Confidential magazine
Confidential magazine, launched by Robert Harrison in the early 1950s, was a scandal-focused publication that gained significant popularity, peaking with a circulation of over four million. It aimed to unveil sensational stories about Hollywood stars, often highlighting themes of adultery and interracial romance, which were particularly controversial at the time. The magazine became notorious for its exposés, including allegations of homosexuality against celebrities, which could have dire consequences for their careers. Despite facing backlash from Hollywood figures and attempts to suppress its publication, Confidential thrived, at times even receiving information from studios and entertainers themselves. However, its sensational approach ultimately led to a criminal libel trial in 1957, resulting in a settlement that forced the magazine to abandon its signature style. This shift caused its popularity to decline, leading to its sale shortly thereafter. Confidential's legacy is complex, as it challenged the sanitized image of the 1950s while also influencing the development of future sensationalist journalism.
Confidential magazine
Identification American scandal magazine
Date Published from 1952 to 1958
Publisher Robert Harrison
Confidential magazine shocked and delighted U.S. readers with its depictions of the misbehavior of Hollywood movie stars.
Key Figures
Robert Harrison (1904-1978), publisher
In 1982, the writer Tom Wolfe called Confidential magazine “the most scandalous scandal magazine in the history of the world.” During its brief history, the magazine outraged Hollywood movie studios and terrified the actors who worked for them. A press agent once accused it of starting a reign of terror. However, it also became one of the most popular magazines in the United States, with a circulation of more than four million, higher than that of such respected magazines as the Saturday Evening Post and Look.
Confidential magazine was the brainchild of Robert Harrison, a publisher of naughty glamour magazines with titles such as Wink, Titter, and Flirt. When the glamour magazines started to lose money in 1952, he turned to something new: a magazine that would go behind the scenes and reveal titillating information about Hollywood movie stars and other entertainment figures.
Confidential ran stories that exposed the supposed source of Frank Sinatra’s alleged sexual prowess and detailed how one well-known actor took off all his clothes at a party, while another actor arranged for his own party guests to spy on couples making love. Harrison especially liked stories about adultery and interracial romance—something that was especially scandalous at the time. The magazine also ran stories suggesting that various celebrities, such as pianist Liberace, were homosexual; such allegations could be terribly damaging to the celebrities’ careers. One such story that Confidential agreed not to run was about Rock Hudson and his homosexuality. To protect Hudson’s reputation, his studio offered Confidential some scandalous information about a lesser star, and the magazine agreed to print that story instead.
Despite their public outrage at the magazine, the studios sometimes leaked information to Confidential for their own purposes, at times to punish one of their stars. Some stars even provided information about themselves, considering the publicity beneficial. Confidential also obtained information using private detectives and informants, including one actor who said she would sleep with subjects if necessary to get information from them. The magazine also ran exposés on organized crime and corruption and, especially during the brief editorship of Howard Rushmore, political exposés about supposed communists in Hollywood.
On Trial
In 1957, Confidential’s reign came to an end as a result of a criminal libel trial. The U.S. Post Office had tried previously to have the magazine banned from the mail, and a California state senator held hearings into the magazine’s activities. Actor Ronald Reagan , then the chairman of the Motion Picture Industry Council, called for a campaign against the magazine, and one studio even produced a film, Slander (1956), attacking it. The libel trial finally accomplished what these other efforts were unable to do.
The Trial of a Hundred Stars, as some newspapers called it, ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a verdict, but to avoid having to go through a new trial, Harrison agreed to a settlement in which he promised to abandon sensationalism. Without sensationalism, however, Confidential lost its appeal: Sales slumped, and Harrison sold the magazine the following year.
Impact
Confidential magazine told tales from the other side of the innocent and conformist 1950’s, shocking the innocent and refusing to go along with the sanitized version of reality provided by the Hollywood movie studios. The magazine is sometimes praised for daring to tell the truth, but critics say that its main achievement was to pave the way for the sensationalist tabloid journalism of later decades.
Bibliography
Gabler, Neal. “Confidential’s Reign of Terror.” Vanity Fair 512 (April, 2003): 190-206. A survey of the magazine’s history and impact.
Kashnir, Sam, and Jennifer MacNair. “Wink, Titter, and Flirt: Confidential Magazine.” In The Bad and the Beautiful: Hollywood in the Fifties. New York: Norton, 2002. Focuses largely on the activities of anticommunist editor Howard Rushmore.
Wolfe, Tom. “Purveyor of the Public Life.” In The Purple Decades. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 1982. Surrealistic magazine article based on an interview with Robert Harrison, first published in 1964.