Just a grammar point to add here: This isn't a brilliantly written piece, and it should have the word 'them' at the end. Without 'them' you would have to read the sentence as 'Some said they were (unladylike and looked down on)' . Here 'looked down on' would have to be seen as a passive-style construction used adjectivally. This would suggest that these people said that actresses were 'looked down on', as if it were their opinion that others looked down on them. In fact it would be more logical to read this as 'Some people (said they were unladylike) and (looked down on them)' ie these people considered actresses to be unladylike and so they looked down on them. That makes much more sense, doesn't it?