From Charlie Chaplin to Judy Garland, these old Hollywood scandals uncover the darkest depths of the movie industry's supposed golden age.
Today, the world is well aware of Hollywood’s dark side. Enough disturbing and salacious Hollywood scandals have come to light to prove that the glitz and the glamor conceals a seedy underbelly.
But though Hollywood scandals are splashed across the internet on a near-daily basis in the modern era, there was once a time when many of Tinseltown’s darkest episodes were successfully swept under the rug – at least for a while.
One of the biggest Hollywood scandals of all time was the murder of mobster Johnny Stompanato, the boyfriend of Lana Turner in 1958.
However, the plethora of old Hollywood scandals that have since come to light prove that the movie industry has always been a dark place behind its bright lights. From pedophilia to murder to Walt Disney’s Nazi connections, these are some of the most chilling chapters from Hollywood’s “golden age.”
Charlie Chaplin’s Obsession With Young Girls
Sexually abusing and exploiting young women is nothing new in Hollywood scandals — and the biggest star of the silent era proves that.
After becoming a worldwide icon early on in his life, comedy genius Charlie Chaplin developed a reputation for pursuing women. He boasted of his conquests relentlessly and claimed that he had slept with more than 2,000 women over the course of his life.
He wasn’t out looking for love either. When asked in an interview to describe his ideal woman, Chaplin replied – “I am not exactly in love with her, but she is entirely in love with me.”
What Chaplin didn’t explicitly say then was that his ideal women were younger than him. When Chaplin was 25, he entered his first high-profile romance with his 19-year-old co-star Edna Purviance.