From the desk of Roland Rocchiccioli – 3 October

The death of actress Jane Powell, who starred in the screen musical, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, set me to thinking about Hollywood, and various movie stars whom I came to know over the years, and who are no longer with us.

WHEN first I went to Hollywood I had only a couple of contacts with whom I held a professional association. I was surprised how quickly that changed.

Hollywood was said to be unwelcoming of strangers. I found it quite the opposite.

Debbie Reynolds and Phyllis Diller, both of whom knew everyone, were particularly willing to introduce me around. Both of them became life-long friends. In a matter of days I was being invited to parties and to homes for dinner – which is not something which happens a lot in Hollywood.

I came to know, amongst others, Lana Turner, the Gabor sisters, Joan Fontaine, June Allyson, Janet Leigh, James Cockburn, Grace Kelly, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, and Yvonne De Carlo, once described as the most beautiful girl in the world, and whose husband, stuntman Bob Morgan, accidentally lost a leg while filming How The West Was Won!

I was there at the end of the golden weather. The studio system had all but disappeared; stars were no longer under long-term permanent contracts and there was an air of indecision. Older actors were unsure.

In the late 1950s the public interest in musicals waned and studios stopped making them. Many singing and dancing stars found themselves out-of-work and they took to the cabaret circuit. Debbie Reynolds, Jane Powell, Shirley Jones, Mitzi Gaynor, Cyd Charisse, Ginger Rogers and Judy Garland became headliners in Las Vegas, and around the world, doing their shows.

The demise of the studio system stymied the careers of many actors. Under the studio contract arrangement they worked constantly. They never thought about competition – except from the younger, up-and-coming future stars. It was a euphoric time. MGM claimed to have more stars than in the universe! The more they were given, the more they demanded.

Ludicrously, when the film industry began the US Tax Department did not consider movie acting to be a proper taxable profession; consequently, film stars like Gloria Swanson, and the erstwhile husband-and-wife team, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, accumulated incredible wealth. Many of them built incredibly grandiose houses on Sunset Boulevard, and in Beverly Hills. Pickfair – the Pickford/Fairbanks home – became one of the most celebrated houses in the world.

The Hollywood stars held a mysterious fascination for everyone. The flickering images projected onto the silver screen were totally removed reality and transported audiences to an enchanting land of make-believe. With smoke, mirrors, and lights the Hollywood dream-machine conjured-up unattainable, erotic images of desire, and made sex symbols of women and men. It built extraordinary careers, and destroyed them with the same degree of indifference.

Hollywood had a darker, less agreeable aspect.

The financial rewards of success were mindboggling. Aspiring men and women were willing to do whatever it took to attain stardom. There was an unspoken, sexual barter system: “I’ll give you want you want, if you give me what I want!”  One famous film and television star said, “If you have to sleep with someone, it might as well be with someone who can do you some good!”

Actress Shelley Winters was cautioned about a lecherous producer with a reputation for ripping-off dresses of young starlets when they called to see him looking for a job. She said, “So, I’ll wear an old dress!”

Joseph Kennedy, father of assassinated President John F Kennedy and with whom Gloria Swanson divulged she enjoyed a two-year romantic dalliance while married to her third husband, gifted her a splendid house in Englewood, New Jersey, across the Washington Bridge from mid-town New York. Years later it sold for $30 million.

Those who experienced the Golden Days of Hollywood, with all its glittering dreams, will never forget.

Roland can be heard with Brett Macdonald each Monday, 10.45am Radio 3BA and contacted via [email protected].