It may be tempting to think that Hollywood today has reached its lowest point in regard to its ethics and those of its stars. Unfortunately, it seems that the movie business has attracted scandal since its birth.

In addition, to maintain the reputation of its stars, studios have always hired fixers, double dealers, and outright shysters to do the dirty work for them. Here are 10 scandals from the Golden Age of Hollywood that they tried to cover up.

10 Loretta Young Adopted Her Own Child

Loretta Young had it all. She was beautiful. She was successful. She was recognized, even winning an Oscar for her 1947 performance in The Farmer’s Daughter. And she was hiding a secret.

After she finished shooting The Call of the Wild in 1935, Young disappeared from view. When she returned to public life 18 months later, she brought along her “adopted” daughter, Judy. In fact, the child was her own, the product of a brief relationship with (married) Clark Gable. It is unclear if the relationship was consensual.

Young was a strict Catholic and would not have contemplated aborting the child. The secret was kept from everyone, including her daughter, for 31 years. Although rumors of the child’s true parentage were whispered around Hollywood for years, they were only officially confirmed in a memoir published after the star’s death.^[1]

9 Joan Crawford Did A Porno

Joan Crawford was one of MGM’s biggest stars. She was known to be ambitious and somewhat ruthless in her pursuit of her career. She won an Oscar for her leading role in Mildred Pierce in 1945 and received two other Oscar nominations and a host of other awards. Crawford was Hollywood gold.

This must have made the persistent rumors that she had begun her career with roles in porn a little awkward. She is said to have starred in a film called Velvet Lips. At one point, her brother was offering copies to the highest bidder. There are no longer any copies of the film in existence, possibly due to the efforts of studio fixers employed to see that stars were not embarrassed by their indiscretions.

Crawford’s first husband, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., confirmed that she was blackmailed over the films, even receiving threatening calls when they were on their honeymoon. A film was sent to the studio, but the company lawyer denied that the woman in the film was Crawford.

She denied participating in porn films until the end of her life. However, her FBI file (because, you know, McCarthy and all that) appears to confirm the existence of the film. Crawford’s biographers state that “a film of Crawford in compromising positions was circulated . . . to be used at smokers” (men-only stag parties).^[2]

They also suggest that the file contains evidence that the studio paid Crawford’s brother as much as $100,000 to stop him from leaking the film. This is supported by mysterious payments made by Crawford to the studio, which are supposedly repayment for the blackmail money.

Crawford’s family problems continued after her death. Her daughter, whom Crawford had disinherited, published a tell-all memoir, Mommie Dearest, which depicted the star in a whole new light.

8 Jean Harlow Was Forced To Marry

Jean Harlow was the original blonde bombshell. She catapulted to stardom after appearing in Howard Hughes’s Hell’s Angels. It is fair to say that Harlow had a tumultuous life. She married her first husband on January 18, 1927, at age 15 and was divorced a few years later. Her second husband was killed in a gunshot accident, though there was much speculation that she had killed him.

Then she had an affair with a married boxer. When the scandal threatened to become public, the studio forced her to marry cinematographer Harold Rosson. However, the marriage was for public consumption only and they quietly divorced a few months later when the scandal was forgotten.

Harlow did want to marry William Powell. She fell for him in 1935 on the set of Reckless and wanted to get married, have a family, and give up acting. But Powell was not reckless. He had just been divorced from Carole Lombard and thought the public might not like him to marry so soon. He also made it clear that he never wanted children.

Powell’s caution, however, only went so far, and Harlow soon found herself pregnant. Knowing that he did not want children and that the studio would not tolerate an unmarried mother, Harlow aborted the baby that she wanted and never told Powell what had happened.^[3]

7 William Randolph Hearst Tried To Shoot Charlie Chaplin (And Killed Someone Else Instead)

William Randolph Hearst was a businessman, politician, and newspaper publisher. In fact, he was a tycoon with the largest newspaper business in the world, one of the most powerful people in America, and the inspiration for Orson Welles’s masterpiece, Citizen Kane. Hearst was known to be ruthless, hot-tempered, and, occasionally, downright nasty.

So it is fair to assume that he would not have taken news of his mistress having an affair lying down. He believed that Marion Davies was sleeping with Charlie Chaplin. Instead of confronting Chaplin outright, Hearst invited Chaplin and a number of other film people to join Hearst on his yacht. This must have made for rather uncomfortable small talk.

Thomas Ince was a Hollywood producer who specialized in Western films. His studio was profitable for a while, but it began to flounder. Looking for investors, Ince boarded Hearst’s yacht, hoping that the trip would change his fortunes. It did.

The official version of the death—certainly the one that Hearst had printed with indecent haste in his newspapers—was that Ince had developed digestive problems which proved fatal despite his swift hospitalization. Ince’s body was immediately cremated.

Despite Hearst’s vigorous attempts to control the publicity surrounding Ince’s death, rumors kept surfacing that Hearst had shot at Chaplin, missed, and killed Ince instead. Although the Los Angeles Times ran the headline “Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht,” it was swiftly pulled and later editions carried no mention of the shooting.^[4]

A secretary aboard the yacht was quoted as saying that he had seen Ince bleeding from a bullet wound to the head. Ince’s wife was unavailable for comment as she had embarked upon a sudden tour of Europe.

6 Tallulah Bankhead Had Multiple Abortions

Tallulah Bankhead was as famous inside Hollywood for her sexual activity as she was for her beauty around the rest of the world. At one point, she was said to have had 185 notches on her bedpost and she hadn’t finished counting.

Knowing that the studios would not have tolerated a pregnant star, Bankhead had four abortions by age 30. She wasn’t the only one. The studios had established protocols for this contingency and booked women into hospitals under false names for vague procedures. They were attended only by their own doctors, and visitors were strictly prohibited.

Bankhead was one of the few regular visitors to the hospital. She was briefly married to a man whose proposal she accepted because “he’s the only one who ever asked me.” It didn’t last.

Her promiscuity was legendary. She had affairs with men and women, often in semipublic places, and made a practice of opening her door to visitors naked. She is even said to have flashed the audience while performing in a Broadway play, causing a priest and three nuns to walk out.

Bankhead is said to have regretted her abortions later in life when she found herself unable to have children due to a hysterectomy performed after she contracted gonorrhea.^[5]

5 Patricia Douglas Was Raped

Patricia Douglas was a wannabe star. At 20, she was invited to attend an audition for MGM studios. Unknown to her, the “audition” was a party thrown by Louis B. Mayer for MGM’s sales executives. The party had been in swing for three days by the time Douglas attended, believing that she might be getting her “big break.”

Douglas was not worldly wise. She was a virgin from Kansas City, Missouri, who dreamed of being a star. She was not the only girl invited. In all, around 120 young women were bused in to “entertain” approximately 300 drunken delegates at a remote ranch. Dressed in cowboy hats, short skirts, and boots, the girls were promised a hot meal and $7.50 for the entire day.

Still under the impression that they were taking part in a screen test, the girls had their makeup done and were told to wait on the “set.” Knowing that the film business was difficult and wanting to be professional, they waited for their cue. However, the sales executives believed that the girls were a different sort of professional altogether.^[6]

Without transport or telephones, the women had no means of escape and had to fend off the male advances as best they could.

Douglas was brutally raped. Unlike others in Hollywood, she refused to be bought off and chose to press charges against MGM salesman David Ross. MGM hired the Pinkerton Detective Agency to dig up dirt on Douglas. When they could find none, they coerced people into claiming she was a promiscuous woman who had a sexually transmitted disease.

The parking lot attendant initially said that he had seen her being attacked but later changed his mind. Afterward, his children admitted that his later statements were untrue. Douglas’s character was destroyed, and her assailant got away with rape.

4 Errol Flynn Was A Pervert

It’s not a secret that Errol Flynn had a large sexual appetite. The phrase “in like Flynn” was popularized after his trial for the statutory rape of two girls. Flynn was acquitted of all charges, and the trial only increased his reputation as a Lothario.

Flynn began his Hollywood career after working as a river guide for a film crew, fighting off crocodiles, and dodging arrows from headhunters (apparently true). He was spotted and offered a role in a remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.

In addition to Flynn’s predilection for underage girls, other rumors followed him around. It is said that he lost his virginity at age 10. He had a two-way mirror installed in his bedroom and another allegedly in the bathroom.

He was famous for his sexual “experiments” fueled by drink and drugs, but nothing seemed to dampen the public’s enthusiasm for him. Flynn died at age 50 of a heart attack. It is alleged that the coroners at the inquest removed a number of genital warts from the body as souvenirs.^[7]

3 Judy Garland Was Forced To Take Drugs

Judy Garland was first spotted by an MGM scout in 1935 as a young teen. They liked her voice and her acting but not her looks. She was signed and immediately began playing girl-next-door roles, working six days a week for up to 18 hours a day. To keep her energy up and her weight down, the studio supplied her with amphetamines. When it came time to stop work, they gave her sleeping pills.

Garland married at 19 against the wishes of the studio and was ordered back to work 24 hours after the wedding. When she became pregnant, they arranged for her to have an abortion.

By the time she began work on Meet Me in St. Louis in her early twenties, Judy Garland was completely reliant on amphetamines. The studio “protected” her by not allowing anyone else near her. When she called in sick, they recouped their lost production costs from her paycheck.

At one point, Garland checked into a hospital to learn to eat and sleep properly again. But when she came out, studio bosses ordered her to lose weight and she went straight back on the pills.

When Garland’s life began to spiral out of control, the studios abandoned her. She died from a barbiturate overdose in 1969 at age 47.^[8]

2 George Raft Really Was A Gangster

George Raft specialized in playing tough guys like convicts, crooks, and mobsters. Perhaps it was Raft’s real-life association with mobsters that influenced casting directors. His first role was a coin-tossing henchman in Scarface, which set the precedent for his career. He is known to have had lifelong associations with Mafia men like Owney Madden and Bugsy Siegel.

Raft had grown up in Hell’s Kitchen, a poor area of New York where his best friend, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, taught Raft how to flip coins. Raft admitted to running bootleg liquor operations for the mob. Later, Siegel, a known mobster with movie connections, helped Raft break into the movie business.

The Mafia never seemed to be far away from Raft’s film work. Al Capone even showed the Scarface director how to fire a tommy gun.^[9]

1 Alfred Hitchcock Was A Stalker

Alfred Hitchcock was a gifted director, but he was also rather peculiar. Though he was married for 54 years, he claimed to have had sex only once. It didn’t stop him from becoming obsessed with his leading ladies, however. Grace Kelly and Janet Leigh both complained about his controlling nature. He refused to allow them to speak to other cast members or drive to the set with anyone other than him.

But it was Tippi Hedren who really became the focus of his obsession. While Hitchcock was riding high from the success of Psycho, he picked the unknown actress Hedren to star in The Birds. She became an instant star. But she was also tied to a contract with Hitchcock which left her in a vulnerable position.

On the set of The Birds, the director ordered the other cast members not to speak to her or touch her. Meanwhile, he told Hedren that they didn’t like her. He made several advances to her, which she rebuffed. Hedren claims that the scenes where she was attacked by birds were Hitchcock’s revenge.^[10]

Instead of using mechanical crows as they were supposed to, he used live birds, which were attached to her by elastic. The birds became distressed and viciously attacked her. Filming one scene with real birds attacking her in a bedroom took five days.

Eventually, she snapped. According to Hedren, Hitchcock was so offended when she called him a “fat pig” and rebuffed his advances that he set out to ruin her. He would not use her again, but he refused to allow her to work for other directors.

When her work on The Birds won an award, he would not allow her time to collect it. Hedren also claimed that Hitchcock actively campaigned against her to prevent a nomination for an Oscar for her role.

Though Hedren continued to work, her career never really recovered.

Ward Hazell is a writer who travels and an occasional travel writer.

The ancient Romans are well-known for keeping an abundance of written records about their society. Sometimes, it almost seems as though we know more about them than we do about ourselves.

Of course, World History and History of Western Civilization courses and textbooks always cover the history of the Romans. After all, so much of modern society and politics mirrors their achievements. However, some facts never seem to come up in class, many of which are quite strange. Some even border on the fantastical.

10 The Romans Closely Guarded Books That Foretold Events To Come

Locked away from prying eyes were books written in spidery Greek that spoke of the future of Rome and her citizens, including its inevitable end. These tomes were kept within the Temple of Jupiter where only the most skilled interpreter was permitted to trace his gnarled finger across the faded lines to determine what was to happen and how best to prevent it.

Legend has it that an old lady approached King Tarquin way back when Rome was still ruled by Etruscan kings. She offered him nine books at an absurd price, which he promptly refused with a hearty “Harrumph!”

She proceeded to burn three of the books and then returned with the remaining six, still demanding the same price. Once again, he refused. But this time, he began to question what he was turning down.

When she returned with three books after burning three more, he quickly bought the tomes. Upon perusing the battered manuscripts, it was apparent that they were books of prophecy for they told of Rome’s imminent rise and fall.

Many associated the old lady with a sibyl who had foretold the fall of Troy. From that day forward, the books were kept secret and closely guarded, only to be brought out when Rome was in peril and in need of answers.^[1]

9 Crassus’s Fire Brigade Was The Most Corrupt Fire Department Ever

Rome’s First Triumvirate consisted of three very powerful men: Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompey, and Marcus Crassus. Due to the overwhelming shadow of Caesar and Pompey, Crassus tends to fall by the wayside in most history classes. This is a shame because he was a veritable misanthrope whose avarice and lack of humanity were legendary.

One of the lesser-known stories about him concerns his fire brigade. After all, what great municipality would be complete without emergency units to respond to catastrophes such as a raging fire threatening to engulf one’s home?

Except this unit would arrive on the scene only to refuse their services until the owner sold his property cheap to Crassus. Imagine seeing your home lit up like a bonfire, just begging to be doused by the firefighters standing not 5 meters (15 ft) away, and your only options are to let it all burn away or sell it for far less than it’s worth.^[2]

8 The Publicani Were Basically The Mafia Of Ancient Rome

Ah, the tax collector. What a thankless occupation. Especially if your sole purpose in life is to bleed others dry while you reap the benefits. Believe it or not, tax collectors today are far more benevolent than their ancient counterparts.

During the second century BC, Roman businessmen called the publicani dominated the ancient world. Arriving at newly conquered provinces, they would engage in tax farming with many of the hapless provincials. As has been the wont of the upper 1 percent throughout human history, they absolutely adored squeezing as much money as they could out of the poor and downright stomping on the poorest of the poor.

The wealth amassed by the publicani led them to control trade, banking, and shipping. They became notorious for their brutal tactics as they strong-armed Easterners (including the Greeks, who were Easterners to the Romans). The publicani would collect a tax called the decuma (10 percent harvest tax), much of which went to the Roman government.^[3]

As a portion of this wealth found its way into the pockets of Roman politicians, the actions of the publicani were largely tolerated, even if they were tacitly condemned.

7 A Man Infiltrated A Festival Exclusively For Women

It’s December. Pine trees are in your house, carols are in the air, and specials such as Charlie Brown and the Grinch are on TV. You guessed it. It’s the festival of the Good Goddess.

This was a time in ancient Rome when the women would gather together to celebrate the rites of the goddess while the men hid away. Men were not permitted to partake in this festival. Even statues of men were to be veiled.

However, that did not stop Publius Clodius Pulcher from dissembling as a flute girl (or a harpist, according to some accounts) and creepily surveying the multitude of ladies in his midst. Of course, the women grew suspicious of the flute girl whom none recognized.

Their suspicions were duly confirmed when the woman, once questioned, answered in a deep voice that smacked of masculinity. Naturally, the rites were suspended, a trial was held, and Clodius was left to nurse his irreparably damaged reputation.^[4]

6 King Mithridates Grew Up In The Wild And Was Immune To Poison

Although technically not Roman, King Mithridates VI of Pontus played an enormous role in the history of Rome. He was one of the greatest threats to the Roman State, easily rivaling the likes of Hannibal of Carthage.

As a child, Mithridates was maliciously persecuted by his mother. Forced to take refuge in a forest, he lived there for seven years, where he battled wild beasts and subsisted on deer. He also developed a fascination with toxicology, repeatedly ingesting sublethal doses of poisons until he became immune to them.

Unfortunately, this strategy backfired when he was blockaded in his bedroom by sympathizers of Pompey. Mithridates’s attempt at suicide by poison failed, and he was forced to ask one of his loyal guards to take a blade and run him through.^[5]

5 Sergius Orata Invented The ‘Hanging Baths’

Much like today, many wealthy city dwellers in the ancient world vacationed at resorts to escape the poor. For the Romans, Puteoli was the place to be. They quickly bought up property so that those awful poor people would never be able to set foot in that region.

A resourceful entrepreneur named Sergius Orata was renowned for his oyster beds. He served up the tastiest oysters this side of the Rubicon. However, he was also known for a popular invention called balneae pensiles (“hanging baths”).

Interestingly, they are called “hanging baths” due to a literal translation of the Latin words. But to this day, historians cannot agree on what they were actually meant to be. Some have argued that these were hot showers, while others believe that they were underfloor central heating systems.

The first argument doesn’t work because balneae means “baths,” not “showers.” The second explanation also seems unlikely because there was already a term for such a system: “hypocaust.”^[6]

So, what were they exactly? Showers? Baths? Hypocausts?

4 Emperor Caligula Appointed His Horse As A Member Of The Senate

According to the historian Suetonius, Emperor Caligula adored his horse Incitatus. In fact, he loved that animal so much that he named the steed as a member of the Senate.

Was this a sign of madness?^[7]

Well, many scholars have argued that this was done to insult and humiliate senators and other elites. Caligula’s relatively brief reign was characterized by a feud between himself and the Roman Senate and efforts by the emperor to enhance his power within the empire. By bestowing a high public office on his horse, Caligula made it clear to his underlings that their work was so meaningless that an animal could do it.

3 The Romans Worshiped Gods Of Excrement

Sterculius was the Roman god of manure and fertilizer. He was merely one of a seemingly countless number of god-spirits that early Romans believed had to be bribed and worshiped if all aspects of life were to proceed smoothly.

This included prayers to Cloacina, the sewer goddess, as well as Crepitus, the god of toilets. Cloacina was the patron goddess of the main drain of the city of Rome, which was known as the Cloaca Maxima.^[8]

The Romans came to regard Cloacina in a variety of other ways. For example, they eventually referred to her as the goddess of purity, the goddess of filth, and the protector of sexual intercourse in marriage. Over the ages, she came to be affiliated with Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, and gradually became known to many as the Venus Cloacina.

2 Handful Of Women Were Accused Of Mass Murder By Poisoning

The subject of poisons and poisoning is often broached in Roman literature. The crime of poisoning seems to have occurred much more often in ancient than in modern times. The first record of this type of offense in Rome tells of a high mortality. Although this likely resulted from a pestilence, it was attributed to poisoning.

After many prominent citizens had perished from the same ailment, a slave girl informed the curule aediles (formal magistrates) that the sudden spike in fatalities was due to the poisons prepared and administered by the Roman matrons. Twenty matrons, including patrician ladies, were discovered in the act of brewing poisons, which they argued were salutary.

How did the authorities prove their guilt?

By forcing the women to drink their own concoctions. In the end, they all perished from their own brews. Following this, 170 more were found guilty of the same offense.

Was this some form of ancient terrorism? Who were these women, and what was their motive? Well, some argue that the deaths were caused by a pestilence, not by poisoning. Unfortunately, we may never learn the truth.^[9]

1 Rome Was Ruled By A Transsexual Emperor

Although Emperor Elagabalus is well-known by historians, most people have never heard of him. Not surprisingly, most schools that teach ancient Roman history will avoid this subject as it features an emperor who was transsexual.

The topic of Elagabalus’s genitalia occurs often in many accounts of him. Sources maintain that Elagabalus was circumcised as required by the priestly profession. There are claims that his penis was infibulated.

According to the Roman historian and statesman Dio Cassius, Elagabalus desired castration, though not for the sake of religion. In fact, according to Cassius, this was done for the sake of “effeminacy.”

Many historians today interpret this to mean that the young emperor was transsexual. Although initially supported by the Roman army, Elagabalus was despised by the powerful men of the Senate. In the end, Elagabalus was murdered and his mutilated corpse was dragged through the streets, ultimately to be tossed into the Tiber.^[10]