True Crime Podcast ‘Variety Confidential’ Tells the Shocking Story of a Hollywood Studio Kingpin

Variety Staff
·5 min read
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Darryl F. Zanuck was a legendary figure in Hollywood known for leading a major studio, producing top films and assaulting aspiring actresses in the 1930s. That same decade, the term “casting couch” surfaced to describe the abuse of power by Zanuck and other high-powered men who were the gatekeepers of access to the big screen.

In “4 O’clock Girls,” the second episode of Variety and iHeart Podcasts’ true crime podcast “Variety Confidential,” host Tracy Pattin and co-host Matt Donnelly, Variety’s senior entertainment and media writer, detail Zanuck’s duplicitous and dangerous actions that reportedly took place daily at 4 p.m. in his office.

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At the height of Hollywood’s studio system, Zanuck was a force in filmmaking. He made his name as a studio executive during his tenure as head of production for Warner Bros. in the 1920s and early ’30s. In 1933, he co-founded 20th Century Pictures and two years later, the banner merged with Fox to create 20th Century-Fox. For decades, Zanuck was unchallenged on the Century City lot in his ability to sign young actors. Reminiscent of the 1980s and ’90s when the now-convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein gained power and acclaim in the independent film sector, Zanuck was a power player in Hollywood for more than four decades.

“The studio system was a closed loop where you had a sole financier. It was a very small collection of people at the top making decisions,” Donnelly explains. “This was a system where [studio heads] would sign you for eight- or nine-year contracts and they could change your image on a dime. They would just literally shuffle you in and out of movies like cattle. There was no such thing as a controlled, defined, individual celebrity identity. You had less and less rights.”

When Zanuck reigned over Hollywood, many women knew their shot at stardom depended on what happened in their auditions with him. “She can walk away from Zanuck and the career she’s dreamed of, or she can stay and give Zanuck what he wants,” Pattin describes.

Zanuck was known to hold his auditions so often that colleagues came up with the name “4 o’clock girls” for the women he coerced. “Every day at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, some girl on the lot would visit Zanuck in his office. The doors would be locked,” Pattin explains. “After she went in, no calls were taken. For the next half hour, nothing happened. Headquarters shut down around the office, work came to a halt for the sex siesta.”

During these decades, powerful men in and around the studio system protected abusers like Zanuck. “It’s really important that we look back at these moguls,” Donnelly says, noting that predation and coercion still exists in today’s studio system. “Variety has been very dedicated to covering [the] #MeToo [movement], and its ramifications for everyone.”

“Variety Confidential,” a six-episode series, will explore stories of sex, money and murder in the entertainment industry. The podcast dives deep into the Variety Archives, the publication’s research tool that taps into nearly 120 years of Variety articles and reporting. Season 1, titled “The Secret History of the Casting Couch,” will detail the history of casting-couch scandals through the decades and draw parallels between recent scandals and those of the past, illustrating that sexual predation in the industry is as old as the Hollywood Hills.

“Variety Confidential,” distributed by iHeart Podcasts, is available on the iHeartRadio app, Variety.com, as well as other major podcast platforms. New episodes post weekly.

“Variety Confidential” was created by Jon Ponder, Tracy Pattin, Dea Lawrence, Variety’s COO and CMO, and Steve Gaydos, Variety’s EVP of content and executive editor. Sydney Kramer, managing director and senior executive producer for the Variety Content Studio, is a producer along with Ponder and Pattin.

Sources and Citations

Books

Eyman, Scott, 20th Century-Fox: Darryl F. Zanuck and the Creation of the Modern Fox Studio, Running Press, 2021

Eyman, Scott, Lion of Hollywood, Simon & Schuster, 2005, p. 194-195

Fleming, EJ Fleming, The Fixers: Eddie Mannix, Howard Strickling and the MGM Publicity Machine, McFarland and Company, 2005, p.51

Harris, Marlys J., The Zanucks of Hollywood: The Dark Legacy of a Movie Dynasty, Crown Publishers, 1989

Lewis, Fiona, Mistakes Were Made, Some in French, Simon & Schuster, 2017

Stadiem, William, Moneywood: Hollywood in Its Last Age of Excess, Macmillan, 2013

Mosley, Leonard, Zanuck: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Last Tycoon, McGraw-Hill, 1984

Wilkerson, WR III, Hollywood Godfather: The Life and Crimes of Billy Wilkerson, Chicago Review Press, 2018, p. 152

Variety

Adams, Thelma, Casting-Couch Tactics Plagued Hollywood Long Before Harvey Weinstein, Oct. 17, 2017, https://variety.com/2017/film/features/casting-couch-hollywood-sexual-harassment-harvey-weinstein-1202589895/

Additional Sources

20th Century Fox & Darryl Zanuck, Carole Landis ~ Hollywood Legend, carolelandis.net, http://www.carolelandis.net/2018/11/20th-century-fox-darryl-zanuck.html

Awful Studio Heads of the Classic Era, Toast.net, Feb. 9, 2016, https://the-toast.net/2016/02/09/awful-studio-heads-of-the-classic-era/

Darryl Zanuck Was The Original Harvey Weinstein, Classic Actresses, classicactresses.org https://www.classicactresses.org/2018/01/darryl-zanuck-was-sexual-predator.html

Films Produced by Darryl F. Zanuck, wikipedia.com https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_produced_by_Darryl_F._Zanuck

Collins, Joan, Hollywoodís casting couch and why I lost my part as Cleopatra to Liz Taylor, Daily Mail, joancollins.com, http://www.joancollins.com/2017/10/daily-mail-hollywoods-casting-couch-lost-part-cleopatra-saturday-october-14th-2017/

Longworth, Karina, MGM Founders Irving Thalberg and Louis B. Mayer, slate.com, https://www.slate.com/articles/arts/you_must_remember_this/2015/09/mgm_founders_irving_thalberg_and_louis_b_mayer_you_must_remember_this_transcript.html

Maslin, Janet, Darryl F. Zanuck, Flamboyant Film Producer, Dead, New York Times, Dec. 24, 1979. https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/24/archives/darryl-f-zanuck-flamboyant-film-producer-dead-knew-the-uses-of.html

Virgina Fox, wikipedia.com, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_Fox

Virginia Fox(1902-1982), imdb.com, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0289295/

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