15. The Perils of Show Business – a warning to young women – was first published in 1956
Picturegoer was a British film fan magazine, noted for its inclusion of photos in the style which became known as cheesecake in the 1950s, which warned of the dangers young women faced in the film industry in a 1956 article, The Perils of Show Business. The authors – both male – introduced the article by calling it “the most depressing story we have ever written”. The article, besides describing the predatory behavior of film producers, financiers, directors, and actors, also described the various means adopted by young aspiring actresses to thwart the romantic intentions of their mentors and bosses. Still, the biases of the time are present, one subheading of the article warns readers not to blame the men, and warned that some young actresses offered themselves freely, thereby complicating matters for all.
The Hollywood studios and the studio system were in its death throes by the time the Picturegoer article appeared in print, though the great publicity machines still existed and still produced their self-defending flack with abandon. The 1950s were considered to be an innocent age, when America had only recently asserted its virility and moral virtue, and within a short time the existence of the casting couch and the attitudes towards women exhibited by male Hollywood were relegated to the role of gossip and fiction. Warnings such as The Perils of Show Business and similar articles were considered to be salacious tripe created by gossip magazines, as were the whispered suspicions that a man as masculine and handsome as Rock Hudson could possibly prefer boys over the adorable and virginal Doris Day. The desire to remain ignorant went a long way toward preserving sexist behavior in Hollywood, as well as everywhere else.