Hollywood's Unhappiest Endings: Legends Never Die
The original print version was published in 2009 and was not without it's problems. Due to a major miscommunication between publisher and author, the book was printed from its original draft. The draft contained many typos (I have already confessed to being the world's worst typist) and the book was full of errors. I have requested numerous times to Amazon and the publisher to have the book pulled. One keeps referring me back to the other. It has been a learning experience and one that I never care to repeat. So, please do not buy the print version. The new ebook version clearly has the word UPDATED on it's cover pic.
The errors have been corrected and the new ebook version contains many new chapters (see below) and pictures. Below is a table of contents and four chapters for you to peek at. The ebook was released in July 2013.
Here is a slimmed down version of the table of contents
Marilyn Monroe
- Joe DiMaggio
- JFK
- Norma Jean
- Marilyn
- Marilyn and Joe
- Marilyn and Arthur
- Marilyn and the Kennedys
- June-August 1962
Sharon Tate (1943-1969)
Jean Harlow (1911-1937)
Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)
- Paul Snider
- Hugh Hefner
- Peter Bogdanovich
- Dorothy
Peg Entwistle (1908-1932)
The Poltergeist Curse
- Dominique Dunne
- Heather O'Rourke
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887-1933)
Gig Young (1913-1978)
Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)
Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968)
Freddie Prinze (1954-1977)
Rebecca Schaeffer (1967-1989)
Bob Crane (1928-1967)
Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967)
Added chapters to the new ebook include: Two Supermen Down which is about the two men to play Superman...George Reeves on television and Christopher Reeve in the movies. There is a chapter called the Rebel Without A Cause Curse which covers the untimely deaths of the stars of that movie. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams all died far too young. There is also a chapter on Ronni Chasen which covers the murder of the movie publicist on her way home from a Hollywood premiere. New chapters on Anissa Jones, River Phoenix, Heath Ledger and Cory Monteith are also included in the new ebook version.
Here are a few chapters from Hollywood's Unhappiest Endings: Legends Never Die. They are the chapters on Jean Harlow, Dorothy Stratten, Peg Entwistle (The Hollywood Sign Girl) and Rebecca Schaeffer. The pictures have been left out
Jean Harlow (1911-1937)
The Original Blonde Bombshell
Long before screen legend Marilyn Monroe arrived in Hollywood there was Jean Harlow - the original blonde bombshell.
Harlean Carpenter was born in Kansas City on March 3, 1911. At the age of sixteen she ran away and eloped with a young businessman named Charles McGrew. McGrew had received a healthy inheritance and the young couple relocated to California. The marriage, as so many often do, ended in divorce two years later in 1929.
Harlean was only eighteen years old when one day she drove a friend to a studio and was noticed by a studio executive. The chance meeting led to some early work as an extra in movies such as Moran of the Marines in 1928 and Liberty in 1929. More notably she also appeared in a few Laurel and Hardy shorts. The studio added an i to her last name in an effort to make it sound more romantic but she soon took her mother's maiden name and Harlean Carpentier became Jean Harlow.
Jean continued to work as an extra and also received a few small walk-on parts. Her big break came when multi-millionaire Howard Hughes decided to remake his silent film Hell's Angels into a talkie. Hughes had originally cast Swedish actress Greta Nissen in the role but it was soon decided that her Swedish accent was not suited to the role and Jean won the part. Hell's Angels was released in 1930 and turned a virtual unknown into a star overnight. Women everywhere began dying their hair platinum blonde and tried to imitate Harlow's trademark suggestive look which played well in the Hollywood of the 1930's. She would follow up Hell's Angels with two more movies made by MGM in 1931. In Public Enemy she was cast with James Cagney and the movie went on to become a big hit. This was followed up by the aptly titled Platinum Blonde.
At around this time Paul Bern had been promoted to an executive position at MGM. He had started near the bottom as a film cutter. He eventually did some screenwriting and then moved on to producing and directing and was well respected in Hollywood. Paul had been living with struggling actress Dorothy Millette who very certainly had more than a few mental problems. Eventually she had to be institutionalized. Paul Bern paid for everything while she was ill and supported her when she was released even though they no longer lived together.
In 1932 Paul would have one of his biggest successes when he co-produced Grand Hotel. Jean also did well with her next film, Red Dust, which also starred Clark Gable. With Paul being a respected executive at MGM, and Jean being one of their biggest stars, it was just a matter of time before they would meet but no one could have predicted what would happen when they finally did.The two did meet and very quickly took to each other. In fact the pair were married within weeks. Hollywood was in a state of shock. How do we put this delicately? While Jean Harlow was undeniably the reigning glamor queen in Hollywood, Paul Bern was not exactly leading man material. If the inhabitants of Tinsel Town were shocked at the marriage they would simply be aghast at what would take place in just two short months.
At the beginning everything seemed fine. Paul bought his bride a beautiful new home in Beverly Hills but there were storm clouds forming on the horizon. Soon, friends and coworkers began noticing a change in his behavior. He appeared detached and more than a little depressed. His friends were right to be concerned but it was already too late. Sixty-five days after marrying the world's most desirable woman Paul Bern put a bullet in his head. At least that is how the official version goes. Paul was found in the couples bedroom nude and drenched in Jean's favorite perfume with the gun at his side. He left Jean a note. "Dearest Dear, unfortunately, this is the only way to make good the frightening wrong I have done you and wipe out my abject humility. I love you, Paul. PS: you understand that last night was only a comedy." The Hollywood rumor mill worked overtime on this one. It appears that Paul was unable to perform in the bedroom due to a physical deformity of some kind. If this is true it certainly begs the question...why marry Jean Harlow? "Last night was just a comedy" was taken to mean that he had tried and failed or had attempted to satisfy Jean through artificial means. Several weeks later the body of Dorothy Millette was recovered from the Sacramento River. The theory is that she committed suicide when she learned of Paul's death. Jean Harlow paid for her funeral. To this day some people still suggest that Paul may have been murdered possibly by either Dorothy or Jean or both.
After Paul's death Jean became ill and, while under a doctor's care, turned down the lead role in Hollywood's first version of King Kong. That role ended up being played by Fay Wray. Jean did bounce back appearing in three movies in 1933. She starred in Hold Your Man, Dinner at Eight and Bombshell aka Blonde Bombshell. She also found the time to get married again to Harold Rossen, a cameraman. Unfortunately this marriage also ended in divorce after only six months. Domestic woes aside, the public's love affair with Jean continued on unabated. Fans continued to flock to her movies such as Libeled and Personal Property which paired her with Robert Taylor. In 1937 she was signed to once again star with Clark Gable in Saratoga. During the filming Jean became seriously ill with influenza. Within days she was dead. The official cause of death was uremic poisoning and cerebral edema. Many insisted that Jean had been murdered but there has never been any serious evidence to support this. Hollywood's glamor queen was gone and she was only twenty-six years old. Her final film Saratoga was released on July 23 just a month and a half after Jean's death. The film was completed using a double. In many scenes the double is seen hiding behind binoculars or turning away from the camera. There is an eight minute two color Technicolor sequence which lives on as the only color footage in existence of Jean Harlow. Saratoga went on to become the top grossing film of 1937.
Marilyn Monroe was in negotiations to play Jean in a movie of her life when she herself died mysteriously in 1962. In 1965 two biopics were released, both simply named Harlow. Carroll Baker and Carol Lynley played the part of Jean. In 2004 The Aviator was released with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part of Howard Hughes and Gwen Stefani playing Jean Harlow. The Paul Bern case was reopened by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office in 1960 and reached the same conclusion as the original investigators had back in 1932. Paul Bern had committed suicide.
Although her career was so tragically cut short Jean Harlow will always be remembered as the original blonde bombshell. She is buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)
The Reluctant Centerfold
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 28, 1960 to parents Simon and Nelly. A year and a half later Dorothy's brother John was born. Before Dorothy was three years old Simon deserted his young family and Nelly began a series of failed relationships and marriages. In 1968 Dorothy's sister Louise was born and that was soon followed by another divorce.
By 1974 Dorothy was working part time at a Vancouver Dairy Queen while attending high school. In October 1976 she began a relationship with her first boyfriend Steven. Like many teenage boys Steve took what he wanted sexually from Dorothy without too much concern for her feelings. Late in 1977 she spotted a ring in a storefront window that she thought he would love. She saved as much money as she could and made fifteen weekly payments to pay it off. She proudly gave the ring to Steve for Christmas but a week later in a fit of anger he took the ring off and smashed the stone. Young love - go figure. The relationship was over. In her young life Dorothy had only seen cruelty from the men in her life. Her father had abandoned her. Subsequent stepfathers treated her and her mother badly. Now the same with her first lover. Unfortunately all of this was just a foreboding of things to come.
Paul Snider
By October 1977 twenty-six year old Paul Snider had been around the block and then some. He had grown up on the mean streets of Vancouver and had been dealing in drugs and prostitution since he was fourteen. He had also plied his trade in Seattle, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. On the streets of his hometown he was known as the Jewish Pimp.
Hugh Hefner
Also at around the same time Playboy Magazine and it's creator/chief Hugh Hefner were launching their twenty-fifth Anniversary Playboy Contest.
Peter Bogdanovich
It was also in the same time frame that well known Hollywood director Peter Bogdanovich's eight year relationship with actress Cybil Shepherd hit the skids. The two had met and fallen in love during the making of The Last Picture Show in 1971. Bogdanovich had been nominated for Best Director and the film was nominated for Best Picture. Similar success in the future would prove to be elusive. It would take more than two years to play out but the coming together of Dorothy Stratten, Hugh Hefner/Playboy, Paul Snider and Peter Bogdanovich would explode in August of 1980 with the most tragic of consequences.
Dorothy
In October 1977 Paul Snider walked into a Vancouver Dairy Queen and immediately noticed the blonde teenager with pigtails. At seventeen Dorothy was already a beauty. Fancying himself as something of a promoter Snider's first thought was that this girl had Playboy type potential. In January 1978 Dorothy had broken up with Steve and it would be Paul Snider that would pick up the pieces. Right from the beginning Snider had one thing on his mind and that was to somehow convince Dorothy to pose nude for Playboy's twenty-fifth anniversary contest. Dorothy wanted nothing at all to do with it. Snider, who was much more experienced and worldly than Dorothy's previous boyfriend, stepped up the pressure. He took Dorothy to the best restaurants and bought her extravagant gifts. Didn't he treat her nice? Didn't he buy her nice things? Friends of Dorothy's and even her mother were warning her about Snider but to no avail. She figured that Snider was treating her a lot better than Steve had and certainly much better than her father and stepfathers had treated her mother.
Snider continued to beg and plead with Dorothy to pose for him. Eventually she relented and in August 1979 her nude photos were sent to Playboy. When the pictures arrived in LA they were taken straight to Hefner. Within two days Dorothy was on her first airplane and her first limousine was waiting at the airport to take her straight to the Playboy Club on Sunset Strip. Almost immediately she was given a couple of glasses of white wine to help her relax. She was then photographed by veteran Playboy photographer Mario Casilli.
Dorothy had hated posing nude for Snider in Vancouver and now hated it even more in LA. She shook and she cried during photo shoots. Hefner put pressure on his staff to get more explicit photos of Dorothy but she always refused. She finished second in the contest losing out to Candy Loving. How's that for a stage name? The reason given for her second place finish was that she needed more experience in dealing with the media and representing Playboy. The more likely reason was her reluctance during the photo shoots and her lack of interest in Hefner personally as well as the orgy filled lifestyle at the Playboy mansion. Despite all of this Dorothy was being groomed for the August 1979 centerfold. In October 1978 Paul Snider decided to take up permanent residence in LA to better manage Dorothy's career...not to mention to keep a closer eye on his meal ticket. He took Dorothy to Playboy's Halloween Bash where most (including Hefner) took an immediate dislike to him. Hefner told Dorothy that Snider looked like a pimp and a hustler. Dorothy defended Snider but the Playboy chief had pretty much hit the mark. This was also the night that Dorothy would meet Peter Bogdanovich for the first time.
When Snider learned that Dorothy was going to be a centerfold and had a good shot at being the Playmate of the Year, he began pressuring Dorothy into marriage. He envisioned all that would be his as the husband of a centerfold, her business manager and the man who discovered her. By now Dorothy had fallen out of love with Snider. His brash and often obnoxious ways were diametrically opposite to that of the laid back beauty. However, as she had done once before when posing for him, she gave in and on June 1, 1979 the pair were married in Las Vegas. The truth is that in the summer of 79 Dorothy must have felt lost. She hated Playboy (Hef had seduced her in the jacuzzi at the mansion) and all that went with being a centerfold. She was a naive Canadian girl adrift in Los Angeles. Snider may have seemed like a life preserver at the time. She couldn't have been more wrong.
Two months after her wedding Dorothy flew to Winnipeg, Manitoba to star in her first movie, Autumn Born. It was a small Canadian production with a total budget of $250,000. In the film she is brainwashed, beaten, raped and tortured. Less than a year later the truth would be stranger than the fiction. After the movie wrapped Dorothy flew back to LA and once again ran into Peter Bogdanovich who told her he was casting for a new picture...a very familiar line in LA but in this case it happened to be true. The pair agreed to meet again. Bogdanovich, who had a habit of falling for his leading ladies, was smitten while Dorothy was simply looking for a way out. She had grown tired of her mercurial, controlling husband and equally tired of Playboy. A month later Dorothy posed for her Playmate of the Year pictorial which would appear in the June, 1980 issue.
In January 1980 Dorothy began filming Galaxina. Snider appeared on the set constantly while letting everyone within earshot know that he was the man who had discovered Dorothy. By now he was making financial demands of his wife. He wanted her to sign papers that would essentially give him 50% of everything that she would earn in her lifetime. Bogdanovich, Hefner and the Playboy lawyers all advised Dorothy that this was way out of line. Legally Snider would be entitled to 50% of her earnings from the date that they were married to the date that Dorothy filed separation papers. In March Dorothy flew to New York to begin the movie They All Laughed. This was to be the film that Bogdanovich had pitched to her when they had run into each other the previous October. Bogdanovich would direct and the cast would include Audrey Hepburn, John Ritter and Ben Gazzara. Dorothy was still contractually obligated to Playboy for a three week tour of Canada and the US and had to leave the set in April. When she returned to New York City she stayed at the Plaza with Bogdanovich. While the director and his star attempted discretion everyone connected with the movie could see what was going on. It did not take long for word to reach Hefner in LA and then ultimately Snider. While filming continued in New York the June 1980 issue of Playboy featuring Dorothy's pictorial hit the newsstands. She had hated the posing and now she had hated the results. All she wanted was to be done with Playboy (Hefner had stepped up his demands for more explicit photos) and also be done with Snider so that she could resume her career and her relationship with Bogdanovich on her own terms. Sadly, it was not to be.
When They All Laughed had wrapped in July the pair took a trip to London to be alone together for a much needed break. When they returned to California Dorothy moved into Bogdanovich's house. Unknown to the couple was the fact that Paul Snider had hired a private investigator to follow Dorothy. Snider became enraged when informed that his wife had returned to LA without even bothering to call him. During the early part of August Dorothy had to be in Houston, Texas as part of yet another Playboy promotion. She called Snider one night who was elated to get the call. Even though Dorothy said that she still wanted her freedom (she had sent him separation papers in June) Snider figured that if he could just see her he could still set things right and win her back. They made plans to have lunch on August 8. When Dorothy got to Snider's that day he was waiting with roses and champagne. Dorothy felt uncomfortable and they went to a restaurant. When they returned she confessed her love for Bogdanovich and a nasty argument ensued. Snider and his private investigator had dug up a lot of dirt on the director and his affairs with his leading ladies and now he told Dorothy everything that he knew. When she did not react Snider must have known it was all over. He cried as Dorothy let herself out. The next day, August 9, would not prove to be much better. When Snider called the Playboy mansion to get clearance to attend the party that night he was told that he had been barred from the mansion on orders from Hugh Hefner himself. Snider must have felt his world crumbling. In a space of a couple of days he had lost his wife and his all important access to the world of Playboy. Why were they doing this to him? Hadn't he been the one who had discovered Dorothy? He would show them! Snider had been after his private investigator to get him a gun ostensibly for his own protection. Snider had told him that both Hefner and Bogdanovich wanted him out of the way. He could not buy one in a gun shop as he was not an American citizen but his friend helped him find one in the personal ads. A very angry Paul Snider was now in possession of a shotgun.
To go along with Dorothy's rejection and the Playboy snub Paul had arranged a barbecue and invited some VIP's but hardly anyone showed up. Dorothy was doing a shoot for Playboy in the Mojave Desert and had promised to call Paul on the night of his barbecue but she did not. When she called the next night Snider let her have it. Dorothy had never heard him so livid and was worried that he might hurt himself. To calm him down she agreed to visit him once she was finished in the desert. Dorothy kept the meeting secret so that no one would worry and on Friday, August 14 she drove to the home she had once lived in with Snider. No one can possibly know what words were spoken or what the exact sequence of events were that day but within a couple of hours both Dorothy and Snider were dead. Snider had designed his own bondage machine and on this day he used it to beat, brutally rape and sodomize his wife. He then shot her in the face and had sex with the corpse before turning the gun on himself. The young and beautiful Dorothy Stratten - who had never wanted to pose nude or enter the world of Playboy - who really wanted nothing more than to love and be loved in return was gone at the age of twenty.
Playboy and Hefner had been leaving messages for Dorothy all day. By evening when Bogdanovich had not heard from her he became worried. At 11:45pm when his phone rang he thought for sure it was Dorothy calling him to say that she had been delayed in the desert. Instead it was Hugh Hefner calling with the terrible news that Dorothy was dead. Bogdanovich predictably collapsed. The movie They All Laughed was not released until almost a year after Dorothy's tragic death. While the movie and Dorothy herself received some good notices, it received only a lukewarm response at the box office. The director bought back the film from Time-Life for the sum of 2.8M and redistributed it himself. The commercial failure bankrupted him. Two movies were made about the playmate. In 1981 a made for television movie aired on NBC with Jamie Lee Curtis playing Dorothy. In 1983 Bob Fosse directed Star 80 which got it's name from the personalized plates on the Mercedes that Dorothy had given to Snider. In 1984 Peter Bogdanovich wrote The Killing of the Unicorn, a chronicle of the events leading up to the murder. In it he placed much of the blame for what went wrong in the final days of Dorothy's life on Hugh Hefner. Singer Bryan Adams, himself also from Canada's west coast, penned two songs about Dorothy. Cover Girl became a hit for Prism in 1980 and The Best Was Yet To Come appeared on his own 1983 album Cuts Like A Knife.
Peter Bogdanovich went on to direct Cher in the 1985 hit Mask but his flops would by far outnumber his hits. In a bizarre twist he married Dorothy's younger sister Louise in 1988. He was forty-nine and she was twenty. They divorced in 2001. Paul Snider's family fought hard for whatever they could get. His father ended up with the Star 80 Mercedes.
Dorothy Stratten is buried in the Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles just a few yards away from a playmate from another era, Marilyn Monroe.
Peg Entwistle (1908-1932)
The Hollywood Sign Girl
Lillian Millicent Entwistle or "Peg" as she came to be known by was born in Wales on February 6, 1908. Her mother died while Peg was very young and, in 1922, she moved across the ocean to New York City with her father. Tragedy would strike again when Peg's father was killed in an auto accident.
Peg left New York for Boston and picked up some valuable acting experience as part of an acting troupe. This helped her land a few minor roles on Broadway. She appeared in plays such as Getting Married with Dorothy Gish and Alice Sit by the Fire with Laurette Taylor. In 1927 Peg met and married struggling actor Robert Keith and became stepmom to his young son Brian. The union was not a happy one with Peg (not exactly wealthy herself) paying her husband's alimony just to keep him out of jail. They would divorce in 1930. Things were looking up, not only for Peg but for most of America. Broadway plays were drawing large audiences. Hollywood was flourishing as the silent film industry gave way to "talkies." Many Americans were driving automobiles and enjoying unparalleled prosperity. However the good times were not to last. The decade known as the Roaring Twenties, the decade of prosperity and excess, would come to a screeching halt when the stock market crashed on October 2, 1929. The decade that came to be known as the Dirty Thirties would follow and usher in the period in history that would be known as the Great Depression.
Many people lost everything they had when the market crashed. It was all that many could do just to put food on the table. Just about the last thing on people's minds was scraping up enough money to go out to a Broadway play. Despite all of this Peg still won some roles. She acted in seven more plays. All were commercial flops with the blame being put on the economic woes of the time. With the roles on Broadway drying up and with her marriage behind her there was not much reason to remain in New York. Peg decided to head west and give Hollywood a try. She moved into the Hollywood Studio Club which was a place for young actresses to stay while they looked for work. With her money quickly running out she decided to move in with her Uncle Harold on Beachwood Drive.
Peg continued to look for work and secured a role in a new play but it only lasted a few weeks. The Mad Hopes was mostly notable for starring a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart. At least the role paved the way for Peg to be signed by RKO Pictures to appear in the new film Thirteen Women. Even though the film had star power (Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy), and was being produced by Hollywood mogul David O. Selznick, it still turned out to be a flop. When the film did poorly in test markets the studio cut fourteen minutes of the original seventy-three minutes out of the film. Unfortunately many of Peg's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor drastically reducing her screen time. With the failure of Thirteen Women and the Great Depression nipping at the studios heels, RKO did not renew Peg's contract. Peg began to drink more and slipped into a deep depression. She posed topless to support herself. When Thirteen Women was released on September 16, 1932 Peg was not even invited to the premiere. She spent that evening drinking and then told her uncle that she was going to walk down to the drugstore. Peg then walked past the drugstore to the end of Beachwood Drive and then climbed all the way up the hill to the Hollywood sign which, in 1932, was the Hollywoodland sign. There was a construction workers ladder leaning up against the back of the H. Peg took off her coat and folded it neatly leaving it along with her purse on the ground at the bottom of the H. Peg then climbed the ladder to the top of the H and jumped. She was not found until two days later when the LAPD received an anonymous call. The caller told the police that he had been hiking near the sign when he saw a shoe. When he looked further down the hill he saw the body. He went on to say that he did not want any publicity so he wrapped up the coat, purse and shoes and left them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station. Peg had left a note in her purse that read..."I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." The note was printed in the Los Angeles Times with the hope that someone might recognize the note. Peg's Uncle Harold recognized the initials and identified Peg.
Since Peg's suicide many people hiking near the Hollywood sign have reportedly seen an attractive blonde dressed in 1930's era clothing. She always seems very sad and simply vanishes when anyone gets close. Others have said that there is a strong scent of gardenias. Gardenia perfume was known to be Peg's favorite. Coincidence? In an ironic twist a letter was received by Peg's Uncle Harold offering her a role in a new play. The Beverly Hills Playhouse wanted Peg to star in a play about a woman who was driven to commit suicide. The letter was delivered one day after Peg's death.
Peg's ex husband Robert Keith went on to become a successful character actor in the 1940's and 50's. The six year old son that Peg was stepmom to for several years was Brian Keith who starred in the television series Family Affair from 1966-71 and in Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-86. In 1997, while in failing health and mourning the suicide of his own daughter ten days, earlier Brian Keith shot himself.
Peg Entwistle was only twenty-four years old when she took her own life. She was cremated and her ashes are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.
Rebecca Schaeffer (1967-1989)
Dial DMV for Murder
Rebecca Schaeffer was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She knew from an early age what she wanted to do and when she turned sixteen she left the stability of her home and family life and set out alone for New York City in search of a career in modeling. The success came early and four months later Rebecca found herself on a modeling assignment in Japan. Things would only get better from there. In 1986 Hollywood beckoned and Rebecca appeared in an episode of Steven Spielberg's television series Amazing Stories. Not long after this she got her first big break and landed the role opposite Pam Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam.
In Tucson, Arizona a sixteen year old male began to take notice. Robert John Bardo, the child of an air force officer, had already been sending a plethora of letters to the likes of Dyan Cannon, Tiffany and Madonna. His attempts to get closer to these celebrities always failed. He now began to turn his attention to Rebecca. His bedroom became a shrine for her. He began writing letters to her and, unfortunately, one day Rebecca wrote one back. It was just a generic letter thanking him for his interest. She enclosed a signed publicity photo. This must have spurred Bardo on as twice he attempted to visit Rebecca at the Warner Brothers studio where she was filming the sitcom My Sister Sam. Both times he was denied access to the set.
The world must have seemed pretty good to Rebecca on the morning of July 18, 1989. It couldn't have seemed all that long ago that she had left Portland as a sixteen year old to find her way in the world. Now, barely five years later, she had become a successful model, was starring in a new television sitcom, had a nice new apartment in Hollywood and was dating a director, Brad Silberling. Now, on this summer morning in LA she was excited as she had an important audition for a part in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather III. The future did indeed look bright for Rebecca but on this day fate would intervene.
Back in Tucson Robert John Bardo, who was now nineteen years old had hired a private investigator and given him only one job to do...find Rebecca Schaeffer's home address. He paid the investigator $250 and in very short order received the information he was looking for. One call to the California Department of Motor Vehicles was all it took. On the morning of July 18, while Rebecca was at home preparing fo her audition, Bardo calmly walked up to her door and rang the bell. Rebecca answered the door herself, shook Bardo's hand and then closed the door on him. Bardo was stung. He apparently had thought that he had made some kind of connection with Rebecca through his letters. He had brought a brown bag with him. In it were copies of all the letters he had written her, the signed photo that she had sent him, a paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye and a handgun. Bardo retreated to a nearby restaurant to collect his thoughts. He went to the men's room to load the handgun. He then walked back to Rebecca's and once again rang the bell. When she came down and answered the door again Bardo made a gesture indicating that he wanted to give her something. When she opened the door Bardo pulled out his gun and fired point blank into her heart. Rebecca was able to utter one word, "why?" and then collapsed. She died on the way to hospital.
Bardo left the scene and made his way back to Tuscon where he was arrested the next day after a tip from his sister. He was brought back to LA where he waived his right to a jury trial meaning simply that his fate would be determined by a judge once all of the evidence had been presented. Bardo's lawyers hired Park Dietz, a well known psychiatrist, to back their claim of mental deficiency. They hoped to show that Bardo was incapable of premeditation. Dietz interviewed Bardo at length and videotaped the results which included Bardo re-enacting the crime. Bardo and his lawyers had claimed that while he was looking for something in his brown bag Rebecca had seen the gun and tried to grab it at which time the gun accidentally went off killing Rebecca.
The prosecuting attorney was Marcia Clark who was still several years away from becoming a household name herself in the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson trial. After several viewings of the re-enactment Clark knew she had him. During the re-enactment Bardo is holding his right arm behind his back. He then draws his hand out and points the gun. No struggle for the gun. The judge promptly sentenced Bardo to life without parole. Bardo has since stated that it was the "immorality" of the sex scene that Rebecca had in the movie Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills that drove him to the murder. Another time he has said that Rebecca was rude to him when she opened the door. The murder was eerily similar to that of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman in 1980. Both had seen their victim earlier in the day and both were carrying copies of J.D. Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye.
As a result of Rebecca's murder the state of California has passed several anti stalking laws including the Driver's Privacy Protection Act which prohibits the DMV from releasing personal information. Brad Silberling went on to make a movie loosely based on the murder and it's effect on him. Originally to be titled Baby's in Black he changed the name when he could not secure the rights to that song by the Beatles. The movie became Moonlight Mile which was named for a lesser known song by the Stones. Brad went on to marry Amy Brenneman of tv's Judging Amy fame. Robert John Bardo continues to serve out his life sentence.
Rebecca Schaeffer's final movie was released after her death and was ironically titled The End of Innocence. Rebecca is buried in her hometown of Portand, Oregon.
The errors have been corrected and the new ebook version contains many new chapters (see below) and pictures. Below is a table of contents and four chapters for you to peek at. The ebook was released in July 2013.
Here is a slimmed down version of the table of contents
Marilyn Monroe
- Joe DiMaggio
- JFK
- Norma Jean
- Marilyn
- Marilyn and Joe
- Marilyn and Arthur
- Marilyn and the Kennedys
- June-August 1962
Sharon Tate (1943-1969)
Jean Harlow (1911-1937)
Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)
- Paul Snider
- Hugh Hefner
- Peter Bogdanovich
- Dorothy
Peg Entwistle (1908-1932)
The Poltergeist Curse
- Dominique Dunne
- Heather O'Rourke
Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle (1887-1933)
Gig Young (1913-1978)
Tupac Shakur (1971-1996)
Bobby Driscoll (1937-1968)
Freddie Prinze (1954-1977)
Rebecca Schaeffer (1967-1989)
Bob Crane (1928-1967)
Jayne Mansfield (1933-1967)
Added chapters to the new ebook include: Two Supermen Down which is about the two men to play Superman...George Reeves on television and Christopher Reeve in the movies. There is a chapter called the Rebel Without A Cause Curse which covers the untimely deaths of the stars of that movie. James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo and Nick Adams all died far too young. There is also a chapter on Ronni Chasen which covers the murder of the movie publicist on her way home from a Hollywood premiere. New chapters on Anissa Jones, River Phoenix, Heath Ledger and Cory Monteith are also included in the new ebook version.
Here are a few chapters from Hollywood's Unhappiest Endings: Legends Never Die. They are the chapters on Jean Harlow, Dorothy Stratten, Peg Entwistle (The Hollywood Sign Girl) and Rebecca Schaeffer. The pictures have been left out
Jean Harlow (1911-1937)
The Original Blonde Bombshell
Long before screen legend Marilyn Monroe arrived in Hollywood there was Jean Harlow - the original blonde bombshell.
Harlean Carpenter was born in Kansas City on March 3, 1911. At the age of sixteen she ran away and eloped with a young businessman named Charles McGrew. McGrew had received a healthy inheritance and the young couple relocated to California. The marriage, as so many often do, ended in divorce two years later in 1929.
Harlean was only eighteen years old when one day she drove a friend to a studio and was noticed by a studio executive. The chance meeting led to some early work as an extra in movies such as Moran of the Marines in 1928 and Liberty in 1929. More notably she also appeared in a few Laurel and Hardy shorts. The studio added an i to her last name in an effort to make it sound more romantic but she soon took her mother's maiden name and Harlean Carpentier became Jean Harlow.
Jean continued to work as an extra and also received a few small walk-on parts. Her big break came when multi-millionaire Howard Hughes decided to remake his silent film Hell's Angels into a talkie. Hughes had originally cast Swedish actress Greta Nissen in the role but it was soon decided that her Swedish accent was not suited to the role and Jean won the part. Hell's Angels was released in 1930 and turned a virtual unknown into a star overnight. Women everywhere began dying their hair platinum blonde and tried to imitate Harlow's trademark suggestive look which played well in the Hollywood of the 1930's. She would follow up Hell's Angels with two more movies made by MGM in 1931. In Public Enemy she was cast with James Cagney and the movie went on to become a big hit. This was followed up by the aptly titled Platinum Blonde.
At around this time Paul Bern had been promoted to an executive position at MGM. He had started near the bottom as a film cutter. He eventually did some screenwriting and then moved on to producing and directing and was well respected in Hollywood. Paul had been living with struggling actress Dorothy Millette who very certainly had more than a few mental problems. Eventually she had to be institutionalized. Paul Bern paid for everything while she was ill and supported her when she was released even though they no longer lived together.
In 1932 Paul would have one of his biggest successes when he co-produced Grand Hotel. Jean also did well with her next film, Red Dust, which also starred Clark Gable. With Paul being a respected executive at MGM, and Jean being one of their biggest stars, it was just a matter of time before they would meet but no one could have predicted what would happen when they finally did.The two did meet and very quickly took to each other. In fact the pair were married within weeks. Hollywood was in a state of shock. How do we put this delicately? While Jean Harlow was undeniably the reigning glamor queen in Hollywood, Paul Bern was not exactly leading man material. If the inhabitants of Tinsel Town were shocked at the marriage they would simply be aghast at what would take place in just two short months.
At the beginning everything seemed fine. Paul bought his bride a beautiful new home in Beverly Hills but there were storm clouds forming on the horizon. Soon, friends and coworkers began noticing a change in his behavior. He appeared detached and more than a little depressed. His friends were right to be concerned but it was already too late. Sixty-five days after marrying the world's most desirable woman Paul Bern put a bullet in his head. At least that is how the official version goes. Paul was found in the couples bedroom nude and drenched in Jean's favorite perfume with the gun at his side. He left Jean a note. "Dearest Dear, unfortunately, this is the only way to make good the frightening wrong I have done you and wipe out my abject humility. I love you, Paul. PS: you understand that last night was only a comedy." The Hollywood rumor mill worked overtime on this one. It appears that Paul was unable to perform in the bedroom due to a physical deformity of some kind. If this is true it certainly begs the question...why marry Jean Harlow? "Last night was just a comedy" was taken to mean that he had tried and failed or had attempted to satisfy Jean through artificial means. Several weeks later the body of Dorothy Millette was recovered from the Sacramento River. The theory is that she committed suicide when she learned of Paul's death. Jean Harlow paid for her funeral. To this day some people still suggest that Paul may have been murdered possibly by either Dorothy or Jean or both.
After Paul's death Jean became ill and, while under a doctor's care, turned down the lead role in Hollywood's first version of King Kong. That role ended up being played by Fay Wray. Jean did bounce back appearing in three movies in 1933. She starred in Hold Your Man, Dinner at Eight and Bombshell aka Blonde Bombshell. She also found the time to get married again to Harold Rossen, a cameraman. Unfortunately this marriage also ended in divorce after only six months. Domestic woes aside, the public's love affair with Jean continued on unabated. Fans continued to flock to her movies such as Libeled and Personal Property which paired her with Robert Taylor. In 1937 she was signed to once again star with Clark Gable in Saratoga. During the filming Jean became seriously ill with influenza. Within days she was dead. The official cause of death was uremic poisoning and cerebral edema. Many insisted that Jean had been murdered but there has never been any serious evidence to support this. Hollywood's glamor queen was gone and she was only twenty-six years old. Her final film Saratoga was released on July 23 just a month and a half after Jean's death. The film was completed using a double. In many scenes the double is seen hiding behind binoculars or turning away from the camera. There is an eight minute two color Technicolor sequence which lives on as the only color footage in existence of Jean Harlow. Saratoga went on to become the top grossing film of 1937.
Marilyn Monroe was in negotiations to play Jean in a movie of her life when she herself died mysteriously in 1962. In 1965 two biopics were released, both simply named Harlow. Carroll Baker and Carol Lynley played the part of Jean. In 2004 The Aviator was released with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the part of Howard Hughes and Gwen Stefani playing Jean Harlow. The Paul Bern case was reopened by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office in 1960 and reached the same conclusion as the original investigators had back in 1932. Paul Bern had committed suicide.
Although her career was so tragically cut short Jean Harlow will always be remembered as the original blonde bombshell. She is buried at the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Dorothy Stratten (1960-1980)
The Reluctant Centerfold
Dorothy Ruth Hoogstraten was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on February 28, 1960 to parents Simon and Nelly. A year and a half later Dorothy's brother John was born. Before Dorothy was three years old Simon deserted his young family and Nelly began a series of failed relationships and marriages. In 1968 Dorothy's sister Louise was born and that was soon followed by another divorce.
By 1974 Dorothy was working part time at a Vancouver Dairy Queen while attending high school. In October 1976 she began a relationship with her first boyfriend Steven. Like many teenage boys Steve took what he wanted sexually from Dorothy without too much concern for her feelings. Late in 1977 she spotted a ring in a storefront window that she thought he would love. She saved as much money as she could and made fifteen weekly payments to pay it off. She proudly gave the ring to Steve for Christmas but a week later in a fit of anger he took the ring off and smashed the stone. Young love - go figure. The relationship was over. In her young life Dorothy had only seen cruelty from the men in her life. Her father had abandoned her. Subsequent stepfathers treated her and her mother badly. Now the same with her first lover. Unfortunately all of this was just a foreboding of things to come.
Paul Snider
By October 1977 twenty-six year old Paul Snider had been around the block and then some. He had grown up on the mean streets of Vancouver and had been dealing in drugs and prostitution since he was fourteen. He had also plied his trade in Seattle, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles. On the streets of his hometown he was known as the Jewish Pimp.
Hugh Hefner
Also at around the same time Playboy Magazine and it's creator/chief Hugh Hefner were launching their twenty-fifth Anniversary Playboy Contest.
Peter Bogdanovich
It was also in the same time frame that well known Hollywood director Peter Bogdanovich's eight year relationship with actress Cybil Shepherd hit the skids. The two had met and fallen in love during the making of The Last Picture Show in 1971. Bogdanovich had been nominated for Best Director and the film was nominated for Best Picture. Similar success in the future would prove to be elusive. It would take more than two years to play out but the coming together of Dorothy Stratten, Hugh Hefner/Playboy, Paul Snider and Peter Bogdanovich would explode in August of 1980 with the most tragic of consequences.
Dorothy
In October 1977 Paul Snider walked into a Vancouver Dairy Queen and immediately noticed the blonde teenager with pigtails. At seventeen Dorothy was already a beauty. Fancying himself as something of a promoter Snider's first thought was that this girl had Playboy type potential. In January 1978 Dorothy had broken up with Steve and it would be Paul Snider that would pick up the pieces. Right from the beginning Snider had one thing on his mind and that was to somehow convince Dorothy to pose nude for Playboy's twenty-fifth anniversary contest. Dorothy wanted nothing at all to do with it. Snider, who was much more experienced and worldly than Dorothy's previous boyfriend, stepped up the pressure. He took Dorothy to the best restaurants and bought her extravagant gifts. Didn't he treat her nice? Didn't he buy her nice things? Friends of Dorothy's and even her mother were warning her about Snider but to no avail. She figured that Snider was treating her a lot better than Steve had and certainly much better than her father and stepfathers had treated her mother.
Snider continued to beg and plead with Dorothy to pose for him. Eventually she relented and in August 1979 her nude photos were sent to Playboy. When the pictures arrived in LA they were taken straight to Hefner. Within two days Dorothy was on her first airplane and her first limousine was waiting at the airport to take her straight to the Playboy Club on Sunset Strip. Almost immediately she was given a couple of glasses of white wine to help her relax. She was then photographed by veteran Playboy photographer Mario Casilli.
Dorothy had hated posing nude for Snider in Vancouver and now hated it even more in LA. She shook and she cried during photo shoots. Hefner put pressure on his staff to get more explicit photos of Dorothy but she always refused. She finished second in the contest losing out to Candy Loving. How's that for a stage name? The reason given for her second place finish was that she needed more experience in dealing with the media and representing Playboy. The more likely reason was her reluctance during the photo shoots and her lack of interest in Hefner personally as well as the orgy filled lifestyle at the Playboy mansion. Despite all of this Dorothy was being groomed for the August 1979 centerfold. In October 1978 Paul Snider decided to take up permanent residence in LA to better manage Dorothy's career...not to mention to keep a closer eye on his meal ticket. He took Dorothy to Playboy's Halloween Bash where most (including Hefner) took an immediate dislike to him. Hefner told Dorothy that Snider looked like a pimp and a hustler. Dorothy defended Snider but the Playboy chief had pretty much hit the mark. This was also the night that Dorothy would meet Peter Bogdanovich for the first time.
When Snider learned that Dorothy was going to be a centerfold and had a good shot at being the Playmate of the Year, he began pressuring Dorothy into marriage. He envisioned all that would be his as the husband of a centerfold, her business manager and the man who discovered her. By now Dorothy had fallen out of love with Snider. His brash and often obnoxious ways were diametrically opposite to that of the laid back beauty. However, as she had done once before when posing for him, she gave in and on June 1, 1979 the pair were married in Las Vegas. The truth is that in the summer of 79 Dorothy must have felt lost. She hated Playboy (Hef had seduced her in the jacuzzi at the mansion) and all that went with being a centerfold. She was a naive Canadian girl adrift in Los Angeles. Snider may have seemed like a life preserver at the time. She couldn't have been more wrong.
Two months after her wedding Dorothy flew to Winnipeg, Manitoba to star in her first movie, Autumn Born. It was a small Canadian production with a total budget of $250,000. In the film she is brainwashed, beaten, raped and tortured. Less than a year later the truth would be stranger than the fiction. After the movie wrapped Dorothy flew back to LA and once again ran into Peter Bogdanovich who told her he was casting for a new picture...a very familiar line in LA but in this case it happened to be true. The pair agreed to meet again. Bogdanovich, who had a habit of falling for his leading ladies, was smitten while Dorothy was simply looking for a way out. She had grown tired of her mercurial, controlling husband and equally tired of Playboy. A month later Dorothy posed for her Playmate of the Year pictorial which would appear in the June, 1980 issue.
In January 1980 Dorothy began filming Galaxina. Snider appeared on the set constantly while letting everyone within earshot know that he was the man who had discovered Dorothy. By now he was making financial demands of his wife. He wanted her to sign papers that would essentially give him 50% of everything that she would earn in her lifetime. Bogdanovich, Hefner and the Playboy lawyers all advised Dorothy that this was way out of line. Legally Snider would be entitled to 50% of her earnings from the date that they were married to the date that Dorothy filed separation papers. In March Dorothy flew to New York to begin the movie They All Laughed. This was to be the film that Bogdanovich had pitched to her when they had run into each other the previous October. Bogdanovich would direct and the cast would include Audrey Hepburn, John Ritter and Ben Gazzara. Dorothy was still contractually obligated to Playboy for a three week tour of Canada and the US and had to leave the set in April. When she returned to New York City she stayed at the Plaza with Bogdanovich. While the director and his star attempted discretion everyone connected with the movie could see what was going on. It did not take long for word to reach Hefner in LA and then ultimately Snider. While filming continued in New York the June 1980 issue of Playboy featuring Dorothy's pictorial hit the newsstands. She had hated the posing and now she had hated the results. All she wanted was to be done with Playboy (Hefner had stepped up his demands for more explicit photos) and also be done with Snider so that she could resume her career and her relationship with Bogdanovich on her own terms. Sadly, it was not to be.
When They All Laughed had wrapped in July the pair took a trip to London to be alone together for a much needed break. When they returned to California Dorothy moved into Bogdanovich's house. Unknown to the couple was the fact that Paul Snider had hired a private investigator to follow Dorothy. Snider became enraged when informed that his wife had returned to LA without even bothering to call him. During the early part of August Dorothy had to be in Houston, Texas as part of yet another Playboy promotion. She called Snider one night who was elated to get the call. Even though Dorothy said that she still wanted her freedom (she had sent him separation papers in June) Snider figured that if he could just see her he could still set things right and win her back. They made plans to have lunch on August 8. When Dorothy got to Snider's that day he was waiting with roses and champagne. Dorothy felt uncomfortable and they went to a restaurant. When they returned she confessed her love for Bogdanovich and a nasty argument ensued. Snider and his private investigator had dug up a lot of dirt on the director and his affairs with his leading ladies and now he told Dorothy everything that he knew. When she did not react Snider must have known it was all over. He cried as Dorothy let herself out. The next day, August 9, would not prove to be much better. When Snider called the Playboy mansion to get clearance to attend the party that night he was told that he had been barred from the mansion on orders from Hugh Hefner himself. Snider must have felt his world crumbling. In a space of a couple of days he had lost his wife and his all important access to the world of Playboy. Why were they doing this to him? Hadn't he been the one who had discovered Dorothy? He would show them! Snider had been after his private investigator to get him a gun ostensibly for his own protection. Snider had told him that both Hefner and Bogdanovich wanted him out of the way. He could not buy one in a gun shop as he was not an American citizen but his friend helped him find one in the personal ads. A very angry Paul Snider was now in possession of a shotgun.
To go along with Dorothy's rejection and the Playboy snub Paul had arranged a barbecue and invited some VIP's but hardly anyone showed up. Dorothy was doing a shoot for Playboy in the Mojave Desert and had promised to call Paul on the night of his barbecue but she did not. When she called the next night Snider let her have it. Dorothy had never heard him so livid and was worried that he might hurt himself. To calm him down she agreed to visit him once she was finished in the desert. Dorothy kept the meeting secret so that no one would worry and on Friday, August 14 she drove to the home she had once lived in with Snider. No one can possibly know what words were spoken or what the exact sequence of events were that day but within a couple of hours both Dorothy and Snider were dead. Snider had designed his own bondage machine and on this day he used it to beat, brutally rape and sodomize his wife. He then shot her in the face and had sex with the corpse before turning the gun on himself. The young and beautiful Dorothy Stratten - who had never wanted to pose nude or enter the world of Playboy - who really wanted nothing more than to love and be loved in return was gone at the age of twenty.
Playboy and Hefner had been leaving messages for Dorothy all day. By evening when Bogdanovich had not heard from her he became worried. At 11:45pm when his phone rang he thought for sure it was Dorothy calling him to say that she had been delayed in the desert. Instead it was Hugh Hefner calling with the terrible news that Dorothy was dead. Bogdanovich predictably collapsed. The movie They All Laughed was not released until almost a year after Dorothy's tragic death. While the movie and Dorothy herself received some good notices, it received only a lukewarm response at the box office. The director bought back the film from Time-Life for the sum of 2.8M and redistributed it himself. The commercial failure bankrupted him. Two movies were made about the playmate. In 1981 a made for television movie aired on NBC with Jamie Lee Curtis playing Dorothy. In 1983 Bob Fosse directed Star 80 which got it's name from the personalized plates on the Mercedes that Dorothy had given to Snider. In 1984 Peter Bogdanovich wrote The Killing of the Unicorn, a chronicle of the events leading up to the murder. In it he placed much of the blame for what went wrong in the final days of Dorothy's life on Hugh Hefner. Singer Bryan Adams, himself also from Canada's west coast, penned two songs about Dorothy. Cover Girl became a hit for Prism in 1980 and The Best Was Yet To Come appeared on his own 1983 album Cuts Like A Knife.
Peter Bogdanovich went on to direct Cher in the 1985 hit Mask but his flops would by far outnumber his hits. In a bizarre twist he married Dorothy's younger sister Louise in 1988. He was forty-nine and she was twenty. They divorced in 2001. Paul Snider's family fought hard for whatever they could get. His father ended up with the Star 80 Mercedes.
Dorothy Stratten is buried in the Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles just a few yards away from a playmate from another era, Marilyn Monroe.
Peg Entwistle (1908-1932)
The Hollywood Sign Girl
Lillian Millicent Entwistle or "Peg" as she came to be known by was born in Wales on February 6, 1908. Her mother died while Peg was very young and, in 1922, she moved across the ocean to New York City with her father. Tragedy would strike again when Peg's father was killed in an auto accident.
Peg left New York for Boston and picked up some valuable acting experience as part of an acting troupe. This helped her land a few minor roles on Broadway. She appeared in plays such as Getting Married with Dorothy Gish and Alice Sit by the Fire with Laurette Taylor. In 1927 Peg met and married struggling actor Robert Keith and became stepmom to his young son Brian. The union was not a happy one with Peg (not exactly wealthy herself) paying her husband's alimony just to keep him out of jail. They would divorce in 1930. Things were looking up, not only for Peg but for most of America. Broadway plays were drawing large audiences. Hollywood was flourishing as the silent film industry gave way to "talkies." Many Americans were driving automobiles and enjoying unparalleled prosperity. However the good times were not to last. The decade known as the Roaring Twenties, the decade of prosperity and excess, would come to a screeching halt when the stock market crashed on October 2, 1929. The decade that came to be known as the Dirty Thirties would follow and usher in the period in history that would be known as the Great Depression.
Many people lost everything they had when the market crashed. It was all that many could do just to put food on the table. Just about the last thing on people's minds was scraping up enough money to go out to a Broadway play. Despite all of this Peg still won some roles. She acted in seven more plays. All were commercial flops with the blame being put on the economic woes of the time. With the roles on Broadway drying up and with her marriage behind her there was not much reason to remain in New York. Peg decided to head west and give Hollywood a try. She moved into the Hollywood Studio Club which was a place for young actresses to stay while they looked for work. With her money quickly running out she decided to move in with her Uncle Harold on Beachwood Drive.
Peg continued to look for work and secured a role in a new play but it only lasted a few weeks. The Mad Hopes was mostly notable for starring a pre-fame Humphrey Bogart. At least the role paved the way for Peg to be signed by RKO Pictures to appear in the new film Thirteen Women. Even though the film had star power (Irene Dunne and Myrna Loy), and was being produced by Hollywood mogul David O. Selznick, it still turned out to be a flop. When the film did poorly in test markets the studio cut fourteen minutes of the original seventy-three minutes out of the film. Unfortunately many of Peg's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor drastically reducing her screen time. With the failure of Thirteen Women and the Great Depression nipping at the studios heels, RKO did not renew Peg's contract. Peg began to drink more and slipped into a deep depression. She posed topless to support herself. When Thirteen Women was released on September 16, 1932 Peg was not even invited to the premiere. She spent that evening drinking and then told her uncle that she was going to walk down to the drugstore. Peg then walked past the drugstore to the end of Beachwood Drive and then climbed all the way up the hill to the Hollywood sign which, in 1932, was the Hollywoodland sign. There was a construction workers ladder leaning up against the back of the H. Peg took off her coat and folded it neatly leaving it along with her purse on the ground at the bottom of the H. Peg then climbed the ladder to the top of the H and jumped. She was not found until two days later when the LAPD received an anonymous call. The caller told the police that he had been hiking near the sign when he saw a shoe. When he looked further down the hill he saw the body. He went on to say that he did not want any publicity so he wrapped up the coat, purse and shoes and left them on the steps of the Hollywood Police Station. Peg had left a note in her purse that read..."I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago it would have saved a lot of pain. P.E." The note was printed in the Los Angeles Times with the hope that someone might recognize the note. Peg's Uncle Harold recognized the initials and identified Peg.
Since Peg's suicide many people hiking near the Hollywood sign have reportedly seen an attractive blonde dressed in 1930's era clothing. She always seems very sad and simply vanishes when anyone gets close. Others have said that there is a strong scent of gardenias. Gardenia perfume was known to be Peg's favorite. Coincidence? In an ironic twist a letter was received by Peg's Uncle Harold offering her a role in a new play. The Beverly Hills Playhouse wanted Peg to star in a play about a woman who was driven to commit suicide. The letter was delivered one day after Peg's death.
Peg's ex husband Robert Keith went on to become a successful character actor in the 1940's and 50's. The six year old son that Peg was stepmom to for several years was Brian Keith who starred in the television series Family Affair from 1966-71 and in Hardcastle and McCormick from 1983-86. In 1997, while in failing health and mourning the suicide of his own daughter ten days, earlier Brian Keith shot himself.
Peg Entwistle was only twenty-four years old when she took her own life. She was cremated and her ashes are buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Glendale, Ohio.
Rebecca Schaeffer (1967-1989)
Dial DMV for Murder
Rebecca Schaeffer was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. She knew from an early age what she wanted to do and when she turned sixteen she left the stability of her home and family life and set out alone for New York City in search of a career in modeling. The success came early and four months later Rebecca found herself on a modeling assignment in Japan. Things would only get better from there. In 1986 Hollywood beckoned and Rebecca appeared in an episode of Steven Spielberg's television series Amazing Stories. Not long after this she got her first big break and landed the role opposite Pam Dawber in the television sitcom My Sister Sam.
In Tucson, Arizona a sixteen year old male began to take notice. Robert John Bardo, the child of an air force officer, had already been sending a plethora of letters to the likes of Dyan Cannon, Tiffany and Madonna. His attempts to get closer to these celebrities always failed. He now began to turn his attention to Rebecca. His bedroom became a shrine for her. He began writing letters to her and, unfortunately, one day Rebecca wrote one back. It was just a generic letter thanking him for his interest. She enclosed a signed publicity photo. This must have spurred Bardo on as twice he attempted to visit Rebecca at the Warner Brothers studio where she was filming the sitcom My Sister Sam. Both times he was denied access to the set.
The world must have seemed pretty good to Rebecca on the morning of July 18, 1989. It couldn't have seemed all that long ago that she had left Portland as a sixteen year old to find her way in the world. Now, barely five years later, she had become a successful model, was starring in a new television sitcom, had a nice new apartment in Hollywood and was dating a director, Brad Silberling. Now, on this summer morning in LA she was excited as she had an important audition for a part in Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather III. The future did indeed look bright for Rebecca but on this day fate would intervene.
Back in Tucson Robert John Bardo, who was now nineteen years old had hired a private investigator and given him only one job to do...find Rebecca Schaeffer's home address. He paid the investigator $250 and in very short order received the information he was looking for. One call to the California Department of Motor Vehicles was all it took. On the morning of July 18, while Rebecca was at home preparing fo her audition, Bardo calmly walked up to her door and rang the bell. Rebecca answered the door herself, shook Bardo's hand and then closed the door on him. Bardo was stung. He apparently had thought that he had made some kind of connection with Rebecca through his letters. He had brought a brown bag with him. In it were copies of all the letters he had written her, the signed photo that she had sent him, a paperback copy of The Catcher in the Rye and a handgun. Bardo retreated to a nearby restaurant to collect his thoughts. He went to the men's room to load the handgun. He then walked back to Rebecca's and once again rang the bell. When she came down and answered the door again Bardo made a gesture indicating that he wanted to give her something. When she opened the door Bardo pulled out his gun and fired point blank into her heart. Rebecca was able to utter one word, "why?" and then collapsed. She died on the way to hospital.
Bardo left the scene and made his way back to Tuscon where he was arrested the next day after a tip from his sister. He was brought back to LA where he waived his right to a jury trial meaning simply that his fate would be determined by a judge once all of the evidence had been presented. Bardo's lawyers hired Park Dietz, a well known psychiatrist, to back their claim of mental deficiency. They hoped to show that Bardo was incapable of premeditation. Dietz interviewed Bardo at length and videotaped the results which included Bardo re-enacting the crime. Bardo and his lawyers had claimed that while he was looking for something in his brown bag Rebecca had seen the gun and tried to grab it at which time the gun accidentally went off killing Rebecca.
The prosecuting attorney was Marcia Clark who was still several years away from becoming a household name herself in the State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson trial. After several viewings of the re-enactment Clark knew she had him. During the re-enactment Bardo is holding his right arm behind his back. He then draws his hand out and points the gun. No struggle for the gun. The judge promptly sentenced Bardo to life without parole. Bardo has since stated that it was the "immorality" of the sex scene that Rebecca had in the movie Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills that drove him to the murder. Another time he has said that Rebecca was rude to him when she opened the door. The murder was eerily similar to that of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman in 1980. Both had seen their victim earlier in the day and both were carrying copies of J.D. Salinger's book The Catcher in the Rye.
As a result of Rebecca's murder the state of California has passed several anti stalking laws including the Driver's Privacy Protection Act which prohibits the DMV from releasing personal information. Brad Silberling went on to make a movie loosely based on the murder and it's effect on him. Originally to be titled Baby's in Black he changed the name when he could not secure the rights to that song by the Beatles. The movie became Moonlight Mile which was named for a lesser known song by the Stones. Brad went on to marry Amy Brenneman of tv's Judging Amy fame. Robert John Bardo continues to serve out his life sentence.
Rebecca Schaeffer's final movie was released after her death and was ironically titled The End of Innocence. Rebecca is buried in her hometown of Portand, Oregon.
A promo that we used in April 2014 on Facebook.
Hollywood reached 3,000 in sales in the Amazon Kindle Stores in March 2014. It has been a bit of a rebirth since the major problems with the original print book. Live and learn.