Long before 420 got its special meaning, this studio head would have sex with some unlucky female employee of the studio every working day at 4pm. Apparently at lunch time he would pick his victim and they would be told to be in the boss' office promptly at 4pm.
Posted by
ent lawyer
at
1:45 PM
Labels: blind item , Old Hollywood Blind Item
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35 comments:
Harry Cohn - president of Columbia - I heard he was a real jerk.
All of them.
Specifically, David O' Selznick.
Louis B. Mayer, I believe that is how Joan C. got special favor from him in the beginning of her career.
Great. An old-timey rapist!
Let your language reflect the crime, please. You said these women were "victims", which leads me to believe they weren't willing participants. There's a huge difference between "having sex" with another person and *forcing* a sexual interaction on them.
That said, I'll go with Ms Cool and say Selznick.
I'm on Team Harry Cohn; there's a reason so many actresses hated him so deeply, and he was a bully. I'm pretty sure his victims were just that. And I'm pretty sure Mario Puzo based his horse-head-in-the-bed studio head on him, too.
Harry Cohn!
Not Selznick: he was independent, not a studio boss.
Gah-ross! I guess that system at least would give you enough time to pack the contents of your desk into a box and split.
Awesome. I wasn't the only one who immediately thought Harry Cohn @ Columbia, and so this is my guess too. He tormented Rita Hayworth (Columbia's flagship star during the studio era) for years, even while she was married to Orson and later on Aly Khan.
Ida, I disagree. They weren't victims of rape, but they were victims of sexual harassment.
@Mooshki -- Well, I maintain my stance. If these women were *coerced* into sex in order to keep their jobs -- unWANTed and unconsensual sex-- then I think it's rape.
Sexual harassment, to me, includes inappropriate touching and comments about a woman's sexual attractiveness (or maybe lack thereof), but when it crosses the line into actual sexual contact, things get a little more ominous. I have a *very* hard time believing that the women cited in this blind were eager to take their girdles off and go to town.
The use of the word "victim" kinda seals the deal for me. And if Enty didn't mean it that way, he could have phrased it differently.
Not O'Selznick...he was married to actress Jennifer Jones and adored her by all accounts. Maybe Zanuck...?
Oh, MAN. Just wikied Harry Cohn. It's GOTTA be him. What a fucking dirtbag.
I think sexual harassment is any kind of sex...from comments to the actual act itself...where the victim's employment is at stake if they don't comply.
If this occurred during the Depression they would have had a really hard time choosing the walk away option.
I change my guess to Harry Cohn.
Victims? You can always find another fucking job.
@Missy -- here's a brief History lesson: it was much harder for women to eke out gainful employment sixty to seventy years ago. They couldn't just "find another fucking job," as you so eloquently put it.
@Robert -- exactly.
It seems like the women didn't have a choice. Some probably had families or needed a job, and it was harder back in those days for women to find a decent job or report sexual harassment. I don't think, 'sexual harassment' even existed back then, so they'd probably be laughed at. So no, they couldn't find another job just like that. Not with Harry Cohn (my guess) calling around to make sure you were never hired in Hollywood again.
The women DID have a choice, but not much of one is what I meant to say.
Actually it's Daryl Zanuck... head of 20th Century Fox. He was famous for this... one of his victims was Carole Landis. Allegedly, when she said she was done with it, he tanked her career.
True True on Zanuck. The studio heads were all dabbling in such extra curricular activities, but D. Zanuck was notorious for bagging on his starlets in ways that would make all others jealous. It seems he had a stamina that was fairly envious.
Does anybody remember Himmm's early post about Carole Landis and her career?
Those guys were the lowest kind of scumbags around. As far as complaining about it? To...? "Shut up, you dumb broad!"
Personally, I can't relate to the type of mentality that would enjoy having sex with someone who was wishing they could crawl out of their own skin at the same time.
I'm in Camp Ida. Unwanted sexual acts--whether there is force involved or not--is rape. That's why the term "date rape" has always bugged me--as if somehow the fact that it occurs on a date makes the act NOT rape. Rape is rape--and whether the coercion is physical or fiscal--calling it anything but rape diminishes the magnitude of the humiliation and degradation that the aggressor intends for the victim to feel.
I'm with Ida on this one. Either clarify the terminology in the blind or the way I read it, it's rape and it's not something to be amused by.
BS. The women had a choice. Sexual Harrassment is the correct term but even that is a stretch. I'm not saying it was right but the women knew the rules of employment and accepted the terms by taking the job.
ok, I'm confused. What is the connection between 420, which I know what that means and having someone come to your office a 4pm unless this was someone from 20th Century Fox, Zanuck perhaps? Or maybe I'm just slow as hell today.
@cowbulls -- "I'm not saying it was right but the women knew the rules of employment and accepted the terms by taking the job."
Good. Effing. Lord.
"the rules of employment."
*rolls eyes, smacks head, bangs head on desk.*
@Ida-
I'm with you. Those women were in a position where they had no choice. Walking away and finding another job wasn't an option.
@cowbulls -
it's nice that your life has been so easy that you were never faced with a choice like those women had to make.
Before I get jumped on: I have been raped and it was horrible.
That being said I don't think it's realistic for everyone to be screaming rape over each and every occurrence. For a lot of women this is how they actively pursued their careers. For every dirtbag who wants sexual favours there's a woman ready to give it up.
Of course some women were probably coerced and it is reprehensible. But what about current starlets who have (allegedly) been sleeping their way to the top? Was Blake Lively raped? Was Megan Fox raped?
Sexual acts can be a currency and if you actively engage, that's a woman's choice. I'm sorry, but I don't feel very PC about it.
I agree with girl. Real rape is horrible and the lingering effects last a lifetime.
I'm not condoning what happened here either. However, what is being described here is a version of the "casting couch" and that is entirely different. It was alleged that Jennifer Aniston use to trade sexual acts for better lines and increased airtime from the writers on the set of Friends. Was that rape? I don't think so. Many women and also some men use their sexual performance as a commodity. Once a woman uses sex as a commodity, all outrage disappears.
Absolutely disgusting. I feel for the women who had no way out in their lives and had to comply. I hope he is burning in Hell as we speak has to have sex against his will with someone AWFUL everyday.
@*girl -- I don't think any compassionate person would jump on you for that brave admission, or for anything else you said. I'm so incredibly sorry you were violated in that way, and I'm also genuinely sorry if discussions like this trigger memories of past traumas.
I think the difference between what happened in the blind and the current-day casting couch atmosphere lies largely in attitudes people towards women in that era, and how people regard women's sexuality today. There are *very* few producers nowadays who are audacious enough to just pluck a brand new victim from the employee pool at whim each and every day and demand sexual favors in exchange for employment. It might happen, sure, but women today have the resources to protest it -- and it's also easier for women today to find more desirable places to work if they don't want to deal with some pervy boss.
I'm sure sexual violations in the workplace were a thousand times more commonplace before women began fighting against them. I mean, of COURSE. All the blind says is that the asshole summoned these women to his office. It doesn't say that he *forced* himself on him, but it's strongly implied, seeing as how it doesn't sound as if the women were too enthusiastic about it.
Megan Fox *chose* to have a titty car wash audition for Michael Bay, and she did so willingly, and to advance her own career. Blake Lively *chose* to sleep with 3443534 dudes to boost her resume -- and there are rumors she had the chance to bang Harvey Weinstein in order to further her career, but the idea repelled her (understandably), and she didn't. Not so sure she would have been able to make that decision decades ago. Women like Megan and Blake ARE bargaining their sexuality. They AREN'T victims of anything other than Hollywood sexism, but they're content to play the game and no one is overtly forcing them to do so.
P.S. Sorry for all the typos, but you get my drift, hopefully.
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