30-33 Summary and Analysis

Chapter thirty, "Peep Show Peccadillos," reveals more scandals of the movie era. The first is the 1948 suicide of Carole Landis, who could not recover from her unrequited love with Rex Harrison. Another details the arrest of Robert Mitchum in 1948 for the possession of marijuana. Mitchum served two months in jail but his career did not suffer. Anger also mentions in passing episodes involving Gertrude Michael, Walter Wanger, and expatriate Ingrid Bergman.

Chapter thirty-one, "Con Game," relays the movie industry's love affair with sex for hire. In 1951, famed madam Billy Bennett's house in the Hollywood Hills was raided and her ledger full of famous names was confiscated. The guilty scurried away like rats and after a while, the studios managed to hush up the whole situation, permitting its actors to come back to town.

In 1952, Confidential hit the newsstands for the first...