The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals (25 page)

On Thursday, 3 March 1966, Frawley was walking down Hollywood Boulevard with his nurse, having just watched a movie at a nearby cinema. The seventy-three-year-old actor was supposed to be meeting a friend, but unfortunately as he was strolling towards his destination, he began to experience severe chest pains. His nurse was understandably shocked but somehow beat the odds by managing to get Frawley to the Knickerbocker Hotel on Ivar Avenue. Once there, the nurse shouted for help and concerned staff ran to the actor’s aid and phoned for an ambulance.

Sadly, while they were waiting for the vehicle to arrive, the actor suffered a massive heart attack and proceeded to collapse on to the floor of the hotel lobby. The ambulance crew rushed into the building but, despite their best efforts, there was unfortunately nothing that could be done to help him and by the time they had reached a nearby hospital, the ailing actor had already passed away.

Though he’d been ill for some time, the acting world was in shock at Frawley’s sudden death, and his co-star in
I Love Lucy
, Lucille Ball, released a statement. In it she said that she had lost one of her closest friends, and that “show business has lost one of the greatest character actors of all time”.

The ironic thing about Frawley dying at the Knickerbocker was that for many years he had actually lived in the hotel with his sister, Mary. However, when she passed away herself, Frawley made the decision to move out of the hotel and into his own apartment. In March 1966 he was living at 450 North Rossmore Avenue, and it had been merely a coincidence that on the very night he died, he should be walking so close to the building he had called home for much of his later life.

Out of the many hundreds of high-profile Hollywood deaths over the past hundred years, there are very few that have really caused a huge outpouring of public grief. Marilyn Monroe was one such case, and her idol, Jean Harlow, was another. She was mourned twenty-five years before Marilyn died, with thousands lining the streets to share their sadness with the world.

Born Harlean Harlow Carpenter on 3 March 1911, “The Baby”, as she was known, was raised in Kansas City, Missouri, by her father, Mont Clair Carpenter, and her mother, Jean Carpenter (née Harlow). Her childhood was financially secure but her mother was unhappy in the marriage and eventually filed for divorce in 1922. This was devastating for Harlean as she adored her father, and even more upsetting when it became apparent that the controlling Mrs Carpenter was only prepared to allow limited access to him for the rest of Jean’s life.

After the divorce, Jean Carpenter decided to take her daughter to Hollywood to find fame and fortune. However, surprisingly it was not for Jean that she wished fame: it was for herself. The mother and daughter arrived in 1923 and “Mother Jean”, as she was known, started the long process of walking from studio to studio in the hope of finding work. She soon discovered, however, that acting in Hollywood was purely a young girl’s dream, and since she was the wrong side of thirty, she was never going to become remotely famous in her own right.

Broke and downhearted, the two left Hollywood on the instructions of Mother Jean’s father, who threatened to disinherit her if she continued with what he considered to be her ridiculous and failed quest to be a movie star. Neither woman was happy to leave California and when Mother Jean married Marino Bello – a man with a questionable reputation – in 1927, Harlean showed her disapproval by eloping with her boyfriend, Charles McGrew, and moving straight back to Los Angeles. The newly married Jean’s plan to escape her mother and stepfather did not go quite to plan, however, as she soon found herself followed to California by the pair, who felt it would be far more entertaining to live in Hollywood than plain old Missouri.

Once in California, Harlean became friends with a young actress called Rosalie Roy, who was eager to find fame and fortune as an actress. One day, desperate for a lift, she asked Harlean to drive her to an audition at a nearby studio. She was happy to provide this service, though what neither of the young women knew was that it would be Harlean who caught the eye of the executives there, not Rosalie Roy.

Harlean thought the whole idea of being discovered was quite a joke, especially after witnessing the failed career of her mother, and promptly told the studio that she had no interest in their plans for her. However, several days later, her friend joked with the young blonde about what had been offered to her, and made a bet that she would never have the nerve to go further with the “discovery”. Always game for a laugh, this prompted Harlean to prove her friend wrong, and after driving herself to Central Casting, it was not long before she had signed a contract using her mother’s maiden name, Jean Harlow.

This new and surprising career was entertaining to Jean, who enjoyed a series of bit parts, including an appearance in
Double Whoopee
with comedians Laurel and Hardy. However, back in Missouri her grandfather saw a photo of Jean in a skimpy outfit and he immediately wrote to show his displeasure and encourage the young woman to give up any dreams she might have of becoming an actress. After all the “nonsense” he had been through with his daughter’s dreams of screen stardom, he did not want to go through it all again with his granddaughter, and was determined to get her back home.

However, while Mother Jean had probably known she was on a failing quest to become famous at her age, Jean was still a young woman and, despite her grandfather’s concerns, she persevered with her career. But with this success came a great deal of stress within her marriage, and it eventually collapsed under great strain from both sides in 1929. Thankfully the sadness at the end of her relationship did not last long when more small roles came her way, including in the 1929 movie
The Saturday Night Kid
with Clara Bow. Then she scored her biggest break when cast in the Howard Hughes film,
Hell’s Angels
, which was such a huge success that it catapulted Jean to stardom; she followed this with hits such as
The Public Enemy
(1931) with James Cagney and
Red Dust
(1932) with Clark Gable.

However, the headlines she received for
Red Dust
were not quite what she expected, after the sudden and mysterious death of her second husband of just a few weeks, producer Paul Bern. So scandalous was the marriage and death that a whole separate chapter is dedicated to it in this book (“The Mysterious Death of Paul Bern”). For now, the shadow of scandal that lingered over MGM’s brightest star was almost unbearable.

With Bern’s death so fuelled by rumours, Jean’s career was severely threatened, though quite surprisingly she managed to weather the storm and won a great deal of public sympathy through the way she handled the whole episode. She then went on to star in successful movies such as
Bombshell
(1933) and
Dinner at Eight
(1933), though her tricky personal life was always on the verge of scandal and took another tumble when she married and quickly divorced her third husband, cameraman Hal Rosson, in 1933–4.

By this time Jean was gaining a reputation as a serial bride, but it would seem that the end of her marriage to Hal was not the result of anything she had done, but instead the conclusion of a great deal of stirring and continued interference by Mother Jean. Never one to shirk from an overpowering interest in her daughter’s life, the woman had crashed into the couple’s marriage to such a degree that while Hal was said to be deeply in love with his wife, it just was not enough to hold the relationship together.

By 1937 Jean was dating William Powell, the ex-husband of Jean’s friend, the film star Carole Lombard. Carole was known for her raucous behaviour, wild parties and liking for the odd swearword or two. In short, she was the kind of person Jean Harlow was known to play on screen, though away from the camera Jean was quite the opposite: gentle, softly spoken and not regularly known to curse. The relationship Jean had with Powell was not entirely positive for this reason, as it would seem that he mistook the person she played on screen with the person she actually was, and was often known to joke and tease her in the same way he did with Carole. The outgoing Lombard could handle it, but the softer Harlow could not, and she became confused sometimes when his jokes hurt her feelings.

Adding to Jean’s confusion was Powell’s reluctance to marry her, and by spring 1937 she was unsure as to where the relationship was going. When reporters asked if the two would marry, she would always laugh and tell them that after three marriages, she surely would not want to marry again. Privately, however, it would seem that she longed for Powell to take her seriously, make their union official and rescue her from the arms of her controlling mother who she was living with at the time.

Unfortunately for Jean, she would never discover what Powell’s true intentions were as on 29 May 1937, while working on the film
Saratoga
with Clark Gable, she fell desperately ill. Complaining to crew members, the actress told them, “I don’t know what’s the matter. I feel so ill, I haven’t the strength to hold my hand to remove my make-up.”

Worryingly, the day before she had complained to director Jack Conway that she did not feel quite herself and people began to worry that there was something very wrong with “The Baby”. Earlier that morning, Jean had sat back in the make-up chair and allowed artist Violet Denoyer to attend to her face. “You know, Violet,” the star suddenly said, “I have a feeling I’m going away from here and never coming back.”

“She felt the end was coming,” Denoyer later told reporters.

When it became clear that she was not going to be able to work that day, Jean was sent home to rest. A true professional, she did not go easily, however, and assured crew members that she would return the moment she felt better. She even telephoned the studio in the days ahead to assure them she would be back as soon as possible.

The illness seemed to come on very suddenly, but looking back there had been signs that the actress had not been well for some time. Early in 1937 Jean had attended the presidential inaugural ball in Washington, DC, but on the return journey had become unwell and arrived home suffering from flu. Then in April she was admitted to hospital for treatment on a wisdom tooth, and at the time friends noted that she had recently appeared bloated and her skin was sallow and grey. She was drinking heavily at times, something which worried them, particularly when the alcohol seemed to make her ankles swell quite considerably. Photographers even started to notice dark lines under her eyes that needed to be covered by thick makeup before they could shoot her.

When she left the set of
Saratoga
on 29 May, Jean did not go immediately home. Mother Jean was out of town, holidaying with friends on Catalina Island, so rather than be on her own, the actress chose to stay at her boyfriend William Powell’s house until she felt better. Unfortunately, over the coming days her condition only worsened, and a concerned Powell phoned her mother in Catalina, who returned to Los Angeles immediately.

Once back in town, Mother Jean hurried to Powell’s house, bundled up her ailing daughter and took her back home to 512 North Palm Drive, where she was put immediately to bed. Being a Christian Scientist who thus did not believe in the reality of disease, Mother Jean initially consulted her religion in an effort to help the situation. When that did not work, she called in Dr Ernest C. Fishbaugh, who examined Jean while she was lying in her bedroom. He was not sure what was wrong; while the actress had the symptoms of a bad cold, he was unable to identify why she had severe pains in her stomach, too.

After tests and further examinations, it was obvious to everyone that Jean was bloated and retaining water, but instead of draining the fluids, Dr Fishbaugh unbelievably insisted on giving Harlow more and more to drink. This decision was to have a hugely detrimental effect on his patient’s ultimate health in the days to come. Indeed, when Clark Gable came to visit her, he was extremely shocked at the sight of his dear friend and said afterwards that it was like conversing with a rotting body; that when he bent down to talk to her, Jean Harlow’s breath smelled of urine. This was definitely not a good sign.

However, for a short while it did look as though Harlow was rallying, and she actually sat up to read a little of her favourite book,
Gone with the Wind
. Then on 4 June 1937 a news report appeared in the
Los Angeles Times
that stated she was on the mend and the scare was over. According to reports, Dr Fishbaugh had nursed Jean through a heavy cold but she was very definitely now over the worst.

On the surface this was great news, but the newspapers were quick to point out that when she collapsed, her mother had described her illness as being related to her gall bladder, not a cold. This was true, and her problems in that area were worrying Mother Jean a great deal. When Jean’s condition then began to go downhill fast, she knew it was more than just a severe cold, but being a Christian Scientist, she ignored calls to take her daughter to the hospital.

Mother Jean was the mother of all controlling mothers and if anyone dared say she was doing the wrong thing for Jean, she would ban them from the house. However, although she declared herself a Christian Scientist, she was quite happy for medical staff to continue to work on her daughter at home, and even begged the family doctor Dr Chapman to come and see if he could diagnose exactly what was the problem.

When Dr Chapman finally arrived at North Palm Drive, he was able to identify what was wrong with his patient almost immediately – kidney failure brought on over the years after a childhood bout of scarlet fever. Unhappily for everyone involved, the misdiagnosis and treatment that she had experienced in the days prior to Dr Chapman’s visit meant there was little he could do to save her life. Despite her mother’s reluctance, Jean Harlow was finally transferred to the Good Samaritan Hospital where she was given two blood transfusions and placed in an oxygen tent. Sadly, it would seem that while everyone was still trying desperately to keep the star alive and praying that she would make a miraculous recovery, Jean herself knew it was impossible. When one family member told her to get well soon, the actress shook her head. “I don’t want to,” she replied.