famous scandals of the 1920s famous scandals of the 1920s

When Lady Harriet Mordaunts daughter was born, doctors thought she might be blind. Among the men later suspected of being involved in the murder were actor/director Orson Welles, several newsmen including the publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Norman Chandler, who it was claimed dismembered the body to hide the fact of her pregnancy; a small-time criminal named Jack Anderson Wilson; and George Hodel, a Los Angeles physician who was accused of the murder by his own son, LAPD detective Steve Hodel. Despite President Ronald Reagan's vow not to negotiate with terrorists, National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane went to Iran to make a deal, sending weapons in exchange for the Middle Eastern countrys help brokering the release. Like the Rhett Butler character he portrayed, Clark Gable was fond of patronizing brothels, as did many of Hollywoods leading men. Instead, the older Ruskin put off consummating the marriage. At the same time, many people lacked the financial literacy to understand the difference between investing in a legitimate company and a scheme such as the one operated by Ponzi, an Italian immigrant who claimed to have become a wealthy man through sheer ingenuity and hard work. In the 21st century amateur and professional criminologists continue to search for the killer of Elizabeth Short. Its been said, often and obviously, that sex sells. The Newport Bellacourts have never met a scandal they didnt like. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Some scandals are timeless: The Fatty Arbuckle trial, the Black Dahlia, and the Sharon Tate murder are still well-known decades after they occurred. Wikimedia. When Nesbits husband, Harry Thaw, learned of Whites sexual impropriety years after the fact, he did what any gentleman would do: He shot White dead in front of hundreds of witnesses. Another found that 62 percent of women surveyed thought the practice was essential in order to be popular. She got the matrimonial ring in a secret church ceremony in 1857. She entertained American troops during the Second World War, protested against segregation in the US Armed Forces, and was generally regarded as one of the leading actresses of her generation. The Biggest Political Scandals in American History - HISTORY The Biggest Political Scandals in American History From adulterous affairs yielding secret children to hotel break-ins and. After some likely exclamations of I say! and protracted harrumphing, both Gordon-Cumming and the prince were dragged through public mud. She succeeded in trashing Chaplins reputation while relieving him of $800,000 (about $11 million today). READ MORE: Americas Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral, Flappers dancing while musicians perform during a Charleston dance contest at the Parody Club, New York City, 1926, The gatherings may have raised eyebrows, but petting parties werea far cry from orgies, historian Paula S. FasstellsNPR: They both encouraged experimentation and created clear limits.. She did not attend Tracys funeral for the same reason. The boys of today must be protected from the young girl vamp, complained a New York mother to the New York Times in 1922. UPI, The New York Times. Mary was an underage actress whose letters to Taylor were allegedly removed by the helpful LAPD. When Charles demanded a divorce, Harriet attempted to evade a separation by claiming insanity, eating coal, and smashing dishes. Luciano was the prime suspect of many, and following her death, he assumed control of her restaurant, an event she had once told him, before witnesses, would occur only over her dead body. He documented, often through little more than innuendo, potential homosexual activity, drug use, alcohol use (both during and after prohibition), sexual peccadilloes, extramarital affairs, and political beliefs. The paper revealed that, a decade earlier, Cleveland allegedly sexually assaulted Maria Halpin, a woman he was infatuated with, causing her to become pregnant with his child. (The judge disagreed, sentencing them to 6 months inprison, but that got overturned on a technicality.) The rise of cheap, sensational newspapers in the nineteenth century meant that shocking scandals werent just whispered about behind fluttering fans and raised teacups. Hollywood, Americas longtime seat of wealth and conspicuous consumption, has long been a fount of sordid stories which held the attention of an enraptured public, happily tsking and tutting over the amoral activities of the spoiled denizens of Americas Babylon. The woman who found the body thought that the scene was so grisly that it had been set up using a mannequin for the purpose of shocking the police and witnesses. In 1846, after wedding John Ruskin, the leading critic of the age, the beautiful, young, and bright Euphemia Effie Gray expected her life to go the usual wife and motherhood route. The proliferation of get-rich-quick scams in the 1920s was so intense that titans of industry began to worry about the con artists' and fly-by-night firms' corrosive effect on the system, even if. On the morning of Feb. 2, 1922, Taylor's body was found in his bungalow in a trendy and affluent neighborhood of LA. The Teapot Dome Scandal was an American political scandal of the early 1920s. 1952, Secretary Says She Destroyed Hoovers Letters on his Orders. The long affair between Katherine Hepburn and the married Spencer Tracy was an open secret in Hollywood. But after authorities began to suspect him of cooking the books and other improprieties, he sold his collapsing company and avoided a mail fraud indictment by fleeing to Shanghai, where he committed suicide. But it was no mannequin. Annie Besant, a noted feminist, Theosophist, and womens rights activist, and Charles Bradlaugh, an infamous atheist, published The Fruits of Philosophy: the Private Companion for Young Married Couples, a pamphlet by an American doctor, Charles Knowlton, and previously judged obscene. During her short career, she was linked romantically with Clark Gable, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Hughes, Baer, Paul Bern, Louis B. Mayer, Franchot Tone, Lee Tracy, James Stewart, and others, including Talullah Bankhead, Clara Bow, and Joan Crawford. Once word got out, Pickfords career might have been derailed if not for the fact that Moore was reported to be abusive. Tone was beaten soundly, with his opponent inflicting a broken cheekbone and nose, a concussion, and a no doubt severely bruised ego. Five years later, a group of women and vice officers campaigned to end petting parties in the theater balconies of Kansas City. The Teapot Dome was the biggest political scandal of the 1920's. The Teapot Dome was an oil field that belonged to the U.S. Navy. Lady Mordaunt feared syphilis and confessed to her husband, Sir Charles, that shed been often unfaithful to him. Its popularity was such that it was in high demand in reruns for years, and eventually was adapted as a full-length motion picture in the early 1980s. Bluefit the stereotype of the 1920s flapper to a T, chasing a lifestyle that would have been unthinkable just 20 years before. The jury decided the lady suffered from puerperal maniapost partum depression. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Susan Saurin (formerly Sister Mary Scolastica) sued her mother superior, Mrs. Starr, for libel and conspiracy, claiming shed been unfairly expelled from the convent. Cleveland will go down in history as the 22nd and 24th President of the United States, but his first term in office was nearly waylaid by a campaign scandal. Why? November 21, 2015, Bad Boys: The Actors of Film Noir. Library of Congress/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images. The building remains in 2019, housing various offices for companies involved in the film industry. Technically, the trial was meant to settle whether Lady Mordaunt was sane enough for a divorce to proceed. Finally offered a film contract in 1933, a dozen years after the scandal, he died of a massive heart attack before the project could be started. With stock prices rising, small investors were tantalized by the prospect of bigger returns on their savings than bank accounts would pay in interest. So much so that when Haynau visited a brewery during a trip to London in 1850, the draymendrivers of the wagons used to deliver the barrels of beerattacked him with whips, brooms, and stones. They republished it anyway. The affair continued until at least 1930 when Kennedy summarily dumped his paramour in the aftermath of her completing a film, Queen Kelly, which was a critical and box office failure. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Much of the hand-wringing about petting parties focused on the supposed immorality of the young woman who attended them. March 25, 1987, Katherine Hepburns 25 Year Affair with Spencer Tracy Being Developed for a Movie. Pickford was a notorious man about town, with the result of being stricken with syphilis, then treated with highly toxic mercury. Payton vacated the marital home and returned to Neal, and Tone, perhaps wisely, decided to resolve the issue in court rather than in another bout. In 1936, the wife of Max Baer, the former Heavyweight Champion of the World (and eventually the father of Max Baer Jr, who portrayed Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies), named Jean as one of the women with whom her husband had been unfaithful to his marriage. The combination of a female sex symbol, a mobster, and her daughters involvement was too much for the press to resist and the trial became a media circus. The newspapers had a field day. When a policeman stopped to question a fifteen year old telegraph boy about why he had eighteen shillings in his pocket in todays money, thats about 77 or $122 USD), he kicked off a scandal that reached all the way to the British royal family. Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images. Rather than live with Hepburn, Tracy resided in hotels for the most part, with his main employer, MGM, helping to continue the charade of his having a happily married life. There was a bubonic plague in India, and Pancho Villa retired. Several leading ladies were counted among the customers as well, including Talalluh Bankhead, Jean Harlow, and Barbara Stanwyck. The womans husband, Theodore Tilton, sued Beecher in 1875 for the act of criminal conversation and demanded $100,000 in restitution. The case is credited with raising awareness of birth control.. and being excited in the presence of a visiting priest. The shocking expose not only opened the floodgates for other women to declare similar affairs, it actually ended up getting Clinton impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice. Online, Gloria and Joe: The Star-Crossed Love Affair of Gloria Swanson and Joe Kennedy. Petting was a means to be safe and yet not sorry, writes Fassa way to explore ones sexuality without experiencing things like the loss of virginity, pregnancy or sexually transmitted infections. Scandals in the Hollywood periodicals of the day, later amplified by the mainstream press, were fed by the FBI files as Hoover attempted to discredit Hollywoods elite. June 5, 2019, The Black Dahlia. There was, after all, that pesky fact that he was a foreigner (Flynn was Australian) and xenophobia was at its height in the early days of the Second World War. Eventually, the practice faded. Wikimedia. Verdict for the plaintiff; 500 damages awarded. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. READ MORE: The First Birth Control Pill Used Puerto Rican Women as Guinea Pigs, Flappers at the bar of Isa Lanchesters nightclub in London, 1925. Probably there exists no more famous icon of Hollywood than the sign which spells that name in the Hollywood hills. The revelations caused unflattering comment on her character in the papers. Gloria Swanson, in her heyday as a silent film star, circa 1921. In the 1940s the Swedish-born actress Ingrid Bergman displayed her versatility as a performer with roles as Ilsa in Casablanca, a near saintly nun in Bells of St. Marys, and an actual saint, as well as virgin, in the title role in Joan of Arc. But not everyone approved of the fashions and fads of these newly liberated young women. After their child was born, Bergman obtained a divorce from her husband, and within a week married the Italian director, though she had to travel to Mexico to do so. Whether Olive was aware of Jacks medical problem is debated, though he had his mercury with him when the couple spent time together in Paris in the summer of 1920. Karen Burroughs Hannsberry. Nonetheless, Taylor maintained a relationship with actress Mabel Normand, and on February 1, 1921, he entertained her at his home, where he was found dead the following morning. Prohibition was a nationwide ban on the sale and import of alcoholic beverages that lasted from 1920 to 1933. Wikimedia. As a result of the dearth of physical evidence innuendo and gossip soon provided theories as to who killed the director. One study found that by 1924, 92 percent of college women had tried petting. One infamous 1920s scam was the Radio Pool, in which manipulators drove up the price of RCA stock, took their profits, and left other shareholders to watch helplessly as their shares sank. On September 5, 1921, Arbuckle attended a gala party on the twelfth floor of San Franciscos famed St. Francis Hotel. Campbell claimed hed only gone to the party in a dress so he could witness the vice for himself and later preach against it. Teapot Dome Scandal. Young female wannabe stars were frequent guests to his office so that he may evaluate their skills. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. In one interview she claimed that the only thing wrong with her was that she needed a man, and it had been too long since shed had one. She died that night, in considerable pain, as a result. The prowlers were soon connected to President Richard Nixons reelection campaign. After an outcry and trial, all copies were burnt and their sale prohibited.. The proliferation of get-rich-quick scams in the 1920s was so intense that titans of industry began to worry about the con artists and fly-by-night firms corrosive effect on the system, even if they were willing to look the other way at the misrepresentations that their own kind sometimes perpetrated. The establishment was named for Madam Lee Francis, who often had to have her bouncers remove famous personages who became too boisterous to remain on the premises. D.H. Lawrence, author of the controversial Lady Chatterleys Lover, also faced criticism for an earlier novel depicting sexual acts, 1915s The Rainbow. What Happened In Room 1219? 2007, William Desmond Taylor: The Unsolved Murder. Turners daughter, Cheryl, was acquitted, though the scandal remained for many months, with numerous reports that Lanas testimony (she was the only eyewitness to the killing) had been nothing more than an example of her practicing her craft as an actress. The civil and criminal actions which occurred subsequent to the accident which was more the result of negligence than misfortune was scandalous, and the films director, John Landis, was charged and tried for manslaughter, along with other members of the film crew. Not all petting parties were intentional affairs; some broke out spontaneously in dance halls, cars or secluded places. (This was not unexpected, as previous publishers had been arrested; and indeed, getting their case to trial was their goal, in order to challenge a new obscenity law.) Like Cleveland before him, Warren G. Harding also had a secret out-of-wedlock child, a daughter he conceived with a 19-year-old woman named Nan Britton. So damaged were delicate public sensibilities that Besant and Bradlaugh were put on trial. She drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes, and dabbled in bohemianism. Hepburn was from upper-crust New England stock, presenting a prim, proper, and athletic image to her fans, who had for several years been involved in a relationship with Howard Hughes. Americas Forgotten Mass Imprisonment of Women Believed to Be Sexually Immoral, The First Birth Control Pill Used Puerto Rican Women as Guinea Pigs. The scandal remained at the tip of Hollywoods wagging tongues for months, and is still considered from time to time in various media today, though the probability of solving the crime was destroyed by the LAPD nearly a century ago. Harding was inept, Coolidge was mediocre, and Hoover was overcome by circumstances he neither understood nor could control. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Their declining popularity can probably be explained by the maturation of flappers and their petting partnerswho needs a petting party when youre already married? Though the scam became known as a Ponzi scheme, its namesake wasnt the only one who perpetrated it. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Eve Golden. During the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 against the Austrian Empire, a man stood out for his violent tactics in suppressing the revolutionaries: Julius Jacob von Haynau, an Austrian general who earned the nickname, the Hyena. News of his brutality, particularly against Hungarian women, excited much anger in the English public. Her name was Peg Entwistle, and she had recently completed work on a film by David O. Selznick entitled 13 Women. Some of the speculators never actually went to Florida themselves. From Al Capone to Bonnie and Clyde, these famous gangsters of the 1920s prove that they just don't make criminals like they used to. Richard Babcock, Chicago Magazine. Few women in history were more involved in scandals than Talullah Bankhead, and few ever cared less about it. She cut her hair short, wore dresses that showed off her fashionably slender figure, used daring slang and dated multiple men before marriage. Gloria Swanson was one of the leading actresses in Hollywood, on her third husband when she met Joseph P. Kennedy. Those frontiers suggest the potentialand actual exampleof great riches, and boom times make credit easier to obtain., People wanted to follow the example of heroes such as automobile mogul Henry Ford and aviator Charles Lindbergh, who had dared to dream. Gustavo Turner, Discover Los Angeles. The Life and Times of a Leading Lady. READ MORE: How the Ponzi Scheme Got Its Name. An incendiary speaker, Reverend Henry Ward Beecher was quite possibly the most famous minister of 19th century America. William Taylor was a highly prolific director between 1915 and 1921, and as such, he was one of the first directors to rely on what would later become known euphemistically as the casting couch. According to one writer, MGM studios maintained an open account upon which their stars could charge the services they requested, thus keeping their expenses secret from wives and husbands. This bombshell resulted in the infamous Mordaunt divorce trial. Harry Hamburg/NY Daily News Archive/Getty Images. Here are some of the greatest scandals to emerge from Hollywood during its Golden Age. Americans love a rags-to-riches story, Hendley says. Tone, well-connected with powerful MGM, used his influence to ensure that Neal was unable to find acting roles in Hollywood. NY Daily News Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, Acquitted For Murder Of Virginia Rappe In 1922, Never Recovered From All The Bad Press, Timeline The Mysterious Death Of The Most Beautiful Woman On Earth, Medium The Death of William Desmond Taylor, Factinate Dramatic Facts About Gloria Swanson, Hollywoods Iconic Diva, FBI to keep files on stars, directors, producers, and reporters. The jury decided Besant and Bradlaugh hadnt meant to deprave the public and they were ordered not to republish the pamphlet. Others, however, have faded into obscurity, even though the public indulged in their salaciousness during their heyday. Although even the most avid movie fan today is likely unaware of Thelma Todd, the actress appeared in more than seventy films, performing with luminaries including the Marx Brothers, Buster Keaton, and Laurel and Hardy. Explore American politics in the 1920s to understand why this was a period of transition and corruption. In the third, he was acquitted, though the press and the public had long before convicted him. The 1950s slang In Like Flynn, meaning one had it made, failed to take into account his legal difficulties over underage women. Payton and Neal became engaged after Tone won a divorce over the issue of adultery, but the marriage never came off. Getty Images One of the biggest Hollywood scandals of all time was the murder of mobster Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of Lana Turner in 1958. Sports was one of these to blow during the 20's. During the 1920s there were many forms of sports rising up, with baseball being one of the older sports it has always been a long time favorite for Americans despite the dangers of the sport and the 1919 World Series scandal. Bakers trial caused discussion over the British class system since it was argued, quite rightly, that if hed been in third class, hed have gotten away with it. But Hardings scandalous behavior didnt end when he left his bedroom. J. Edgar Hoover, with his penchant for keeping records damaging to the reputations of anyone he deemed too powerful and influential, ensured the FBI was active in Hollywood for decades, collecting what should have been private information in order to protect the nations morals. A banking poster printed by National Service Bureau shows a smiling Uncle Sam reads a newspaper headline describing economic growth and success of the 1920s. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Average, law-abiding citizens had no problem buying illegal booze from such people. Virginie was forever shunned by high society. Florida, which attracted northerners who were eager to escape winter weather, also became a paradise for land speculators, who bought properties at cheap prices and sold them for large profits. Both girls, 17-year-old Peggy Satterlee and Betty Hansen, also 17, accused Flynn of seducing them, Peggy on Flynns yacht and Betty in the home of a friend. Kennedy, determined to become a Hollywood mogul to supplement the income derived from his stock market and real estate fortunes, didnt care a whit about Swansons character. Franchot Tone derailed his own career by becoming enmeshed in several scandals in the 1930s and 40s. Erin Blakemore is an award-winning journalist who lives and works in Boulder, Colorado. Couples drank, mingled, and eventually started kissing, moving from partner to partner. In the end, the murder of William Taylor was never solved, other than by Hollywood gossips who were sure they knew who the killer was and what their motive had been. Widespread press reports speculated that she had been murdered, fed by the fact that her car was parked in an area thick with sticky mud, though her shoes were clean. That winter morning the mutilated body of a woman, later determined to have been dead for about ten hours, was discovered by a woman and her three-year-old daughter, out for a leisurely morning stroll. That can be arranged, Lucky reportedly replied. Mabel Normand. After many appeals, the case went in his favor. Arbuckle was formally barred from acting by a newly formed censorship board, and the press and public subjected him to continuous condemnation, as well as ridicule over his substantial girth. As Americans dreamed of amassing fabulous fortunes, many became vulnerable to cons. Tracy was a married man who presented the public persona of being a devout Catholic, though, in fact, he did not follow the practices of the religion as piously as his image indicated. Paget went on to build a playhouse so he could perform with a hired repertory company: His specialty was a fluid, vaguely erotic dance routine. However, the plethora of old Hollywood scandals that have since come to light prove that the movie industry has always been a dark place behind its bright lights. In April 1958, after a heated argument in her home during which Stompanato allegedly threatened to kill her, Turners daughter came to her mothers defense with a kitchen knife. Landis later attempted to deflect the blame for the accident, claiming that the cause of the accident had been in part a special effects fireball detonated by an underlying erroneously, an error for which he was never charged. Wikimedia After . The ruse worked a little too well: She was hauled off to a mental institution. Once citizens had crossed that moral line and started frequenting illegal speakeasies and buying black-market booze, they naturally became more receptive to sleazy but enticing pitches to invest in get-rich-quick schemes., READ MORE: How Prohibition Put the Organized in Organized Crime. According to Lita, Chaplin had demanded an abortion prior to their marriage (which she couldnt have because she wasnt pregnant) and told her that their marriage would be short. Franchot Tone was a film and stage star of sufficient stature to marry Joan Crawford in 1935. History, FBI.gov. But they also came to an end because the flappers who dared to pet in public helped make open sexual expression more commonplace. With the Wall Street crash of 1929, the prosperity that had funded the rise of get-rich-quick schemes vaporized. He insisted their marriage was invalid because of their religious differenceshe was Catholic and she was Protestant. French artist John Singer Sargent hoped his work would draw notice, but he could never have imagined the hysteria that followed his Portrait of Madame X. Gangster Bugsy Siegel was implicated by some. 1 Charlie Chaplin's Teenage Brides Charlie Chaplin's work in the. There are many reasons why mysteries in the 1920s may have remained unsolved. agriculture. She had been mangled in a manner similar to some of the victims of the notorious London killer Jack the Ripper; eviscerated, dismembered, exsanguinated, and then posed. Eyman, Scott. Intentionally or not, the message that filtered down to the public was: Be bold. The two sons she bore later in the marriage brought into question her accusations that Charles ignored her completely, but the press and the public were easily persuaded that Chaplin was an abusive monster, a profligate womanizer, with a taste for young girls (an image he could not escape). Review the Teapot Dome Scandal and learn about presidents Warren G. Harding and Calvin . (Eve Blue eventually gave up on petting parties after she was nearly raped.) Wikimedia. Henry Paget may not have invented the phrase spoiled brat, but he certainly did enough to cement its definition. Axel Madsen. Wilful Peggy (1910), The New York Hat (1912), Tess of the Storm Country (1914), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), Stella Maris (1918), Daddy-Long-Legs (1919), Pollyanna (1920), Sparrows (1926) FURTHER READING Balio, Tino. The growing demand for petroleum to fuel automobiles also led to oil drilling schemes concocted by promoters who mailed out literature and handed out flyers that promised a fabulous return. When police arrived on the scene, they found Taylor lying on the living room floor with at least one bullet in the back. The Twenty-first Amendment, ratified in December 1933, repealed Prohibition. Prince Victor Albert, nicknamed Prince Eddy was also an alleged customer. Some of the nations greatest film heroes were subject to damaging tales, some true, some speculative, and some criminal. The money may have dried up, but the allure of easy wealth had become a permanent part of the American psyche. She accepted his excuses, took to public speaking to support their life together, even going so far as to follow him to Scotland and Ireland so their affair could continue, but eventually, she expected a wedding. Whether suicide or murder, there is little doubt that the premature death of Olive Thomas once called the most beautiful woman in the world was painful in the extreme. And to some, the very thought of a party devoted to sexeven a relatively chaste versionwas cause for outrage. The newspapers made this incident Hollywood's first truly major scandal. Having lost Joan, Tone turned to a fashion model and actress named Jean Wallace. At the trial, Dickenson alleged that the colonel had tried to raise her skirts, put his hand in her underwear, and kiss her many times on the lips. By 1904, his spending had so far outpaced his bank account that he sold most of his belongings to pay off his debtsnot even his parrot was safe from creditors. Theresa eventually took him to court seeking alimony. While traveling to London by train, Colonel Valentine Baker, a respected military figure and friend of the Prince of Wales, was accused of raping Rebecca Dickenson, twenty-two years old. In 1941 actor Spencer Tracy, one of Hollywoods most successful and in-demand leading men, began seeing actress Katharine Hepburn. Tallulah Bankhead was born into wealth and privilege, and though she was mainly known as a stage actor, she became a symbol of Hollywood extravagance in her lifetime. Lana Turner, in a publicity photo from the 1940s. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. When The Washington Post published a glossary of the flappers philosophy in 1922, it defined life as One long petting party accompanied by jazz.