THE Hollywood sign turns 100 this year and stands high and mighty in the hills above Tinseltown.
But over the years it has also looked down on no end of nasty and sordid goings-on in the film studios below.
Screen legend Grace Kelly knew the truth when she called La La Land “holier-than-thou for the public and unholier-than-the-devil in reality”.
For behind all the glitz and glamour, the world of movies has been riven with high-stakes sleaze, scandal, cover-ups and even murders, which it would most certainly not want broadcast from the hilltops.
From the bullying early studio system that forced actresses into abortions and gay actors into “lavender marriages” to more recent #MeToo shamings, the Dream Factory has often been more house of horror.
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Kieron Connolly, author of The History Of Hollywood, leaves nothing on the cutting-room floor.
He says: “We think of the 1920s through to the early 1940s as the golden age of Hollywood but in many ways that was just a glamorous myth.
“The studio system, which got going in the Twenties, meant stars signed up to contracts for seven years, which was the longest that Californian law would allow.
“On the outside it seemed paternalistic because you are looked after by the studio.
“But on the down side, you were controlled by the studio.
“If an actor didn’t want a part, the studio could suspend them — unpaid — and add the period of suspension to the end of their contract.
“Morality clauses meant Hollywood covered up its scandals but also controlled the way the stars behaved.
Stifled screams
“Back then there was a lot of sleaze and a casting-couch culture behind the glamour — and while we hope Hollywood has cleaned up its act after #MeToo, some people are always going to use that power if they can.”
Founded by Christian property developer Harvey Wilcox in 1887, as a tranquil haven in the California hills, Hollywood would become a mecca for movie makers eager to escape the clutches of The Trust — a body set up by motion pictures pioneer Thomas Edison on America’s East Coast in a bid to control the film industry.
Drawn to the long hours of sunshine, which maximised filming at a time when electric lights were not strong enough, and the scenery of sea, desert and mountain, studios sprang up all over, with 15 launching in 1911 alone.
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The famous sign — which originally read Hollywoodland — was completed, and switched on, in December 1923.
By then, five major players — MGM, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros — had a stranglehold on the industry and a studio system that controlled its stars’ every move.
Affairs between married actors were common but covered up with publicity stunts, loveless marriages and secret abortions — which screen siren Marlene Dietrich once called “our birth control”.
“Fixers” like Howard Strickling and Eddie Mannix were employed by the studios to halt scandal in its tracks — by any means necessary.
When Wizard Of Oz starlet Judy Garland fell pregnant after eloping in 1941 with first husband David Rose without the approval of MGM, Strickling arranged an abortion and made her keep it secret from Rose.
A second abortion then followed in 1943, during her affair with Mark Of Zorro swashbuckler Tyrone Power, when he refused to divorce his wife.
The Postman Always Rings Twice beauty Lana Turner got pregnant on honeymoon with the first of her seven husbands, composer Artie Shaw, but they split three months later.
She was sent to Hawaii “for health reasons” and MGM paid for an abortion, done without anaesthetic in her hotel room while her mum stifled her screams by putting a hand over her mouth.
MGM deducted the cost from her wages.
Grand Hotel sensation Joan Crawford was also forced to have an abortion after a torrid affair with Gone With The Wind heart-throb Clark Gable, while she was married to fellow actor Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
MGM producer Irving Thalberg told Gable to end the affair, and he did — but Gable later said: “He would have ended my career in 15 minutes.
“I had no interest in becoming a waiter.”
Kieron says: “To clean up, they sent Crawford and Fairbanks Jr. on a highly publicised second honeymoon.
“Gable was relegated to B-movies for a while as punishment.”
The stakes were high, with 1920s talent such as Mary Pickford earning up to £40,000 a week at a time when the average annual income of a US family was £800.
In the book The Golden Girls Of MGM, Hollywood grand dame Ava Gardner revealed that she had an abortion behind the back of then-husband Frank Sinatra.
She said: “MGM had all sorts of penalty clauses about their stars having babies.
“If I had one, my salary would be cut off.
“So how could I make a living?
“Frank was broke and my future movies were going to take me all over the world.
“MGM made all the arrangements for me to fly to London.
“Someone from the studio was with me all the time.
“The abortion was hush-hush.’”
Studios also silenced women who complained of sexual assault, as 20-year-old dancer and movie extra Patricia Douglas found to her cost.
In May 1937, the teetotal virgin was invited to what she thought was a casting call but turned out to be an industry “party”.
She was one of 120 girls asked to help entertain powerful investors and movie bosses.
While there, she was targeted by a 36-year-old salesman called David Ross, who forced her to drink whisky while another man held her down.
He then dragged her out to a car, pushed her on to the back seat and raped her.
Bullets fired
Douglas complained to MGM but its boss Louis Mayer had links to LA’s district attorney and nothing was done.
Douglas then filed a civil suit against Mayer and fixer Eddie Mannix, who had hired private eyes in a failed bid to discredit her.
Kieron says: “At every step, the studio was against her, trying to hush the story up.
“MGM had sway with the district attorney, being an influential employer in the city.”
A parking attendant who had seen the incident and was willing to be a witness backed down after being offered lifelong employment at the studio.
Even Douglas’s lawyer eventually quit the case, unwilling to make an enemy of MGM.
Sixty years later, Douglas told Vanity Fair: “It ruined my life.”
Many believe the studios may have even covered up murders, including that of Adventures Of Superman star George Reeves.
He had a long affair with Toni Lanier, partner of MGM fixer Mannix, and had once gone on holiday with the couple.
But when the affair ended, and he became engaged to socialite Leonore Lemmon, Lanier was left distraught.
In the summer of 1959, Reeves died of gunshot wounds at a party at his Hollywood house attended by Lemmon and several others.
His death was ruled suicide but mystery has surrounded it ever since.
Kieron says: “Everyone was told, If something happens, don’t call the police or the Press.
“You called the studio first and they would deal with it.
“They had connections in hospitals.
“So if someone was caught drink-driving or in a brawl, it could be hushed up.
“It has been said they could cover up murders, although we don’t know for sure.
“But police weren’t called for 45 minutes after guests heard the gun-shots.
“Three bullets were fired, two missing wildly, which is unlikely to happen in a suicide, and his head and body had unexplained bruises.”
Two-time Oscar winner Bette Davis was among the first to challenge the studio system, filing a lawsuit against Warner Bros sparked by a role she was refusing to take, but she finally dropped it.
Gone With The Wind star Olivia de Havilland won a small victory in 1943 when she challenged an extra six months’ “suspension time” being added to her contract.
The court deemed that “illegal servitude”.
But the real change came with the advent of World War Two, when actor James Stewart took a break from making movies to fight and returned as a war hero.
Kieron says: “When he returned, his agent suggested he shouldn’t sign a new contract but strike out as an independent actor and negotiate terms per movie.
“That also marks the rise of agents in Hollywood.
“In another pioneering move — on one of his first post-war films, Winchester ’73 — he offered to take a very low fee in return for a share of profits.
“The move proved successful and other actors pushed for the same.”
The move made Stewart around £470,000 — £5.7million today — and marked a turning point as the balance of power began to shift in favour of box office stars.
But as #MeToo has shown, the dark side of Hollywood never went away, as sexual predators such as mogul Harvey Weinstein have wielded their studio power to use and abuse others.
Kieron says: “The #MeToo move-ment was a long time coming.
“The casting-couch culture that went on during the studio system lasted a long time afterwards.
“Since the #MeToo movement, hopefully, victims can now call it out — and will finally be heard and believed.”
TOM’S YOUR No 1
TOM HANKS and Marilyn Monroe have been voted the best Hollywood actors of all time by Sun readers.
In an online poll, 18 per cent of voters chose Cast Away legend and double-Oscar winner Tom as their favourite male star.
Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood came joint second, on 12 per cent each.
Denzel Washington was next in the rundown, on 7.7 per cent, while Robin Williams, Robert De Niro and Paul Newman all got 6.2 per cent of the vote.
Surprisingly, box-office big-hitters Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, Will Smith and Ryan Gosling scored zero votes.
In our poll for favourite female actor, Some Like It Hot temptress Marilyn finished a clear winner, favoured by 17 per cent of readers.
Katharine Hepburn, who won a record 12 Best Actress nominations and four wins at the Oscars before her death in 2003, was second on 14 per cent.
Sandra Bullock came in third with 12 per cent, narrowly ahead of British Oscar winner Dame Helen Mirren, on 11 per cent.
TOP MALE ACTORS
1 ) Tom Hanks – 18%
2= ) Harrison Ford, Clint Eastwood – 12%
4) Denzel Washington – 7.7%
5=) Robin Williams, Robert De Niro, Paul Newman – 6.2%
8) Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson, Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman – 4.6%
TOP FEMALE ACTORS
1) Marilyn Monroe – 17%
2) Katharine Hepburn – 14%
3) Sandra Bullock – 12%
4) Helen Mirren – 11%
5) Julia Roberts – 9.6%
6) Meryl Streep – 6.2%
7) Doris Day – 4.6%
8=) Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor, Nicole Kidman – 3.1%
