Esther Williams and the Birth of Waterproof Makeup (Make Me Over, Episode 5)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Esther Williams single-handedly helped to popularize the past time of swimming, first as the star swimmer of the San Francisco production of Billy Rose's Aquacade, and then as the star of Hollywood films like Bathing Beauties and Million Dollar Mermaid. Williams’s stardom—and the necessity to maintain her image as a grinning glamour girl, even while submerged underwater—led to the creation of several waterproof products and swimwear innovations, from waterproof foundation and eyeliner to bathing cap couture. Despite two decades of sustained celebrity and brand power, Williams eventually struggled to maintain the pristine bathing beauty facade. She lost her MGM contract in the 1960s and had to pay millions to the studio in damages; on her way down, she slapped her name on swimming pools and exercise videos, stumbled through four unhappy marriages and started to experiment with taking LSD for her depression. Drawing on previously untapped resources, Rachel Syme will tell the story of Williams' rise and fall, and the innovations in aqua-beauty she inspired, while also analyzing why we want to be waterproof, why we want to be so invulnerable to the elements—and why putting swimming on-screen led to extra pressures for women to look put-together, even when sopping wet. 

This episode was written and performed by Rachel Syme, a writer, reporter and cultural critic living in New York City. who writes a regular column for The New Yorker on fashion and beauty. She is also a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, GQ, Vanity Fair, and Esquire. She often writes about the complex intersection between fame, glamour, beauty, and feminism.

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources specific to this episode:

The Million Dollar Mermaid: An Autobiography by Esther Williams 

Synchronized Swimming: An American History by Dawn Payson Bean

The Billy Rose Aquacade collection at the NYPL Performing Arts Library

“Tale of A Mermaid: Swimming Regimen Still Suits Esther Williams at 75,” July 23, 1997, The Pittsburgh Post Gazette

“Secret Sources” by Alexandra Penney, October 23, 1977, The New York Times 

“Beauty, Making a Splash” by Linda Wells, June 4, 1989, The New York Times

“Eleanor Holm Whalen, 30's Swimming Champion” obituary, February 2, 2004, The New York Times

“Esther Williams, Swimming Champion Who Became a Movie Star, Dies at 91” June 6, 2013, The New York Times

“The Aquacade of Queens,” by Sergey Kadinsky, Hidden Waters of New York

Esther Williams and Tom and Jerry in Dangerous When Wet (1953)

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: 

Better Late Than Never - Laurence Holloway
Hollywood Forever - Jean Claudric
Make Believe You're A Hero - John Harry Cacavas, Hal David
How About Mine - John Harry Cacavas, Hal David
Two Latin Lovers - John Harry Cacavas, Hal David
Can't Get You Out Of My Mind - John Harry Cacavas, Hal David
Kitsch Comedy - Peter Jeffries
Wrong Track - Philippe Jacques Marie Hersant
Love Pain - Bruno Raymond Bertoli
Tragical Destiny - Bruno Raymond Bertoli
Escape In The Dark - Jean Claudric
Meet The Host - Max Harris
Johnny Ubiquitous - Trevor Duncan
A Life Of Memories - Jean Claudric

Esther Williams applying her makeup c. 1956

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 Rachel Syme.

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.

Passing for White: Merle Oberon (Make Me Over, Episode 4)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

In 1935, Merle Oberon became the first biracial actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, an incredible achievement in then-segregated Hollywood -- except that nobody in Hollywood knew Oberon was biracial. Born in Bombay into abject poverty in 1911, Oberon's fate seemed sealed in her racist colonial society. But a series of events, lies, men, and an obsession with controlling her own image -- even if it meant bleaching her own skin -- changed Oberon's path forever.

This episode was written and performed by Halley Bondy, a writer and journalist whose work has appeared in NBC, The Outline, Eater NY, Paste Magazine, Scary Mommy, Bustle, Vice, and more. She's an author of five young adult books, a handful of plays, an is a writer/producer for the podcast "Masters of Scale." She lives in Brooklyn with husband/cheerleader Tim, and her amazing toddler Robin.

Merle Oberon and Leslie Howard in the Scarlet Pimpernel, 1934

SHOW NOTES: 

Sources specific to this episode:

Race and the Modern Exotic: Three ‘Australian’ Women on Global Display by Angela Wollacott 

Merle: A Biography of Merle Oberon by Charles Higham and Roy Moseley

Charmed Lives: A Family Romance by Michael Korda

Another Life: A Memoir of Other People by Michael Korda

“‘Queenie’ and the Novel Fact of Oberon’s Fiction” feature by Kevin Thomas, May 31, 1985, The L.A. Times

Korda: Britain’s Only Movie Mogul by Charles Drazin

“The Trouble with Merle” a documentary by Marée Delofski, 2002

Goldwyn by A. Scott Berg, 1998

“Interval” the American Film Institute

“Asians Continue to Use Skin Whitening Products Despite Their Toxic Levels of Mercury” by Meera Navlakha, 5 September 2019, Vice.com 

“Sulfa drug.” ed. Kara Rogers, Britannica

“Health Effects of Exposures to Mercury,” by the Environmental Protection Agency

“Skin Lightening,” by the National Health Service

The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk

Cagney by John McCabe, 1997

Alexander Korda​ by Paul Taboni

Alexander Korda: The Man Who Could Miracles​ by Karol Kulik

Korda: Britain’s Only Movie Mogul​ by Charles Drazin

Fredric March and Merle Oberon, The Dark Angel, 1935

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:

The Black Dahlia - Paul Martin Pritchard
A Deep Longing -  Laurent Eric Couson
Psychotic Mind - Patrick Thomas Hawes
Evening Papers - Geoffrey Peter Gascoyne
Blue Moan - Keith Charles Nichols
Sunset on Happiness - Laurent Eric Couson
Hollywood Holiday - Frank Samuels
Lonely Landscape - David Snell
Maze - Piotr Moss
Sentimental - Peter Yorke
Melancholy Feel - Mike Sunderland
Affairs of the Heart - Frederick Humphries
Tendre Billet Doux - Pierre Marcel Thierry Blanchard
Black Virgin - Piotr Moss
Voltar A Alfama - Marc-Olivier Nicolas Dupin,Christian Toucas
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 Halley Bondy.

Additional research by Kristen Sales. 

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 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.

Mae West (Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon Episode 12)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Today we begin part two of our season, Fake News: Fact Checking Hollywood Babylon. Mae West was the biggest new star in Hollywood in 1933, thanks to two hit films she co-wrote and starred in as a sexually implicit, wisecracking broad who romanced a young Cary Grant. In Hollywood Babylon, Anger credits West’s abrupt decline in movies to a coordinated conspiracy organized by William Randolph Hearst and carried out by the Hays Office. Today we’ll explore West’s background, her history of pushing the censors past the limits of legality, and the truth of her lightning-fast rise in Hollywood and somewhat slower descent back to earth. Featuring special guest Natasha Lyonne!

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources:

Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger

Goodness Had Nothing To Do With It by Mae West

Becoming Mae West by Emily Wortis Leider

She Always Knew How: Mae West, a Personal Biography by Charlotte Chandler

Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration by Thomas Doherty

The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code by Leonard J. Leff

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 “I’m No Angel” by Mae West.

Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:

One Two Three 4 - Peter Sandberg

One Two Three 5 - Peter Sandberg

My Simple Thing 2 - Peter Sandberg

Up We Go 4 - Peter Sandberg

Yellow Leaves 5 - Peter Sandberg

Eventually Maybe - Oakwood Station

Say It Is So - Magnus Ringblom Quartet

In The Lounge 02 - Lars Olvmyr

In The Lounge 05 - Lars Olvmyr

City Fashion 3 - Björn Skogsberg

Tomorrow I'll Be Gone - Franz Gordon

Corny Local Restaurants 2 - Magnus Ringblom

Goofy Moments 3 - Magnus Ringblom

Sophisticated Gentlemen 2 - Magnus Ringblom

Bachelor On The Move 4 - Martin Landh

Thieves Adventures 21 - Magnus Ringblom

Club Noir 2 - John Åhlin

Mae West and Grant in I'm No Angel (1933)

Credits:

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

Editor: Cameron Drews.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Mae West, shot by Diane Arbus, c. 1965

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