Confidential

I was at work the other day, and saw one of my colleagues reading a trash magazine with nude pictures of some reality TV starlet splashed all across the front page, with a caption saying she wasn’t a whore when all about her pose screamed otherwise.

Once upon a time movie stars not only built their success on talent instead of scandals, but avoided the latter like the plague. But trash did not wait for the 21^st century to appear in newspapers.

In Hollywood, the pioneers of gossip were a couple of columnists. William Randolph Hearst goon Louella Parsons was the first to come on the scene. Even though she introduced washed up actress Hedda Hopper to her boss, the two women became rivals in the gutter press department. According to David Niven, their methods to collect information was to fix a hefty drink for their guest and to threaten them to reveal secrets about them if they didn’t tell them what they wanted to know.

Louella Parsons & Hedda Hopper

Because of them, stars were sometimes given a boost in popularity, and careers were destroyed. Hedda had an intense hate for Charlie Chaplin and spat venom on him as often as she could, when Louella campaigned against Citizen Kane and its director Orson Welles who dared caricature her boss in the film.

Early scandals included the death of Virginia Rappe during a party for which comic actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was sent to prison,  More importantly, even though his fame was comparable to that of Chaplin’s, his career never recovered and, even decades later, he had to use an alias to direct a few films.

Director Thomas H. Ince made the headlines of the Los Angeles Times in 1924 when he died. The paper reported that he was shot aboard William Randolph Hearst’s yacht although his personal physician testified he had died at home of heart failure.

Gay actor William Haines’s career was publicly ruined by MGM because of his refusal to deny his homosexuality.

But in general, the private life of their stars was kept private by the studios and their publicity department. Articles about gay actors like Clifton Webb, Cesar Romero, Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins, periodically appeared in the papers recounting their happy “confirmed bachelor” status, usually illustrated with pictures of them surrounded by young starlets just in case someone might get the wrong idea.

With the decline of the studio system, the protection that went along with it gradually disappeared as well, and in 1952, Robert Harrison decided it was high time a magazine was created that dealt solely with what the public ashamedly wanted to read: dirt.

Confidential magazine was first published in December of that year and its instant success proved Harrison right. Articles about Robert Mitchum’s conviction for drug use, Marilyn Monroe’s divorce, or Liberace’s sexual orientation assured the magazine’s success.

Although much of the gossip printed had no basis in fact, as is often the case in these publications, it opened the floodgate for future popular magazines. The industry initially fought it. Numerous trials took place by Lizabeth Scott, Maureen O’Hara, Robert Mitchum, Dorothy Dandridge, Liberace, etc.

They eventually had to deal with it and talent agent Henry Wilson “sold out” a story about Rory Calhoun’s criminal past so Confidential would agree to not publish a story about his major star Rock Hudson’s homosexuality.

Some lesser known actors like Barbara Payton even used the magazine to boost their careers.

Maureen O'Hara at the trial

Even though the magazine’s influence decreased after pressure from the studios (and the trials) in the late 1950s, its publication went on until 1978.

Closeted actor Tab Hunter even called his autobiography “Tab Hunter Confidential”, owing to the influence the magazine had on his life at the time. And Errol Flynn’s autobiography is called My wicked wicked ways, after the title of an article about him.
In the excellent "LA Confidential", look no further for the inspiration of Hush Hush Magazine.

And in his book Groucho and Me, Groucho Marx wrote a letter to the head of the magazine when one too many story about his liking young girls or that his TV show You Bet Your Life was crooked. The letter went : "Gentlemen? If you continue to write nasty pieces about me, I shall be obliged to cancel my subscription."
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That's all for today folks!