Customer Reviews

Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, "America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine"

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With today's stars fighting for time on the TV talk show couches to capitalize on the skeletons they've unleashed from their own closets, hard to believe there was once a time when celebs cowered over the innocuous tidbits that for several years made Confidential the most notorious magazine in the country. But practically anyone remotely interested in celebrity journalism history and/or Hollywood pop culture of the Fifties is already well aware of the mag's lurid backstory, which was actually a lot more interesting than most of its "exposes" (in reality, often little more than smarmily-worded anecdotes, many of them excerpted here).

Kenneth Anger handily recapped Confidential's history in Hollywood Babylon 35 years ago and in the years since there have been any number of magazine articles, chapters in Hollywood tell-alls and at least one other entire book mining the same subject. As such, this is a well-researched read for the presumably very few scandal mag buffs who've somehow never heard of Confidential. But the real audience for this book (schlock culture buffs who are already very familiar with Confidential's skanky past) is bound to be disappointed--despite his best efforts, author has come up empty while digging around for much significant new dirt on this famously sleazy rag.

An index, references, several rarely-seen photos of the principals and great cover design are a plus, though.

The book was engaging if not a bit redundant at times. Also it's comprised of many other books' information and the references at the back indicated this.

But one of the more enjoyable parts was finding out that "America's Sweetheart" back in the day was a trashed-out homewrecker. (You'll have to read it to find out who it was). Bottom line: if you like gossip, and you like "karma-blowback", then you'll like The Shocking True Story!

Before National Enquirer, Star, People, and other celebrity-driven tabloids there was the granddaddy of them all, Confidential. Purveying to the prurient nature in people with a mix of innuendo, lurid details, gossip, and splashy headlines, Confidential was THE dishy magazine to read in the 1940s through the 1960s. Scott traces the magazine's trajectory, from its rise in the postwar era of the early 1950s, its meteoric rise in the late 1950s as the studio system's power began to wane, and its inevitable wane in the 1960s as the countercultural revolution took hold, changing societal norms. At its peak the mere whiff that Confidential was about to publish an expose was enough to end careers. Initially the studios and stars were reluctant to fight back; Confidential had overnight changed the paradigm that existed where media served the studios and the stars, now the tables were turned. Along the way Confidential garnered major scoops, like Desi Arnez's affair that ended his marriage to Lucille Ball. The uncovered other stories such as Rock Hudson's and Tab Hunter's homosexuality; stories that wound up being buried as studios provided other equally salacious stories as sacrificial lambs to the power that was Confidential. As Scott points out, history has proven that many of the stories Confidential printed turned out to be true, proof of the undoing of the cozy relationship between the studios and the media that existed before that time.

But eventually Confidential got sloppy on its fact checking, and as it turned out, they could be bought off. Studios lost their fear of Confidential and stars started to contest stories as Confidential started to play fast and loose. Their conversion to Red-baiting at the height of the Cold War undoubtedly turned off some readers, while also garnering new fans. "Shocking True Story" winds up at times being just as dishy and gossipy as an old edition of Confidential and many of the stories explored here are ones that have been picked over in other biographies and elsewhere resulting in a "heard it all before" feel. While "Shocking True Story" will certainly have an appeal to certain audiences, it's not clear that it would have a very wide appeal. Certainly Confidential was the template for the many tabloid style newspapers and magazines that would follow in its wake and it would have been far more interesting had it explored how Confidential lead to its imitators and how little removed they are even today. A light and lively read, "Shocking True Story" unfortunately leaves as little impression as a week old "National Enquirer". Like a photograph from a bygone era, it's a nice glimpse back, but often with little depth.

While CONFIDENTIAL was not a textbook example of good journalism, it was pretty interesting for its time. A forerunner of today's tabloids, it was the first publication that bucked movie and personality magazines that saturated the newstands with 'happy' stories that were fashioned by the movie studios to promote their personalities in a very favorable light. One might say that Confidential's primary function was to buck the studios and tell the most salacious truths to a scandal hungry public willing to plunk down a quarter. During its heyday, Confidential managed to make a lot of $ while pandering to the public's baser instincts.
While the book's title is fairly ridiculous and implies a lot of silliness, the story of Confidential can be pretty serious at times. It came out of nowhere and exerted a lot of force against the movie studios. In its prime, it could decimate a career. It made celebrities and politicians squirm. At times, things got so bad that studios would sell out one celebrity to save another who was deemed more 'bankable'. Confidential played on the country's greatest fears (communism, homosexuality, promiscuity) and managed to do fairly well for a time until the magazine fell victim to its own meteoric success. Articles were published without verification of facts, stories were manufactured, and the victims began suing the magazine for libel.
The author Henry Scott has done a credible job in telling the story of Confidential's meteoric rise and rapid freefall. Rich in detail, I was amazed at the sheer number of potentially damaging stories published by Confidential that fell into oblivion almost as quickly as the magazine. Included in that eventual oblivion was publisher Robert Harrison who masterminded the magazine and Howard Rushmore its most influential editor.
This was a very interesting read. I'm glad Scott managed to assemble this story before it, like Confidential, was completely forgotten.

Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, "America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine" provides the true story behind the scenes of Confidential, studying the social and political impact of the scandal magazine and its major challenges. From private eyes and informants paid by the magazine to lawyers and investigators who worked to vet the articles, this colorful expose comes packed with vintage black and white photos throughout. Any general library will find it eye-catching and a fun lend.

A fascinating study of how an eccentric publisher lifted the veil and revealed the truth behind some of Hollywood's beloved stars in the 50s. "Confidential" ruthlessly ended Hollywood's ability to sustain the false images it created. The battle between "Confidential" and Hollywood was epic and its impact continues to be felt. Its impossible to read this book without reflecting on current scandals. "Confidential" was eventually defeated but it emboldened others to follow its lead into a new age of journalism which cannot be stopped.

Shocking True Story, by Henry E. Scott

Henry E. Scott is a former journalist from North Carolina and is now a media consultant. [Advertising?] This book lists its 25 chapters in `Contents', pictures in `Illustrations', page references in `Notes', and has an `Index' and `Bibliography'. The `Acknowledgments' tell how the reading of James Ellroy's `L.A. Confidential' inspired him to write this fast-reading book of 189 pages. [I wonder what was left out given its five years of weekly publishing?] This tells what interested America in the mid-1950s. Some readers can contrast this book to the current weeklies used to amuse and distract America today. What has changed? People like to read about the scandals that make them feel superior to the rich and famous, and know the politicians in Washington and state capitals are just as bad (if not publicized). At times a governor or congressman is caught. Most people don't know these scandals in government go back to the early days when Alexander Hamilton was caught using Treasury funds to pay off the husband of his girlfriend. Censorship bans this and other facts from the Official History taught in schoolbooks. "A pack of tricks played upon the dead?"

`Confidential' was published in New York city, the publishing, advertising, and media capital of America. It was an adult publication unavailable to teenagers and kept off the magazine racks in stores. These chapters provide a summary by example. Hollywood was then in decline, national magazines still prosperous, and television on its way to become the main market for corporate advertising. Will anyone do to the corporate media what `Confidential' did to Hollywood? Imagine if a film star then was caught with Oxycontin and Viagra like a famous radio personality! Are the stars of TV different in moral character from 1950s Hollywood?

Robert Harrison protected against libel suits by fact-checking and sworn affidavits, and also by printing less than they knew (p.40). Accuracy was the selling point, most stories were true. [How does that compare to the gossip on `talk radio'?] There's a reason scandal magazines usually avoid politicians: they can lose their second-class postal permits (p.65). The stories were mostly true, they often hinted or suggested without actually stating a fact (p.71). `Confidential' warned its readers about filter cigarettes and other consumer products (Chapter 12). Remember Clark Gable (Chapter 13)? Are there special powers in a cold cereal (Chapter 20)? Are the scandal magazines "a national disgrace" (p.158)? California prosecuted them for libel and obscenity (Chapter 23). Would the anonymous informants be exposed (p.172)? Howard Rushmore revealed the secrets (p.173), some lost their jobs (p.176). Hollywood organized to fight scandal magazines (p.183). This court case damaged `Confidential' financially (p.187). A settlement was negotiated so there would be no more exposés of movie stars. People stopped buying the magazine and Harrison sold it (p.188). Howard Rushmore killed his wife and himself in a taxi cab.

`Confidential' was the first national scandal magazine. There were others, but they were local weeklies: "Minnesota Rag" by Fred Friendly, a fictional weekly in "The Case of the Velvet Claws". They would find stories and could gain advertising dollars from people who would expect the stories would be suppressed. [Don't your local newspapers do this?] Around 1967 the nation's grocery stores began carrying the current weeklies. Most people don't know that the press freedom we take for granted today only existed since the 1950s. This would be a better book if it contained more material from that magazine, and included some of its advertising. Upton Sinclair's "The Brass Check" tells about the muckraking magazines from the early 20th century. What if a former member of the CIA used a loan from one of New York's Five Families to start a national scandal weekly? Could they put it in all the nation's grocery stores as a distraction from economics and politics?

This recent book does a reasonably good job of covering the rise and fall of "Confidential" magazine, which was a prototype scandal sheet that, as the author writes, could probably only have happened with the weakened Hollywood studio system of the 1950s. Before that, there were "fan magazines" and gossip columnists who worked with the big film studios/executives, not against them. The author gives correct historical context: a post-war Hollywood wounded by television, anti-trust legislation, and the increasing independence of its stars (a mixed blessing, according to them); the Cold War, which provided "Confidential" with some of its most blatant stories (the U.S. government included gays in its anti-red "housecleaning"), though "Confidential's" publisher, Robert Harrison, was more mercenary than political. He was, briefly, one of the U.S.'s richest publishers, thanks to a paranoid public also fascinated with the private lives of the rich and (in)famous. Though the magazine specialized in slap-and-tickle, it did some genuine investigative journalism: a story on a mob-originating con pulled on Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson. When Harrison sold "Confidential" in the late 1950s, it had peaked as a source of scandal, but its legacy continues: "National Enquirer," etc. If this book has any weakeness, it is its brevity. Though dealing with racy journalism, the author could have given even more historical context without being windy. In sum, a good book on an interesting cultural phenomenen that proves a perennial point: sex sells, and sex and sin sells best.

I listened to the author interviewed in my car just on the way to the grocery, then waited in the checkout line browsing the latest "celebrity swimsuit disasters" issue of the Enquirer. Knocking down celebs has always been our true pastime, and although gossip now travels faster on the web than it did when Hollywood Confidential was being published, it still makes for good reading, as does this book. I always pick up old issues when I see them in flea markets. The author does us a service by sharing the story behind the rag. Buy.
Jim Linderman "Dull Tool Dim Bulb" and "Vintage Sleaze"

I found this book extremely interesting. I had never heard of the tabloid Confidential before and didn't know of it's influence on today's tabloids. This book is basically the story of the rise and fall of Confidential and its two founders. It's worth your time to read.