Nowadays celebrity scandals are fairly common
and anytime a celebrity sneezes wrong you hear about it all over the news. Whether it’s an affair, someone yelling
at an employee at a coffee shop, or whatever other fairly basic scandal, the media will
report it as if it is the most amazing breaking news that has ever happened in the history
of mankind. The internet will obsess about all involved,
and personally harass them on Twitter for their own amusement. However, back in the day there were many scandals
that would make today’s look tame, and we can only imagine how insane the internet would
have gone if these things had happened now. 10. Jimmy Page Dated A 14-Year-Old Who Lost Her
Virginity To David Bowie Even Earlier Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin fame, is an easily
recognizable name and one most people don’t associate with any kind of scandal. However, Page actually had a bit of a problem
when it came to statutory rape. Back in the 1970s, despite laws designed to
prevent this sort of thing, “baby groupies” – underage girls who followed around rock
stars –were a common sight and abuse was fairly rampant. Page, during the height of his fame, struck
up a relationship with a 14-year-old groupie named Lori Mattix. To make matters worse, the relationship wasn’t
just sexual, but very, very creepy. In order to avoid worries about the law, he
made a deal with her mother so she wouldn’t call anyone about what was going on, and kept
her hidden in hotel rooms most of the time, well out of the way of others. However, this may not have been the first
time that young Lori had her innocence taken advantage of by older men. According to an interview she gave decades
later, before she even met Page, she and another underage friend had sex with David Bowie,
who went to lengths to proposition them. She claims that Bowie was very gentle because
he knew it was her first time, but that doesn’t make it okay. 9. Judy Garland Was Horrifically Abused During
The Filming Of Wizard Of Oz The Wizard of Oz is a family film that’s
also known for having some legitimately creepy elements (we’re looking at you, flying monkeys),
but for Judy Garland, who played Dorothy, it was a nightmare in real life. She was only 16-years-old at the time of filming,
but the studio was giving her drugs in order to get the performance they wanted, and some
believed she was already addicted to drugs like amphetamines and barbiturates before
filming had ended. She was also forced to wear very tight corsets,
and the studio bosses even sent spies to make sure that Garland didn’t eat anything besides
chicken soup and black coffee, and that she had her 80 cigarettes a day in order to stay
thin. However, this was just the beginning. To make matters worse, she also found herself
a target of harassment by the munchkins. According to the memoirs of Garland’s late
husband, the little people would reach under her dress and sexually harass her, thinking
they could get away with it because they were so small. And while the rumor that one of them hung
himself on set is not true, they were indeed known for having orgies in their hotel rooms,
and causing such a ruckus that the police were called in on a regular basis to deal
with them. Sadly, much of this was the fault of the studio
itself, which had pulled a bunch of little people from all over the world together in
one place, who had never seen so many like themselves at once before, and then proceeded
to underpay them so much that many resorted to panhandling and prostitution to survive
during filming. 8. The Kent State Shootings Would Be The Subject
Of Endless Analysis Today The Kent State Shootings, for those who aren’t
aware of the event, happened on May 4, 1970 during the height of the Vietnam War protests. In recent months, people had been both burning
down and trying to burn down ROTC buildings on campuses, and the police and the military
were on edge. The ROTC building at Kent State had been burned
down recently and no one had been caught – more protests were set for days later, with national
guard swarming all over the place. This set the stage for an event that has left
many people scarred to this day. During the protests, the National Guard started
trying to corral the protesters and push them back in another direction. For some reason, which is still hard to piece
together, some of the guardsmen decided that they should fire their weapons. In all, 67 shots were fired in a very short
time, and when the students had finished dispersing and the smoke had cleared, four people were
dead and another nine were wounded. Even without the internet, analysis of the
event was heated with many students taking photographs, comparing angles and trying to
make sense of the entire situation. In the age of the internet and full video
recording, it is likely the analysis and debate would have basically been never-ending. 7. JFK’s Affair With Marilyn Monroe As Well
As His General Unfaithfulness To His Wife John F. Kennedy is one of the most beloved
presidents in history, partly due to the fact that he was able to do such a good job during
the Cuban Missile Crisis, but also partly because he was killed before his time. In a way, the assassination of JFK allowed
for a rather inaccurate hagiography to be drawn up about his life and his existence
over the years, which doesn’t really show the kind of man he truly was. Most people think of Kennedy as a man who
talked about giving service to your country, being politically courageous and doing what
is right and moral. However, in his personal life, Kennedy had
pretty much zero respect for the sanctity of his and his wife’s marriage. He constantly cheated on his wife and when
she would confront him about it, understandably very hurt, he would simply claim that his
health problems required him to regularly sleep with lots of woman – he just couldn’t
help it. The fact that he tried to throw off personal
responsibility for his dalliances by blaming a disease shows just what kind of person JFK
truly was. He was also known to have had an affair with
Marilyn Monroe, and then tried really hard to cover it up later. After she died, he tried so hard to cover
up his involvement with her that many believe to this day that he was somehow responsible
for her death. If it had happened today, people would never
stop speculating about whether or not JFK was not just a serial cheater, but also a
murderer. 6. Jerry Lee Lewis, A Famous Rock And Roll Star,
Married His 13-Year-Old Cousin Jerry Lee Lewis was a famous rock and roll
star in the 1950s; for those who aren’t familiar with him, “Great Balls Of Fire”
was one of his first hit songs. He was doing really well for himself and had
quite a promising career ahead of him – he probably could have been huge. However, he went and made a decision that
was really, really poor in every way you can imagine. While he was still married to another woman,
he made a triumphant announcement during a concert tour of England that he was going
to marry his 13-year-old cousin, Myra Gale Brown. And the newspapers went absolutely nuts. His concert tour in England fell apart as
his popularity quickly and sharply dropped. No one wanted to be associated with a man
who marries a 13-year-old relative, and his career never really recovered to what it could
have been. This is likely because he showed no remorse
at all, but went fully on ahead with his plan and showed no regrets – at least, not until
10 years later when she was no longer the prettiest young thing in the world to him
anymore, and he decided to divorce her as well. In today’s age, he likely would have been
arrested based on statutory laws for his crimes, and the internet would have a field day mocking
him for marrying his own underage cousin. 5. Charlie Chaplin Stole J.D. Salinger’s Underage
Girlfriend Charlie Chaplin is the silent film star best
known for using the Hitler Mustache well before Hitler went and ruined it. Most people simply know him as an important
comedian and influencer in the early days of Hollywood and silent film, but while he
enjoys a fairly nice reputation today, he wasn’t a particularly nice guy. Chaplin was a nasty tyrant to his wife and
children, had a reputation of being extremely difficult, and when he was 54-years-old, he
was courting an underage girl. This girl was named Oona O’Neill, daughter
of then-famous playwright Eugene O’Neill, and she was also being courted by J.D. Salinger,
of The Catcher in the Rye fame. When she turned 18, she made her decision
and decided to go with Chaplin instead of Salinger. Her father was incensed because Chaplin was
54 at the time, and cut her out of his life entirely – something she never forgave him
for. Considering how the internet acted when Woody
Allen married his adopted, barely legal daughter, we probably have a good idea of how people
would feel about this particular scandal. 4. John Lennon Beat Both Of His Wives While Pretending
To Be A Messianic Figure Of World Peace John Lennon is one of the most famous and
beloved members of the Beatles, but the truth is that in life he was an incredibly mentally
troubled person who was horrible to all of the most vulnerable people around him, who
relied on him the most. In his first marriage to Cynthia Powell, he
was physically and emotionally abusive both to her and to their son Julian, who he would
smack for all kinds of things. According to their housekeeper, he would smack
the kid for bad table manners, even though the child’s manners were better than most
– the housekeeper felt he just had a problem with violence in general. He also is believed to have been physically
abusive with Yoko Ono, and admitted at one point in his life that he hit pretty much
any woman, and that it was always the most violent people who went for the love and peace
stuff – ostensibly because of guilt. He also cheated on both his first wife, having
an affair with Yoko, and then had an 18-month affair during his relationship with her as
well. No matter how beloved an entertainer he may
have been, it is hard to imagine him getting through that kind of scandal in the days of
the internet. 3. Steve Jobs Cheated Steve Wozniak Out Of Money
In The Early Days, For Reasons Of Sheer Petty Greed Steve Jobs was not known for being the nicest
guy in the world. He had a reputation of being incredibly demanding
and hard to work with, and taking all of the credit for anything good for himself. He was very arrogant, believing that his mostly
fruit diet could save him from cancer instead of medical treatments, and wanted to destroy
all of his competition as brutally as possible, while claiming a faux Buddhist persona. However, most people still don’t think of
him as an evil or particularly mean person. Geniuses tend to be quirky, and Steve Jobs
basically was Apple – the company simply hasn’t been the same without him at the
helm. Unfortunately, if people had known early on
who the man was, he may never have enjoyed the beloved reputation he had with so many
for so long. Most people know of Steve Wozniak, the tech
genius who is known for being better at inventing, but not nearly as good at business as Jobs. In the early days, the two worked together
for some time before parting ways due to their own differences. While they parted amicably at the time, Wozniak
had no idea how he had truly been cheated. Very early on, Jobs set up a deal with Atari
to make a game for them, with a bonus for using the smallest amount of chips possible. Jobs approached Wozniak about splitting the
fee, and Wozniak, being an incredibly nice guy, jumped at the opportunity despite the
fact he would be doing the majority of the work. Even though he did most of the work and the
project exceeded expectations, Jobs secretly kept the majority of the money and the bonus
that Wozniak worked so hard for all for himself. Wozniak only knew that he had received much
less than half of the payment years later, and cried when he learned of his former friend’s
dishonesty over what was such a relatively small amount of money. Steve Jobs may have managed to build up a
reputation as a beloved tech icon, but if he had done that to Wozniak in the age of
memes, he would have been an instant pariah all over the internet. 2. Fatty Arbuckle Was Tried For Raping And Murdering
A Woman At His Own Celebration Party Fatty Arbuckle, for those who aren’t aware
of him, was absolutely huge in the early days of the silent film era. He was the man responsible for discovering
Charlie Chaplin, and mentoring him to the greatness that he achieved as a comic. Arbuckle was on top of the world, and it was
when he was at the very top that he took his longest fall. He was having a party in a hotel room with
actors, actresses, and others in the industry, and spent a few minutes in a bedroom with
a young actress named Virginia Rappe, who was quickly heard to be screaming. When everyone rushed in, the woman claimed
Arbuckle had “done this to her.” She was very drunk, so people assumed she
was having a drunken fit, as her clothes were still on. A few days later, she was taken to the hospital
for her pain, and died of a ruptured bladder. The media went absolutely nuts, accusing him
of raping and accidentally killing the woman. Hollywood was encouraged to disown him, and
he was blacklisted, despite no charges being yet proven. He could not find work, and had mounting legal
bills and debts. People would spit on him outside court, and
heckle him in the streets. However, he always maintained his innocence,
stating that her clothes had been on, he had carried her to the bed, went to the bathroom,
and came back to find her in pain. He was tried three times, with two hung juries,
and eventually found innocent of all charges except for the charge of drinking bootleg
alcohol. Some still wonder how she died, and many believe
Arbuckle was responsible, but the case itself was very spotty. Rappe’s friend, who had been the one to
accuse him, refused to take the stand and had a history of extorting money. Rappe also had a preexisting condition involving
inflammation with her bladder, so it is possible the entire thing was a huge misunderstanding
or accident, and no rape or murder occurred. We can only imagine what actually happened,
but if Twitter had been around, Arbuckle would have probably had to burn down all of his
social media accounts and go live in the mountains for awhile until things blew over. 1. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Known For Logic And
Reason, Was Ridiculed For Believing In The Paranormal Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini are
actually two people who seem like fairly unlikely friends. Both were passionate about extremely logical,
but also very clever and intricate practices that require deep thought, analysis and planning. Houdini would even put his life on the line
for his tricks, and Sir Conan Doyle would spend an incredible amount of time working
on a single Sherlock Holmes story in order to set up the clues and put it all together. What is surprising, though, is that their
friendship started based on something extremely illogical – spiritualism. Houdini and Doyle were both interested in
séances. Doyle’s wife was a medium, and Houdini was
trying to contact his dead mother, so they set up a séance. The entire thing did not go well. Doyle’s wife Jean claimed to have contacted
Houdini’s mother, and said that she wished him Merry Christmas, but Houdini’s mother
was Jewish and did not speak English, so he soon denounced all mediums as frauds, something
that greatly angered Doyle and went a long way towards ruining their friendship. One of the other major triggers was the abilities
of Houdini himself. The man who created Sherlock Holmes was so
astounded by Houdini’s tricks that he insisted his friend had the power of “dematerialism”
and when his friend insisted that he was not doing anything supernatural, it made Doyle
increasingly angry and frustrated. In the end, the two parted ways because a
man who was famous for writing about the most logical man in the world could not reconcile
a friend who did not believe in fairies. It is almost unimaginable how much Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle would have ruined his own reputation if this had occurred in the days of viral
memes – no one would have taken the Sherlock Holmes series seriously ever again, and his
reputation would have been entirely ruined.
