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The child of a silent film actress, Dvorak was so determined to be a star that at first, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her big break came when she was cast in Howard Hughes’s production of Scarface. But Hughes would sell her contract to Warner Brothers, and when Ann later accused Hughes of having “sold [her] down the river,” she would swiftly suffer the consequences of going up against Hughes in the press when his mastery over the medium of publicity was at its peak.
Paul Muni and Ann Dvorak and in Scarface, 1932
SHOW NOTES:
Sources:
Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth
Ann Dvorak: Hollywood's Forgotten Rebel by Christina Rice
Howard Hawks: The Grey Fox of Hollywood by Todd McCarthy
“Sold Down the River’ Declares Ann Dvorak.” Los Angeles Times, July 19, 1932
Production Code Administration files on Scarface, Margaret Herrick Library
Lincoln Quarberg files, Special Collections, Margaret Herrick Library
Clips from Scarface (1932) and The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
Ann Dvorak and Richard Cromwell in The Strange Love of Molly Louvain (1932)
Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro and outro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca. The outro song this week is “Slow Down” by Blur.
Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:
Reflectif - Artist Unknown
Time for Miles - Artist Unknown
Kansas City Flashback 1 - Magnus Ringbloom
Club Noir 2 - John Ahlin
Yellow Leaves 5 - Peter Sandberg
Whiskey Rondo - Hakan Eriksson
Cluedo - Hasan Eriksson
Tomorrow I’ll Be Gone - Franz Gordon
The Smoke Room - Gunnar Johnson
Loser - Anders Ekengren
After the Freakshow - Jenny Roos
Victoria’s Vintage Pearls 3 - Peter Sandberg
Jazz and Blue Piano 1 - Jonathan Jarpehag
Traceless 5 - Peter Sandberg
Empty Streets - Gunnar Johnson
Got That Feeling - Peter Sandberg
Credits:
This episode was written, narrated and produced by Karina Longworth.
Special Guest Noah Segan as Howard Hughes
Editor: Olivia Natt.
Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.
Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.
Logo design: Teddy Blanks.
Photo from the personal scrapbook of Ann Dvorak/Collection of Christina Rice via Huffington Post