Judy Garland, Betty Davis, Lana Turner, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Loretta Young and Lupe Velez The secret morality clause of old Hollywood and how the forced them to have abortions.
So the studio forced Joan Crawford to abort her pregnancy and told Loretta Young she would have to adopt her own child. Why didn't they force Clark Gable to have a vasectomy? He seemed to be the problem. Not the two ladies.
To be fair, in the time before birth control in the 70s, unwanted pregnency was pretty common and it was handled in 1 of 3 ways: abortion, long visits to 'an aunt in another state', or shotgun weddings. People who had the money then usually had abortions. It is the same now, after Dodds. People with money to travel to another state get the abortions. People who could not afford a child also cannot afford to travel. The actress's morality contract with a movie studio was more about creepy old men getting in your business than it was a deciding factor.
Outrageous! Another pitiful example of male control over women, their careers and lives at the mercy of greedy filmmakers who want to get all they can out of them - risking mental and physical health in the process. 😱
So tragic. I do (vaguely) recall that this was "just the way things were" - even dribbling a little into my lifetime. I want to say "We've come so far!" but somehow it feels hollow right now. Don't wanna go there... In any case, excellent and informative video. Bummer subject-matter (with many surprises), but very well-done. Thank you!
Absolutely correct. These women did have a choice, and obviously all of them valued their career more than they did the embryo they were carrying. There can be other cases in which the women would carry the pregnancy to term if circumstances were different---if the men who had impregnated them would marry them, or if they had more money. There are other careers in which a contract doesn't forbid unwed childbirth but which childbirth would still have a deleterious effect upon. There are all sorts of circumstances which make childbirth catastrophic, and which cause women to make the choice to have an abortion. That's their right and it's silly to say they were "forced into" having an abortion.
@@jn8ive60 No, they weren't forced to have an abortion. They were coerced, not too far removed. You set yourself as judge, jury, and executioner of these actresses. You can play armchair judge 80-90 years after the facts presented here. Were women who wanted careers during the 1930's and 1940's encouraged to do so or were they told that their place was in the home. Actresses were at the mercy of the film studios that hired them. The studio heads could make their careers or tarnish their reputations forever. During the Great Depression and the war years, where were these women (most of whom had never had other jobs than performers going to fulfill their aspirations for a career? Also, several of the women spotlighted here WERE married or were engaged but their spouses and mothers pressured them to have abortions because these family members were on the stars; "gravy trains". With the knowledge you would've had ca. 1939, wanting a career, and supporting your family, what would you have done? Remember: many of these women were married or engaged, hoping to have families but nixed on that by the studios. Judy Garland and Bette Davis were married women who had abortions almost forcibly.
@@caraqueno The tone of your post indicates that you believe, quite mistakenly I must add, that I am anti choice. I assure you, I am not. And nothing I said was meant to imply that I am judging these women negatively for having abortions. I most emphatically am not. "Judge, jury, and executioner"? Where did that come from? I just don't believe that to give into pressure is to be "coerced". One always has the choice to refuse to give into pressure. As far as these actress's careers go, I was drawing a parallel with many more ordinary women of today. Childbirth can have a deleterious effect on many careers, as I already said, and many women must make the choice between childbirth and a ruined career. My point was that, if these more ordinary women of today choose abortion because they don't want to damage or ruin their careers, do we then say that they were "forced" or "coerced" into having abortions? No, we say they made a choice. So why are we saying these Golden Age actresses were "forced" or "coerced" when what they did was make the same choice? Mostly, though, I'm astounded that somehow you misconstrued my post as anti-choice and judgemental, particularly when my last sentence contained the words "That's their right".
@@caraqueno I'd like to mention that my motivation in making the above post was that this video reminded me of the belief, popular among the anti-choice crowd, that it's common for women to be forced or coerced into having abortions that they don't want and it's common for women who have had abortions to be tortured by guilt and regret. Neither is common. This video, although it does not explicitly take a stand against choice, I believe is pandering to that mindset. After all, what percentage of women were ever Golden Age of Hollywood actresses? What percentage of women ever had a career which involved a contract stating that they couldn't get pregnant? Such a small percentage that is it really worth getting worked up over? What was really the point of this? Other than to stir up anti-choice emotion?
@@jn8ive60 "I just don't believe that to give into pressure is to be 'coerced'. One always has the choice to refuse to give into pressure." You never felt coerced, doing something that didn't feel right but you had tremendous pressure to do it? You are made of very strong stuff then. For the reasons I gave and in a multitude of scenarios, free will does exist but, even, the strongest-willed of us can succumb to strong emotional and psychological forces. I realize that your intention was not to judge the actresses but your argument is facile, easy to say when you yourself have never been in the position that they were or you wouldn't think that way. I'm a man and I can only imagine the pressures they were under, in the time period they lived in, with the mores as they were and the social and economic punishments meted out to people then for not following the mores and prescribed gender roles of the 1930's and 1940's. What would I have done? What would you have done?
And forcing a woman NOT to have an abortion is just as bad. Also, your words indicate that Joan Crawford had an abortion because she wanted to, not because she was forced or pressured to. And nothing you said indicated that Lana Turner was forced into the abortion, either.
Both Joan and Lana knew the unspoken rules of the studio system. If they wanted to keep their jobs they had to do what the studio wanted. Just because a person is not kidnapped, tied down, etc. does not mean that they weren't COERCED
@@here_we_go_again2571 And just because those were the rules does not mean that every actress who had an abortion was forced. I do not believe any of them were forced unless they specifically said so. Bette Davis had an abortion during the early years of the studio system, and she always said that having the abortion was the best thing she could have done. Countless women have had abortions of their own free will and had no regrets. There is no reason that that could not be true of Golden Age actresses as well.
@@here_we_go_again2571 Some valued their career over allowing a non-human embryo or fetus to use their bodies against their will to develop into a human, yes, and the same happens in this day and age.
@@jn8ive60 The fact is that the studios, "Dr. Killer" and the stars involved were violating the law of California. Is the embryo/fetus a human fully human --> That is the conundrum that will be discussed when each state legislates regarding abortion AND various state's laws are challenged. We have more medical knowledge than in 1979. The personhood of the embryo/fetus is going to be discussed. That is just the way it is. Law is a convoluted mechanism that is designed to prevent the imposition of rash decisions upon the population.
This makes me feel absolutely sick.
Yeah especially the Lana Turner one
So the studio forced Joan Crawford to abort her pregnancy and told Loretta Young she would have to adopt her own child. Why didn't they force Clark Gable to have a vasectomy? He seemed to be the problem. Not the two ladies.
I'd say he could have done without his testes, since he was forcing people to suffer for his fun.
There's nothing like old school misogyny.
or new school misogyny, where a man who has a sex change operation is awarded woman of the year. A man can be a better woman than a woman.
To be fair, in the time before birth control in the 70s, unwanted pregnency was pretty common and it was handled in 1 of 3 ways: abortion, long visits to 'an aunt in another state', or shotgun weddings. People who had the money then usually had abortions. It is the same now, after Dodds. People with money to travel to another state get the abortions. People who could not afford a child also cannot afford to travel. The actress's morality contract with a movie studio was more about creepy old men getting in your business than it was a deciding factor.
Absolutely heartbreaking 💔
So sad.😞
So, so, so sad :(
Horrendous!
Abortion is horrendous!
That is why it should be
used ONLY when the
mother's life is at stake!
Heartbreaking 💔
My God. Horrific.
Abortion is horrendous!
That is why it should be
used ONLY when the
mother's life is at stake!
The studio system was a form of high-income serfdom.
Outrageous! Another pitiful example of male control over women, their careers and lives at the mercy of greedy filmmakers who want to get all they can out of them - risking mental and physical health in the process. 😱
Pretty sad they had to do this to these people Judy Garland was such a great actor she deserve to have that little bit of freedom
So tragic. I do (vaguely) recall that this was "just the way things were" - even dribbling a little into my lifetime.
I want to say "We've come so far!" but somehow it feels hollow right now. Don't wanna go there...
In any case, excellent and informative video. Bummer subject-matter (with many surprises), but very well-done. Thank you!
They couldn't really, "force," anyone. It was a choice to sign, the, "contract," and a choice to break the contract, if they wanted to do that.
Absolutely correct. These women did have a choice, and obviously all of them valued their career more than they did the embryo they were carrying. There can be other cases in which the women would carry the pregnancy to term if circumstances were different---if the men who had impregnated them would marry them, or if they had more money. There are other careers in which a contract doesn't forbid unwed childbirth but which childbirth would still have a deleterious effect upon. There are all sorts of circumstances which make childbirth catastrophic, and which cause women to make the choice to have an abortion. That's their right and it's silly to say they were "forced into" having an abortion.
@@jn8ive60 No, they weren't forced to have an abortion. They were coerced, not too far removed. You set yourself as judge, jury, and executioner of these actresses. You can play armchair judge 80-90 years after the facts presented here. Were women who wanted careers during the 1930's and 1940's encouraged to do so or were they told that their place was in the home. Actresses were at the mercy of the film studios that hired them. The studio heads could make their careers or tarnish their reputations forever. During the Great Depression and the war years, where were these women (most of whom had never had other jobs than performers going to fulfill their aspirations for a career? Also, several of the women spotlighted here WERE married or were engaged but their spouses and mothers pressured them to have abortions because these family members were on the stars; "gravy trains". With the knowledge you would've had ca. 1939, wanting a career, and supporting your family, what would you have done? Remember: many of these women were married or engaged, hoping to have families but nixed on that by the studios. Judy Garland and Bette Davis were married women who had abortions almost forcibly.
@@caraqueno The tone of your post indicates that you believe, quite mistakenly I must add, that I am anti choice. I assure you, I am not. And nothing I said was meant to imply that I am judging these women negatively for having abortions. I most emphatically am not. "Judge, jury, and executioner"? Where did that come from?
I just don't believe that to give into pressure is to be "coerced". One always has the choice to refuse to give into pressure.
As far as these actress's careers go, I was drawing a parallel with many more ordinary women of today. Childbirth can have a deleterious effect on many careers, as I already said, and many women must make the choice between childbirth and a ruined career. My point was that, if these more ordinary women of today choose abortion because they don't want to damage or ruin their careers, do we then say that they were "forced" or "coerced" into having abortions? No, we say they made a choice. So why are we saying these Golden Age actresses were "forced" or "coerced" when what they did was make the same choice?
Mostly, though, I'm astounded that somehow you misconstrued my post as anti-choice and judgemental, particularly when my last sentence contained the words "That's their right".
@@caraqueno I'd like to mention that my motivation in making the above post was that this video reminded me of the belief, popular among the anti-choice crowd, that it's common for women to be forced or coerced into having abortions that they don't want and it's common for women who have had abortions to be tortured by guilt and regret. Neither is common.
This video, although it does not explicitly take a stand against choice, I believe is pandering to that mindset. After all, what percentage of women were ever Golden Age of Hollywood actresses? What percentage of women ever had a career which involved a contract stating that they couldn't get pregnant? Such a small percentage that is it really worth getting worked up over? What was really the point of this? Other than to stir up anti-choice emotion?
@@jn8ive60 "I just don't believe that to give into pressure is to be 'coerced'. One always has the choice to refuse to give into pressure." You never felt coerced, doing something that didn't feel right but you had tremendous pressure to do it? You are made of very strong stuff then. For the reasons I gave and in a multitude of scenarios, free will does exist but, even, the strongest-willed of us can succumb to strong emotional and psychological forces. I realize that your intention was not to judge the actresses but your argument is facile, easy to say when you yourself have never been in the position that they were or you wouldn't think that way. I'm a man and I can only imagine the pressures they were under, in the time period they lived in, with the mores as they were and the social and economic punishments meted out to people then for not following the mores and prescribed gender roles of the 1930's and 1940's. What would I have done? What would you have done?
they were treated like pieces of meat I don't know but I think Marilyn Monroe's death sounds
to me like some sort of forced abortion
Marilyn Monroe died of a drug overdose. This was proven by an autopsy.
Priorities….. wealth and fame or be a parent.
And forcing a woman NOT to have an abortion is just as bad. Also, your words indicate that Joan Crawford had an abortion because she wanted to, not because she was forced or pressured to. And nothing you said indicated that Lana Turner was forced into the abortion, either.
Both Joan and
Lana knew the
unspoken rules
of the studio system.
If they wanted to keep
their jobs they had to
do what the studio
wanted.
Just because a person
is not kidnapped, tied
down, etc. does not
mean that they weren't
COERCED
@@here_we_go_again2571 And just because those were the rules does not mean that every actress who had an abortion was forced. I do not believe any of them were forced unless they specifically said so. Bette Davis had an abortion during the early years of the studio system, and she always said that having the abortion was the best thing she could have done. Countless women have had abortions of their own free will and had no regrets. There is no reason that that could not be true of Golden Age actresses as well.
@@jn8ive60
Some valued their career over their
child. The same happens in this
day and age.
@@here_we_go_again2571 Some valued their career over allowing a non-human embryo or fetus to use their bodies against their will to develop into a human, yes, and the same happens in this day and age.
@@jn8ive60
The fact is that the studios,
"Dr. Killer" and the stars
involved were violating
the law of California.
Is the embryo/fetus a human
fully human --> That is the
conundrum that will be
discussed when each state
legislates regarding abortion
AND various state's laws
are challenged.
We have more medical
knowledge than in 1979.
The personhood of the
embryo/fetus is going
to be discussed.
That is just the way it is.
Law is a convoluted
mechanism that is
designed to prevent the
imposition of rash
decisions upon the
population.
So the strict Catholic committed suicide?