whataboutbobbed
“They make insinuations concerning my girlfriend and myself when I’ve never had a girlfriend in my life; they wisecrack about my being on the make for every male in town, and about me being ‘wild.’ They say more things about me than ten girls could live up to.” — Rita La Roy, on gossip mongers in 1931.
La Roy was originally signed with RKO as their answer to Clara Bow, however, she never really worked out. La Roy next signed with Paramount, and according to author Hans J. Wollstein, gossip surfaced about her and Marlene Dietrich having an affair during the production of Blonde Venus, in which La Roy played “Taxi Belle” Hooper. The two were supposed to work together again in Song of Songs (1933), however, it never happened.
Wollstein speculated that La Roy’s demise as a promising film star might have occurred after she was fired from the Clara Bow film Call Her Savage (1932). Newspapers reported that La Roy had refused to wear clothing that was too revealing. Meanwhile, The Los Angeles Examiner indicated that she had been fired for slapping cast member Fred Kohler, who was getting a little too fresh with her both on and off screen. La Roy took her argument to the Academy, who acted indifferently towards her.
La Roy’s career wasn’t over, but she found herself working for poverty row pictures on her way to obscurity.
Source: Hans J. Wollstein, “Vixens, Floozies and Molls: 28 Actresses of Late 1920s and 1930s Hollywood” (2005).