WEBVTT - From MGM to #MeToo 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:08.440 Why Auzzy Media Productions. He sent me back a box 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.559 of chocolates with a note that said, Edith, the day 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.280 that you were willing to come out here with a 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:18.919 cotton tail attached to your rear end, what I'd like 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:22.680 to do. That is what I would like to accomplish. 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.840 I would like to be a good actress. Well, it's 0:00:26.880 --> 0:00:30.240 the Neva Believe its sting. I think that you could 0:00:30.480 --> 0:00:40.600 safely call Clark Gable a gold digger. I'm Sean Braswell 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.600 and this is the thread where we unraveled the stories 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:46.360 behind some of the most important lives and events in history. 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:50.159 This season, we've connected the stories of five American icons. 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:53.840 We saw how Hollywood legend Clark Gables star power helped 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:57.240 launch Las Vegas when his second wife, relaying him, divorced 0:00:57.280 --> 0:00:59.920 him there. It was in Las Vegas that a nineteen 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.800 year old named Norma Jean Doherty later obtained her own 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:06.160 quickie divorce, enabling her to start her path toward becoming 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:11.280 the legendary Maryland Monroe. Then, in turn, an unknown magazine 0:01:11.319 --> 0:01:15.120 publisher named Hugh Hefner cashed in on Monroe's fame, using 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.880 her nude image to launch his Playboy Empire. And finally, 0:01:19.440 --> 0:01:22.040 it was in one of Heffner's famous playboy clubs that 0:01:22.120 --> 0:01:25.280 a young reporter named Gloria Steinham first concluded that all 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:28.520 women are bunnies, an insight that helped launch her career 0:01:28.560 --> 0:01:32.440 as a champion for women's rights. In this final episode 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.400 of the season, we complete our thread by tracing it 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:39.200 back to its origins in early Hollywood. The same studio 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:42.640 system that transformed the flawed Clark Gable into a king 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:46.119 also created a culture of abuse for women that lingers 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:48.640 to this day, and so we will also bring our 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:52.400 story full circle back to Steinham, back to me too 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.400 in the modern women's movement. In many ways, this remarkable 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.800 threat is ongoing and still impacts all of us today. 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.760 Clark Gable depended upon a series of wealthy, older, and 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.800 more experienced women to help get his career off the ground, 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:17.840 but Gable still struggled to make it as an actor. 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:20.359 When Clark Gable first came to Hollywood, he was in 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.080 a bunch of bit parts and was not successful at all. 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.799 That's Anne Helen Peterson, a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed. 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.720 The men who ran the major Hollywood studios at the 0:02:29.800 --> 0:02:32.800 time frankly did not give a damn about Clark Gable. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:37.240 Warner Brothers executive Darryl Zannik reportedly said, quote his ears 0:02:37.280 --> 0:02:40.560 are too big and he looks like an ape. MGM 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.919 head Louis B. Mayer said Gable was quote too elephant 0:02:43.960 --> 0:02:47.800 eared and unattractive to be a leading man. So Gable 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.880 played mostly minor villains and thugs, from an ex con 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:54.560 turned cowboy in the Painted Desert to a murderous chauffeur 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:59.639 and night nurse good cat without the proper authority. I 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:07.200 give it you. I'm Nick the Shore. The women who 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:10.240 encountered Clark Gable in Hollywood saw is much more than 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.359 a chauffeur, rogue, or scoundrel. This included perhaps the most 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:20.520 influential woman in Hollywood, Ida Cooverman, was Louis Bimuir secretary E. J. Fleming, 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:23.640 the author of several books on early Hollywood, and Ida 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:28.120 Cooverman was responsible for some of the biggest MGM stars. 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.880 Do you remember Ida Koverman from episode five? She was 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:35.160 the one who handled real Langham gables living girlfriend when 0:03:35.240 --> 0:03:38.200 she came to MGM to demand Gable's hand in marriage. 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:42.680 The formidable Coverman nicknamed mount Ida, was Louis B. Mayer's 0:03:42.720 --> 0:03:46.920 top administrator, gatekeeper, and protectress. She was also considered by 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.040 many to be the brains behind MGM. She made sure 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:52.560 that Mayor saw the best scripts, and she hand picked 0:03:52.640 --> 0:03:55.920 many of the studio's top stars. One executive put it 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:00.520 this way, coverman quote damn near ran the studio. Mg 0:04:00.680 --> 0:04:04.160 m's male leaders could only see Clark Gable's ears. Ida 0:04:04.240 --> 0:04:11.600 Koverman saw a star. One of Gable's first Hollywood films 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.480 was called The Easiest Way. He played a truck driver 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.320 for a laundry business and appeared in only a few scenes. 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:21.000 His name is listed last in the credits. The Easiest 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.120 Way was screened before a local test audience. The m 0:04:24.200 --> 0:04:26.640 g M executive who oversaw the film and the test 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.320 screening was Irving Thalberg. He was mostly interested in how 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.960 the audience would react to the film's leading lady. Instead, 0:04:34.320 --> 0:04:38.840 Thalberg witnessed something entirely unexpected. The audience sat upright whenever 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:43.080 Gable appeared. Afterwards, women kept asking ushers who was that 0:04:43.240 --> 0:04:47.920 handsome laundryman. Thalberg signed Gable to a contract the following day. 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:50.880 He made sure Gable starred in nine of mg m's 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:54.800 best films that year, and alongside the studio's biggest female stars. 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.640 Fortune smiled on Clark Gable, but his stardom was no accident. 0:05:03.200 --> 0:05:05.760 Here's the thing, and it's something that even Irving Thalberg 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.360 didn't realize at the time. Clark Gable's breakthrough moment, like 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:12.479 so many breaks in his life, was orchestrated by a woman, 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.200 in this case, Ida Koverman. She packed the test audience 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.360 with female MGM employees, women who are sure to be 0:05:19.520 --> 0:05:23.960 enthralled by the handsome laundryman. While Ida Koverman identified stars 0:05:24.040 --> 0:05:27.480 like Clark Gable, many of Hollywood's top male executives auditioned 0:05:27.560 --> 0:05:30.400 aspiring female performers on what came to be known as 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:34.520 the casting couch. For many women, from the lowliest contract 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.720 actress to the biggest star, the so called Golden Age 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:45.640 of Hollywood could be a guilted nightmare. Shirley Temple was 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:49.040 a Hollywood megastar. At age six, she became a national 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.080 treasure in a country reeling from the depression. I'm a 0:05:53.240 --> 0:06:01.160 good tip lonely Polish Greek trip to Annie. Temple was 0:06:01.200 --> 0:06:03.720 a child of the studio system, but even the wholesome 0:06:03.760 --> 0:06:07.279 superstar could not avoid the wolves of Hollywood. The twelve 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:09.800 year old Temple signed her first contract with MGM in 0:06:09.920 --> 0:06:12.760 nineteen forty and went there with her mother to meet 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:18.480 her new bosses. According to Temple, she and her mother 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:21.640 were separated when they arrived at the studio's executive suites. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:24.760 Studio had Louis B. Mayer escorted her mother to his 0:06:24.880 --> 0:06:28.320 office and left Temple alone with Arthur Freed, a producer 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:31.880 on the Wizard of Oz. Freed allegedly told Temple I 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.400 have something made for just you. Temple described what happened 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.920 next in her autobiography. She wrote, with his face gaped 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:42.600 in a smile, he stood up abruptly and executed a 0:06:42.640 --> 0:06:46.280 bizarre flourish of clothing. Temple wrote that the forty four 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:48.880 year old Freed then pulled his penis out of his pants. 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:53.520 The young Temple reacted with nervous laughter. Get out, Freed shouted, 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:56.200 with his pants around his ankles, go on, get out. 0:06:57.200 --> 0:06:59.680 Shirley rejoined her mother and learned that she too had 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.640 had to rush out of the office when Louis B. 0:07:01.800 --> 0:07:05.080 Mayer lunged at her on his couch. As Temple summed 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:08.520 it up, MGM head quote more than its quota of 0:07:08.680 --> 0:07:18.320 lecturs older men. Hollywood's problem with lectris old men started 0:07:18.360 --> 0:07:21.800 at the very top the studio system consolidated at the 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.680 end of the nineteen twenties, when talkies started to replace 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.520 silent films. The men at the top of a few 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:31.760 major studios that remained wielded unprecedented power, and they quickly 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.360 learned to abuse it. And the steady influx of aspiring 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:39.440 actresses that came through their doors and Helen Peterson again, 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.600 Oftentimes we describe these studio heads as like brilliant men 0:07:43.680 --> 0:07:46.320 who guided these studios, and they did that, but then 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:49.679 they also, you know, wrecked a lot of people's lives. 0:07:50.560 --> 0:07:52.680 The studio head set the tone for a culture of 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.840 abuse that soon became endemic to their organizations. The casting 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:59.920 coach culture has been a problem as long as movies 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.160 have been made E. J. Fleming. If girls wanted into 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:06.160 the movies, they had to sleep with men. It was 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.960 that simple. They didn't have an option, and they had 0:08:09.000 --> 0:08:13.120 to sleep with the men at every level, cameraman, directors, 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.600 writers like today, everyone knew about it, and people whispered 0:08:17.600 --> 0:08:20.000 about it. And if you didn't want to do it, 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:24.600 and you like Usually the sentiment passed along was like, 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:27.440 shut up and do it. If that's if you want 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:29.200 a career in Hollywood, this is what you have to do. 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.160 And even after you had paid the price to establish 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.520 yourself in Hollywood as an actress, the studio bosses still 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.280 had leverage over you. If the female stars rebelled in 0:08:38.360 --> 0:08:41.480 any sort of way, whether that was refusing sexual favors 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:45.040 or anything else, they would just stick them in shoot movies. 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.960 Some of the biggest defenders or names we've already mentioned 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.600 this season. First Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM, 0:08:51.679 --> 0:08:54.760 who was so instrumental to Clark Gables Rise and so 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:58.760 solicitous towards Shirley Temple's mother. Mayor had a hard one 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.079 reputation as a guard and of the public morality in Hollywood. 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:06.160 Someone who made wholesome, quality motion pictures, he was no 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.320 different than any of the other studio heads. The truth 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.160 was he was a notorious abuser from his earliest days. 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:15.719 The very first meaning he had with an actress, he 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:18.280 would tell her be nice to me, and I'll be 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:21.520 nice to you. Each studio had a steady supply of 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:25.040 what were known as six month option girls, young starletts 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:28.600 that the executives passed around like candy. In episode three, 0:09:28.679 --> 0:09:30.760 we told the story of Harry Cone, the chief of 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:33.839 Columbia Pictures, who fired Marilyn Monroe when she would not 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.080 join him on his yacht. He reportedly kept a private 0:09:37.160 --> 0:09:40.400 room next to his office for his casting sessions, and 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.240 Darryl's Annek, the head of production at Warner Brothers, who 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:46.960 thought Clark Gable resembled an ape. Zannick, built the casting 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:50.440 couch into his daily routine. The entire place shut down 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.760 at four o'clock and from four to four thirty no 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:58.520 decisions were made because every single day, at four o'clock, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:03.360 one of the contract actresses was brought to a back 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:08.360 entrance to his office to have sex with Darrel's Anneck. 0:10:09.320 --> 0:10:12.080 The only actress who ever said no was Betty Grabel. 0:10:12.559 --> 0:10:14.559 The first time she was brought to his office, he 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:16.439 walked up to her and she looked at it. She 0:10:16.559 --> 0:10:19.480 looked at him and said, that's beautiful, Darrell. You can 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:22.800 put that away now. Darryl's Annek, Louis By Mayer and 0:10:22.880 --> 0:10:26.120 other studio bosses were the original wolves of Hollywood, says 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:30.320 fleming women had little power against them. Rarely a woman 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.360 fought back, and if she did, the studio fixers went 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.480 into overdrive. Case in point, the story of Patricia Douglas, 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:40.960 the lowly twenty year old dancer who took on Hollywood's 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:47.880 biggest studio at the height of its power. MGM and 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:50.960 Louis B. Mayer had a lot to celebrate. In ninety seven. 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.600 The depression said most of the studio's rivals into bankruptcy 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:58.599 or receivership, but MGM was rolling in profits thanks to 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:01.800 its stable of film star as an innovative sales team, 0:11:02.520 --> 0:11:04.839 and so Mayor decided to throw a studio party to 0:11:05.000 --> 0:11:09.880 end all studio parties at MGM's annual sales convention E J. Fleming. 0:11:10.480 --> 0:11:14.280 They brought three hundred distributors, theater owners and film salesman 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.800 to the studio from all over the country for a 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:20.600 five day boondoggle at the studio and Helen Peterson again. 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.480 MGM brought in a bunch of basically big wigs within 0:11:24.559 --> 0:11:26.400 the company who were showing the films, you know, the 0:11:26.720 --> 0:11:30.319 exhibitors of the films, and through a huge party with 0:11:30.440 --> 0:11:34.040 a ton of booze, and then employed a bunch of women, 0:11:34.400 --> 0:11:39.760 you know, aspiring starlets as arm candy, Essentially, Patricia Douglas 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:42.040 was one of the young women who answered what appeared 0:11:42.080 --> 0:11:46.559 to be a routine casting call. Patricia Douglas was a 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:50.240 beautiful twenty year old girl who lived in Hollywood with 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:54.719 her mother. Patricia went to a convent school. She was 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.679 very religious and like many young women, she had no 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:59.920 idea what she was getting into. For the promise of 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.240 seven dollars and fifty cents and a hot meal, m 0:12:09.960 --> 0:12:12.800 Louis By Mayor greeted MGMs honored male guests when they 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:16.040 arrived at the train station amid much fanfare, and he 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:18.720 had dozens of beautiful women with him for the occasion. 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:23.080 Meyer welcomed him by saying, all these lovely girls are 0:12:23.120 --> 0:12:26.120 here to show you how we feel about you. They'll 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:29.880 give you anything you want. That basically set the tone 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.360 for the week. The highlight of the week was a 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.440 Western themed party at a remote ranch outside of town. 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.280 Five cases of Scotch and champagne were brought in for 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:42.280 three hundred men. The invitations read, it will be a 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:45.080 stag affair out in the wild and wooly West, where 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.320 men or men. MGM outfitted Douglas and the other women 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:52.720 and bolero jackets, short swede skirts, black boots, and cowboy hats. 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:55.440 They were placed on a bus and driven out of town. 0:12:56.000 --> 0:12:58.240 According to Douglas, many believed that they were going to 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.679 a film shoot. When got to the ranch, they realized 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.880 there were no lights and no cameras, just hundreds of 0:13:04.960 --> 0:13:08.920 drunk salesmen. The women had to fend for themselves. They 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:11.880 were basically trapped there. There were obviously no telephones, there 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.280 were no taxis. By midnight, the party was out of control. 0:13:15.640 --> 0:13:18.240 Douglas claimed that she was pursued by a pudgy thirty 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.280 six year old bachelor from Chicago named David Ross. She 0:13:22.480 --> 0:13:27.160 rebuffed his advances and Ross grew violent. Sometime after midnight, 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.719 he dragged her into the parking lot, threw her in 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:34.000 a car, beat her badly, and raped her. According to Douglas, 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.600 she started to black out from the alcohol that Ross 0:13:36.679 --> 0:13:39.000 and a couple of friends forced down her throat. Earlier 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:42.800 in the evening, Ross slap Douglas and yelled cooperate. I 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:46.160 want you awake. The parking lot attendant happened to find 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:48.880 her about an hour later, and he grabbed one of 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:51.800 the Culver City police that were working the event, and 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:53.920 they threw her in a car and took her to 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:58.480 the hospital across the street. The hospital was basically MGM's 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:02.079 private hospital, and the head doctor was known as the 0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:05.720 Studio Family Doctor. The doctor claimed to find no signs 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:08.839 of intercourse. Douglas was driven home in a studio car. 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:15.800 No crime report was ever filed. Douglas tried to tell 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:18.760 MGM what had happened to her, but the studio ignored her, 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.600 so did the Los Angeles district attorney, who was a 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.880 close friend of Louis B. Mayor. So Douglas got a lawyer, 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.520 then filed a lawsuit against David Ross, Eddie Mannix and others. 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:32.320 She wasn't after money, rather, as Douglas, who died in 0:14:32.400 --> 0:14:35.560 two thousand and three, later said, quote, I just wanted 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.760 to be vindicated, to hear someone say you can't do 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:43.120 that to a woman. What Patricia Douglas did was completely unprecedented, 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:46.120 in part because it was so public. You know, some 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:50.880 women had tried to, you know, maybe protest internally, but 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:54.120 they never would go public with something like a rape charge. 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.520 Mayor in the studio had a squeaky clean image to uphold, 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:00.440 and just the news of the wild stag party. Let 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:02.720 alone a potential rape would be enough to send the 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:05.720 company stockholders into a frenzy. You know. It was just 0:15:05.800 --> 0:15:08.840 bad news all around, and so they squashed the case. 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.800 Enter Eddie Mannix and Howard Strickling, the two head fixers 0:15:12.800 --> 0:15:15.920 at MGM that we learned about last episode. Mannix and 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:19.800 Strickling went to work right away. There were newspaper stories 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.480 about a woman who was assaulted at a party, but 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.200 m JAM was never named as the studio. The newspaper 0:15:26.280 --> 0:15:30.600 whitewashing was just the start. MGM actually hired Pinkerton detectives 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:35.120 to dig up dirt on Patricia, but they had a 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:37.680 problem because they found out that she was a virgin 0:15:37.720 --> 0:15:40.920 who never drank. When blaming the victim didn't pan out, 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:44.320 says Swimming. The fixers fixed other things, including the memories 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.880 of key witnesses. Only two of the one and thirty 0:15:48.800 --> 0:15:53.240 women even admitted that the party was wild. The parking 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:58.800 attendant also lost his memory. The attendants family later said 0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.880 that he was given a for life at MGM anywhere 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:06.720 he wanted. Patricia Douglas's lawsuit was eventually dismissed as MGM 0:16:06.800 --> 0:16:10.360 fix her. Eddie Mannix reportedly put it quote, we had 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:17.520 her killed. I think one of the tragedies is that 0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:19.720 the very story of what she did and the way 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.440 that she stood up to MGM is largely lost and 0:16:23.560 --> 0:16:25.440 even today it's not part of the story that we 0:16:25.520 --> 0:16:29.480 really talked about um, in part because MGM was so 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.360 effective in burying it and making sure that it didn't 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:37.320 become part of the narrative of the studio or classic Hollywood, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.960 or how women resisted the way that they were treated 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:45.120 at the time. Douglas's ordeal was rediscovered near the end 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:47.680 of her life by a reporter. She agreed to share 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:51.320 her story with the world once again. Why this is 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:54.560 how Douglas put it. When I die, the truth dies 0:16:54.680 --> 0:17:05.280 with me, and that means those bastards win. Yeah. This 0:17:05.440 --> 0:17:07.600 brings us to the end of our trip back through time. 0:17:08.119 --> 0:17:10.240 We've now pulled on a thread that connects the lives 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:14.600 of Gloria Steinem, Hugh Hefner, Marilyn Monroe, Las Vegas, and 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:17.520 Clark Gable, one that runs from the pages of Miss 0:17:17.600 --> 0:17:21.240 magazine to the casting couches of early Hollywood. But this 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.720 thread does not exist in isolation. Up next, we bring 0:17:24.800 --> 0:17:27.879 our story full circle. The lives and events we've heard 0:17:27.920 --> 0:17:30.199 about this season are part of a much larger arc 0:17:30.240 --> 0:17:34.320 of history, stepping stones to a far greater story, one 0:17:34.359 --> 0:17:36.480 that we are all a part of, and thanks in 0:17:36.560 --> 0:17:58.200 no small measure to Gloria steinem Pollywood was a man's 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:00.760 world from the start, an embow wants of power that 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.280 allowed a culture of sexual harassment and discrimination to thrive. 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:06.959 Of course, that is not at all how Hollywood has 0:18:07.000 --> 0:18:10.800 perceived from the outside. And Helen Peterson again, there was 0:18:10.880 --> 0:18:16.160 this real facade that was very carefully cultivated and maintained 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:19.760 that Hollywood was an incredibly moral place where only moral 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.240 things happened, and occasionally something would pop through that really 0:18:23.359 --> 0:18:25.920 like spoke truth to that lie, like what happened to 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:30.359 Patricia Douglas, but it was quickly papered over. And you know, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.399 this really worked until the nineteen fifties and the disintegration 0:18:33.480 --> 0:18:36.840 of the studio and star system. But the abuse continued 0:18:37.119 --> 0:18:40.600 even after the studio system broke down. Thousands of women 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.520 endured the harassment and few spoke up for decades. The 0:18:44.640 --> 0:18:47.560 history of women in Hollywood has been a history of silence, 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:50.960 and Peterson says this silence made it easier for Hollywood 0:18:51.000 --> 0:18:54.399 to lie to itself. What has interested in me most 0:18:55.560 --> 0:19:00.639 about the revelations around Weinstein and around me too, and 0:19:00.840 --> 0:19:04.359 why I think it is shaken Hollywood so profoundly is 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:07.920 that it really believed itself to be a progressive place 0:19:07.960 --> 0:19:11.560 where something like this, something that belongs in the echelons 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:16.440 of like classic Hollywood, could never happen. And some things 0:19:16.520 --> 0:19:19.199 have not changed so much over the years, says E. J. Fleming. 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:24.960 The casting couch problem never really went away. The men 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:28.800 in authority in Hollywood, the writers, the directors, the producers, 0:19:30.040 --> 0:19:33.680 they never stopped leveraging that position, and they are still 0:19:33.760 --> 0:19:38.560 surrounded by enablers and fixers. The similarities between what Harvey 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.040 Weinstein did and what the fixers at MGM did they're 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:48.080 incredibly striking. And that's instructive because it shows, like, you know, 0:19:49.160 --> 0:19:51.720 we thought we were way beyond all that sort of 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:55.000 cover up, all that sort of vile manipulation of women, 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.440 all of the complicity of all these other people involved 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.760 that made this sort of exploitation impossible, But we're not. 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.720 Sexual harassment has of course been pervasive beyond the world 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:11.600 of Hollywood, but for a long time, there wasn't even 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:15.760 a word for it, Gloria Steinham. The term sexual harassment 0:20:16.119 --> 0:20:21.560 was invented by women, young women at Cornell University who 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.359 are trying to describe what happened to them on summer jobs. 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:28.240 Steinen was no stranger to the experience herself. She endured 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:31.280 all manner of sexist barbs and harassment long before she 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.480 would undercover as a playboy bunny or as ridicule in 0:20:34.640 --> 0:20:39.080 Screw magazine. This is Gloria Steinen biographer Patricia Marcelo again 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:43.160 from episode one. That's just how it was. Sexual harassment 0:20:43.320 --> 0:20:45.280 wasn't a thing, that was just a way of life, 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:49.080 and she said that herself. Um in fact, she said exactly, 0:20:49.200 --> 0:20:53.960 sexual harassment is about power. When one is brave to 0:20:54.440 --> 0:20:57.040 assert themselves and tell a story, then other women will 0:20:57.119 --> 0:21:00.720 be too. The young dancer Patricia Douglas was brave enough 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:04.320 to tell her story, so was Marilyn Monroe, and starting 0:21:04.359 --> 0:21:07.680 with her Expose a Bunny's Tale, Gloria Steinhum learned not 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:10.159 just to tell her own story, but also the stories 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:12.600 of other women, and to make sure that as many 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:16.439 people as possible heard those stories. Because we grow up 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:21.639 in this culture which is to whatever degree racist and 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:26.760 sexist and infected with class. We kind of think it's 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.159 normal because we don't know anything else. So until we 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:33.920 start to talk to each other and and affirm that 0:21:34.040 --> 0:21:38.360 we are not alone in our in our experiences or objections, 0:21:38.920 --> 0:21:41.719 it is an easy and understandable thing to remain silent, 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:44.920 to live in fear of powerful men. But as the 0:21:44.960 --> 0:21:47.800 Me Too movement has demonstrated, it is also a powerful 0:21:47.880 --> 0:21:51.040 thing to know you are not alone. Anne Helen Peterson, 0:21:51.560 --> 0:21:54.600 I think that there is change coming, and I feel 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.240 much more optimistic than I did not even that long ago. 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.040 Patricia Marcello agrees, So I think that, um, you know, 0:22:02.760 --> 0:22:07.040 things like that Screw magazine article or long past, we 0:22:07.119 --> 0:22:10.399 won't ever, ever, ever see anything like that again, especially 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:13.480 in light of what's going on today. Because of what 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:16.639 has happened in recent months, in recent decades, we can 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:19.520 be hopeful that things are changing in Hollywood and beyond 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:21.800 because of all the women who were brave enough to 0:22:21.880 --> 0:22:23.840 fight back when there was next to nothing to be 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.680 gained from doing so. Because of Patricia Douglas, because of 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:32.360 Marilyn Monroe, and perhaps most importantly, because of Gloria Steinham, 0:22:37.359 --> 0:22:39.720 We're at a remarkable moment in history with the rise 0:22:39.800 --> 0:22:42.399 of the Me Too movement. Like many things, this is 0:22:42.600 --> 0:22:45.879 progressive and now it has reached a tipping point so 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.639 that women are being believed for the first time in 0:22:48.800 --> 0:22:52.640 my life. Tipping points in history rarely happen by accident, though. 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.720 They need trailblazers, those who are willing to be the 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.359 first ones over the ramparts, the first ones on the 0:22:58.440 --> 0:23:02.080 protest lines, People like Gloria stein You know, she was 0:23:02.160 --> 0:23:06.600 just a troublemaker, um, and they really came down on 0:23:06.720 --> 0:23:11.560 her so bad that she almost left the scene. But she, 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.000 being the strong woman that she is, didn't. She hung 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.760 in there and she just kept pushing until you know, 0:23:18.960 --> 0:23:22.639 things changed. Thank God for that. Gloria Steinen was not 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.080 just a troublemaker and a trailblazer. She was an organizer, 0:23:26.280 --> 0:23:29.560 a catalyst. Often that is what tipping points require above 0:23:29.640 --> 0:23:32.879 all else, someone who can bring people together, and in 0:23:32.960 --> 0:23:36.000 an era before social media and the information age, that 0:23:36.119 --> 0:23:38.760 meant someone willing to hit the road, someone willing to 0:23:38.880 --> 0:23:41.520 ride the bus and live out of a suitcase, someone 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:45.440 willing to listen to thousands of individual women's stories, someone 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:47.560 who can tell you that you are not alone, that 0:23:47.680 --> 0:23:53.240 you're not crazy. But it wasn't until the women's movement 0:23:53.320 --> 0:23:57.560 came along and people began to gather in living rooms 0:23:57.640 --> 0:24:02.920 and school gyms and cafete areas and factories and talk 0:24:03.000 --> 0:24:04.760 to each other as they are talking to each other 0:24:04.880 --> 0:24:10.240 now about sexual harassment and realizing that we were not crazy, 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:13.600 the system was crazy, that we had a right to 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:19.439 be treated equally and paid equally, and to be physically safe. 0:24:20.240 --> 0:24:22.439 It can be hard to quantify the impact of an 0:24:22.560 --> 0:24:26.280 organizer and influencer like Steinhem in the abstract, but it's 0:24:26.320 --> 0:24:28.560 there in the story of every individual whose life she 0:24:28.640 --> 0:24:32.440 has touched. Patricia Marcello again, well, I know what it's 0:24:32.520 --> 0:24:36.080 meant for me. Um. I came up through the ranks, um, 0:24:36.840 --> 0:24:42.240 you know, starting out as a twentysomething girl out of college. Um. 0:24:42.440 --> 0:24:45.920 And I was offered receptionist jobs and secretary jobs, and 0:24:46.480 --> 0:24:50.560 you know, secretary teacher mother. Um, you know those nurse 0:24:50.720 --> 0:24:53.080 Those jobs were what women did, and I didn't want 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:57.560 to do that. It was difficult. Then when she started this, 0:24:57.680 --> 0:25:02.600 it was impossible. Um. Now things are much different, things 0:25:02.640 --> 0:25:05.119 are different, and in some ways that makes our thread 0:25:05.160 --> 0:25:08.520 all the more incredible. The story of Gloria Steinham stretches 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:11.840