Out of Frame: Lana Turner & Johnny Stompanato (ft. Hollywood Crime Scene)

WHAT WENT WRONG

This episode explores the tumultuous life of Hollywood icon Lana Turner, tracing her journey from a childhood of poverty to international st

Key takeaways

• Lana Turner's 'Sweater Girl' persona was a calculated marketing tactic by MGM to exploit her sexuality due to censorship constraints.
• Johnny Stompanato used his charm and connections to the Mickey Cohen crime syndicate to manipulate wealthy women for financial gain.

Main topics

• Lana Turner's early life and poverty
• The rise of the 'Sweolog Girl' persona

Notable quotes

I was a scullery maid, a cheap Cinderella with no hope of a pumpkin.

Conclusion

The episode provides a sobering look at the intersection of Hollywood

Transcript preview

Speaker 4 (0:21) Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to What Went Wrong, your favorite podcast full stop that just so happens to be about movies and how it's nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone one with a plot as crazy as the real life crime that we're going to be talking about today. Was it a crime? I don't know. Maybe that's part of the conversation that we can have. When we were covering The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, I very briefly recounted a story. about Sean Connery involving one of his earliest co-stars, Lana Turner. And I asked you listeners if you would be interested in a deeper dive into Lana and the very infamous case that she is associated with. And we got a resounding yes. So that episode is finally here. And... We have some very special guests who are going to help me dive into this. Expert witnesses, if you will. We have Rachel Fisher and Desi Jettikin from the podcast Hollywood Crime Scene, which is great if you enjoy What Went Wrong, especially if you've enjoyed some of these out-of-frame episodes, which this will be. You will definitely enjoy their show. So welcome, Rachel and Desi. Hi. Hi, Speaker 2 (1:28) Lizzie. Thanks for having us. Speaker 4 (1:30) Of course. I'm very excited to talk about this. You covered this case back in 2018 on your show. Was that right? Yeah, it was an early episode for us. I want to say it was a Mother's Speaker 2 (1:40) Day episode. Is that right? I think so. We used to be a lot more out of pocket in the early days of Hollywood crime scene. Speaker 4 (1:50) Well, I really enjoyed it. And I thought that you all would be great to come on and talk about this because it is a very interesting case, especially when you dive into Lana's history and backstory. But before we get there, can you tell listeners a little bit about your show? Speaker 2 (2:04) Sure. Hollywood Crime Scene is a podcast where we discuss all things. Hollywood, Los Angeles, celebrity scandals, crimes, weird pop culture. We even go into the paranormal because Hollywood is very haunted. We Speaker 3 (2:22) talk a lot about history. We also have some crossover with you. We do go into behind the scenes of movies. We've done a few of those episodes. And we also do crimes that inspired movies as well. So we'll kind of look at how it differed from the original material or the truth of this story and how the fictional movie came out. So we'll go into that as well. Speaker 2 (2:42) Love that. Yeah, some of my favorite episodes have been our movie versus reality, like our four-part epic Titanic series. Ooh, amazing. I haven't listened to that Speaker 4 (2:52) yet. I will have to. Titanic itself, the behind the scenes, James Cameron. Is he a criminal? I don't know. I love him. He's terrifying. Well, we talked about it. Great. Okay. I will definitely listen. Okay. So we have a lot to go through. So I do want to get started. I will do a trigger warning here at the top. We are going to be talking briefly, although it will be included about sexual assault. And obviously, because of the nature of this case, we will be discussing murder or justifiable homicide. But it is a death. So. Let's jump right in. What is both of your experience with Lana Turner? Have you watched any of her movies? Are you familiar with at least like what she looks like or anything? Speaker 3 (3:30) Yeah, I mean, she's in one of my all time favorite movies, Imitation of Life. So I kind of knew her from her really melodramatic roles. Obviously, I've seen A Postman Always Rings Twice. So I probably have seen sort of her bigger iconic movies. And we've discussed this on our show, but we were both kind of Hollywood Babylon girls growing up. So I knew about the crime as well. I think that's definitely part of her whole deal. Like if you know her, you probably know about this incident because it was a major crime. Like, I mean, probably one of the first big Hollywood murders. So yeah, that's my kind of experience with her. Speaker 2 (4:06) Yeah. Like Desi said, I love the book. Hollywood Babylon when I was a kid. And I watched a lot of black and white movies. I still love them to this day. So obviously I saw Lana Turner movies. Our love of old Hollywood definitely informed starting our podcast in general. Hollywood's full of crime. That is one thing that we've Speaker 4 (4:26) definitely learned. Same. You know, I think I was most familiar with her, unfortunately, just through this crime. And I was not particularly familiar with a lot of her films. I did watch a few. Postman Always Rings Twice is probably one of her most famous performances. I know it was one of her favorites as well. So listeners, if you want a reference point, that's a good one, especially because she plays what would become the classic film noir femme fatale in that. Interesting adaptation, the things that they chose to change from the book to the screen, but we don't have time to get into that here. All right, so let's dive in. So on February 8th, 1921, in Wallace, Idaho, a little girl named Julia Jean was born to John Virgil Turner and his wife Mildred. Now, Julia would go by the nickname Judy for now until she would, of course, later change her name to Lana. We are getting ahead of ourselves. For the purposes of simplifying today's story, I'm going to call her Lana from here on out because it would get very confusing. John had met Mildred after returning from World War I. He'd traveled west looking for mining work and met Mildred, who was then... 16, out dancing. Lana, aka Julia, was born just one year later. After Lana arrived, John opened a dry cleaning shop, but the business went belly up and he returned to mining. So her family was really quite, quite poor when she was growing up. But according to her own memoir, she had very happy memories of both of her parents. Although when she was six, they packed up everything they owned into a car and headed to San Francisco. Eventually they landed in Stockton, California. And in this very small Stockton house, Lana would frequently hear strange, unknown voices drifting up from the basement. And she finally insisted that her father explain what was going on, so he took her downstairs. And there she saw a copper vat with rubber tubing coming out of it. And he said, don't you dare tell anybody. Obviously, she was too young to know what this is, but what do you think her dad was up to in the basement? Speaker 2 (6:16) Making meth. He was making the 20s version of Mac. Speaker 4 (6:20) Yes, Speaker 2 (6:20) he was making Moonshine. Yes, yes. Speaker 4 (6:24) They Speaker 2 (6:24) didn't Speaker 4 (6:25) have Sudafed available. Yes, he was operating a Moonshine still. And again, she was just a kid. She did not realize how illegal this was. So she did tell a friend who, of course, told their parents. And sure enough, the cops showed up and arrested her father. Now, he thankfully was released with just a fine and a slap on the wrist, but he did bail shortly thereafter. Mildred told her daughter that he had to go traveling to sell insurance and also, I guess, stop infinitely for cigarettes along the way because she and John had separated. Although they never officially divorced, as far as I know. Mildred had a very difficult time making enough money for herself and her daughter to survive on. At times, they literally lived off of crackers and milk. I think this is really important to remember as we get into Lana's activities later in her life that, you know, come off as very extravagant and glamorous that this is where she came from. Right. John did stop in to say, hi, kid, every once in a while. And when Judy was nine years old, he was in town thanks to a traveling craps game that was taking place in the basement of the San Francisco Chronicle, which is wild. He was a gambler, essentially a professional gambler. And I don't want to paint him in the worst possible light. He did love his kid. In fact, he actually won pretty big at this craps game and told everyone there that he was going to use the winnings to buy his daughter a bicycle. And then he stuffed all the money in his left sock and he headed out. Lana never got that bicycle because the next morning he was found dead. Oh, Speaker 2 (7:51) no. He Speaker 4 (7:51) had been bludgeoned to death with a blackjack. And sure enough, his left sock was empty. Speaker 2 (7:56) Damn, I don't remember any of this from our episode. I don't remember Speaker 3 (7:59) what we talked about. You know why? Because early on, we didn't go into the backstory as much as we do now. Yeah, Speaker 4 (8:06) you're right. Your episode was great because it focused a lot more on the actual crime than we will talk about that quite a bit here. But I think what I'm going to do a little bit more is kind of go into like her history and sort of the Hollywood side of it as well. Speaker 3 (8:19) Yes. Speaker 4 (8:19) So your episode is a great companion piece to this. Now, no one was ever charged for his murder, but she later said, quote, I know that my father's sweetness and gaiety, his warmth and his tragedy have never been far from me. That and a sense of loss and of growing up too fast. Now, I should mention our main sources for today are Lana, The Lady, The Legend, The Truth, which is the title of her autobiography. Good for you, Lana. Detour, A Hollywood Tragedy, which is the memoir that Cheryl Crane, her daughter, wrote, which is really excellent. 48 Hours presents Vanity Fair Hollywood Scandal, and then a couple of other Vanity Fair articles, as well as many other interviews and retrospectives. Speaker 4 (9:04) Now, naturally, this really shook up the whole family. Mildred felt like she was not able to care for Lana appropriately at this point. Remember, Mildred is very young. She's 17 years older than Lana. So she sent her to board with a Catholic family. But as things in Lana's life have a way of doing, that situation turned abusive pretty quickly. The mother in the family would reportedly abuse Lana when chores weren't done to her liking. Turner later said of this time, quote, I was a scullery maid, a cheap Cinderella with no hope of a pumpkin. She's got some great quotes, quite a way with words. So as soon as Mildred discovered what was happening to Lana at the home, she yanked her out and did her best as a single mom. I actually think your use of this as a Mother's Day episode was appropriate. Speaker 2 (9:46) There's Speaker 4 (9:47) a Speaker 2 (9:47) lot of mommy stuff happening. It's very complex. Yeah, Speaker 4 (9:51) for Speaker 2 (9:51) sure. Speaker 4 (9:52) Listen, you could have done Mommy Dearest and you didn't. So I think that, you know. We did that Speaker 2 (9:55) later. For a different Mother's Day. Yeah, because I think we did that in 2019. That might have been around Mother's Day. I'm not sure. It would have been very on the nose. I don't remember. I like it. I Speaker 4 (10:07) watched it with my mom. So there you go. Nice. Yes. So the two would often escape to the movies, which inspired Mildred to frequently jazz up the very few dresses she owned. This rubbed off on Lana, who would study Vogue and etiquette books. I mean, they were dirt poor, but they looked great. That's all that matters. Yeah, well, they did what they could. Being a single mom during the Great Depression took an enormous toll on Mildred's health. She did develop a pretty severe respiratory illness, and a doctor told her her best bet was to, what did they always tell you to do back in the day when you had- Smoke. Well, yeah. Or move to a drier climate. Yeah. You know Speaker 2 (10:43) what? I'm an idiot because my great-grandfather literally moved to Los Angeles for the climate. Yes. Speaker 4 (10:50) That's just what they did. They literally were like, try your best in Los Angeles. Good luck. Right. That is exactly what they told her to do. So in 1936, Lana and Mildred landed in L.A. They were staying with Mildred's friend and Lana was enrolled at Hollywood High. And Speaker 2 (11:05) that's where my great grandpa went. Really? Yes. They just dropped all the kids, the sick kids. They'd move from, you know, wherever, Ohio, Montana. They just drop them right off at Hollywood High. Colds were cured. Yep. Speaker 4 (11:17) It Speaker 2 (11:18) is dry or it used Speaker 4 (11:20) to be. Now it's humid and horrible. She didn't really care for schoolwork, though, and she frequently cut class, which is what she was doing on the day that she was sitting at a soda counter at the Top Hat Cafe when she noticed a guy staring at her. He got up, he came over, and said he was W.R. Wilkerson, founder and publisher of The Hollywood Reporter. And then, of course, he asked her if she'd like to be in the pictures, to which she was like, literally never crossed my mind. She said, I have to go ask my mom. Her mom did eventually say yes. Billy Wilkerson, by the way. Total scumbag. Oh, I believe. He's staring at young girls at the soda counter. What are you doing at the soda counter in the first place, sir? You're a grown man. Her mom did say yes, and Wilkerson followed through and connected Lana, at this point still Judy, with actor-turned-agent Zeppo Mark. Now, he asked her how old she was. She said 15. And what do you think he said to that? Yippee! Close enough. Close enough is almost right. He said, in Hollywood, you should never say that again. He said, from here on out, you're 18. Speaker 3 (12:20) Okay. Speaker 4 (12:21) Yikes. So with zero acting training, she nabbed her first actual role in They Won't Forget, directed by Mervyn LeRoy. But before the movie came out, Mervyn was like, you need a new name. And so she's like, how about Judy Jean? And he's like, no, no, no, your last name is fine. It's your first name that's hot trash. And so he opened up a book of names, started looking under the letter L. And then as she wrote in her memoir, quote, out of nowhere, a name came into my head as clearly as though God had decided to speak to me. Of course, Lana Turner had officially arrived. I gotta say, she nailed it. It's a good name. Really good. And I like that she picked it. Speaker 3 (12:59) One thing that always made me laugh was that her name, whatever, I guess she was going by Judy, wasn't considered cool enough or glamorous enough. But that's what they gave Judy Garland because her name is Frances. I Speaker 4 (13:11) know. But you know what's funny? My daughter's middle name is Frances. I actually love that name. And my granny was Frances. But they were almost contemporaries, I believe. Long-term, it may have been slightly older, but not much. And it's interesting because Judy Garland was seen as sort of like the ugly duckling of... MGM when they were there pretty much simultaneously, I believe. And Lana obviously was trotted out as this sex symbol. Hollywood didn't treat either particularly well. Speaker 2 (13:36) No. No. Speaker 4 (13:37) Now, her part in the movie was very small, but much to Lana's surprise, a whole bunch of the marketing was focused on her thanks to her sweater. Do you all remember this? Speaker 3 (13:47) So by Speaker 4 (13:48) the standards of the time, it was a pretty tight sweater, I guess. And I guess there was a very specific and gross reason for this. In the film, Lana plays a young woman whose murder sparks the trial that the film follows. It all takes place in the Deep South. Basically, a lawyer, I believe played by Claude Rains, decides to target a man from the North as the main suspect, since that might boost his career more. It's based on a novel that was loosely based on the real Leo Frank case. But the thing is, in the book, it's pretty clear that the woman was sexually assaulted before being killed. Now, thanks to the Hayes Production Code, which we've talked about quite a bit on the show, they could not explicitly say that. So here is what director Mervyn LeMoy said instead. Quote, it was very important that the girl in our story have what they call flesh impact. She had to make it look like it was a sex murder. You'll notice we never use the word rape in the screenplay. We couldn't say things like that in those days. I figured that a tight sweater on a beautiful young girl would convey to the audience everything we couldn't say outright. Did it, Mervyn? Yikes. I don't know about