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So the big bosses took over the Mitchum case fast. The garrulous actor, his fellow partygoers, and even the arresting officers fell suddenly mum. Studio press-agents whispered "confidentially" that the case looked like a frame-up. With Mitchum out on $1,000 bail and brooding in silence, statements began to rumble smoothly out of the front offices.
David O. Selznick, who shares Mitchum's contract with RKO, called on the American people for "fair play": ".. . We urgently request the press, the industry and the public to withhold . . . judgment until [the] facts are known . . ."
The Happy Ending? Speaking for the whole industry, MGM's Dore Schary, formerly Mitchum's boss at RKO, pleaded with the public not to "indict the entire working personnel of 32,000 well-disciplined and clean-living American citizens." A widespread use of narcotics in the industry? "Shocking, capricious and untrue."
Trouble-shooting Criminal Lawyer Jerry Geisler,* retained for the actor, chimed in: "There are peculiar circumstances . . . surrounding the raid . . . [Mitchum's] many friends have expressed the ... opinion he will be cleared."
And what would Mitchum's wife do? (During his talking jag, Mitchum had blamed their separation on his marijuana smoking.) On her way to California with the children, Jimmie, 7, and Chris, 5, she had heard the news in Las Vegas, and announced that she was undecided. By the time she reached Hollywood, she told newsmen that she would "stand by" Bob. Next day, to an obbligato of clicking shutters, the Mitchums posed in Hollywood's traditional happy-home embrace. Bob wore his screen-lover expression. Hollywood anxiously hoped that a public which (it thinks) likes and expects happy endings would soon forget the whole thing.
* Marijuana, a drug made from Indian hemp, is sometimes grown furtively on vacant city lots. Medical research has been unable to find positive evidence that it is habit-forming, but it has its constant users. It is said to produce a state of exhilaration in which time seems to move slowly.
* Who successfully defended Errol Flynn on a charge of statutory rape and Charlie Chaplin on a Mann Act charge.