Jane vs. Barbarella (Jean and Jane Episode 5)

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Having coaxed Jane into participating in an open marriage, Vadim began casting her in films as a male fantasy of female sexual liberation. This phase of her career would peak with Barbarella, a sci-fi film based on an erotic comic book featuring Jane as a horny space warrior. Jane’s perfect body was on full display and fetishized the world over, but no one knew the self-destruction that went on behind the scenes in order to maintain her looks. While Vadim was building her up as an international sex kitten, Jane was gradually becoming more socially conscious. For all of his experience with women, Roger Vadim didn’t know what to do with a woke wife.

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SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

Bardot, Deneuve, Fonda by Roger Vadim

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind

“Barbarella Goes Radical” by Susan McLeland, from the book Headline Hollywood: A Century of Film Scandal edited by Adrienne L. McLean and David A Cook  

“Heres What Happened to Baby Jane” by Gerald Jonas, The New York Times, January 22, 1967

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: “Gloria” by Patti Smith. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: "Groovy Development " by Christian Andersen, "Neighbours At Night 2" by Martin Hall, "Salty Breeze 1" by Martin Gauffin, "Easy Lynch Guitars 2" by Johan Hynynen, "Swamp Fever 3" by Håkan Eriksson, "Old Time Action 2" by Gunnar Johnsén, "Psychedelic Weirdo Lounge" by Håkan Eriksson, "A Mysterious Presence" by Håkan Eriksson, "You're In Trouble Deep" by Anders Bothén, "Ambient Acoustic Guitar 19" by Anders Ekengren, "Ambient Acoustic Guitar 18" by Anders Ekengren, "Meet The Macho Man 1" by Bo Järpehag, "Meet Me in Queens 2" by Orjan Karlsson, "Suburban Life 3" by Gavin Luke, "High Stakes" by Nicklas Ahlstrom.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron, Naturebox and American Express.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

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Jean vs. Lilith (Jean and Jane Episode 4)

Listen, download this episode, or find on iTunes.

Having left her husband to be the mistress of writer/diplomat Romain Gary, Jean secretly gave birth to a son, and then made the movie that she thought would prove herself as an actress once and for all. In Lilith, Seberg would go all in on her portrayal of madness -- perhaps too deep. After a disastrous collaboration with Gary, Jean happily accepted an offer to star in a big budget Hollywood musical. But it was 1969, the studio system had crumbled, and that musical -- Paint Your Wagon -- would become a symbol of everything that was wrong with the Hollywood establishment.

Jean Seberg and Romain Gary, 1960's

Jean-Pierre Cassel and Jean Seberg in Five Day Lover (1961)

Jean Seberg and Warren Beatty and in Lilith (1964)

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story by David Richards

Star: The Life and Wild Times of Warren Beatty by Peter Biskind

The Kid Stays in the Picture: A Notorious Life by Robert Evans

The Talent Scout by Romain Gary

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: “Schizophrenia” by Sonic Youth. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: “Modern Vintage Gypsy 3” by Gavin Luke, “Readers Do You Read” by Chris Zabriskie, “Meet Me In Queens 2” by Orjan Karlsson, “A Trace of Light 2” by Magnus Ringblom, “Musique a la Carte 5” by John Ahlin, “Song for Johanna” by Franz Gordon, “Some Autumn Waltz 1” by Jonatan Järpehag, “Latin Quarters Jazz Band 2” by Magnus Ringblom, “Les Beaux Jours 3” by Martin Gauffin, “Past Closing Time 3” by Magnus Ringblom, “High Stakes” by Niklas Ahlstrom, “Suburban Life 3” by Gavin Luke.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus, Audible and American Express.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Maurice Ronet and Jean Seberg in Birds in Peru (1968)

Jean and Jane in Paris (Jean and Jane Episode 3)

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

With her Hollywood career already something of a disappointment, Jean Seberg took a chance on a French film critic turned first-time director who wanted her to play an amoral American in an experimental movie without a script. The result was Breathless, the catalyzing hit of the French New Wave and the movie that would make Jean Seberg an icon. Soon thereafter, Jane Fonda got her own invitation to come make a movie in Paris, where she’d soon fall in love with Roger Vadim, the man who discovered Brigitte Bardot. Jane Fonda would become Vadim’s new creative muse, as well as his third wife.

Jean Seberg with first husband François Moreuil in Paris, 1959, Photo by Mark Shaw

Jane Fonda and Roger Vadim at ther wedding in Las Vegas, 1965, Photo by Dennis Hopper

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story by David Richards

Everything Is Cinema: The Working Life of Jean-Luc Godard by Richard Brody

Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip by John Gilmore

Jean Seberg interview with Mike Wallace

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: “Paris” by Lana Del Ray. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: “Meet Me In Queens 2” by Örjan Karlsson, “Surfing Ghouls” by Håkan Eriksson, “Song For Johanna” by Franz Gordon, “Latin Quarters Jazz Band 2” by Magnus Ringblom, “Past Closing Time 3” by Magnus Ringblom, “Widows Dance” by Håkan Eriksson, “Ambient Acoustic Guitar 18” by Anders Ekengren, “Cinema Francais 4” by Magnus Ringblom, “Modern Vintage Gypsy 2” by Gavin Luke, “Modern Vintage Gypsy 3” by Gavin Luke, “Musique A La Carte 05” by John Åhlin, “Nightclub Standoff” by Håkan Eriksson, “Meet Me In Queens 3” by Örjan Karlsson, “Easy Lynch Guitars 2” by Johan Hynynen.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by The Great Courses Plus

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Jean-Luc Godard, Raoul Cotard, Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo on the set of Breathless, 1960, Photo by Raymond Cauchetier

Jane Fonda and Alain Delon in Joy House, 1964

Jean and Otto Preminger/Jane in New York (Jean and Jane Episode 2)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Jean Seberg made her first two films, Saint Joan and Bonjour Tristesse, for director Otto Preminger, a tyrannical svengali character whose methods would traumatize Jean for the rest of her life and career. No wonder she rebelled against this bad dad figure by marrying a handsome French opportunist. Meanwhile, Jane Fonda moves to New York, joins the Actors Studio, takes up with her own hyper-controlling male partner, and tries to define herself as something other than Henry Fonda’s daughter.

Jean Seberg and Otto Preminger, c. late 1950's

Jean Seberg in Bonjour Tristesse, 1958

Jane Fonda in a stage production of There Was A Little Girl, 1960

Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor in Sunday in New York, 1963

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara

Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story by David Richards

Preminger: An Autobiography by Otto Preminger

“Two Saint Joans, Old and New” by L.R. Swainson, The Age, February 12, 1957

Photo of Otto Preminger kissing Seberg from Los Angeles Times, October 22, 1956

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: “Meet Me In Queens 1, 2 and 3” by Örjan Karlsson, “By the Lake in the Evening” by Franz Gordon, “Be Still” by Johannes Bornlöf, “Widows Dance” by Håkan Eriksson, “Musique A La Carte 01” by John Åhlin, “Weekly” by Martin Gauffin, “Swing Manouche 05” by John Åhlin, “Old Time Action 2” by Gunnar Johnsén, “Cadillac Quiff Boys 1” by Victor Olsson, “Hot Rod Rebels 5” by Victor Olsson, “Hippies On A Bus 1” by Martin Landh, “It Takes Four” by Niklas Ahlstrom, “Readers Do You Read” by Chris Zabriskie.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by Blue Apron, Naturebox and Squarespace.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Hollywood Royalty/Middle-American Martyr (Jean and Jane, Episode 1)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Introducing our new series, “Jean and Jane,” exploring the parallel lives of Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg, two white American actresses who found great success (and husbands) in France before boldly and controversially lending their celebrity to causes like civil rights and the anti-war movement. Fonda and Seberg were both tracked by the FBI during the Nixon administration, which considered both actresses to be threats to national security. But for all their similarities, Jane and Jean would end up on different paths. They also started from very different circumstances. Today we’ll track Jane’s difficult upbringing with her famous but absentee father and troubled mother, and the path of privilege -- and tragedy -- that led her to the Actor’s Studio. Meanwhile, in small town, church-dominated Iowa, Jean Seberg announced herself as the town rebel at age 14 when she joined the NAACP. Three years later, she was plucked out of obscurity by a mad genius movie director to star in one of the highest-profile Hollywood movies of the late-50s.

Jean Seberg at her screen test for Saint Joan, 1956, Photo Bob Willoughby

The Fonda family, 1949, Photo by Genevieve Naylor

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Jane Fonda: The Private Life of a Public Woman by Patricia Bosworth

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda

The World and Its Double: The Life and Work of Otto Preminger by Chris Fujiwara

Played Out: The Jean Seberg Story by David Richards

The anti-Jane Fonda video mentioned in this episode. 

Music:

All of the music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, is from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. Outro song: "Modern Girl" by Sleater-Kinney. Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode: "A Trace of Light 2" by Magnus Ringblom, "Memories of November" by Martin Landh, "Widows Dance" by Hakan Eriksson, "Musique A La Carte" by John Ahlin, "Mediterranean Mix 10" by Stefan Netsman, "Upbeat Flatfeet 2" by Martin Gauffin, "Les Beaux Jours" 3 by Martin Gauffin, "Ambient Acoustic Guitar 18" by Anders Ekengren, "Ripples" by Peter Sandberg, "By the Lake in the Evening" by Franz Gordon, "Gypsy Guitar Swing" by Martin Carlsberg,  "Discretion" by Peter Sandberg.

Sponsors:

This episode is sponsored by Winc, Squarespace and Audible.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Jane Fonda on the Cover of VOGUE, July 1959

Barbara Loden (Dead Blondes Episode 12)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Barbara Loden won a Tony Award for playing a character based on Marilyn Monroe in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall. Like Marilyn, Barbara was a beauty with no pedigree who fled a hopeless upbringing in search of the fulfillment of fame. Like Marilyn, Loden found some measure of security as the mistress (and eventual wife) of a powerful man, in Loden’s case Elia Kazan. But instead of satisfying her, her small taste of fame and her relationship with Kazan left Barbara Loden wanting more, which would lead her to write, direct and star in a groundbreaking independent movie of her own.

Author Arthur Miller, Barbara Loden and Jason Robards Jr., After the Fall, 1964

Barbara Loden and Elia Kazan, 1969

Barbara Loden, writer-director-star of Wanda

Show notes:

Sources:

I wrote about the restoration of Wanda for the LA Weekly in 2011. Though I did additional research for this episode, I incorporated some text and research from that earlier piece here.

Other sources:

Elia Kazan, A Life by Elia Kazan

Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Leger

Elia Kazan: The Cinema of an American Outsider by Brian Neve

The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All by Rutanya Alda

“Conversation on Wanda by Barbara Loden” by Marguerite Duras and Elia Kazan

“The Lonely Female Taxi Driver: Barbara Loden's Wanda” by Jacqueline Valencia

Barbara Loden clippings files, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Grace Kelly (Dead Blondes Episode 11)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

The quintessential “Hitchcock blonde,” Grace Kelly had an apparently charmed life. Her movies were mostly hits, her performances were largely well-reviewed, and she won an Oscar against stiff competition. Then she literally married a prince. Was it all as perfect as it seemed? Today we’ll explore Kelly’s public and private life (and the rumors that the two things were very different), her working relationship with Hitchcock, her Oscar-winning performance in The Country Girl, the royal marriage that took her away from Hollywood and Kelly’s very specific spin on blonde sexuality.

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Show notes:

Sources:

High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto

Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies by Donald Spoto

Grace Kelly: The Secret Life of a Princess by James Spada

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

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Barbara Payton (Dead Blondes Episode 10)

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In our Joan Crawford series, we talked about Barbara Payton as the young, troubled third wife of Crawford’s ex Franchot Tone, whose inability to choose between Tone and another actor brought all three of them down into tabloid Hell. Today, we revisit Payton’s story, and expand it, to explore her rise to quasi-fame, and the slippery slope that reduced her from “most likely to succeed” to informal prostitution, to formal prostitution, and finally to a way-too-early grave.

Barbara Payton entering California Hospital to see Franchot Tone after his fight with Tom Neal, 1951, Photo Courtesy of Los Angeles Herald Examiner Collection/Los Angeles Public Library

Show notes:

I wrote our first episode on Barbara Payton, during the Joan Crawford series, while I was living in London, and I couldn’t get my hands on an actual copy of I Am Not Ashamed, Payton’s ghostwritten autobiography. Shortly after I returned to Los Angeles, I found a copy at Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Boulevard -- apparently it was re-released, in the US at least, in paperback shortly before I made the original episode. So though this was originally intended to be a re-run, this episode is now more new than old.

Sources:

I Am Not Ashamed by Barbara Payton

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye by John O’Dowd

Notes From the Unashamed by Kim Morgan, Sunset Gun 

Jayne Mansfield (Dead Blondes Episode 9)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

More famous today for her gruesome car crash death than for any of the movies she made while alive, Jayne Mansfield was in some sense the most successful busty blonde hired by a studio as a Marilyn Monroe copy-cat. Mansfield’s satirical copy of Monroe’s act was so spot-on that it helped to hasten the end of the blonde bombshell, paradoxically endangering both actress’ careers. But she did manage to star in Hollywood’s first rock n’ roll movie, Hollywood’s first postmodern comedy, meet The Beatles, experiment with LSD, cheerfully align herself with Satanism for the photo op, and much more.

Sophia Loren and Jayne Mansfield, 1957

Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can't Help It (1956)

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

Jayne Mansfield and the American Fifties by Martha Saxton

The Tragic Secret Life of Jayne Mansfield by Raymond Strait

Affectionately, Jayne Mansfield by Richard Koper

“Night my friend John Lennon played a vile trick on Hollywood's sexiest woman: How Beatle urinated into Jayne Mansfield's cocktail and watched her drink it when he became tired of her during US tour” by Chris Hutchins, Daily Mail, May 2015

“Sophia Loren Finally Tells the Story Behind That Infamous Jayne Mansfield Photo” by Johanna Robinson, Vanity Fair, November 2014

“The Beatles Playboy Magazine Interview” by Jean Shepard, February 1965

“Jayne Mansfield's Head” New York Times Magazine, May 1997

“The Tragic Pattern of Sex Symbols” by Lloyd Shearer. Pageant, August 1967

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Anton Lavey and Jayne Mansfield, 1966

Marilyn Monroe: The End (Dead Blondes Episode 8)

Marilyn Monroe by Bert Stern, 1962

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

How did a star whose persona seemed to be all about childlike joy and eternally vibrant sexuality die, single and childless, at the age of 36? In fact, the circumstances of Marilyn Monroe’s death are confusing and disputed. In this episode we will explore the last five years of her life, including the demise of her relationship with Arthur Miller, the troubled making of The Misfits, and Marilyn’s aborted final film, and try to sort out the various facts and conspiracy theories surrounding her death.

Marilyn Monroe in Some Like it Hot, 1959

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

Marilyn Monroe: My Story by Marilyn Monroe  

Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto

The Many Lives of Marilyn Monroe by Sarah Churchwell

Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox by Lois Banner

Marilyn: Norma Jeane by Gloria Steinem

An Open Book by John Huston

“The Scandalous True Story Of Marilyn Monroe & JFK”, by Marijane Gray for Immortal Marilyn, Buzzfeed.com

“Marilyn and Her Monsters” by Sam Kashner, Vanity Fair, November 2010  

“Leave the Kennedys Out of It : MARILYN MONROE: The Biography, by Donald Spoto” by Paul Rosenfield, Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1993  

“Never-before-seen pictures of secretly pregnant Marilyn Monroe” by Ryan Parry,  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

“The Books: The Making of The Misfits, by James Goode” by Sheila O’Malley, sheilaomalley.com

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Special guest appearance by Rian Johnson as John Huston. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Marilyn Monroe: The Persona (Dead Blondes Episode 7)

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

How did Marilyn Monroe become the most iconic blonde of the 1950s, if not the century? Today we will trace how her image was created and developed, through her leading roles in movies and her featured coverage in the press, looking specifically at the ways in which Monroe’s on-screen persona took shape during the height of her career.  We’ll pay special attention to the films Niagara, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Bus Stop, and the struggles behind the scenes of Seven Year Itch and The Prince and the Showgirl.

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Marilyn Monroe in How to Marry a Millionaire

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Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

Marilyn: Norma Jeane by Gloria Steinem

Marilyn Monroe: The Biography by Donald Spoto

My Story by Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn: The Passion and the Paradox by Lois Banner

Mr. Confidential: The Man, the Magazine, and the Movieland Massacre That Changed Hollywood Forever by Samuel Bernstein

Shocking True Story: The Rise and Fall of Confidential, "America's Most Scandalous Scandal Magazine" by Henry E. Scott

“The Mass Media: A Highbrow Illiteracy?”, by Raymond Durgnat, Views, Spring 1964

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Marilyn Monroe, The Seven Year Itch

Carole Landis (Dead Blondes Episode 5)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Carole Landis was a gifted comedienne, a decent singer, and -- once she dyed her natural brown hair blonde -- perhaps the most luminous beauty in movies of the early 1940s. Plus, she was one of the most dedicated USO performers of WWII, and her elopement with an Air Force pilot on her travels became the inspiration for a book, movie and long running tabloid narrative. But then Landis fell into an affair with Rex Harrison -- and this affair turned out to be Landis’ last.

Carole Landis with World War II troops

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

Carole Landis: A Most Beautiful Girl, by Eric Gans

Fatal Charm: The Life of Rex Harrison, by Alexander Walker

Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley, by Jeffrey Spivak

Lovely Me: The Life of Jacqueline Susann, by Barbara Seaman

This is the issue of TIME Magazine mentioned in the intro.

The book containing the claims about Pat DeCicco’s violent involvement in Carole Landis’ changed nose is Carole Landis: A Tragic Life In Hollywood by EJ Fleming. Other than citing this one specious claim, I did not use this book as a source precisely because Fleming has a tendency to phrase conjecture as though it is fact. 

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Rex Harrison and Carole Landis

Veronica Lake (Dead Blondes Episode 4)

Veronica Lake by George Hurrell, c. 1942

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Veronica Lake had the most famous hairdo of the 1940s, if not the twentieth century. Her star turn in Preston Sturges’ Sullivan’s Travels and her noir pairings with Alan Ladd made her Paramount’s biggest wartime draw behind Hope and Crosby, but behind the scenes, Lake was a loner with a drinking problem who didn’t give an F about Hollywood etiquette. Bankrupt and without a studio contract, in the early 1950s she consciously quit movies. She claimed she left Hollywood to save her own life -- so how did she end up dead at 50?

Veronica Lake, publicity shot for I Wanted Wings, 1941.

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

In researching this podcast, I always try to approach my sources with due skepticism, and in choosing details to include in these episodes, I’m very careful to note facts that are disputed or reported differently by different sources. If I have any doubt about whether or not an incident really occurred, I’m either transparent about my doubt, or I just won’t include it in the episode. In the case of Veronica Lake, there are only two books available to use as biographical sources: there’s Lake’s autobiography, Veronica, which was ghost-written and authorized by a woman who was penniless and whose life was dominated by the alcoholism that would soon kill her; and a book called Peekaboo by Jeff Lenberg, which uses as a main source Veronica’s mother, with whom she had an extremely combative relationship. This latter book, at least in the edition I purchased, is rife with typographical errors, and is also without footnotes or a section on sources. If I were to recommend either of these books, I would have to go with Veronica; unfortunately it is out of print, the copies on the open market are quite expensive, and it seems that the two copies once held by the Los Angeles Public Library system have gone missing.

It would be a stretch to call it a "source," but my understanding of the psychiatric landscape and the potential life of treatment awaiting the mentally ill in the mid-20th century was informed by Luke Dittrich's riveting Patient H. M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets.

Other sources:

Between Flops by James Curtis

“How to get Brie Larson’s Veronica Lake Hair” by Kathryn Romeyn, The Hollywood Reporter, January 9, 2017

“The Sad Tragic Fate Of Veronica Lake” by Dick Siegel, National Enquirer, January 22, 2015

“Working Toward Veronica Lake” by Laura Holson, New York Times, January 7, 2009

“Lake: To Work . . . and to Live” by Bill Gale, New York Times, August 24, 1969

“Spoonful of Ashes Inspires Town to Recall the Veronica Lake Look” by By Corey Kilgannon and Janon Fisher, New York Times, October 17, 2004

Veronica Lake Biography, Turner Classic Movies, TCM.com

Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets by Luke Dittrich 

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Veronica Lake at Paramount Studios, early 1970's

Thelma Todd (Dead Blondes Episode 2)

Thelma Todd, c. 1930s

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Thelma Todd -- a curvaceous white-blonde who predated Jean Harlow -- was a sparkling comedienne who began in the silent era and flourished in the talkies, both holding her own opposite the Marx Brothers and playing straight woman in one of cinema’s first all-girl comedy teams. She was also an early celebrity entrepreneur, opening a hopping restaurant/bar with her name above the door. But today, Thelma is best remembered for her shocking 1935 death, which was deemed an accident but still sparks conspiracy theories that it was really murder.

Thelma Todd and Buster Keaton in Speak Easily (1932)

Thelma Todd's Sidewalk Café, c. 1930's, Security Pacific National Bank Collection, Los Angeles Public Library Images

Show notes:

Sources specific to this episode:

With so much misinformation and speculation surrounding Todd’s death, it seemed ultra-important to approach my research for this episode with a critical eye. I ended up using as my main source William Donati’s The Life and Death of Thelma Todd. I was previously a fan of Donati’s biography of Ida Lupino, and his book on Todd seems to me to be the most objective analysis of the facts, with the least amount of speculation and hysteria. As noted in the episode, his informed ability to knock down the Lucky Luciano theory is particularly useful.

Garage where Thelma Todd Died, 1935, Herald-Examiner Collection, Los Angeles Public Library Images

Other sources include:

A Blog For Thelma Todd includes many photos, scanned articles, links and information about Todd and theories about her death.

“Murder Of `30s Starlet Thelma Todd No Longer Mystery” by Frank Sanello, Chicago Tribune, May 05, 1991

“A Mystery Revisited, A building that figured in the unsolved death of actress Thelma Todd is for sale” by Robert W. Welkos, Los Angeles Times, May 29, 2002

“A Blonde in Babylon: The Death of Thelma Todd” by Benjamin Welton, Crime Magazine, Feb 10, 2014

Gloria Vanderbilt’s books The Rainbow Comes and the Rainbow Goes and It Seemed Important at the Time contain the most substantial observations of Pat DeCicco and his reputation that I’ve found. My understanding of DeCicco relationship to and work for Howard Hughes stems from my research for my book, particularly depositions and testimony given by DeCicco himself and his cousin, Albert Cubby Broccoli, in 1978 and 1983 as part of the long-running legal battles to determine control of Hughes’ estate. These documents were observed by me in the Texas State Archives in Austin.

Outro song: “She’s Not Dead” by The London Suede

Credits: 

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Peg Entwistle (Dead Blondes Episode 1)

Peg Entwistle, c. 1932, Collection of Bruce Torrence

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

This season we’re going to explore the stories of eleven blonde actresses who died unusual, untimely or otherwise notable deaths -- deaths which, in various ways, have outshined these actress’ lives. Today we’ll explain why we’re doing this, and will tell the story of Peg Entwistle -- idol of Bette Davis, successful stage star turned movie aspirant, and one of the first Hollywood blondes who became more famous in death than in life.

Peg Entwistle, Everett Collection/REX

Hollywoodland Sign, c. 1920s, Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

Show notes: 

The key source for this episode was the book Peg Entwistle and the Hollywood Sign Suicide by James Zeruk Jr., an excellently written and well-researched fleshing out of Entwistle’s life story in contrast to and in conversation with her legend.

As part of the book I’m writing about Howard Hughes and the women in his life, I came across RKO’s memos about Katharine Hepburn’s casting in Bill of Divorcement -- and Selznick’s order that Cukor screen test Peg Entwistle -- at the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library. For the same project, I’ve done a great deal of research on the texture of early Hollywood (the city, and then the film colony), much of which hasn’t ended up in my book draft, but some of which I’ve used in this episode. Some recommended sources include The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History by Gregory P. Williams; The Parade’s Gone by Kevin Brownlow; Lois Weber in Early Hollywood by Shelley Stamp; Material Dreams: Southern California through the 1920s by Kevin Starr; and Go West Young Women: The Rise of Early Hollywood by Hilary Hallet.

Here is a music video for Dory Previn’s song inspired by Peg, “Mary C. Brown and the Hollywood Sign,” which features an actress (who looks nothing like Peg) acting out Peg’s approach to the sign.

This is the image in Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon labeled “Peg Entwistle”:

This episode contains selections from the album Industry, by Unheard Music Concepts. Used in accordance with Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Credits:

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks. 

Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Mommie Dearest

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Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

The year after Joan Crawford died, her estranged, adopted daughter Christina published a tell-all, accusing her late mother of having been an abusive monster when the cameras weren’t around. Three years later, Mommie Dearest became a movie, starring the only actress of the “new Hollywood” who Joan herself had commended, Faye Dunaway. The disastrous production of that film revealed how much had changed in Hollywood since Joan’s heyday, and the finished film did much to mutate Joan’s persona in the minds of future generations.

Faye Dunaway and Mara Hobel in Mommie Dearest

Faye Dunaway and Diana Scarwid in Mommie Dearest

Show notes:

Every episode this season will draw from the following books about, and/or based on conversations with, Joan Crawford:

Not The Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence Quirk and William Schoell

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Sources specific to this episode:

Looking for Gatsby by Faye Dunaway and Betsy Sharkey

The Mommie Dearest Diary: Carol Ann Tells All by Rutanya Alda (special thanks to Brad Simpson for sending this to me)

“Christina Explains 'Mommie'”, Susan King, Los Angeles Times, March 30, 1998

“Dunaway Does Crawford”, Peter Lester, People Magazine, October 05, 1981

“Abused Crawford Child Sees Sad Holidays for Some Kids”, Patricia McCormack, Reading Eagle, December 28, 1981

“Christina Crawford Redefined Herself After Devastating Stroke Recovery”, Cynthia Taggart, The Spokesman, April 27, 1994  

“Visiting Mommie Dearest At Home”, Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com, May 31, 1981

“Dunaway Dearest”, David-Elijah Nahmod, The Bay Area Reporter, May 9, 2013

“Christina Crawford Has No Sympathy For Faye Dunaway”, Michael Musto, villagevoice.com, May  3, 2013

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Bette Davis and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Bette Davis and Joan Crawford publicity shot for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Robert Aldrich’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? has done more to define later generation’s ideas about who Crawford was than perhaps any other movie that she was actually in. Unfortunately, most of those ideas center around Crawford’s supposed feud with co-star Bette Davis, which began as a marketing ploy and turned into something quasi-real -- or, at least as real as certain celebrity “feuds” of today.

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Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on set for What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Show notes:

Every episode this season will draw from the following books about, and/or based on conversations with, Joan Crawford:

Not The Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence Quirk and William Schoell

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Sources specific to this episode:

The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis - A Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Whatever Happened to Robert Aldrich?: His Life and His Films by Alain Silver and James Ursini

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)

Joan Crawford and Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce, 1945

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Joan Crawford struggled through what she called her “middle years,” the period during her 40s before she remade herself from aging, slumping MGM deadweight into a fleet, journeywoman powerhouse who starred in some of the most interesting films about adult womanhood of the 1940s and 1950s. That revival began with Mildred Pierce (for which Crawford won her only Oscar), and included a number of films, such as Daisy Kenyon and Johnny Guitar, directed by men who would later be upheld as auteurs, subversively making personal art within the commercial industry of Hollywood.

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Show notes:

Every episode this season will draw from the following books about, and/or based on conversations with, Joan Crawford:

Not The Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence Quirk and William Schoell

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Sources specific to this episode:

Nicholas Ray: The Glorious Failure of an American Director by Nicholas Ray

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Clark Gable, Franchot Tone and Barbara Payton

Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, Chained, 1934

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

By the mid-1930s, Joan Crawford was very, very famous, and negotiating both an affair to Clark Gable (her most frequent co-star and the only male star of her stature) and a new marriage to Franchot Tone, who, like Joan’s first husband, was an actor who was not quite on her level of stardom. Crawford’s marriage to Tone would span the back half of the decade, as Crawford’s stardom peaked, and then began its first decline. Today we’ll talk about that, and then we’ll tell a story about what happened to Franchot Tone after Joan Crawford — particularly, the strange love triangle he entered into in the 1950s, with a gorgeous but self-destructive starlet Barbara Payton at its center.

Joan Crawford and Franchot Tone

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Show notes:

Every episode this season will draw from the following books about, and/or based on conversations with, Joan Crawford:

Not The Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence Quirk and William Schoell

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Sources specific to this episode:

Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye: The Barbara Payton Story by John O’Dowd

A Woman’s View by Jeanine Basinger

This episode includes clips from the movie The Women (1939) 

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.

Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Flapper and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Joan Crawford, Our Dancing Daughters, 1928

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Joan Crawford’s early years in Hollywood were like -- well, like a pre-code Joan Crawford movie: a highly ambitious beauty of low birth does what she has to do (whatever she has to do) to transform herself into a well-respected glamour gal at the top of the food chain. Her romance with Douglas Fairbanks Jr -- the scion of the actor/producer who had been considered the King of Hollywood since the early days of the feature film -- began almost simultaneous to Crawford’s breakout hit, Our Dancing Daughters. But the gum-snapping dame with the bad reputation would soon rise far above her well-born husband, cranking out a string of indelible performances in pre-code talkies before hitting an early career peak in the Best Picture-winning Grand Hotel.

Show notes:

Every episode this season will draw from the following books about, and/or based on conversations with, Joan Crawford:

Not The Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Joan Crawford: The Essential Biography by Lawrence Quirk and William Schoell

Conversations with Joan Crawford by Roy Newquist

Sources specific to this episode:

His Picture in the Papers: A Speculation on Celebrity in America Based on the Life of Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. by Richard Schickel

The First King of Hollywood: The Life of Douglas Fairbanks by Tracey Goessel

A Woman’s View by Jeanine Basinger

The episode includes audio excerpt from Possessed, also a clip from the movie Grand Hotel and the moonlight singing scene from Untamed.

This episode was edited by Sam Dingman, and produced by Karina Longworth with the assistance of Lindsey D. Schoenholtz. Our logo was designed by Teddy Blanks.