Speaker 1: This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
Speaker 1: not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, Harvey Weinstein was outed as a serial
Speaker 2: sexual abuser. Many brave women came forward and told their stories.
Speaker 2: They exposed one of Hollywood's most powerful mobiles as a
Speaker 2: vicious sexual predator who operated horrifically and seemingly without consequences.
Speaker 2: But Weinstein was standing on the shoulders of monsters. For
Speaker 2: so many years, those monsters remained unchecked in Hollywood, shielded
Speaker 2: by the millions of dollars they made for their studios.
Speaker 2: Sex for fame is not new. In fact, it's as
Speaker 2: old as Hollywood itself. This is Variety Confidential, the secret
Speaker 2: history of the casting couch. Today's episode is the Beast.
Speaker 2: Alexander Pantages will go back nearly one hundred years ago
Speaker 2: in the variety of archives to tell what one might
Speaker 2: call the origin of Me Too, about an early Hollywood
Speaker 2: mogul named Alexander Pantages. He loomed large over the entertainment
Speaker 2: scene of the nineteen twenties and thirties in ways later
Speaker 2: emulated by hit makers slash sexual predators such as Don Simpson,
Speaker 2: Harvey Weinstein and so many others Pantages used his money
Speaker 2: and power to behave horrifically. He successfully escaped justice thanks
Speaker 2: to an attorney who set the pace for lawyers made
Speaker 2: rich by clients who regularly abused vulnerable young men and
Speaker 2: women who were drawn to Hollywood by its promise of
Speaker 2: riches and fame. This season, we look at the secret
Speaker 2: history of the casting couch. Episode one, The Beast from
Speaker 2: Variety in iHeart Podcasts. I'm Tracy Patton. Sitting next to
Speaker 2: me is Matt Donnelly, Variety's senior Entertainment and media writer. Hi, Matt, Hi,
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for having me. It's great to have
Speaker 2: you here. So today we're focused on what we're calling
Speaker 2: character assassination. It's a frequently used tactic used against me
Speaker 2: too accusers in Hollywood, also known as victim shaming. Harvey
Speaker 2: Weinstein was an expert at this absolutely.
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, time will prove that this
Speaker 3: is what Harvey really excelled at as opposed to making
Speaker 3: in marketing films. And he also took it to such
Speaker 3: an incredible extreme. You know, Harvey, as Ron and Pharaoh
Speaker 3: deeply reported employed x maussade agents to stalk victims tap
Speaker 3: phones and also really work the press to inspire as
Speaker 3: much doubt as he could in his accusers.
Speaker 2: And of course Harvey Weinstein wasn't the only accused abuser
Speaker 2: who used this tactic. Who were some of the others, Matt.
Speaker 3: I mean, this practice is sort of as old as
Speaker 3: the town itself. But if you know, some of the
Speaker 3: things that we've been looking at recently at Variety include
Speaker 3: the incredibly distressing allegations against Sean Combs better known as
Speaker 3: Diddy or puff Daddy, And even if you go back
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago to the scandal at Warner
Speaker 3: Brothers involving an actress named Charlotte Kirk that ensnared the
Speaker 3: head of the studio, Kevin shu Jahara, and especially I
Speaker 3: think in terms of that case, really dissecting a woman's
Speaker 3: social media, how she positions herself in the world. It's
Speaker 3: quite disturbing, but it's quite a frequent practice.
Speaker 2: Well, using the media to smear an accuser is not new.
Speaker 2: A lot of people don't know this, but for much
Speaker 2: of the last century, a victim's sexual history was allowed
Speaker 2: as evidence a trial. It became legally admissible after a
Speaker 2: state Supreme Court ruling in nineteen thirty one.
Speaker 3: It's actually stunning how many actresses and models have been
Speaker 3: subject to this practice. And it's something that started one hundred.
Speaker 2: Years ago, Yes, and it was pioneered in the case
Speaker 2: we're talking about today, which brings us back to Alexander Pantages.
Speaker 2: The case before the court was the trial of a
Speaker 2: Hollywood theatrical producer who was accused of statutory rape. His
Speaker 2: accuser was a seventeen year old dancer who wore a
Speaker 2: red dress to an audition, making her look older than
Speaker 2: she was. The court ruled that her sexual history was
Speaker 2: fair game at trial. That ruling negatively impacted women's lives nationwide.
Speaker 2: This was the first case that made this well known,
Speaker 2: and it happened right here in Hollywood. So here's what happened.
Speaker 2: The California Supreme Court ruling in nineteen thirty one was
Speaker 2: the result of a high powered, well funded effort to
Speaker 2: protect one of Hollywood's biggest names. Had it failed, that
Speaker 2: man would have spent the rest of his life in prison.
Speaker 2: His name was Alexander Pantages. Before the Roaring twenties, he
Speaker 2: had created a circuit of vaudeville theaters that numbered almost
Speaker 2: one hundred. He booked vaudeville acts that played between film screenings,
Speaker 2: a format Variety dubbed vaud film. The live acts included
Speaker 2: family entertainment along with what Variety called cheap girl flash acts.
Speaker 2: He was a very powerful guy. He was also famous
Speaker 2: for something else, his romances. It became clear to Alexander
Speaker 2: Pantages that movies would replace vaudeville sooner or later. Talkies
Speaker 2: were in transition. His theaters catered to both. Alex had
Speaker 2: money and he was decently handsome. The affairs came easily,
Speaker 2: but they also got him into trouble. You could often
Speaker 2: see alex with women in dark corners of speakeasies. His wife,
Speaker 2: Lois was nowhere to be seen. One affair went public
Speaker 2: after a bloody fight over a dancer. His arrest made
Speaker 2: the front page of the Los Angeles Times, and it
Speaker 2: was a woman, or actually a teenage girl, who led
Speaker 2: to his ultimate undoing. On August ninth, nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 2: he was charged with assaulting a seventeen year old dancer
Speaker 2: named Eunice Pringle. Eunice Pringle studied dance and took acting
Speaker 2: classes in high school. She attended the University of southern
Speaker 2: California for a year, but dropped out to pursue a
Speaker 2: career as a dancer. In early nineteen twenty nine, she
Speaker 2: met a Russian writer and actor named Nicholas Dunyeev. He
Speaker 2: was dark, handsome, and forty five years old. It was
Speaker 2: Dunieev who set up an audition with Pantages Vaudeville. Axe
Speaker 2: earned between one hundred and two hundred dollars a week
Speaker 2: that's about twenty five hundred dollars today. Despite her years
Speaker 2: of preparation in weeks of rehearsal, the audition on May one,
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine did not go well. Instead of moving
Speaker 2: on to the next audition, Eunice and Nick persisted in
Speaker 2: trying to get Alex to hire them, and this is
Speaker 2: where things got strange. Over the spring and summer of
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty nine, Unis tried to get in touch with
Speaker 2: Alex Pantages at least twelve times that's once a week
Speaker 2: for three months. Eventually, Alex offered Unice a one time
Speaker 2: booking at his theater in Fresno. He also offered her
Speaker 2: a gig and a review, but she said no. Finally,
Speaker 2: he simply gave her the brush off, but she ignored it.
Speaker 2: Late in the afternoon of August ninth, nineteen twenty nine,
Speaker 2: Eunice Pringle went to see Alex for what would be
Speaker 2: the last time. She wore a red crape dress with
Speaker 2: a short red velvet jacket. She was shown up to
Speaker 2: the second floor and the waiting area outside Alex's large
Speaker 2: corner office. He was busy and invited her to watch
Speaker 2: a movie in the theater downstairs while she waited. She
Speaker 2: went down to the mezzanine, slipped in through the balcony entrance,
Speaker 2: and found a seat in the theatre's top row. She
Speaker 2: waded through the entire last half of Melody Lane, Universal
Speaker 2: Studio's first movie musical. Alex eventually found her and escorted
Speaker 2: her back to the mezzanine, up a short flight of stairs,
Speaker 2: and into a utility room which was secluded from both
Speaker 2: the theater below and the offices upstairs. After a few
Speaker 2: minutes in the room alone with Alex, Eunice swung the
Speaker 2: door open and started a scream. Men from Pantage's office
Speaker 2: rushed downstairs to the mezzanine room. She pushed past them,
Speaker 2: fled down the stairs, through the theater lobby and out
Speaker 2: to Hill Street. She returned within minutes with a policeman
Speaker 2: a traffic cop in tow. They went to the small room,
Speaker 2: but Alex was gone. She knew where to find him.
Speaker 2: She led the policeman upstairs to Alex's corner office. There
Speaker 2: he is, she said, the beast, the brute. Don't let
Speaker 2: him get away. Because she was under age, Eunice was
Speaker 2: taken to juvenile hall. A female officer found bitemarks and
Speaker 2: abrasions on her neck and upper torso. Afterward, a staff
Speaker 2: doctor performed a thorough medical examination. Later, Eunice, accompanied by
Speaker 2: her mother, gave her statement to detectives. Variety reported what
Speaker 2: she said in a story titled A Very Nasty Mess.
Speaker 2: Quoting here, she stated she had been promised work by
Speaker 2: Alexander Pantagas for almost a year and had frequently visited
Speaker 2: his office. She alleges Pantagus told her to wait for
Speaker 2: him in the theater. Upon his return, she claims he
Speaker 2: invited her into a small room and closed the door.
Speaker 2: She told police Pantagus started edging toward her, and when
Speaker 2: she protested, he suddenly struck her. Then, she said, she
Speaker 2: started a scream. Pantagus put his hand over her mouth
Speaker 2: and she fainted. She didn't remember what happened next. After
Speaker 2: his arrest, Pantages was taken in handcuffs to the Central
Speaker 2: Police station. He was interrogated for five hours. Alex told
Speaker 2: the detectives that after declining to book unics, he offered
Speaker 2: to help her find gigs in minor vaudeville houses up north.
Speaker 2: According to Variety, he claimed he was framed. The girl
Speaker 2: was the aggressor. She ripped her dress, dropped to the
Speaker 2: floor and started a scream. He said it was an
Speaker 2: extortion scheme. He could book her act and pay her handsomely,
Speaker 2: or she'd accuse him of rape. The detectives didn't buy it.
Speaker 2: They booked him on suspicion of statutory rape. Alex had
Speaker 2: his mugshots and fingerprints taken. He spent hours in a
Speaker 2: cell waiting for his lawyer to bail them out, but
Speaker 2: no such luck. Alexander Pantages, theoter magnate and Hollywood power player,
Speaker 2: spent the night in jail. While he was behind bars,
Speaker 2: his life was turned upside down. News of his arrest
Speaker 2: went out over the wire services. The scandal blew up
Speaker 2: nationwide overnight. He was famously no friend of the press,
Speaker 2: especially the trades. He despised their negative stories about his
Speaker 2: business practices. Variety's nickname for him was synonymous with a
Speaker 2: bad review. Pan.
Speaker 3: That's an incredible nickname.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: It's my experience in doing these kinds of stories of
Speaker 3: Variety that when anytime an accused mogul wants to call
Speaker 3: his coverage negative, he should probably change his own actions for.
Speaker 2: Well. Meanwhile, with help from Nick Duniev's lawyer friend Theodore Gottstanker,
Speaker 2: Unus sued Alex for five hundred thousand dollars about seven
Speaker 2: and a half million dollars today. If he was found
Speaker 2: guilty of statutory rape, he would probably die in jail.
Speaker 2: Alex's trial began on October third, nineteen twenty nine, two
Speaker 2: months after he was arrested. He was accompanied to court
Speaker 2: by his daughter and two sons. The courtroom gallery was
Speaker 2: filled to capacity, including in the front rows about a
Speaker 2: dozen newspaper men. The press was out for blood, and
Speaker 2: so was the prosecution. Before the proceedings got underway, the
Speaker 2: prosecution petitioned the court to prevent testimony about Unice's sexual history.
Speaker 2: After a lengthy debate, the judge ruled Unice's sexual experience
Speaker 2: was inadmissible. It shouldn't have been a close call. The
Speaker 2: charge was statutory rape. The prosecution needed to prove just
Speaker 2: two things, one that Unice was under age and two
Speaker 2: that Pantages had sexual contact with her. If both were true,
Speaker 2: he was guilty. Her sexual history was irrelevant. It was
Speaker 2: that simple, or it should have been. In District Attorney
Speaker 2: breen Fitz's opening statement, he depicted Eunice Pringle as a
Speaker 2: young and innocent girl. Alex Pantages, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: was a millionaire theater owner old enough to be her father.
Speaker 2: He had led her on by falsely promising he would
Speaker 2: book her act. He then lured her to a secluded
Speaker 2: room in his office building, where he quote attacked and
Speaker 2: debauched her. The defense opened by claiming that Eunice had
Speaker 2: ensnared Alex in an extortion scheme. The attorney zeroed in
Speaker 2: on Nick Dunyev after dropping Yunis off at the Pantages
Speaker 2: building on August ninth. Daniev had waited nearby at the
Speaker 2: law offices of Theodore Gotstanker, the same mister Gottstanker who
Speaker 2: filed the lawsuit against Pantages the next day. The lawsuit
Speaker 2: was part of the scheme. The attorney said. Unus staged
Speaker 2: the so called assault with Duniev as an accomplice. It
Speaker 2: was an attempt to frame Pantages and force him to
Speaker 2: pay them five hundred thousand dollars. In the afternoon, the
Speaker 2: jury traveled six blocks south to the former Pantagous building.
Speaker 2: It had been recently sold to Warner Brothers. They were
Speaker 2: taken to the scene of the crime, the odd little
Speaker 2: room off the mezzanine. The purpose of the tour was
Speaker 2: to set the stage for us. Unus's testimony the next day.
Speaker 2: She took the stand that morning dressed like a schoolgirl.
Speaker 2: Because of the high profile of the case, Beeron Fitz,
Speaker 2: the district attorney, questioned Unus himself. Fitz was a minor
Speaker 2: political celebrity in California, a former lieutenant governor who liked
Speaker 2: prosecuting the rich and famous. After preliminary questioning, Fitz asked
Speaker 2: Unus to take the jury through what happened in the
Speaker 2: mezzanine room on that August afternoon. We spoke of the
Speaker 2: hot weather, she said, and then of my act. And
Speaker 2: then I slipped off my little red coat. He took
Speaker 2: off his coat after asking if I objected. We were
Speaker 2: both seated, and he pulled his chair over and took
Speaker 2: my hand. Then he slid his arm along the back
Speaker 2: of my chair and along my shoulder. He said he
Speaker 2: wished I would be his sweetheart. He went on and
Speaker 2: on and said that he was crazy about me. He
Speaker 2: told me that he hated his wife. He would give
Speaker 2: me anything I wanted. I told him I was not interested,
Speaker 2: and I wished he would please be a gentleman. In
Speaker 2: American Zeus, author Tasso g. Lagos wrote about how Pantages
Speaker 2: pulled her to him and rose to his feet. Eunus said,
Speaker 2: trying to kiss her. She turned her head. He struck
Speaker 2: her on the chin. She recoiled and tried to get away.
Speaker 2: He pulled her to the floor and pinned her down,
Speaker 2: all the while whispering seductively. She begged him to let
Speaker 2: her go. When he wouldn't, she tried to scream. He
Speaker 2: clapped his hand on her mouth to stifle her. He
Speaker 2: kissed her throat. The kisses turned to bites. Da Fits
Speaker 2: asked Eunus to show where Pantages bit her. She touched
Speaker 2: her left breast and then her left shoulder, but stopped
Speaker 2: in mid gesture. She couldn't go on. She began to cry.
Speaker 2: Unus composed herself. She'd fainted, she said. When she came to,
Speaker 2: they were on the floor. His pants were on buttoned,
Speaker 2: her dress was ripped. Eunice pushed him off and staggered
Speaker 2: to her feet. She noticed a spot on her dress,
Speaker 2: a dark, wet stain. She opened the door and started
Speaker 2: to scream. In the afternoon, Unice was cross examined by
Speaker 2: Pantaga's lead attorney, Jerry Geesler. The Pantagous trial was his
Speaker 2: first big case, but he will become one of Hollywood's
Speaker 2: most successful fixers. Decades before private investigator Anthony Pellicano went
Speaker 2: to prison for helping top Hollywood attorney's fix problems, Geesler
Speaker 2: practically invented the practice. Over the years, his client list
Speaker 2: would include Marilyn Monroe, Lana Turner, Charlie Chaplin, Benjamin Bugsy,
Speaker 2: siegeal Errol Flynn, and many others. But it was this case,
Speaker 2: the Pantage's rape trial, that put him on the map.
Speaker 3: You know, the archetype of the Hollywood fixer is very
Speaker 3: fascinating to me, and I think everyone at variety. It's
Speaker 3: a certain set of skills, and God knows people like
Speaker 3: Maril Monroe had problems that needed to be fixed. But
Speaker 3: I'm very curious to see how he implemented his practices
Speaker 3: and especially in terms of this case.
Speaker 2: Well true to form. Geesler focused the jury on Unus's clothing.
Speaker 2: He asked the judge to make Unus change into the
Speaker 2: red dress she wore on August ninth. The prosecution objected,
Speaker 2: but the judge agreed to it. He called a recess
Speaker 2: while she changed clothes. When she returned to the witness stand,
Speaker 2: she was wearing the red dress, velvet jacket, and red pumps.
Speaker 2: Geesler asked her to model her outfit for the jury.
Speaker 2: After another heated debate, the judge allowed that too. Unus
Speaker 2: stepped down and made a simple pass in front of
Speaker 2: the jury box. Geesler asked her to remove the jacket.
Speaker 2: She slipped it off, revealing the form fitting, sleeveless dress
Speaker 2: that accentuated her cleavage. Geesler had made his point. Decades
Speaker 2: of day faming and blaming the victims of sexual assault
Speaker 2: essentially began here.
Speaker 3: It's so interesting, how you know someone like Gesler is
Speaker 3: using the principles of show business to sway a jury right,
Speaker 3: Like it's literally trotting someone out and doing this sort
Speaker 3: of seduction in a way. But what I can't help
Speaker 3: thinking of is what you mentioned earlier about what the
Speaker 3: defense had said, is that the only two things that
Speaker 3: mattered were was Unus underage and did he have sexual
Speaker 3: contact with her? But here we are with this, like
Speaker 3: you know, this ridiculous circus in the court.
Speaker 2: Room, Geesler questioned her about her training as an actor,
Speaker 2: implying that her emotional breakdown earlier had been a performance.
Speaker 2: He also challenged her on the mechanics of the attack.
Speaker 2: How could Pantages hold your mouth shut with his right hand,
Speaker 2: pin down both your arms, and then somehow remove your
Speaker 2: underclothes and unfasten his pants. Why didn't you fight him off?
Speaker 2: When it was over, Eunice left the stand shaken and unsteady.
Speaker 2: The final prosecution witness was the forensic guy who'd analyzed
Speaker 2: the stain on Unus's dress. His answer was unprintable in
Speaker 2: those days, presumably it was semen. After he stepped down,
Speaker 2: the prosecution rested as its first witness. The defense called
Speaker 2: the defendant, Alex Pantages. He complained that Eunice's visits that
Speaker 2: summer were annoying. When they sat down in the mezziting
Speaker 2: room the day of the attack, he claimed she surprised
Speaker 2: him by grabbing his tie and pulling him toward her.
Speaker 2: He tried to get away. They struggled and ended up
Speaker 2: on the floor. She screamed and started ripping her clothes.
Speaker 2: He shoved her off, then claims that she ran off
Speaker 2: down to the lobby. During the cross examination, Alex shut
Speaker 2: down under the DA's unfriendly grilling. He answered questions with
Speaker 2: a stubborn yes or no. On October twenty sixth, the
Speaker 2: jury announced its verdict to a packed courtroom. Guilty as charged,
Speaker 2: Alex was sentenced the next day to fifty years in
Speaker 2: stea Quentin. He was in his fifties, so this was
Speaker 2: a life sentence. Two days after the verdict, the stock
Speaker 2: market crash, setting the stage for the Great Depression. The
Speaker 2: crash prompted one of Variety's most famous headlines, Wall Street
Speaker 2: Lays and Egg. Meanwhile, Jerry Giesler's team completed the appeal
Speaker 2: of Alex's conviction. The brief was twelve hundred pages and
Speaker 2: focused on the judge's banning testimony about Eunice Pringle's sexual history.
Speaker 2: While the appeal was in the works, Pantages was held
Speaker 2: in County Jail. Out of the Blue, Alex was granted
Speaker 2: parole on one hundred thousand dollars bond, but trouble found
Speaker 2: him again. On October thirtieth, on a business trip to
Speaker 2: San Diego, a couple of his colleagues were partying at
Speaker 2: the El Cortes Hotel. They also hired a couple of
Speaker 2: girls from Hollywood to liven things up. Supposedly, these girls
Speaker 2: were underage again. Four months later, on March tenth, in
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty one, Alex and his wife Lois crossed the
Speaker 2: border for a little r and r at the Agua
Speaker 2: Caliente Hotel south of Tijuana. But then Alex's lawyer showed
Speaker 2: up unexpectedly with some bad news. The San Diego District
Speaker 2: Attorney planned to arrest Alex within twenty four hours. The
Speaker 2: charge was contributing to the delinquency of a minor, along
Speaker 2: with a related conspiracy charge. The accusers were the girls
Speaker 2: he partied with in October. One of them, Lydia Nitto,
Speaker 2: was sixteen years old. Alex admitted to the partying, but
Speaker 2: said he didn't touch Lydia Nitto. Or anyone else. He
Speaker 2: claimed he was being framed again in an attempt to
Speaker 2: ruin his chances for a retrial. In the Pringle case,
Speaker 2: the girls had been procured from a trafficking operation called
Speaker 2: a lovemart. Its specialty was providing underage girls for wealthy men.
Speaker 2: When the love Mart's supply of girls was low, police
Speaker 2: said they kidnapped girls from orphanages. Because of this, the
Speaker 2: press dubbed Alex's new scandal the love Mark Case. Alex's
Speaker 2: life took another upswing a few weeks later, on April second,
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty one, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor
Speaker 2: of his appeal. The court agreed with Jerry Geesler that
Speaker 2: Eunice's quote previous acts of unchastity should have been presented.
Speaker 2: They became relevant, the justices said, because the prosecution made
Speaker 2: her virginity an issue. The court ordered a retrial on
Speaker 2: the Pringle charges. In a statement to the press, Geesler
Speaker 2: predicted that the reversal would quote establish precedent and authority
Speaker 2: not only in California but throughout the nation. He got
Speaker 2: that right. The ruling would set back rape victims' rights
Speaker 2: for decades. In early June nineteen thirty one, the pantageous
Speaker 2: love Mark case went to trial in San Diego. Prosecution's
Speaker 2: first witness was Lydia Nitto, Alex's accuser. She gave a
Speaker 2: tearful account of an orgy at the El Cortes in October,
Speaker 2: but under cross examination by Jerry Giesler, Geiesler produced an
Speaker 2: affidavid proving that she was born in nineteen oh eight.
Speaker 2: She was twenty two at the time of the lovemart orgy,
Speaker 2: not sixteen. The judge dismissed the statutory rape charge, but
Speaker 2: let stand the conspiracy to corrupt charge related to the
Speaker 2: other girl. Testimony continued for two more weeks. The jury
Speaker 2: deliberated for two days but then deadlocked. A retrial was scheduled,
Speaker 2: but it never happened. Alex Pantages had dodged a second
Speaker 2: life in prison verdict. The retrial in the Pringle case
Speaker 2: began in the late fall. Because of the Supreme Court ruling,
Speaker 2: the defense was free to flip the tables and put
Speaker 2: Eunice on trial. They did it with the testimony of
Speaker 2: new witnesses. The most important new witness was the physician
Speaker 2: who examined Unis on August ninth, According to the La Times,
Speaker 2: the doctor quote expressed disbelief in miss Pringle's account of
Speaker 2: her life prior to this time. In other words, the
Speaker 2: doctor found that Unice had been sexually active before the incident.
Speaker 2: She was not a virgin. The jury deliberated for sixty
Speaker 2: four hours. Their verdict reversed the previous jury not guilty. Later,
Speaker 2: Uni spoke to reporters. The verdict shows the value the
Speaker 2: state of California places on its girls, she said. It
Speaker 2: shows me that a person who gave the best ten
Speaker 2: years of her life fighting for justice is lost. It
Speaker 2: convinces me that the state will not protect its women.
Speaker 3: I can't get over how profound that statement is and
Speaker 3: how so relevant it is today and even sort of prophetic.
Speaker 3: What an incredible woman who, unfortunately I deciphered through all this.
Speaker 2: After the second trial, Eunice Pringle settled her one point
Speaker 2: five five million dollar lawsuits against pantages for three thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: She changed her name and her career. She married well
Speaker 2: and moved to La Jolla, an upscale seaside suburb of
Speaker 2: San Diego. Known there as Tony Worthington. She lived out
Speaker 2: her life in comfortable obscurity, She died in nineteen ninety
Speaker 2: six at the age of eighty four. The scandal did
Speaker 2: not bankrupt Alex Pantages. He had millions in the bank
Speaker 2: and millions more from the sale of his theaters. He
Speaker 2: announced plans to build new theaters in November nineteen thirty five,
Speaker 2: but it was not to be. He died in his
Speaker 2: sleep on February seventeenth, nineteen thirty six. He left a
Speaker 2: lasting legacy. However, his last theater, the Hollywood Pantages, is
Speaker 2: still in business and remains one of the premier theatrical
Speaker 2: venues in the country. The Pantagous trials have a legacy too.
Speaker 2: Jerry Geiesler's prediction came true. The California Supreme Court ruling
Speaker 2: became a p nationwide. Defense attorneys used it to put
Speaker 2: their client's accusers on trial. Over time, courts ruled that
Speaker 2: certain behaviors could undercut a victim's accusation of rape. A
Speaker 2: rapist might go free if his accuser was known to
Speaker 2: dress provocatively, own condoms, or travel alone at night, or
Speaker 2: even if she drank, smoked, or used drugs. Eventually, however,
Speaker 2: there was a bright light. Congress passed the Violence Against
Speaker 2: Women Act in nineteen ninety four. The Act included a
Speaker 2: National Rape Shield Law, a provision that reversed the pantagious
Speaker 2: Precedent ruling six decades earlier. Today, the Shield law remains
Speaker 2: an important legal tool in the search for justice in
Speaker 2: the era of Me Too. Given all this background, has
Speaker 2: the Me Too movement had an effect on the tactic
Speaker 2: of victim shaming and media smear campaigns.
Speaker 3: I think it's yes and no. I think one of
Speaker 3: the most important things that we saw in sort of
Speaker 3: that spectacular take down of Harvey and the larger Me
Speaker 3: Too movement is that, you know, the general public are
Speaker 3: much more savvy about these soda smear campaigns now. I
Speaker 3: think it's much less plausible and effective when you know,
Speaker 3: the average Joe knows exactly what this tactic is and
Speaker 3: what it's designed to do. So that's one good thing.
Speaker 3: So I'm thinking even the level of you know, when
Speaker 3: you're going to jury selection, I don't think that the
Speaker 3: average person would be so susceptible to a stunt like
Speaker 3: as ridiculous as parading a young unit springle around in
Speaker 3: a red dress.
Speaker 2: And yet the whole media piece of this, though, how
Speaker 2: do you think that fits in the fact that what
Speaker 2: Harvey did with his media machine, as they called.
Speaker 3: It, absolutely I think that by and large Harvey's biggest
Speaker 3: contribution to the business was as a marketer. He really
Speaker 3: knew how to sell films and using the press and
Speaker 3: utilizing the press was a really important piece of that.
Speaker 3: I think one of the most important parts of Me
Speaker 3: Too is making journalists and larger media question how they
Speaker 3: are complicit in certain things. So I would I would
Speaker 3: hope that that's definitely changed as.
Speaker 2: Well, because it's interesting because he had that pr media
Speaker 2: machine that Ronan Farrow had talked about in his article
Speaker 2: and variety everyone has talked about. Yet in the end
Speaker 2: it didn't work.
Speaker 3: Night Absolutely, it kind of backfired, especially after, you know,
Speaker 3: especially toward the m when Hearty visually fighting for his life,
Speaker 3: you know, strying to comprise a legal dream team, trying
Speaker 3: to discredit each individual accuser from people as incredibly famous
Speaker 3: like Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie. There wasn't enough for
Speaker 3: him to throw with a walt to convince even just
Speaker 3: the most rudimentary of people observing the case that this
Speaker 3: wasn't a desperate attempt to save his reputation.
Speaker 2: Regarding the unis Springle case. Do you have any final
Speaker 2: thoughts about that after now hearing this whole story.
Speaker 3: I have, Well, first of all, I just have a
Speaker 3: tremendous amount of respect for her, you know, I don't
Speaker 3: think that a lot of people, especially ones who become
Speaker 3: symbols of movements like these, have any intention of becoming that.
Speaker 3: I think she wanted to be an actress and a performer,
Speaker 3: and to find herself unwittingly at the center of an
Speaker 3: unprecedented legal case after an assault like that. It's just
Speaker 3: I have so much respect for her and her bravery.
Speaker 3: But more than that, I do think that it's I
Speaker 3: think a sadly necessary thing to sort of litigate, you
Speaker 3: know what I mean. And seeing someone like Geesler, who's
Speaker 3: also a really fascinating character too, it's always helpful to
Speaker 3: see these tactics reverse engineered so we know how to
Speaker 3: avoid them in our search for justice. It really shows
Speaker 3: you that history is not the steady climb toward the
Speaker 3: light right. There's lots of peaks and valleys in our
Speaker 3: attempt for equity and fairness and nonviolence.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you Matt for all your comments and your
Speaker 2: insights today.
Speaker 3: My pleasure. Thank you for telling me this incredible story
Speaker 3: about Uni Springle.
Speaker 2: And thanks for joining us for Variety Confidentials, the Secret
Speaker 2: history of the Casting Couch. This has been episode one
Speaker 2: of the Beast for Variety and iHeart podcasts. I'm Tracy Patton.
Speaker 2: Variety Confidential is produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder, and
Speaker 2: Tracy Patton and written by Stephen Gatos. John Ponder and
Speaker 2: Tracy Patton. Executive producers are Dea Lawrence and Stephen Gatos.
Speaker 2: Additional research by Karen Nizogucci, recording engineer, editor and mixer
Speaker 2: Charles Carroll