1924
Born into a show business family on Nov. 16, 1882 in Newport, R.I., Thomas Harper Ince rose from failure as a stage actor to success as the first film tycoon. He became an American silent era filmmaker and was known as the "Father of the Western" credited with over 800 films. He also invented movie production by introducing the "assembly line" system of filmmaking, and pioneering the shooting script, the system of moviemaking still in use today. Ince was also instrumental in developing the role of the producer in motion pictures. He further revolutionized the motion picture industry by creating the first major Hollywood studio facility dubbed "Inceville" in Palisades Highlands.
By 1924, the rumor mill had Thomas Ince edging toward bankruptcy. Supposedly he wanted to make a deal with Hearst to rescue his fortunes. On November 16 he boarded Hearst’s lavish yacht The Oneida as a guest of honor – it was his 42nd birthday. Chaplin, Davies and actress Elinor Glynn also boarded the yacht. They celebrated his birthday at dinner.
Sometime afterward he suffered acute indigestion. A physician aboard the yacht, Dr. Goodman diagnosed Ince as extremely ill. It was known that Ince worked at a killing pace suffering frequent insomnia. His co-workers had previously seen him double over in pain with indigestion, and he was later diagnosed with a peptic ulcer. He also suffered chest pains in secret. A water taxi took him ashore and a train brought him to Los Angeles. It was thought his ulcer might be flaring from the disallowed champagne and salted almonds he ate which exacerbated his health problems. Ince got worse on the train and was taken off it at Del Mar, where he was treated at a hotel. He went home the next day, November 19, and died.
The death certificate said he died of heart failure, but Chaplin’s valet said he saw Ince bleeding from a bullet wound to the forehead. the front page of the Los Angeles Times ran headlines that said, “Movie Producer Shot on Hearst Yacht.” Those headlines soon disappeared, and the Hearst newspapers reported Ince had taken ill at Hearst’s home, San Simeon.
Rumors proliferated about what really happened:
Hearst caught Chaplin and Davies in a compromising position and shot Ince by accident; Hearst poisoned Ince; an assassin hired by Hearst killed Ince; Hearst stabbed Ince in the heart with a hatpin. Adding to the confusion were the lies and denials told by Hearst’s guests.
But before his body was cremated, it lay in an open coffin for an hour for viewing. No one saw that bullet hole in his forehead. Though allegations of a cover-up surfaced after his death, the real cover-up had to do with his failing health.
1943
In 1942, the handsome native of Australia was at the peak of his fame at age 33. “Flynn was probably best known for starring in ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’ in 1938. That same year, Life magazine named him the most famous man in America,” Pattin recalls.
- In her 1966 biography, actress Hedy Lamarr wrote, "Many of the bathrooms have peepholes or ceilings with squares of opaque glass through which you can't see out but someone can see in.
- "Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood toured the house as a prospective buyer in the 1970s and reported, "Errol had two-way mirrors... speaker systems in the ladies' room. Not for security. Just that he was an A-1 voyeur."
A complaint was filed by Peggy Satterlee who claimed that in August 1941, when she was 15 years old, Flynn invited her to his boat, spiked her drink with liquor and raped her. At a party in September 1942, he met 17-year-old Betty Hansen. “Betty told her married sister about meeting the famous Errol Flynn. She said that he gave her cocktails and then took her upstairs, and as she put it, seduced her. Betty had just turned 17, six days earlier on September 21. The age of consent was 18. Outraged, her sister contacted the district attorney’s office to file a complaint against Flynn.”
The DA charged Flynn with three counts of statutory rape, one charge for assaulting Hansen and two for Satterlee. “When Hollywood’s biggest movie star was arrested, who did he call? Hollywood’s most successful fix-it attorney Jerry Giesler,” Pattin details. He was known for getting Hollywood stars out of just about any kind of jam.” Understanding his client’s star power, Giesler planned to seat as many female jurors as possible. “In the end, Giesler succeeded with his jury selection plan. There were nine women and three men in the jury box when testimony started,” Pattin says. Giesler had set a legal precedent for weaponizing rape victim’s sexual histories in a prior trail, and created doubt using the same method again. Flynn was acquitted on all counts after the defense lawyer attacked Hansen and Satterlee’s sexual histories, morals and characters.
Shortly after he was found not guilty, Flynn’s career continued. “He was in more than 50 A-list films and almost always played the lead. He was under contract at Warner Bros. for 20 years and made millions for them,” Pattin says.
1963
You know how some billionaires spend millions of dollars buying luxury megayachts? Not Aristotle Onassis. He bought this ship for its value in scrap metal, and then he spent millions converting it to a luxury megayacht. The yacht, which he named the Christina O after his daughter and is available now years later for rent, had a dancefloor that slid away to reveal a swimming pool. It had staterooms with secret doors. While Aristotle was alive, it had a private operating theater, just in case he was in the mood for surgery. Leather stools sat in front of the yacht’s bar. That leather came from whales—specifically from a whale’s foreskin. We can’t speak authoritatively about whether whale penises create higher-quality leather than more conventional alternatives, but this setup let Aristotle deploy a favorite line on his lady companions. He’d seat a woman on the stool and then tell her, “Madame, you are sitting on the largest penis in the world.”
Caroline Lee Bouvier was born in New York City in 1933 (3 years apart from Jackie Kennedy). She always went by her middle name. Her father John Vernou Bouvier III was a stockbroker and her mother Janet Lee was a socialite. She had an exciting social circle that included Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, and Rudolf Nureyev. Lee knew Aristotle Onassis and she was rumored to be involved with him, according to Vanity Fair.
By the end of September, more than a month had passed since [Jackie and John F. Kennedy’s second son] baby Patrick’s death [8/9/63]. Jackie was no better. If anything, her psychological state had only deteriorated. Lee wanted to help her in some way and made the extremely bold suggestion that Jackie cruise with her and Aristotle Onassis on the Christina. “I think when Lee looks back on this trip she believes it was the second biggest mistake she ever made.”
Jackie Kennedy became his lover while cruising aboard his yacht, shortly before Jack Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, Onassis, noticing her open jewel case on her dressing-table, was surprised at how few pieces she had, and of how little value they appeared to be. (He had an appraiser’s experienced eye in these matters). He immediately called Van Cleef and Arpels in Paris and told them to fly a suitably impressive gift to the yacht. They responded with an $80,000 ($541,716 in today’s money) gold and ruby bracelet.
In May of 1968 [five years after JFK was assassinated], Jackie Kennedy joined Aristotle Onassis on a cruise of the Virgin Islands on the Christina. Apparently, it was on this cruise that Ari asked Jackie to marry him, assuring her that if she agreed she would still have her freedom. Perhaps more important, though, she would also have protection by his army of security men, 75 strong, some with machine guns. For a woman still suffering from PTSD from the murder of her husband, this was vital information.
Lee learned about the pending nuptials from Aristotle Onassis, who called her while she was on a vacation in Tunisia to extend a personal invitation. “He begged me to come,” is how she later put it. The details of their conversation are unknown, but one might imagine it was tense, considering their painful history. The fact that Jackie wasn’t the one to call Lee had to have stung.
How could she do this to me?” Lee Radziwill asked Truman Capote, at least according to the later memory of the writer Eleanor Perry. She says that Lee was screaming so loudly, she (Perry) could hear her words through the receiver: “How could she? How could this happen?” Truman didn’t know what to tell her. “She’s crying and weeping and sobbing,” he later told friends of Lee. “I can’t tell you what she said, but it’s going to be in the news. It’s the biggest piece of gossip there is, and she’s crying her eyes out because of it.” Where the shipping mogul was concerned, Truman said, “Lee really thought she had Onassis nailed down.
Jackie embraced Lee and thanked her for coming. Then, according to what Lee would remember, Jackie firmly grabbed her forearm with her two hands and, with great urgency, said just four words: “I need this, Lee.” That’s was all she said—“I need this, Lee.” Lee looked at her closely, studied her anguished face . . . and she knew it was true. “I know you do,” she said. “And you should have it.” That was the full extent of the Bouvier sisters’ discussion about Aristotle Onassis. Jackie then asked Lee to be her matron of honor. Lee agreed.
He loved Jackie, he said, at least in his own way—which meant that he, too, would have his freedom, ostensibly to see other women, like [opera star] Maria Callas. What Jackie didn’t know was that just six months earlier, he and Maria had set a wedding date of November 4.
1969
The Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1969 was a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race, which was the first of its kind. Donald Crowhurst enthusiastically entered, but was not an experienced sailor. Donald Crowhurst’s boat, Teignmouth Electron, was a 12 meter trimaran that was unproven on such long voyages, and he had only sailed her for a few weeks before leaving port, in which time he had fallen overboard several times.
It was felt that when Crowhurst found he bit off more than he could chew, he decided to hide in the South Atlantic, send fake radio reports of his location and falsify his logs before his return, rather than admit defeat and face financial ruin.
As other competitors dropped out and Donald Crowhurst looked as if he might win on elapsed time (the field started on different dates), it is thought he panicked at the thought of a proper investigation and jumped overboard. The boat was found unoccupied 12 days after his last radio transmission. Examination of his logbooks revealed the deception.
When Crowhurt’s boat was found, it was uncovered that he had spent several months falsifying his position in radio reports and, far from sailing around the world, he had never left the Atlantic.
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