Girl 27: The Patricia Douglas Story (the biggest scandal from golden-era MGM studios)

Once upon a time a few years back, I stumbled across a gem of a documentary on Netflix. It was how MGM and Hollywood covered up the rape of an underage movie extra. In the days of the grand musicals, there were a lot of chorus girls and dancers; the vast majority of them young teenagers. All of them considered fair game by the men on set. Dressed in provocative costumes (designed by men), made to do inappropriate things if they wanted a job (casting directors asking girls to raise their skirts before groping them)... it was a toxic culture enabled by those running the studios.

Biographer David Stenn was researching Jean Harlow's death when he found several news articles talking about a scandal he never heard of; his editor gave him the greenlight to research the scandal, and that research turned into Girl 27. All the images in this post are screenshots of the documentary.

It opens with a Bible passage:

And then it begins.

In 1937, the height of the Great Depression, MGM made record sales with their films. To reward the salesmen who helped, MGM's head honcho, Louis B Meyer, threw a convention (aka "time to party wild" in 1937 parlance) and in doing so, set the wheel into motion.

There is archival footage of Meyer saying, "These lovely girls, and you'll have the finest of them...anything you want."

Here's the thing. Those girls roped into the convention didn't know they were to be served up to a couple hundred drunk men. Why would they? As far as they knew, they were to be extras in a musical. They were treated as though the studio's casting call was for a film. They needed over 100 girls, dressed alike (cowboy hat, suede skirt, cowboy boots, like this:)

and those girls thought they were going to be extras in a movie. They were taken to the Hal Roach Ranch (where Our Gang and Laurel and Hardy were filmed; it's not like they were shipped to the Ambassador Hotel's ballroom) barn, where there was FIVE HUNDRED cases of scotch for less than three hundred salesmen. Oh, and champagne. Lots of champagne.

Helping to "keep order" at this mega party were the LA Police, State Police, Culver City Police and MGM's own police force. None would report the rape of Patricia Douglas. None. That is because the studio owned everybody.

When Patricia Douglas tried to press charges, the odds were stacked against her. Those who worked with her in the past were given a questionaire designed to find fodder for character assassination. It was the mentality back then, if a girl wasn't a virgin, she was a tart. If the big R word was mentioned (rape) it was always followed with "she's a tart/slut/whore/tramp"... even if that girl was held down, forcibly intoxicated, dragged outside and raped by a man who felt entitled to her body.

Who am I kidding? That whole system was designed to entitle the powerful (or those granted power for a limited time) with anything they want.

Look at these costumes for musical numbers. Can you find the common theme? Also, keep in mind, those hired to be dancers didn't get to pick the costumes. They either wore them or got booted from the set. And in the Great Depression, getting a job as an extra in Hollywood was considered a windfall. You know, except for the open season on the dancers part. These girls were sexualized, hard. And that's a terrible commentary about our society right there.

The teeny-weeny Little Mermaid look:

And this "let's use skin tone colored fabric embellished with sequins to sexualize the dancer's body" :

Or how about this one? It's tame by comparison, while still being suggestive.

Patricia Douglas didn't want to be a star. She didn't want the spotlight. She just loved to dance. Getting paid to dance was a bonus.

Patricia Douglas as an extra

When Patricia Douglas went public with her experience, the studio hired Pinkerton Detectives to gather intel on Douglas.

The doctor who examined her after the assault? On MGM's payroll. A note from Hal Roach stated that the doctor treated Douglas for "GU" which means "genital urinary" aka sexually transmitted disease.

If she had STDs, that meant she was sexually active and thus a tramp and tramps can't be raped because they are asking for it by virtue of already having had sex. Even more shocking was that the doctor, before examining Patricia Douglas, gave her a douche, meaning removing evidence of the assault.

The man who raped her? Never served. NEVER SERVED despite the case going to the Federal level. Ponder that a moment.

The lawyer who took her case?

Louis B Meyer was his biggest donor.

The assault on her character no where near over, the local papers printed her picture, name and address.

There was one witness who at first corroborated Patricia Douglas' testimony. He heard her scream. But when it came to court, he couldn't remember what happened. For his part in keeping MGM's name out of the muck, he was given a lifetime job at the studio.

Newspapers also referred to MGM, the world's biggest movie studio at the time as "local film company" with none of the explicit detail as they had used on Patricia Douglas.

This demonstrates the demolition process still in use to keep those in power, in power.

The case? Dismissed due to lack of prosecution. As in, her lawyer didn't do his job-- well, not for her. He did as he was paid to do by MGM, and that is to make an issue into a non-issue. Her lawyer didn't show up to Federal Court on three occasions. Three. A deliberate action if there ever was one. It's malpractice.

Sadly, Patricia Douglas' own mother was in on it; as guardian of Patricia, it was her duty to put the spurs to the lawyer and raise a stink. She didn't. And for that, she was paid.

David Stenn wrote an article for Vanity Fair in 2003 about the case.

That same year, Patricia Douglas passed away, with justice still not served. Even more sad is that very system is still in place.