Mr. Taylor had to endure a tremendous amount of harassment from the media early in his career–especially on the matter of his chest.  This  tongue-in-cheek article from 1937 pokes fun at the whole fuss. I don’t know the original publication.

No matter what is revealed to the eyes of a waiting world, if and when Robert Taylor takes up the challenge of the inquiring reporters, this story springs to his defense by saying “so what?”

by Alma Whitaker

When a bunch of reporters, jealous of Robert Taylor’s admiring feminine legions, taunted him into saying he would bare his bosom for public exhibition “of the hair that grows thereon,” screen idols began inspecting their chests anxiously.

Especially, don’t you know, as he-man authors Ernest Hemingway and Max Eastman had been indulging in a hairy-chest controversy.

All of Hollywood is involved in the argument. Because, you see such indubitably he-men as Errol Flynn, Victor McLaglen, Tyrone Power, Charles Boyer, Leslie Howard, Mischa Auer, Andy Devine, yes, and even Buck Jones, can boast the merest trace of down chest adornment.

Still Gary Cooper, Joel McCrea, David Niven, Randolph Scott, Fred MacMurray, Clark Gable, Dick Powell, Pat O’Brien, Edward G. Robinson, John Boles and John Beal are prepared to match Robert Taylor’s hairy bosom any day.  Cary Grant has enough to pinch.

Peter Lorre seems to be tops in the field with a regular doormat, even superior to the Tarzans, Johnny Weismuller and Glenn Morris.  Both Laurel and Hardy play him a close second, and so does Woolsey; Don Ameche, Brian Donlevy and Tony Martin can make a pretty good showing.

So far so good.  But hairy evidence can be pretty unreliable.  For instance, the famous Lou Gehrig, “iron man” of baseball, who has just come to Hollywood for immortalization on the screen, hasn’t a hair on his bosom.  Yet Roland Young, who rather specializes in masculine timidity on the screen, can boast a marvelous doggy array.  In fact, so evident is Roland Young’s that when he took that shower in Topper, the Hayes office* insisted upon the cameras being so arranged that no brush would be visible.  And wasn’t it Tony Moreno who had to shave his chest for Bohemian Girl?  Certainly Doug Fairbanks had to shave his for The Thief of Baghdad.  Other distinctly hairy guys are Eddie Cantor, Joe Penner, Parkyakarkus** and Eric Blore. (Eric, oh dear, who shines so conspicuously in cringing roles!)

Voila, sisters, draw your own conclusions. Nevertheless, so firm is tradition, that you’ll be well-advised to assume that our gentleman friends have hairy chests.  There is even a firm in Hollywood that undertakes to supply chest toupees for such males as must play tough-guy roles.  The subject teems with interest, since there are blonde and brunette bosoms, curly and straight-haired bosoms, downy or wiry bosoms, spotty or carpeted bosoms.  And they all love to show them at the beach, which is why trunks in and bathing suits went out.

*The Hayes office was the official censor of Hollywood films, especially after 1934.

**Harry Einstein (May 6, 1904 – November 24, 1958) was an American comedian and writer, usually known by the name Harry Parke, but who was variously credited as Harry Einstein, Harold Einstein, Harry “Parkyarkarkus” Einstein, Parkyakarkus. He became famous as the character Parkyakarkus (or Parkyarkarkus) — park your carcass; that is, sit down — who garbled Greek on Eddie Cantor’s radio show and appeared in eleven films using this name from 1936 to 1945. (Wikipedia)