I want to apologize for the long break in between posts. College life! But thank you for your patience! And a super extra special thank you for all the support and love on my last post. It was a deeply personal piece and I appreciated every single comment so much. Thank you.
I have a few posts in the works, and I’m hoping to publish them more regularly. As an apology (but mostly just because I wanted to do this) I’m planning a Halloween extravagance on This is Tinseltown.
No spoilers but I hope y’all like monsters.
I would also like to apologize for any spelling mishaps. I had an incident in my costume class and sewed through one of my fingers. I am totally fine, but my finger is sore, and I can’t type very well. It was a hilarious story, or it will be in about a week.
I can’t lie, I feel surrounded by scandals and gossip. I think it just goes with being a theatre major. So after another dramatic week, I can’t help but think of scandals of the past. It’s always more fun when it’s someone else’s problems being exposed and not your own, isn’t it?
I want to explore five of showbusiness’ most fascinating scandals. To me, these are just the epitome of Old Hollywood — that, and I just like reading up about them.
Do not worry none of them are about Matt Damon.
So let’s dive into five of the most intriguing scandals of the past. Murder! love! And… and… well, that’s it. Just murder and love.
5. Marilyn Monroe and the Kennedys
Honolulu Star-Bulletin. January 22, 1972
I know what you are thinking. How does Marilyn and the Kennedys rank No. 5? Great question, thank you for asking. This was a hard ranking. All of these scandals are so fascinating. But alas, I rank things, and this is my list. I have them ranked based on how much I think about them, how often I read about the scandal. If this list had come out a few years back, Marilyn would have been number one. But I’ve learned about other scandals that fascinate me more, and so this one has been bumped down.
For those unfamiliar, Marilyn Monroe allegedly had an affair not only with Bobby Kennedy but with John F. Kennedy himself.
This has been a highly debated topic. Best I can tell, most people agree that Bobby and Marilyn DID have an affair. As you can see in the news article above, it has been speculated that Marilyn Monroe’s lover was:
Not in the movie industry
From the east coast
A lawyer and “public servant” (Does anyone still use that term?)
I will allow you to draw your own connections.
Where this scandal gets good is that Marilyn died under mysterious circumstances and you know what that means? Mysterious circumstances always lead to wild theories, and so after Marilyn Monroe’s death, quite a few fingers pointed in the direction of the Kennedy brothers. Now for the best part.
The day of Marilyn Monroe’s passing she called Peter Lawford. Who exactly is that? He was a minor actor who was often said to be “famous for being famous.” But more importantly, he was the brother in law of John and Bobby Kennedy. She apparently told Peter to say goodbye to his wife and to the PRESIDENT.
So, did they kill her? For my own safety I will not publicly share my thoughts on Marilyn’s death. But the whole thing is weird.
4. Clark Gable’s Secret Child
Gloucester County Times. April 8, 1994
This is quite a scandalous one. This was a secret pregnancy that resulted in a child that wasn’t publicly revealed until 1994!!
You might know devilishly handsome Clark Gable from his role as Rhett Butler in “Gone With the Wind,” but did you know he had a secret child with Loretta Young? I didn’t, so obviously I had to do a deep dive immediately.
This turned out to be less enjoyable than I thought it would be because it turns out there was some horrific behavior on Clark Gable’s part. Because of that, I will be addressing this situation delicately and trying to avoid that specific topic.
My focus is: HOW DID THEY GET AWAY WITH THAT???
How did Hollywood manage to cover up a child for about 50 years? Loretta Young was extremely Catholic and Clark Gable was a married man. This seems exactly like the kind of thing Hollywood reporters and gossip columnists and fans would sniff out.
But nobody did. Their daughter Judy Lewis wasn’t aware of her parentage until much later in her life. She seems to have met Clark Gable only once and wasn’t even aware that he was her father.
I can’t get over the fact that this was so well hidden for so long. That’s what interests me, and that’s why this is number four.
3. Elizabeth Taylor, Debbie Reynolds, and Eddie Fisher
El Paso Herald-Post. September 10, 1958
Here might be the most public love triangle in the history of Hollywood! I am a little torn on this one. I love Elizabeth Taylor and aspire to be her. But I am also a DIE HARD Star Wars fan. In the end, I must defend Carrie Fisher’s mom. I’m sorry Elizabeth.
Debbie Reynolds, the star of the best musical ever, Singing in the Rain, was married to no-good scoundrel Eddie Fisher. He was a singer or something, who cares. And Elizabeth Taylor, who was maybe the biggest star in Hollywood, was DEBBIE’S BEST FRIEND. By the late 1950s, Elizabeth was on her third husband, Mike Todd, who he died tragically in a plane crash. Apparently Debbie and Eddie comforted Elizabeth during this time, but it seems Eddie had his own ideas about how exactly to comfort a grieving woman.
To give context to how close Elizabeth/Todd and Debbie/Eddie were, Debbie and Eddie named their son Todd after Mike Todd.
When news came out about Eddie Fisher and Elizabeth Taylor having an affair — apparently they didn’t have the same publicists who covered-up Clark Gable’s love child — it led to the divorce of Eddie and Debbie. How does Eddie handle it? He married Elizabeth. They were together for five years, and then Elizabeth had an affair with actor Richard Burton, and they got married, and Eddie married actor and singer Connie Stevens and so on.
The message here is that Eddie Fisher is no good and is only relevant because of this scandal. 0/10 for him. 1000/10 for messiness and intrigue.
2. Natalie Wood’s Mysterious Passing
Waterloo Region Record. November 30, 1981
I have a lot to say about this one.
Natalie Wood was America’s sweetheart and she was gone too soon. She was a child actress famous for her role as Maria in West Side Story (though she didn’t sing the songs). However, her marriage to irrelevant nobody actor Robert Wagner was messy and troublesome. They had been divorced and then remarried at the time of her passing.
She was on a boat with Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken when she was found on a dinghy dead the next morning. It was ruled as an accidental drowning.
How is this scandalous? BECUASE IT WASN’T AN ACCIDENTAL DROWNING. The case has been reopened many years after her death in 1981.
Natalie Wood had a fear of water so what was she doing out on a dinghy by herself?
There are many different conspiracies and suspects. Because of that, I feel unqualified to point any fingers. However, there are clear suspects … such as the two on the boat with her.
There are many great podcasts and articles about this topic but my favorite is Fatal Voyage: The Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood. Please give this a listen so I can have people to talk to about this. I will also warn that there are a lot of uncredible sources out there on this topic such as the one written by the boat captain. That nonsense has been disproven, it was a cash grab, and I am asking you to avoid it.
1. Lana Turner’s Daughter Kills
The Sentinel. April 9, 1958
I have saved the best scandal for last, obviously. I only found out about this one a week ago, but it has been a constant topic of conversation since.
Lana Turner’s daughter was a murderer???? We all know Lana Turner from that amazing scene in L.A. Confidential, right? Bueller? Bueller? No? No worries I have linked the scene here.
Lana Turner had a daughter from her marriage to Steve Crane. Her name was Cheryl Crane. At the time of this scandal, Lana Turner was seeing gangster Johnny Stompanato. (In relation to L.A. Confidential, which defines how I think about most things, he is the guy sitting in the booth with the REAL Lana Turner).
Johnny and Lana had a tumultuous relationship. He was possessive and jealous, to the point he had a confrontation with Sean Connery and LOST (seriously, Google it. It’s hilarious). So, when Cheryl came across a fight between Johnny and her mother, what did she do? Stab him of course!
Cheryl was on 14 at the time and was not charged since it was deemed self defense and a “justified stabbing”.
How crazy is that??
By the way, Cheryl Crane is still alive. She went to Cornell and afterward became a model and then a real-estate broker and then a mystery writer. She has written TWO memoirs. Please let me know if anyone would be interested in a whole post about her and this topic. I just need one person to say yes so I can do it. Please.
Well, I feel a little better about my own drama after all that — I hope you do too. I think it is good to keep things in perspective. No matter how dramatic things get at school, I haven’t had a secret child, a scandalous love affair, or killed anyone. Yet...
I’ll say yes to a post on Cheryl Crane! I had heard of the killing but I didn’t know much else about her life.
This Cheryl Crane post better be in the works!! Smart call to keep your opinion on the Kennedy’s quiet… you never know…