Original Star of THE PAJAMA GAME, Janis Paige, Recalls Hollywood Golden Age Abuses

In a new first person essay for The Hollywood Reporter, Janis Paige, the original star of the musical The Pajama Game, recalls an attempted rape perpetrated upon her during Hollywood's Golden Age.

After signing a contract with Louis B. Mayer, Paige describes attending a meeting with a Hollywood director, after which she was handed off to a friend by the name of Alfred Bloomingdale, who he said would like to take her to dinner.

Bewildered at the change of plan, but mollified by the director's assurances that it was safe, Paige agreed to go. After a short meal, she was persuaded up to the man's hotel room at Sunset Towers where he attempted to rape her. Paige was ultimately able to defend herself and flee the room.

She recalls, "He showed up the next day with a bouquet of flowers, pleading with my mother to let him speak with me. I refused, and he left. The fear for my job, the fear that no one would believe me, and the shame I felt at the betrayal of myself kept me quiet all these years. He was a man who would become wrapped in sexual scandals until he died, but to me, the seeming hypocrisy of his marriage continued to their deaths. The wealth, power, glamour and constant philanthropy continued while the moral corruption was ignored."

She adds, "Maybe there's a special place in hell for the Alfred Bloomingdales or Harvey Weinsteins of the world and for those who aid and then deny their grossly demented behavior. At 95, time is not on my side, and neither is silence. I simply want to add my name and say, "Me too."

Read her full account here.