"Old Hollywood" is synonymous with class, sophistication, and images of matinee idols
chastely stealing kisses on the silver screen.
In reality, though, all sorts of bonkers nonsense was going on behind the scenes.
Here's a look at some classic film stars who were actually really weird people.
In 1960, the editors at Good Housekeeping
magazine got a strange call.
Cary Grant, the suave, sophisticated film star who almost never gave interviews, was
on the line and wanted to talk - about the magnificent amount of LSD he'd dropped.
Yup!
Plagued by personal demons, Grant finally found peace when his third wife introduced
him to the wonders of acid, which he dropped over a hundred times between 1958 and 1961.
And he wanted everyone to experience the same wonderful benefit, so he went on a campaign
to promote the benefits of LSD, which according to the biography Cary Grant: A Touch of Elegance,
included Grant saying things like: "It releases inhibition.
You know, we are all unconsciously holding our anus.
In one LSD dream I s--- all over the rug and s--- all over the floor.
Another time I imagined myself as a giant penis launching off from earth like a spaceship."
Sold!
"I don't know sir, but it looks like a giant…"
"Dick!"
"Yea" "Oh my God it looks like a huge…"
"Pecker!"
"Oh where?"
"That's not a woodpecker it looks like someone's…"
Privates!
We have reports of an Unidentified flying Object."
Most people who get nose jobs want to make
their nose smaller.
But legendary writer, director, and actor Orson Welles was obsessed with making his
nose larger.
He thought his real nose was too small for his round face, so in every movie, he had
a fake nose made - and as his career went along, those noses got bigger and bigger and
bigger.
When he finished a film, Welles kept his noses, named them, and stored them in his Hollywood
home, where he would occasionally take them out at parties and perform magic tricks with
them.
That's the sort of crazy you can get away with when you've directed the best film ever
made.
In one of the most famous cases of a star
having a secret weird side, Joan Crawford was outed by her adopted daughter Christina
as a jealous egomaniac in the infamous memoir Mommie Dearest, which was later turned into
a hit movie.
An account of her time as Crawford's ward, it made the Hollywood star sound like the
mother from hell.
Among other tidbits were harrowing descriptions of the physical abuse Crawford occasionally
unleashed on her children, the revelation that Crawford lied when she told Christina
her birth mother was dead, and of course the famous meltdown over wire hangers.
"hangers!!"
Some claim the book wasn't entirely true, but considering Crawford was so weird she
once sabotaged her own movie in order to spite rival Bette Davis, separating truth from fiction
is nearly impossible.
The star who who gave us Doctor Strangelove
and Inspector Clouseau wasn't just a weirdo, he was apparently also such a monumental butthead
that few could stand to be around him.
Peter Sellers would have screaming meltdown tantrums on set.
He'd freak out at his wives, smash crockery, and threaten them with his shotgun.
He'd even get low-level people fired on movies as a way of venting his frustrations against
people like producers and directors who were more powerful than he was.
He was also profoundly superstitious.
So when director Vittorio de Sica told him that the color purple represented death, Sellers
took it way too literally.
According to the biography Mr. Strangelove, Sellers became convinced the color purple
could kill.
He refused to be in rooms with it and would have screaming tantrums if he came into contact
with it.
Elizabeth Taylor's hellraising is so infamous
that her private life was publicly denounced by the Vatican.
Over her lifetime, she married eight times, had endless affairs, and took great pride
in the offense she caused.
Sometimes, her behavior was truly outrageous.
After marrying and divorcing Richard Burton twice, Taylor was so upset that she got engaged
just to spite him.
While working on the play Private Lives, Taylor and Burton brought out the worst in each other.
They separately turned up drunk.
They broke character.
They skipped performances.
When Taylor missed a show, Burton got fed up, went to Vegas, and married Sally Hay.
When Taylor heard the news, she was so furious she announced her engagement to Victor Luna,
upstaging Burton.
Not that she hated her ex-husband.
Later in life, Taylor claimed they would have married a third time if only Burton hadn't
died.
The best way to describe Katharine Hepburn
is "fiercely independent."
She lived as if married with both women and men, all while acting like it was no big deal.
Part of that, though, was that she had plausible deniability, as according to the book Kate:
the Woman Who Was Katherine Hepburn, the famed actress not only didn't like physical intimacy,
she hated nudity to the point where she would walk out on a film if there was a scene showing
someone naked.
So why did Hepburn loathe nudity and physical romance so much?
According to a college friend, she tried intercourse once and, quote, "just didn't like it."
Fair enough!
They say that cleanliness is next to godliness,
but matinee idol Clark Gable took it to a whole new level.
According to Warren G. Harris' biography of Gable, the star shaved his chest and armpits
because he didn’t like sweating.
He also didn't like baths, because it meant soaking in your own dirty water, so he always
showered, even carrying his own portable shower around with him when he was in the army.
Considering his obsession with hygiene, it's ironic that Gable's Gone with the Wind co-star
Vivien Leigh later publicly called him out for having bad breath.
Still, no matter what people said about his weird ways, he always had the perfect comeback.
"Frankly my dear I don't give a Damn."
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