Back in the days of the Studio System, the stars were employees of the studios rather than the contractors they are today. Since a star would be tied to a studio for at least seven years, it was in the studio's interest to divert attention from scandals and sweep controversy under the rug. The studios relied on "cleaners" to make problems go away. And MGM relied on Eddie Mannix.
Eddie Mannix
Mannix was seen as being so powerful that his MGM security department often told the Culver City Police Department what to do, controlling investigations and access to stars and witnesses. As a matter of fact, whenever an MGM star found himself in trouble, he'd call Eddie Mannix, not the police. When director Paul Bern was discovered shot to death, possibly a suicide, Bern's butler called the MGM security department, not the police. Eddie Mannix, Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg arrived, hours before the police and allegedly staged the scene that the police would later encounter. An apparent suicide note that seemed to blame Bern's wife, MGM star Jean Harlow for the suicide was quickly snagged by Louis B. Mayer. He didn't want the scandal to taint one of his biggest stars. The real authorities accepted the death as a suicide, mostly. At some point, it became obvious that the suicide theory might not be fully accepted and the thought of a murder investigation sounded much worse than the hit Ms. Harlow might take for causing a suicide. Mr. Mayer produced the suicide note to the police and incredibly was not arrested for impeding an investigation. The case was officially closed as a suicide. The behind the scenes whispers would inspire numerous conspiracy theories over the years, some even putting the murder weapon in Ms. Harlow's hand. It most likely was just a suicide, however.
Paul Bern
Eddie Mannix was good- real good- at covering up various scandals.We'll probably never fully know the extent of the possible landmines he dealt with; the ones we do know about were typically uncovered years later in memoirs and autobiographies. Mickey Rooney recounted a run-in with Mr. Mannix; angry at Rooney's carousing, Louis B. Mayer sent Eddie to set Mickey Rooney straight. Apparently lifting the lilliputian Rooney up by his collar and shoving him against the wall was enough to scare Mickey into at least being more careful about his wild antics. Perhaps Mannix's most legendary operation was eliminating all copies of an allegedly pornographic film that starred Joan Crawford in her pre-fame days. Entitled Velvet Lips, the film no longer exists in any form due to Mannix. At least, that's what the legend says.
Joan Crawford
The fall of the Studio System made every star a free agent. No longer forced to work as an employee of the studio, stars could pick and choose their roles. The studios no longer had any incentive to hide the scandals or controversies. If the star proved too volatile or problematic, they just wouldn't hire them again for future projects. The 24/7 news cycle may have played a part in demystifying stars, but the absence of the old style studio security departments probably played a bigger one.
