Not too long ago, a studio changed hands. A long established studio with a library dating back to the studio system years of Old Hollywood. Several archivists were brought in to see if anything could be found that was uncatalogued and to make sure everything was cataloged correctly. Sporadically they found new films or different versions of films. They found some interesting clips taken from behind the scenes of several movies shot by an A+ list director that are actually being turned into a documentary. One of the most interesting finds was of a movie that people knew existed at one point, but was always assumed to have been destroyed.
It starred a permanent A list mostly movie actress who was almost as well known after her death as she was during her death. All of you know who she is. She has always been at the top of the list of Old Hollywood scandals. My favorite is the dumping of the secret husband because she was not allowed to be married and be an actress at that time. Prior to her hitting it big while she was with her secret husband, the actress was introduced to some friends of the husband. Her husband was also in the entertainment industry, but in a different capacity. He had run into some guys who were producing a movie and thought our actress would be wonderful for it. The husband talked her into it and our actress made what today would be soft porn, but back then was something which would get her immediately fired from the studio and never get a chance to work for another. This was especially true when her main rival, who was having sex with the studio head would love to see the actress out the door.
Anyway, the studio did find out about the movie. How? The producers made it specifically thinking the actress would be a big star and held on to it until she was A list. They threatened to release it unless the studio coughed up some money. About $1M in today's dollars. The studio paid the ransom and supposedly the film was destroyed. The archivists found it though. Like I said, it is tame by today's standards and the thought is they might try to release the movie to a classic cable channel.
It starred a permanent A list mostly movie actress who was almost as well known after her death as she was during her death. All of you know who she is. She has always been at the top of the list of Old Hollywood scandals. My favorite is the dumping of the secret husband because she was not allowed to be married and be an actress at that time. Prior to her hitting it big while she was with her secret husband, the actress was introduced to some friends of the husband. Her husband was also in the entertainment industry, but in a different capacity. He had run into some guys who were producing a movie and thought our actress would be wonderful for it. The husband talked her into it and our actress made what today would be soft porn, but back then was something which would get her immediately fired from the studio and never get a chance to work for another. This was especially true when her main rival, who was having sex with the studio head would love to see the actress out the door.
Anyway, the studio did find out about the movie. How? The producers made it specifically thinking the actress would be a big star and held on to it until she was A list. They threatened to release it unless the studio coughed up some money. About $1M in today's dollars. The studio paid the ransom and supposedly the film was destroyed. The archivists found it though. Like I said, it is tame by today's standards and the thought is they might try to release the movie to a classic cable channel.
Joan Crawford
ReplyDeleteJoan Crawford
ReplyDeleteSharon Tate?
ReplyDeleteVelvet Lips as the movie
ReplyDeleteIs this about Orson W? I know someone who worked with him who said he shot porn.
ReplyDeleteI think Joan was always married to actors. My other guess might have been Liz Taylor.
ReplyDeleteHedy Lamarr really old Hollywood?
ReplyDeleteWasn't Crawford's first husband Douglas Fairbanks Jr?
ReplyDeleteIt must be Marilyn Monroe and the studio Fox.
ReplyDeleteCan’t be Joan. Only married to actors. I think Marilyn is the one!
ReplyDeleteWasn't Joan Crawford married the the President of the Pepsi Corporation at some point?
ReplyDeleteMArilyn's first husband was a cop, unless there was one even before that.
ReplyDeleteYes. Fourth and final husband Alfred Steele, President of Pepsi.
ReplyDeleteThat Joan Crawford biography I read in high school has finally paid off!
It says secret husband
ReplyDeleteWho was the one in a blind recently, who had a secret husband because he was black?
DeleteAny chance this could be Garbo?
ReplyDeleteIf so, Mauritz Stiller could possibly be the director, with Louis Meyer the head of the studio.
Garbo is said to have never been married, but if Stiller was the secret husband, I think everyhting fits. And Stiller is the one who brought her to fame, and to America.
Yes, but Crawford was well established by the time she married Steele, and wasn't really getting a lot of work anymore.
ReplyDeleteThe secret first husband was James Welton a sax player. This is Joan Crawford.
ReplyDeleteCelebrity Biographies
ReplyDeleteJames Welton has been divorced from Joan Crawford since 1924. They had been married for 1 year.
https://www.famoushookups.com/site/relationship_detail.php?name=James-Welton&relid=5924&celebid=7287
The studio is likely 20th Century Fox, which just changed hands last summer when Disney acquired it.
ReplyDeleteIf Fox, the studio head would be Daryl Zanuck, who was legendary for sleeping with leading ladies.
ReplyDeletemovie actress who was almost as well known after her death as she was during her death.???!!!!!
ReplyDeleteRival is obviously Bette Davis who was "discovered" by Zanuck
ReplyDeleteJoan Crawford/Bette Davis rivalry is probably the biggest one Hollywood has ever seen.
Exactly. I'm totally on board with this Joan Crawford guess.
DeleteMarilyn Monroe is certainly the actress but I don’t know enough to guess a secret husband but she most likely had one.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn would be permanent A+, though.
DeleteAdding my chips to the Joan Crawford guess as well. This article from 2017 seems a pretty solid match on many fronts.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/04/feud-joan-crawford-fact-check-stag-film-brother
Natalie Wood?
ReplyDeleteMarilynn?
ReplyDeleteLucille was a hussy and I love it!
ReplyDeleteLesbian porn would’ve been a huge scandal back then so I’m going with Joan Crawford as well.
ReplyDeleteNorma Shearer was one Joan's main rivals in pre-code hollywood and was sleeping with Irving THalberg
ReplyDeleteWelton, James Barratt. Allegedly Joan's first husband from 1923 to 1924. According to the book Gone But Not Forgotten, he was a saxophonist with the orchestra of "The Passing Show of 1924," in which Joan was a chorus girl, and the two married in New York City. Says a later Welton Wife in the book:
ReplyDelete...the big event at that time, one that has been kept locked up in the Hall of Records, was [Joan's] first marriage. When she arrived in Hollywood after a successful screen test to accept MGM's offer, the marriage was verboten. Because starlets in those days testified that they were unmarried, which was the rule. Since she [ Joan ] didn't drive in those days, Jimmy had to drive her daily to the studio at the crack of dawn and then pick her up while trying to keep out of sight. The marriage wore thin and they divorced in the middle or late 20's in California.
https://www.joancrawfordbest.com/w.htm
Isn't there actual porn that Joan Crawford done when she was Lucille LaSeuer?
ReplyDeleteThis was referenced, if I remember correctly, in "Feud: Bette and Joan".
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be a riot if it ended up on TCM?
I thought it was always rumored Crawford had done actual porn.
ReplyDeleteMy first guess was Marilyn Monroe. She wanted to do porn movie according to historian William Manchester . I also thought she was rumored to have had secret marriages that were annulled by the studio but might be mixing this up.
No wire hangers! ;)
ReplyDeleteLove these Old Hollywood blinds and the quality sleuthing that ensues! CDaN at its best!😁
ReplyDeleteI haven't had time to research anything, but Joan and possibly Norma were my first guesses, but then wondered if it will go back even further.
Those archivists must be having a blast!
Yup...Joan and Norma. I'd kill to look through those vaults. Endless history.
DeleteI always think Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe when the topic of old Hollywood actress's being used and abused comes up.
ReplyDeleteAs for Crawford, could the movie be Great Day? It was never released and was directed by Harry Beaumont and Harry Pollard.
Frequent lurker here. Like the Crawford guess and it makes sense with the Disney/Fox deal, but Crawford’s glory days were with MGM. Would Fox have her stag film in their vault?
ReplyDeleteJayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe come to mind as the rivals. Both of them had newsworthy deaths so I'm not sure which one was in the film. Probably Marilyn.
ReplyDeleteCompletely unrelated to this blind, but whenever I think of Jayne Mansfield, that classic pic of Sophia Loren glaring at Jayne's overflowing bosom at some formal dinner comes to mind, and makes me chuckle. It may be the Gold Standard in the definition of "side eye."
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of Jayne Mansfield, I think of Marisa, and the kiss reference in Siouxsie and the Banshee’s “Kiss Them For Me”.
ReplyDeleteThat is Mariska, not Marisa. Stupid spellcheck.
ReplyDeleteMarilyn Monroe
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Taylor (rival)
The article I found was that its one scene with Clark Gable
https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/marilyn-monroe-filmed-lost-nude-scene-to-please-audiences-was-furious-on-her-last-day-alive-book-claims
Not Marilyn. The sexy/nude scene someone referred to with Clark Gable was a scene filmed, but edited out of The Misfits, Gable’s last film. Also, Marilyn’s first marriage at 16 was well known. With the Fox/Zanuck association, Betty Grable had a thing with him-though her popularity has certainly waned. Shirley Temple was Fox’s top star, so I’ll guess her...if their was a marriage before she took up with John Agar. Everyone knows Crawford made a hot flick that no one has seen, but everyone also knows about her multiple marriages.
ReplyDeleteOkay-changing my hunch to Norma Jean! Why? The plot line of Some Like it Hot is that Marilyn’s character LOVES sax players. Can’t resist them. Tony Curtis plays sax, but she thinks he’s a she till the end of the film. This could’ve been Billy Wilder’s idea of a joke over MM’s unknown sax playing hub!
ReplyDeletedepp tupac banned movie
ReplyDeleteavailable to buy on dvd June 19
https://www.amazon.it/dp/B07QH1H162/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_U_5yPWCbZY6KQCJ?fbclid=IwAR1pkJ7dtUgNX8DwsB_MWmnUkZqMpZ3vzlB2l7pgPpzVXzY4WZBFP1DatJY
will the dvd cut be an edited version ?
Marilyn Monroe and James Dougherty for the obvious.
ReplyDeleteFor the far out there...Marilyn and Tom Kelley, extending the Red Velvet shoot into a film no one knew about. Though that would have to be far, far out there since I don't think they were married, secretly at all. He is an older man and I could see her sleeping with him, since she had a a type.
Shirley Temple started dating John Agar at 15, even back in the 30s getting married at 13 would be kind of crazy,
ReplyDeleteThe story I heard was that Dougherty and Norman Jean were both working at an aircraft facility and Howard Hughes spotted her and paid Jim to divorce her. As for the missing movie, if it was pre-code, big deal. All the young lesbians from Babs Stanwyck to Joan/Greta dropped trow in cutting room floor scenes reserved for the private studio screening rooms.
ReplyDeleteJoan Crawford - MGM - Velvet Lips
ReplyDelete