With the recent scandals rocking Hollywood, it is easy to believe that the entertainment industry is more debauched these days than it was in its silent and golden eras. Unfortunately, this is not really the case. Hollywood was just better at hiding its scandals in the past. This week, we’ll look at Hollywood’s scandals and how it used to deal with them.
Throughout history, acting was never seen as being glamorous or a legitimate career. Before mankind could record action on film, people seeking to make a living in acting had to join traveling troupes that would move from town to town putting on plays. Most “regular” people saw them as little more than transients who traveled like nomads. Some religious types objected to their “play-acting.” When the actors came to town, however, most people would still turn out in droves. It was a way to pay the bills, but acting didn’t provide much more than that.
Once it became possible to capture performances on film, acting became more of a viable career. It also allowed the actors to finally settle down and make a decent living. Believe it or not, however, there were still people who looked down upon actors. When the film industry was chased out of New Jersey by Thomas Edison, it ended up in Southern California. Its new hometown, however, was loathe to welcome it. Some of the wealthy and powerful citizens of Los Angeles actually tried to stop this incursion and fought against this new industry. The film studios, however, were able to fully take root in Southern California and the region became forever entwined with the motion picture industry.
The major studios, eager to clean up the bad reputation the acting profession had at the time, established strict guidelines for how their talent should comport themselves. Fearing that any major scandal would tarnish the industry’s image, the studios setup extensive public relations and “security” departments. These departments would make sure to suppress anything that could reflect badly on the industry. Actors and actresses were given cleaned up bios and members of the LAPD were given monetary incentives to look the other way. If a scandalous act was committed, actors and actresses were advised to call the studio security department before calling the cops. The studio would then evaluate the situation and provide whatever assistance was necessary, including cleaning up the crime scene, scheduling illegal abortions and making “donations” to everyone with knowledge of the event.
When the Studio system collapsed, these security departments were dismantled. Actors and actresses were left on their own to resolve scandalous situations. Thus began the rise of talent agencies. These agencies were primarily supposed to negotiate salaries for their clients, but they would often do their best to hush up scandals. The rise of tabloid television and a 24/7 news cycle would make this task difficult, though as we’ve recently learned, it wasn’t necessarily impossible.
