1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:09,080 Now onto Arena Embarks on a journey through the darker side of Hollywood's 2 00:00:09,080 --> 00:00:12,280 history to reveal the tawdry face of Tinseltown. 3 00:00:12,680 --> 00:00:16,600 Your guide is Kenneth Anger and his tour starts here. 4 00:01:08,640 --> 00:01:13,360 Hollywood, three magic syllables invoking the wonder world of make believe. 5 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,520 To the faithful, it was more than a dream factory where one young hopeful out of a million 6 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:19,200 got a break. 7 00:01:19,960 --> 00:01:21,240 It was Dreamland itself, 8 00:01:21,800 --> 00:01:23,280 the home of the heavenly bodies, 9 00:01:23,920 --> 00:01:25,720 the glamour galaxy of Hollywood. 10 00:01:32,760 --> 00:01:33,800 Kenneth Anger, 11 00:01:34,200 --> 00:01:35,880 their chronicler born among them, 12 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:38,640 who chose for his destiny not to record 13 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,000 Hollywood Heaven, but to lift the veil on Hollywood Babylon. 14 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,160 Kenneth Anger was raised in Beverly Hills and grew up in 1930s Hollywood. 15 00:02:11,240 --> 00:02:15,120 He has written two books on the scandals that have littered Hollywood's history and raised 16 00:02:15,120 --> 00:02:16,360 gossip to an art form. 17 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:21,680 He called them Hollywood Babylon, likening the legendary decadence of the ancient city 18 00:02:21,680 --> 00:02:24,480 to the unrestrained excesses of Hollywood's golden years. 19 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:29,200 His own films have made him one of the most influential figures of underground cinema. 20 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:32,920 Both his books and films explore the same subjects, 21 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:35,520 glamour, illusion and human frailty. 22 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:40,080 For Anger, The Golden Age began with D.W. Griffith, 23 00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:45,040 the outrageously extravagant director who dared to reconstruct the colossal court of 24 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:45,680 Belshazzar 25 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,440 for his 1916 epic, Intolerance. 26 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:54,480 Griffith riding high over illusion city, lording it over his vision of Babylon. 27 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:55,880 A mare's nest, 28 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,520 mountains of scaffolding, hanging gardens, 29 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:02,160 chariot race ramparts and sky high elephants. 30 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:07,400 Pasteboard Babylon, a make-believe mirage of Mesopotamia. 31 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,560 A gargantuan dream beside the dusty Tin Lizzie trail called Sunset 32 00:03:12,560 --> 00:03:13,280 Boulevard. 33 00:03:14,040 --> 00:03:15,480 Camera! Action! 34 00:03:23,480 --> 00:03:24,640 Untouch your trip. 35 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:26,040 Untouch your trip. 36 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:32,280 Befits Babylon, 37 00:03:33,120 --> 00:03:35,280 something of a reproach and something of a challenge 38 00:03:35,280 --> 00:03:37,000 to the burgeoning movie town. 39 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:38,880 Something to surpass. 40 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:40,680 Something to live down. 41 00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:42,640 The shadow of Babylon 42 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:44,200 had fallen over Hollywood. 43 00:04:20,240 --> 00:04:21,640 I confess, 44 00:04:22,480 --> 00:04:24,000 growing up in Tinseltown, 45 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:27,800 my childhood hobby was visiting cemeteries, 46 00:04:28,200 --> 00:04:28,720 seeking the 47 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:30,560 resting places of my heroes, 48 00:04:31,240 --> 00:04:34,640 those with the fabulous faces of Hollywood in the 20s who 49 00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:35,880 had passed on. 50 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:40,680 Carmen Miranda, Mario Lanza, Cecil B. DeMille. 51 00:04:40,680 --> 00:04:42,280 Well, we had... 52 00:04:42,280 --> 00:04:44,200 Had a hot bird Tyrone Power 53 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:46,120 And Peter Lorre. 54 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:48,520 Um, and Mae Murray. 55 00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:54,120 Mae Murray, one of the most beautiful and rich stars of the 20s, ended up derelict on a park bench. 56 00:04:54,960 --> 00:04:55,640 Tom Mix. 57 00:04:56,480 --> 00:05:01,840 Tom had a rainbow -colored fountain in his dining room and died in his hand -built sports car two weeks after receiving it. 58 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:03,560 We had Jean Harlow. 59 00:05:03,560 --> 00:05:06,880 Jean Harlow's husband shot himself in 1932, 60 00:05:07,320 --> 00:05:08,680 humiliated after trying to pleasure 61 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,000 the platinum star with a dildo. 62 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:12,480 We did have Marion Davies. 63 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:17,480 Mistress of both, Charlie Chaplin and William Randolph Hearst simultaneously. 64 00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:19,160 We had Norma Talmadge. 65 00:05:19,440 --> 00:05:20,040 Alcoholic. 66 00:05:20,280 --> 00:05:21,160 Marilyn Monroe. 67 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:22,280 Suicide. 68 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:23,360 Jean Mansfield. 69 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:24,440 Decapitated. 70 00:05:25,600 --> 00:05:29,560 The death of the screen's great lover, Rudolf Valentino on August 23, 1926, 71 00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:32,800 released a flood of scandalous rumors. 72 00:05:33,880 --> 00:05:35,760 The official cause of death was peritonitis, 73 00:05:36,840 --> 00:05:38,880 but some attributed it to an arsenic revenge 74 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:41,040 by a well-known New York society woman, 75 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:43,240 others to a shot from an irate husband, 76 00:05:43,920 --> 00:05:45,240 or that he was syphilitic. 77 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:48,120 What was known was that both of the women 78 00:05:48,120 --> 00:05:49,280 he married were lesbians, 79 00:05:49,520 --> 00:05:50,800 and that he married his second wife 80 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:52,160 without divorcing his first, 81 00:05:52,640 --> 00:05:55,280 an oversight that led to his arrest for bigamy. 82 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:58,960 Valentino's demise at 31 left inconsolable 83 00:05:58,960 --> 00:06:03,200 paramours of both sexes to judge by the tear-streaked testimonials. 84 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:07,640 Aside from the lady in black bearing flowers annually to the mausoleum on the anniversary 85 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:08,320 of his death, 86 00:06:09,040 --> 00:06:13,360 the memory of Rudy was cherished by matinee idol Ramon Navarro, who kept 87 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:18,280 a black-lead Art Deco dildo embellished with Valentino's silver signature in a bedroom 88 00:06:18,280 --> 00:06:20,640 shrine, a present from Rudy. 89 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,840 My life, my hope, is not in vain. 90 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,920 You know that soon you can return 91 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:40,280 with my old 92 00:06:40,280 --> 00:06:44,120 love. 93 00:06:46,520 --> 00:06:50,760 Silence of the night, that only wants to do nothing. 94 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:55,960 My life, my hope, is not in vain. 95 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:01,480 After Valentino died in August 1926, 96 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,240 the cult of Valentino has attracted several women, 97 00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:09,200 some of whom I think are on the fringe of sanity, 98 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:14,440 who appear regularly at his tomb dressed 99 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:19,240 in black and who fuss with it and put flowers and things like that. 100 00:07:19,240 --> 00:07:24,080 Valentino, I'm here every single day to bring 101 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:24,600 flowers, 102 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:25,720 to bring praise, 103 00:07:26,440 --> 00:07:27,760 and to bring my love. 104 00:07:27,760 --> 00:07:32,640 If your sweetheart send a letter 105 00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:34,280 of goodbye 106 00:07:34,280 --> 00:07:38,880 It's no secret you feel better if you 107 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:39,520 cry 108 00:07:39,520 --> 00:07:43,800 When waiting for the bluebird that sometime 109 00:07:43,800 --> 00:07:45,200 come 110 00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,440 So let your head down and 111 00:07:49,440 --> 00:07:53,080 cry 112 00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:54,280 Valentino 113 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:59,360 When I found Valentino's tomb, 114 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:01,200 it proved a disappointment. 115 00:08:02,120 --> 00:08:03,440 It was nothing special, 116 00:08:04,480 --> 00:08:09,160 just a space on the wall with two dinky flower vases like those in an 117 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:10,800 old -fashioned limousine, 118 00:08:11,160 --> 00:08:14,280 with Rudy's name spelled out in bronze in the long version. 119 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:17,880 Still, I was drawn back again and 120 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:18,720 and again. 121 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:21,240 These visits were charmed. 122 00:08:21,520 --> 00:08:23,280 There was never anyone else around. 123 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,200 I had Rudy all to myself. 124 00:08:30,920 --> 00:08:34,720 For a long time, like grandmother, I didn't believe in death. 125 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:36,800 It was just a transition, 126 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:38,760 a special effect lap dissolve. 127 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:44,080 I firmly intended to approach my idols as they're equal. 128 00:08:45,040 --> 00:08:45,760 After all, 129 00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:48,520 I, too, had once acted in a Hollywood movie. 130 00:09:13,960 --> 00:09:16,200 I was on the fringe of the movie industry, 131 00:09:17,080 --> 00:09:19,320 and I appeared in one film as a child, 132 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:20,840 Midsummer Night's Dream. 133 00:09:28,920 --> 00:09:31,760 You can still smell the soundstage, 134 00:09:32,000 --> 00:09:35,280 because it was lit by very hot lights, 135 00:09:35,640 --> 00:09:38,240 and everything reeked of shellac, 136 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:41,720 because it was sprayed over everything by Hal Moore, 137 00:09:41,720 --> 00:09:44,080 so all the trees would glisten. 138 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:47,600 And it's a rather intoxicating smell, 139 00:09:47,680 --> 00:09:52,560 and it was a wonderful thing for a four -year -old kid to 140 00:09:52,560 --> 00:09:53,320 work in, 141 00:09:53,600 --> 00:09:56,200 because for a four-year-old it was gigantic. 142 00:09:59,560 --> 00:10:00,840 Did you go to see a lot of movies? 143 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:02,200 Oh, a lot, yes. 144 00:10:02,200 --> 00:10:04,600 My grandmother was a movie buff, 145 00:10:04,600 --> 00:10:08,240 and she'd take me once or twice a week when I was really quite small. 146 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:10,400 And then when I started to go on my own, 147 00:10:10,400 --> 00:10:12,800 I never missed a Saturday matinee. 148 00:10:13,200 --> 00:10:14,920 And she told me many a story, 149 00:10:15,120 --> 00:10:17,280 which maybe weren't too suitable for children, 150 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:19,480 but at any rate, they were the equivalent 151 00:10:19,480 --> 00:10:23,680 of grim fairy tales of the silent days. 152 00:10:24,520 --> 00:10:29,440 And I began keeping a diary of all the things that happened 153 00:10:29,440 --> 00:10:30,760 when I was growing up. 154 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,920 Thelma Todd's murder or suicide 155 00:10:33,920 --> 00:10:36,400 that happened when I was a little boy. 156 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:42,440 Lupe Velez's suicide that happened when I was in Beverly Hills High School, living a 157 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:43,440 few blocks away. 158 00:10:44,160 --> 00:10:49,120 These things made a tremendous impression on me and I cut out all 159 00:10:49,560 --> 00:10:54,080 the press clippings about it. It was always looking forward to someday I would do something with 160 00:10:54,080 --> 00:10:58,920 these. And years later they turned into the series of Hollywood Babylon books. 161 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:06,760 In 1921, 162 00:11:07,120 --> 00:11:10,680 Fatty Arbuckle was the most popular and wholesome family entertainer in the movies. 163 00:11:11,160 --> 00:11:15,720 When he signed a new $3 million contract with Paramount, he got straight into his custom-made 164 00:11:15,720 --> 00:11:18,520 Pierce-Arrow and headed for the luxurious Hotel St. 165 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:21,080 Francis in San Francisco to celebrate. 166 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:30,480 Fatty booked three adjoining suites on the 12th floor, enough room for any developments. 167 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:35,720 Booze was still illegal in California, but Fatty phoned his bootleg connection, Tom Tom 168 00:11:35,720 --> 00:11:38,160 the bellboy, and the party was on. 169 00:11:42,320 --> 00:11:46,960 Seven years earlier, Fatty Arbuckle had been a hefty plumbers mate, discovered by Mack Sennett 170 00:11:46,960 --> 00:11:49,400 when he went to unclog the comedy producers drain. 171 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:54,200 By the week of the party, he had six full-length features and 27 two-reeler showing. 172 00:11:54,760 --> 00:11:59,560 He was a generous party giver, and a good-sized crowd of his movie colony cronies and assorted 173 00:11:59,560 --> 00:12:02,200 hangers-on were soon having a good time. 174 00:12:02,600 --> 00:12:04,640 Amongst them was an obscure starlet. 175 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:08,760 Virginia Rappe was a bit part actress at Mack Sennett Studios. 176 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,800 Fatty had had his roving eye on Virginia for some time and asked her to play the lead in 177 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:14,560 one of his films. 178 00:12:15,280 --> 00:12:16,760 She seemed to be on her way. 179 00:12:17,440 --> 00:12:17,920 Unfortunately, 180 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:20,400 when she did find instant renown, 181 00:12:20,880 --> 00:12:22,480 it was because of what happened that day in 182 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:26,880 Suite 1221, and she was in no position to profit from her fame. 183 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:31,280 The party was in full swing when Fatty ended up in the bedroom with Virginia. 184 00:12:42,520 --> 00:12:44,640 No one will ever know what really happened. 185 00:12:45,080 --> 00:12:48,600 But next thing, Fatty emerged, saying the girl was sick and needed help. 186 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:02,000 A week later, Virginia died. 187 00:13:39,600 --> 00:13:40,960 Please, one more question, please. 188 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:41,360 Murder. 189 00:13:42,760 --> 00:13:43,840 Please, just one more question. 190 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:46,040 Hey, Maddie, guys in the Senate, I'm worried about you. 191 00:13:46,040 --> 00:13:46,760 Oh my gosh. 192 00:13:46,760 --> 00:13:51,520 I don't think I should talk to you news fellows anymore. 193 00:14:01,480 --> 00:14:06,160 The stories that interest me are not just the sordid 194 00:14:06,160 --> 00:14:07,200 little stories of Holly, 195 00:14:07,760 --> 00:14:09,400 but somehow 196 00:14:09,400 --> 00:14:14,000 they transcend into tragedy. 197 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:17,520 I mean, they've got to have an element of grandeur to them, something. 198 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:22,680 It's the contrast of the fame and glory 199 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:26,800 and then the all too human 200 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,240 tragedies that often 201 00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:30,400 wipe them out. 202 00:14:31,320 --> 00:14:34,680 As headlines screamed, the rumors flew of a hideously unnatural rape. 203 00:14:35,120 --> 00:14:39,240 Arbuckle, enraged at his drunken impotence, had ravaged Virginia with a Coke bottle or 204 00:14:39,240 --> 00:14:43,920 champagne bottle, then repeated the act with a jagged piece of ice. Or wasn't it common 205 00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:46,920 knowledge that Arbuckle was exceptionally well endowed? 206 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:51,680 How could Hearst print this? I mean, this isn't news. This is totally unfounded gossip. 207 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:53,840 I thought he liked me. 208 00:14:55,200 --> 00:14:59,080 Or was it just a question of 266 pounds too much of fatty, 209 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:00,760 flattening poor Virginia in 210 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:01,480 a flying leap? 211 00:15:02,040 --> 00:15:04,360 What was certain was a leap in circulation. 212 00:15:04,920 --> 00:15:06,560 The tabloids had a field day, 213 00:15:06,560 --> 00:15:09,600 printing insinuation about Arbuckle's bottle party. 214 00:15:11,640 --> 00:15:16,640 When Fatty was charged with Virginia Rappe's rape and murder, all the world knew the young actress's name. 215 00:15:17,240 --> 00:15:22,040 The state of California blamed her death on external pressure applied by Arbuckle during sexual dalliance, 216 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:23,920 a forlorn fame for Virginia, 217 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:28,560 a heavy rap for Fatty. Murder won. He could go to the gallows. 218 00:15:29,240 --> 00:15:34,160 Fatty suffered through three trials and was found innocent each time, but the public found him guilty. 219 00:15:34,760 --> 00:15:36,440 Arbuckle's films were withdrawn. 220 00:15:37,040 --> 00:15:41,960 His three million dollar contract was canceled and his unreleased films were junked, causing 221 00:15:41,960 --> 00:15:44,880 the studio a cool million dollar write -off. 222 00:15:45,640 --> 00:15:48,000 Fatty the funny man, never convicted of any crime, 223 00:15:48,400 --> 00:15:49,000 was finished. 224 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:51,080 The Prince of Wales had been harpooned. 225 00:15:51,400 --> 00:15:54,760 He died broke, drunk and broken at the age of 46. 226 00:16:01,280 --> 00:16:03,360 Hollywood now meant more than dreamland. 227 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:07,280 It was forever linked with scandal in the minds of millions. 228 00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:14,480 Down the island of the Woodbury bride, 229 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:18,200 she uses Woodbury soap because it's gentle and 230 00:16:18,760 --> 00:16:19,000 mild. 231 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:23,560 Juergens lotion and Woodbury soap present the Louella Parsons show. 232 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:29,240 It's the lotion that's preferred by the women 233 00:16:29,240 --> 00:16:31,200 everywhere. 234 00:16:32,520 --> 00:16:37,440 That girl who sent poison pen letters from Jamaica about Errol Flynn is in for 235 00:16:37,440 --> 00:16:38,400 serious trouble. 236 00:16:38,760 --> 00:16:43,400 Errol has talked by transatlantic telephone to his lawyer in Hollywood, telling him to take 237 00:16:43,400 --> 00:16:44,440 immediate action. 238 00:16:44,440 --> 00:16:49,360 The Bahamas Post Office Department is working in conjunction to track down the 239 00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,720 anonymous letter writer, and I hope they get her. 240 00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,160 And here is last minute news. 241 00:16:56,360 --> 00:16:59,120 Spicy Hollywood headlines have always been good for business. 242 00:16:59,560 --> 00:17:04,480 And the queens of gossip were the original go-getting Paganini of Piffle, Louella-I-Saw-What 243 00:17:04,480 --> 00:17:05,720 You-Did-Parsons, 244 00:17:05,720 --> 00:17:10,640 and her arch -rival Hedda Hopper, regularly spilling the steaming beans on who was 245 00:17:10,640 --> 00:17:12,680 Hollywood in and Hollywood out. 246 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:16,600 may have forgotten the name of Lou Tellegen, but as Harry Carrey's suicide, 247 00:17:16,800 --> 00:17:18,080 in his apartment last week... 248 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:21,560 The public's craving for a non-stop movie star titillation fix 249 00:17:21,560 --> 00:17:26,440 was mainlined and bylined day by day by these two syndicated mutant 250 00:17:26,440 --> 00:17:27,320 sob sisters. 251 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:30,240 ...immediate the voice action against... 252 00:17:30,240 --> 00:17:31,960 The girls got so excited... 253 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:36,040 For Hedda and Louella, there was no better place than Hollywood, reborn Babylon. 254 00:17:36,640 --> 00:17:40,680 And their decent, outraged voices confirmed that behind every closed door and window, 255 00:17:40,680 --> 00:17:45,480 Glittering soulless women wandered from Wicked to Wanton Orgy on the tuxedoed 256 00:17:45,480 --> 00:17:47,160 arms of vainglorious males 257 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:49,840 through a moneyed, perfumed world of drink, 258 00:17:50,240 --> 00:17:52,160 dope, and much, much worse. 259 00:17:52,840 --> 00:17:54,680 We could possibly blame him this time. 260 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:57,280 Virginia Hill, former girlfriend of Bugsy Siegel. 261 00:17:57,320 --> 00:18:02,320 Found last night by Hollywood police dressed in women's underwear, hanging from a shower rail. 262 00:18:03,000 --> 00:18:07,840 Cut off by Hollywood wire, Merle Oberon to say she's off to 263 00:18:07,840 --> 00:18:08,960 Mexico to divorce. 264 00:18:08,960 --> 00:18:13,400 She did not move when she was in sudden death last night until after she finished her show. 265 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,240 It was early morning before she flew into Los Angeles. 266 00:18:16,680 --> 00:18:20,440 And how about Lionel Atwill's 1940 Christmas party? 267 00:18:20,960 --> 00:18:22,880 He fancies an orgy after dinner. 268 00:18:23,400 --> 00:18:26,360 They even have a blind pianist play the blue Danube. 269 00:18:26,760 --> 00:18:29,320 As he strikes up, that's the start signal. 270 00:18:29,640 --> 00:18:33,240 And off come the tuxedos and Adrian evening gowns, 271 00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:35,600 sulka shorts and Antoinette lingerie. 272 00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,320 Just to stay decent, they keep their jewelry on. 273 00:18:38,320 --> 00:18:41,480 and then they watched some of Lionel's special films. 274 00:18:41,880 --> 00:18:44,040 Not many Academy Awards on view. 275 00:18:56,880 --> 00:19:01,720 The original casting couch was a piece of furniture in the office 276 00:19:01,720 --> 00:19:02,800 of Mack Sennett. 277 00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:07,600 and it's where he interviewed 278 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:10,680 the various Mack Sennett bathing beauties, 279 00:19:10,720 --> 00:19:15,480 and they did put out. 280 00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:26,240 And the other most famous casting couch that was actually a separate 281 00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:26,840 bedroom 282 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:31,520 behind the office of Daryl Zanuck 283 00:19:31,520 --> 00:19:32,600 at Fox, 284 00:19:33,720 --> 00:19:36,560 and he wasn't to be disturbed any afternoon, 285 00:19:36,600 --> 00:19:38,520 Monday to Friday, from four to five. 286 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:40,440 That was the bedroom hour. 287 00:19:41,080 --> 00:19:44,440 It was what you call phallic power of the producer. 288 00:19:55,080 --> 00:19:58,080 Have you ever refused to do a publicity stunt? 289 00:19:58,280 --> 00:20:00,560 I mean, is there a kind of publicity you try 290 00:20:00,560 --> 00:20:03,240 and avoid? I've never done a publicity stunt in my entire 291 00:20:03,240 --> 00:20:04,520 life and I never will. 292 00:20:04,680 --> 00:20:07,760 If the time ever comes when I will do a publicity stunt, 293 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:10,400 then I'll be 150 years old. 294 00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,120 Glamour is something that you get trapped 295 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:24,800 The Chinese fled from the cameras back 296 00:20:24,800 --> 00:20:26,040 in the 19th century. 297 00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:30,240 I think they were on to something, but I think we have to deal with it. 298 00:20:30,280 --> 00:20:33,800 I think we have to have enough soul that we don't mind having a little bit stolen. 299 00:20:36,000 --> 00:20:40,800 And I think what we see on the screen that's fascinating is when we do see 300 00:20:40,800 --> 00:20:42,200 some soul up there. 301 00:20:42,320 --> 00:20:47,520 For instance, I think the mystery of Garbo is that you were seeing a bit of Garbo's soul up there. 302 00:20:51,360 --> 00:20:55,320 But you did go as far as describing the film medium as evil. 303 00:20:55,640 --> 00:21:00,400 It's an evil I'm perfectly prepared to deal with because I recognize that it has 304 00:21:00,400 --> 00:21:00,840 that 305 00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:02,800 glamour in the old sense. 306 00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:07,800 But I love it. 307 00:21:07,920 --> 00:21:12,240 And so I feel safer working with it since I recognize that. 308 00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:24,080 My family had a 16 millimeter Cine Kodak and 309 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:27,120 so I began making my own little films with 310 00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:28,960 the family Cine Kodak. 311 00:21:30,160 --> 00:21:35,040 But I modeled myself after Hollywood 312 00:21:35,040 --> 00:21:35,960 professionalism. 313 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,560 In other words I wanted good lighting and I wanted to make the camera 314 00:21:40,560 --> 00:21:45,360 do things like I'd seen in professional 315 00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:48,840 films, even though what I was doing was quite different. 316 00:21:59,560 --> 00:22:04,280 It's a adolescent dream of terror. 317 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:07,520 It's a bit of an initiation rite. 318 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:08,280 I mean, 319 00:22:08,440 --> 00:22:12,960 it has a dreamer awaking and going out in the night 320 00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,320 and meeting up with a bunch 321 00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:20,200 of sailors, about 15 of them, which looks like a huge 322 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:21,960 crowd in the film. 323 00:22:28,240 --> 00:22:33,160 How do you feel about it being seen as a gay statement? Is that something you object to? 324 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:38,000 It was made in 1947, and at that time there were very few 325 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:40,040 statements of any kind being 326 00:22:40,040 --> 00:22:41,360 made along those lines. 327 00:22:41,960 --> 00:22:44,640 And I don't disavow it. 328 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:47,640 In other words, if they want to see it 329 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:49,040 that way, it's fine with me. 330 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:52,880 Vision or dreams? 331 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,680 They're daydreams. 332 00:22:57,120 --> 00:22:58,120 Sometimes a nightmare. 333 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,880 In other words, you have your choice. But they're like a reverie. And I don't use dialogue. 334 00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:08,680 In other words, it isn't a conventional narrative, but it does tell a story. 335 00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,960 You need the shadow and the contrast of good and evil. 336 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,920 And I find the vast allegories of good and evil reflected in a very vivid 337 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:57,520 way in show business. 338 00:23:57,640 --> 00:24:01,400 So in a sense that kind of allegory run 339 00:24:01,400 --> 00:24:03,880 through Hollywood Babylon. 340 00:24:12,400 --> 00:24:14,400 Have you taken a bottle of ? 341 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:17,480 How many did you take? 342 00:24:20,920 --> 00:24:21,240 Three. 343 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:24,680 Uh-huh. 344 00:24:24,680 --> 00:24:26,680 Oh, who found you? 345 00:24:34,920 --> 00:24:37,360 Now what really happened on the night of April 4th? 346 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:42,280 Whether Cheryl Crane, the 14 year old daughter of movie star Lana Turner, had killed her mother's gangland lover, Johnny Stompanato. 347 00:24:43,560 --> 00:24:45,360 I swear it was so fast. 348 00:24:47,640 --> 00:24:51,320 I, I was truly frustrated and in despair. 349 00:24:55,360 --> 00:25:00,200 Even a last-minute interruption in the best of Hollywood tradition took place by a man who burst in yelling, 350 00:25:00,320 --> 00:25:03,480 It's a pack of lies, I want to testify, then rushed out. 351 00:25:26,600 --> 00:25:31,520 21 year old Lionel Williams of Los Angeles was serving time in Michigan when he was charged 352 00:25:31,520 --> 00:25:33,240 with the actor's murder. 353 00:25:33,640 --> 00:25:37,800 Many were stabbed to death with a hunting knife on February 12th, 1976. 354 00:25:38,800 --> 00:25:42,560 He was heard crying for help outside the garage of his fashionable apartment. 355 00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:48,800 It has to have an element of the bizarre truly to interest me. 356 00:25:49,360 --> 00:25:51,680 Like in the death of Marie Prevost, 357 00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:53,880 she was a Mack Sennett bathing beauty 358 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,840 who then became a star in the 30s and fell on hard times. 359 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,640 But the fact that she died and was shut up for two weeks 360 00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:02,880 in her little apartment with her dog, 361 00:26:03,560 --> 00:26:06,240 and the dog survived by chewing on her legs and eating them, 362 00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:07,680 makes it fascinating for me. 363 00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:09,480 It makes it a Hollywood Babylon story. 364 00:26:09,480 --> 00:26:11,360 I'm such a trip 365 00:26:23,560 --> 00:26:26,760 Every scandal sent shivers to the 366 00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,000 expensively clad charm circle 367 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:31,880 but the revels went on 368 00:26:31,880 --> 00:26:33,000 unabated 369 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:50,800 The new gods were determined to live their own legends to the hilt, whooping it up in 370 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:55,440 an atmosphere of staggering luxury in dream castles like Valentino's Falcon Lair. 371 00:26:56,240 --> 00:27:01,240 The excesses of these stars developed a cynicism and a defiance characteristic of jazz-age youth. 372 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:06,560 Bitterness and darkness often lay just beyond, but their attitudes seemed to be so what. 373 00:27:07,960 --> 00:27:09,560 They soaked boudoirs in Shalimar 374 00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:13,240 and a $3,000 ball gown lasted the life of a party. 375 00:27:13,920 --> 00:27:16,520 Any star could buy the key to a dream paradise. 376 00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:22,280 As if dressing up under the Klieg lights all week long wasn't enough, a favorite divertissement was the 377 00:27:22,280 --> 00:27:23,120 costume party. 378 00:27:23,120 --> 00:27:26,520 Here is Gloria Swanson as Helen Hayes in The White Sister. 379 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:31,720 Gloria Swanson spent a quarter of a million dollars a year on her dresses 380 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:32,520 alone. 381 00:27:33,880 --> 00:27:36,120 Oh, the parties we used to have. 382 00:27:36,720 --> 00:27:39,880 In those days, the public wanted us to live like kings and queens. 383 00:27:40,160 --> 00:27:41,880 So we did. And why not? 384 00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:44,040 We were in love with life. 385 00:27:44,640 --> 00:27:47,440 We were making more money than we ever dreamed existed. 386 00:27:47,600 --> 00:27:50,040 And there was no reason to believe it would ever stop. 387 00:28:35,760 --> 00:28:39,040 I went out to Coney Island one Saturday 388 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:44,040 and saw these fellows, bikers, 389 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,240 on these elaborate show bikes. 390 00:28:48,280 --> 00:28:50,480 And I admired their machines 391 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,280 and asked them if I could photograph them. 392 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:54,000 And they said, yes, sure. 393 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,520 And that was how Scropio Rising got made. 394 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,400 How'd you come to choose the music for your films? 395 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:32,000 Well, I use them in an ironic context, things like Blue Velvet, 396 00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:37,080 while I show a biker getting dressed in jeans 397 00:29:37,080 --> 00:29:40,720 and putting on his black leather jacket. 398 00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:45,640 So it has an ironic comment on his narcissism,which it is. 399 00:29:48,800 --> 00:29:51,720 When I was cutting the film, 400 00:29:52,760 --> 00:29:56,120 a film was delivered to my house by mistake, 401 00:29:57,320 --> 00:29:58,760 and it was left on 402 00:29:58,760 --> 00:30:00,120 my doorstep, literally. 403 00:30:00,640 --> 00:30:04,680 And it was a Sunday school film called The Last Journey to Jerusalem. 404 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:05,800 Well, 405 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:11,800 I called it sort of a gift from the gods that it had 406 00:30:11,800 --> 00:30:12,240 dropped down. 407 00:30:12,240 --> 00:30:12,960 I ran it, and 408 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:15,400 I said, well, I'm just going to work it right into my film. 409 00:30:15,800 --> 00:30:18,080 And so the whole sort of parallel cutting 410 00:30:18,080 --> 00:30:20,480 of Jesus traveling into Jerusalem 411 00:30:20,480 --> 00:30:23,800 was intercut with the bikers. 412 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,920 I took it as an act of magic 413 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,920 that it was delivered to me at that time. 414 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:48,840 Well, I was making films the way someone else would write a poem. 415 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,480 And these were personal artistic statements. 416 00:30:52,880 --> 00:30:53,560 And so, 417 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:56,040 unless I found a, 418 00:30:56,640 --> 00:30:58,440 uh, some kind of, uh, patron, 419 00:30:59,920 --> 00:31:03,480 I could hardly expect, you know, for studios to back this kind of film. 420 00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:04,640 And I never did. 421 00:31:06,280 --> 00:31:09,200 There's no sense in which the books are revenge on Hollywood. 422 00:31:09,920 --> 00:31:12,160 No, I don't consider them that at all. 423 00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:14,480 And as a matter of fact, I love Hollywood. 424 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:19,600 In other words, I don't know, it's provided me with a lifetime 425 00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:20,800 entertainment 426 00:31:21,560 --> 00:31:25,400 and wonderful little insights into the human condition. 427 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:32,800 It had many things wrong with it, I mean, you know, abusive power 428 00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:33,480 and so forth, 429 00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:35,600 but yet many things were right with it. 430 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,520 and Hollywood made some wonderful films along the way. 431 00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:44,560 That was the idea of the old picture palaces, 432 00:31:44,680 --> 00:31:49,480 to create a dignified and rather awe-inspiring atmosphere 433 00:31:49,480 --> 00:31:51,880 where the pictures were to be shown. 434 00:31:54,960 --> 00:31:59,240 The Tower was designed as a talkie theater. 435 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:03,400 It opened in 1927 with The Jazz Singer, its very first picture. 436 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:08,360 And it lasted until 1989 and now it's a clothes mart. 437 00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:13,840 So it's fallen on harder times. 438 00:32:17,040 --> 00:32:18,520 Shall we just have a cigarette on it? 439 00:32:20,560 --> 00:32:21,080 Yes. 440 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:27,120 I want to die, oh please! 441 00:32:28,360 --> 00:32:30,760 Please don't make me cry, tell them! 442 00:32:33,880 --> 00:32:38,480 I'm just a chronicler of their foibles, 443 00:32:38,880 --> 00:32:41,880 follies and excesses. 444 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:48,960 Many of them came to rather sticky ends, 445 00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:53,280 like some of them chose suicide and often rather 446 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:58,040 dramatic self -destruction, like this would be my last headline or my 447 00:32:58,040 --> 00:33:00,080 last grabbing of 448 00:33:00,080 --> 00:33:01,040 world's attention. 449 00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,240 That's why we're going on this trip, to get away from business. 450 00:33:04,560 --> 00:33:06,040 This is my two-time honeymoon. 451 00:33:06,440 --> 00:33:08,800 The first time we went on a honeymoon, we didn't go. 452 00:33:09,040 --> 00:33:12,720 But this time, the only business is going to be, is going to be nobody's business. 453 00:33:13,240 --> 00:33:14,880 Well, then, may we have a picture of you alone? 454 00:33:15,240 --> 00:33:15,920 Oh, certainly. 455 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:16,880 I'll check on the cabins. 456 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:17,560 All right. 457 00:33:17,680 --> 00:33:18,840 Right over here, if you don't mind. 458 00:33:19,360 --> 00:33:20,440 I know what you want. 459 00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:23,160 Is this it? 460 00:33:23,840 --> 00:33:24,240 Beautiful. 461 00:33:24,760 --> 00:33:25,720 Oh, thank you. 462 00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:35,040 Lupe Velez had been part of the Hollywood scene since the late 20s, when the go-getting 463 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:38,240 teenager had come up from Mexico City to conquer the movies. 464 00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:40,520 She made a film with Cecil B. DeMille, 465 00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:43,360 seduced Gary Cooper and Tarzan himself, 466 00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:44,600 Johnny Weissmüller. 467 00:33:45,080 --> 00:33:49,640 She soon earned the name Mexican Spitfire and was living in splendor in Beverly Hills. 468 00:33:51,160 --> 00:33:53,320 She was dead at 34. 469 00:33:57,880 --> 00:34:01,120 This was discovered in my neighborhood in Beverly Hills. 470 00:34:01,800 --> 00:34:03,720 And the maid let me in the kitchen door. 471 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,560 And I was able to peek in the bedroom that was full of all these flowers 472 00:34:07,560 --> 00:34:11,160 and actually see dead Lupe among the flowers. 473 00:34:13,360 --> 00:34:15,520 I am very sorry all this has happened, Dennis. 474 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:19,080 But this last time is the camel that broke the straw. 475 00:34:20,480 --> 00:34:22,080 Maybe you're happy because I'm leaving. 476 00:34:22,240 --> 00:34:22,680 That's right. 477 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:24,880 You mean to say you don't want me to stay? 478 00:34:24,920 --> 00:34:25,600 Of course not. 479 00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:27,160 The sooner you get out of my cabin, the better. 480 00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:27,480 Goodbye. 481 00:34:28,880 --> 00:34:32,760 Lupe's career skidded from A to B pictures, in which she served chili-con-Lupe parodies 482 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:34,240 of her own spicy persona. 483 00:34:34,720 --> 00:34:39,320 The mortgage was overdue on her outmoded Zorro-era pile, Lupe was completely zonked by debt, 484 00:34:39,400 --> 00:34:41,400 and she realized she was pregnant. 485 00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,200 Harold Ramond, bit -part player and father of her unborn child, 486 00:34:45,560 --> 00:34:48,840 had taken the news with his get -lost look, his so -what shrug. 487 00:34:49,840 --> 00:34:51,400 Suicide was the way out for Lupe, 488 00:34:51,880 --> 00:34:53,040 an old -fashioned star, 489 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:56,520 brainwashed and brain -damaged by her own beauty and glamour, 490 00:34:56,640 --> 00:35:01,120 for whom the loss of the public, of fan mail, of image, was the loss of self. 491 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:06,400 She planned her last night as punctiliously as an early-de-mil allegorical flashback. 492 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:08,960 After a last supper of chili con carne, 493 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:10,640 brandy and cigarillos, 494 00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,440 she got ready for a big scene. 495 00:35:13,160 --> 00:35:16,680 The bedroom was Our Lady of Guadalupe's chapel on a day of days. 496 00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:19,720 Flowers, candles everywhere, everything aglow. 497 00:35:20,480 --> 00:35:23,480 Second all sleeping pills had always proved a popular Hollywood exit. 498 00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:27,760 And Lupe downed seventy-five of the little beauties, stretched out on the satin bed, 499 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:32,240 crossed her hands on her breast, closed her eyes, and thought of the next day's headlines. 500 00:35:33,040 --> 00:35:36,880 And indeed, in the next day's L.A. Times, Louella had the story. 501 00:35:37,320 --> 00:35:39,960 She described the still life at Casa Felicias. 502 00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,080 Lupe was never lovelier as she lay there, as if slumbering. 503 00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,720 A faint smile, like secret dreams. 504 00:35:47,120 --> 00:35:49,160 Looking like a child taking nappy. 505 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:50,880 Like a good little girl. 506 00:35:51,640 --> 00:35:53,960 The actual scene had been something else. 507 00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:58,360 When Juanita, the chambermaid, had opened the bedroom door at nine the morning after 508 00:35:58,360 --> 00:36:00,720 the suicide, no Lupe was in sight. 509 00:36:00,720 --> 00:36:01,920 The bed was empty. 510 00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:06,640 The aroma of scented candles, the fragrance of two roses almost, but not 511 00:36:06,640 --> 00:36:11,640 quite masking the stench recalling Skid Row derelicts. Juanita traced the trail from the 512 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:16,240 bed over to the bathroom. There she found her mistress, Senorita Vélez. 513 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:21,440 The huge dose of secanol had not been fatal in the expected fashion. 514 00:36:22,080 --> 00:36:23,360 It had mixed wretchously 515 00:36:23,360 --> 00:36:25,920 with the Spitfire's maxi -spice last supper. 516 00:36:26,640 --> 00:36:27,360 Violently sick, 517 00:36:27,720 --> 00:36:29,240 an ultimate fastidiousness 518 00:36:29,240 --> 00:36:32,480 drove her to Stager towards the sanitary sanctum of the Saldaban, 519 00:36:33,080 --> 00:36:36,400 where she slipped on the tiles and plunged head first 520 00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:41,200 into her Egyptian chartreuse onyx hush-flush model deluxe. 521 00:36:41,400 --> 00:36:44,000 Well, I'm gonna get a policeman and throw you out! 522 00:36:44,280 --> 00:36:45,360 You must be inside a bunker! 523 00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:47,960 Wait! Look here! Don't you cause another scene! 524 00:36:48,040 --> 00:36:48,960 There's gotta be a scene, all right! 525 00:36:48,960 --> 00:36:49,840 You're gonna listen to me, right? 526 00:36:49,840 --> 00:36:51,080 Oh, my! I'll get you livin'! 527 00:36:51,080 --> 00:36:53,320 Let go of me! I'll knock you out! 528 00:37:32,440 --> 00:37:36,240 This is Sunset Boulevard, the fabled highway of the stars. 529 00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,480 Don't look now, but isn't that Jane Mansfield? 530 00:37:40,080 --> 00:37:41,800 Could be, she lives on this street. 531 00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:46,400 That is Jane Mansfield. She had her hair dyed for a picture. 532 00:38:04,080 --> 00:38:09,040 Tom Mix told me that day that he came to Hollywood in 1910, determined to make a million dollars. 533 00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:11,720 Well, he made it. 534 00:38:12,480 --> 00:38:15,840 He was killed in this car two weeks after this picture was taken. 535 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:24,400 How fast will your car go? 536 00:38:25,160 --> 00:38:25,640 Oh, 537 00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:28,560 an honest mile an hour. 538 00:38:29,040 --> 00:38:32,000 Clocked at about 106 - 107. 539 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:34,880 Oh, wait a minute, Jimmy. One more question. 540 00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:38,480 Do you have any special advice for the young people who drive? 541 00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:42,760 Take it easy driving, the life you might say might be mine. 542 00:39:06,480 --> 00:39:11,320 the Griffith Park Observatory was used as a background by 543 00:39:11,320 --> 00:39:12,760 Nick Ray for 544 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:14,800 the film Rebel Without a Cause, 545 00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:19,240 one of the very few films that James Dean made in his very short career. 546 00:39:19,920 --> 00:39:24,040 It's amazing that he's made such an impact when he's really made only three features. 547 00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:31,440 After Dean died, his tombstone at Fairmount, Indiana bore only his name in the stark dates 548 00:39:31,440 --> 00:39:34,160 1931 -1955. 549 00:39:34,720 --> 00:39:38,040 A brief epitaph might have read, pretty much of a tramp. 550 00:39:39,120 --> 00:39:42,400 The promiscuous dope smoker had trouble remembering his lines, 551 00:39:42,760 --> 00:39:44,840 fluffed his dialogue and fumed on the set. 552 00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,320 He was basically gay and had taken to hanging out at the club, 553 00:39:48,680 --> 00:39:52,960 an East Hollywood leather bar, specializing in the magic world of S andM sex. 554 00:39:53,600 --> 00:39:56,960 Dean was into beating, boots, belts and bondage. 555 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:02,760 When stone he would bear his chest and beg his masters to stub their cigarette butts out on him. 556 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:05,920 They responded by tagging him the human ashtray. 557 00:40:06,520 --> 00:40:08,160 After his fatal car crash, 558 00:40:08,520 --> 00:40:11,920 the coroner made note of the constellation of burns across his torso. 559 00:40:13,720 --> 00:40:18,240 But if Richard Gere, Matt Dillon, or any of the other boring Dean clones were to suffer his fate, 560 00:40:18,640 --> 00:40:19,480 would cults arise, 561 00:40:19,800 --> 00:40:21,120 fans commit suicide, 562 00:40:21,640 --> 00:40:23,960 love notes turn up 30 years after his death? 563 00:40:24,520 --> 00:40:28,360 Doubtful. Jimmy may have had crabs, but he had durable charisma. 564 00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:33,120 Dean died at 24, Valentino died at 31, 565 00:40:34,000 --> 00:40:37,400 and others had their careers over, 566 00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,920 and in a sense never recovered from the fact 567 00:40:40,920 --> 00:40:42,800 that they were once at the top, 568 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:45,240 even though they may have lived on for years, 569 00:40:46,040 --> 00:40:48,880 because Raymond Navarro died at 69, 570 00:40:50,560 --> 00:40:53,160 but he never got over the fact 571 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,480 that he was once a top matinee idol, 572 00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:00,280 and so his later years were quite sad. 573 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:05,920 I have very few friends and I'm glad of it too because you 574 00:41:05,920 --> 00:41:07,360 never have many friends. 575 00:41:08,640 --> 00:41:09,840 You just can't. 576 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:11,200 You just can't. 577 00:41:14,240 --> 00:41:19,120 Ramon Navarro's ghastly death by beating in 1968 brought to mind the bizarre crimes 578 00:41:19,120 --> 00:41:20,240 of Hollywood's past. 579 00:41:20,720 --> 00:41:25,480 Here was a man dying as he had lived, extravagantly, choked in his own blood. 580 00:41:25,480 --> 00:41:30,400 The lead art deco dildo which Valentino had given him 45 years earlier 581 00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:33,840 thrust down his throat by two small-time hustlers 582 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,960 looking for his petty cash. 583 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:43,960 Star systems survived scandal after scandal. MGM launched the motto 584 00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:46,760 more stars than there are in heaven. 585 00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:49,200 Although the stars themselves wondered 586 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:51,000 how long they could stay in orbit. 587 00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,920 As Mae Murray said from the perspective of 20 years, 588 00:41:58,600 --> 00:41:59,880 we were like dragonflies. 589 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:03,120 We seemed to be suspended effortlessly in the air, 590 00:42:03,480 --> 00:42:04,320 but in reality, 591 00:42:04,800 --> 00:42:07,240 our wings were beating very, very fast. 592 00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:13,280 There's a new star in heaven 593 00:42:13,280 --> 00:42:17,800 tonight That may 594 00:42:17,800 --> 00:42:21,240 never fade from our 595 00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:22,960 sight 596 00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:27,880 There's a new star at home in that 597 00:42:27,880 --> 00:42:32,880 far starry dome Shining bright on its 598 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:36,000 loved ones tonight 599 00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:40,960 There's a voice singing sweet fine 600 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:45,640 delight With a smile 601 00:42:45,640 --> 00:42:50,320 that has made the world bright 602 00:42:50,320 --> 00:42:54,600 Valentino, goodbye 603 00:42:55,320 --> 00:42:59,120 But we're up in the 604 00:42:59,120 --> 00:43:01,320 sky 605 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:05,800 There's a new star 606 00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:08,720 in heaven 607 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:14,880 tonight 608 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:19,360 Doris Day! 609 00:43:19,920 --> 00:43:22,200 Do you love Jane Darwell? 610 00:43:22,200 --> 00:43:22,480 Where? 611 00:43:23,680 --> 00:43:24,240 Liberace! 612 00:43:24,520 --> 00:43:25,760 We love her! 613 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:26,640 We have to toe tap 614 00:43:26,640 --> 00:43:27,360 on Liberace! 615 00:43:29,440 --> 00:43:31,880 She knew what old Hollywood was all about, 616 00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:32,800 didn't she? 617 00:43:33,080 --> 00:43:34,480 Sidney Sheldon? 618 00:43:34,760 --> 00:43:35,320 Delicious! 619 00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:35,920 We're getting hotter! 620 00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:37,160 And Baxter? 621 00:43:38,000 --> 00:43:42,000 I just get hornier and hornier as we go closer, don't 622 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,840 I think Marilyn and everybody would have shaken their grave to learn how filthy and 623 00:43:56,840 --> 00:43:58,440 dirty this crisis turned out. 624 00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:00,480 Such a terrorist trap. 625 00:44:01,000 --> 00:44:02,800 Did James Dean love to get beat to filth? 626 00:44:02,840 --> 00:44:04,600 James Dean is the human ashtray. 627 00:44:05,000 --> 00:44:07,320 They just take big cigars and put them out on him? 628 00:44:07,360 --> 00:44:09,400 He'd mash your cigarettes out of him and wring his neck. 629 00:44:10,440 --> 00:44:11,960 That makes me sick. 630 00:44:12,720 --> 00:44:14,120 That thing looks horrible. 631 00:44:15,280 --> 00:44:19,760 And whoever did her wigs was the most horrible thing that was ever let out loose with a hair brush. 632 00:44:20,040 --> 00:44:20,920 Can you believe it? 633 00:44:21,120 --> 00:44:22,600 I couldn't believe those big old wigs. 634 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:24,680 She used to wear them on Dynasty with a full wig line. 635 00:44:25,320 --> 00:44:27,440 She'd hot glue those wigs on and it was horrible. 636 00:44:27,560 --> 00:44:28,560 Does she need to talk to Chazay? 637 00:44:28,760 --> 00:44:30,200 She sure does. 638 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:39,360 I always wanted to ask you, do you just hate your life? 639 00:44:40,160 --> 00:44:41,360 She loves her life. 640 00:44:41,640 --> 00:44:43,120 Honey, I don't think she loved her life at all. 641 00:44:43,280 --> 00:44:45,000 That's why she hopped in the grave over to John F. Kennedy. 642 00:44:45,000 --> 00:44:45,800 She was murdered down. 643 00:44:46,120 --> 00:44:47,200 You think she was murdered? 644 00:44:47,520 --> 00:44:47,960 Yes. 645 00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:48,920 I refuse it. 646 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,280 I think she murdered herself. 647 00:44:50,800 --> 00:44:52,280 Greta Garbo and Monroe, 648 00:44:52,720 --> 00:44:54,160 Dietrich and DiMaggio, 649 00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:56,480 Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean, 650 00:44:56,960 --> 00:44:57,600 on the cover of 651 00:44:57,600 --> 00:44:58,240 a magazine. 652 00:44:58,240 --> 00:45:03,200 They had style, they had grace. Rita Hayworth gave good face. 653 00:45:03,720 --> 00:45:07,800 Lawrence Catherine, Lana Turner, Betty Davis, we love you. 654 00:45:08,280 --> 00:45:11,320 Ladies with an attitude, fellas that were in the mood. 655 00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:16,560 Don't just stand there, let's get to it. Strike a pose, there's nothing to it, vogue. 656 00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:24,120 In the glare of studio lights, these 850 of Hollywood's most lavishly 657 00:45:24,120 --> 00:45:27,360 dressed extras are trying to crash the preferred list. 658 00:45:29,040 --> 00:45:33,880 But the sad truth is that Hollywood is swamped by hundreds of feminine applicants for 659 00:45:33,880 --> 00:45:34,680 every job. 660 00:45:38,000 --> 00:45:39,920 So these judges have a wide choice. 661 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:45,160 The cream of the crop is theirs for fifteen dollars a day, if and when they work. 662 00:45:47,520 --> 00:45:51,920 Remember, only a few extras ever earn as much as forty-five dollars a month. 663 00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:55,160 Hello, this one should make good in comedy, don't you think? 664 00:45:56,400 --> 00:45:58,640 You done forgot your ? 665 00:46:02,640 --> 00:46:03,800 Meet the winners. 666 00:46:04,000 --> 00:46:06,760 They hail from every town and city from coast to coast. 667 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:11,320 Many are from foreign lands, but all with one dream, stardom. 668 00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:12,960 Few make the grade. 669 00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:14,960 That big break seldom comes. 670 00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,920 They have looks, perhaps talent, and clothes. 671 00:46:18,240 --> 00:46:19,520 But take it from us. 672 00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:23,200 Girls who go Hollywood sometimes go hungry. 673 00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:29,640 Peg Entwistle started a trend with her fall from grace. 674 00:46:32,600 --> 00:46:37,280 Peg was in a couple of Broadway plays, but thought she'd try Hollywood when the crash came in the 30s. 675 00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:41,520 She lived with an uncle on Beechwood Drive and was in one film, Thirteen Women 676 00:46:41,920 --> 00:46:45,200 in which the young blonde is haunted by the fear of committing suicide. 677 00:46:47,560 --> 00:46:48,000 That's silly. 678 00:46:48,960 --> 00:46:50,480 A man I've never seen. 679 00:46:51,240 --> 00:46:53,600 He has the nerve to tell me that I'm going to kill myself. 680 00:46:55,480 --> 00:46:56,760 Oh, are you going to bed? 681 00:46:57,160 --> 00:47:00,200 Yes, it's so late. We'll be in Los Angeles in the morning. 682 00:47:01,160 --> 00:47:02,240 I'll see you at breakfast. 683 00:47:02,560 --> 00:47:02,840 Fine. 684 00:47:04,160 --> 00:47:05,320 If I were you, I would... 685 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:05,720 Go to bed? 686 00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:07,280 Don't worry. 687 00:47:07,760 --> 00:47:10,720 No stars are going to twinkle twinkle me in the committing suicide. 688 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:15,360 When the parts dried up, Peg became more depressed. 689 00:47:15,680 --> 00:47:18,440 Hollywood's a lonely place for those who haven't made it. 690 00:47:18,680 --> 00:47:20,400 The handshakes are reserved for those who have. 691 00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:24,120 The nine tawdry letters on the hill above her house started to haunt her. 692 00:47:24,120 --> 00:47:26,680 And one night she found the way up in her own fashion. 693 00:47:27,000 --> 00:47:29,840 Not an easy task in high heel shoes and evening dress. 694 00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:33,520 It was a shame that in her one film, 695 00:47:34,280 --> 00:47:36,240 Peg had watched someone plunge to her death. 696 00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:39,320 These ideas stick. 697 00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:06,760 She left her clothes and purse on the ground and climbed the 50-foot H. 698 00:48:17,960 --> 00:48:22,600 No one will ever know how long she gazed down at Hollywood that night, or her bitter thoughts. 699 00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:26,000 She could see several of the studios from her privileged position. 700 00:48:32,360 --> 00:48:34,160 Then she leapt to her death. 701 00:48:36,480 --> 00:48:39,680 She didn't know that at that moment in the post was an offer of a job. 702 00:48:40,160 --> 00:48:44,360 The juicy role of a girl who commits suicide at the end of the third act. 703 00:49:28,040 --> 00:49:31,000 I was frightened of him when I first met him. 704 00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:33,640 He used to leave books around and give me 705 00:49:33,640 --> 00:49:38,120 things to read and he really wanted me to get into it, you know, his Crowley obsession. 706 00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:40,760 And I didn't want to do it and I didn't. 707 00:49:41,320 --> 00:49:43,000 And I was scared of Kenneth. 708 00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:44,760 Later I got to 709 00:49:44,760 --> 00:49:47,680 I really loved him and I became fond of him. 710 00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:08,880 I've studied magic and magic is not illusionist magic like pulling 711 00:50:08,880 --> 00:50:09,920 rabbits out of hats. 712 00:50:09,920 --> 00:50:12,080 I mean, that's an art that I respect, 713 00:50:13,240 --> 00:50:16,120 but this is supposedly the real thing. 714 00:50:16,520 --> 00:50:18,720 And I've seen it work enough times. 715 00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:19,720 I know it's there. 716 00:50:19,840 --> 00:50:20,680 It's like a background. 717 00:50:20,840 --> 00:50:25,800 It's like a wavelength, a little bit like radio waves. 718 00:50:27,840 --> 00:50:32,840 It was very difficult to work on that film for everyone who was involved because 719 00:50:32,840 --> 00:50:34,280 he never told anyone anything. 720 00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:38,600 And one of the worst things was the scene in the cemetery. 721 00:50:38,600 --> 00:50:43,160 It was really quite weird and it was a sunrise and I 722 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:46,720 was sort of crawling around in my hands and knees among all these 723 00:50:46,720 --> 00:50:50,120 This cemetery life, you know with Max Factor blood everywhere 724 00:50:52,800 --> 00:50:54,720 But he was very sweet and 725 00:50:55,920 --> 00:50:59,920 He would tell me what he wanted me to do and 726 00:50:59,920 --> 00:51:04,200 I'm well, I'm course. I'm not a real actress so I didn't have the 727 00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:10,440 skills to say what is the meaning of this thing, you know, I didn't know how to do that. 728 00:51:11,480 --> 00:51:12,760 I played Lilith. 729 00:51:14,040 --> 00:51:14,840 Very bad. 730 00:51:15,920 --> 00:51:18,680 Lilith was the first wife of Adam, 731 00:51:19,120 --> 00:51:22,640 the non -human wife, the demonic wife of Adam. 732 00:51:24,720 --> 00:51:28,800 We're dealing with Aleister Crowley's idea of a ritual which is called the 733 00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:33,440 dramatic ritual where you impersonate a God and then become that 734 00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:35,960 God so you meditate on a god, 735 00:51:36,480 --> 00:51:43,280 say, like the god of love, and then you become love. 736 00:51:43,960 --> 00:51:48,960 Or maybe you meditate on the god of war, Mars, and become Mars. 737 00:51:50,160 --> 00:51:55,120 And the idea is to control it, to feel the god force come through you and to manifest. 738 00:52:03,160 --> 00:52:07,520 My vision of Hollywood was very colored by Kenneth's book, you know. 739 00:52:09,200 --> 00:52:11,000 I found it absolutely fascinating. 740 00:52:13,080 --> 00:52:16,720 And it brought it all to life for me somehow. 741 00:52:18,360 --> 00:52:23,080 And I understood more about glamour and illusion. 742 00:52:23,080 --> 00:52:28,680 and it's something to do with going as far away from truth as you can possibly get. 743 00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:30,800 But that's Hollywood, I suppose. 744 00:52:30,880 --> 00:52:34,480 That's our image, my image of what it's all about. 745 00:52:44,840 --> 00:52:49,640 I walk along the street of 746 00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:51,920 sorrow, 747 00:52:52,920 --> 00:52:56,960 the boulevard of broken dreams, 748 00:52:58,440 --> 00:53:03,080 Where Jigolo and Jigolette Can take a 749 00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:05,080 kiss without regret 750 00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:08,720 Till they forget their broken dream 751 00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:13,520 You'll laugh tonight and 752 00:53:13,520 --> 00:53:17,920 cry tomorrow 753 00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:22,600 When you behold your shattered scheme 754 00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:28,120 The gigolo and gigolette 755 00:53:28,120 --> 00:53:31,560 Wake up to find their eyes are wet 756 00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:35,800 With tears that tell of broken dreams 757 00:53:38,640 --> 00:53:40,960 Certainly Hollywood still has scandals 758 00:53:40,960 --> 00:53:43,920 I mean they range from everything from John Belushi's 759 00:53:45,040 --> 00:53:51,960 overdose in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont Hotel to David Begelman, a top 760 00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:53,920 producer forging checks, even though he 761 00:53:53,920 --> 00:53:56,440 was a rich man. No one has yet figured 762 00:53:56,440 --> 00:53:59,800 out why he did it. But somehow they don't 763 00:53:59,800 --> 00:54:04,000 quite measure up to the old scandals of, 764 00:54:04,120 --> 00:54:07,240 which was in a more innocent age. It was 765 00:54:07,240 --> 00:54:09,240 more shocking because these were more 766 00:54:09,240 --> 00:54:10,280 idealized people. 767 00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:16,480 The joy that you find here you 768 00:54:16,480 --> 00:54:23,840 borrow You cannot keep it long, it seems 769 00:54:26,160 --> 00:54:30,920 But gigolo and gigolette still sing a song 770 00:54:30,920 --> 00:54:32,840 and dance along 771 00:54:34,320 --> 00:54:36,480 The Boulevard 772 00:54:36,800 --> 00:54:40,400 of Broken 773 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:44,960 Dreams 774 00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:56,680 By the 60s, old Hollywood had died. 775 00:54:57,320 --> 00:54:59,880 The battlements of those feudal kingdoms,the studios, 776 00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,320 fell one by one to the enemy. 777 00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:03,320 television. 778 00:55:05,200 --> 00:55:09,200 On the empty stages at Columbia they host game shows these days. 779 00:55:09,680 --> 00:55:14,200 The mansions of the stars have crumbled, the swimming pools are empty, the tennis 780 00:55:14,200 --> 00:55:18,920 courts overgrown. Sarah Bernhardt believed the movies promised immortality, 781 00:55:19,280 --> 00:55:24,200 but in truth they disappoint like any mere mortal. They grow old and wrinkled, 782 00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:26,680 get folded, spindled, and mutilated. 783 00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:29,600 Their blooming colors fade like the people do, 784 00:55:29,600 --> 00:55:34,600 And like lovers, many explode into flames and disappear without a trace. 785 00:56:37,640 --> 00:56:39,760 And yet sometimes in Hollywood, 786 00:56:40,560 --> 00:56:43,400 after fierce rains and winds have swept the skies clean, 787 00:56:44,280 --> 00:56:49,240 the Egyptian blue appears over the palm trees like a vision, the hulking obsolete sound 788 00:56:49,240 --> 00:56:51,920 stages like secretive tombs ever present. 789 00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:57,520 And we can't imagine what drew the ambitious and reckless men here an age ago.