December 20, 2023 • 33 mins
Darryl F. Zanuck was a legendary figure in Hollywood known for leading a major studio, producing top films and assaulting aspiring actresses in the 1930s. That same decade, the term "casting couch" surfaced to describe the abuse of power by Zanuck and other high-powered men who were the gatekeepers of access to the big screen.
In “4 O'clock Girls,” host Tracy Pattin and co-host Matt Donnelly, Variety’s senior entertainment and media writer, detail Zanuck’s duplicitous and dangerous actions that reportedly took place daily at 4 p.m. in his office.
For a full list of sources and citations for this episode, visit https://variety.com/h/variety-confidential/.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm in Cheviat Hills Park on Pico Boulevard in West LA.
Across the street is the West Motor Gate into the
twentieth century Fox Studios. There's a wall covered in posters
promoting the studio's latest movies and television shows. Beyond the
wall there are sound stages and production offices. One of
these is Building eighty eight, the former office of the
(00:35):
studio's founder in production chief, Daryl Zanak.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
He greenlighted dozens of films at.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Fox, many won Oscars, and many more were box office hits,
but he also had a dark side. He may have
been the most frequent abuser the casting couch Hollywood has
ever known. In today's episode of Variety Confidential, We'll use
Varieties archives to unearthed all the terrible things that Darryl
(01:02):
Zanik was accused of doing way back in the golden
age of Hollywood. From Variety and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Tracy Patnan.
This is the secret history of the casting couch. Today's
episode four o'clock Girls with Me Today is Matt Donnelley,
Variety Senior entertainment and media writer.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Hi, Matty, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, it's great to have you here, and I'm excited
to get your Hollywood perspective and insights.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I think it's really important that we look back at,
you know, sort of these moguls and a lot of
their predation and behavior that has been so prevalent in
the past couple of years. Especially, you know, we have
Variety been very dedicated to covering me too, and it's
ramifications for everyone. So I am excited to sort of
look back and see where this all began. And thank
you for making such wonderful use of our archives.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Indeed, we need them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Let's go back in time to the twentieth century Fox Lot.
On an afternoon in nineteen thirty eight, on the topp
floor of the executive offices in Building eighty eight, a
young woman, let's call her Mary Evans, sits in the
waiting room outside the office of the studio chief. She's
young and attractive, dark haired, with bright blue eyes, barely
(02:14):
twenty years old. She only recently moved to Los Angeles,
and her dream is to become a movie star. Unlike
thousands of other wannabes, however, Mary has landed a contract
with twentieth century Fox, just like Betty Grables, Sonya Hanny,
and Shirley Temple. She's only a day player now, and
she knows that her shot at stardom depends on what
(02:36):
happens at this audition. Finally, the secretary gets the call
and Mary may go in. The office is dimly lit,
large and wood paneled. Every paintable surface is done in
a shiny, dark green. The wall behind the desk is
covered in trophies from safaris with zebra skins and antelope heads.
(02:56):
She hears a toilet flush A few seconds later. F Xanik,
the founder and head of production at twentieth century Fox,
comes out. He's shorter than Mary imagined, about five foot six,
trim and fit. In his mid thirties. He has a
mustache and thinning salt and pepper hair. This cigar clamped
in his jaw juts upward. Xanik smiles, but not in
(03:20):
a friendly way. He meets her in front of the
desk and looks her up and down, eyeing her figure
like this wolf devouring its prey. Then he asks her
to turn around. She makes a graceful spin. He says,
so you want to be in pictures very much, She says, mm,
(03:41):
so do a lot of other girls, you know, he says.
He motions her to follow him. They go into a
small room off a hallway behind his office. There's a
day bed against the wall. He invites her to sit,
closes the door and locks it. Do you have experience,
he asks? She rattles off the roles she played in
college and summer theater back East. While she's talking, he
(04:05):
turns his back to her, fumbles with his front, and
then turns around and faces her. Mary is shocked, but
not surprised he has exposed himself. She's heard all about
Darryl Zanik from other actresses, and she knows that her
future at Fox is on the line, and she has
(04:25):
a decision to make. Dozens of others have had to
make the same choice, as dozens more will have to
after she's gone. She can walk away from Xanak in
the career she's dreamed of, or she can stay and
give Zanik what he wants.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Now, I've never heard about this Mary Evans, which I'm
sure there are many, But tell me, did you say
yes or no?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Okay? Full disclosure.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Mary Evans is a fictional version of dozens of women
who were called into Daryl Zanik's office for auditions, and
there's circumstantial evidence that many, maybe most, of these women
complied and had sex with Darryl Zanik. He held these
auditions so often that his colleagues came up with a
name for the women he coerced. They called them four
(05:08):
o'clock girls. Zanic himself is said to have called them
studio whores.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, sadly, this is the story we've heard so
many times throughout Hollywood's history, and shockingly, even in our
contemporary landscape, this has post me too. This is after
the massive proliferation of social media, and somehow this behavior
is still persistent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Believe me.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I know, I've been doing a lot of research on
these guys, and it's unbelievable what they got away with
back then.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
How prevalent would you say this kind of behavior was
among moguls of that era?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It was very, very prevalent.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I'm sure you know that the studios dominated the industry
in those days. The Big five were MGM, Columbia, RKO, Fox,
and Paramount, and of the five, four of their moguls
have been accused of abuse Louis B. Mayor at MGM,
Harry Kohane at Columbia, Howard to Use at RKO, and
Xanik at Fox.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I've heard many of the Mayor stories over the years.
What's his deal?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, Louis B.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Mayor is probably the best known mogul of that era,
maybe because his name is in the brand. MGM stands
for Metro Goldwyn Mayor. I'm sure you know that by
nineteen thirty seven he was the highest paid man in America,
and he believed that the movie should represent a sanitized
version of reality. He once said, no Mayor picture will
(06:24):
have bedroom scenes, even where the couples are married. But
there are conflicting accounts when it comes to his treatment
of women. One friend of his said LB couldn't get
laid in a whorehouse, and a producer at MGM said
Mayor was like a bashful boy. It wasn't until after
he was fifty that he realized sex could be fun.
(06:45):
On the other hand, according to Get Happy the Life
of Judy Garland by Gerald Clark, Mayor allegedly groped Judy
Garland when she was a teenager and held meetings with
her seated on his lap.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And his hands on her chest.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
My god, that story just every time you hear it, it
just still hits the same horrible abuse of her and
so many other women. Well, tell me about Harry Cone
at Columbia.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
By most accounts, Cone expected sex from women in exchange
for movie roles. He even installed these secret passages into
actresses dressing rooms to give him easier access to them.
He also had this strange habit of opening a woman's
mouth with a pencil before he had sex with her
to inspect her teeth like he was sizing up a horse.
(07:30):
And when Rita Hayworth, one of his biggest stars, refused
to sleep with him, he had her stocked and even
bugged her dressing room. She said Cone was a monster.
He was also obsessively controlling. There's a famous story about
his interference in a relationship between his blonde star Kim
Novak and ratpacker Sammy Davis Junior. Cone ended the relationship
(07:55):
by reportedly putting a mob hit on Davis.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
That sounds like an entire different podcast episode. By the way,
do you know the mafia term for killing a celebrity,
and that's called excellent cadaver? To Steph why I So
let's move on to Howard Hughes, who was known as
the richest man in America at that point. When did
he get involved with Arkao So?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Hughes bought RKO's studios in nineteen forty eight and then
spent the next few years running it into the ground.
He was known for praying on underage girls. One of
them was sixteen year old Ida Lupino. She survived, however,
and went on to have a big career as an
A list actress and one of the few women directors
in the nineteen fifties and sixties. When Ava Gardner refused
(08:39):
to marry him, Hughes hired detectives to stalk her. She
finally put a stop to it by knocking him unconscious
with an ashtray. He was obsessed with collecting young actresses.
He'd sign them to these long term contracts, but he
never gave them work. Instead, he'd stashed them in mansions
and luxury apartments under the control of handlers.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You know, it really makes me reconsider the title of
that Warren Baty movie he spent twenty years making about Hughes,
called Rules Don't Apply. Well, he sounds like a fantastic gentleman.
So let's go back to Xanik.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, Xanik, and here's a little of his backstory. He
was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in nineteen oh two, but
moved to la with his mother when he was eight.
In nineteen seventeen, when he was fifteen, he lied about
his age and enlisted in the Army. He served in
France during World War One. After the war, when he
was seventeen, he moved to New York to become a writer,
(09:36):
but he had little success and eventually moved back to
Los Angeles. After working a series of odd jobs, he
sold a story to the Fox Film Company for five
hundred dollars that's about eighty five hundred dollars today. In
January nineteen twenty four, Xanik married Virginia Fox, an actress
who had success in silent films. The Xanix would have
(09:58):
three children, two daughters, Darylynn and Susan, and his son Richard,
who would become a successful movie producer himself. He produced Jaws,
Driving Miss Daisy, and Cocoon, among many other films, and
later that year Zanik was hired to produce Warner Brothers
popular Rin Tin Tin movies. Their star was a German
(10:18):
shepherd who in real life had been rescued by an
American soldier on a World War One battlefield. The movies
were hugely profitable, and the series put Xanik on the
map in Hollywood, and three years later he was promoted
to head of production at Warner's. His salary went up
from one hundred and twenty five dollars a week to
(10:38):
five thousand a week, which would be about ninety thousand
dollars per week today. In nineteen twenty eight, he was
the supervising producer on The Jazz Singer, the first full
length film recorded with sound. It had music singing and
the famous line you ain't heard nothing yet. But Warner
(10:59):
Brothers was tightly controlled by its owners, the four Warner Brothers.
Xanik was ambitious, and it became clear that the Warners
would never make him a partner. He resigned in nineteen
thirty three and went into business with Joseph Skank, one
of the most powerful moguls in early Hollywood. Together they
founded the Twentieth Century Company Film Studio. As part of
(11:20):
the deal, Zanik took home a huge paycheck. Variety reported
on April twenty fifth nineteen thirty three that he'd quote
knocked off one hundred thousand dollars bonus about two point
three million dollars today. Zanik went right to work. He
produced eighteen movies for twentieth Century Films in just eighteen months.
(11:42):
All but one of them was a success. Two years later,
Xanik and Skank merged Twentieth Century with the Fox Film Corporation.
The Fox Company was formed in nineteen fifteen by William Fox.
It was successful for many years, but by the mid
nineteen thirties it was struggling. In Variety Dies report on
the merger on May twenty ninth, nineteen thirty five, it
(12:04):
noted that Skank would serve as chairman of the board
and Xanik would oversee production as vice president. Fox had
something that twentieth century desperately needed, infrastructure. It owned a
three hundred acre studio on Pico Avenue where the Fox
Lot is still located today.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
So by the times on it gets to the Fox Lot,
was he already sort of notorious for this casting house behavior.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Well, what we know is he was having extramarital affairs,
but they were hookups, nothing long term or serious. And
we also know that his wife, Virginia, was aware of them.
Early on in nineteen twenty six, on a trip to Europe,
she heard him on the street below their hotel room
talking with a woman, so she grabbed a flower pot,
(12:48):
threw it off the balcony and hit him in the head.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
There should be a statue for her on that lot,
I think so.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Virginia eventually accepted that Daryl had women on the side
and invited a few of his famous lovers and their husbands,
believe it or not, for weekends at the Xanik's estate
in Palm Springs.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Talking about four o'clock girls. In general, this level of
abuse is just so hard to fathom, but perhaps not
in our current landscape. How solid is all the reporting
from this.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Era, Well, there is definitely some myth making going on here,
and most of what we have is anecdotal, and like
it always is with these kinds of stories from Hollywood,
they may have been embellished over the years. For example,
Milton Spurling was a source with firsthand knowledge about what
went on. He worked closely with Xanik for years and
(13:36):
here's what he said. Every day, at four o'clock in
the afternoon, some girl on the lot would visit Zank
in his office. The doors would be locked after she
went in, no calls were taken, and for the next
half hour nothing happened. Headquarters shut down. Around the office,
work came to a halt for this sex siesta. But
later Spurling backtracked on that a bit. He said it
(13:59):
wasn't real every day, but it happened often enough. A
producer at Fox claimed that Xanik had given every actress
under contract at Fox of four o'clock audition treatment. That's
an exaggeration. We know of a few who rejected him
and then went on to have successful careers, But the
thing is those careers usually happened at a different studio.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So who are some of the women that had to
suffer this abuse from Xenak that we would know? Well.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Some of the big stars included Barbara Stanwick, Judy Holiday,
Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Carol Landis, and Joan Collins.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I love Barbara Stanwick. She's got so many great films
like The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, Meet John Doe.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yes, and she said Xanik chased her around his office
and attempted to rape her. Barbara Stanwick was one of
the few big stars in the Golden Age who never
signed a long term studio contract. She worked for Fox
a few times, including once in nineteen thirty eight, and
it is possible this incident occurred then.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
So what about Judy Holiday? She was usually typecast as
the ditzy blonde.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yes she was, and the irony there was that she
had an IQ of one hundred and seventy two, which
qualified her as a genius. Her encounter with xanik was
in nineteen forty three, when she was a twenty two
year old day player at Fox. Her agent put her
on Xanic's schedule for one of his four o'clock auditions.
The agent also advised her to wear falsees in her bra.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
And when you say falses, you mean like these pads
that go in your bra. I've got it a lot
of stylis entergey. It would call those chicken cutlets.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Oh, I love the visual. Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
At the meeting, xanik On zipped his pants, grabbed her
breasts and said, you belong to me. Judy pushed his
hands away, pulled out the falsies and threw them at him.
These belong to you, She reportedly said.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Assuming this is true, it may explain why Judy Holliday's
hit movies were all made at other studios.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So Betty Grabel, A lot of people might know that
name but don't know much about her career.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, Betty Grabel is best remembered today as the World
War Two pinup queen. There was a famous poster of
her in a swimsuit and heels with her back to
the camera, looking over her shoulder at the camera and smiling.
It was very popular with American soldiers serving overseas during
the war. Both before and after the war, Betty Grabil
was one of the biggest stars at Fox, but her
(16:27):
value to the company didn't stop Zanik from inviting her
into his office hideaway. After locking the door, he turned
and exposed himself. Grabil reportedly said, that's beautiful. You can
put it away now. She got up and left the room.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
And then we have Hollywood's perhaps most famous and perpetual
victim of sexual abuse and harassment, Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yes, Marilyn was the next big star to come along
at Fox after Betty Grable. In nineteen forty six, when
she was still Norma Jean Mortensen, she was given a
screen test at the studio. Everyone involved thought the test
was exceptional. One executive said it gave him a cold chill,
but when Darryl Xenik saw the test a few days later,
(17:10):
he got no chills. He signed her anyway on July
twenty third, nineteen forty six. When her contract was up.
A year later, it was not renewed. No reason was given,
and people who'd worked with Marylyn that year thought she
was great. There have been dozens of biographies about Marilyn Monroe.
She even wrote an autobiography herself, but it's still not
(17:31):
clear why Xenik dropped her. Then eight years later, Marilyn
said something to British actress Joan Collins that was interesting.
Collins was twenty one years old and had a promising
career in movies. Marilyn gave her advice about working in Hollywood,
especially watch out for Xanax. She said, if he doesn't
get what he wants, honey, he'll drop your contract. Was
(17:55):
Marilyn speaking from first hand experience. Did Zanik drop her
a nineteen teen forty seven because she had rejected him
during a private audition. Well we'll never know that, but
what we do know is Xanik would stall or even
up end careers of actresses who told him no. That's
apparently what happened with Carol Landis.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I'm not as familiar with her. Tell me about Carol Well.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Carol Landis was a talented and voluptuous actress who was
known for her comedic chops. By the time Xanik signed
her in nineteen forty, she had already been under contract
at Warner Brothers and other studios. Her early movies tended
to be be pictures, so the contract with Fox gave
her the opportunity to really up her game. After she
(18:39):
and Xanik had sex, a rare thing happened. Instead of
his usual one time deal, it got to be a
regular thing. But when she ended the affair, Xank reportedly
became furious. Her contract was not renewed in nineteen forty six,
and in a tragic note, two years later, after a
failed romance with married act to Rex Harrison, Carol Landis
(19:02):
committed suicide.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
That's so sad. What about Joan Collins? Did she steer
clear of Xenic after Maryland's warning?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well? She wrote recently that she tried to avoid them
at the studio and A few days later, she said,
Darryl Zanik pounced on me and trapped me against a wall,
breathing cigar fumes. He hissed, you haven't had anyone until
you had me. Honey, I'm the biggest and the best,
and I can go all night. I was so shocked,
I couldn't think of anything to say. I managed to
(19:31):
wriggle free and ran back to the set.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Now, obviously there's no human resources department to report this too. Now,
but aren't we aware of other prominent Hollywood journalists were
aware of what Zenic was up to.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Well, there's very little evidence one way or the other,
with one notable exception. W. R. Wilkinson the Third has
written a couple of books about his father, Billy Wilkerson,
the founder and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. In his
book Hollywood Godfather, Wilkerson wrote that his father knew about
Xanik's four o'clock auditions, and he also knew about Harry
(20:04):
Cone's casting couch abuse at Columbia Pictures. Xank and Billy
Wilkerson were friends, and Wilkerson kept quiet about what he knew.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
So we've talked about Xeni's early in quite toxic life.
How did he fare later on?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well? During World War Two, he served as colonel in
the US Signal Corps. His job was to produce training
films and documentaries. He was deployed to Africa in nineteen
forty two to film The Invasion, which was one of
America's first big operations in the war. Later, he received
a legion of Merit for his war services. When he
returned to work at Fox, he had some housekeeping to do.
(20:41):
His office had been taken over by another producer. His
four o'clock hideaway had been turned into a file room.
Xanik had everything painted green again. The Safari trophies came back,
the filing cabinets were out, and a new day bed
was in The four o'clock auditions were soon back in business.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
My god, how long did this actually go on? And
when did it eventually stop?
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Well?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
They stopped at Fox in nineteen fifty six, when Zanik
left the company and became an independent producer. In nineteen
fifty seven, he produced The Sun Also Rises, which was
one of Errol Flynn's last films. He also produced The
Longest Day, starring John Wayne in nineteen sixty two. It
was a critical and box office hit, But then he
(21:27):
began to lose his footing. He put a lot of
effort into turning his girlfriends into movie stars. Never worked
out the careers of these women, Juliet Greco, Belladarvi and
Riina Demisch failed one after another.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And was his wife still okay with all this?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Apparently not. It was around this time that Darryl and
Virginia separated. She'd been patient for way too long. The
Xanax never divorced, but they lived apart for the next
twenty years. Xanik returned to Fox in nineteen sixty two
and served as president. He was there when the studio
released Cleopatra, one of the most expensive bombs Hollywood ever produced.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
So Xanik turned sixty in nineteen sixty two after this
tremendous failure. Is he thinking about retirement?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Not at all? In fact, he started working remotely. He
moved to Paris in nineteen sixty five. He met a
model named Jean Villev Gille at a nightclub.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
There.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Something sparked between them and a long term relationship developed.
She was nineteen, he was sixty three. Xanik and Jeanviev
moved into the penthouse of one of the most expensive
hotels in Paris, the Georges Sank. Around this time, Xanik
was promoted to chairman of the board at Fox. He
stayed in touch with the company's offices in Los Angeles
(22:45):
and New York with phone calls and telegrams. He also
held auditions in his penthouse.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
By the way, I do anything for a penthouse at
the George Sank, but I wouldn't do that. So were
these auditions sort of similar to the ones in the
Fox lot?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Well, at least one of them was for British actress
and model Fiona Lewis sent her to Xanik's penthouse one
afternoon in nineteen seventy. She wrote about it in her
memoir Mistakes were made, some in French. She arrived promptly
with her portfolio. Xanik answered the door himself. Fiona Lewis
said he was wearing a silk dressing gown open at
(23:19):
the front. He was naked underneath, and casually holding his
penis between his first two fingers as if it were
a lit cigar.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Have you ever.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Seen anything so big? He asked, which I instinctively knew
wasn't a question, but I was floored. A wave of
englishness rose up. I couldn't utter a word in French.
I could have leveled him. Instead, I turned and headed
for the elevator. Hey, come back, he shouted, Come on,
I was just kidding.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
It was a joke.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So she went back into the suite. They sat on
the sofa and she showed.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Him her portfolio.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
While she talked about her career, Xanik listened with what
she called the used indifference. At one point, Jean Viev
came in. Fiona Lewis described her as a young, elegantly
dressed Grace Kelly type, wearing gray flannel slacks and a
white Kashmir sweater. Jean Viev appeared to be looking for
her cigarettes, but Louis felt like she was being checked out.
(24:18):
After Jeanviev left, Xana got to the point he asked
Fiona if she would like to sleep with Jeanviev. She
hadn't expected that, and when she said no, he opened
a wooden box on the coffee table, took out a
few thousand francs and put them on the table in
front of her, But she wasn't interested. She decided to leave,
(24:38):
and on her way out she heard Xanik shout, you
will never work in Hollywood. Fiona Lewis proved him wrong
about that. She appeared in more than twenty movies in
television shows in Hollywood over the next five decades.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
So Zanic is now in his seventies. Is he about
to retire?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Well?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
His health began to fail and he and Jeanviev moved
to New York. In nineteen seventy two, Xank was diagnosed
with cancer and his jaw. Doctors removed part of the jaw,
two teeth, part of his tongue, and some muscles, lymph nodes,
and veins from his neck. And despite all of this,
after the surgery, the doctor said he had no deformity.
(25:16):
A few months later, things took an even more drastic turn.
Xanic experienced memory loss and was eventually diagnosed with organic
brain syndrome known today as neurocognitive disorder. His mental decline
was quick, steep, and irreversible.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
That's a sort of stunning series of events for someone
who had been an action for so long.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
What happened next, Well, let's go back to an evening
in April nineteen seventy three. A plane from New York
lands at the Palm Springs Airport in California. Seated in
first class are Daryl Zanik, his girlfriend, Jean Viev, his secretary,
his daughter's and Xanik's two dogs, Lisa and Tina. As
soon as the landing stairs are rolled into place and
the cabin door is open, Xanik grabs his dogs and
(26:00):
down the steps. Jan Viev watches from the top of
the stairs as he trots across the tarmac to a
limo where Virginia Xanik is waiting. He hands Virginia one
of the dogs and takes her by the arm. They
climb into a limo and drive off towards Xanik's Palm
Springs estate. Jen Viev realizes then that after eight years,
(26:21):
her life with Darryl Zanak and all the wealth and
privilege that came with it, has come to a close.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So a gentleman to the very end, How long does
he live?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Well?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Virginia Xanik nursed him for the next six years, and
he died at seventy seven on December twenty second, nineteen
seventy nine. Okay, so let's talk about this story, Matt
as it compares with recent events in the me Too era.
I just wanted to read a quote from an article
in Variety by Thelma Adams. She writes the practice of
powerful white men exploiting young actresses trying to break into
(26:53):
the movie business has a historical precedent as old as
the movie business itself.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Says it, all right, that's kind of it. That's the
entire point.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
So what's your take on all of this? Now that
you've heard the story and you know then and now.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
The biggest takeaway I have is just it's going through
you know, this incredible and I've learned so much about
Darryl's anik. But the one question I have is what
is any of this worth? A few good movies? All
this behavior somehow doesn't seem to equal to some of
its parts. Not that it should, but it's just it's
just very sad. And also for the people who aren't
as lucky as Betty Grable and Barbara Stanwick and Joan Collins.
(27:31):
And not to say Marilyn was lucky, but think about
how many nameless, faceless women there were that went back home,
got back on greyhound buses after behavior like this. It's
it's a bit of a bummer.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And you know, I keep using this quote the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Is you know, in reporting on you know, the Dawn
and the progression of the Me Too movement, I think
that the word predation predatory is very applicable here because
it does have a methodology, right. Think about how many
of these instances have the same circumstances. So there's powerful
people using you know, their influence and promise of employment
to get people alone in rooms, to offer them, to
proposition them, to pay them, to ask them if they
(28:09):
don't work. It's all very very methodical or it's very
pathological in a way too.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you know what, when I read or when I
was researching about Xanak and his mo Yeah, it's so
similar to Weinstein, only Weinstein asked for massages, but that
same vibe, it seems so similar absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And also even just the construction of the lots and
just all the you know you mentioned about infrastructure being
something that twentieth century really needed to scale up to
become twentieth century Fox, but so much of what's even
put in the groundwork there, it facilitated this secret pathways
into actresses dressing rooms. It's interesting. I've actually been to
(28:47):
the Louis B. Mayer office in the Tholburg Building on
the Sony Pictures lot, and I've seen the secret passageways
from his actual like maybe third floor office down into
the screening rooms, and it takes on you know, you
might think that some really cool trick of architecture or
just like a nice lex of power, but it takes
on such a different connotation when you maybe know what
they were used for. You know what those passages were
(29:08):
carrying or what might have happened in them.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Okay, So speaking about the lots, then we had the
studio system cities within a city. Richard Zanik said they
were self sustaining except for the police force, which you
obviously can't have, but there was this sort of infrastructure
and their ability to just control everything absolutely.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
I mean, the studio system was a closed loop where
you had a sole financier. It was very small collection
people at the top making decisions. And what's even more
interesting now, because you know the world we live in,
celebrities are so diversified and so branded in and of themselves,
but this was a system where they would sign you
for eight or nine year contracts and they could change
your image on a dime. They would just literally shuffle
(29:49):
you in and out of movies like cattle. There was
no such thing as sort of like you know, controlled
defined individual celebrity identity, so you had less and less rights.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
What do you think about the system protect ding powerful
men like Darryl Zanik?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
How do you think they were able to do that?
What's your take?
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I mean, the system protecting these corrupt men. I think
we're probably people backing the idea of the American dream
lived out through movies. You know, theatrical box office was
never was the only game in town. You know, you're
talking about many of these moguls came before the advent
or at least the popularity of television. So you've got
one medium that the entire world worships. And it's a
(30:26):
very high stakes game, especially for the actors that come
through these doors and you know, come from nothing and
want that American dream.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
As I said, and when you look at Weinstein, looking
at present day, I am absolutely gobsmacked at how many
people knew in Hollywood for how long and so that
goes back to them.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Right absolutely. It's funny when you talk about complicity, because
I think it works in a couple different ways. You know,
in terms of Harvey, where there are people who actively
were to abscond and paid off women that he abused, Yes,
on equivocally, there's also a different sort of emotional complicity,
you know what I mean, Like this idea that you know,
Harvey was mean, and because he was meaning, was somehow
(31:07):
tough or swashbuckling or whatever. But I think in his heyday,
the idea of just surviving him opened so many other
doors for you, even as one of his employees, you
know what I mean, Like Mira Max was the unquestionable
independent film king of the world, and getting a role
or having a successful MOVI to come out, and especially
you know Harvey's skills, a campaigning for oscars could be
(31:28):
really transformative for your career at a time when the
studios weren't making product that was really interesting to the
top and coming artists, and you could have this entirely
new path to stardom. That is such a great point.
I wanted to bring up one thing too, because we
were talking. You know, we're talking about systems that protect,
but let's talk about how this stuff sort of manifested
in the films. I was so fascinated to hear that
Louis B. Mayor just refused to put any kind of
(31:50):
depictions of sexuality in his films, no bedroom scenes, even
between married couples, and then behaves.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
This way exactly hypocrisy.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Well, I want to leave with a quote from the
fab Marilyn Monroe, and she summed up her experience with
powerful men in Hollywood like this, and this is from
her memoir.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I met them all.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Some were vicious and crooked, but you saw Hollywood with
their eyes, an overcrowded brothel and a merry go round
with beds instead of horses. So, Matt, I know that
really kind of paints that picture. Any final thoughts.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I think the one thing we've learned today is that
maybe they're as Thelma sid earlier as you quoted her.
There might be too many powerful, rich white men in charge.
So maybe we should shape that up a little bit
and see what happens. And now the world will know
what falses are.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And I think that's a perfect final thought.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Thank you so much, Thanks to Matt Donnelly for joining us,
and thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next
time with another episode in this six part series, The
Secret History of the casting couch from Variety Confidential. This
has been four o'clock Girls for Variety and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
I'm Tracy Patton.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
and Tracy Patten and written by John Ponder and Tracy Patton,
with additional research by Karen Mizogucci. Executive producers are Dea
Lawrence and Steve Gatos. Variety Confidential is recorded, edited, and
(33:21):
mixed at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording engineer Lester Dangler,
editor and mixer Charles Carroll
This show contains mature content and adult themes. It may
not be suitable for young audiences.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm in Cheviat Hills Park on Pico Boulevard in West LA.
Across the street is the West Motor Gate into the
twentieth century Fox Studios. There's a wall covered in posters
promoting the studio's latest movies and television shows. Beyond the
wall there are sound stages and production offices. One of
these is Building eighty eight, the former office of the
(00:35):
studio's founder in production chief, Daryl Zanak.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
He greenlighted dozens of films at.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Fox, many won Oscars, and many more were box office hits,
but he also had a dark side. He may have
been the most frequent abuser the casting couch Hollywood has
ever known. In today's episode of Variety Confidential, We'll use
Varieties archives to unearthed all the terrible things that Darryl
(01:02):
Zanik was accused of doing way back in the golden
age of Hollywood. From Variety and iHeart Podcasts, I'm Tracy Patnan.
This is the secret history of the casting couch. Today's
episode four o'clock Girls with Me Today is Matt Donnelley,
Variety Senior entertainment and media writer.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Hi, Matty, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Well, it's great to have you here, and I'm excited
to get your Hollywood perspective and insights.
Speaker 4 (01:30):
I think it's really important that we look back at,
you know, sort of these moguls and a lot of
their predation and behavior that has been so prevalent in
the past couple of years. Especially, you know, we have
Variety been very dedicated to covering me too, and it's
ramifications for everyone. So I am excited to sort of
look back and see where this all began. And thank
you for making such wonderful use of our archives.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Indeed, we need them.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Let's go back in time to the twentieth century Fox Lot.
On an afternoon in nineteen thirty eight, on the topp
floor of the executive offices in Building eighty eight, a
young woman, let's call her Mary Evans, sits in the
waiting room outside the office of the studio chief. She's
young and attractive, dark haired, with bright blue eyes, barely
(02:14):
twenty years old. She only recently moved to Los Angeles,
and her dream is to become a movie star. Unlike
thousands of other wannabes, however, Mary has landed a contract
with twentieth century Fox, just like Betty Grables, Sonya Hanny,
and Shirley Temple. She's only a day player now, and
she knows that her shot at stardom depends on what
(02:36):
happens at this audition. Finally, the secretary gets the call
and Mary may go in. The office is dimly lit,
large and wood paneled. Every paintable surface is done in
a shiny, dark green. The wall behind the desk is
covered in trophies from safaris with zebra skins and antelope heads.
(02:56):
She hears a toilet flush A few seconds later. F Xanik,
the founder and head of production at twentieth century Fox,
comes out. He's shorter than Mary imagined, about five foot six,
trim and fit. In his mid thirties. He has a
mustache and thinning salt and pepper hair. This cigar clamped
in his jaw juts upward. Xanik smiles, but not in
(03:20):
a friendly way. He meets her in front of the
desk and looks her up and down, eyeing her figure
like this wolf devouring its prey. Then he asks her
to turn around. She makes a graceful spin. He says,
so you want to be in pictures very much, She says, mm,
(03:41):
so do a lot of other girls, you know, he says.
He motions her to follow him. They go into a
small room off a hallway behind his office. There's a
day bed against the wall. He invites her to sit,
closes the door and locks it. Do you have experience,
he asks? She rattles off the roles she played in
college and summer theater back East. While she's talking, he
(04:05):
turns his back to her, fumbles with his front, and
then turns around and faces her. Mary is shocked, but
not surprised he has exposed himself. She's heard all about
Darryl Zanik from other actresses, and she knows that her
future at Fox is on the line, and she has
(04:25):
a decision to make. Dozens of others have had to
make the same choice, as dozens more will have to
after she's gone. She can walk away from Xanak in
the career she's dreamed of, or she can stay and
give Zanik what he wants.
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Now, I've never heard about this Mary Evans, which I'm
sure there are many, But tell me, did you say
yes or no?
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Okay? Full disclosure.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Mary Evans is a fictional version of dozens of women
who were called into Daryl Zanik's office for auditions, and
there's circumstantial evidence that many, maybe most, of these women
complied and had sex with Darryl Zanik. He held these
auditions so often that his colleagues came up with a
name for the women he coerced. They called them four
(05:08):
o'clock girls. Zanic himself is said to have called them
studio whores.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
You know, sadly, this is the story we've heard so
many times throughout Hollywood's history, and shockingly, even in our
contemporary landscape, this has post me too. This is after
the massive proliferation of social media, and somehow this behavior
is still persistent.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Believe me.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
I know, I've been doing a lot of research on
these guys, and it's unbelievable what they got away with
back then.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
How prevalent would you say this kind of behavior was
among moguls of that era?
Speaker 3 (05:35):
It was very, very prevalent.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I'm sure you know that the studios dominated the industry
in those days. The Big five were MGM, Columbia, RKO, Fox,
and Paramount, and of the five, four of their moguls
have been accused of abuse Louis B. Mayor at MGM,
Harry Kohane at Columbia, Howard to Use at RKO, and
Xanik at Fox.
Speaker 4 (05:59):
I've heard many of the Mayor stories over the years.
What's his deal?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Well, Louis B.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
Mayor is probably the best known mogul of that era,
maybe because his name is in the brand. MGM stands
for Metro Goldwyn Mayor. I'm sure you know that by
nineteen thirty seven he was the highest paid man in America,
and he believed that the movie should represent a sanitized
version of reality. He once said, no Mayor picture will
(06:24):
have bedroom scenes, even where the couples are married. But
there are conflicting accounts when it comes to his treatment
of women. One friend of his said LB couldn't get
laid in a whorehouse, and a producer at MGM said
Mayor was like a bashful boy. It wasn't until after
he was fifty that he realized sex could be fun.
(06:45):
On the other hand, according to Get Happy the Life
of Judy Garland by Gerald Clark, Mayor allegedly groped Judy
Garland when she was a teenager and held meetings with
her seated on his lap.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
And his hands on her chest.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
My god, that story just every time you hear it, it
just still hits the same horrible abuse of her and
so many other women. Well, tell me about Harry Cone
at Columbia.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
By most accounts, Cone expected sex from women in exchange
for movie roles. He even installed these secret passages into
actresses dressing rooms to give him easier access to them.
He also had this strange habit of opening a woman's
mouth with a pencil before he had sex with her
to inspect her teeth like he was sizing up a horse.
(07:30):
And when Rita Hayworth, one of his biggest stars, refused
to sleep with him, he had her stocked and even
bugged her dressing room. She said Cone was a monster.
He was also obsessively controlling. There's a famous story about
his interference in a relationship between his blonde star Kim
Novak and ratpacker Sammy Davis Junior. Cone ended the relationship
(07:55):
by reportedly putting a mob hit on Davis.
Speaker 4 (07:58):
That sounds like an entire different podcast episode. By the way,
do you know the mafia term for killing a celebrity,
and that's called excellent cadaver? To Steph why I So
let's move on to Howard Hughes, who was known as
the richest man in America at that point. When did
he get involved with Arkao So?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Hughes bought RKO's studios in nineteen forty eight and then
spent the next few years running it into the ground.
He was known for praying on underage girls. One of
them was sixteen year old Ida Lupino. She survived, however,
and went on to have a big career as an
A list actress and one of the few women directors
in the nineteen fifties and sixties. When Ava Gardner refused
(08:39):
to marry him, Hughes hired detectives to stalk her. She
finally put a stop to it by knocking him unconscious
with an ashtray. He was obsessed with collecting young actresses.
He'd sign them to these long term contracts, but he
never gave them work. Instead, he'd stashed them in mansions
and luxury apartments under the control of handlers.
Speaker 4 (09:02):
You know, it really makes me reconsider the title of
that Warren Baty movie he spent twenty years making about Hughes,
called Rules Don't Apply. Well, he sounds like a fantastic gentleman.
So let's go back to Xanik.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Yes, Xanik, and here's a little of his backstory. He
was born in Wahoo, Nebraska in nineteen oh two, but
moved to la with his mother when he was eight.
In nineteen seventeen, when he was fifteen, he lied about
his age and enlisted in the Army. He served in
France during World War One. After the war, when he
was seventeen, he moved to New York to become a writer,
(09:36):
but he had little success and eventually moved back to
Los Angeles. After working a series of odd jobs, he
sold a story to the Fox Film Company for five
hundred dollars that's about eighty five hundred dollars today. In
January nineteen twenty four, Xanik married Virginia Fox, an actress
who had success in silent films. The Xanix would have
(09:58):
three children, two daughters, Darylynn and Susan, and his son Richard,
who would become a successful movie producer himself. He produced Jaws,
Driving Miss Daisy, and Cocoon, among many other films, and
later that year Zanik was hired to produce Warner Brothers
popular Rin Tin Tin movies. Their star was a German
(10:18):
shepherd who in real life had been rescued by an
American soldier on a World War One battlefield. The movies
were hugely profitable, and the series put Xanik on the
map in Hollywood, and three years later he was promoted
to head of production at Warner's. His salary went up
from one hundred and twenty five dollars a week to
(10:38):
five thousand a week, which would be about ninety thousand
dollars per week today. In nineteen twenty eight, he was
the supervising producer on The Jazz Singer, the first full
length film recorded with sound. It had music singing and
the famous line you ain't heard nothing yet. But Warner
(10:59):
Brothers was tightly controlled by its owners, the four Warner Brothers.
Xanik was ambitious, and it became clear that the Warners
would never make him a partner. He resigned in nineteen
thirty three and went into business with Joseph Skank, one
of the most powerful moguls in early Hollywood. Together they
founded the Twentieth Century Company Film Studio. As part of
(11:20):
the deal, Zanik took home a huge paycheck. Variety reported
on April twenty fifth nineteen thirty three that he'd quote
knocked off one hundred thousand dollars bonus about two point
three million dollars today. Zanik went right to work. He
produced eighteen movies for twentieth Century Films in just eighteen months.
(11:42):
All but one of them was a success. Two years later,
Xanik and Skank merged Twentieth Century with the Fox Film Corporation.
The Fox Company was formed in nineteen fifteen by William Fox.
It was successful for many years, but by the mid
nineteen thirties it was struggling. In Variety Dies report on
the merger on May twenty ninth, nineteen thirty five, it
(12:04):
noted that Skank would serve as chairman of the board
and Xanik would oversee production as vice president. Fox had
something that twentieth century desperately needed, infrastructure. It owned a
three hundred acre studio on Pico Avenue where the Fox
Lot is still located today.
Speaker 4 (12:22):
So by the times on it gets to the Fox Lot,
was he already sort of notorious for this casting house behavior.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Well, what we know is he was having extramarital affairs,
but they were hookups, nothing long term or serious. And
we also know that his wife, Virginia, was aware of them.
Early on in nineteen twenty six, on a trip to Europe,
she heard him on the street below their hotel room
talking with a woman, so she grabbed a flower pot,
(12:48):
threw it off the balcony and hit him in the head.
Speaker 4 (12:51):
There should be a statue for her on that lot,
I think so.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Virginia eventually accepted that Daryl had women on the side
and invited a few of his famous lovers and their husbands,
believe it or not, for weekends at the Xanik's estate
in Palm Springs.
Speaker 4 (13:07):
Talking about four o'clock girls. In general, this level of
abuse is just so hard to fathom, but perhaps not
in our current landscape. How solid is all the reporting
from this.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Era, Well, there is definitely some myth making going on here,
and most of what we have is anecdotal, and like
it always is with these kinds of stories from Hollywood,
they may have been embellished over the years. For example,
Milton Spurling was a source with firsthand knowledge about what
went on. He worked closely with Xanik for years and
(13:36):
here's what he said. Every day, at four o'clock in
the afternoon, some girl on the lot would visit Zank
in his office. The doors would be locked after she
went in, no calls were taken, and for the next
half hour nothing happened. Headquarters shut down. Around the office,
work came to a halt for this sex siesta. But
later Spurling backtracked on that a bit. He said it
(13:59):
wasn't real every day, but it happened often enough. A
producer at Fox claimed that Xanik had given every actress
under contract at Fox of four o'clock audition treatment. That's
an exaggeration. We know of a few who rejected him
and then went on to have successful careers, But the
thing is those careers usually happened at a different studio.
Speaker 4 (14:22):
So who are some of the women that had to
suffer this abuse from Xenak that we would know? Well.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Some of the big stars included Barbara Stanwick, Judy Holiday,
Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Carol Landis, and Joan Collins.
Speaker 4 (14:36):
I love Barbara Stanwick. She's got so many great films
like The Lady Eve, Double Indemnity, Meet John Doe.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Yes, and she said Xanik chased her around his office
and attempted to rape her. Barbara Stanwick was one of
the few big stars in the Golden Age who never
signed a long term studio contract. She worked for Fox
a few times, including once in nineteen thirty eight, and
it is possible this incident occurred then.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
So what about Judy Holiday? She was usually typecast as
the ditzy blonde.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yes she was, and the irony there was that she
had an IQ of one hundred and seventy two, which
qualified her as a genius. Her encounter with xanik was
in nineteen forty three, when she was a twenty two
year old day player at Fox. Her agent put her
on Xanic's schedule for one of his four o'clock auditions.
The agent also advised her to wear falsees in her bra.
Speaker 4 (15:27):
And when you say falses, you mean like these pads
that go in your bra. I've got it a lot
of stylis entergey. It would call those chicken cutlets.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
Oh, I love the visual. Yes.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
At the meeting, xanik On zipped his pants, grabbed her
breasts and said, you belong to me. Judy pushed his
hands away, pulled out the falsies and threw them at him.
These belong to you, She reportedly said.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I don't.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
Assuming this is true, it may explain why Judy Holliday's
hit movies were all made at other studios.
Speaker 4 (16:00):
So Betty Grabel, A lot of people might know that
name but don't know much about her career.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
Yeah, Betty Grabel is best remembered today as the World
War Two pinup queen. There was a famous poster of
her in a swimsuit and heels with her back to
the camera, looking over her shoulder at the camera and smiling.
It was very popular with American soldiers serving overseas during
the war. Both before and after the war, Betty Grabil
was one of the biggest stars at Fox, but her
(16:27):
value to the company didn't stop Zanik from inviting her
into his office hideaway. After locking the door, he turned
and exposed himself. Grabil reportedly said, that's beautiful. You can
put it away now. She got up and left the room.
Speaker 4 (16:42):
And then we have Hollywood's perhaps most famous and perpetual
victim of sexual abuse and harassment, Marilyn Monroe.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Yes, Marilyn was the next big star to come along
at Fox after Betty Grable. In nineteen forty six, when
she was still Norma Jean Mortensen, she was given a
screen test at the studio. Everyone involved thought the test
was exceptional. One executive said it gave him a cold chill,
but when Darryl Xenik saw the test a few days later,
(17:10):
he got no chills. He signed her anyway on July
twenty third, nineteen forty six. When her contract was up.
A year later, it was not renewed. No reason was given,
and people who'd worked with Marylyn that year thought she
was great. There have been dozens of biographies about Marilyn Monroe.
She even wrote an autobiography herself, but it's still not
(17:31):
clear why Xenik dropped her. Then eight years later, Marilyn
said something to British actress Joan Collins that was interesting.
Collins was twenty one years old and had a promising
career in movies. Marilyn gave her advice about working in Hollywood,
especially watch out for Xanax. She said, if he doesn't
get what he wants, honey, he'll drop your contract. Was
(17:55):
Marilyn speaking from first hand experience. Did Zanik drop her
a nineteen teen forty seven because she had rejected him
during a private audition. Well we'll never know that, but
what we do know is Xanik would stall or even
up end careers of actresses who told him no. That's
apparently what happened with Carol Landis.
Speaker 4 (18:17):
I'm not as familiar with her. Tell me about Carol Well.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
Carol Landis was a talented and voluptuous actress who was
known for her comedic chops. By the time Xanik signed
her in nineteen forty, she had already been under contract
at Warner Brothers and other studios. Her early movies tended
to be be pictures, so the contract with Fox gave
her the opportunity to really up her game. After she
(18:39):
and Xanik had sex, a rare thing happened. Instead of
his usual one time deal, it got to be a
regular thing. But when she ended the affair, Xank reportedly
became furious. Her contract was not renewed in nineteen forty six,
and in a tragic note, two years later, after a
failed romance with married act to Rex Harrison, Carol Landis
(19:02):
committed suicide.
Speaker 4 (19:04):
That's so sad. What about Joan Collins? Did she steer
clear of Xenic after Maryland's warning?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
Well? She wrote recently that she tried to avoid them
at the studio and A few days later, she said,
Darryl Zanik pounced on me and trapped me against a wall,
breathing cigar fumes. He hissed, you haven't had anyone until
you had me. Honey, I'm the biggest and the best,
and I can go all night. I was so shocked,
I couldn't think of anything to say. I managed to
(19:31):
wriggle free and ran back to the set.
Speaker 4 (19:34):
Now, obviously there's no human resources department to report this too. Now,
but aren't we aware of other prominent Hollywood journalists were
aware of what Zenic was up to.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Well, there's very little evidence one way or the other,
with one notable exception. W. R. Wilkinson the Third has
written a couple of books about his father, Billy Wilkerson,
the founder and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. In his
book Hollywood Godfather, Wilkerson wrote that his father knew about
Xanik's four o'clock auditions, and he also knew about Harry
(20:04):
Cone's casting couch abuse at Columbia Pictures. Xank and Billy
Wilkerson were friends, and Wilkerson kept quiet about what he knew.
Speaker 4 (20:13):
So we've talked about Xeni's early in quite toxic life.
How did he fare later on?
Speaker 2 (20:18):
Well? During World War Two, he served as colonel in
the US Signal Corps. His job was to produce training
films and documentaries. He was deployed to Africa in nineteen
forty two to film The Invasion, which was one of
America's first big operations in the war. Later, he received
a legion of Merit for his war services. When he
returned to work at Fox, he had some housekeeping to do.
(20:41):
His office had been taken over by another producer. His
four o'clock hideaway had been turned into a file room.
Xanik had everything painted green again. The Safari trophies came back,
the filing cabinets were out, and a new day bed
was in The four o'clock auditions were soon back in business.
Speaker 4 (21:02):
My god, how long did this actually go on? And
when did it eventually stop?
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Well?
Speaker 2 (21:06):
They stopped at Fox in nineteen fifty six, when Zanik
left the company and became an independent producer. In nineteen
fifty seven, he produced The Sun Also Rises, which was
one of Errol Flynn's last films. He also produced The
Longest Day, starring John Wayne in nineteen sixty two. It
was a critical and box office hit, But then he
(21:27):
began to lose his footing. He put a lot of
effort into turning his girlfriends into movie stars. Never worked
out the careers of these women, Juliet Greco, Belladarvi and
Riina Demisch failed one after another.
Speaker 4 (21:41):
And was his wife still okay with all this?
Speaker 2 (21:43):
Apparently not. It was around this time that Darryl and
Virginia separated. She'd been patient for way too long. The
Xanax never divorced, but they lived apart for the next
twenty years. Xanik returned to Fox in nineteen sixty two
and served as president. He was there when the studio
released Cleopatra, one of the most expensive bombs Hollywood ever produced.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
So Xanik turned sixty in nineteen sixty two after this
tremendous failure. Is he thinking about retirement?
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Not at all? In fact, he started working remotely. He
moved to Paris in nineteen sixty five. He met a
model named Jean Villev Gille at a nightclub.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
There.
Speaker 2 (22:24):
Something sparked between them and a long term relationship developed.
She was nineteen, he was sixty three. Xanik and Jeanviev
moved into the penthouse of one of the most expensive
hotels in Paris, the Georges Sank. Around this time, Xanik
was promoted to chairman of the board at Fox. He
stayed in touch with the company's offices in Los Angeles
(22:45):
and New York with phone calls and telegrams. He also
held auditions in his penthouse.
Speaker 4 (22:51):
By the way, I do anything for a penthouse at
the George Sank, but I wouldn't do that. So were
these auditions sort of similar to the ones in the
Fox lot?
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Well, at least one of them was for British actress
and model Fiona Lewis sent her to Xanik's penthouse one
afternoon in nineteen seventy. She wrote about it in her
memoir Mistakes were made, some in French. She arrived promptly
with her portfolio. Xanik answered the door himself. Fiona Lewis
said he was wearing a silk dressing gown open at
(23:19):
the front. He was naked underneath, and casually holding his
penis between his first two fingers as if it were
a lit cigar.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Have you ever.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Seen anything so big? He asked, which I instinctively knew
wasn't a question, but I was floored. A wave of
englishness rose up. I couldn't utter a word in French.
I could have leveled him. Instead, I turned and headed
for the elevator. Hey, come back, he shouted, Come on,
I was just kidding.
Speaker 3 (23:49):
It was a joke.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
So she went back into the suite. They sat on
the sofa and she showed.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
Him her portfolio.
Speaker 2 (23:55):
While she talked about her career, Xanik listened with what
she called the used indifference. At one point, Jean Viev
came in. Fiona Lewis described her as a young, elegantly
dressed Grace Kelly type, wearing gray flannel slacks and a
white Kashmir sweater. Jean Viev appeared to be looking for
her cigarettes, but Louis felt like she was being checked out.
(24:18):
After Jeanviev left, Xana got to the point he asked
Fiona if she would like to sleep with Jeanviev. She
hadn't expected that, and when she said no, he opened
a wooden box on the coffee table, took out a
few thousand francs and put them on the table in
front of her, But she wasn't interested. She decided to leave,
(24:38):
and on her way out she heard Xanik shout, you
will never work in Hollywood. Fiona Lewis proved him wrong
about that. She appeared in more than twenty movies in
television shows in Hollywood over the next five decades.
Speaker 4 (24:52):
So Zanic is now in his seventies. Is he about
to retire?
Speaker 3 (24:55):
Well?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
His health began to fail and he and Jeanviev moved
to New York. In nineteen seventy two, Xank was diagnosed
with cancer and his jaw. Doctors removed part of the jaw,
two teeth, part of his tongue, and some muscles, lymph nodes,
and veins from his neck. And despite all of this,
after the surgery, the doctor said he had no deformity.
(25:16):
A few months later, things took an even more drastic turn.
Xanic experienced memory loss and was eventually diagnosed with organic
brain syndrome known today as neurocognitive disorder. His mental decline
was quick, steep, and irreversible.
Speaker 4 (25:32):
That's a sort of stunning series of events for someone
who had been an action for so long.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
What happened next, Well, let's go back to an evening
in April nineteen seventy three. A plane from New York
lands at the Palm Springs Airport in California. Seated in
first class are Daryl Zanik, his girlfriend, Jean Viev, his secretary,
his daughter's and Xanik's two dogs, Lisa and Tina. As
soon as the landing stairs are rolled into place and
the cabin door is open, Xanik grabs his dogs and
(26:00):
down the steps. Jan Viev watches from the top of
the stairs as he trots across the tarmac to a
limo where Virginia Xanik is waiting. He hands Virginia one
of the dogs and takes her by the arm. They
climb into a limo and drive off towards Xanik's Palm
Springs estate. Jen Viev realizes then that after eight years,
(26:21):
her life with Darryl Zanak and all the wealth and
privilege that came with it, has come to a close.
Speaker 4 (26:26):
So a gentleman to the very end, How long does
he live?
Speaker 3 (26:30):
Well?
Speaker 2 (26:30):
Virginia Xanik nursed him for the next six years, and
he died at seventy seven on December twenty second, nineteen
seventy nine. Okay, so let's talk about this story, Matt
as it compares with recent events in the me Too era.
I just wanted to read a quote from an article
in Variety by Thelma Adams. She writes the practice of
powerful white men exploiting young actresses trying to break into
(26:53):
the movie business has a historical precedent as old as
the movie business itself.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
Says it, all right, that's kind of it. That's the
entire point.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
So what's your take on all of this? Now that
you've heard the story and you know then and now.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
The biggest takeaway I have is just it's going through
you know, this incredible and I've learned so much about
Darryl's anik. But the one question I have is what
is any of this worth? A few good movies? All
this behavior somehow doesn't seem to equal to some of
its parts. Not that it should, but it's just it's
just very sad. And also for the people who aren't
as lucky as Betty Grable and Barbara Stanwick and Joan Collins.
(27:31):
And not to say Marilyn was lucky, but think about
how many nameless, faceless women there were that went back home,
got back on greyhound buses after behavior like this. It's
it's a bit of a bummer.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
And you know, I keep using this quote the more
things change, the more they stay the same.
Speaker 4 (27:47):
Is you know, in reporting on you know, the Dawn
and the progression of the Me Too movement, I think
that the word predation predatory is very applicable here because
it does have a methodology, right. Think about how many
of these instances have the same circumstances. So there's powerful
people using you know, their influence and promise of employment
to get people alone in rooms, to offer them, to
proposition them, to pay them, to ask them if they
(28:09):
don't work. It's all very very methodical or it's very
pathological in a way too.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
And you know what, when I read or when I
was researching about Xanak and his mo Yeah, it's so
similar to Weinstein, only Weinstein asked for massages, but that
same vibe, it seems so similar absolutely.
Speaker 4 (28:27):
And also even just the construction of the lots and
just all the you know you mentioned about infrastructure being
something that twentieth century really needed to scale up to
become twentieth century Fox, but so much of what's even
put in the groundwork there, it facilitated this secret pathways
into actresses dressing rooms. It's interesting. I've actually been to
(28:47):
the Louis B. Mayer office in the Tholburg Building on
the Sony Pictures lot, and I've seen the secret passageways
from his actual like maybe third floor office down into
the screening rooms, and it takes on you know, you
might think that some really cool trick of architecture or
just like a nice lex of power, but it takes
on such a different connotation when you maybe know what
they were used for. You know what those passages were
(29:08):
carrying or what might have happened in them.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Okay, So speaking about the lots, then we had the
studio system cities within a city. Richard Zanik said they
were self sustaining except for the police force, which you
obviously can't have, but there was this sort of infrastructure
and their ability to just control everything absolutely.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
I mean, the studio system was a closed loop where
you had a sole financier. It was very small collection
people at the top making decisions. And what's even more
interesting now, because you know the world we live in,
celebrities are so diversified and so branded in and of themselves,
but this was a system where they would sign you
for eight or nine year contracts and they could change
your image on a dime. They would just literally shuffle
(29:49):
you in and out of movies like cattle. There was
no such thing as sort of like you know, controlled
defined individual celebrity identity, so you had less and less rights.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
What do you think about the system protect ding powerful
men like Darryl Zanik?
Speaker 3 (30:03):
How do you think they were able to do that?
What's your take?
Speaker 4 (30:06):
I mean, the system protecting these corrupt men. I think
we're probably people backing the idea of the American dream
lived out through movies. You know, theatrical box office was
never was the only game in town. You know, you're
talking about many of these moguls came before the advent
or at least the popularity of television. So you've got
one medium that the entire world worships. And it's a
(30:26):
very high stakes game, especially for the actors that come
through these doors and you know, come from nothing and
want that American dream.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
As I said, and when you look at Weinstein, looking
at present day, I am absolutely gobsmacked at how many
people knew in Hollywood for how long and so that
goes back to them.
Speaker 4 (30:45):
Right absolutely. It's funny when you talk about complicity, because
I think it works in a couple different ways. You know,
in terms of Harvey, where there are people who actively
were to abscond and paid off women that he abused, Yes,
on equivocally, there's also a different sort of emotional complicity,
you know what I mean, Like this idea that you know,
Harvey was mean, and because he was meaning, was somehow
(31:07):
tough or swashbuckling or whatever. But I think in his heyday,
the idea of just surviving him opened so many other
doors for you, even as one of his employees, you
know what I mean, Like Mira Max was the unquestionable
independent film king of the world, and getting a role
or having a successful MOVI to come out, and especially
you know Harvey's skills, a campaigning for oscars could be
(31:28):
really transformative for your career at a time when the
studios weren't making product that was really interesting to the
top and coming artists, and you could have this entirely
new path to stardom. That is such a great point.
I wanted to bring up one thing too, because we
were talking. You know, we're talking about systems that protect,
but let's talk about how this stuff sort of manifested
in the films. I was so fascinated to hear that
Louis B. Mayor just refused to put any kind of
(31:50):
depictions of sexuality in his films, no bedroom scenes, even
between married couples, and then behaves.
Speaker 3 (31:55):
This way exactly hypocrisy.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
Well, I want to leave with a quote from the
fab Marilyn Monroe, and she summed up her experience with
powerful men in Hollywood like this, and this is from
her memoir.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
I met them all.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
Some were vicious and crooked, but you saw Hollywood with
their eyes, an overcrowded brothel and a merry go round
with beds instead of horses. So, Matt, I know that
really kind of paints that picture. Any final thoughts.
Speaker 4 (32:27):
I think the one thing we've learned today is that
maybe they're as Thelma sid earlier as you quoted her.
There might be too many powerful, rich white men in charge.
So maybe we should shape that up a little bit
and see what happens. And now the world will know
what falses are.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And I think that's a perfect final thought.
Speaker 2 (32:40):
Thank you so much, Thanks to Matt Donnelly for joining us,
and thank you for tuning in. We'll be back next
time with another episode in this six part series, The
Secret History of the casting couch from Variety Confidential. This
has been four o'clock Girls for Variety and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
I'm Tracy Patton.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Variety Confidential is a production of Variety Content Studio and
iHeart Podcasts. It was produced by Sidney Kramer, John Ponder,
and Tracy Patten and written by John Ponder and Tracy Patton,
with additional research by Karen Mizogucci. Executive producers are Dea
Lawrence and Steve Gatos. Variety Confidential is recorded, edited, and
(33:21):
mixed at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood. Recording engineer Lester Dangler,
editor and mixer Charles Carroll
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