Tony Curtis Revealed the 7 Worst Bigots He Couldn't Stand In Old Hollywood Golden Age History

Tony Curtis was born Bernard Schwartz on June 3, 1925, in the Bronx to Hungarian Jewish immigrants. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, studied acting on the GI Bill at the Dramatic Workshop of the New School, and signed with Universal in 1948. He starred in Houdini, Trapeze, Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones, Some Like It Hot, Operation Petticoat, Spartacus and The Boston Strangler, and made more than 100 films across six decades. In 1958 he insisted that Sidney Poitier receive co-starring billing beside him on The Defiant Ones. Curtis wrote two memoirs, Tony Curtis: The Autobiography (1993) and American Prince: A Memoir (2008), written with Peter Golenbock. He died on September 29, 2010, at his home outside Las Vegas at age 85. This video examines seven Golden Age figures connected to the prejudice Tony Curtis described across his career. Three of them, Ray Milland, Debbie Reynolds and Robert Mitchum, appear in Curtis's own account in American Prince, and the video presents that account as his. The other four, Arthur Godfrey, Hedda Hopper, Howard Hawks and Howard Hughes, are examined through the documented record and seen through the lens of Curtis's life. Critics called American Prince unreliable in places, and the video says so wherever Curtis's word is the only source. What's covered in this video: Arthur Godfrey: Beginning in 1953, Godfrey broadcast from the Kenilworth hotel in Bal Harbour, Florida, and later became a part owner. Historian Paul George of HistoryMiami says the hotel advertised Gentiles Only and Restricted Clientele. Dick Cavett wrote in the New York Times that Godfrey later bought the hotel and abolished the policy. Ray Milland: The Lost Weekend Oscar winner joined Curtis in The Last Tycoon (1976). Curtis wrote in American Prince that Milland was ill at ease with his Jewish faith, and also that older actors resented how good he looked in the film. Hedda Hopper: Historian Jennifer Frost found in 2008 that the gossip columnist, read by an estimated 32 million people a day, was known inside the industry as deeply bigoted. Hopper championed stereotyped Black roles and supported the Hollywood blacklist. Howard Hawks: The director of Rio Bravo and Red River was known for disparaging comments about Jews and made one in front of Lauren Bacall, born Betty Joan Perske. Bacall recalled the moment in her 1978 memoir By Myself. Howard Hughes: Memos stolen from his Los Angeles headquarters on June 5, 1974, and published in Michael Drosnin's Citizen Hughes show Hughes called James Earl Jones a repulsive gob of grease and soured on buying ABC in 1968 after seeing what he believed was an interracial date on The Dating Game. Debbie Reynolds: Curtis wrote that Reynolds mocked his line from Son of Ali Baba (1952) on a television talk show and announced that Tony Curtis was not his real name, which made him wonder if anti-Semitism was behind it. Reynolds married Eddie Fisher, a Jewish singer, in 1955, and this video found no other source accusing her of prejudice. Robert Mitchum: Curtis named Mitchum as one of the older actors who hated him on The Last Tycoon. In a February 1983 Esquire interview, asked about the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Mitchum answered "So the Jews say." In a March 9, 1983 letter, he claimed he had been playing a character from That Championship Season and said he was sorry. Mentioned in this video: Tony Curtis, Bernard Schwartz, American Prince, Tony Curtis: The Autobiography, Peter Golenbock, Washington Post, Universal, Dramatic Workshop of the New School, This Too Shall Pass, Houdini, Trapeze, Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones, Sidney Poitier, Some Like It Hot, Operation Petticoat, Spartacus, The Boston Strangler, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Arthur Godfrey, Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, Arthur Godfrey Time, CBS, Kenilworth, Bal Harbour, HistoryMiami, Paul George, Dick Cavett, New York Times, Miami Beach, Lauren Bacall, Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend, Billy Wilder, Dial M for Murder, Alfred Hitchcock, Love Story, The Last Tycoon, Elia Kazan, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Hedda Hopper, Louella Parsons, Los Angeles Times, Jennifer Frost, Journal of African American History, James Baskett, Charlie Chaplin, Hollywood blacklist, Howard Hawks, Slim Hawks, Harper's Bazaar, Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, By Myself, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Sex and the Single Girl, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda, Howard Hughes, Hell's Angels, The Outlaw, Jane Russell, RKO, TWA, Desert Inn, Las Vegas, Michael Drosnin, Citizen Hughes, James Earl Jones, ABC, The Dating Game, Ebony, Debbie Reynolds, Singin' in the Rain, Tammy, The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Eddie Fisher, Carrie Fisher, Son of Ali Baba, Adam Kirsch, Robert Mitchum, The Winds of War, Esquire, Barry Rehfeld, Herbert Luft, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, That Championship Season, Tablet, Holocaust #TonyCurtis, #GoldenAgeHollywood, #HollywoodSecrets