14. Henry Willson built a career upon the sexual abuse and blackmail of young men
Henry Willson first worked in Hollywood as a reporter and writer for gossip magazines before starting his own agency after working for a time for Zeppo Marx as a talent manager. Willson, who was gay, sought out young wannabe male actors, or simply young gay men who caught his eye whom he then convinced had the talent to be actors. Among his recruits was a truck driver named Roy Scherer. Willson changed his name to Rock Hudson. Another was a Navy veteran named Robert Moseley, Willson renamed him Guy Madison. Willson was unable to seduce Madison, according to the latter’s biographers, and shifted his attention to another veteran, Arthur Kelm, renamed Tab Hunter.
When Willson’s prodigy Sherer/Hudson found stories of his personal life to be in the hands of the tabloid Confidential, Willson offered the gossip magazine stories of Kelm/Hunter’s gay social life for publication instead, protecting his most valuable client’s earning power. Hunter later revealed in his autobiography that well-publicized affairs of his with Debbie Reynolds and Natalie Wood, as well as others, had been fabricated by his manager in order to shield the fact of his sexual preference. His preferences were well known, however, and an insider’s joke of the 1950s was that “Natalie Wood and Tab Wouldn’t”. Willson demanded that his client keep up the charade in order to keep working, a demand he also imposed on Rock Hudson, and other clients. It was Willson who first suggested Rock Hudson marry Phyllis Gates, and he insisted Rock keep up the charade of macho heterosexuality in order to continue working.