Morgan - The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals

Michelle Morgan was the president of the Marilyn Lives Society, a UK fan club, from 1991 to 2007. She is the author of Marilyns Addresses and Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed. She is the co-producer of the upcoming documentary Gable: The Ties that Bind with Prospect House Entertainment. She lives in Northamptonshire.

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Also by Michelle Morgan

Marilyn Monroe: Private and Undisclosed

Michelle Morgan

Constable & Robinson Ltd

5556 Russell Square

London WC1B 4HP

www.constablerobinson.com

First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2013

Copyright Michelle Morgan, 2013

The right of Michelle Morgan to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher and without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library

UK ISBN: 978-1-47210-033-7 (paperback)
UK ISBN: 978-1-47210-034-4 (ebook)

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First published in the United States in 2013 by Running Press Book Publishers,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without permission from the publisher.

Books published by Running Press are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail .

US ISBN: 978-0-7624-4946-0
eISBN: 978-1-4721-0034-4
US Library of Congress Control Number: 2013933735

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

Running Press Book Publishers
2300 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103-4371

Visit us on the web!
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Printed and bound in the UK

Cover photography and design: Ken Leeder

This book is dedicated to my dear friend, Claire Hollies
Slater, who has been in my life since we were both
eleven years old. She is one of the strongest women I
know and will always be an inspiration to me.

To my grandparents, Bill, Lily, Cosimo Pacitti and
Pearl, for teaching me all about the olden days and
inspiring my love for times gone by.

And to the memory of my dear friend Ross
McNaughton, who was really looking forward to this
book.

I would like to thank my friends and readers who not only pointed me in the direction of various scandals, but also provided a lot of information, help and support along the way. In that regard I would particularly like to thank Eric Woodard, Richard Kirby and Hanna Nixon, who all sent items that they felt would inspire my work on this project.

To my agent, Robert Smith; all the staff at Constable & Robinson, and my wonderful editor Howard Watson.

Christina Rice from the Los Angeles Public Library helped me so much during the writing of this book; while it seems clichd to say that it could not have been written without her, I honestly believe that to be true.

I would like to thank my wonderful husband Richard, who has supported and loved me for the past twenty-six years, and Mum, Dad, Paul, Wendy and Angelina for always being there for me.

And last but by no means least, my gorgeous daughter Daisy, for inspiring me every single day for the past nine years. I love you, baby; all my dreams came true because of you.

There are three sides to every story... His, hers and the truth. Anon

Some people consider Hollywood a location; some an industry; others a state of mind. To me, and for the purpose of this book, Hollywood is a combination of all three. Some of the scandals in this book happened in California where Hollywood is located, of course, while others may have happened elsewhere but are included here because the people concerned were (or are) part of the Hollywood industry and legend.

Within these pages you will read about strange deaths, tragedies, suicides, sex scandals, robberies, murders and much, much more. These scandals run the gamut from the days of silent films right up to the present day, and show that while times may change, the extraordinary lives people live and the things they get up to are the same now as they were a hundred years ago. People are drawn to scandal; scandal is drawn to them. It all goes on no matter if the star is from the 1920s or the present day.

This book covers over sixty different scandals from the high-profile Whitney Houstons death, the Fatty Arbuckle court case and the fatal stabbing of Lana Turners boyfriend to those scandals long since forgotten, such as the death of actor Albert Dekker or the colourful life of boxer/actor Norman Selby. Some scandals are small; others so large I wondered if they would ever come to a conclusion, but all are revealing, tragic, outrageous and at times such as the case of Zsa Zsa Gabor clobbering a policeman somewhat entertaining.

When I first began writing this book, it became clear very early on that there was a huge amount of information to get through, and many areas to cover. With that in mind I decided that, rather than zip through every scandal with just an ounce of information, I really wanted to delve into the archives to bring out many facts about each and every story I wrote. With that in mind, each chapter is a story in itself an investigation into the lives of the stars and the underbelly of Hollywood society and it is my belief that no other book has been written which covers not only almost a hundred years of Hollywood scandals, but also in such an in-depth manner.