Jean Harlow

Integrating Music and Queering Hollywood (The Bisexuals, Part 4) /  by Karina Longworth

Montgomery Clift in 1948, from Photoplay

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Karina will be presenting films featured on this season of You Must Remember This at theaters across the country in October and November! See where she'll be and get your tickets on our Fall Tour 2026 page.

Check out our new merch for "The Bisexuals" including hats, shirts, and an exclusive fragrance designed to evoke Libby Holman's signature perfume, "Jungle Gardenia."

Montgomery Clift enters the chat as a teenage acting prodigy who immediately attracts 34 year-old Libby’s attention. Through her sometime-lover Nicholas Ray, Libby starts exploring Black folk music, launching a new singing career in collaboration with guitarist Josh White (“One Meatball”). Plus Libby’s old friend Clifton Webb becomes a late-in-life, closeted movie star, and Tallulah – effectively banished from Hollywood a decade earlier due to her refusal to be discreet about her sexuality – triumphantly returns to the screen thanks to Alfred Hitchcock.

(00:00) Libby and Monty “Under the Sheets”

(03:51) Appreciation or Cultural Appropriation?

(06:23) Nicholas Ray, Leadbelly, Josh White

(13:24) No White Person Has Ever Sung Them in Public

(22:02) Everybody is in Love With Monty

(28:44) Tallulah Bankhead in Movie Jail

(36:13) Lifeboat

(40:20) Clifton Webb’s Queer Success Story

(45:46) Libby Lashes Out at Older Women

(51:08) The Black Widow and Josh White

(58:45) Libby’s Only Movie

Publicity still for Lifeboat featuring John Hodiak and Tallulah Bankhead, 1944, 20th Century Fox

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:

Warmbody - Cymbal Platter

Elafonisos - The Grinding in the Cave

Switching Yard - Violet Jenna

Switching Yard - Feltham

Unheard Music Concepts - Cosmic Relevance

Musique Libre de Droit Club - Easy Listening in Jazz

Evan Viola - Serial

Musique Libre de Droit Club - Lullaby

Chris Zabriskie - I Need to Start Writing Things Down

Kevin MacLeod - Danse Morialta

Evan Viola - Exposition A (Ambient)


This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Special research assistance provided by Audrey Fox

You Must Remember This and “The Bisexuals” Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Libby Holman’s estate, Treetops, as seen from Treetops State Park in Connecticut in 2013. Photo by Morrowlong

Starring Jean Harlow as Libby Holman (The Bisexuals, Part 3) /  by Karina Longworth

William Powell and Jean Harlow in Reckless (1935, MGM Pictures), one of several films loosely based on Libby Holman’s marriage to and indictment for the murder of Zachary Smith Reynolds.

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Karina will be presenting films featured on this season of You Must Remember This at theaters across the country in October and November! See where she'll be and get your tickets on our Fall Tour 2026 page.

Check out our new merch for "The Bisexuals" including hats, shirts, and an exclusive fragrance designed to evoke Libby Holman's signature perfume, "Jungle Gardenia."

While the racist, antisemitic Southern authorities try to indict a pregnant Libby for the murder of her husband, the national media effectively puts her on trial. When Libby gives birth to a new Reynolds heir, the circus only grows bigger. Meanwhile, Hollywood gets to work dramatizing the case with the aid of stars such as Claudette Colbert, Jean Harlow and Libby’s friend Franchot Tone.

(00:00) A Pre-Code Anti-Heroine

(04:53) A “Peculiar Opinion” of Jews

(11:09) Libby Testifies

(17:23) Indicted by Jury, Convicted by Media

(29:09) Who Actually Killed Smith Reynolds?

(34:19) Pre-Code Movies Inspired by Libby’s Story

(42:50) A Career Tainted by Scandal

(52:38) Jean Harlow as Libby Holman

(01:02:02) An American Tragedy

(01:09:11) Lupe Velez, Libby’s Nemesis

Libby Holman with baby Topper, March, 1933

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Libby by Milt Machlin

Dreams That Money Can Buy: The Tragic Life of Libby Holman by Jon Bradshaw

Libby Holman: Body and Soul by Hamilton Darby Perry

Lupe Velez: The Life and Career of Hollywood’s “Mexican Spitfire” by Michelle Vogel

Cole Porter by William McBrien

Sitting Pretty: The Life and Times of Clifton Webb by Clifton Webb and David L. Smith

“Murder Charged to Libby Holman,” The New York Times, August 5, 1932

“Reynolds Trial October 3 Expected by Defense,” The New York Times, August 21, 1932

“Can the South Give Libby a Fair Trial?” Lowell Limpus, Daily News, August 14, 1932

“Libby Wants Jury Trial to Clear Name,” Washington Herald, October 20, 1932

“Reynolds Child Weighs 3 1/2 Pounds,” Associated Press, January 11, 1933

“Libby Holman Comes Back to Stage Tonight,” Chicago Tribune, June 16, 1934

“Libby Holman to Leave Hedgerow,” Delaware County Times, September 18, 1934

“On Broadway,” Ed Sullivan, Daily News, November 21, 1934

“Walter Winchell on Broadway,” Walter Winchell, Syndicated, September 11, 1934

“Music Show Scores in Forrest Opening,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 7, 1934

“The First Five-Star Show in History,” Walter Winchell, Daily News, December 3, 1934

“Torch Singer in Triumphal Stage Return,” Noel Thornton, Associated Press, December 11, 1934

“Libby Holman’s New Musical,” Andrew R. Kelley, Times Herald, November 8, 1934

“Father Charges Dope in Reynolds’ Divorce,” The Times, March 8, 1935

“Libby’s Shelterer Seeks Divorce,” Visalia Times-Delta, March 8, 1935

“Sally Rand in ‘Rain’; Libby Holman’s ‘Gypsy’,” Daily News, August 27, 1935

“Footlights Fame Libby Holman’s New Goal,” George Ross, The Pittsburgh Press, November 24, 1935

Please note: as an Amazon Associate, Karina earns from qualifying purchases. #ad

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:

Quantum Jazz - Passing Fields

Kevin MacLeod - Blue Feather

Greenfire - Department Heads

Evan Viola - Serial

Chris Zabriskie - Land on the Golden Gate

Kevin MacLeod - Tikopia

Evan Viola - Sojourn

The Sweet Hots - Bangolet

Kevin MacLeod - Faster Does It

Warmbody - Cymbal Platter

Musique Libre de Droit Club - Easy Listening for Relaxing Moments

Switching Yard - Bucket Flats

Vermouth - Gin Boheme

Kevin MacLeod - Clean Soul


This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola.

Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Special research assistance provided by Audrey Fox

You Must Remember This and “The Bisexuals” Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Barbara Stanwyck in The Miracle Woman (1931) wearing a sheer dress that may have inspired press accounts of Libby Holman’s inquest outfit.

Jean Harlow (Dead Blondes Flashback) /  by Karina Longworth

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Jean Harlow was the top blonde of the 1930s, and even though she didn’t survive the decade -- she died in 1937 at the age of 26 -- she’d inspire a generation of would-be platinum-haired bombshell stars. Today we revisit our 2015 episode on Harlow, to set the stage for the relentless forward march of Dead Blondes through the Twentieth Century.

This episode originally debuted in October 2015. The original show notes for this episode can be found here.