Infamous Scandals Read online

  Olive and Jack: The End Game

  In 1920 Jack and Olive decided to take a second honeymoon in Europe, and the couple sailed from New York for Paris on 12 August 1920. The lustre of married life had all but worn off. Jack’s philandering and Olive’s partying caused enormous arguments, the pair were a volatile combination – one minute they were at each other’s throats, the next lavishing apologies, kisses and gifts upon one another. The holiday was aimed at saving their rapidly failing marriage. Jack and Olive checked into the Paris Ritz upon their arrival in the city. On the evening of Saturday, 9 September, Jack and his wife went out on the town – not arriving back at their hotel room until 3 a.m. A couple of hours later, Jack called reception to say that his wife had mistakenly taken an overdose of medicine and required the services of a doctor. A doctor arrived 10 minutes later to find Olive writhing in agony. She had taken a huge dose of mercury bichloride – a medicine prescribed to Jack as treatment for syphillis. There was little he could do to save the young actress.

  Mercury bichloride, if taken in large doses, is incredibly corrosive. It basically burns the body from the inside out. Olive died from acute nephritic inflammation as a result of internal corrosion. She suffered in agony for four long days and nights before finally succumbing to death.

  Jack’s official story behind Olive’s accident went something like this: The couple turned out the lights and went to bed, but Olive was unable to sleep. She reached out to grab her bottle of sleeping pills and mistakenly took hold of the mercury bichloride. She gulped-down a number of pills before realising the dreadful mistake she had made. Olive staggered to the ensuite bathroom whereby she exclaimed ‘Oh my God!’ waking Jack, who came running to her aid, catching her in his arms as she collapsed. It was then that Jack contacted the hotel reception and asked for help. His version of events runs something like a scene from a tacky melodrama of the era, and although the inquest concluded a verdict of accidental death, the papers were rife with alternative theories.

  One rumour claimed that Olive had committed suicide when she discovered that Jack had infected her with syphillis. But if that was the case, why on earth would she choose such a painful way to die? Another rumour stated that Olive was a heroin addict and alcoholic who was so intoxicated that she had no idea what she was doing. The most sinister theories placed the blame squarely with Jack – claiming that he murdered her either for her money or because he discovered that she had been unfaithful.

  Olive’s body was returned to New York, where she was put to rest at the St Thomas Episcopal Church on 5th Avenue. Over 4,000 people attended the memorial service – it was the first show-biz funeral of its kind. Jack’s sisters once again stepped in to help get his life back on track – he continued acting and went on to marry two more Zeigfeld girls, Marylin Miller from 1922-1927 and Mary Mulhern from 1930-1932. He eventually died in 1933, according to his niece Gwen Pickford from ‘too many of the right things: women, drink and riotous living’ but the reality of his death was not nearly so glamorous. Ultimately he died of syphillis – a virulent and disfiguring venereal disease.

  Olive Thomas was the prototype wayward starlet, her sensational but tragically short life went some way towards paving the way for Marilyn Monroe, Anna Nicole Smith et al, but today her films have been mostly lost or forgotten, and Olive Thomas is remembered for one thing and one thing only, as the sex siren behind Hollywood’s very first major scandal.

  Jean Harlow

  Young, gifted and ravishing, Jean Harlow seemed to have everything – striking platinum blonde hair, a curvaceous figure, natural sensuality and a sharp sense of humour. With all these weapons in her arsenal it is difficult to understand how her short life became so mired in controversy and tragedy.

  ‘Baby’ Jean

  Jean Harlow was born Harlean Harlow Carpenter on 3 March 1911, to Jean Poe and Mont Clair Carpenter from Kansas, Missouri. Harlean’s mother Jean came from wealthy stock. She was the daughter of successful real-estate broker, Skip Harlow and his wife Ella. Skip and Ella had arranged their daughter’s marriage to Mont Clair, and Jean never forgave them for it. She was a dominant, charismatic and free-spirited woman who longed for independence. Consequently she was very unhappy in her marriage to Mont Clair, a suburban dentist with working class roots, so convinced was she that she deserved better.

  This depression meant that Jean focused all her attention on the couple’s only child, Harlean. Mother and daughter became inseparable. Jean was a controlling and over-protective mother who encouraged her daughter to depend on her for absolutely everything. The entire family referred to pampered Harlean only as ‘Baby’, and Jean wanted to keep it that way, hence Harlean was five years old when she eventually discovered that her real name was actually Harlean and not in fact ‘Baby’.

  A Broken Home

  When Harlean began attending school, Jean Snr grew ever more frustrated with married life, divorcing Mont Clair in 1922, when Harlean was just ten years old. As a consequence of the separation Mother Jean was granted sole custody of her daughter. Harlean struggled to keep in contact with her father throughout the remaining years of her life.

  Jean Snr harboured ambitions to become an actress, and moved herself and Harlean to Hollywood in order to pursue her dream. However, jobs were not forthcoming and so dwindling finances meant they were forced to return to Kansas city after just two years. Jean Snr gave up on the idea of having her own acting career and focused instead on attracting a wealthy husband. Her acting ambitions shifted to that of her daughter. It was largely thanks to the efforts of manager ‘Mama Jean’, that Harlean would go on to achieve everything her mother had ever wanted for herself and more.

  Child-bride

  At the age of 16, Harlean ran away from home to marry the wealthy 23-year-old Charles McGrew. ‘Mama Jean’ was now happily remarried to shyster Marino Bello and so the young newlyweds moved from the family’s home in Chicago to Berverly Hills. Harlean’s true aspiration in life was simply to be a devoted wife and mother. She was never particularly interested in making movies, but at the suggestion of Jean she began to pursue jobs as a film extra. Harlean’s obvious sex-appeal made her perfect for Hollywood, and her acting career slowly began to take off. Her marriage, however, was less successful. Harlean’s career put pressure on the couple’s relationship and before long she had filed for divorce. Little did Harlean know her big break was just around the corner.

  Discovered

  The story of Harlean’s discovery (and her subsequent reinvention as the sex goddess: Jean Harlow) reads like a Hollywood fairy tale, the like of which most struggling young actresses can only dream of. She

  was spotted by actor, James Hall who was filming Howard Hughes World War I aviation epic Hells Angels. The movie mogul was in the process remaking

  the originally silent Hells Angels as a talkie, but the lead actress Greta Nissen, had a thick Norse accent that simply would not work on screen, and so he was on the look out for a replacement. Baby Harlean fitted the bill. A few big movies and a publicity tour later, Jean Harlow’s star was firmly on the ascendant and thanks to her new boyfriend, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) big-wig Paul Bern, MGM were looking to buy her contract from Howard Hughes. On 3 March 1932, Jean’s 21st birthday, she received news from Bern that MGM had indeed purchased her contract from Hughes for a fee of $30,000 (an exorbitant amount of money at the time). Jean’s career was about to go truly stella.

  MGM: the behemoth

  In order to understand the events leading up to the scandal that followed, it is first important to examine the role of the studio system in Hollywood during the 1930s. A major economic depression had taken its toll on Hollywood, just as it had the rest of America. MGM was the only studio that continued to go from strength to strength despite widespread financial hardship. This was down to the consistently high-quality of their pictures and a number of clever decisions by the studio’s board of directors. MGM was therefore the most powerful film studio in America (and therefore the world
), and in order to maintain their position they were forced to rule all aspects of the company with an iron fist. They controlled the lives of their actors and actresses, especially the stars such as Greta Garbo, who were their bread and butter. Jean Harlow was already used to being under the thumb, strictly controlled as she had been by her mother for so many years. MGM to her was just like another larger, richer parent figure – constantly pulling-strings and manipulating people and events around her in order to achieve their own objectives.

  Doomed second marriage

  Harlow married Paul Bern at the house of her mother, ‘Mama Jean’ Harlow, on 2 July 1932. It was an unlikely match to say the very least. Paul Bern had been heralded as a genius by his contemporaries in the industry. He was also known as Hollywood’s father confessor, because he was so caring and sensitive that people often went to him with their problems. For all this Bern was also 22 years older than Jean, small and insignificant in stature and physically fairly unattractive. Standing next to his sex-bomb wife they must have looked like the original odd-couple. Despite the apparent mismatch, Harlow seemed radiantly happy in the weeks following the wedding, and all seemed to be going swimmingly. Bern had bought the couple a luxurious house in Beverly Hills surrounded by five acres of ground which was to be the family home. Unfortunately Harlow disliked the house for some reason and wanted to sell it. The couple began arguing about this, and soon the tide changed. Bern began to look haggard and withdrawn, and Jean began spending more and more time at the home of her mother.

  Bang Bang: My Baby Shot me Down

  Jean was at her mother’s on 5 September 1932, when the couple’s butler found Paul Bern lying face-down on the floor of his wife’s all-white bedroom. He was completely naked and drenched in her perfume. A .38 caliber revolver lay at his side. His brains had been blown out. For reasons known only to him, the butler called not the police nor an ambulance, but the studio’s security chief. Within minutes he and two top MGM bosses, Louis B Mayer and Irving Thalberg were on their way to the Bern residence. The police were still not called. Mayer arrived at the house first, followed closely by Thalberg and the security chief WP ‘Whitey’ Hendry. They did not call the authorities until two hours later. What exactly happened during those lost minutes has never been revealed, but many believe that these men manipulated the evidence to suggest Bern had committed suicide. A supposed suicide note was found near the body. It read:

  Dearest Dear,

  Unfortunately this is the only way to make good the frightful wrong I have done you and wipe out my abject humiliation.

  I love you

  Paul

  You realise that last night was only a comedy.

  This was taken by many as evidence to support the rumour that Bern suffered from a physical disability (such as chronic impotence) that made it impossible for him to have intercourse with his bombshell wife. A condition such as this could certainly have given rise to feelings of abject humiliation – and explain the last line of the note, but was this the case? Upon his autopsy Bern’s personal physician supported the claim, stating that Bern suffered from a condition that would have rendered a healthy marital life impossible. However, the couple’s gardener later said that he did not believe the note was in his employer’s hand-writing, and this view was supported by expert handwriting analysts. Perhaps Mayer, Thalberg and Hendry faked the suicide note in order to shift suspicion onto the dead man himself and away from Harlow? They certainly had the abilities, the opportunity and the motive. Jean could not afford to get caught up with a murder enquiry, and her sex-bomb image would falter if it transpired that another lover had committed the murder, as it would imply to her audience that Jean Harlow could not keep a husband satisfied.

  Curiouser and Curiouser

  If things were not mysterious enough already, it soon transpired that Bern had for years kept a common law wife called Dorothy Millette. Dorothy, a struggling actress, had lived with Paul in New York and Toronto for a number of years and she often referred to herself as ‘Mrs Paul Bern’. Unfortunately, she began to suffer from severe mental illness and Paul was forced to have her institutionalised. He continued to provide generously for Dorothy’s care, but the romance was apparently over when he relocated to Los Angeles. The day after Bern’s death, Millette checked out of her room at the Plaza Hotel in San Franscisco and boarded a Sacramento River steamer called the Delta King. When the ship docked in Sacramento, Dorothy was no longer on board, but her coat and shoes were found on deck. Dorothy’s body was discovered by fishermen a few days later. It seemed that she had jumped overboard.

  rumours

  Today rumours continue to rage regarding Paul Bern’s mysterious death. Some believe that Jean Harlow discovered the truth about Dorothy and furiously murdered her husband; others think that Dorothy Millette became dangerously unhinged and dealt the fatal blow herself. Winifred Charmichael, the Bern’s cook was reported as saying that the household staff encountered a strange woman on the night of the murder. She heard an unfamiliar woman’s voice in the house and later found a woman’s wet swimsuit, as well as two used wine glasses out by the side of the pool. Did Dorothy swing-by for a visit on the day of her expartner’s death? Had this clandestine relationship ever actually ended? Was the Harlow-Bern marriage a sham from the beginning? All these questions remain unanswered. One thing is for sure though MGM had the power to manipulate the lives of the A-list’s elite, even to criminal ends.

  An unhappy ending

  Jean Harlow’s career did not suffer dreadfully in the days and months following the scandal, but her health certainly did. According to reports Jean attempted suicide shortly after her husband’s death, but although she survived, she did not do so for long. At the tender age of 26, whilst filming Saratoga with Clarke Gable, Jean began to suffer from kidney problems caused by a childhood bout of scarlet fever. She postponed seeing her doctor because she was busy filming, but by the time her symptoms became serious it was too late. She died of cerebral edema and uremic poisoning caused by a build up of waste products in the blood. Some claimed that her mother, a christian scientist, had kept her from seeing a doctor because of her religious beliefs but this was untrue. It was Jean’s other parental influence – her studio who, through the pressures of filming, inadvertently caused her tragic death.

  Ingrid Bergman

  Ingrid Bergman will forever be remembered for her role as Ilsa Lund in the unforgettable classic Casablanca. In the movie, Ilsa is caught between two men: her war-hero husband, and the nightclub owner and notorious ladies-man Rick Blaine (played by Humphrey Bogart). In her professional life the role of star-crossed-lover Ilsa earned Ingrid extremely high acclaim. However, in her personal life, Ingrid’s extramarital transgressions with playboy director Roberto Rosselini cost her nearly everything.

  A Lonely Childhood

  Ingrid Bergman was born in Stockholm on 29 August 1915. Her mother, Friedal Adler Bergman – a German native, died when Ingrid was only three years old. Her father, Justus Bergman, owned a photography shop and got his daughter interested in the arts at an early age. He delighted in taking photos and making home movies featuring Ingrid, but unfortunately he died when she was just 12 years old, and Ingrid was passed from pillar-to-post until an elderly uncle and his family took her in.

  Ingrid had been introduced to celluloid as a youngster, and clearly felt at home in front of the lens, so when she was 16 years old she began appearing in films as an extra. After graduation she attended the Royal Dramatic Theatre School in Stockholm, during which time she made her professional stage debut.

  In 1936, Bergman made the film that would change her life forever. Intermezzo was written and directed by Gustav Molander, the man who had given Ingrid her big break in the Swedish film industry. The movie follows the story of a famous violinist who has an affair with his daughter’s piano teacher, played by Bergman. Even at this early point in her film career Ingrid was already playing ‘the other woman’ to great effect. The role brought her to the atte
ntion of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick, who bought the rights to remake Intermezzo, and cast Bergman as his female lead. Selznick offered Bergman a seven year film contract, and she was soon making the transition from Stockholm starlet to fully-fledged Hollywood star.

  St Ingrid the inpenetrable

  American audiences soon fell hook, line and sinker for Bergman’s angelic beauty, flawless skin, icy demeanour and quintessential good-girl image. The all-powerful Hollywood studios suggested that she change her name to a more American-sounding alternative, have her teeth capped and her eyebrows plucked, but Ingrid point-blank refused to sell-out in this manner. She had worked hard to make a name for herself as an actress in Europe, and her lonely childhood had made her both single-minded and stubborn. It turned out to be a shrewd move on her part. Her natural and unfussy look set her apart from other actresses of the era, most of whom wore heavy make-up. However, it did mean that Selznick tended to cast her in wholesome, virtuous roles and this stereo-typing made the scandal that followed even more difficult for the public to digest.

  Casablanca