Warning: the following post explores humanity at its ugliest. This is not a happy post and reader discretion is advised.
Chapter 16: Building a New, Small World (Cont’d)
Excerpt from The King is Dead: The Walt Disney Company After Walt Disney, an Unauthorized History by Sue Donym and Arman N. Said
Henson’s new Child and Teen Actor Support Services were about to get their first major tests in 1988. It all started when producer Steven Spielberg convinced director Tim Burton to hire his Goddaughter Drew Barrymore for the role of love interest Allison in
Hocus Pocus. This was compounded when Corey Feldman was subsequently brought in as the lead Max. Both had suffered from serious childhood traumas in the early ‘80s and both had histories of serious substance abuse. And just as
Hocus Pocus centered around evil monsters stalking children, the real events behind the shiny veneer would end up exposing some of the worst that Hollywood had to offer for child actors.
Barrymore was practically the poster-girl for “troubled child actor” in 1988. Her father, renowned actor John Drew Barrymore, was a violent alcoholic who left the family when she was 6 months old. Her mother, Jaid, was herself a troubled actress with substance abuse issues and who treated Drew as an adult friend rather than a daughter. This included taking her as a child to the notorious Club 54 in New York where drugs and sex were the norm. Barrymore reported that she began putting Bailey’s Liqueur on her ice cream at age 7 and was doing cocaine by age 12. By age 13 she’d had a mental breakdown and a cocaine addiction and had been committed to a rehabilitation facility by her mother[1]. When she emerged from rehab, she went into production on
Hocus Pocus even as other studios laughed her out the door as “damaged goods”.
Barrymore and Feldman at the 1989 Academy Awards
“Yea, Steve [Spielberg] saved me,” she said in a later interview. “He’d always been like the rock that grounded me, even when mom and the studios were sending me into a very crazy orbit. I felt like I could tell him anything and that he’d support me, and yet I didn’t tell him much. I’d always stop shy of involving him in the biggest issues. I tried to keep my problems to myself and not drag him into them[2].
“I knew that the career had been hard on her, but I didn’t realize until she’d been committed just how bad it had gotten.” said Spielberg. “It was an awakening for me, particularly as a new father, that I had to put aside my own childish ways and take further responsibility, not just for my son, but for the other kids under my [professional] care.”
Barrymore emerged in fairly good shape from her stay, citing the time as an important experience. Still, though, the return to the crazy life of LA youth culture would prove a challenge. On set she and Corey Feldman developed a relationship[3]. Feldman was, at this point, addicted to heroin.
“They were like two broken birds who’d found one another,” said an anonymous friend whom we shall call “Tommy”. “The big question was whether Drew could pull Corey out of the abyss or whether he’d drag her back in.”
Feldman and his friend Corey Haim had endured the worst that Hollywood had to offer. By age 16 both had reportedly suffered from sexual assault and rape at the hands of trusted family friends. Both had gravitated towards drugs as an escape from the ugliness of their reality.
“Like any place where children gather away from their parents, be it schools, camps, youth sports, scouts, or sadly even some religious organizations, Hollywood had its predators,” said Tommy. “The worst offenders were Alphy’s [Hoffman] crew down at Alphy’s Soda Pop Club, which was a club for underage actors where parents were few and where alcohol and drugs could be had if you know who to ask. But Alphy was a creep and he and his crew used to hang out there and, like, groom kids for abuse, to be blunt. Him, Jon Grissom, Marty Weiss, and others I dare not name…total scum.” [
Editor’s note: Grissom and Weiss have both been convicted of child molestation and sexual assault. Hoffman denied the allegations[4]]
“We started to realize that something was wrong,” said Lisa Henson in a later interview. “Drew was bright eyed and enthusiastic at first, and then, well, suddenly she wasn’t. We noticed signs of self-abuse and drugs. Corey was increasingly late, and showed up one day obviously on something. The councilors talked to them. We dug deeper. Sure enough, both Drew and Corey were using again.”
“I’d slipped back into Coke,” said Barrymore, “But Corey was doing Horse. I never touched the stuff. I knew exactly how much darkness was in me, and I knew exactly where the line was. I knew that if I tried H, I’d never escape it alive[5]. I was getting bugged by my dad, who wanted money, Corey was having a very hard time…he’d been having nightmares over what had happened to him and Corey Haim. We’d hang with Corey H., but he was having an even harder time.”
Disney councilors talked to Feldman and Barrymore. In time, stories of assault and rape came out from Feldman, and the councilors were legally obligated at that point, despite the councilor-client privilege, to report the abuse to the FBI. An investigation eventually turned up evidence of drugs and underage drinking at Alphy’s, and authorities collected accounts of assault and rape. Alphy’s was forcibly closed in 1988 following multiple state and federal charges for violating drug and alcohol rules. Alphy himself managed to settle out of court with his accusers and was never formally charged, but the negative publicity made him “damaged goods” in Hollywood and the target of harassment. He took his own life by gunshot in 1994, maintaining his innocence in his suicide note. Jon Grissom and Marty Weiss were arrested, tried, and convicted based on the accounts of multiple witnesses. Others in Hollywood faced similar charges over the following years with some arrests, some settlements, and some people simply disappearing from the limelight[6].
This would be the start of a massive and very public investigation into the treatment of children in acting, not just in Hollywood, but across the country. California expanded upon the California Child Actor's Bill (the so-called Jackie Coogan Act) with the Federal Government implementing similar laws in 1991 with strong bipartisan support. Those who worked with child actors would, like educators, medical professionals, and child therapists, be subject to background checks and “two in the room” mandates. Vetted chaperones would be required at businesses marketed for underage persons. While this certainly didn’t end abusive practices, but rather drove them further into the shadows, there was a statistical drop in the number of abuse cases reported to therapists and authorities as the more flagrant abuse cells, the ones which operated at the edge of plain sight, the ones that people just “didn’t want to see” since the abusers were well-connected and profitable allies, were broken up.
It would be nice to say that everything ended on a happy note. While the number of objectively false accusations was greatly exaggerated in a deliberate disinformation campaign, there were a few high-profile cases of people getting caught up in accusations without evidence and seeing their careers sidetracked. LGBTQ rights groups became unfairly targeted, particularly by an awakened Save Our Children organization led by singer and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in alliance with Jerry Falwell. Combined with growing anti-gay sentiment due to victim blaming resulting from the AIDS crisis, it led to a surge in hate speech and hate crimes against LGBTQ people.
In the most extreme case of backlash, NAMBLA headquarters was burned to the ground in an unsolved case of arson in what even the most outspoken child rights activists called “an unacceptable use of violence” even as they condemned the organization’s overt aims at decriminalizing child sex abuse. Speculation remains that it was an inside job done for the insurance, though evidence to support this claim is sparse. While very few people or groups have come to NAMBLA’s defense as an organization, and those who have almost unanimously have done so for free speech reasons alone, nearly all have spoken out against violence of any type as unacceptable.
And alas, as too often happens, the victims themselves also suffered backlash. Corey Feldman and Corey Haim in particular became the target of anonymous harassers that Feldman called “the wolfpack”. The stress of it all, combined with the constant press barrage following their testimonies, drove them both deeper into substance abuse. “Corey [Feldman] became increasingly sullen,” recalled Barrymore. “I knew that he was using again even though we’d decided to go sober together earlier that year. He was increasingly angry and shoved me to the ground at one point. He apologized, and left. He refused to speak to me after a while, out of shame or fear of hurting me, I suspect, and we sort of drifted apart.”
In October of 1989 Corey Haim died from a heroin overdose. Friends speculated on whether it was accident or suicide. Feldman, who admitted to a mutual friend that he had given Haim the heroin, blamed himself. In March of 1990 he lost control while driving at excessive speed through the Hollywood Hills after dark. He drove off the road and was killed in the ensuing crash. His autopsy showed excessive amounts of alcohol and various drugs in his system. It was ruled an accident, though friends and family suspect suicide. Barrymore and Lisa Henson would later produce the celebrated and controversial documentary
Lost Boys: An Elegy for Two Coreys, directed by Abigal Disney, that described their lives, the abuse, and their tragic deaths and served as an elegy for all of the “Lost Boys” and “Lost Girls” of Hollywood.
Barrymore slipped back into substance abuse following the Corey’s deaths and was later rushed to the hospital after an apparent suicide attempt at 14, though Barrymore maintains that she was shallow-cutting as a cry for help. Barrymore spoke of the event later: “Steve and Lisa helped get me back into rehab, helped be gain emancipation and live as a legal adult, and then got me a place to stay with [folk musician] David Crosby, who was committed to sobriety and wanted to give me a safe and sober place to live. I won’t say that I immediately went sober and never looked back, but, like it was the start of turning things around. I’d gone through my midlife crisis at 14. And yea, boo-hoo, mommy had me committed. Life can fucking suck, but it seriously could have been worse for me.”
When asked about the Coreys, Barrymore became quiet. “It was a goddamned American tragedy. Life as a child star is hard enough when you’re
not the target of sickoes. [The Coreys] were victims. Every so often some NAMBLA-head starts complaining to me about the fucking ‘witch hunt’ and blames them for somehow starting it. Only the advice of my attorney keeps me from kicking them in the fucking balls. Don’t play the fucking victim card with me. I know the actual victims. Corey and Corey never ‘consented’ to shit. It frankly fucked them up. I thought that I was fucked up until I had frank talks with the Coreys.”
“Tommy” was blunter. “Corey H. was 13 when he was fucking raped. He never recovered from the trauma. It ultimately fucking killed him. Corey F. too. The assholes who did that to them aren’t just rapists, they’re fucking murderers.”
Barrymore seemed to agree. “They called it a ‘witch hunt’. Well, guess what, there were actual fucking ‘witches’ abusing those kids. I’ve got no fucking sympathy for them.”
[1] All true in our timeline. She’d end up back in rehab at 14 after an apparent suicide attempt (Barrymore maintains that it was an attention-seeking “shallow cut” and that she hadn’t seriously considered taking her own life).
[2] She expressed similar views on her Godfather in our timeline. She apparently didn’t confide much in him, and he of his own occasionally intervened to give her guidance and support. So despite some rumors of him leaving her in the lurch, my research indicates that he’d have done more for her if she’d let him.
[3] They dated in our timeline at this time too.
[4]
Author’s Note: Grissom and Weiss were both convicted of sexual assault in the early 2000s in our timeline. Hoffman has been accused, but never charged or convicted.
Here’s an article describing the allegations against Alphy’s Soda Pop Club. I have no personal knowledge one way or another as to the truth of any of these allegations. “Tommy” is a fictionalized representation of the accounts of the several witnesses to Alphy’s club in our timeline and can be assumed to be one of them in this timeline, though I’ll not assign a specific name.
[5] Barrymore has said similar things in our timeline.
[6] Over the years various Hollywood actors, producers, and other industry people have been accused of such deeds. I won’t speculate here who is accused, convicted, etc. of such crimes. I’m trying to stick with the known facts here. Some specific infamous names will appear in later posts.
en.wikipedia.org
