Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society Sex & Scandal in Hollywood’s Golden Age
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Mar 6, 2026 
William Mann, historian and author of Tinseltown, Murder, Morphine and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood, guides a tour of early Hollywood’s wild beginnings. He covers why filmmakers moved west. He digs into bawdy silent-era sexuality and queer visibility. He recounts scandals, the rise of studio self-censorship, the strict Production Code and the creative ways filmmakers subverted it.
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How Hollywood Became A Democratic Industry
- Early Hollywood was a democratic Wild West where anyone with a camera could make movies and working-class audiences could afford nickel admissions.
- By 1913 the industry concentrated in Southern California and rapid growth turned immigrant filmmakers into wealthy studio founders.
Early Inclusion Then Rapid Exclusion
- Women and queer people had significant creative roles in 1910s Hollywood, with ~350 women filmmakers active then.
- That representation collapsed by the late 1920s to single digits, leaving almost no women directors by talkies.
Fatty Arbuckle's Trial Ended His Career
- Fatty Arbuckle was a beloved comedian who hosted wild Prohibition-era parties and was accused after a guest's seizure, leading to trials and a career-ending boycott despite acquittal.
- Studios used his case as a morality example to justify self-censorship and public bans.