Carter Roy

After Lana convinced Johnny to leave, Cheryl finally asked her mother what was going on.

Lana came clean.

Cheryl insisted that Lana leave Johnny or call the police.

However, Lana feared the publicity that would come with the police report.

And it wasn't just a fear of embarrassment.

In this era of Hollywood, the press had an intense amount of control over an actress's career.

So did the movie studios, who had all of their stars sign morality clauses.

If the press caught wind of a star doing anything that the public could deem immoral and, God forbid, make them not want to see their movie, the studio immediately fired them.

These clauses gave studios complete control over an actor's life.

Even if a studio didn't like who you were dating, they could take you off a film and maybe even blacklist you.

Lana had already felt the morality clause in action.

She and Cheryl's father, Steve Crane, were separated when Lana found out she was pregnant with Cheryl.

However, the studio was afraid that a child out of wedlock could ruin Lana's box office numbers.

So they insisted that she remarry Steve or she'd never work again.

Steve and Lana remarried, then divorced again about a year later.

But that wasn't even the worst of it.

You see, Lana was married before Steve and in a similar situation, learned she was pregnant after her divorce.

This time, the studio forced Lana to have an illegal abortion.

They hired a back alley doctor to terminate the pregnancy without anesthesia.

And they took the doctor's fee out of Lana's paycheck.