Hollywoodland

September 26 2025

ALL SLANDERS GREAT AND SMALL

Early Confidential left no stone unturned—including the ones its reporters were hiding under.

Despite the efforts of websites such as ours, time winnows out celebrities that were once considered important. In a dozen more years, save for massive stars, we suspect people won’t be interested in the stories of old Hollywood personalities at all. But what stories they are. As you may know, Confidential was the top gossip rag in the U.S. before it was neutered in the courts. That was in 1957. The issue you see here is from 1956, when it was still running riot through Hollywood.

Editors accuse Fernando Lamas of cheating on his wife Arlene Dahl, as well as popularizing the use among Hollywood insiders of a “drug store cold remedy” in sexual practices. The only thing the magazine won’t reveal is which cold remedy. But we figure it was Vicks VapoRub, which some people believed aided in erections. To give you a sense of how sneakily subversive Confidential was, consider the hint readers are given in the form of the alleged telephone exchange “granite.” That’s clever.

Moving on, Eddie Fisher is said to have bedded three women, one after another, in a room in Detroit’s Cadillac Hotel. We doubt Fisher complained about this tale. For one thing, it’s said to have happened in 1952, which was before he was married to Debbie Reynolds, and it makes him out to be a superlover: The girls sighed heavily. They’ll never forget him.

Confidential next tells readers that Bob Topping, aka Henry J. Topping, Jr., punched his wife—none other than Lana Turner—after she returned from having disappeared with singer Billy Daniels during a social gathering: Topping stood in a towering rage. He hit Lana with a left hook that caught her on the chin and knocked her across the room and onto a couch.

Readers learn that Anita Ekberg’s marriage to Tony Steel was more of a formality than anything else—the two had been shacking up for months before the wedding: As sizzling a test flight as any couple ever took. By the time they made it legal what they didn’t know about each other wasn’t worth knowing.

Star baseballer Jackie Robinson is said to have borrowed boxer Joe Louis’s apartment in the Sugar Hill section of New York City and called up a couple of beautiful girls one sweltering summer night. The enticement? Just like in The Seven Year Itch it was air conditioning, according to Confidential. Once there, Jackie convinced the girls to play strip poker. If the girls lost, they’d give up the goodies to Jackie and his two pals. If not, no dice. Down to the final hand between he and a blonde beauty, both clad only in underwear, Jackie lost.

We had doubts about this one. Why strip down to nothing only to leave? But the story has a fun detail: Everyone was naked at one point except Jackie and the blonde, who as mentioned were wearing only undies. Jackie won the next hand and thought he won the game and was about to hit the bedroom with her. But instead of shucking her panties she pulled out a removable rear dental bridge and said that counted as an article of clothing. Jackie gave in and lost the next hand. Feels real doesn’t it?

Confidential claims that Orson Welles, allegedly a practicing hypnotist, used his talents to seduce Francesca de Scaffa: Fat Boy grasped her by the arm and gave her the full treatment from his big brown blinkers. Then he said, “Come with me.” The story goes on to say he made her dance around nude in his hotel room and more, but who was the witness on this one? Did Confidential have a reporter at the keyhole? At least the Jackie Robinson story has a few plausible witnesses. Who revealed this tale? Welles? De Scaffa? Hmm…

The magazine goes on and on. Others stretched on the rack include Esther Williams, Joe Kirkwood, Cathy Downs, and William Wellman. As we said at the top, the names are fading into the mists of time, but the passions, the pratfalls, the loves, the rages, all make for fascinating reading. We enjoy doing our part to bring these old stories into the digital realm, and we hope they inspire you to make legends of your own. They won’t be remembered forever, but the fun is in living them. More scans below.

Hollywoodland

September 8 2025

ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION

Maybe for the final touch I'll add a wisp of mustache, just so she isn't as pretty as me.

Artists are often adept at more than one art, so it’s never a surprise when a Hollywood performer shows talent in another area. This photo features Linda Darnell, star of such notable films as No Way Out, Unfaithfully Yours, My Darling Clementine, and the excellent Hangover Square, finishing a pastel portrait of fellow screen star Lana Turner.

Darnell was a serious and capable painter. There are photos floating around online of her working on portraits of Clark Gable and her husband Peverell Marley. She also painted landscapes and still lifes, working in both pastels and oils, and was the subject of at least one painting herself—a Justin McCarthy portrait that resides in the Smithsonian Institute.

We don’t have a date on this shot, but Darnell looks very young, so that makes it no later than the 1940s. According to Hollywood rumor, she and Turner became friends after Turner learned about being the subject of a portrait, possibly this one. Since they’re known to have become friends in 1942, the photo could be from that year.

Smithsonian Institute, Hangover Square, No Way Out, Unfaithfully Yours, My Darling Clementine, Linda Darnell, Lana Turner, Clark Gable, Peverell Marley, Justin McCarthy

Femmes Fatales

January 31 2025

LANA TURNER OVERDRIVE

Here's your drink. I broke all the glasses during my last uncontrollable rage, but you can use this paper cup I gargle with.

Above: a stunner of an image of U.S. actress Lana Turner made when she was filming The Bad and the Beautiful. It’s from 1952, but the movie went into wide release in January 1953, so you’ll sometimes see that date on the photo too. Turner might be on the list of twenty-five or so vintage stars with whom we’d most like to have had a drink. Set aside whether she’d have considered having a drink with us—highly doubtful, but that’s why it’s a hypothetical. In any case, we’d start with two actual glasses.

The Bad and the Beautiful, Lana Turner

Vintage Pulp

December 9 2024

JOHNNY TWO GOOD

A movie so nice they had to release it twice.

Above: two U.S. insert size posters for the gangster drama Johnny Eager. The top one was made for the film’s original run, which began today in 1941, while the second bears a 1950 copyright date at lower left, which means it was made for the re-release of the film that year. We wrote about this classic already, but no need to go there (unless you really want to). Just watch it. Johnny Eager is a good night’s vintage entertainment.

Johnny Eager, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, poster art, cinema

Hollywoodland

June 29 2024

T TIME IN TINSELTOWN

A heady new brew of tabloid gossip gets served up in Hollywood.

We have a brand new tabloid to our website today—the colorful Off the Record Secrets, of which you see its June 1963 cover above. This was published by an outfit calling itself Magazette, Inc., which aimed for the high end of the tabloid market with bright fronts along the same lines as the big boys Confidential, Whisper, Hush Hush, et al. Like those, Off the Record Secrets covers miles of ground between its pages, spilling on everyone from Hugh Hefner and his Bunnies, to Frank Sinatra and his Pack, to Elsa Martinelli and her hubby Franco Mancinelli Scotti, to Kirk Douglas and his bad behavior.

Of the items on offer, we were struck by the photo of Annette Stroyberg stuffing her face. We always thought trying to catch celebrities eating in embarrassing fashion started with the internet gossip sites, but apparently we were wrong. In any case you can see why the best restaurants have private dining rooms. Stroyberg must have been furious. Also of note, you Cary Grant fans get see him in a towel at age sixty-one. He’s holding together nicely, though there seems to be some stomach sucking going on. Still, nothing to be ashamed of. He’s got ninety-five percent of men his age beat.

The earliest issue we’ve seen of Off the Record Secrets is from January 1962. By the early 1960s the tabloid market was crowded, therefore owing at least partly to a logjam on newsstands, this magazine lasted only into 1964 before folding its tent. Because of its scarcity issues sometimes go for hefty prices. We got ours for $19.00. But we’ve seen them auctioning for $75.00. The high pricing means we may not buy another example for a while, but we’ll get it done. In the meantime, get acquainted with Off the Record Secrets. We have multiple rare images for you below.

Hollywoodland

February 9 2023

OPENING SENTENCE

This is your cell, Mitchum. You'll survive fine. Miss Leeds, yours is in the other wing and I'm sorry to say it's the last anyone'll ever hear of you.

In this press photo, a Los Angeles police deputy named Marjorie Kellog, in black, escorts Lila Leeds and Robert Mitchum to jail after their sentencing for marijuana related charges today in 1949. They’d been arrested the previous August after a police sting operation and been sentenced to a year behind bars, but the judge suspended the sentence and gave them two years probation, sixty days of which were to take place in Los Angeles County Jail. Mitchum had fretted that his acting career was over, but he emerged from his stint in lock-up more popular than ever, and law enforcement axe grinders learned an important lesson—arresting stars in hopes of ruining their careers risked making them appealing as rebels.

Leeds, however, wasn’t a star. She was a fledgeling actress who’d accumulated nine film appearances, six of them uncredited. It’s possible to argue that, had she been a big star her career would have been severely damaged because she was a woman. But on the other hand Lana Turner went through the scandal of her daughter’s killing of Johnny Stompanato, was exposed as a mobster’s mistress, yet her subsequent movie was one of her biggest hits. But Turner was seen by the public as someone led astray by a bad man. So in the end it’s difficult to say if Leeds got a raw deal because she was a woman. Probably. It’s usually a safe bet. We can only say for sure that with no earnings record and no power, her dreams of stardom died.

Robert Mitchum, Lila Leeds, Lana Turner, Johnny Stompanato, drugs

Intl. Notebook

January 26 2023

THE TABLOID THAT ROARED

It was a good thing for its readers Hush-Hush didn't know the meaning of the term.

No, we’re not going to get into teen-age rapist story that dominates this cover of Hush-Hush published back in January 1965. Though based on a real occurrence, the article is titillation disguised as crime reporting, written during an era when many men thought of rape in one of three ways: vandalization of personal property if the victim was his wife or girlfriend; an attack on the family castle if she was a relative; and she asked for it, which was reserved for most other women. We stress “many men,” not all. From what we gather the majority properly saw it as a heinous attack on the woman. Of course, the vicious nature of it didn’t stop it from being widely used as a cinematic and literary device, but that’s another discussion, one we’ve already had and doubtless will again.

Elsewhere on the cover you get photographic proof that topless bathing suits really did exist during the 1960s. There are only a few photos of the things, but Hush-Hush adds to the library of visual confirmation. Now we need proof of the existence of David Dodge’s completely backless cache-sexe that made women look nude when viewed from the rear. He says they were worn on the French Riviera during the 1950s, but we have a feeling proof won’t be forthcoming anytime soon, absent a time machine and careful coordinates. Lastly, the cover’s bottom banner touts wife swapping. How popular was this practice? We can’t know. We suggest asking your grandma. But first compliment her cooking: “This casserole is delicious, gram-gram. Did you and paw-paw ever screw other married couples for kicks? Can I have more peas?”

The next article we want to call attention to is, “How Do Tahitian Beauties Drive Men Wild?” Vintage novels that waxed pornographic about the sexual attitudes of Pacific Islanders were almost an official sub-genre, so this story was a must-read for us. And for you too, which can do below. At least mostly. We couldn’t upload the entire thing. It’s too long, but there’s enough to give you the gist. And the gist is simply that Tahitians apparently had no taboos concerning sex, partners, and privacy. The story is framed around alleged trysts with various Hollywood stars, and how Hush-Hush avoided lawsuits from those stars is really a mystery. You’ll be entertained. We will say, though, that it’s rather unfortunate that the story is couched in insulting terms toward Tahitian women.

As a final note, Hush-Hush used a cheaper printing process and lower quality paper than other publications from the same rank. Those two aspects of the magazine worsened as time passed. By 1965, it was barely a step above the National Informers of the world in terms of technical values. Because of that our scans aren’t great. The cheap printing resulted in a scanner moiré pattern on most of the black and white content (though the color came out fine). It’s actually fixable in Photoshop or Gimp, so we hear, and we have both programs, but do we want to do all that work for cheap-ass Hush-Hush? We decided we didn’t. Therefore, what you see is what you get—twenty-plus scans below.

Vintage Pulp

December 9 2022

EAGER TO PLEASE

Taylor and Turner make an explosive pairing in hit gangster romance.

MGM produced a beautiful poster for its 1941 melodrama Johnny Eager, which you see here in all its vibrancy and clever design. Starring Robert Taylor and Lana Turner, the unknown creator or creators used the stars’ names crossword style to include “TNT” into the text. MGM knew they had something special on their hands in Turner and had been trundling her out for audiences to goggle at in awe and wonder, building up her career in comedy, musicals, straight drama, a western, and even horror in 1941’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Now at age twenty it was time for her to co-anchor a crime melodrama.

Turner is a sociology student who crosses the path of an ex-con named John Eager (Taylor) at his parole office. Turner is smitten, as well as impressed with Taylor’s efforts to stay on the straight and narrow by working as a cab driver. The problem is Taylor is actually running an elaborate scam, heading a criminal enterprise in the form of a profitable gambling racket while keeping his parole officer bamboozled, and others either paid off or bedazzled into silence. Such is his charm that even the head secretary at the parole office is helping him.

Turner, as an innocent young student who isn’t in on the scam, of course throws a wrench in Taylor’s plans by finding out he’s lying. But it turns out she’s a little more worldly than she at first seemed. When she learns Taylor is still an underworld goon she’s fine with it. She’s just gotta have the guy. It means jilting her square boyfriend and disappointing her protective dad, plus she’s warned that disaster will result, but the heart wants what it wants. Will she be corrupted? Will Taylor become so loopy that he loses control of his empire? Can true love blossom in the barren soil of the organized crime underground?

In the end Johnny Eager is a smart, well-written movie, with memorable lines aplenty and several refreshing plot surprises. Burgeoning superstar Turner does just fine in her key role, and it helps that her surrounding cast are all confident and talented. Van Heflin even won a supporting actor Academy Award for his role as a poetry spouting, alcoholic sidekick to Taylor’s smooth gangster, and the accolade was well deserved. Johnny Eager is a movie every vintage film buff should add to their queue. It premiered today in 1941.

Academy Award, Johnny Eager, Robert Taylor, Lana Turner, Edward Arnold, Patricia Dane, Diana Lewis, Van Heflin, poster art, cinema, movie review

Intl. Notebook

November 20 2022

24 HOURS NON-STOP

In show business the camera never sleeps.

Night and Day, for which you see the cover of an issue—its very first issue, actually—that was published this month in 1948, billed itself as America’s Picture Magazine of Entertainment. It was launched in New York City by Alho Publishing, and as you’ll see it came out of the gate swinging for the fences with its visual content, from its bisected cover featuring burlesque dancer Lili St. Cyr and actress Ramsey Ames, to its tongue-in-cheek feature on the twenty-seven types of kisses, to its approving look at George White’s Scandals revue at Hollywood’s Florentine Gardens. Interesting side note on Scandals—Wikipedia says it ended in 1939. Well, obviously not quite. Elsewhere Night and Day touches on college hazing, professional football, and the Greenwich Village art scene. In total, it’s a gold mine for vintage photos.

Our favorite offering in the magazine is its quiz on Hollywood stars and their stand-ins. You just have to take a good look at twenty performers, and try to determine which twenty random people are their stand-ins. To score well on such a quiz you’d have to be either the biggest Hollywood head in history or someone who has the opposite of face blindness, whatever that would be. Face unforgettability, maybe. Even though we don’t expect many people to try the quiz, we worked hard to put it into internet-usable form. In the magazine the photos were five-across on the page, which made them too small for the column width of our website. So we rearranged them to be two-across, and thus enlarged, they’re clear, though you have to do a lot of scrolling. Nevertheless, it’s there if you want, along with fifty other panels to eat your time with marvelous efficiency. Please enjoy.

The Hollywood movie star stand-in quiz begins below. First you get twenty famous actors and actresses:

And below are their twenty stand-ins. If you get more than half of these right you’re a human face recognition algorithm. Quit your day job immediately and report to the FBI.

Below are the answers.

Hollywoodland

June 18 2022

SHE’S NO DAY AT THE BEACH

I love it here. Sun, sand, surf. It's almost enough to make me stop thinking about cold-blooded murder.

Above and below: a series of photos made for the classic murder drama The Postman Always Rings Twice, with Lana Turner and John Garfield busily frolicking on Laguna Beach south of Los Angeles. The movie was released in April 1946, but began filming in June 1945, which means these photos were made sometime during that summer. Postman features two long seaside sequences, plus one brief beach scene of Garfield alone, and all the shooting was of the day-for-night variety—filmed during the day but filtered to simulate night. We’re fans of the film, but even more so of James M. Cain’s pitch dark novel. For two enjoyably amoral experiences, ring twice.

Los Angeles, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Lana Turner, John Garfield, James M. Cain, cinema, film noir

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

November 13

1940—Fantasia Premieres

Walt Disney’s animated film Fantasia, which features eight animated segments set to classical music, is first seen by the public in New York City at the Broadway Theatre. Though appreciated by critics, the movie fails to make a profit due to World War II cutting off European revenues. However it remains popular and is re-released several times, including in 1963 when, with the approval of Walt Disney himself, certain racially insulting scenes were removed. Today Fantasia is considered one of Disney’s greatest achievements and an essential experience for movie lovers.

November 12

1912—Missing Explorer Robert Scott Found

British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and his men are found frozen to death on the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica, where they had been pinned down and immobilized by bad weather, hunger and fatigue. Scott’s expedition, known as the Terra Nova expedition, had attempted to be the first to reach the South Pole only to be devastated upon finding that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten them there by five weeks. Scott wrote in his diary: “The worst has happened. All the day dreams must go. Great God! This is an awful place.”

November 12

1933—Nessie Spotted for First Time

Hugh Gray takes the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster while walking back from church along the shore of the Loch near the town of Foyers. Only one photo came out, but of all the images of the monster, this one is considered by believers to be the most authentic.

November 12

1969—My Lai Massacre Revealed

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh breaks the story of the My Lai massacre, which had occurred in Vietnam more than a year-and-a-half earlier but been covered up by military officials. That day, U.S. soldiers killed between 350 and 500 unarmed civilians, including women, the elderly, and infants. The event devastated America’s image internationally and galvanized the U.S. anti-war movement. For Hersh’s efforts he received a Pulitzer Prize.

November 11

1918—The Great War Ends

Germany signs an armistice agreement with the Allies in a railroad car outside of Compiègne, France, ending The Great War, later to be called World War I. About ten million people died, and many millions more were wounded. The conflict officially stops at 11:00 a.m., and today the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month is annually honored in some European nations with two minutes of silence.