During the 1950s, Diana Dors was one of Britain’s biggest and most desirable film stars. Dubbed ‘Britain’s Marilyn Monroe’, by the age of 25 she had become the country’s highest-paid actress, starring in some of the era’s most popular films, including the British noir classic Yield To The Night and the 1958 crime thriller Tread Softly Stranger.
But away from the big screen, Dors’s life was far more colourful and raunchy than any role she played, as she sensationally confessed to the News of the World in 1960: “There were no half-measures at my parties,” the actress told the paper of her celebrity get-togethers at her Berkshire home. “Jumpsuits, bras and knickers were off. It was basically a case of going out with everything – except the lights.”
It wasn’t just Dors’ spicy revelations that shocked readers in 1960, it was also her unashamed willingness to film her guests having sex without their knowledge and to watch the copulating couples through a two-way mirror.
It is important to remember that 1960s Britain was still quite conservative on the issue of sexuality. An example of this was when, in October of that year, Penguin Books was charged under the Obscene Publications Act for publishing DH Lawrence’s erotic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover.
Given that even casual extramarital affairs are rarely covered in the media, all this talk of orgies and two-way mirrors was explosive, a provocative and shocking glimpse into a more sensual world, and all coming from one of Britain’s most famous actors.
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This was not news to those in the know. Dors’s night outs with her first husband, Dennis Hamilton, were notorious in the showbiz world, and although the actress never named names, she often claimed in interviews that movie stars, socialites, athletes and TV personalities were her regulars.
However, one celebrity who did lose his cover was Bob Monkhouse. In his 1993 autobiography Crying With Laughter, the comedian recounted how he was invited to an event in 1952 where he referred to himself as “the one.” [Dors’] “celebrity parties”.
“Hamilton,” he wrote, “provided a number of helpful girls for the entertainment of single gentlemen,” and added, “the lights were kept dim so that erotic films were constantly shown.”
But it wasn’t just “single gentlemen” that Dors and Hamilton were catering to. As the party went on, Monkhouse, then 24, began to notice a pattern. “A couple in love,” he recounted, “would get a nod from Hamilton and follow him out of the room.” The comedian explained that Hamilton would return alone, only to leave again with Dors, returning about 15 minutes later and then giving the nod to another couple in love.
Hamilton and Dors then called Monkhouse’s name, and he and the woman he had been introduced to followed the couple through a hallway filled with pornographic photographs and into the bedroom, which, Monkhouse wrote, “[like] “A shop in Marrakesh”.
“I’m going to lock the door so no one can bother you,” Hamilton told the comedian. “You’ve got about a quarter of an hour, so make the most of it.”
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There was a mirror on the ceiling, and as the couple undressed they heard laughter coming from above. Suddenly aware that they were being watched, Monkhouse ran to grab his clothes and ran to the door, where he was greeted by a disappointed-looking Dors. “What a waste,” she told him. “Still, the night is young. Come up and join us.”
“Some people absolutely love to perform,” he added, explaining that Monkhouse thought he knew about the two-way mirror beforehand. When he took her to the upstairs room, he was met with a sight of “couples whispering, laughing, often in various states of undress.” Dors, who was no longer expected to perform, told him to just lie down and watch the next couple.
It would be another eight years before Dors’s partying became public, and after the News of the World’s exclusive report, the establishment lined up to reprimand her. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Geoffrey Fisher, called the actress a “perverse whore”, while the Mayor of Swindon, where she was born in 1931, accused her of “bringing shame” to the town. The Press Council, meanwhile, said the paper’s report was “extremely salacious and obscene… a disgrace to British journalism”.
But these shocking revelations did little to harm Dors’ career, and she continued to enjoy the fame it brought her, hosting wild, sex-filled parties throughout the 60s and 70s and taking on a wider variety of roles on the big and small screens.
She married actor Alan Lake in 1968 (Dennis Hamilton died of a heart attack in 1959), and years later their son Jason would recount how his mother’s raunchy trysts were a regular part of his childhood.
“There were no taboos in our house,” she said. “I was only seven, but I was free to go in and out of my mother’s parties, no matter how hot they were. She loved having friends around to watch porn films. They would sit around giggling as couples groped each other and made love on the bed. Most of them didn’t even know they were being filmed.”
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Even the two-way mirror device was still present, but it was something Lake described as a “more updated version.”
“Some of the girls were aware of it,” she explained. “My mom just said, ‘This is what happened,’ and I thought it was totally normal.”
But for all the debauchery of Diana Dors’ famous parties, she was also monogamous, according to her son, and as far as he knew, never took part in any sexual intrigues. “Sometimes she would go into a room with my father and lock the door,” she recalled, “but I never saw them with other people.”
Diana Dors died in 1984 at the age of 52.