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Hollywood is often portrayed as a land of enchantment where aspirations turn into reality, transforming unknowns into overnight sensations. Yet, beneath the glamorous facade lies a darker history, deeply ingrained in the legacy of Tinseltown.
10. The Origins of Hollywood's Rise
Decades ago, Fort Lee, New Jersey, reigned as the global hub of filmmaking. The industry was largely controlled by one influential figure: Thomas Edison. Holding most motion picture patents, Edison established the Motion Picture Patents Company, known as the Edison Trust, in 1908. This coalition included major film studios, top distributors, and primary suppliers of film stock, solidifying his dominance.
Anyone aiming to showcase a film in the U.S. was required to pay fees. Filmmakers had to adhere to the Trust’s rigid regulations, which mandated the use of approved, patented equipment, restricted films to 20 minutes, and prohibited credits to prevent actors from gaining recognition and demanding higher wages.
Those who defied the Trust faced lawsuits. If legal action failed, Edison resorted to hiring private investigators to intimidate rivals. In one instance, the Trust reportedly bribed an exhibitor to screen William Fox’s (founder of 20th Century Fox) films in a brothel, aiming to revoke his license.
Over time, filmmakers sought better opportunities. They chose Hollywood for its varied landscapes and lenient patent regulations. Their achievements empowered these independent pioneers to challenge Edison under antitrust laws and emerge victorious. The Edison Trust was dissolved in 1918, and Hollywood became the heart of American cinema.
9. ‘No Dogs or Actors Permitted’
Initially, Hollywood’s residents were not fond of filmmakers. The area was primarily inhabited by farmers, who wanted no association with the entertainment industry, already notorious for its indulgence. Signs like “No Dogs Or Actors Allowed” became common in boardinghouses and apartments.
Hollywood’s business community, including land developers and oil magnates, also showed little interest in the film industry. They viewed the influx of movie studios as a temporary trend. When Carl Laemmle sought to establish Universal City Studios, he was forced to build it on a repurposed farm in the San Fernando Valley, as no one in Hollywood was willing to sell him land.
Residents’ perceptions shifted as Hollywood grew into the epicenter of the film industry. Pioneers like Laemmle played a key role by introducing the star system, which highlighted actors through film credits, boosting their fame and leveraging their appeal to market movies. Florence Lawrence, known as the “First Movie Star,” transitioned from being the “Biograph Girl” in New Jersey to a celebrated figure. Other stars like King Baggot, Hollywood’s first leading man, and Mary Pickford, dubbed “America’s Sweetheart,” further cemented this transformation.
8. The Dawn of Hollywood Scandals
The 1920s transformed Hollywood actors into global icons. Their newfound fame and wealth led to extravagant lifestyles, sparking the era of Hollywood scandals, a cultural phenomenon that remains a popular topic even today.
The decade was rife with notorious incidents. Charlie Chaplin faced controversy for hastily marrying underage actresses allegedly carrying his children. The murder of William Desmond Taylor remains an unsolved mystery. The most infamous scandal was the Fatty Arbuckle trial, which destroyed the career of one of Hollywood’s top stars.
One of the earliest Hollywood scandals, now largely forgotten, involved Jack Pickford and Olive Thomas. Jack, Mary Pickford’s brother, maintained a wholesome public image despite his heavy drinking and womanizing. Olive, a former Ziegfeld girl, transitioned from risqué burlesque performances to a thriving film career.
Jack’s reputation suffered after World War I when he was linked to a bribery scheme where affluent young men paid military officers for safe, comfortable roles. He narrowly avoided a dishonorable discharge, reportedly due to his sister’s intervention.
In 1920, Olive Thomas tragically died after consuming mercury bichloride, a medication her husband used to treat syphilis sores. While her death was officially deemed accidental, rumors of suicide or murder persisted.
7. The Era of Booze and Drugs
While the 1920s marked a period of prohibition for most of the US, Hollywood operated by its own rules. Publicly, the film industry endorsed Prohibition, with actors praising it and movies depicting bars and saloons as dangerous havens for disreputable individuals. Hollywood had a clear motive: encouraging people to swap nights at bars for evenings at the cinema.
Privately, however, many actors embraced a lifestyle of excess, indulging heavily in drugs and alcohol. This decade saw the birth of the infamous “Hollywood lifestyle” in its most extravagant form.
The consequences of this lifestyle soon became apparent. Newspapers frequently reported on actors entering sanitariums to treat various “ailments,” often with tragic outcomes. In 1923, Wallace Reid, celebrated as “the screen’s most perfect lover,” succumbed to a morphine addiction in a sanitarium. Barbara La Marr’s death in 1926 was attributed to nephritis and tuberculosis, both exacerbated by years of substance abuse. Jeanne Eagels, at the peak of her career, died of a drug overdose in 1929, becoming the first actor to earn a posthumous Oscar nomination.
The prevalence of such scandals prompted Hollywood studios to include “moral turpitude clauses” in actor contracts to curb such behavior.
6. The Birth of Hollywoodland
The Hollywood sign, now an iconic symbol of Los Angeles, was never meant to be a lasting landmark. Initially, it spelled “Hollywoodland” and served as an advertisement for a new hillside housing development. Equipped with flashing lights, it was designed to stand for just 18 months. However, its popularity led to its preservation, and in 1949, it became the responsibility of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Over the years, the sign has faced significant wear and tear, requiring multiple restorations. It has also been a target for vandals, who have altered its letters to spell phrases like “Hollyweed” and “Ollywood.”
The sign’s history took a tragic turn on September 16, 1932, when Peg Entwistle, a 24-year-old aspiring actress, climbed the “H” and leaped to her death. Her suicide drew widespread attention, with newspapers attributing it to her failed acting career. Modern historians, however, suggest she may have been battling depression. A popular legend claims that a letter offering her the lead role in a play about a suicidal woman arrived in her mailbox shortly after her death.
5. The Dawn of Hollywood Blockbusters
In 1915, Hollywood’s first major blockbuster, D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, premiered. Critics lauded it as a cinematic masterpiece, praising Griffith for pioneering techniques that would shape the industry for decades. The film was a commercial triumph, becoming the highest-grossing movie of its time, a record it held for nearly 25 years until Gone with the Wind. It also made history as the first film shown in the White House. However, its legacy is marred by its overtly racist themes, making it one of Hollywood’s most contentious works.
Running at three hours, The Birth of a Nation was the longest film of its era. It depicted the Civil War and the subsequent reconstruction of America but gained notoriety for its demeaning portrayal of black individuals and its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan, portrayed as heroes throughout the narrative.
While Griffith’s work marked the rise of Hollywood, it came at the cost of perpetuating harmful stereotypes. For years, black actors were relegated to minor roles, often as comic relief or submissive characters, reflecting the film’s damaging legacy.
Many attributed the film’s success to a resurgence in KKK activity, as membership soared after its release. The Birth of a Nation was considered the most powerful recruitment tool in the Klan’s history. Even in the 1970s, investigative journalist Dick Lehr found that the film was still being used as propaganda to attract new members.
4. The Studio System and Its Stars
During Hollywood’s Golden Age, the studio system reigned supreme. Actors were bound by long-term contracts to a single studio, unlike today’s performers who can select their roles freely. Back then, actors had minimal control over their careers, filming whatever projects the studios assigned them.
Studio executives quickly began treating actors as commodities, exploiting them for profit before discarding them. To maximize their marketability, studios tightly controlled their stars’ lives, dictating nearly every aspect of their personal and professional decisions.
Child actors faced particularly harsh conditions. Studios assigned chaperones primarily to monitor and report on their behavior. Judy Garland, for instance, was subjected to a strict diet of soup, coffee, and cigarettes to maintain her weight, and she was given amphetamines and barbiturates to endure grueling work schedules.
Mickey Rooney, another child star, struggled even as an adult when studio executive Louis B. Mayer prevented him from marrying Ava Gardner to preserve his clean-cut image. This practice was widespread; female stars like Jean Harlow were similarly barred from marrying to uphold their allure. Meanwhile, gay actors such as Rock Hudson were forced to remain closeted and enter arranged marriages. Pregnancy was forbidden without studio consent, leading many actresses to undergo secret abortions.
One of the most shocking abuses involved Harry Cohn, head of Columbia Pictures. To stop an interracial relationship between his star, Kim Novak, and Sammy Davis Jr., Cohn used his mob ties to threaten Davis with severe harm. Davis was given 24 hours to marry a black singer to quash rumors about the affair.
3. The Mob’s Influence in Hollywood
Hollywood, a symbol of glamour and excess, also harbored a dark underbelly of violence. As Los Angeles grew into one of the nation’s largest cities, organized crime sought to capitalize on its opportunities. The Los Angeles crime family emerged in the early 20th century, peaking in the 1940s under Jack Dragna, who secured a position on the Commission.
Dragna faced competition from Bugsy Siegel, who relocated his operations to Los Angeles. Despite his Jewish background, Siegel maintained strong connections with New York crime families, ensuring his protection as long as he delivered profits. Siegel embraced the glitz of Hollywood, becoming a regular at Beverly Hills social events and mingling with the industry’s biggest names.
Siegel was assassinated in 1947, and his empire fell to his trusted lieutenant, Mickey Cohen. Unlike Siegel, Cohen was less willing to cooperate with Dragna, sparking a violent gang war that saw him survive 11 assassination attempts. Cohen reveled in his infamy, emulating Al Capone’s public persona. His most notorious moment came when his enforcer, Johnny Stompanato, was stabbed to death by the daughter of his girlfriend, actress Lana Turner.
2. The Era of the Blacklist
While Hollywood studios appeared indifferent to Nazism, communism was a different matter. During the 1940s and 1950s, the “Second Red Scare” swept across the US, and Hollywood was no exception. Actors, directors, and screenwriters suspected of communist ties were blacklisted, ostracized from the industry, and some even faced prison sentences.
The fear of communism took root in the late 1930s when Martin Dies, chairman of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), released a report alleging widespread communist influence in Hollywood. Studio executives rushed to dissociate themselves from these claims, while some exploited the situation to deflect blame for their own issues. For instance, Walt Disney blamed the 1941 animators’ strike on “communist agitation.”
Numerous Hollywood figures were summoned to testify before the HUAC, and many discovered that accusing others was the easiest way to clear their names. The idea of a public blacklist originated with Billy Wilkerson, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. In 1946, he launched a column identifying alleged communist sympathizers, which became widely known as Billy’s List.
Among the first group of individuals questioned by the HUAC, ten refused to cooperate, invoking the First Amendment. These men, all screenwriters and directors, were dubbed the Hollywood Ten. They were convicted of contempt, sentenced to prison, and banned from Hollywood. Their work was either uncredited or attributed to pseudonyms, including Dalton Trumbo, who won two Oscars for Roman Holiday and The Brave One under a false name.
1. Hollywood’s Ties to Hitler
Hollywood has a history of altering or reshooting scenes to cater to specific foreign markets. Today, this practice is often seen with releases in China. However, in the 1930s, similar accommodations were made for Nazi Germany, considered one of the most profitable markets outside the US.
Recent publications have brought these allegations to light, with Harvard scholar Ben Urwand offering some of the most damning critiques. Urwand argued that Hollywood frequently collaborated with Germany to depict Nazis favorably or neutrally, while minimizing the contributions of Jewish actors and crew members.
Georg Gyssling, a German diplomat in Los Angeles dubbed “Hitler’s Hollywood consul,” spearheaded these efforts. He warned US studios of a German law that banned all films from a company if it distributed anti-German content globally. Gyssling found an ally in Joseph Breen, a film censor enforcing the Hays Code, who shared his anti-Semitic views.
The 1930 war film All Quiet on the Western Front is believed to be the first to undergo such changes. Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle ordered edits to portray German characters in a more heroic light.
