The fact is that women were expected to sleep their way to the top in showbiz. Some were willing (although I would assume, not happy) to do so, and some weren't willing.
Safe to assume that plenty of talented women had promising careers ruined due to being unwilling, so it was as wrong then as it is now.
The difference is, its becoming more difficult for predatory men to get away with it now, thankfully.
It is fact that in earlier, Victorian / Edwardian times, actresses were presumed to have loose morals and be no more than "tarts" or prostitutes of a type who could be wealthy men's play things, as infamously in the case of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII with various actresses in the form of Lillie Langtry, Sarah Bernhardt, Nellie Clifden, Carolina “La Belle” Otero, and Hortense Catherine Schneider, La Snédèr, to name those who are known to have been his mistresses in that profession. Indeed, my mother always stated that many actresses were not very reputable woman, and my Grandmother said worse!
So that must be remembered to be the context in which actresses were still considered to be during much of the 20th Century