Blind Items Revealed #4 -Old Hollywood
April 9, 2015
This actor is probably best known for his roles in several early horror movies, but later in his life when any reporter asked about why he left his status as a potential A-list leading man rather abruptly he always replied with an “I don’t want to talk about it” or “next question please”. The real facts behind his exit from Hollywood and returning to the worlds of Broadway and summer stock is among the most sordid I’ve ever heard and shows how fast a career begins and ends.
Back in the 1930s, there was this hotel called the Garden of Allah owned by actress (and lesbian) Alla Nazimova. Many celebrities stayed there and held wild parties almost every night. Back then, if you were gay or lesbian, this was the place to go to be yourself, without the prying eyes of the studio PR people telling you to act straight and signing cease-and-desist orders so various incidents didn’t wind up in a gossip column. Occasionally, gay and lesbian actors and actresses were picked up by the police for solicitation… which where then squashed by a studio’s PR department for fear of hurting the star and the studio’s image. Some stars, like actor William Haines, defied the studio’s gag order and left Hollywood altogether. Others, like actor Ramon Novarro and actress Lilyan Tashman, kow-towed to the studio’s pressure but as part of the deal got film roles of lesser quality. Our actor was not publicly out of the closet back in the mid ’30s, but everyone knew he was gay. One night, after wrapping a day’s work for a film, he was invited to the Garden of Allah for a “surprise party” for an openly gay A-list director and Oscar winner/nominee. He was told only two instructions: #1: put on a blindfold and never take it off, and #2: strip down to your underwear.
So he was taken to the Garden of Allah, where some members of Hollywood’s secret gay, lesbian and bisexual community were holding a party for the director. We’re talking the A++ list here, names you would instantly recognize. The actor was brought in, blindfolded and nearly naked, and told to go on all fours like a dog. Then out came the paddle.. his briefs were quickly taken off and some of the male partygoers had their way with him. He wasn’t the only actor naked on all fours: a B-list stage/film actor (not openly gay but struggled with his sexuality and with manic depression for most of his brief career) who was a rising star at his studio in a series of low budget comedies was also being taken advantage of. Photos were taken (and later destroyed) and later used to keep the actors in the closet as a form of blackmail. Well, the second actor didn’t take it so well and he later killed himself. The first actor was told by actor #2’s longtime friend, an A++ list actress and Oscar winner/nominee, to get out of town as soon as possible before the scandal was leaked to the press. He did just that and never looked back.
#1: David Manners/actor #2: Ross Alexander/director: George Cukor/actor #2's friend: Bette Davis)
14 comments:
I would have enjoyed the subsequent movies they might have made.
This BI just makes me really sad. The betrayal by their own community is just. Wow.
+1 @ Riven..i was thinking the same thing.
@jenny and @ Bean Alainn Rua got this...mentioning Bette Davis as being stalked though by the actor & Katherine Hepburn was the A++ (as did most everyone else).
This Blind stuck with me & I ended up getting sucked into the Internet Vortexclicking more & more to learn about this Old Hollywood story
Wow. /shakes head in disgust/
Just wow.
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I saw a documentary recently on Netflix about the Sunset Strip and they talked a bit about the Garden of Allah.
Too bad the rapists' names aren't revealed as well. They are the ones who really deserve to have their legacies destroyed.
WTH? All of these old wood blinds have been revealed before.
This is so sad, and how horrible is it that the sick fucks who took advantage of him got away unscathed.
Agree but how dumb do you have to be to strip, blindfold yourself and go into a room?
No offense, but who goes to a party with the instructions to be blind-folded, never remove it, and strip...and does it? He had pics taken of him with people having their way with him...didn't he want to know who?? What does it benefit you to go somewhere and let people rape you while you are blind folded, who would agree to that???? I think the main problem he had was stupidity, some people are too dumb to be successful.
I'm not inclined to think there was much "raping" going on. Presumably this guy knew that being blindfolded, almost naked and on all fours in a well-known gay orgy hotel was going to lead to a happy ending for someone.
@OKay well put.
Consider the context and time.
Their own community sold them out and ruined their lives while doing the exact same thing (The Gayness). Did you ever read Fahrenheit 451? This is like if a book hoarder threw a party for other secret book hoarders, forced them to sit on a throne made of books while reading three books at once and wearing a hat made out of books, then took pictures of only those 2 dudes and handed them over to the book police who would kill them, just so they could steal their forks.
Sorry the book metaphor wouldn't work in that last line lol forks = fame/career/fortune/spotlight
There is no way Bette Davis would be considered a friend of Ross Alexander; she openly ridiculed him and called him "abnormal"!
FWIW, Warner Bros. signed Ronald Reagan to replace Ross Alexander after his death.
A probable marriage of convenience to budding starlet Aleta Friele, who appeared on Broadway using the name Aleta Freel, ended disastrously with the 28-year-old actress taking her own life with a rifle in their Hollywood Hills home. The actor was deeply shaken by this tragic event. He tried to cover his tracks yet again, however, by marrying beautiful actress Anne Nagel, whom he met while on the set of China Clipper (1936) and Here Comes Carter (1936). It didn't help quash his spiraling depression.
Finally Warners lost all patience and interest after having to cover up a potentially career-threatening gay-sex scandal, and Ross' promising career went down the tubes. To add insult to injury, he incurred major debt. On January 2, 1937, less than five months after his marriage to Nagel and shortly after the first anniversary of his first wife's death, Aleta Friele who also committed suicide, Alexander shot himself with a pistol in a barn behind his Encino ranch home. His last movie, the moderately received Ready, Willing and Able (1937) with Ruby Keeler, was released posthumously. Despite the fact he was the co-lead in the film, he was billed fifth, thus emphasizing the point that he had already lost most of his clout.
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