The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (11 page)

Quite oddly for someone supposed to be on the brink of marriage, Clara then said, “Our marriage depends on whether we really find we love each other”, before adding her feelings on the “caveman” comment by stating that she could not understand why Richman would make such “ridiculous statements”.

Fearing he was about to lose his fiancée (and the constant source of his new-found fame), Richman in turn released his own statement: “I was thoroughly misquoted,” he claimed, before going on to explain that he was madly in love with Clara and “I think she loves me too.” It wasn’t exactly the most committed of quotes, and newspapers were quick to challenge just how much the couple did actually love each other, and whether or not a marriage would take place at all.

Indeed, it did seem as though the couple were constantly bickering both in the press and at home; and things were made no better when Richman was accused of assault and battery by a dancer called Ellen Franks. According to the woman, the nightclub-owner had drugged and held her prisoner for four hours in his car in March 1929, beating her so much that she was now an invalid. Richman retorted that he did not know the woman in question, but by this time a weary Clara was getting rather tired of her beau’s behaviour and temporarily began a secret affair with her old flame, Gary Cooper.

In October 1929, Clara was in Lake Arrowhead, while Richman was in Hollywood. Lonesome, he decided to send her a telegram which told the actress just how much he missed her and that his greatest wish was to be with her at that moment. “I hope the place is terrible so you will come home to one who loves you more than anything,” he declared, and while her response remains unrecorded, he wrote again shortly afterwards to tell her, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

But while Harry Richman was declaring his undying love for Clara in telegrams, she was readying herself for the operation to remove her ovary, something which worried her no end. To dispel the gossip about an abortion, and to keep their star’s privacy intact, the studio released a statement saying that she had been operated on due to complications from an appendicitis surgery. Richman as we know, decided to stay very quiet about what the operation was for, but he bizarrely released a statement anyway, not about his fiancée’s health, but about the state of their relationship.

“We will get married,” he happily declared once again, before this time announcing that it would take place in New York in April 1930. Clara was not happy with his latest revelations, but she had so far weathered the storm. However, her patience was very much tested when it was announced in the newspapers that several years before his engagement to Bow, Richman had been involved with a married woman in New York. Now, seeing the nightclub owner with his photograph in every newspaper, the woman’s estranged husband had been spurred on to take his revenge. He may have lost his wife, but he could regain his dignity by hitting Richman where it hurt – in his wallet. With that in mind, the man contacted the press to announce what the cad had done to his marriage, and to threaten a lawsuit.

This episode certainly did nothing to persuade Clara to marry Richman, and by January 1930 he was back in New York, much to the relief of Bow. But while they may have been on different sides of the country, it still did not stop Richman from continuing to make a fool of himself, this time by boasting that he had recently bought his fiancée a limousine and a diamond bracelet. However, by now even he was suspecting that Clara was having second thoughts about the engagement, though when she finally agreed to come east for a visit, he was still so excited that he hinted to the press that they might just go through with a wedding this time.

“If we do marry it will be in secret,” he told reporters, and anxiously awaited the arrival of his love. Unfortunately for Richman, however, he was in for a shock: Clara had only agreed to come to New York because she had decided to break the engagement, once and for all.

Richman had been so engrossed in the publicity brought on by his relationship with Bow that he had failed to see that there was never any chance of her marrying him. She had refused to name a date, publicly told him off for declaring his love in the newspapers, and even had an affair with Gary Cooper, but still Richman refused to leave her. Clara was struggling to see how she would ever rid herself of her unwanted beau, but in the end she decided to use her fertile imagination. Gathering together reporters in her suite at the Park Central Hotel, she let out a long sigh. “I cannot marry Harry Richman,” she sadly announced, “as I am expecting a nervous breakdown.”

Reporters were bemused that the actress could possibly predict her nervous breakdowns in advance, but Richman at last seemed to take the hint. On 17 February he accompanied his former fiancée to the station to see her off, kissed her on the cheek and left quickly before the train had rolled out of the station. Clara told reporters that publicity had stopped their wedding. “We couldn’t be alone long enough to be married,” she told them, while Harry Richman pretended to be upset about the press situation by declaring, “We were on the front pages all the time – and the things they said about us!” He forgot to mention, of course, that he had revelled in the publicity and had taken every opportunity to propel both himself and his relationship into the headlines.

Despite several meetings and attempts at reconciliation, by June 1930 the “engagement” was well and truly on its last legs. The last nail in the coffin came when Clara was spotted with her former flame, none other than Dr Pearson, which infuriated Richman to such a degree that he immediately requested the return of his engagement ring. Clara travelled to New York to negotiate with him, and in an attempt to sweeten the deal, described him as “a darling” to the waiting press. “We can never be married as long as I must remain in Hollywood and he in New York . . . But we are still engaged,” she quickly added, though the cynical could be forgiven for thinking this was just her attempt to keep the ring.

But while Richman was quite happy to think he might still be engaged to Clara Bow, another threatened lawsuit was bubbling; this time from his former sweetheart, actress Flo Stanley. She had dated the nightclub-owner some eight years before, but in spite of the fact that the romance had been over for a long time, she still had feelings for her lost love and hoped one day to reconcile. Like a scene from a bad romance movie, the spurned woman took the decision to contact Clara Bow and demand she “keep away from my man”. The actress paid no heed to the request, of course, so Stanley then contacted the newspapers with an outrageous story about planning to sue Clara for $100,000 and Richman for $250,000.

The numerous threatened lawsuits, the rumours of a renewed romance with Dr Pearson and the demands of the studio finally took their toll, and Clara eventually called time on the romance, giving a statement to columnist Alma Whitaker, which said, “No, I’m not going to marry Harry Richman. He’s a nice fellow and was very kind to me, but he is older and so critical.” She then went on to complain that he had been too stubborn, wanted to dominate her all the time and chastised her when he felt she had too much make-up on, or was wearing clothes that were “too loud”.

She added, “I don’t mind a little domination, but I object to being made over after it’s me they fell for. Any girl would . . .” And then as a nod to the rumoured affairs with Gary Cooper and Dr Pearson, she added, “Gee, he couldn’t stand me making goo-goo eyes even in fun with anybody else. So I think that’s all off.”

Clara sent back Richman’s ring and he later attempted some revenge by beginning a romance with actress Lina Basquette, declaring that while he had seen Clara Bow during a recent visit, “she means absolutely nothing to me any more”. This cutting remark was obviously aimed at Clara Bow’s heart, but it ultimately missed, as by this time she had met Rex Bell, the love of her life. Clara described him as, “A boy out on the coast in pictures [who] I like awfully well. He played my lead in the last picture I made. Gee, he’s a swell fella!”

Rex’s love enabled her not only to settle down at last, but also gave her two sons and a life in the country away from the Hollywood glare of publicity. But first she would have to endure another year of unwanted headlines, in the shape of a very public lawsuit and, sadly, a nervous breakdown, both of which are explored in a separate chapter within this book.

When one hears the name Pickford, one automatically thinks of America’s Sweetheart, Mary, or “Pickfair”, the studio and home she built with her husband, Douglas Fairbanks. Today the name Lottie Pickford is almost completely unknown, and yet in the 1920s and 1930s she caused uproar with her wild parties and multiple marriages.

Born as Charlotte Smith on 9 June 1893, Lottie was exceptionally close to her brother, Jack, but not so much to her sister, Mary, seeing her as controlling and far too strict for her liking. The children all started acting at a very early age and moved from their native Canada to make their name in New York. The siblings all won parts, but Mary was considered a star while the others merely tagged along on the back of her success, happy with whatever part they were able to obtain.

In 1915 Lottie married Alfred Rupp, a New York broker, and shortly after gave birth to a daughter whom she chose to name Mary after her sister, despite their apparent distance from each other. The marriage was short-lived, however, and the couple divorced in 1920, which resulted in the first real scandal in Lottie’s life when she decided to hand over her daughter to be raised by her own mother, Charlotte. Why Lottie would chose to do this is not known, though some believe it was because she was by this time heavily into drugs and alcohol.

To avoid any confusion with her aunt Mary, the child was renamed Gwynne and officially adopted by Charlotte Pickford in August 1926. Newspapers were aghast, enjoying the idea that some unusual relationships had been created with this move, including the fact that the young girl was now her own foster-aunt. She was also, according to newspapers, the niece and foster-sister to Mary Pickford, and niece and sister-in-law to Douglas Fairbanks. Reporters also relished in wondering why the child was given up in the first place, though Lottie stayed quiet on the matter, never publicly stating why the child was being raised by her mother – and later her sister – instead of herself.

Another marriage followed in 1922 to the actor Allan Forrest, and then another scandal hit in 1926 when Lottie was named in divorce proceedings between a woman called Thelma Leonard and her husband Charles. Apparently Mr Leonard had taken his wife to one of Lottie’s renowned wild parties, where the actress had reportedly got drunk and pulled Mrs Leonard to one side. “I am not in love with your husband,” declared Lottie, which immediately made Mrs Leonard highly suspicious since she had never accused her of being so in the first place.

Needless to say the Leonards’ marriage soon broke up after this incident, and Lottie’s followed shortly after. She then went on to become one of the most scandalous actresses of 1928.

Lottie Pickford had many friends, as her frequent parties proved. During this time she became acquainted with Jack Daugherty, one-time husband of Barbara La Marr, and the two attended numerous parties during 1928. On one November evening, the pair teamed up with a friend and the three attended a party together, where they all revelled until the friend decided to call it a night, followed by Daugherty and Pickford at approximately 3 a.m.

Driving through the streets of East Los Angeles, the car they were travelling in unfortunately suffered a flat tyre. The couple stopped to investigate and as they were examining the damage, four men approached them, knocked Daugherty unconscious and stole $15 from his pocket. Then, they dragged Lottie into their car and drove off.

However, they got more than they bargained for with Lottie Pickford, and while being driven through the dark streets, she managed to hide some of her rings in her shoes for safekeeping. Unfortunately she could not hide everything, though, and a diamond bracelet was later badly bent when the gang unsuccessfully attempted to take it from her wrist.

The car drove through the night until reaching a secluded spot, where the attackers bundled the actress out of the car, tore at her clothes, physically assaulted her and stole some money. Lottie fought back, however, shouting at them in their native Spanish and begging them to take her back to her car. This was a brave and successful decision on Pickford’s part, as shocked at hearing the woman speak Spanish, the gang leader seemed to feel a twinge of remorse and immediately told the other men to let her go, which they did. The leader then bundled her into the car and drove back to where they had left Daugherty; he was found still sitting at the side of the road, slowly coming round from the beating.

Once reunited, the pair somehow managed to drive back home and report the incident to the police, requesting that the matter be kept quiet to avoid any press attention. They then assisted them in trying to find the spot where the mugging and kidnapping had happened, though ultimately the pair were unable to make any sense of the streets and failed to find the exact location.

Despite their appeal to keep the episode quiet, as with most things related to Lottie’s life, the story hit the news. It all came out several days later and Lottie posed for pictures while declaring that the robbers had bruised her wrists, ankles and legs while kicking her body “until it was a mass of bruises”. The incident made headlines across the United States, but it was not to be the last scandal she endured in 1928.

On 5 November, gambler and rumoured Mafia member Arnold Rothstein died after being shot the day before at New York’s Park Central Hotel. Several weeks later, detectives discovered Lottie’s name on promissory notes for $100,000 in the apartment of Rothstein’s friend, Sidney Stager. Unfortunately for Pickford, Stager also happened to be the head of an international dope syndicate and the discovery of her name in his files once again brought her name to everyone’s lips for all the wrong reasons. Police tried unsuccessfully to tie in her kidnapping with the murder of Rothstein, and although she initially chose to keep quiet about the incident, Lottie eventually gave a statement, declaring: “Why, how ridiculous, I didn’t even know the man and as for writing a note for $100,000 – don’t be foolish.”