The Mammoth Book of Hollywood Scandals by Michelle Morgan Page A

place shortly before the honeymoon, which would be celebrated on a ship setting sail from New York on 12 September 1929. Wanting to attract the most attention he could, he also announced that the wedding would be a huge affair, attended by many prominent entertainers. Harry was ecstatic about this, of course, but to detract from his headline-grabbing ways, he made sure to add that he and Clara had wanted a small wedding, but friends would hear of no such thing. Then, just for good measure, he also added that he had won his fiancée’s heart with his “caveman tactics”.
    Clara was absolutely furious. Not only did she object to Richman talking about their relationship to the media, but she had also never agreed to an actual date for their wedding. Yes, she admitted to reporters, they were engaged, but most certainly they had never discussed a ceremony or a honeymoon location. She then added, “If there is such a thing as love then I am in love with Harry Richman. But I am not going to rush into marriage because I do not want to do anything hasty.”
    Quite oddly for someone supposed to be on the brink of marriage, Clara then said, “Our marriage depends on whether we really find we love each other”, before adding her feelings on the “caveman” comment by stating that she could not understand why Richman would make such “ridiculous statements”.
    Fearing he was about to lose his fiancée (and the constant source of his new-found fame), Richman in turn released his own statement: “I was thoroughly misquoted,” he claimed, before going on to explain that he was madly in love with Clara and “I think she loves me too.” It wasn’t exactly the most committed of quotes, and newspapers were quick to challenge just how much the couple did actually love each other, and whether or not a marriage would take place at all.
    Indeed, it did seem as though the couple were constantly bickering both in the press and at home; and things were made no better when Richman was accused of assault and battery by a dancer called Ellen Franks. According to the woman, the nightclub-owner had drugged and held her prisoner for four hours in his car in March 1929, beating her so much that she was now an invalid. Richman retorted that he did not know the woman in question, but by this time a weary Clara was getting rather tired of her beau’s behaviour and temporarily began a secret affair with her old flame, Gary Cooper.
    In October 1929, Clara was in Lake Arrowhead, while Richman was in Hollywood. Lonesome, he decided to send her a telegram which told the actress just how much he missed her and that his greatest wish was to be with her at that moment. “I hope the place is terrible so you will come home to one who loves you more than anything,” he declared, and while her response remains unrecorded, he wrote again shortly afterwards to tell her, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
    But while Harry Richman was declaring his undying love for Clara in telegrams, she was readying herself for the operation to remove her ovary, something which worried her no end. To dispel the gossip about an abortion, and to keep their star’s privacy intact, the studio released a statement saying that she had been operated on due to complications from an appendicitis surgery. Richman as we know, decided to stay very quiet about what the operation was for, but he bizarrely released a statement anyway, not about his fiancée’s health, but about the state of their relationship.
    “We will get married,” he happily declared once again, before this time announcing that it would take place in New York in April 1930. Clara was not happy with his latest revelations, but she had so far weathered the storm. However, her patience was very much tested when it was announced in the newspapers that several years before his engagement to Bow, Richman had been involved with a married woman in New York. Now, seeing the nightclub owner with his photograph in