Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Guru: Madame Sylvia (Make Me Over, Episode 2)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Glamourous and shrewd, Sylvia of Hollywood became the movie industry’s first weight-loss guru during the end of the silent era. An immigrant of mysterious origin, she would cannily market herself to clients like Gloria Swanson, who she promised to ‘slenderize, refine, reduce, and squeeze’ into shape. But her taste for gossip and publicity would become her downfall in the 1930s when she published a catty tell-all memoir about her star clients. 

This episode was written and performed by Christina Newland, an award-winning journalist on film, pop culture, and boxing at Sight & Sound Magazine, Little White Lies, VICE, Hazlitt, The Ringer, and others. She loves ‘70s Americana, boxing flicks, fashion, and old Hollywood lore. She was born in New York and lives in Nottingham, England.

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources specific to this episode:

Hollywood Undressed: Observations of Sylvia as Noted by her Secretary 

No More Alibis by Sylvia of Hollywood 

Streamline Your Figure by Sylvia of Hollywood 

Pull Yourself Together Baby by Sylvia of Hollywood 

Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up by Tricia Welsch 

Calories and Corsets by Louise Foxcroft 

Hollywood and the Rise of Physical Culture by Heather Addison 

Sylvia of Hollywood and Physical Culture, 1920-1940, by Amanda Regan

‘The Mogul in Mr. Kennedy’, by Cari Beauchamp, Vanity Fair, April 2002 

‘Sylvia Returns - To Restore You to Beauty’, by Madame Sylvia, Photoplay, Oct 1936. 

‘Is Mae West Skidding on the Curves?’, by Madame Sylvia, Photoplay, Dec 1936 

‘How Sylvia Insured Jean Harlow’s Success,’ by Madame Sylvia, Photoplay, Sep 1933 

‘Sylvia Gives Clara Bow Some Timely Advice,’ by Madame Sylvia, Feb 1934 

‘Can Beauty be Hand Made?’, by Gary Strider, Screenland, Jan 1930

‘Diet: The Menace of Hollywood,’ by Katherine Albert, Photoplay Jan 1929

‘Famous Masseuse Denies She Has Offended Stars’, by Audrey Rivers, Movie Classic, Oct 1931

‘Sylvia Writes Story About Film Colony, by Hubbard Keavy, Tampa Bay Times, 20 July 1931 

‘Screen’s Sylvia Rubs Out #1, Weds A Leiter’, NY Daily News, 6 July 1932 

‘Ginger Sues Broadcaster for Saying She Needs Diet,’ NY Daily News, 24 March 1934 

‘Sylvia of Hollywood Tells Her Reducing Secrets’, St. Louis Star Times, 24 March 1936 

Nellie Revell Radio Show, NBC, 1934, digitized by Amanda Regan

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:

Springtime in the Park - Paul Lenart, Bill Novick
The Grand Ball - Thomas Richard Peter Howe, Stephen Christopher Tait
Evening Papers - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
Blue Moan - Keith Charles Nichols
The Great Depression - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
Sick And Tired - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
Smoky Sunday - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
When Pictures Learned To Move - Roman Raithel
Farewell - Roman Raithel
A Picture of You - Roman Raithel

Credits:

Make Me Over is a special presentation of You Must Remember This. It was created and directed by Karina Longworth, who also edited the scripts.

This episode was written and performed by Christina Newland. 

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Producer: Tomeka Weatherspoon. 

Editor: Jared O'Connell.

Audio engineers: Jared O'Connell, Andrea Kristins and Brendan Burns. 

Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana. 

Executive Producer: Chris Bannon. 

Logo design: Teddy Blanks and Aaron Nestor.

Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Surgery: Molly O’Day (Make Me Over, Episode 1)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

At the age of 18, actress Molly O’Day’s career showed great promise—the only thing holding her back was a bit of pubescent pudge. When diets failed, she became the guinea pig of Hollywood's first highly-publicized weight loss surgery. This was in 1929, and the procedure was, as one fan magazine described it "dangerous...and all in vain." What lead Molly to such desperation? And what happened after the surgery her former lover, actor George Raft, declared “ruined her health, her career, and damn near killed her”?

This episode was written and performed by Megan Koester. Megan Koester is a writer, comedian, and Daughter of the Golden West; LA Weekly (before it was taken over by right-wingers, mind you) listed her as a "comic to watch," saying her "sets are as dark, self-effacing and in-the-moment as they come." She co-authored the Audible Original The Indignities of Being a Woman with Merrill Markoe and recently released her debut stand up album, Tertium Non Datur, on aspecialthing records.

SHOW NOTES:  

This episode touches on an aspect of Buster Keaton’s post-MGM attempt at a comeback. For more context on Buster and how his disastrous stint at MGM left his career crippled at the point that his story dovetails with Molly O’Day’s, listen to our episode on Keaton from 2015.

Sources specific to this episode:

“Diet, the Menace of Hollywood” by Katherine Albert, Photoplay, January 1929 

“The Flesh and Blood Racket: Vanity Drives Hollywood to Suffer the Horrors of the Surgeon’s Knife” by Dorothy Manners, Motion Picture Magazine, April 1929

"Love Scene Recipe is Discovered: Cultivate Mild Infatuation with Leading Man, Advice of Molly O’Day” Los Angeles Times, October 16, 1927 

"Does Nicely, Thank You: Sally O'Neil is Irish, Lovely and 18, and Well on Way to Stardom” by Alma Whitaker, Los Angeles Times, March 13, 1927 

“‘Kid’ Nearly Flawless Film: Richard Barthelmess Gives Great Performance” by Marquis Busby, Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1928

“Molly Has Own ‘Slogan’ as She Plans Comeback” Mansfield News Journal, January 21, 1937

“‘Vagabond’ Nominates Its Baby Star; Defies Wampas Selections” Hollywood Vagabond, March 31, 1927

“Hollywood High Lights” by Edwin and Eliza Schallert, Picture-Play Magazine, December 1928

“Starving Back to Stardom: The Sad Story of Molly O’Day, Whose Career Was Blighted by Ice Cream and Candy” by Lois Shirley, Photoplay, August 1928

“Molly Gives Up ‘Three Squares,’ Two Very Meager Meals Every 24 Hours Now Miss O’Day’s Limit” by Dan Thomas, Syracuse Herald, June 3, 1928

“3 Mos for 25 Lbs” Variety, October 26, 1927

“F.N. Abandons Molly to Own Weight Fight” Variety, July 4, 1928 

“Sliced Hips and Legs Save Miss Molly O’Day” Variety, September 19, 1928

Hollywood and the Rise of Physical Culture by Heather Addison

“Reducing Herself to Riches: Doris Dawson’s Soul-Struggle is Caused by a Hunger for Both Cake and a Career” by Dorothy Manners, Motion Picture Classic, July 1928

“Avoirdupois is Stern Foe for Film Actresses” Indiana Evening Gazette, August 8, 1928

“Liposuction — the Evolution of the Classical Technique” by Yves-Gerard Illouz, PMFA Journal, April 1, 2014

“Surgeon Carved Off Mollie O’Day’s Fat — But It Came Back” San Antonio Light January 20, 1929 

“Beauty Doc Sued Again for ‘Error’: Dr. Griffith Once Paid Minnie Chaplin $30,000 — Now W.H. Scott Wants $100,000” Variety, August 10, 1927

George Raft by Lewis Yablonsky

“Weight-Reducing Molly O’Day is Losing Out” Variety, December 12, 1928

“Gossip of All the Studios” by Cal York, Photoplay, April 1929

“Am I My Brother’s Keeper?” by Jane Stewart, The Modern Screen Magazine, November 1930

“Easy Come, Easy Go in Movies; Sisters Now Are Bankrupt” Albuquerque Journal, November 10, 1930

“R-K-O Does Everything But Act for Picture Duo” Variety, May 14, 1930 

“Sally O’Neil and Molly O’Day: Talk and Singing”, Variety, June 4, 1930

“One-Day Stars: Were These Players Equipped for One, and Only One, Great Role?” by Madeline Glass, Picture Play Magazine, April 1932

My Wonderful World of Slapstick by Buster Keaton

“Hot From Hollywood...With the News Sleuth” by Hal E. Wood, Hollywood Magazine, May 1934

“Hollywood’s Film Shops” by Alanson Edwards, South Haven Daily Tribune, May 21, 1934

“Scene as Flames Rage in Motion-Picture Plant: Actors Flee for Their Lives as Fire Sweeps Film Studio” Los Angeles Times, June 7, 1937

“Divorces” Billboard, July 28, 1951

“Sand Doin’s” Palm Springs Desert Sun, December 15, 1950

“Molly O’Day Hit By Egg, Gets Decree” Long Beach Press Telegram, August 9, 1956 

“Divorce, Molly O' Day” Los Angeles Examiner Photographs Collection, July 10, 1951

Silent Stars Speak: Interviews with Twelve Cinema Pioneers by Tony Villecco

For more information on Molly O'Day, check out "Reels and Rivals: Sisters in Silent Films" by Jennifer Ann Redmond

Music:

The music used in this episode 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: The Black Dahlia - Paul Martin Pritchard

Devil Heart -  Daniel Horacio Diaz, Andre Paul Marie Charlier
The Silver Screen - David Francis
Life is Harsh - Sophia Lydie, Ginette Domancich
Maze - Piotr Moss
Exotique - Paul Lenart, Bill Novick
Dreamy Reflection - Lorne David Roderick Balfe
Mysterioso Melancholia - Howard Lucraft
Le Clair, l'Obscur - 1st movement - Denis Jean, Maurice Levaillant
Lost In Paris - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
La Mondaine - Daniel Horacio Diaz & Andre Paul Marie Charlier
Dixie Blues - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
Blue Moan - Keith Charles Nichols

Credits:

Make Me Over is a special presentation of You Must Remember This. It was created and directed by Karina Longworth, who also edited the scripts.

This episode was written and performed by Megan Koester. 

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Producer: Tomeka Weatherspoon. 

Editor: Jared O'Connell.

Audio engineers: Jared O'Connell, Andrea Kristins and Brendan Burns. 

Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana. 

Executive Producer: Chris Bannon. 

Logo design: Teddy Blanks and Aaron Nestor.

Rupert Hughes's Women (The Seduced, Episode 1)

Listen, download this episode, or find on iTunes.

Welcome to a mini-season of You Must Remember This, peripherally related to Karina Longworth’s new book, Seduction: Sex, Lies and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood, which explores the lives and careers of over a dozen actresses who were involved, professionally and/or personally, with Howard Hughes. Inspired by the You Must Remember This episodes on “The Many Loves of Howard Hughes” produced in 2014-2015, the book goes in depth, with much new research, into the stories of stars like Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino, Jane Russell and many more.

In this short series of You Must Remember This, we’ll discuss some of the women who serve as peripheral characters in Seduction: four actresses who were briefly seduced by Hughes, either professionally or romantically, and one writer whose travails in Hollywood during the Hughes era speak to the conflicted female experience behind the camera in 20th century Hollywood.

We’ll begin the season by talking about the complicated, intermingled romantic and professional relationships of Howard’s uncle, Rupert Hughes, who paved the way for his nephew as a Hollywood figure known for his colorful history with women. Howard Hughes was not the first man in his family to find success in Hollywood, or to build a reputation built in part on multiple relationships with women. His uncle, Rupert Hughes, was a respected writer and director in the silent era, whose accomplishments included one of the first Hollywood meta-movies. He also married three times, while making frequent public statements, and films, critiquing marriage and divorce laws. One of his marriages ended in a sensational divorce trial; the other two Mrs. Hughes committed suicide.

Rupert Hughes, c. 1920-30

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Seduction: Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard Hughes’s Hollywood by Karina Longworth

The Story of Hollywood: An Illustrated History by Gregory Paul Williams

Rupert Hughes: Hollywood Legend by James O. Kemm

Are the Stars Out Tonight? The Story of the Famous Ambassador and Cocoanut Grove “Hollywood’s Hotel” by Margaret Tante Burk

Heir Not Apparent by Suzanne Finstad

Eleanor Boardman d’Arrast, deposition, March 30, 1977. Located in Howard Hughes files at the Texas State Archives, Austin, TX.

Rush Hughes, deposition, September 10, 1976. Located in Howard Hughes files at the Texas State Archives, Austin, TX.

“Is Marriage a Bunco Game?” by Adela Rogers St. John, Photoplay, July 1921

“Mrs. Rupert Hughes A Suicide in China; Message from Standard Oil Man at Haiphong Tells Author of Tragedy.” New York Times, December 15, 1923

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 “Charmless Man” by Blur.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

Reflectif—Artist Unknown

Feelin’ Lucky—Artist Unknown

Mississippi Ramble 1—Martin Gauffin 

My Simple Thing—Peter Sandberg

Traceless 5-Peter Sandberg

Rendezvous 3—Martin Landh

Song for Johanna-Franz Gordon

Ragtime Jam 3—Magnus Ringblom

Whiskey Rondo—Hakan Eriksson

Jazz And Blue Piano 1—Jonatan Jarpehag

Sleepless—(artist unknown) 

Hot Rod Rebels 5—Victor Olsson

Sunset—Kai Engel 

Bad News Piano—1-Oscar Collin

Speakeasy 2—Gunnar Johnsen

Peaceful Pianos 5—Martin Klem

After the Freakshow—Jenny Roos

Rupert Hughes and his wife in Photoplay magazine, July 1921

Credits:

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

Special appearance by Noah Segan, as Howard Hughes.

Editor: Olivia Natt.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Clara Bow (Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon Episode 11)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

We’ll close this half of our Hollywood Babylon season with one of that book’s most famously distorted stories: the tale of “It” Girl Clara Bow’s supposed nymphomania and alleged “tackling” of the entire USC football team. The real story of Clara Bow’s life and career is a much richer tale, involving changing sexual mores, and the change in the audience’s tastes that overlapped with the end of the silent era. Featuring special guest Natasha Lyonne!

Clara Bow and the WAMPAS Baby Stars of 1924

Portrait of Clara Bow, 1920's

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

This episode is a response to, and includes a brief excerpt from, Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger.

Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild by David Stenn

Directed by Dorothy Arzner by Judith Mayne

Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger

Moving Pictures: Memories of a Hollywood Prince by Budd Schulberg

The New York Graphic: The World’s Zaniest Newspaper by Lester Cohen

Final Thoughts on The “It” Girl and the Secretary, derangedlacrimes.com

The Evening Graphic's Tabloid Reality By Bob Stepno, stepno.com

Clara Bow and Charles "Buddy" Rogers in Wings, 1927

Music:

Original music was composed for this episode by Evan Viola. Most of the rest of 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 “Daughter of a Child” by The Auteurs.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

The Smoke Room - Gunnar Johnsen  
After the Freakshow - Jenny Roos
Cinema Romanza 14 - Jonatan Jarpehag
Bad News Piano 02 - Oscar Collin
Angry Cats - Hakan Ericsson
Loser - Anders Ekengren
My Simple Thing 2 - Peter Sandberg
Mississippi Ramble 1 - Martin Gauffin
I Don’t Smoke - Mythical Score Society
“Fight On” - Milo Sweet, 1922 (USC Fight Song) 
The Hepcat Swagger - Martin Landh
My Simple Thing - Peter Sandberg
Music from “The Wild Party” 1929 - John Leipold
French Girls - Hakan Eriksson
Dust Bowl 1 - Hakan Eriksson
Cluedo - Hakan Eriksson
People Falling Down 3 - Gavin Luke
Black and White Memories 3 - Martin Hall
Whiskey Rondo - Hakan Eriksson
Mas Cerca De Ti 5 - Martin Carlberg
Music from “Call Her Savage” 1932 - Peter Brunelli, Arthur Lange
Sad Piano Walk 1 - Oscar Collin  

Credits:

Our special guest this week is Matt Bomer.

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

Editors: Sam Dingman and Jacob Smith.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Marilyn Monroe as Clara Bow, photographed by Richard Avedon

Thomas Ince and the Hearst "Coverup" (Fake News: Fact-Checking Hollywood Babylon Episode 9)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Thomas Ince was one of early Hollywood’s most pioneering producers—in fact, some credit him for popularizing “producer” as a job title and for codifying what it meant to do the job, as well as helping to develop the Western as a genre. But today, if Ince is remembered at all, it’s for his death aboard a yacht owned by William Randolph Hearst, amidst a star-studded party attended by Chaplin, writer Elinor Glyn, and actress/Hearst’s mistress Marion Davies. For decades, rumors have swirled that Ince was felled not by “acute indigestion,” as Hearst’s papers claimed, but by “a bullet hole in [his] head,” as Kenneth Anger put it. Who was Ince, what really happened on that yacht, and why have fictionalizations of his death (spread by Anger and others) flourished for so long?

Thomas Ince, Charlie Chaplin, Mack Sennett & D. W. Griffith, c. 1915

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

This episode is a response to, and includes a brief excerpt from, Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger.

Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies (Film and Culture Series) by Louis Pizzitola

The First Lady of Hollywood: A Biography of Louella Parsons by Samantha Barbas

Thomas Ince: Hollywood's Independent Pioneer by Brian Taves  

Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger

“The Chateau Elysee: Scientology's Celebrity Centre Before it Went Clear” by Hadley Meares, kcet.org, April 19, 2013

“Hollywood’s historic Villa Carlotta returns to rental market as upscale, Airbnb-style lodging, What about rent control?” by Jenna Chandler, la.curbed.com, June 1, 2018

Inceville, c. 1919

Music:

Original music was composed for this episode by Evan Viola. Most of the rest of 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 “Life Classes/Life Model” by The Auteurs.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

The Smoke Room - Gunnar Johnsen  
Finkelstein’s Walk in the Rain - Per-Anders Nilsson
Dust Bowl 1 - Hakan Eriksson
Loser - Anders Ekengren
My Simple Thing 2 - Peter Sandberg
Whiskey Rondo - Hakan Eriksson
Paris Waltz - Hakan Eriksson
Time to Tango - Hakan Eriksson
Black and White - Magnus Ringblom Quartet
Bad News Piano 17 - Oscar Collin
Cluedo - Hakan Eriksson
Jazz and Blue Piano 1 - Jonaton Jarpehag

The Oneida, William Randolph Hearst's ship

Credits:

Our special guest this week is Fred Savage.

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

Editors: Sam Dingman and Jacob Smith.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Charlie Chaplin (Fake News: Fact-Checking Hollywood Babylon, Episode 8)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Kim Kardashian of her day, Peggy Hopkins Joyce was famous for being rich and famous—and for her marriages and involvements with rich and famous men, including Charlie Chaplin. Did Peggy really ask Chaplin on their first date if he was “hung like a horse?” We’ll investigate this and other claims made about the affair in Hollywood Babylon, and chart how the dalliance with Hopkins Joyce inspired Chaplin’s first dramatic film A Woman of Paris, and explain how a woman of the 1910s-1920s could come from nothing and become internationally famous before ever arriving in Hollywood.

Peggy Hopkins Joyce, c. 1920's

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

This episode is a response to, and includes a brief excerpt from, Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger.

Gold Digger: The Outrageous Life and Times of Peggy Hopkins Joyce by Constance Rosenblum

My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin

The Talmadge Girls by Anita Loos

“Peggy Joyce is Now Sure She is Through with Men” by United Press, The Southeast Missourian, May 5, 1922

“The Legend of Peggy Hopkins Joyce: She Collected Men, Chinchilla, Diamonds” by Milt Freudenheim, Toledo Blade, June 23, 1957

Peggy Hopkins Joyce and Charlie Chaplin, c. 1922

Music:

Original music was composed for this episode by Evan Viola. Most of the rest of 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 “I'm a Rich Man's Toy” by The Auteurs.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

The Smoke Room - Gunnar Johnsen  
Sad Piano Walk 1 - Oscar Collin
1920s Chicago 3 - Magnus Ringblom
French Girls - Hakan Ericsson
French Cuisine - Magnus Ringblom  
Mississippi Ramble 1 - Martin Gauffin
Wedding March in C Major - Felix Mendelssohn
Pesado Manouche 3 - John Ahlin
Pesado Manouche 2 - John Ahlin
Klezmer Feeling 1 - Gunnar Johnsen
Victoria’s Vintage Pearls - Peter Sandberg
Black and White Memories 3 - Martin Hall
My Simple Thing 3 - Peter Sandberg
Yellow Leaves 2 - Peter Sandberg
Black and White - Magnus Ringblom Quartet
Widows Dance - Hakan Eriksson
Motions 9 - Line Neesgaard

Credits:

Our special guest this week is John Mulaney.

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

Editors: Sam Dingman and Jacob Smith.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Mabel Normand (Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon Episode 5)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

A frequent co-star of Roscoe Arbuckle’s, Mabel Normand was the definitive female screen comedienne of her generation. But it wasn’t her association with Arbuckle that brought Normand’s career to an abrupt close and her life to an early end. Today we’ll interrogate Hollywood Babylon’s claim that Normand was a cocaine addict, explore Normand’s involvement in various scandals which did more damage than drugs, and talk about the disease that led to her early death.

SHOW NOTES  

Sources:

This episode is a response to, and includes a brief excerpt from, Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger.

Goldwyn: a Biography by A. Scott Berg

Mabel: Hollywood’s First I Don’t Care Girl by Betty Harper Fussell

Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood by William J. Mann

Silent Stars by Jeanine Basinger

My Autobiography by Charlie Chaplin

“Mickey (1918)” by Roger Fristoe, tcm.com

“Mabel Normand: Her Great-Nephew’s Memoir” by Stephen Normand, themabelnormand.com

Mabel Normand, Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle, Buster Keaton, c. 1915

Music:

Original music was composed for this episode by Evan Viola. Most of the rest of 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 “Underground Movies” by The Auteurs.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

The Smoke Room - Gunnar Johnsen

My Simple Thing 3 - Peter Sandberg

Pesado Manouche 3 - John Ahlin

Mississippi Ramble 1 - Martin Gauffin

Kansas City Flashback 2 - Magnus Ringblom

One Two Three 1 - Peter Sandberg

Jazz and Blue Piano 1 - Jonaton Jarpehag

Mickey (1918) - Harry Williams (lyrics) & Neil Moret (music)

Victoria’s Vintage Pearls 2 - Peter Sandberg

Black and White - Magnus Ringblom Quartet

My Simple Thing - Peter Sandberg

Mack Sennett Studios

Credits:

Our special guest this week is Fred Savage.

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

Editors: Sam Dingman and Jacob Smith.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.