# Big Successful Hollywood Cover Ups **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 15, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518 "2008-07-15T00:05:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![B\_A\_Bay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@B\_A\_Bay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B_A_Bay)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/1 "2008-07-15T00:05:52Z")
I know with all the camera phones and such now it’s extremely difficult for anyone, much less a celebrity to cover something up. But I was wondering in the past have celebrities or famous people been successful at covering things up like abortions, pregnancy, daughters passed off as nieces and no one knowing. For the sake of this thread let’s exclude homosexuality cause that is kind of hard to prove. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/2 "2008-07-15T00:27:43Z")
Bobby Darin believed that his mother was his sister. Same with Jack Nicholson. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/3 "2008-07-15T00:29:15Z")
And while I don’t recall all the details, there are implications that all of Joan Crawford’s adoptions, because she was unmarried at the time of the adoptions, were illegal under California law. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/4 "2008-07-15T00:34:37Z")
Heck, _L. A. Confidential_ was all about stuff like that. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/5 "2008-07-15T00:36:28Z")
Rob Schneider is a henchman of the Devil, sent here to infect all of us with a brain-eating metavirus, and thus make us more malleable to the overtures of the Dark One. Somehow he has managed to avoid letting anyone capture photographic proof of this. But one day, Schneider. One day. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/6 "2008-07-15T00:38:47Z")
Erich von Stroheim claimed to be an Austrian count, but was really the son of a middle-class Jewish hatmaker. Still, he kept up the secret most if not all his life. Similarly, Josef von Sternberg had the “von” added to his name by the studio publicity machine, but he never prenteded otherwise. The public thought he was nobility, but his friends knew different. Thomas Ince’s death was possibly a cover up of some sort (he may have been murdered), though the circumstances are very murky. Wallace Reid’s morphine addiction was never mentioned until his death, though he may have kept it secret himself. He continued to make movies until he was too weak. Hollywood in the 30s and 30s had big publicity machines to cover up stars’ problems. Affairs were never mentioned, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/7 "2008-07-15T00:45:13Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Hollywood in the 30s and 30s had big publicity machines to cover up stars’ problems. Affairs were never mentioned, for instance. [/QUOTE] Wow, they maintained the cover ups from the **30s** through the **30s**? Imagine the power of the Hollywood machine… ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/8 "2008-07-15T00:48:09Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] Bobby Darin believed that his mother was his sister. Same with Jack Nicholson. [/QUOTE] Bobby Darin believed that Jack Nicholson was his sister? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/9 "2008-07-15T00:50:39Z")
I’d go much farther than Chuck. Outside of maybe Shirley Temple (who successfully lied about her age) there probably isn’t a major Hollywood star of the Golden Age of the studios who didn’t have some major live event covered up. Pregnancies, affairs, drug addictions, bigamy, statutory rape, car accidents, assault, wife beating, public drunkenness, child abuse. Any scandal you can possibly name existed. The studios owned, through payoffs, the police and press, and were mostly able to get stories buried, or at least diminished. Pick up any biography of a star or a studio at random and you’ll find examples. And I am being quite literal when I say any. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/10 "2008-07-15T01:20:19Z")
Loretta Young and Clark Gable had a daughter, Judy, while Clark Gable was married. Young “adopted” Judy and raised her. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/11 "2008-07-15T02:57:06Z")
What about the whole “[Girl 27](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912586/),” or [Patricia Douglas](http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/directorinterviews/2007_07_01_archive.php) cover-up? I figure that deserves a mention, too. It wasn’t just the stars that got the protection, but the sales force, too. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/12 "2008-07-15T02:59:43Z")
Admittedly it’s unsubstantiated, but. . . In one account, [Ted Healey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Healy) is rumored to have died from having the crap beaten out of him by Wallace Beery and Cubby Broccoli. ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/13 "2008-07-15T03:29:32Z")
And, of course, all of Hollywood, including the gossip journalists, knew that Rock Hudson was gay for years before it was revealed to the public with his final illness. The studios would stop the scandal rags from printing stories by arranging to leak scandals on minor stars instead. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/14 "2008-07-15T14:06:42Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] And while I don’t recall all the details, there are implications that all of Joan Crawford’s adoptions, because she was unmarried at the time of the adoptions, were illegal under California law. [/QUOTE] I think she was married when she adopted Christina and the others were processed in differenct states. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/15 "2008-07-15T14:12:36Z")
Fatty Arbuckle was framed. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/16 "2008-07-15T14:13:47Z")
For an entertaining read about the studios and their efforts, successful and otherwise, to keep the exploits of their stars off of the front pages, read David Niven’s _Bring on the Empty Horses_. This is an affectionate portrait of Hollywood from the inside, with vignettes on everyone from Clark Gable down to wannabees you never heard of, - and he doesn’t spare himself, either. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/17 "2008-07-15T16:37:57Z")
The all-time classic book of celebrity scandals has to be Kenneth Anger’s [Hollywood Babylon](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Babylon-Legendary-Underground-Hollywoods/dp/0440153255/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216139023&sr=1-2). Oh, sure, it may have a few problems with accuracy here and there :smack: but most of the scandals are real. The subject matter begs for more, and people have been doing similar versions of the book ever since, including Anger himself with [Hollywood Babylon II](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Babylon-II-Kenneth-Angers/dp/B000XMG126/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216139023&sr=1-6). Here ar some other titles along the same lines. [Hollywood Babylon–It’s Back, by Darwin Porter and Danforth Prince](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Babylon-Its-Back-Darwin-Porter/dp/0974811882/ref=pd_sim_b_2) [Flesh and Fantasy, by Penny Stallings and Howard Mandelbaum](http://www.amazon.com/Flesh-Fantasy-Penny-Stallings/dp/0060963433/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216139420&sr=1-1) [The Hollywood Book of Death: The Bizarre, Often Sordid, Passings of More than 125 American Movie and TV Idols, by James Robert Parish](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Book-Death-Passings-American/dp/0809222272/ref=pd_sim_b_1) [The Hollywood Book of Scandals: The Shocking, Often Disgraceful Deeds and Affairs of Over 100 American Movie and TV Idols, by James Robert Parish](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywood-Book-Scandals-Shocking-Disgraceful/dp/0071421890/ref=pd_sim_b_2) [Hollywood’s Babylon Women, by John Austin](http://www.amazon.com/Hollywoods-Babylon-Women-Austin-Paperback/dp/1561712884/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216139613&sr=1-1) No guarantees made about accuracy in any of these books. Why spoil a good scandal? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/18 "2008-07-15T18:30:57Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] I think she was married when she adopted Christina and the others were processed in differenct states. [/QUOTE] She divorced Franchot Tone in 1939 and adopted Christina in 1940. She adopted Christopher 1 in 1941 and Christopher 2 in 1943 (she was married by then, and also married when she bought the twins). ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/19 "2008-07-15T18:41:37Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] She divorced Franchot Tone in 1939 and adopted Christina in 1940. She adopted Christopher 1 in 1941 and Christopher 2 in 1943 (she was married by then, and also married when she bought the twins). [/QUOTE] I have somehow gotten to this point in my life without knowing that her children’s names were Christina, Christopher, and Christopher. Did she have a Mary Complex? ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2008, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518/20 "2008-07-15T20:03:56Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] I have somehow gotten to this point in my life without knowing that her children’s names were Christina, Christopher, and Christopher. Did she have a Mary Complex? [/QUOTE] Joan first named her daughter “Joan Crawford, Jr.”, but quickly changed it to Christina. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/big-successful-hollywood-cover-ups/456518.md?page=2)