I wouldn't go idolizing just any entertainer from any generation. That generation had its share of crooks and adulterers and people who didn't take care of their children. The bad stuff was just hidden better, that's all.
But that's the point: the bad stuff was hidden, not paraded around and celebrated.
Fatty Arbuckle had sex with a minor and it ruined his career. Roman Polanski had sex with a minor and he won and Oscar.
Errol Flynn sympathized with the Nazis and the studies shunned it. Sean Penn sypathizes with Saddam and he wins and Oscar.
They shot Elvis from the waist up. They broadcast Janet Jackson's boob into our living room.
Etc.
Errol Flynn, Joan Crawford, et al, were from that generation, too.....
MJ and Elton are mild to some of the filth pervayers out there today. What about the rap idiots, M&M, Mariylan Manson etc etc.
Hidden or not how can you say today is not worse than 50 years ago. It is and it will be getting worse.
The difference between "then" and "now" is that "outlaw culture" has become the dominant culture (thanks to Baby Boomers).
In the 1930s we were close to this scenario when gangsters robbing banks, gunning down the opposition, and illegally selling liquor, drugs, and girls in real life became the stuff of folkheroes and the big screen. There is no pride in dying gunned down in a gutter.
The 1960s embraced the "do your own thing" of tune in, turn on, drop out, protest, revolution, and in a different political stripe, the Hell's Angels and other one percenters who were proud that they were among the "1%" who gave the rest of the biker community a bad image. Movies celebrated the anti-hero.
Hunter S. Thompson was actually still clear headed enough in the mid-1960s when he wrote Hell's Angels to see the negative aspects of an American society that all wanted to be "the outlaw".
Cars/clothes/etc are sold these days in terms of "freedom" and "independent". I'm not saying "follow the herd" but it is hard to be different "just like everybody else". Kids don't want to wear a uniform to school yet that is exactly what "blue jeans, a t-shirt, and the right brand of sneakers" is.
Yes according to my mom the Hollywood of the 50's was full of whores and no talent. She said they did dress and look better. I can see that for myself. I believe the women and men were much better looking than today’s "dirt".
Very true.
In a way it was better when people were ashamed of everything and covered it up. I know that is bad statement. I mean sometimes I get fed up with this culture of everything in your face. I suppose something in between would be more comfortable for me. But then, I'm an old stick in the mud.