Peter Bogdanovich and the Woman Behind the Auteur (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 2)

Peter Bogdanovich and Polly Platt c. 1968 | Photo by Bruce McBroom via mptvimages

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After the death of her first husband and creative partner, Polly moves to New York, where she swiftly meets and falls in love with Peter Bogdanovich. Together Polly and Peter build a life around the obsessive consumption of Hollywood movies, with Polly acting as Peter’s Jill-of-all-trades support system as he first ingratiates himself with the previous two generations of Hollywood auteurs as a critic/historian, and then makes his way into making his own films. Together, Polly and Peter write and produce Targets, Bogdanovich’s first credited feature, and also collaborate on a documentary about the great director John Ford. By the time Polly gives birth to their first daughter, she believes she and Peter are an indivisible, equal creative partnership — regardless of how credit is distributed in Hollywood. 

Peter and Polly in England, c. 1965 | Photo courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources specific to this episode:

This season is based in large part on Polly Platt's unpublished memoir, It Was Worth It, excerpted with the permission of Sashy Bodganovich.

 This episode includes excerpts from interviews with: Jules Fisher, Sashy Bogdanovich, Barbara Boyle, Fred Roos, Frank Marshall, Peggy Steffans and Rachel Ambramowitz. 

 Here is a full list of sources referenced on this season. 

Boris Karloff and Peter Bogdanovich in Targets c. 1968

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: 

Trust In Fate - Julien Guillaume Yves Bonneau, François Rousselot
Play Smart - Franck Sarkissian
Hazy Nights - Various Composers
Without You Crooner - Franck Sarkissian
Strain Therapy - Massimo Catalano, Remigio Ducros
Silver Bullet - Elliot Holmes
Tooth Fairy - Various Composers
Sunset - Kai Engel
Suspicious Cat - Ilan Moshe Abou, Thierry Oliver Faure
Low Horizon - Kai Engel
Locked Minds - Walt Adams
Rite of Passage - Unknown Composer
Stripper - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
The Call of the Sea (Piano Only) - John Paul Labno
Nashville Girl - Various Composers
I Knew A Guy - Unknown Composer
Piano Sonata in C Minor
Ready to Love - Various Composers

Peter Bogdanovich and John Ford on the set of Bogdanovich's documentary Directed by John Ford

Credits:

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

Featuring special guest Maggie Siff as the voice of Polly Platt.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media, transcription and additional research: Brendan Whalen.

Transcription and additional research: Kristen Sales and Wiley Wiggins

 Produced and edited by Tomeka Weatherspoon.

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

 Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana.

 Executive Producer: Chris Bannon.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

YMRT #22: Audrey Hepburn: Sex, Style and Sabrina

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Like Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, it sometimes seems as though Audrey Hepburn’s actual movies have been swallowed up by a superficial image of her as a star. When you think of her, you probably think of her in a black cocktail dress, swinging a cigarette holder — an image from the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a film about a golddigging party girl which somehow convinces the viewer that it’s about a girl-next-door princess. This ability to mix sex and class and innocence was Hepburn’s real trademark, and along with her ballerina/waif body type - the total opposite of the bombshell look that was in vogue at the time — it made Hepburn not just a great star, but a groundbreaking one: she was the first glamorous actress whose style seemed to be to dress for herself, and not to appeal to men. 

Breakfast at Tiffany’s came along fairly far along in Hepburn’s evolution as a star. Today we’re going to talk about a film which sparked that evolution, Sabrina — Hepburn’s second Hollywood film, on which she was romanced by William Holden, resented by Humphrey Bogart, and first dressed by Givenchy. It was also the first film on which her complicated star persona as a “new woman,” who used fashion to both broadcast her individuality and negotiate around the censors, started to come together.

Show Notes!

My book Hollywood Frame by Frame contains several pages of images taken on the New York set of Sabrina. There’s one page that shows Hepburn, Holden, director Billy Wilder, and screenwriter Ernest Lehman, sitting around a table together — without Bogart. When I started researching that photo, I learned that Bogart had been an antagonist on that set, in part because he seemed to feel threatened by the up-and-coming Hepburn, who he thought was getting special treatment, and who would thus upstage him. That reminded me of the portion of Sam Wasson’s book Fifth Avenue 5 A.M., in which he details the special treatment that Hepburn did get, in that she was sent to Paris to pick out items for her character’s (and her own) wardrobe at the atelier of Hubert de Givenchy, the designer with whom Hepburn would work for the rest of her career. I thought it would be interesting to explore ways in which Sabrina, made when Hepburn was still a total newcomer, put in motion various aspects of her now-indelible star persona. 

This episode features more film criticism/analysis than usual, and because I had researched these films and Hepburn’s life before, I didn’t need to do the usual exhaustive research. But most of the quotes and information about Hepburn’s early and personal lives came from Barry Paris’ biography Audrey Hepburn.

Discography:

"Moon River" by Henry Mancini, performed by Morrissey

“Benbient” by Canton

“Free and Easy” by Brian Jonestown Massacre

“Oceanic Dawn” by DJ Masque

“Just in Time” performed by Blossom Dearie

“Big Deal” by Everything But the Girl

“6,49” by Black Ant

“Wonder Cylce” by Chris Zabriskie

“Sous le soleil exacttement (orchestre)” by Serge Gainsbourg

“Transparent” by Peter Rudenko

“Divider” by Chris Zabriskie

“Gunshy” by Liz Phair

“Inside You” by Eddie Henderson

“The Slide Song” by Spiritualized

“The Girls Want to Be With The Girls” by The Talking Heads