Infamous Scandals Page 3

By the time Bergman was offered her most famous role, in Casablanca, she had become a dedicated wife and mother. Ingrid married the dentist and neurosurgeon Peter Lindstrom on 10 July 1937, and the couple had a young daughter Freidal Pia Lindstrom. Ingrid and Peter met in Sweden when she was just 18 years old and he accompanied her to the United States to pursue a career in Hollywood. Peter found work lecturing on medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and eventually moved to San Francisco, where he became one of America’s leading brain surgeons.

  Bad Boy Roberto

  The bubble burst when Ingrid met and fell deeply in love with the director Roberto Rosselini. Rosselini was a reckless Italian playboy with a chequered past. In 1931, he met and pursued an affair with the comedienne Assia Norris. Assia refused to have sex with him before they were married, and so Roberto arranged an elaborate church wedding with all the trimmings, an archbishop, priest and gala celebration. A few years later their marriage was failing and Assia asked her husband for a divorce, only to discover that the entire wedding was actually a staged fake!

  When Roberto Rosselini met Ingrid Bergman he was married and already known to be keeping several mistresses, including the actress Anna Magnani. In spite of his terrible reputation, or perhaps because of it (not many women can honestly resist a bad boy!) Bergman was unable to control her feelings for the Italian stallion Roberto.

  The two met in Paris while the actress was making the Alfred Hitchcock film, Under Capricorn in England. She was accompanied by her husband Peter, who was acting as her manager, but despite this it was love at first sight. She expressed great interest in appearing in Rosselini’s next feature. Rosselini later went to visit Ingrid and her husband in the United States, even staying with the couple at their family home. Ingrid later wrote to her husband from Italy, where she and Roberto were filming Stromboli, their first feature film together, explaining that:

  . . . you saw in Hollywood how my enthusiasm for Roberto grew and grew, and you know how much alike we are, with the same desire for the same kind of work and the same understanding of life.

  On 7 February 1950, whilst still married to Peter Lindstrom, Ingrid gave birth to Roberto’s son, Robertino Rosselini.

  FROM SAINT TO WHORE AND BACK AGAIN

  Today it is difficult to understand the strength of America’s reaction to the birth of this illegitimate child, but in 1950 it caused an almighty scandal. Her American fans, who had been so utterly besotted with her as the virtuous and saintly ice-queen, simply could not accept the disappointment they felt and adulation soon turned to anger. She was preached against from pulpits, cinemas were picketed for showing her films and news of the scandal even reached the floor of the US senate. The Democrat senator for Colorado, Edwin C. Johnson famously denounced her as ‘a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil’. There was then a floor vote, which saw Bergman made a persona non grata in the eyes of the American government and she was effectively expelled from the USA. Ingrid was forced to leave her home, her husband and her daughter in order to seek exile with Rosselini in Italy. One cannot help but wonder if Roberto even got a diplomatic slap on the wrist for his own part in the brouhaha!

  While Ingrid was in Italy, American anger continued unabated. As a result her films were widely boycotted in the USA. Ingrid though, ever the single-minded, stubborn and independent woman, evidently forgave herself. She was later quoted as saying ‘I have no regrets. I would not have lived my life the way I did if I was going to worry about what people were goingto say.’

  Marilyn Monroe

  Marilyn Monroe is one of the iconic film stars of the 20th century, a Hollywood star whose life was full of sex, lies and scandal. For many years she was considered the most beautiful woman in America, her blonde hair, red lips and curvaceous figure representing the 1950s ideal of womanhood. However, despite her huge success as a movie star, and the fact that she was seen as one of the most desirable women of the age, her life was full of sadness, and throughout her career she suffered a series of mental breakdowns. Her eventual suicide may have simply been the inevitable outcome of this mental instability, but many believed that there was more to the story. There were rumours that she was sexually involved with the president of the USA, John F. Kennedy, or possibly the president’s brother, Robert Kennedy, and that she was murdered in an effort to try to hush up the enormous scandal that would have ensued if the affair had become known to the public. However, these were never investigated, so today her death remains something of a mystery.

  Foster homes

  Norma Jeane Mortenson was born on 1 June 1 1926, in the charity ward of Los Angeles County Hospital. Right from the start her prospects did not look good. Her mother, Gladys Pearl Monroe, had married twice, divorcing her second husband, Martin Edward Mortenson, a man from a Norwegian background, after only six months. Mortenson played no role in baby Norma Jeane’s life, and it was thought by some – including Marilyn herself when she was older – that her real father was in fact one Charles Stanley Gifford, a man that her mother had met while working at RKO pictures as a film cutter.

  After the departure of Mortenson, Gladys could not care for her child, so the girl was sent to live with foster parents, where she remained until the age of seven. After that, she went to live with her mother, but it was then that Gladys suffered a serious mental breakdown and was sent to a mental hospital. Norma Jeane moved in with a family friend, Grace McKee, but this did not last and soon she was shuttling between foster homes, since no one wanted to take care of her.

  Finally, McKee managed to persuade a young man, James Dougherty, to marry the teenager so that she would at least have a home. The couple moved in to his parents’ home, and Norma Jeane began employment spraying aeroplanes in a factory, where she was discovered by a photographer who arranged for her to be signed up by a modelling agency.

  Movie career

  After screen testing for Twentieth Century Fox, Norma Jeane landed a contract and began to make movies under the name of Marilyn Monroe. Little by little, she began to build her movie career, and by the early 1950s had begun to make a considerable name for herself. At this point, some nude photographs of her were picked up and published in Playboy. She had posed for these when she was poor and unknown. To the studio’s horror, she faced down the scandal by admitting that it was her in the pictures – even joking that all she had had on during the photo shoot was ‘the radio’. It was this honesty and lack of hypocrisy that earned her many admirers, and she went on to become the major sex siren of her day, with a ready wit that recalled Mae West. (For example, when asked what she wore in bed, she wittily replied, ‘Chanel Number 5’.) She also went on to make some of the classic films of all time, such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch and Some Like it Hot. Yet despite the fact that she had a cracking sense of humour and had proved herself to be a talented actress and comedienne, the film studios she worked for preferred to present her as a ‘dumb blonde’.

  By the early 1960s, Monroe’s erratic behaviour on set – turning up late and failing to learn her lines – was beginning to put studios off hiring her. Eventually, she was dropped by all the major studios and from then on, often expressed her bitterness about the way she had been treated in Hollywood. However, despite the fact that the studios no longer wanted to employ her, she still had many opportunities and admirers in the business, so it came as a shock – both to the industry and to the public – when on 5 August 1962, she was found dead in her home.

  Public scandals

  Many speculated on the reasons behind her apparent suicide. Monroe’s personal relationships had been very unstable throughout her career, and there had been constant rumours and scandals about her love life. She had divorced her first husband soon after her film career took off and in 1954 married baseball player Joe DiMaggio. However, he became jealous of her and was particularly angry when the crowd yelled their approval as her skirt blew up in The Seven Year Itch. They openly fought in public and later Monroe was seen to ha
ve bruises on her arms. Less than a year into the marriage the couple split, Monroe filing for divorce on grounds of mental cruelty.

  Monroe’s second marriage was to the popular American playwright Arthur Miller. The intellectual Miller could not have been a more different man from DiMaggio and the couple at first seemed happy, until Monroe suffered two miscarriages. This was enough to tip her into mental illness once more, and before long this marriage was over, too. Added to this her movie career was now failing. Monroe went to live alone in Brentwood, Los Angeles, where she descended deeper into depression, until on 5 August 1962 she was found dead from an overdose of sleeping pills.

  Suspicious circumstances

  Given her history of mental illness and that of her mother, as well as other members of her family, most people believed that she had committed suicide. After all, she had made numerous suicide attempts over the years, and for many years her behaviour had been extremely erratic. The coroner recorded the case as ‘probable suicide’ and she was buried at the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. However, rumours soon began to circulate that the death was not a suicide and that she had possibly been murdered. There were anomalies in the coroner’s report and some aspects of the scene of the crime did not make sense. For example, there was no glass of water near where Monroe’s body was found, so how could she have downed an overdose of sleeping tablets? Also, in death, her body looked as though it had been positioned in a certain way; it was not like the usual posture of suicide victims.

  Then there were the circumstances surrounding the case. It gradually came out that on the last evening of her life, Monroe had made a number of phone calls, including one to the actor Peter Lawford, who was a close friend of the Kennedys. It was also rumoured that Robert Kennedy, brother of President John Kennedy, had been seen driving away from the house that night. This caused speculation that Monroe might have been having an affair with the president.

  A huge scandal

  The theory was that the president had been worried about Monroe’s threats to go public over the affair, and might have had her killed to save a huge scandal, and the end of his political career. Thus – so the theory went – he asked his brother Robert to perform the murder. Additionally, there was speculation that Robert Kennedy, too, might have been having an affair with Monroe. There was also a theory that Monroe was killed by a hitman employed by mafia man Sam Giancana, and that JFK had ordered the killing, or that Giancana himself had been having an affair with Monroe. However, it was not clear, if this was the case, what his motive would have been.

  Whatever the truth of the matter, no hard evidence was uncovered that would back up any of these theories. Since that time, there have been many books published on the matter, the most persuasive of which have suggested that Monroe killed herself by accident. It seems that Monroe may have asked her housekeeper to give her an enema containing her medicines, which would explain the lack of a glass of water by the bedside. That would mean that instead of trying to kill herself, she muddled up her tablets, causing the overdose. It is possible that Monroe might have been having an affair with the president, and that knowing this link, whoever found her might have panicked, moving the body around at the scene of the death and delaying calling an ambulance.

  The current line of thinking is that, instead of being a murder, Monroe’s death was more of a scandal, involving sex, drugs and people in high places. Perhaps the reason that not more was made of it at the time was that, at the heart of the scandal, was a very sad story, about a woman who, despite her success and fame had suffered great unhappiness throughout her life. She was undoubtedly a woman who was held up as an icon of feminine sexuality, but whose talent was never recognised, or so she felt. She was a woman who was adored as a movie star by millions, but who did not feel loved by those closest to her. For, from the outset of her career, Monroe’s story was one of sex, lies and scandals; but at the end, at the heart of it, a tale of tragedy.

  Fatty Arbuckle

  One of the most famous Hollywood scandals of all time was that of Roscoe ‘Fatty’ Arbuckle, a successful Hollywood comedian during the era of silent films. The scandal began when, after a night of carousing with friends at his hotel, a woman at the party died of a ruptured bladder. Arbuckle was accused of raping her so roughly that he caused this injury, though later it transpired that the woman had become ill for other reasons, including imbibing too much alcohol. Whatever the truth of the matter, the scandal ruined the actor’s career – tragically, as it turned out – because in the end he was acquitted of the crime. Yet even though Arbuckle received a formal apology for his treatment from the court, his career never recovered and his films were banned. Because of his public disgrace, Arbuckle took to the bottle until, eventually, his reputation was restored and he began to make films again. However, his joy at resuming his acting career was short-lived; the night after being signed up by Warner Brothers to make a feature film, Arbuckle died of a heart attack.

  Million dollar man

  Roscoe Conkling Arbuckle was born on 24 March 1887 to Mollie and William Goodrich Arbuckle. As a young man he worked in vaudeville, learning from comedians such as Leon Errol. In July 1909 he broke into films, signing to the Selig Polyscope Company. Four years later he was signed to Universal and made his name as a character in one of the Keystone Kops silent films.

  During this time he married and appeared with his wife Minta Durfee in many comedies of the period. One of the gags he introduced in his films was that of the ‘pie in the face’, a piece of slapstick that subsequently became a favourite with audiences, and which has become a staple of knockabout comedy to this day.

  Arbuckle also introduced one of the great comic actors of the 20th century to the screen, Buster Keaton, by giving him a role in his 1917 film, The Butcher Boy. The pair became firm friends, and Keaton continued to remain loyal to Arbuckle throughout the scandal that followed. Keaton described him as one of the ‘kindest souls’ he had ever known and declared that he was incapable of committing the cruel act that he was accused of.

  Arbuckle’s career was by now in full flight and when he moved on to making feature-length movies, leaving the short films to Keaton, he became one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. He signed to Paramount for the sum of one million dollars a year, a fee unheard of for those days. He began a hectic schedule of film-making, working on three feature films at the same time. On 3 September he decided to take a short holiday with two friends, Fred Fischbach and Lowell Sherman, both of whom were film directors. The three friends drove to San Fransisco and booked in at the St Francis Hotel. There they threw a party in their suite, inviting several women along, one of whom was an aspiring actress, Virginia Rappe.

  Accidental death or rape?

  Much drinking and merriment ensued and everyone was having fun until Rappe became ill and a doctor had to be called. As Rappe had obviously been drinking, the doctor put her symptoms down to over-indulgence in alcohol. However, he was mistaken; three days later Rappe died, and the cause was found to be peritonitis, which had been caused by a rupture to her bladder.

  When Rappe died, her friend Maude Delmont, who had accompanied her to the party, accused Arbuckle of having raped her, causing her death by his rough handling of her. Arbuckle at first responded to the charge dismissively, because he thought he had nothing to worry about, knowing he was innocent of the charge. What he did not realise was that Delmont was out to get money from his attorneys, trying to blackmail them into buying her silence. By the time Arbuckle found out what was going on, the story had become front-page news, and the damage to his career was already done.

  Tragically for Arbuckle, it was not long before the story ran out of control and within days, charges were brought against him. When the case came to trial, it became one of the leading newspaper stories of the day. Unfortunately, the timing of the trial also coincided with a major moral panic about the entertainment industry, particularly the behaviour of Hollywood stars. Stories against Arbuckl
e appeared in all the newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, making him out to be guilty as charged. In addition, the Hollywood studios sided against him, eager to ingratiate themselves to the moralists and wanting to distance themselves from the scandal. They also forced actor friends of Arbuckle’s, who would have been sympathetic witnesses, to maintain their silence, threatening them that they would lose their jobs if they spoke up in favour of him.

  Film banned

  To make matters worse, around this time there were several other Hollywood-related scandals that hit the headlines: that of Wallace Reid, an actor and director who overdosed on drugs; Olive Thomas, the wife of a matinee idol, Jack Pickford, who had died from mistakenly drinking his medicine; and William Taylor, a director whose murder cast suspicion on two Hollywood actresses, Mary Miles Minter and Mabel Normand. Coincidentally, Normand had co-starred with Arbuckle in several of his films.

  Because of all this, the authorities decided to censor the film industry, believing that the films being made, and the licentious behaviour of the Hollywood stars, were corrupting the nation’s morals. As a result, the Hays Code, which ruled on what could legally be shown on screen – in terms of sex, violence and any kind of behaviour considered ‘immoral’. This, of course, severely limited the films’ subject matter and a series of worthy and very unpopular movies ensued as directors racked their brains as to how to circumvent the rules and yet still make dramatic, action-packed pictures. In the meantime, all of Arbuckle’s movies were banned by the censors, which was another huge blow to his career.