Supported by a primary record or strong direct evidence.
CASE INDEX / HOLLYWOOD CASE FILE
The stories Hollywood left unresolved.
Hollywood Case File reconstructs Old Hollywood stories from archival records, contemporary reporting and traceable sources.
THE RECORD
Drama, with the evidence left visible.
Attributed to a credible published source, memoir or interview.
Contested, contradictory or unsupported by the available record.
LATEST SHORTS
One story, under a minute.
SHORT / 1:07
Pat Brown on Reagan: "An Actor Shot Lincoln." It Was Unscripted, and His Filmmaker Left It In
CASE HCF-010 / 1:07
Marilyn's "Happy Birthday" Dress Has a Zipper. No 1962 Report We Found Says She Was Sewn In
Open the case file
SHORT / 0:58
Jimmy Stewart Went on a Bombing Raid Over Vietnam at 57
CASE HCF-010 / 1:00
Marilyn Monroe Paid $1,440 for the "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" Dress. It Sold for $4.81 Million
Open the case file
CASE HCF-010 / 1:03
Marilyn's "Happy Birthday" Dress Holds the Guinness Record. The Dress It Beat Sold for More
Open the case file
SHORT / 1:07
Steve McQueen's Le Mans Suit: The Listing Names One Earlier Sale. We Found Three More
ACTIVE FILES / 10
CASE HCF-010 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Marilyn's $4.8M "Happy Birthday" Dress Isn't the Record. Her Other Dress Is.
Guinness World Records says Marilyn Monroe's "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" dress is the most expensive dress ever sold at auction, $200,000 ahead of her white dress from The Seven Year Itch. But it compared a total with the buyer's premium against a winning bid without one. Like with like, the white dress sold for more.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-009 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Houdini Didn't Drown. Not Even in the Hollywood Movie
Harry Houdini died on Halloween 1926 in a hospital bed in Detroit, not in his Water Torture Cell. Even the 1953 Hollywood film did not drown him. The only formal finding on the Montreal punch came from an insurance company, and the couple's secret code was in print seven months before a medium said it came from Harry.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-008 / MYTH VS. RECORD
James Dean's "Cursed" Porsche: Alec Guinness's Warning Isn't in the 1955 Column
James Dean's Porsche is said to have been cursed. In the 1955 papers we searched, nobody called it jinxed. The earliest 'jinx' we found is a headline of October 1956, and Alec Guinness's warning is not in the 1955 column about their meeting. We looked for the earliest telling of each part of the story.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-007 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Eva Marie Saint Held Her Oscar in New York. Sinatra Was in Hollywood
Eva Marie Saint died in October 2026, at 102. One obituary said Frank Sinatra handed her the Oscar. On Oscar night in 1955 he was presenting in Hollywood, and she was in New York. We checked the stories her obituaries told against the record of their time and her own words. The big stories hold. Some details drifted.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-006 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Why Did Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis Split? Martin Said Why at the Time
For many people, the end of Martin and Lewis comes down to one line: 'You're nothing to me but a dollar sign.' Dean Martin gave his reasons for the split on the record in 1956. The line is earliest found in Jerry Lewis's own memoir, 26 years later, and its words changed in print after that.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-005 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Did Frances Farmer Really Have a Lobotomy? What the Record Shows
For many people, the actress Frances Farmer means one story: that she was given a lobotomy. We found no record from her lifetime that says she had one. The earliest printed claim we found came in 1978. And the 1983 court ruling at the center of it says neither thing.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-004 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Clara Bow and the USC Football Rumor: From a 1927 Tea to a 1965 Paperback
One rumor has followed Clara Bow for nearly a century. The earliest link we found between Bow and the USC team is a 1927 tea party. The earliest explicitly sexual version we found was printed in 1965, in a book that called the allegations unsupported. The case follows the trail in between, and names the pages we could not read.
Documented with stated search limits
CASE HCF-003 / MYTH VS. RECORD
Marilyn Monroe's Pink Dress Was Reportedly Sold for $12
Vogue reports that a collector bought Marilyn Monroe's pink gown from Fox for $12. A 2010 auction report put the winning bid at $310,000, before fees. The case follows the gown from screen to museum, and marks where the paperwork stops.
Reported with stated limits
CASE HCF-002 / THE STUDIO MACHINE
The Injunction That Took Joan Crawford's Letty Lynton Off the Screen
MGM licensed the novel behind Letty Lynton, but three connected scenes reproduced protected expression from a play it never acquired. The resulting injunction reached Crawford's completed film and kept it outside ordinary authorized circulation for decades.
Documented with stated limits
CASE HCF-001 / THE STUDIO MACHINE
Warner Bros. Said Olivia de Havilland Still Owed Them 25 Weeks
Seven years after Olivia de Havilland began working for Warner Bros., the studio said unpaid suspensions meant her contract was not finished. The court had to decide whether California law meant seven calendar years or seven years of actual service.
Documented