask. Here's 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:30.520 one magazine writing on that very question in nineteen fifty seven. Quote, 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.440 the framers of the Constitution never meant the First Amendment 0:21:34.520 --> 0:21:39.160 to protect filth peddlers who poisoned minds. And this magazine 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.480 wasn't the only one to take this position. Many journalists 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.280 and publications believed that scandal magazines like Confidential were not 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.240 entitled to the same legal protections as more traditional publications. 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:54.200 They feared that aligning themselves with scandal magazines could end 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:59.440 up damaging their own rights. Back in Hollywood, the studios 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.320 sent that the tide of public opinion might be turning 0:22:03.359 --> 0:22:09.360 their way. In October nineteen fifty six, when Harrison appeared 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:13.080 on The Tonight Show to defend Scandal Magazine's the audience 0:22:13.320 --> 0:22:16.919 booed him it was time for the studios to strike. 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:23.840 In December nineteen fifty six, MGM released Slander, a movie 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:29.600 about an unscrupulous scandal magazine publisher unfairly ruining the life 0:22:29.680 --> 0:22:34.520 of a well meaning actor. The movie was melodramatic, it 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:37.520 ends with the publisher's mother killing him, disgusted by what 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:40.840 her son has become, and flopped at the box office, 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:45.520 but its heavy handed message did not go unnoticed. Slander 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.960 quote reeks with the motion picture industry's long pent up 0:22:50.080 --> 0:22:56.040 sense of vengeance, wrote Texas's Amarillo Globe. Harrison responded in 0:22:56.119 --> 0:23:01.199 a typically cheeky fashion, hiring models to picket the movie 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:06.639 outside a Broadway theater holding signs that read Slander is 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:12.280 unfair to Confidential. But the studios weren't done there, though 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:15.160 their attempt to get Confidential through the post office had failed, 0:23:15.920 --> 0:23:21.000 they now recognized the power of governmental attacks on the magazine. 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:24.959 In January nineteen fifty seven, the California State Senate formed 0:23:24.960 --> 0:23:28.200 a committee to investigate the practices of private detectives in 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:31.960 the state. Or at least that was the committee's alleged purpose. 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:35.480 In reality, the committee had been formed at the behest 0:23:35.520 --> 0:23:38.800 of the studios and planned to look into how Confidential 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.399 got its stories. This was the committee mentioned in the 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.520 prologue that looked into the wrong door raid at Florence 0:23:46.600 --> 0:23:52.080 Cott's apartment. The committee's investigation eventually fizzled out in March, 0:23:52.440 --> 0:23:56.119 with lead Senator Fred Kraft declaring that though the magazines 0:23:56.160 --> 0:23:59.760 were a quote national disgrace, the field is beyond this 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:03.440 scope of a single state legislature. But the state's war 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:08.200 on Confidential was far from over. California Attorney General Pat 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:11.400 Brown announced that his office, in tandem with the Los 0:24:11.400 --> 0:24:15.959 Angeles County District Attorney, would now be pursuing charges against Confidential. 0:24:16.960 --> 0:24:19.919 Brown said his decision was motivated by a desire to 0:24:20.000 --> 0:24:24.200 protect children from the magazine. He also claimed that Confidential 0:24:24.320 --> 0:24:28.359 Quote caused divorces and broken homes and led to blackmail, 0:24:29.200 --> 0:24:32.960 but behind the scenes, the studios were again pulling the strings. 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:36.399 Brown was pursuing a run for governor, and the film 0:24:36.480 --> 0:24:38.440 industry had made it clear to him that they would 0:24:38.480 --> 0:24:42.600 look favorably upon a candidate who supported their crusade against Confidential. 0:24:43.640 --> 0:24:47.159 In May nineteen fifty seven, Brown and Los Angeles County 0:24:47.160 --> 0:24:50.600 District Attorney William McKesson convened a grand jury to look 0:24:50.640 --> 0:24:55.560 into Confidential. On May fifteenth, the grand jury indicted Confidential 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.359 members of its staff, its printer and distributor, and its 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:04.320 sister Magaze Whisper on four charges, including conspiracy to commit 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:09.040 criminal libel and conspiracy to publish obscene and indecent material. 0:25:10.000 --> 0:25:14.280 Robert Harrison addressed the charges directly in an editorial and Confidential, 0:25:14.920 --> 0:25:19.040 this magazine is under assault in the California courts. Harrison wrote, 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:22.520 this is a determined effort initiated by a segment of 0:25:22.560 --> 0:25:27.399 the motion picture industry to get this magazine. He positioned 0:25:27.440 --> 0:25:33.120 the Confidential as a brave truth teller, a publication unafraid 0:25:33.240 --> 0:25:37.160 to reveal to the American people what the elite did 0:25:37.200 --> 0:25:41.000 not want them to know. Is an American jury going 0:25:41.080 --> 0:25:46.200 to get us for daring to tell that truth? Harrison asked, 0:25:46.800 --> 0:25:51.560 we don't believe so his assumptions would soon be put 0:25:51.640 --> 0:26:00.440 to the test. Confidential's trial was scheduled to begin in August. 0:26:01.200 --> 0:26:04.640 It almost ended before it started, though, because it seemed 0:26:04.720 --> 0:26:07.240 that both sides had lost their appetite for the fight. 0:26:08.800 --> 0:26:13.240 Throughout the summer, Harrison's lawyers had been issuing subpoenas for celebrities. 0:26:13.840 --> 0:26:17.120 Most stars had managed to avoid the summons, flipping out 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:21.000 of back entrances, heading to Las Vegas, even leaving the country, 0:26:21.480 --> 0:26:26.040 but some hadn't. Dean Martin, Launa Turner, and Gary Cooper 0:26:26.080 --> 0:26:31.240 were among those who had received subpoenas. Studio executives panicked. 0:26:31.760 --> 0:26:34.160 The last thing they wanted was for their biggest box 0:26:34.200 --> 0:26:37.320 office draws to have to confirm or deny their sins 0:26:37.440 --> 0:26:42.119 under oath. Arthur Crowley, the high powered Los Angeles lawyer 0:26:42.200 --> 0:26:45.840 running the defense, knew just what he was doing. I 0:26:45.960 --> 0:26:48.320 want to make it clear that the reputations of many 0:26:48.400 --> 0:26:51.560 persons will suffer if this case goes to trial, because 0:26:51.600 --> 0:26:53.960 we are going to offer the truth as a defense, 0:26:54.040 --> 0:26:59.240 he stated. Studio executives heard Crowley's message loud and clear, 0:26:59.760 --> 0:27:02.199 and they started to have second thoughts about the trial. 0:27:03.400 --> 0:27:07.040 George Murphy head of the Motion Picture Industry Council, approached 0:27:07.040 --> 0:27:10.639 the prosecutors and urged them to reach a compromise. The 0:27:10.680 --> 0:27:14.320 defense was receptive. Harrison knew that this trial, no matter 0:27:14.359 --> 0:27:18.560 the outcome, would be enormously expensive, so the two sides 0:27:18.600 --> 0:27:22.640 came to an agreement. Confidential would stop focusing on celebrities 0:27:22.920 --> 0:27:25.159 in exchange for some of the charges being decided by 0:27:25.160 --> 0:27:29.119 a judge and others being dropped. But Judge Herbert Walker 0:27:29.200 --> 0:27:32.760 rejected the deal. The state had brought charges for good reason, 0:27:32.800 --> 0:27:36.159 he said, and this compromise didn't do enough to address 0:27:36.200 --> 0:27:42.600 those charges. The trial would proceed. Stars and Confidential executives 0:27:42.640 --> 0:27:46.439 alike held their breath. No matter who won the case, 0:27:46.840 --> 0:27:57.000 everyone knew scandal was sure to ensue. On August second, 0:27:57.240 --> 0:28:00.720 nineteen fifty seven, the trial began at the Los Angeles 0:28:00.840 --> 0:28:06.359 Superior Court. Robert Harrison wasn't there. In fact, only two 0:28:06.480 --> 0:28:09.439 of the people charged and the grand jury indictment were present. 0:28:10.160 --> 0:28:13.639 All summer, Confidential's lawyers had been battling to prevent the 0:28:13.680 --> 0:28:17.159 extradition of their clients from New York, and they had succeeded. 0:28:17.840 --> 0:28:20.600 The face of Confidential at the defense table would not 0:28:20.680 --> 0:28:24.720 be its infamous publisher Harrison, but his niece Marjorie Need 0:28:25.119 --> 0:28:29.520 and her husband Fred. Marjorie and Fred had flown back 0:28:29.560 --> 0:28:34.000 into Los Angeles in May to surrender, and Marjorie, decked 0:28:34.040 --> 0:28:38.760 out in furs and diamonds, had asked reporters, then, don't 0:28:38.760 --> 0:28:41.200 you think this whole thing has a little to do 0:28:41.320 --> 0:28:45.600 with destruction of freedom of the press? Now she sat 0:28:45.720 --> 0:28:49.520 quietly in the courtroom, her dyed red curls and large eyes, 0:28:49.640 --> 0:28:54.840 drawing admiring looks. The prosecutors, William Ritzy and Clarence Lynne, 0:28:55.200 --> 0:28:59.479 presented quite a contrast to the glamorous Meads. Ritzy, a 0:28:59.480 --> 0:29:03.920 Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, and Lynn, an Assistant Attorney General, 0:29:04.320 --> 0:29:08.440 were both serious religious men. Lynn taught Sunday school back 0:29:08.480 --> 0:29:11.440 home in San Francisco, and they weren't letting the spotlight 0:29:11.520 --> 0:29:15.240 dazzle them. Though the trial had largely come about due 0:29:15.240 --> 0:29:18.880 to political pressure, Ritzy and Lynn were confident that the 0:29:18.960 --> 0:29:22.560 law was on their side. One of their first jobs 0:29:22.760 --> 0:29:26.480 was making the connection between the meds and confidential clear, 0:29:27.080 --> 0:29:31.400 given that the Meads were the only defendants present. That 0:29:31.480 --> 0:29:36.080 connection came, the prosecutors claimed, through a company called Hollywood Research, 0:29:37.160 --> 0:29:40.320