famous scandals of the 1920s famous scandals of the 1920s

They did so discreetly. Annie Besant, a noted feminist, Theosophist, and womens rights activist, and Charles Bradlaugh, an infamous atheist, published The Fruits of Philosophy: the Private Companion for Young Married Couples, a pamphlet by an American doctor, Charles Knowlton, and previously judged obscene. Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle in a scene from 1921s Brewster's Millions. They were eventually acquitted in terms of criminal liability, but civil penalties were assessed. Mabel Normand. Though the scam became known as a Ponzi scheme, its namesake wasnt the only one who perpetrated it. Her death was less a scandal than a sensation, and in 2014 a group of roughly 100 film fans gathered to mark her demise by viewing 13 Women in a Hollywood parking lot, an event geared towards raising awareness (and money) for suicide prevention. Mordaunt confessed to her husband, Charles, after her child was suspected of having syphilis. The accident caused a scandal over working safety, particularly for children on film sets, and years of litigation which kept the story on the front pages of trade papers for a decade. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Entwistles promise as an actress was stressed in the sensationalized reports of her death, including her performance on a New York stage with luminary Billie Burke (later Glinda in The Wizard of Oz) and a young actor by the name of Humphrey Bogart. In the third, he was acquitted, though the press and the public had long before convicted him. The case is credited with raising awareness of birth control.. Wikimedia. She had no children, but at least four abortions at a time when the procedure was illegal throughout most of the country. Chaplins reputation never fully recovered. Cleveland was still able to capture the vote by owning up to the incidentthough he was a bit of a glutton for punishment, later marrying a woman 27 years his junior while still in the White House. Virginie was forever shunned by high society. Tallulah simply didnt care what anyone, including her father, an 11 term member of the US House of Representatives and Speaker of the House for two terms, said of her. Sadly, Honey Boo Boo wouldnt be born for another century-plus, so reading newspapers, penny press publications, and scandal sheets was a way for the public to sate its appetite for the disturbing, the sinful, the extraordinary, and the downright ugly. But after authorities began to suspect him of cooking the books and other improprieties, he sold his collapsing company and avoided a mail fraud indictment by fleeing to Shanghai, where he committed suicide. As the games continued, the party noticed Gordon-Cumming was altering his bet after the cards had been dealt. Once word got out, Pickfords career might have been derailed if not for the fact that Moore was reported to be abusive. In 1932 she told an interviewer that she had accepted a film part only so that she could sleep with Gary Cooper, though she substituted a common four-letter word for sleep with in the interview. The 1920s were a time of great economic change in the United States. Thaw was no prize himselfhe had a reputation as a cocaine fiend and woman-beaterbut the public nonetheless sided with him over White, who was married at the time of his indiscretion (Nesbit, who would marry Thaw later, was not then attached). Eventually, the practice faded. The long affair between Katherine Hepburn and the married Spencer Tracy was an open secret in Hollywood. Getty Images One of the biggest Hollywood scandals of all time was the murder of mobster Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of Lana Turner in 1958. Especially popular with children, Arbuckle had given comic star Buster Keaton his big break, and was a friend and supporter of Charles Chaplin. Future: Heaven only knows what.. His arrest had the newspapers dubbing him, the Boy Jones. Despite increased security, he would cause more furor over an apparent inability to stay away from the palacehe was caught again in 1841 and sentenced to hard labor. (Eve Blue eventually gave up on petting parties after she was nearly raped.) She married Millais, though she paid a pricenever again would she be allowed to attend a social event if Queen Victoria was present. During their lengthy affair, Tracy was also unfaithful to Hepburn, having an affair with actress Gene Tierney which made the tabloids, and speculation was often rife over others. Mary was an underage actress whose letters to Taylor were allegedly removed by the helpful LAPD. Her death created a sensation in Hollywood, both from her manner of accomplishing it and the note which she left behind. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Nene Adams is a published author, editor, historian, and American expatriate living in the Netherlands in a mnage trois with her book collection and her lovely partner. But Hardings scandalous behavior didnt end when he left his bedroom. From adulterous affairs yielding secret children to hotel break-ins and secret gun deals, scandal has always followed American politicians. 1 Charlie Chaplin's Teenage Brides Charlie Chaplin's work in the. Franchot Tone was a film and stage star of sufficient stature to marry Joan Crawford in 1935. In 1936, the wife of Max Baer, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World (and eventually the father of Max Baer Jr, who portrayed Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies), named Jean as one of the women with whom her husband had been unfaithful to his marriage. The rise of cheap, sensational newspapers in the nineteenth century meant that shocking scandals weren't just whispered about behind fluttering fans and raised teacups. Now considered the. The existence of a large insurance policy on her life, with Jack the beneficiary, gave credence to the former belief. In the end, the murder of William Taylor was never solved, other than by Hollywood gossips who were sure they knew who the killer was and what their motive had been. 'Fatty' Arbuckle's Manslaughter Charge Getty Images Possibly the first big Hollywood scandal took place in 1921. In June of 1972, burglars were arrested in the office of the Democratic National Committee, located in the Watergate complex of buildings in Washington D.C. Cleveland will go down in history as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, but his first term in office was nearly waylaid by a campaign scandal. Technically, the trial was meant to settle whether Lady Mordaunt was sane enough for a divorce to proceed. While traveling to London by train, Colonel Valentine Baker, a respected military figure and friend of the Prince of Wales, was accused of raping Rebecca Dickenson, twenty-two years old. There was, after all, that pesky fact that he was a foreigner (Flynn was Australian) and xenophobia was at its height in the early days of the Second World War. The economy boomed during the Roaring Twenties and rising incomes gave ordinary Americans access to enticing new conveniences, including washing machines, refrigerators, cars and other luxuries that would have once seemed unattainable. Flappers reputations were made worse by petting, but the practice also reflected traditional values by avoiding premarital sex. And put it off, and put it off until years later, she met and fell in love with another man, John Everett Millais, a Pre-Raphaelite painter and Ruskins protg. Dont be timid. Cheating was bad, but gambling was no better: It was illegal. December 2, 1975, Fatty Arbuckle and Hollywoods First Scandal. When Nesbits husband, Harry Thaw, learned of Whites sexual impropriety years after the fact, he did what any gentleman would do: He shot White dead in front of hundreds of witnesses. 2007, William Desmond Taylor: The Unsolved Murder. The press eventually went on to other things, but Flynns image was permanently damaged, and he never again enjoyed the reputation of being a romanticized gentleman, cultured and debonair. Thelma Todd with Chico Marx in the 1932 film Horse Feathers. The growing demand for petroleum to fuel automobiles also led to oil drilling schemes concocted by promoters who mailed out literature and handed out flyers that promised a fabulous return. Among the men later suspected of being involved in the murder were actor/director Orson Welles, several newsmen including the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Norman Chandler, who it was claimed dismembered the body to hide the fact of her pregnancy; a small-time criminal named Jack Anderson Wilson; and George Hodel, a Los Angeles physician who was accused of the murder by his own son, LAPD detective Steve Hodel. Actress Jean Harlow was a scandalmongers dream, openly flaunting her sexuality on screen to the point that new censorship restrictions were written to curb her filmed allure. But they also came to an end because the flappers who dared to pet in public helped make open sexual expression more commonplace. During the 1920s, three Republicans occupied the White House: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover. She drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and dabbled in bohemianism. In 1998, news broke of President Bill Clintons clandestine affair with a White House intern named Monica Lewinsky. Wikimedia. For some, it was a long kiss; for others, it involved more intense physical contact. The television series The Twilight Zone was a popular weekly program from 1959 to 1964, the brainchild of writer and director Rod Serling. The Newport Bellacourts have never met a scandal they didnt like. William Taylor was a highly prolific director between 1915 and 1921, and as such, he was one of the first directors to rely on what would later become known euphemistically as the casting couch. In the 1930s the sign, already famous, read Hollywoodland, and it was from the H that a young actress, despondent over her career, committed suicide by jumping in 1932. On the podcast | America's "Roaring Twenties": everything you wanted to know With stock prices rising, small investors were tantalized by the prospect of bigger returns on their savings than bank accounts would pay in interest. After guests heard screaming from the room, they rushed in and found Rappe writhing in agony. The case of Saurin v. Starr and Kennedy stirred up English anti-Catholic sentiments as well as selling a great many newspapers and scurrilous pamphlets. He insisted their marriage was invalid because of their religious differenceshe was Catholic and she was Protestant. The divorce was eventually granted. Average, law-abiding citizens had no problem buying illegal booze from such people. Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast. Divorced again, Tone began pursuing Barbara Payton, another actress who was also involved with an actor and former boxer named Tom Neal. Australia had banned daylight swimming or bathing, and female swimsuits were almost religious affairs, covering the wearer from head to toe. To the Protestant jurys great disappointment, the mother superior later testified she hadnt meant that kind of excitement. When William Charles Yelverton met, wooed, and ultimately became twenty year old Theresa Longworths lover, he ruined her in the eyes of Victorian society because they werent married. Courage is good. Jude Sheeran, BBC News. Instead they hired young agents who stood out in the hot sun and convinced buyers to put down a non-refundable down payment on a parcel. Luciano was the prime suspect of many, and following her death, he assumed control of her restaurant, an event she had once told him, before witnesses, would occur only over her dead body. Bergman chose to remain away from America for many years. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images. That winter morning the mutilated body of a woman, later determined to have been dead for about ten hours, was discovered by a woman and her three-year-old daughter, out for a leisurely morning stroll. Whether Olive was aware of Jacks medical problem is debated, though he had his mercury with him when the couple spent time together in Paris in the summer of 1920. Those frontiers suggest the potentialand actual exampleof great riches, and boom times make credit easier to obtain., People wanted to follow the example of heroes such as automobile mogul Henry Ford and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who had dared to dream. April 2008, The Sunset Strip: The Story of a Hollywood Icon. Alarmingly for many, petting was popular among both wild flappers and average young women during the 1920s. And Tone? In April 1958, after a heated argument in her home during which Stompanato allegedly threatened to kill her, Turners daughter came to her mothers defense with a kitchen knife. She was never tainted by scandal because she welcomed the controversy, as evidenced by her once saying of cocaine, Cocaine isnt habit forming and I know because Ive been taking it for years., The secret cross dresser J. Edgar Hoover kept personal files on hundreds of people in part to protect himself from blackmail and innuendo. To many Americans, petting parties epitomized everything that was evil about the Jazz Age. Wikimedia. Some of the nations greatest film heroes were subject to damaging tales, some true, some speculative, and some criminal. Stompanato wooed Lana with flowers and phone calls while she was filming The Lady Takes a Flyer, and unaware of his reputation and mob contacts, she began dating him. She accepted his excuses, took to public speaking to support their life together, even going so far as to follow him to Scotland and Ireland so their affair could continue, but eventually, she expected a wedding. FBI. The paper revealed that, a decade earlier, Cleveland allegedly sexually assaulted Maria Halpin, a woman he was infatuated with, causing her to become pregnant with his child. French artist John Singer Sargent hoped his work would draw notice, but he could never have imagined the hysteria that followed his Portrait of Madame X. Among the well connected visitors was Lord Arthur Somerset, the Duke of Beauforts son. Kennedy as head of Pathe Studios dispatched Glorias husband to France as a film executive there, thus removing the inconvenience of having him in the way as he took over her finances. 8 Ways The Great Gatsby Captured the Roaring Twenties, How Prohibition Put the Organized in Organized Crime, Warning Signs Investors Missed Before the 1929 Crash. At the trial, Dickenson alleged that the colonel had tried to raise her skirts, put his hand in her underwear, and kiss her many times on the lips. Much of the hand-wringing about petting parties focused on the supposed immorality of the young woman who attended them. She was 30 years old. His cabinet members, known as the Ohio Gang because of their wanton corruptness, were involved in so many shady dealingsthe Teapot Dome Scandal stands at the top of that listthat Harding left office with a reputation as one of the worst presidents in U.S. History. These men were celebrated for their pluck, courage and daring, says Nate Hendley, author of the 2016 book The Big Con: Great Hoaxes, Frauds, Grifts and Swindles in American History. Wikimedia Witnesses gave accounts of Saurins supposed crimes, which included eating strawberries and cream (the wicked woman!) Many wanted to use this valuable oil source. The newspapers had a field day. In one interview she claimed that the only thing wrong with her was that she needed a man, and it had been too long since shed had one. On the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, Taylor's body was found in his bungalow in a trendy and affluent neighborhood of LA. Hollywood studios did not again employ her until 1956, six years after the scandal, when she appeared in the film, Anastasia. Jean Harlow with actor Ben Lyon in a promotional still for the film Hells Angels, 1930. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. The boys of today must be protected from the young girl vamp, complained a New York mother to the New York Times in 1922. 2023 Minute Media - All Rights Reserved. Her role in The Postman Always Rings Twice established her as a serious actress at the same time her well-publicized personal life called her morals into question among those inclined to do so. September 4, 2011, Olive Thomas: The Life and Death of a Silent Film Beauty. Verdict for the plaintiff; 500 damages awarded. Koretz promised and delivered high returns, and this attracted more investors and money to keep his pyramid scheme afloat, Jobb says. Public outcry in America was strong, and Senator Edwin Jackson railed against her in the US Senate. Lana Turner was the classic blonde bombshell of the 1940s, a popular pinup among American servicemen and teenage boys and a favorite co-star with Clark Gable. Married in 1924, by 1926 they were headed to divorce court, and Lita presented an image of Chaplin far removed from his popular public persona. Both girls, 17-year-old Peggy Satterlee and Betty Hansen, also 17, accused Flynn of seducing them, Peggy on Flynns yacht and Betty in the home of a friend. That December night, she kissed six men, caressing and touching them but never going all the way. She also attracted her share of inappropriate attention, including untoward advances from 50-something Stanford White. The Teapot Dome Scandal of the 1920s shocked Americans by revealing an unprecedented level of greed and corruption within the federal government. Prohibition began in the United States, and . He attempted to remarry Joan Crawford when he was dying of cancer in the 1960s, but she demurred, though she did care for him in his last days, and arranged his funeral when he died in 1968. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. The woman who found the body thought that the scene was so grisly that it had been set up using a mannequin for the purpose of shocking the police and witnesses. When he found it beneficial to his own interests, Hoover leaked information, collected but often unconfirmed, to press representatives sympathetic to his views, which were anti-communist, anti-Semitic, and often anti-feminist. Pres. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. From 1941 until his death, the two maintained an affair which was an open secret in Hollywood. One of the greatest scandals in Hollywoods, indeed in all of American history, was the abuse of power routinely practiced by the man who considered himself to be the greatest lawman in America throughout his long and self-serving career. Gangster Bugsy Siegel was implicated by some. Her name was Peg Entwistle, and she had recently completed work on a film by David O. Selznick entitled 13 Women. She was linked to sexual relationships with both men and women, among the latter were Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, and Hattie McDaniel of Gone With the Wind fame. June 5, 2019, The Black Dahlia. Tracy did not seek a divorce, nor did he return to married life to attempt a reconciliation for the rest of his life. Here are 10 celebrities and their scandals you may or may not be familiar with. She developed a reputation of being hard to work with, temperamental, and a sex symbol relying on her looks as much as her acting ability. Harding was inept, Coolidge was mediocre, and Hoover was overcome by circumstances he neither understood nor could control. Sex with minor females those under the age of 18 in California was statutory rape, and Flynn found himself so charged by not one, but two underage young ladies, threatening his reputation, his career, his marriage, and his freedom. Alarmingly for many, petting was popular among both wild flappers and average young women during the 1920s. But the 1920s had a darker side. (This was not unexpected, as previous publishers had been arrested; and indeed, getting their case to trial was their goal, in order to challenge a new obscenity law.) After their child was born, Bergman obtained a divorce from her husband, and within a week married the Italian director, though she had to travel to Mexico to do so. and more. 10 Twisted 19th-Century Serial Killers Everyone Forgets, Top 10 Vicious 19th-Century Australian Slaughters, 10 Ghastly Prison Practices Of The 19th Century, Prince William's Dancing Is The Latest Of 10, 10 Crazy Conspiracies That Rocked Governments, 10 Golden Hollywood Scandals That Were Covered Up, 10 Biggest Scandals Of The Obama Presidency, Top 10 Celebrity Scandals Misrepresented By The, Top 10 Bizarre YouTube Scandals That Shocked Everyone, 10 Controversial Toys You Might Already Have in Your Home, Ten Absolutely Vicious Fights over Inherited Fortunes, 10 Female Film Pioneers Who Shaped the Movies, Ten True Tales from Americas Toughest Prison, 10 Times Members of Secretive Societies and Organizations Spilled the Beans, 10 Common Idioms with Unexpectedly Dark Origins, 10 North American Animals with Misplaced Reputations, 10 Historical Events With Hilarious Forgotten Details, 10 Little-Known Aspects Of Ancient Roman Family Life, 10 Failed Conspiracies That Would Have Changed Everything. Normands cocaine use and resulting connections to organized crime figures were also considered, but no firm evidence could be found. Eve Blue, a college undergraduate, was there for the fun. She had been mangled in a manner similar to some of the victims of the notorious London killer Jack the Ripper; eviscerated, dismembered, exsanguinated, and then posed. So damaged were delicate public sensibilities that Besant and Bradlaugh were put on trial. Throughout the decade, there were murders, explosions, kidnappings, and disappearances, many of which were never solved. Americas Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral, The First Birth Control Pill Used Puerto Rican Women as Guinea Pigs. The latter was soothed by Payton and Tone marrying after he recovered. The Life and Times of a Leading Lady. The jury decided the lady suffered from puerperal maniapost partum depression. Young female wannabe stars were frequent guests to his office so that he may evaluate their skills. Both her marriages became tabloid fodder as a result of her physical and alcohol-fueled public brawls with her husbands. 'Petting parties' added some steam to Jazz Age soirees. It was 1931, and the air in Chicagos 57th Street art colony crackled with sexual tension. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Austrian Empire, a man stood out for his violent tactics in suppressing the revolutionaries: Julius Jacob von Haynau, an Austrian general who earned the nickname, the Hyena. News of his brutality, particularly against Hungarian women, excited much anger in the English public. But it was no mannequin. The ensuing scandal was multi-pronged. Turners daughter, Cheryl, was acquitted, though the scandal remained for many months, with numerous reports that Lanas testimony (she was the only eyewitness to the killing) had been nothing more than an example of her practicing her craft as an actress. Twenty minutes after the first copies went on sale, the pair were arrested following a complaint by the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Jack Pickford was the brother of Mary Pickford, arguably the most powerful woman in Hollywood in 1916. Others, however, have faded into obscurity, even though the public indulged in their salaciousness during their heyday. Scandals of Warren G. Harding The nation plunged into mourning, little suspecting that the beloved leader they eulogized as "an ideal American" would soon be revealed to have been the head of the most corrupt administration in the nation's history. Wikimedia. After an outcry and trial, all copies were burnt and their sale prohibited.. One study found that by 1924, 92 percent of college women had tried petting. Banks were . Wall Street offered its share of get-rich-quick schemes as well. She created scandal by aborting a pregnancy in which the father was a leading man in one of her films, married to another (William Powell). Richard Babcock, Chicago Magazine. The Los Angeles police responded to the call, and according to reporters and those who have studied the case since, thoughtfully removed evidence of Taylors liaisons with other women, including several young actresses not yet of legal age. Guests (friends of Arbuckles) who found the 30-year-old actress claimed that she was fully clothed at the time; her friends later claimed she was raped, by Arbuckle, though a subsequent physical examination revealed no physical evidence of sexual assault. Franchot Tone derailed his own career by becoming enmeshed in several scandals in the 1930s and 40s. Debauchery, skullduggery, and other erys were rampant in late 19th and early 20th century society. Chaplin found his reputation shattered by his soon-to-be exs accusations. Prohibition was a nationwide ban on the sale and import of alcoholic beverages that lasted from 1920 to 1933. Eve Golden. Bluefit the stereotype of the 1920s flapper to a T, chasing a lifestyle that would have been unthinkable just 20 years before. Arbuckle was tried three times, with the first two resulting in mistrials due to juries unable to render a verdict. When she was introduced to film director Irving Thalberg, for whom she was to star in a Hollywood production, she asked him, How do you get laid in this dreadful place? Supposedly a sneering Thalberg told her to ask anyone. Like the Rhett Butler character he portrayed, Clark Gable was fond of patronizing brothels, as did many of Hollywoods leading men. The First Trial of the Century Evelyn Nesbit arrived in New York City in 1900 as a 15-year-old. Their affair was the talk of society in both Hollywood and Boston, where Rose Kennedy chose to ignore it, at least publicly. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The LAPD also investigated the murder as part of a lesbian affair, identifying one suspect only as Queer Woman Surgeon in their files. The combination of a female sex symbol, a mobster, and her daughters involvement was too much for the press to resist and the trial became a media circus. While Reagan was never charged with a crime, several members of his administration were convicted of crimes in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. Teapot Dome Scandal. A mugshot of Elizabeth Short the Black Dahlia taken when she was arrested for underage drinking before becoming the victim of a grisly murder. All Rights Reserved. The womans husband, Theodore Tilton, sued Beecher in 1875 for the act of criminal conversation and demanded $100,000 in restitution. Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images. Payton vacated the marital home and returned to Neal, and Tone, perhaps wisely, decided to resolve the issue in court rather than in another bout. The queen had recently given birth to her first child. Arbuckle was formally barred from acting by a newly formed censorship board, and the press and public subjected him to continuous condemnation, as well as ridicule over his substantial girth. 2003, American Gigolo. Lady Mordaunt feared syphilis and confessed to her husband, Sir Charles, that shed been often unfaithful to him. Several of the men involved in the pedophilia ring including Somerset fled the country to avoid prosecution. Wikimedia. In 1949 the married Bergman (her husband was neurosurgeon Petter Lindstrom) began an affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini (an earlier affair she had with American actor Gregory Peck was kept hidden at the time). He proceeded to spend his windfall on complete frivolity that captivated the public and press: He collected silk gowns, covered his bedroom in velvet, and even modified his cars exhaust to spray perfume. Why? They republished it anyway. During her short career, she was linked romantically with Clark Gable, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Hughes, Baer, Paul Bern, Louis B. Mayer, Franchot Tone, Lee Tracy, James Stewart, and others, including Talullah Bankhead, Clara Bow, and Joan Crawford. In Babylon, some of the most infamous bona fide scandals of the 1920s are omitted - say, the unsolved 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor - or glancingly invoked, like the infamous . He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Some even chartered buses to round up potential investors and drive them out to the oil fields for a look-see. Roscoe's roommate had thrown a party in their suite which was crashed Virginia Rappe who fell seriously ill and died a few days later. William Desmond Taylor. In 1921, Fatty Arbuckle was accused of raping and killing Virginia Rappe. Swansons divorce from her second husband had included revelations that she had been unfaithful with at least thirteen men, including Hollywood luminaries Cecil B. deMille and Rudolph Valentino. Here are some of the juiciest Old Hollywood scandals that are just as jaw-dropping to read about today as they were back then.