Pretty Baby and a Playmate Murder (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 6)

Brooke Sheilds and Susan Sarandon, Pretty Baby, 1978 — Brooke Sheilds and Susan Sarandon, *Pretty Baby*, 1978

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In an attempt to save her family, Polly transitions to screenwriting and producing, basing the prostitution drama Pretty Baby, starring a pre-teen Brooke Shields, on her own daughter. Polly finds herself increasingly overcome by alcoholism, while dealing with Shields’s own alcoholic mother. Polly’s already-difficult relationship with her two daughters is made much more complicated by the murder of Peter’s girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten, and Bogdanovich’s subsequent emotional collapse.

Polly Platt, c. 1970's | Photo Courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich

SHOW NOTES:

Sources specific to this episode:

This season is based in large part on Polly Platt's unpublished memoir, It Was Worth It, excerpted with the permission of Sashy Bodganovich.

This episode includes excerpts from interviews with: Nessa Hyams, Antonia Bogdanovich Frank Marshall and Rachel Abramovitz.

Here is a full list of sources referenced on this season.

Music:

The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

Land on the Golden Gate - Chris Zabriskie
Cylinder - Chris Zabriskie
Sentimental Blues - Eric Jules Georges Gemsa
After Work - Neuromancer
Simple Sample Blues - Philippe Jacques Michel Bas
Slow Hypnosis - Johan Kristoffer Hugosson
No Place - DJ Masque
Rite of Passage - Kevin MaLeod
Danse Morialta - Kevin MacLeod
Undercover Vampire Policeman - Chris Zabriskie
Blue Feather - Kevin McLeod