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Charles Manson's Hollywood, Part 12: The Manson Family on Trial
Download this episodeThe trials of the Manson family became a kind of public theater which a number of current and future filmmakers found themselves caught up in. Joan Didion bought a dress for a...
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You Must Remember This is now part of Panoply!
Exciting news: The fifth season of You Must Remember This debuts tomorrow, and it will be distributed by Panoply, the podcast network associated with Slate.com! I’ve been an occasional contributor to...
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MGM Stories Part One - Louis B. Mayer vs. Irving Thalberg (YMRT #56)
Download this episode Welcome to the fifth season of You Must Remember This! This season, called MGM Stories, is going to tell 15 tales about people who worked at the same movie studio over the course...
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MGM Stories Part Two: Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst and Citizen Kane
Marion Davies is enshrined in memory as the gorgeous but questionably talented mistress of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst -- thanks in part to the depiction of a Davies-esque character in...
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MGM Stories Part Three: Buster Keaton's Biggest Mistake
Download this episodeIn 1928, silent comedy star Buster Keaton made what he would later call “the worst mistake of my career”: against the advice of fellow silent comedy auteurs like Charlie Chaplin,...
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MGM Stories Part Four: John Gilbert and Greta Garbo
Download this episode Rising romantic lead John Gilbert signed with MGM in 1924 and the next year he starred in King Vidor’s The Big Parade, the studio’s biggest hit of the silent era. That same year,...
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MGM Stories Part Five: William Haines and Hollywood's First Openly Gay Marriage
Download this episode The rare silent star who made a relatively smooth transition to sound films, William “Billy” Haines was one of the top box office stars of the late 1920s-early 1930s. Beginning...
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MGM Stories Part Six: Jean Harlow
Download this episode, or stream on Soundcloud, or subscribe on iTunes As part of the publicity campaign for his film Hell's Angels, Howard Hughes made Jean Harlow a star, branding her “The Platinum...
View ArticleMGM Stories Part Seven: MGM's Children - Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
Download this episode, or view via Soundcloud or iTunes After Irving Thalberg’s death in 1936, Louis B. Mayer doubled down on "family entertainment" at MGM. To support this new wave of content, Mayer...
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Giveaway: WHY SINATRA MATTERS by Pete Hamill
The second episode of You Must Remember This was about Frank Sinatra's album Trilogy, particularly the third part of that triple record, "The Future," which includes a song suite composed by Gordon...
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MGM Stories Part Eight: Eddie Mannix
Download this episode or listen on Soundcloud or iTunes In the new Hollywood satire from the Coen Brothers, Josh Brolin plays a studio "fixer" named Eddie Mannix. The real Eddie Mannix was a New...
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MGM Stories Part Nine: Spencer Tracy
Download this episode or listen on Soundcloud or iTunes View image | gettyimages.com When Spencer Tracy signed with MGM, he was a character actor better known for his problem drinking (and very public...
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MGM Stories Part Ten: David O. Selznick, The Mayers & Gone With the Wind
Download this episode or get from Soundcloud or iTunes In 1930, after putting in time at MGM and RKO, Paramount executive David O. Selznick married Irene Mayer, the daughter of L.B. Mayer. Irene’s...
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MGM Stories Part Eleven: David O. Selznick, Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker
In 1941, David O. Selznick signed a young actress named Phylis, who was then married to actor Robert Walker (Strangers on a Train). Selznick renamed Phylis “Jennifer Jones,” and set to work turning...
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MGM Stories Part Twelve: Lana Turner
Download this episode or stream on Soundcloud or find on iTunes. Lana Turner, the legendary "Sweater Girl" was one of MGM’s prized contract players, the epitome of the mid-century sex goddess...
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MGM Stories Part Thirteen: Gloria Grahame
Download this episode here or from iTunes or stream on SoundcloudEmbed from Getty Images Gloria Grahame arrived in Hollywood in 1944, after Louis B. Mayer personally plucked her from the New York...
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MGM Stories Part Fourteen: Elizabeth Taylor from Michael Wilding to Eddie Fisher
Download this episode or find on itunesElizabeth Taylor grew up on the MGM lot, spending 18 years as what she referred to as “MGM chattel.” The last four years of that 18 year sentence were arguably...
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MGM Stories Part Fifteen: The End of Louis B. Mayer
In the 1940s, Louis B. Mayer was the highest paid man in America, one of the first celebrity CEOs and the figurehead of what for most Americans was the most glamorous industry on Earth. In 1951, Mayer...
View ArticleTender Comrades: The Prehistory of the Blacklist (The Blacklist Episode #1)
Embed from Getty ImagesDownload this episode, or find on SoundCloud or iTunes. Welcome to our new series: The Blacklist. This first episode will trace the roots of both communism and anti-communism in...
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The Blacklist Glossary
Our new season, The Blacklist, will cover events spanning four decades, featuring dozens of significant characters, institutions and acronyms. Here's a handy guide to some of the names and terms that...
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