Mr. Confidential

Sung by Kevin Spirtas

Prosectors felt they could somehow prove libel even though all the stories were essentially true. When the defense starting subpoenaing stars to testify under oath whether or not the stories in the magazine were true, they tried to drop the case, but the judge refused any agreement to settle.

The State of California was determined to prosecute with the possibility of jail time. Since neither libel nor obscenity carried anything beyond fines, they came up with Crimincal Conspiracy to Commit Libel, making it a potential felony. It didn't work out at all as they had hoped.

Spectators would wait outside for hours hoping to get in to see the trial. After the gaggle of journalists were seated, it's a wonder there was ever room for anyone in the general public.

The prosecution called prositute Ronnie Quillan to testify that sometimes prostitutes sold true stories to the magazine. That this did not bolster their libel case didn't seem to occur to them.

Maureen O'Hara and Liberace were front and center during the whole trial. She insisted forever after that she was not kissing in the back row at Grauman's Chinese; and Liberace insisted he was not a homosexual.

Fred and Marjorie were the subject of intense media interest. The worm had very definitely turned.

Errol Flynn had too many scandals to count. While insisting everything printed about him was a lie, he never actually filed a lawsuit.

At the pleading hearing there was no jury to impress, so Marjorie showed up in leopard print, but at trial her whole look had undergone a 180.

Legal trouble was not new to Bob. Since the days of his girly magazines, someone in the government was always trying to shut him down.

Marjorie's tears may have been staged, but they were said not to be about the trial, but about the irritants in the air. Smog levels in August 1957 were at record levels.

Fred and Marjorie presented a united front, but their marriage wasn't what Marjorie had hoped it would be. A year before the trial, she had wanted to divorce him, but Bob and Edith talked her out of it.

Jurors took a field trip to Grauman's Chinese to see if it was possible to do what Confidential said Maureen O'Hara was doing in the back row. It was.

When the jury toured Graumann's Chinese the Meades posed for pictures with defense attorney Arthur Crowley.

Prosecutors assembled the obscenities to present at trial. In one of the many, many reversible decisions from Judge Walker, he declared that the jurors didn't have to actually read any of the materials before deciding whether they were obscene. Marjorie puts on a brave face with friend and source Mylee Andreason.

When the State of California indicted eleven members of the Harrison family and magazine staff, the prosecutors never thought to research whether libel and obscenity were extraditable offenses in New York. They were not.

Angry that Bob was cutting back on political stories in favor of celebrity gossip, Howard quit, and ended up as a prosecution witness when California put the magazine on trial.

At a trial break, Marjorie confronted the prosecutor to accuse his witness of lying. He told her he didn't want to talk to her.

At an early court proceeding, Narjorie is served with further charges.

c. 2025