Eunice Irene Pringle (March 5, 1912,

Garden Grove, California Garden Grove is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States. The population was 171,949 at the 2020 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, passes through the city in an east–west direction. The west ...

– March 26, 1996) was an aspiring dancer, notable for accusing Los Angeles movie-house owner

Alexander Pantages Alexander Pantages (, ''Periklis Alexandros Padazis''; 1867 – February 17, 1936) was a Greek American vaudeville impresario and early film producer, motion picture producer. He created a large and powerful circuit of theatres across the Weste ...

of rape in 1929, resulting in a sensational trial.

1929 trial

Pringle alleged that Pantages had attacked her on August 9, 1929, in a tiny side-office of his downtown theater after she came to see him to discuss her audition. Newspaper coverage of the trial, particularly by

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His extravagant methods of yellow jou ...

's ''

Los Angeles Examiner The ''Los Angeles Examiner'' was a newspaper founded in 1903 by William Randolph Hearst in Los Angeles. The afternoon '' Los Angeles Herald-Express'' and the morning ''Los Angeles Examiner'', both of which had been publishing in the city since t ...

'', was antagonistic towards the Greek-accented Pantages, while portraying Pringle as the innocent victim. In countless stories in the ''Examiner'' from the moment the case broke in the newspaper on August 10, 1929, until the end of the trial, Pantages was portrayed as variously alone, aloof, cold, emotionless, effete, and European, while the American-born Pringle was portrayed as "the sweetest 17 since

Clara Bow Clara Gordon Bow (; July 29, 1905 – September 27, 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom during the silent film era of the 1920s and successfully made the transition to "talkies" in 1929. Her appearance as a plucky shopgirl in the ...

". There were portraits with her family, tearful outbursts in court and lengthy interviews in the press, which depicted her with a sense of decorum and empathy. Pantages gave no interviews during the trial. Pantages was found guilty and he was sentenced to 50 years in prison. However, his conviction was overturned on appeal and he was acquitted in an equally sensational 1931 retrial. Hollywood myths have alleged that

Joseph P. Kennedy Joseph Patrick Kennedy Sr. (September 6, 1888 – November 18, 1969) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and politician. He is known for his own political prominence as well as that of his children and was the ambitious patri ...

, the patriarch of the famous American family, paid Pringle $10,000 to enter Pantages's office and accuse him of rape, with the goal of destroying his reputation and business prospects and forcing Pantages to accept Kennedy's bid to buy Pantages's theatre chain. Pantages had adamantly refused to sell when Kennedy initially approached him.

Later years

The conviction destroyed Pantages's reputation. Despite his success on appeal, he sold his chain to Kennedy's RKO and Warner Bros. After the incident, Pringle withdrew from show business. A story later circulated that Pringle implicated Kennedy in a deathbed confession in the throes of evident

cyanide poisoning Cyanide poisoning is poisoning that results from exposure to any of a number of forms of cyanide. Early symptoms include headache, dizziness, fast heart rate, shortness of breath, and vomiting. This phase may then be followed by seizures, slo ...

soon after the trial. The alleged incident is described in

Ronald Kessler Ronald Borek Kessler (born Ronald Borek; December 31, 1943) is an American journalist and author of 21 non-fiction books about the White House, U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and CIA. Early life and education Kessler was born in The Bronx, New Yor ...

's biography of Kennedy, ''Sins of the Father'', as well as in

Kenneth Anger Kenneth Anger (born Kenneth Wilbur Anglemyer, February 3, 1927 – May 11, 2023) was an American Underground film, underground experimental filmmaker, actor, and writer. Working exclusively in short films, he produced almost 40 works beginning i ...

's '' Hollywood Babylon II''. In 1935, Pringle married Robert White, the heir to a furniture business. After divorcing White, she married Richard Ellis Worthington, a psychologist, in 1947. They lived in Chicago for several years before moving to

San Diego County San Diego County (), officially the County of San Diego, is a county in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of California, north to its border with Mexico. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,298,634; it is the second-most populous ...

in 1955. The couple had one child, a daughter, Marcy. Pringle died in 1996, aged 84.

References

1912 births 1996 deaths People from Garden Grove, California Actresses from California People from San Diego County, California 20th-century American actresses {{US-crime-bio-stub