Old Hollywood Stars Who Were Forced to Live a Double Life

Kim Novak was Columbia Pictures’ carefully built blonde star, best remembered for Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Picnic, and Bell, Book and Candle. Studio chief Harry Cohn tightly managed her career, making her secret romance with Black entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. especially dangerous in 1957 at Columbia.

Once gossip writers exposed the relationship, Cohn feared an interracial scandal would damage Novak’s box-office value. Davis reportedly received threats of violence and orders to marry a Black woman. The couple separated, leaving Novak unable to continue a romance the studio had decided to destroy.