Nowadays, it feels like Hollywood scandals are a dime a dozen. What famous figure hasn't had a compromising photo leaked? Who hasn't had the paparazzi catch them in the wrong place at the wrong time?
Once upon a time, these scandals were unheard of. In fact, until Mary Astor came along, they were unprecedented. It was 1936 when Mary became the center of Hollywood's first sex scandal after her divorce took a nasty turn.
Mary was married to Franklyn Thorpe in 1931. Their marriage soured after just two years, due in part to Thorpe's temper. Mary told him she wanted a divorce in 1933. Thorpe wouldn't file until 1935 and proceeded to use the salacious details of Mary's diaries against her in the custody battle over their then 4-year-old daughter, Marylyn.
By 1933, Mary Astor's marriage to Franklyn Thorpe was basically over. Both had cheated during their relationship. In her diary, Mary wrote," I don't love Franklyn any more … I am unhappy and bored with him."
"Our life was a series of explosions, usually over minor things," Mary wrote of the marriage in her autobiography, My Story.
"I began to talk divorce, and the talk was considerable."
In one of their uglier arguments, Franklyn decided to take the blue ledgers Mary used as her personal diaries.
In those diaries, Franklyn learned of Mary's affair with Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright George Kauffman. George was married to his wife of 20 years, but the two had an open marriage. Mary really fell for him.
"I am still in a haze; a nice rosy glow," she wrote.
"It's beautiful, glorious and I hope it’s my last love. I can’t top it with anything in my experience."
In the divorce, Franklyn made some serious demands from Mary. He wanted her to give him sole custody of Marylyn, half of the money from the sale of their family home, and control of her finances. If she didn't agree, Franklyn said he would release the diaries, filled with sordid details of her various romantic liaisons, ruining her career and her reputation.
He continued to wear Mary down, even after she caught the flu and was in very bad shape. She signed the divorce settlement simply to get some peace, a decision she'd quickly come to regret. For the first year after their divorce, every little disagreement led to Franklyn threatening Mary.
Mary would later reveal that Franklyn began abusing Marylyn during this time. "He'd shake her so hard her teeth rattled and bit her lips," she told the court.
"Then he'd spank her and there would be bruise marks on her little body."
Mary couldn't stand by while he abused her child, so she filed for full custody of Marylyn, telling the court that Franklyn was blackmailing her and accusing him of bigamy. She cited the common-law wife he had, whom he continued to see after their marriage.
The diaries quickly became the center of the couple's divorce and custody battle. George Kaufman was called to testify, but he wanted nothing to do with the media circus. A judge put out a bench warrant for his arrest. He jumped on a train to New York and was subsequently banned from Los Angeles. It would be dismissed later on in 1937.
As much as Mary's dirty laundry got aired, so did that of Franklyn. Affairs outside of his relationships with Mary and his common-law wife were revealed, including with showgirl Norma Taylor.
Franklyn denied it initially, until a photo of him and Norma was produced. Marylyn would later share the early memory of Norma smashing a window with a candlestick while drunk and chasing Franklyn around the house with a large fork.
Mary was powerless to stop the rumors around her. She was filming Dodsworth in 1936 when MGM producer Sam Goldwyn called her into his office. She walked in and found all the heads of the major movie studios were waiting for her, including Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner, and Harry Cohn.
They came together to tell Mary to give up the custody battle because the rumors were damaging the entire movie industry.
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but I will proceed with the case as my lawyer has advised me," she told them before walking out of the room.
When speaking in court, Mary would channel her Dodsworth character, Edith Cortright.
"[Edith] was a lot of things I would like to have been. She had complete confidence in herself and I had very little," Mary wrote.
"I was completely rattleproof, thanks to Edith Cortright. She was my shield."
The case fell apart when the judge ruled her diaries couldn't be admitted as evidence. Franklyn's attorney, in turn, leaked excerpts to the press. Mary was awarded custody of Marylyn 9 months of the year. The judge ruled the diaries were to be locked away until Marylyn was 21. The diaries were later destroyed, so the only contents we know are what Franklyn's lawyers leaked all those years ago.
