Gossip Girls: Louella Parsons And Hedda Hopper (The Feud, Episode 3)

​

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In 1938, washed-up actress Hedda Hopper is installed as a movie gossip columnist with the express purpose of puncturing the success of Louella and Hearst. But Hedda quickly establishes a voice of her own, revolutionary for its insistence on making movie gossip political. Once friends, Louella and Hedda become bitter rivals, egged on in their feud by a third party who sees Hedda as an ally in right-wing conservatism.

Hedda Hopper, 3rd from left, with Edward Everett Horton, Robert Ames, Ann Harding in Holiday (1930)

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources for entire season:

Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism by Jennifer Frost

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

The Whole Truth and Nothing But by Hedda Hopper

From Under My Hat by Hedda Hopper

Tell it to Louella by Louella Parsons

The Powers That Be by David Halberstam

Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies by Louis Pizzitola

The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw

Dish by Jeannette Walls

Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The L.A. Times Dynasty by Dennis Mcdougal

Hedda and Louella: A Dual biography of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons by George Eells

Sources specific to this episode:

My Hollywood by Sheilah Graham

“Visionaries and scoundrels made the Los Angeles Times, which returns to local ownership after 18 years” by Joe Mozingo, June 17, 2018, Los Angeles Time

“The Powerful Rivalry of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons” by Amy Fine Collins, April 1, 1997, Vanity Fair

“Double Date” September 22, 1941, TIME Magazine

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: 

"Krok" by Simple Machines

"Pips and Boil" by Confectionery

"Crumpet" by Confectionery

"Heath" by Moon Juice

"Mr Mole and Son" by Love and Weasel

"One Quiet Conversation" by K2

"Pxl Htra" by The Fence

"Eggs and Powder" by Muffuletta

"Trenton Channel" by Reflections

"Respite" by Desert Kalimba

"Net and the Cradle" by Muffuletta

"Copley Beat" by Skittle

"Ewa Valley" by Cloud Harbor

Louella Parsons (left) Hedda Hopper (right) c. 1930s

Credits:

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

Special thanks to our special guests. Julie Klausner played Louella Parsons. Julie wrote, created and starred in Difficult People, which you can watch on Hulu. She and Tom Scharpling also have a podcast, Double Threat, which you can and should find wherever you get your podcasts. Cole Escola played Hedda Hopper. Cole is an actor who appears on Search Party and At Home with Amy Sedaris. 

Our editor this season is Evan Viola. 

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Gossip Girls: Louella Parsons And Hedda Hopper (The First Lady, Episode 2)

Birthday party for WR Hearst, Louella Parsons 2nd from right | Photo from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner Photo Collection via the Los Angeles Public Library

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

In 1923, Louella Parsons signed a contract with William Randolph Hearst for nationwide syndication of the first major Hollywood gossip column. Parsons quickly built a brand based on protecting (and whitewashing) Hollywood’s interests, as well as Hearst’s, relentlessly promoting — and spying on — Hearst’s mistress, Marion Davies. 

Louella Parsons c. 1920’s

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources for entire season:

Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism by Jennifer Frost

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

The Whole Truth and Nothing But by Hedda Hopper

From Under My Hat by Hedda Hopper

Tell it to Louella by Louella Parsons

The Powers That Be by David Halberstam

Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies by Louis Pizzitola

The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw

Dish by Jeannette Walls

Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The L.A. Times Dynasty by Dennis Mcdougal

Hedda and Louella: A Dual biography of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons by George Eells

Sources specific to this episode:

Don’t Get Me Wrong -- I Love Hollywood by Sidney Skolsky

Winchell: Gossip, Power and the Culture of Celebrity by Neal Gabler

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: 

"Myrian" by Arc and Crecent

"FasterFaster Brighter" by Ray Catcher

"Vernouillet" by The Sweet Hots

"Jeramiah's Suit" by Rayling

"Capering" by Calumet

"The Silver Hatch" by Rayling

"Pastel de Nata" by Orange Cat

"Unfolding Plot" by Ray Catcher

"Floating Whist" by Aeronaut

"Pavement Hack" by Arc and Crecent

"Chase and We Follow" by Ray Catcher

"Dirty Wallpaper" by Lemuel

"Norvik" by Lillehammer

Gloria Swanson, Louella Parsons, and Mary Pickford

Credits:

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

Special thanks to our special guests. Julie Klausner played Louella Parsons. Julie wrote, created and starred in Difficult People, which you can watch on Hulu. She and Tom Scharpling also have a podcast, Double Threat, which you can and should find wherever you get your podcasts. 

Thanks to writer Rachel Syme who spoke to Karina about Sheila Graham.

Our editor this season is Evan Viola. 

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Gossip Girls: Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper (Small Town Girl, Episode 1)

​

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

From the anonymous tips posted on Deux Moi to the streams of annotated paparazzi shots that fill the Daily Mail, today’s celebrity gossip -- democratized, based on technological surveillance -- looks completely different than it used to, when non-famous people could only go “behind the scenes” if led by authoritative guides. How did we get here?

This season on You Must Remember This, we’re going to go back about a hundred years, to the very beginning of the idea of going “behind the scenes,” to talk about the two powerful women who invented and dominated Hollywood gossip as it was known in the 20th century: Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper. Parsons and Hopper were both self-made women, single moms from middle America who shattered the glass ceiling; they were also small-minded, self-obsessed bigots who used their power to persecute outsiders, police sexuality, and ensure that the rich, powerful people who made movies lived in fear. Through stories of these women, their rivalry with one another and their incestuous relationships with the institutions and powerful men that controlled media, the movies and even federal law enforcement, we’ll track the evolution of gossip over the course of a century. 

Both Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper worked for papers created by charismatic barons whose publications were nakedly corrupt, totally biased -- and absolutely mainstream. Once we get a feel for this media climate, we’ll trace Louella’s early years of struggle and reinvention on the road to her pioneering bylines, and, finally, her role in canonizing The Birth of a Nation -- the most viciously racist Hollywood blockbuster of all time. 

SHOW NOTES:  

Sources for entire season:

Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood: Celebrity Gossip and American Conservatism by Jennifer Frost

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

The Whole Truth and Nothing But by Hedda Hopper

From Under My Hat by Hedda Hopper

Tell it to Louella by Louella Parsons

The Powers That Be by David Halberstam

Hearst Over Hollywood: Power, Passion, and Propaganda in the Movies by Louis Pizzitola

The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst by David Nasaw

Dish by Jeannette Walls

Privileged Son: Otis Chandler And The Rise And Fall Of The L.A. Times Dynasty by Dennis Mcdougal

Hedda and Louella: A Dual biography of Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons by George Eells

Sources specific to this episode:

The Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker And a Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil War by Dick Lehr

“Nellie Bly’s Lessons in Writing What You Want To by Alice Gregory”, The New Yorker,  May 14, 2014

“These Women Reporters Went Undercover to Get the Most Important Scoops of Their Day” by Kim Todd, Smithsonian Magazine, November 2016

“Sob Sisterhood Revisited” by Jean Marie Lutes, JSTOR, American Literary History Vol. 15, No. 3, Autumn, 2003

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: 

"Intelligent Galaxy"

"Faster Does It"

"Rite of Passage"

"Base Camp" by K2

"Dirty Wallpaper" by Lemuel

"Capering" by Calumet

"Floating Whist" by Aeronaut

"Donnalee" by Bitters

"Guild Rat" by El Baul

"Our Only Lark" by Bitters

"Scraper" by Grey River

"Mknt" by Simple Machines

"Myrian" by Arc and Crecent

Credits:

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

Special thanks to our special guests. Julie Klausner played Louella Parsons. Julie wrote, created and starred in Difficult People, which you can watch on Hulu. She and Tom Scharpling also have a podcast, Double Threat, which you can and should find wherever you get your podcasts. 

This episode featured a special appearance by James Gray. 

This season is edited and mixed by Evan Viola.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

We received the following episode correction from listener Bridget Visser:

In the episode, it is asserted that pioneering journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran, aka Nellie Bly, married a millionaire and then used her marital wealth and connections to break into the journalism profession. While it is true that Cochran did eventually marry a millionaire, she did not meet him until well after she was already an established and internationally famous journalist.

Cochran started writing for the New York World in 1887. That same year she went undercover in a female mental institution for 10 days. The series of exposés she wrote about that experience were sensational and they made her a nationally famous household name in the US. Then, in 1889 she raced another female reporter around the world in 72 days (and won), which made her internationally famous. However, she did not even meet her husband, millionaire Robert Seaman, until years later in 1895 (she married him shortly thereafter). Also, after years of being paid significantly less than her male peers, she attempted to use this marriage to retire from journalism altogether. This, for various reasons, did not work in the long term and she did get back into journalism eventually. But, that is a long story.

While Cochran definitely did have privilege as a middle-class white woman, she certainly did not have the advantages of a millionaire's wife when she was starting out in her career. She was almost entirely a self-made success and I think that is an important distinction. How she actually broke into journalism is another long story, but essentially much of it came down to persistence, charisma, stubbornness, fearlessness, cleverness and grit.

SOURCE: Nellie Bly: Daredevil. Reporter. Feminist  by Brooke Kroeger, Kindle Edition

Polly Platt: The Invisible Woman Archive

As an Oscar-nominated production designer, screenwriter, producer and executive who put her stamp on some of the greatest and most loved films of the 1970s and 80s – including Paper Moon, Bad News Bears, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Witches of Eastwick and more—Polly Platt had a major impact on the careers of Barbra Streisand, Tatum O’Neal, Garry Marshall, Cameron Crowe and Wes Anderson. She also lived an epic Hollywood life off-screen; her personal life was the stuff of a Great American Novel, full of romances, heartbreak, alcoholism and the challenges of adapting to cataclysmic cultural change as an independent, professional woman – and single mom. And yet, despite all of this, if you know Polly Platt’s name today, it’s probably because, in 1970, her husband and creative collaborator Peter Bogdanovich had an affair with Cybill Shepherd while shooting the film that made both Bogdanovich and Shepherd major stars of their era, The Last Picture Show. But Platt was much more than a jilted wife: she was the secret, often invisible-to-the-public weapon behind some of the most loved American “auteur” films (many of them comedies, directed by men) of the last decades of the 20th century. 

Drawing on Platt’s unpublished memoir (which remained unfinished when she died in 2011), as well as ample interviews and archival research, The Invisible Woman will tell Polly Platt’s incredible story from her perspective, for the first time. A trailblazer in jobs rarely held by women in Hollywood to that point, Polly Platt’s story helps us understand the obstacles preventing gender equality behind the scenes in Hollywood — in the 1970 through the 1990s, and in the present day -- and allows us to contemplate what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood during a time when the feminist movement may have been remaking American society to some extent, but failed to make major inroads in the movie industry.

Episodes:

• “IT WASN’T SEXISM, THEN” (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 1): Today, we’ll begin with a look at how Polly Platt’s legacy was appraised when she died in 2011. Then we’ll go back in time to tell Polly’s story from the start, beginning with her Revolutionary Road-esque childhood in Europe and America as the neglected daughter of two alcoholics; to her years studying scenic design in environments in which women weren’t welcome; the secret pregnancy that halted her formal education, and the early marriage that took her West and cemented her desire to tell stories through design. Throughout, we’ll talk about how Platt’s experiences, as the product of an American military family of the 1950s—and the daughter of a mother who had been forced to abandon a career for motherhood––shaped her view of gender roles and relations, and her idea of what it meant to be the wife of an important man. Listen

• PETER BOGDANOVICH AND THE WOMAN BEHIND THE AUTEUR (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 2): 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. Listen

• LAST PICTURE SHOW LOVE TRIANGLE: POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN PART 3: At Polly’s urging, Peter decides to direct an adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel The Last Picture Show. Though credited only as the film’s “designer,” Polly is involved in every creative decision, including casting — and it’s with his pregnant-again wife’s enthusiasm that Bogdanovich casts 20-year-old model Cybill Shepherd as the film’s femme fatale. Though Polly believed she and Peter were “deliriously happy,” Bogdanovich and Shepherd fall in love on the set of the movie, and Polly has to make a decision: to save face and avoid personal humiliation by walking away from the production, or stay and fight for the creative baby that she feels ownership over. Listen

• ORSON WELLES, WHAT’S UP DOC, PAPER MOON (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 4): In the aftermath of Picture Show—and the collapse of her second marriage—Polly finds an unlikely ally, and a new job, in Orson Welles. Anxious to build on her career momentum (and become the first female film art director accepted into her union), Polly agrees to work on Peter’s next two films, What’s Up Doc and Paper Moon – two massive hits which make Peter one of the most famous directors of the decade. Listen

• A STAR IS BORN (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 5): When Polly begins her own on-set affair, the double standard of what men can get away with in Hollywood versus what was expected for women would push her to a breaking point. With collaborating with her ex-husband no longer an option, Platt starts attempting to rebuild her career, designing classics such as A Star is Born and Bad News Bears, while also navigating predatory men in power in post-sexual revolution Hollywood. Listen

• PRETTY BABY AND A PLAYMATE MURDER (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 6): In an attempt to save her family, Polly transitions to screenwriting and producing, basing the prostitution drama Pretty Baby, starring a pre-teen Brooke Shields, on her own daughter. Polly finds herself increasingly overcome by alcoholism, while dealing with Shields’s own alcoholic mother. Polly’s already-difficult relationship with her two daughters is made much more complicated by the murder of Peter’s girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten, and Bogdanovich’s subsequent emotional collapse. Listen

• TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 7): Polly’s third marriage falls apart, and she enters more than one destructive affair. During these tumultuous times, Polly establishes a new collaboration with a male writer-director, James L. Brooks, and together the two turn another Larry McMurtry novel into a classic film: Terms of Endearment. Once again, while working on this film about a combative mother-daughter relationship, Polly finds that art and life are intertwined. Polly’s own story starts showing up in other people’s movies, including Irreconcilable Differences -- starring Ryan O’Neal as a version of Bogdanovich. Listen
  

• WOMEN OF THE 80’S (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 8): In the mid-to-late 80s, Polly Platt worked on a number of films that defined and reflected that decade’s ideas about female power. With an Oscar nomination under her belt, Polly starts trying in earnest to direct. She ends her career as a production designer with The Witches of Eastwick, a star-studded special-effects extravaganza. Inspired by Polly, Brooks creates the character played by Holly Hunter in Broadcast News, infusing the film with Polly’s single-minded professional determination. Riding high on having guided Brooks through two consecutive, blockbuster Oscar nominees, Polly becomes a production executive at Brooks's Gracie Films, where she produces Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything… Listen
  
  

• BOTTLE ROCKET, I'LL DO ANYTHING AND POLLY PLATT IN '90S HOLLYWOOD (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 9): Platt collaboration with Brooks hits choppy waters with I’ll Do Anything, which at one point was a musical with songs by Prince, but which became one of the most notoriously misbegotten productions of the 1990s. Polly recaptures her indie roots by shepherding the directorial debut of Wes Anderson. Listen
  
  

• HOW DID IT END? (POLLY PLATT, THE INVISIBLE WOMAN, EPISODE 10): Polly’s unfinished memoir ends abruptly in 1995. What were the remaining 16 years of her life like? Using interviews with those who knew her, we’ll explore how her career in Hollywood came to an end, and the tragic circumstances of her death. Listen

How Did It End? (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 10)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

Polly’s unfinished memoir ends abruptly in 1995. What were the remaining 16 years of her life like? Using interviews with those who knew her, we’ll explore how her career in Hollywood came to an end, and the tragic circumstances of her death. 

James L. Brooks, Danny Devito and and Polly Platt, c. 2000 | Photo courtesy of Sashy 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: Sashy Bogdanovich, Phoef Sutton, Antonia Bogdanovich, David Moritz, Kelly Wade, Fred Roos, Amy Pascal, Rachel Abramowitz, Stacey Sher, Nancy Griffin, Nessa Hyams, Allison Anders, Jules Fisher, Barbara Boyle and Lisa Maria Radano.

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

Polly Platt at the Women in Film Crystal Awards, | Photo by Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images

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:

Labyrinth - Sergey Cheremisinov

Starlight - Royalty Free Music World

Peaceful Piano - Neuromancer

Moonlight - Neuromancer

Danse Morialta - Kevin MacLeod

Undercover Vampire Policeman - Chris Zabriskie

Polly Platt at the Art Director’s Guild oral history taping, c. 2000’s | Photo Courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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.

Bottle Rocket, I'll Do Anything and Polly Platt in '90s Hollywood (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 9)

Polly Platt, c. early 1990's | Photo y Mary Ellen Mark

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

Platt collaboration with Brooks hits choppy waters with I’ll Do Anything, which at one point was a musical with songs by Prince, but which became one of the most notoriously misbegotten productions of the 1990s. Polly recaptures her indie roots by shepherding the directorial debut of Wes Anderson.

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: Rachel Abramowitz, Lisa Maria Radano, Polly Finkelman Cox, Antonia Bogdanovich, Kelly Wade, Paula Herrold, Stacey Sher, Nancy Griffin and Barbara Boyle.

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

Owen Wilson with Wes Anderson on the set of Bottle Rocket, Produced by Polly Platt (1995)

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: 

No Place - DJ Masque
Rite of Passage - Kevin MacLeod
I Know a Guy - Kevin MacLeod
Wanna Be Free - King Sis
Gagool - Kevin MacLeod
Faster Does It - Kevin MacLeod
Sunset - Kai Engel
Quantum Jazz - Passing Fields
Tikopia - Kevin MacLeod
Readers Do You Read - Chris Zabriskie
What You’re Made Of - Gary Combs
Divider - Chris Zabriskie

Polly Platt in Hawaii, 1990's | Photo courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich.jpeg

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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.

Edited by: Brendan Byrnes

Produced 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.

Women of the 80’s (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 8)

Polly Platt with George Miller, 1986 | Photo by Kerry Hayes, Courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

In the mid-to-late 80s, Polly Platt worked on a number of films that defined and reflected that decade’s ideas about female power. With an Oscar nomination under her belt, Polly starts trying in earnest to direct. She ends her career as a production designer with The Witches of Eastwick, a star-studded special-effects extravaganza. Inspired by Polly, Brooks creates the character played by Holly Hunter in Broadcast News, infusing the film with Polly’s single-minded professional determination. Riding high on having guided Brooks through two consecutive, blockbuster Oscar nominees, Polly becomes a production executive at Brooks's Gracie Films, where she produces Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything…

Jack Nicholson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon, and Cher at an event for The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

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: Alison Anders, Antonia Bogdanovich, Nancy Griffin, Polly Finkelman Cox, Danny Devito, Rachel Abramowitz, Paula Herrold, Sashy Bogdanovich, Penney Finkelman Cox, Rachel Abramowitz, Lisa Maria Radano, David Moritz, Jerry Bruckheimer, Kelly Wade, Cameron Crowe and Barbara Boyle.  

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

Holly Hunter in Broadcast News (1987)

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: 

Rescue Mission - Lupus Nocte
Divider - Chris Zabriskie
Laserdisc - Chris Zabriskie
Satellites - Ebb and Flod
Whispering of the Stars - Luella Gren
Mystic Star - Eneide
Celestial Dreams - Eneide
Out of the Skies, Under the Earth - Chris Zabriskie
Peaceful Piano - Neuromancer
Lullaby - Neuromancer
Keep Showing Up - John T. Graham
Danse Morialta - Kevin MacLeod

Polly Platt makes an appearance in Cameron Crowe's Say Anything (1989)

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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.

Terms of Endearment (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 7)

Polly Platt on the phone at her office at Paramount Pictures, 1984 | Photo by Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

Polly’s third marriage falls apart, and she enters more than one destructive affair. During these tumultuous times, Polly establishes a new collaboration with a male writer-director, James L. Brooks, and together the two turn another Larry McMurtry novel into a classic film: Terms of Endearment. Once again, while working on this film about a combative mother-daughter relationship, Polly finds that art and life are intertwined. Polly’s own story starts showing up in other people’s movies, including Irreconcilable Differences -- starring Ryan O’Neal as a version of Bogdanovich.

Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger and Jack Nicholson in Terms of Endearment, 1983 | Photo by Archive Photos/Getty Images

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: Antonia Bogdanovich, Sashy Bogdanovich, Penney Finkelman Cox, Rachel Abramowitz, and Lisa Maria Radano.

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

Polly Platt and her daughters Antonia and Sashy Bogdanovich on their way to the Academy Awards | Photo Courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich

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: 

Tender Warmth - James William Charles Yan
Asian Relax - Neuromancer
She Was A Dancer - Indigo Days
Prelude A L'apres -Claude Debussy
Trompette - Neuromancer
Share My Fears - Sage Oursier
Rise of the Velcro - Gabriel Lewis
Impenetrable - Taylor Crane
There’s a Special Place for Some People - Chris Zabriskie
Rite of Passage - Kevin MaLeod
Laserdisc - Chris Zabriskie

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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.

Edited by: Brendan Byrnes.

Produced 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.

Pretty Baby and a Playmate Murder (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 6)

Brooke Sheilds and Susan Sarandon, Pretty Baby, 1978

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

In an attempt to save her family, Polly transitions to screenwriting and producing, basing the prostitution drama Pretty Baby, starring a pre-teen Brooke Shields, on her own daughter. Polly finds herself increasingly overcome by alcoholism, while dealing with Shields’s own alcoholic mother. Polly’s already-difficult relationship with her two daughters is made much more complicated by the murder of Peter’s girlfriend, Dorothy Stratten, and Bogdanovich’s subsequent emotional collapse.

Polly Platt, c. 1970's | Photo Courtesy of Sashy 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: Nessa Hyams, Antonia Bogdanovich  Frank Marshall and Rachel Abramovitz.  

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

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:

Land on the Golden Gate - Chris Zabriskie
Cylinder - Chris Zabriskie
Sentimental Blues - Eric Jules Georges Gemsa
After Work - Neuromancer
Simple Sample Blues - Philippe Jacques Michel Bas
Slow Hypnosis - Johan Kristoffer Hugosson
No Place - DJ Masque
Rite of Passage - Kevin MaLeod
Danse Morialta - Kevin MacLeod
Undercover Vampire Policeman - Chris Zabriskie
Blue Feather - Kevin McLeod

Bogdanovich and Stratten, 1980, Time & Life Pictures/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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.

A Star is Born (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 5)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

When Polly begins her own on-set affair, the double standard of what men can get away with in Hollywood versus what was expected for women would push her to a breaking point. With collaborating with her ex-husband no longer an option, Platt starts attempting to rebuild her career, designing classics such as A Star is Born and Bad News Bears, while also navigating predatory men in power in post-sexual revolution Hollywood.  

Barbra Streisand, Kris Kristofferson in A Star is Born (1976)

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: Frank Marshall, Antonia Bogdanovich, Sashy Bogdanovich, Nessa Hyams, Rachel Abramovitz, and Nancy Griffin. 

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

Polly Platt c. 1970’s | Photo Courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

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: 

I Know A Guy - Kevin McLeod
Sunset - Kai Engel
There’s a Special Place For Some People - Chris Zabriskie
Sleeping Beauty - Dominic Ashworth, Derek Nash
Still Moment - Gemma Barkerwood, Sophie Barkerwood 
Rite of Passage - Kevin McLeod
Never Wake Up - David Schmidt
Trust In Fate - Julien Bonneau, Fransois Rousselot 
Suspicious Cat -Ilan Moshe Abou,Thierry Oliver Faure 
Michaela - Alfred Jack
Silver Bullet - Elliot Holmes
Divider - Chris Zabriskie
Easy Listening In Jazz - Neruomancer
Some People Call Me Sam - Gabriel Lucas
Undercover Vampire Policeman - Chris Zabriskie
Devil In Disguise - Gabriel Parker
Walkin On Velvet - Kenny Salmon
Snowmen - Kai Engel
We Can Get By Baby - Matthew Sibley, Giacomo Trivelli 
After Work - Neuromancer

Walter Matthau and Bears in The Bad News Bears (1976)

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: 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

Producer: Tomeka Weatherspoon.

Editor:  Brendan Byrnes

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

Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana.

Executive Producer: Chris Bannon.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Orson Welles, What’s Up Doc, Paper Moon (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 4)

Polly Platt and Peter Bogdanovich on the set of Paper Moon | Photo courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

In the aftermath of Picture Show—and the collapse of her second marriage—Polly finds an unlikely ally, and a new job, in Orson Welles. Anxious to build on her career momentum (and become the first female film art director accepted into her union), Polly agrees to work on Peter’s next two films, What’s Up Doc and Paper Moon – two massive hits which make Peter one of the most famous directors of the decade. 

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: Frank Marshall, Sashy Bodganovich, Nessa Hyams, Toby Rafelson, and Nancy Griffin. 

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

Polly Platt at the Pool with Orson Welles, Oja Kodar, and Garry in Carefree, AZ 1971 while shooting The Other Side of The Wind,

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:

Bittersweet Discourse (Piano Only) - Various Composers
Open Roads - Nick Ingman, Tony Kinsey
Tooth Fairy - Various Composers
I Knew A Guy - Kevin MacLeod
Divider - Chris Zabriskie
Protest Generation - Various Composers
There's a Special Place for Some People - Chris Zabriskie
Railroad's Whiskey - Jahzzar
After Work (Piano Elevator Music) - Musique Libre de Droit Club
On My Way Home (Easy Listening Music) - Musique Libre de Droit Club
Lullaby (Berceuse, Piano) - Musique Libre de Droit Club
Playing with Sunbeams (Instrumental) - Franck Fossey, Aurelie Constance Renee Guillier de Chalvron
Meanwhile - Various Composers

Polly Platt and Tatum O’Neill on the set of Paper Moon | Photo Courtesy of Sashy Bogdanovich

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

Producer and editor: Tomeka Weatherspoon.

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

Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana.

Executive Producer: Chris Bannon.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

Ryan O’Neal, Peter Bogdanovich and Barbra Steisand on the set of What’s Up, Doc?

Last Picture Show Love Triangle: Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman Part 3

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

At Polly’s urging, Peter decides to direct an adaptation of Larry McMurtry’s novel The Last Picture Show. Though credited only as the film’s “designer,” Polly is involved in every creative decision, including casting — and it’s with his pregnant-again wife’s enthusiasm that Bogdanovich casts 20-year-old model Cybill Shepherd as the film’s femme fatale. Though Polly believed she and Peter were “deliriously happy,” Bogdanovich and Shepherd fall in love on the set of the movie, and Polly has to make a decision: to save face and avoid personal humiliation by walking away from the production, or stay and fight for the creative baby that she feels ownership over. 

Polly Platt applying makeup blood to Timothy Bottoms on The Last Picture Show set | Photo Courtesy of Sashy 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, Frank Marshall, Toby Rafelson, Nancy Griffin and Peggy Steffans. 

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

Cybill Shepherd with director Peter Bogdanovich on The Last Picture Show set

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: 

There’s A Special Place for Some People - Chris Zabriskie
Bella Roma - Nonemis
Mister Poke Man - Peter Rockwell, Asger Wilde, Moellehoej Larsen 
A Dog with An Umbrella - Paul-Marie Jacques Bernard Barbier
A Walk in the Woods - Paul-Marie Jacques Bernard Barbier
Feel My Swagger - The New Fools
Organic Drums - Frederic Charles Sicart
The Eternal Scene - Rand Aldo
Land on the Golden Gate - Chris Zabriskie
Troubled Thoughts - Daryl Griffith
Glimmer - Hutch Demouilpied, Mix Amylo
Curious and Weird - Jean-Michel Vallet, Claire Guillot, Patrick Jean Chartol
Gobelin of Forest - Jean-Michel Vallet, Claire Guillot, Patrick Jean Chartol
Calm Waters - James Warburton
Open Window - Etienne Roussel

Credits:

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

Featuring special guests: Maggie Siff as the voice of Polly Platt, Bill Sage as Larry McMurtry and Meghann Lee as Cybill Shepherd.

Research and production assistant: Lindsey D. Schoenholtz.

Social media, transcription and additional research: Brendan Whalen.

Transcription and additional research: Kristen Sales and Wiley Wiggins

Producer: Tomeka Weatherspoon.

Editor:  Brendan Byrnes

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

Supervising Producer: Josephine Martorana.

Executive Producer: Chris Bannon.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

TARGETS with Karyn Kusama and new virtual screening series schedule

Due to the very necessary national conversation about race and police brutality that has been happening over the past 10 days, this week we postponed our schedule second installment of our Virtual Screening Series, in partnership with Vidiots Foundation. The conversation that had previously been scheduled for June 2, about Targets and episode 2 of Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, is now rescheduled for this coming Tuesday, June 9.

Here’s the new Virtual Screening Series schedule…. Join us, won’t you?

June 9: Targets
Polly Platt got her first story and production design credits on her then-husband Peter Bogdanovich’s feature directorial debut, a bone-dry, bare-bones thriller about the real horror -- ie: mass shootings. Platt found the locations and designed the total look of the film around an aesthetic that, as she put it, "I thought would make a murderer out of me."

June 16: The Last Picture Show
While he and Polly were making this now-classic, Oscar-winning film, Peter Bogdanovich began an open affair with actress Cybill Shepherd. Humiliated though she was, Polly felt so much ownership over this movie that she refused to leave the production. 

June 23: What's Up Doc
Though their marriage was over, Polly Platt agreed to production design her now ex-husband’s next two movies, What’s Up Doc (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). What’s Up Doc would be an anomaly in Polly’s filmography as a production designer: a trailblazer in American realism, here Platt went all in on designing a live-action cartoon. 

June 30: A Star is Born (1976)
In production designing the Barbra Streisand-starring remake of one of Hollywood’s oldest myths, Polly got an up-close-and-personal glimpse into what it really looked like to be a powerful woman in Hollywood. She also got a chance to subtly work some of her own story into the design of the film. 

July 7:  Pretty Baby 
Platt began a major career transition with this controversial film, which she wrote and produced. Though set in a brothel in early 20th century New Orleans, Pretty Baby is infused with much of Polly’s own autobiography, and shows how deeply she was grappling with her feelings of abandonment—and worries that she was abandoning her own children. 

July 14: Terms of Endearment
A decade after her creative partnership with Bogdanovich ended, Platt began a new collaboration with an incredibly talented writer/director: James L. Brooks. This was the perfect job for Polly; many of those close to her believed that the novel that the movie was based on had been at least partially inspired by her.

July 21: The Witches of Eastwick 
Polly Platt’s last film as a production designer — a job she took after she had established herself as a writer/producer and announced her intention to direct –– also features the most production design of her career, as she matched her instinct for visual storytelling to the format of the 80s special effects blockbuster. 

July 28: Say Anything... 
During one of the last phases of her career, Polly became a mentor to a number of first-time directors, including Cameron Crowe, whose now-classic rom-com features Polly on-screen in a memorable cameo.

August 4: Bottle Rocket 
Polly shepherded Wes Anderson’s first feature through a long development process, believing strongly that he and the Wilson brothers were telling an independent, American story that would fall in the lineage of The Last Picture Show.

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

Listen to this episode Apple Podcasts. 

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.

Polly Platt Season Sources

 Sources for the full season:

It Was Worth It by Polly Platt

Polly Platt, Art Directors Guild Oral History, 2002

American Film Institute seminars featuring Polly Platt, quoted with permission from AFI

James L. Brooks papers, Margaret Herrick Library

Polly Platt clippings, Margaret Herrick Library

Polly Platt files, Art Directors Guild

INTERVIEWS:

Antonia Bogdanovich
Sashy Bogdanovich
Rachel Abramowitz
Alison Anders 
Don Block 
Barbara Boyle 
Jerry Bruckheimer 
Penny Finkelman Cox
Cameron Crowe 
Danny Devito 
Jules Fisher
Nancy Griffin 
Paula Herold 
Nessa Hyams 
Frank Marshall 
Larry McMurtry
David Moritz
Amy Pascal 
Lisa Maria Radano
Toby Rafelson
Fred Roos 
Stacey Sher
Peggy Steffans
Phoef Sutton
Kelly Wade 

BOOKS:

Picture Shows: The Life and Films of Peter Bogdanovich

Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind

Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd

All My Friends are Going to Be Strangers by Larry McMurtry

The Last Picture Show by Larry McMurtry

Hollywood by Larry McMurtry

Terms of Endearment by Larry McMurtry

Robert Altman by Mitchell Zuckoff

A Paper Life by Tatum O’Neal

Hit and Run by Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters

Is That a Gun in Your Pocket? by Rachel Abramowitz

Pictures at a Revolution by Mark Harris

Can I Go Now? by Brian Kellow

My Lucky Stars by Shirley MacLaine

There Was a Little Girl by Brooke Shields

Barbra by Christopher Andersen

Lessons in Becoming Myself by Ellen Burstyn

In Pieces by Sally Field

Leading Lady by Stephen Galloway

My Lunches with Orson by Henry Jaglom

Watch Me by Anjelica Huston

Roger Corman by Beverly Gray

Best of Enemies by Gus Russo

The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized History by John Ortved

The Moguls by Norman J. Zierold

The Simpsons: A Cultural History By Moritz Fink

ARTICLES:

“Remembering Polly Platt” The Hollywood Reporter, August 12, 2011

‘Lonesome Dove’ Legend Larry McMurtry on Fiction, Money, Womanizing, and Old Age by Michael Hoinski, Grantland, May 22, 2014

“Polly Platt, Film Producer and Designer, Dies at 72” Margalit Fox, New York Times, 7-31-2011

“Films Will be Dimmer Without Her” by Patrick Goldstein, LA Times, 7-30-11

Obituaries: Polly Platt. by Ryan Gilbey. The Guardian, 8-8-11

“Flashback for ‘60s filmmakers” by Lynette Rice, THR, 3-8-99

“Carsey-Werner signs up Platt” by Donna Parker, THR, 2-13-1995

“Platt pens McMurtry Pic, Hopes to Helm” — Variety, 2-26-96

“Crafts” by Holly Willis, THR, 12-7-93

“Polly’s progress” by Jean Cox, Women’s Wear Daily, 12-20-76

“Now Polly Platt Has a Script of Her Own” by John M. Wilson, Los Angeles Times, 1-15-78

SHE'S DONE EVERYTHING (except direct) BY RACHEL ABRAMOWITZ, Premiere magazine, November 1993

“Moving ‘Targets’” Variety, April 21, 2004

“Critic-Into-Film-maker int the French Style” by Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times, June 4, 1967

“Target’ For Exploitation: Refreshing, Promising 1st” by John Mahoney, The Hollywood Reporter May 6, 1968

“Par Buys ‘Targets’, Bogdanovich Indie” July 26, 1968, Hollywood Reporter

“Par Gropes on Sniper Pic” By Lee Beaupre, Variety,  August 7, 1968

“One Does Not Want This Sniper To Miss” by Renata Adler, New York Times August 25, 1968

“Bogdanovich Debuts as a Director with Targets” by Kevin Thomas, LA Times, September 6, 1968

“Larry McMurtry Speaks His Mind, Again” by Andrea Valdez, October 13, 2013

“Susan Sarandon on Her Love Affair With David Bowie, Woody Allen’s Creepiness, and Psychedelics” by Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast, Jul. 24, 2014

“Will ‘Anything’ Go Over?” by Jeffrey Wells, 8-8-93

“Pretty Baby” by Joan Goodman, NYM, September 26, 1977

Adler’s ‘Roses’ Set For Fox Film; Author Now To Adapt ‘Random,’ September

11, 1985, Variety 

“On Its Own Terms” by Joe Leydon, April 7, 1996, LA Times“When Hollywood Was Really a Man's World” July 19, 1998, LA Times

“Jack Nicholson Skiing Aspen’s Slopes” March 27, 1977, Arizona Republic

“Women Directors in Hollywood” by Jan Haag

“Breaking Away from Reverence and Rape: The AFI Directing Workshop for Women, Feminism, and the Politics of the Accidental Archive”

“The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image Archivists” Philis M. Barragán Goetz

Vol. 15, No. 2 (Fall 2015), Published by University of Minnesota Press“How to Succeed: Fail, Lose, Die - Women in Hollywood” by Maureen Orth  

“Shirley MacLaine on a Different Age of Sexual Harassers in Hollywood” by David Marchese, NYTimes, Nov. 4, 2019

“Shirley Maclaine’s Aurora Shines Again” by Pual Willistein, The Morning Call, 12/22/1996

“Winging It”, L.A. Examiner 2/21/1983

“She’s Done Everything Except Direct” by Rachel Abramovitz, Premiere, November 1993

“It wasn’t sexism, then” (Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman, Episode 1)

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts. 

As an Oscar-nominated production designer, screenwriter, producer and executive who put her stamp on some of the greatest and most loved films of the 1970s and 80s – including Paper Moon, Bad News Bears, Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News, The Witches of Eastwick and more—Polly Platt had a major impact on the careers of Barbra Streisand, Tatum O’Neal, Garry Marshall, Cameron Crowe and Wes Anderson. She also lived an epic Hollywood life off-screen; her personal life was the stuff of a Great American Novel, full of romances, heartbreak, alcoholism and the challenges of adapting to cataclysmic cultural change as an independent, professional woman – and single mom. And yet, despite all of this, if you know Polly Platt’s name today, it’s probably because, in 1970, her husband and creative collaborator Peter Bogdanovich had an affair with Cybill Shepherd while shooting the film that made both Bogdanovich and Shepherd major stars of their era, The Last Picture Show. But Platt was much more than a jilted wife: she was the secret, often invisible-to-the-public weapon behind some of the most loved American “auteur” films (many of them comedies, directed by men) of the last decades of the 20th century. 

Drawing on Platt’s unpublished memoir (which remained unfinished when she died in 2011), as well as ample interviews and archival research, The Invisible Woman will tell Polly Platt’s incredible story from her perspective, for the first time. A trailblazer in jobs rarely held by women in Hollywood to that point, Polly Platt’s story helps us understand the obstacles preventing gender equality behind the scenes in Hollywood — in the 1970s through the 1990s, and in the present day -- and allows us to contemplate what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood during a time when the feminist movement may have been remaking American society to some extent, but failed to make major inroads in the movie industry.

Today, we’ll begin with a look at how Polly Platt’s legacy was appraised when she died in 2011. Then we’ll go back in time to tell Polly’s story from the start, beginning with her Revolutionary Road-esque childhood in Europe and America as the neglected daughter of two alcoholics; to her years studying scenic design in environments in which women weren’t welcome; the secret pregnancy that halted her formal education, and the early marriage that took her West and cemented her desire to tell stories through design. Throughout, we’ll talk about how Platt’s experiences, as the product of an American military family of the 1950s—and the daughter of a mother who had been forced to abandon a career for motherhood––shaped her view of gender roles and relations, and her idea of what it meant to be the wife of an important man.

Polly Platt and her family, c. 1940's | 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: Barbara Boyle, Rachel Abramowitz, Sashy Bogdanovich, Antonia Bogdanovich, Alison Anders, Penney Finkelman Cox and Jules Fisher.  

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

Polly Platt and her family with a Nazi airplane | Photo courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

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: 

Snowmen - Kai Engel
Play Smart - Franck Sarkissian
Out of the Skies, Under the Earth - Chris Zabriskie
Cylander Six - Chris Zabriskie
Triad March - Jack Shaindlin
After Work - Neuromancer
Will Be War Soon - T. Kosta
Ruins and Desolation - Bruno Pierre, Emmanuel Alexiu
Strain Therapy -  Massimo Catalano, Remigio Ducros
Sunset Finale - Jody Jenkins
Faster Does It - Kevin MacLeod
Memories of Vienna - Various Composers
Watch Me Now - David Thomas Connolly
Hazy Nights - Charlotte Glasson, Peter Ludlam, Hans Hummer
Land on the Golden Gate - Chris Zabriskie
A Dog with an Umbrella - Paul-Marie Jacques Bernard Barbier
The Call of the Sea - John Paul Labno
Tooth Fairy - Various Composers
Sunset - Kai Engel
Laser Disc - Chris Zabriskie
Undercover Vampire Policeman - Chris Zabriskie
Pangs of Fear - Various Composers
Dark Tavern - Walt Adams
Peaceful Piano - Neuromancer
What You’re Made Of - Gary Combs

Young Polly | Photo courtesy of Antonia Bogdanovich

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

Producer: Tomeka Weatherspoon.

Edited by Brendan Byrnes.

Technical Support: Brendan Byrnes and Jared O'Connell.

Executive Producers: Chris Bannon and Josephine Martorana.

Logo design: Teddy Blanks.

VIDIOTS FOUNDATION & YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS VIRTUAL FILM SCREENING SERIES

Karina Longworth, film historian, and creator and host of You Must Remember This podcast, and Vidiots Foundation, the iconic L.A. video store-turned-film non-profit, are teaming up for a VIRTUAL FILM SCREENING SERIES, running Tuesday, May 26 through Tuesday, July 28, 2020. Follow @karinalongworth and @vidiots on Instagram for more information. 

The virtual screening series will follow the new season of You Must Remember This -- Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman. YMRT listeners, Vidiots fans, and classic movie buffs are invited to watch a movie every week, handpicked by Karina and Maggie, that relate to the week's podcast episode. Every Tuesday during the series they’ll be on Instagram Live at 6:30 PST/9:30 EST to discuss the movie and that week's episode with fans, and special guests.

Films include:

May 26: One-Eyed Jacks
When Polly Platt was a kid, she sought escape from her troubled home life by going to see Westerns. At age 20, in the midst of paralyzing grief, she saw One-Eyed Jacks — directed by and starring Marlon Brando — and the experience made her take action to follow her dream of working in movies.  

June 9: Targets
Polly Platt got her first story and production design credits on her then-husband Peter Bogdanovich’s feature directorial debut, a bone-dry, bare-bones thriller about the real horror -- ie: mass shootings. Platt found the locations and designed the total look of the film around an aesthetic that, as she put it, "I thought would make a murderer out of me."

June 16: The Last Picture Show
While he and Polly were making this now-classic, Oscar-winning film, Peter Bogdanovich began an open affair with actress Cybill Shepherd. Humiliated though she was, Polly felt so much ownership over this movie that she refused to leave the production. 

June 23: What's Up Doc
Though their marriage was over, Polly Platt agreed to production design her now ex-husband’s next two movies, What’s Up Doc (1972) and Paper Moon (1973). What’s Up Doc would be an anomaly in Polly’s filmography as a production designer: a trailblazer in American realism, here Platt went all in on designing a live-action cartoon. 

June 30: A Star is Born (1976)
In production designing the Barbra Streisand-starring remake of one of Hollywood’s oldest myths, Polly got an up-close-and-personal glimpse into what it really looked like to be a powerful woman in Hollywood. She also got a chance to subtly work some of her own story into the design of the film. 

July 7:  Pretty Baby 
Platt began a major career transition with this controversial film, which she wrote and produced. Though set in a brothel in early 20th century New Orleans, Pretty Baby is infused with much of Polly’s own autobiography, and shows how deeply she was grappling with her feelings of abandonment—and worries that she was abandoning her own children. 

July 14: Terms of Endearment
A decade after her creative partnership with Bogdanovich ended, Platt began a new collaboration with an incredibly talented writer/director: James L. Brooks. This was the perfect job for Polly; many of those close to her believed that the novel that the movie was based on had been at least partially inspired by her.

July 21: The Witches of Eastwick 
Polly Platt’s last film as a production designer — a job she took after she had established herself as a writer/producer and announced her intention to direct –– also features the most production design of her career, as she matched her instinct for visual storytelling to the format of the 80s special effects blockbuster. 

July 28: Say Anything... 
During one of the last phases of her career, Polly became a mentor to a number of first-time directors, including Cameron Crowe, whose now-classic rom-com features Polly on-screen in a memorable cameo.

August 4: Bottle Rocket 
Polly shepherded Wes Anderson’s first feature through a long development process, believing strongly that he and the Wilson brothers were telling an independent, American story that would fall in the lineage of The Last Picture Show.

More about Karina and YMRT: Karina Longworth is a film critic, author, and journalist based in LA. Longworth writes, hosts and produces the podcast You Must Remember This, about the secret and/or forgotten histories of Hollywood’s first century. Since launching as a passion project in April 2014, YMRT has become a critically acclaimed top podcast. "Ms. Longworth has hit on a peculiar sweet spot, where Hipsterdom meets Turner Classic Movies!" —The New York Times; "This podcast will change the way you think about movies" —Esquire Magazine; "Deep research, delicious tidbits & eyebrow arched narration!" —Flavorwire. The newest YMRT series stars Polly Platt -- producer, writer and Oscar-nominated production designer -- who lived an epic Hollywood life. If you know Platt’s name today, it’s probably because in 1970 her husband and creative collaborator Peter Bogdanovich had an affair with Cybill Shepherd while shooting the film that launched their careers, The Last Picture Show. But Platt was much more than a jilted wife: she was the secret, often invisible-to-the-public weapon behind some of the best films of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Drawing on Platt’s unpublished memoir, as well as ample interviews and archival research, The Invisible Woman will tell Polly Platt’s incredible story from her perspective, for the first time. Learn more about the podcast at youmustrememberthispodcast.com.

About Vidiots: Vidiots, the iconic Los Angeles video store-turned-film non-profit, is relaunching as an expanded entertainment, social, and community space at the historic Eagle Theatre in Northeast L.A. Vidiots' new home will include a 250-seat state-of-the-art cinema for a full calendar of screenings, special events, and educational programs; beer, wine and food; a 40-seat flexible screening space, and Vidiots' over-50,000-title film and media collection. To learn more and support Vidiots' relaunch with a donation of any size, please visit vidiotsfoundation.org

Polly Platt Sneak Peek

We can hardly wait to share the untold story of Polly Platt, the secret weapon behind some of the most highly acclaimed films of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Debuting Tuesday, May 26, this season will feature interviews and intimate details about her trailblazing legacy and heartbreaking private life, including excerpts from her own unpublished memoirs dealing with her creative collaborations and relationship with her second husband, Oscar-nominated filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich. Each episode features special guest, actress Maggie Siff, as the voice of Polly Platt.

We’re so excited about this season that we’re releasing the first 20 minutes here, as an extended preview. Enjoy, and please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts to hear all 10 full length episodes, beginning next week. 

You Must Remember This New Season Coming May 26 - Polly Platt, The Invisible Woman

Polly Platt -- producer, writer and Oscar-nominated production designer -- lived an epic Hollywood life. And yet, if you know Platt’s name today, it’s probably because in 1970 her husband and creative collaborator Peter Bogdanovich had an affair with Cybill Shepherd while shooting the film that launched their careers, The Last Picture Show. But Platt was much more than a jilted wife: she was the secret, often invisible-to-the-public weapon behind some of the best films of the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Drawing on Platt’s unpublished memoir, as well as ample interviews and archival research, The Invisible Woman will tell Polly Platt’s incredible story from her perspective, for the first time. New episodes will begin releasing May 26.

MAKE ME OVER ARCHIVE

In this companion series to You Must Remember This, Karina Longworth will introduce eight stories about Hollywood’s intersection with the beauty industry. Told by writers/reporters known for their work at The New Yorker, The New York Times and other publications, Make Me Over will explore a range of topics, including Hollywood’s first weight loss surgery, the story of the star whose unique skills led to the development of waterproof mascara, black beauty in the 1990s, and much more. 

Episodes:

• HOLLYWOOD’S FIRST WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY: MOLLY O’DAY (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 1):

  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. Listen
  

• HOLLYWOOD’S FIRST WEIGHT LOSS GURU: MADAME SYLVIA (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 2):

  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. Listen
  

• MARIE DRESSLER, THE FIRST FEMALE STAR TO CONQUER HOLLYWOOD’S AGEISM (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 3):

  In 1933, the biggest female star in American movies wasn’t a sex symbol like Greta Garbo, Jean Harlow, or Marlene Dietrich. It was Marie Dressler — homely, overweight, and over 60 years old. The public loved nothing better than to see their Marie play a drunk or a dowager and steal every scene from the glamour girls less than half her age. Dressler had been down and out for most of the 1920s. That she became a star at age 60 was an achievement that told Depression-battered audiences it was never too late. Today we take a look at the life of Marie Dressler; from Broadway, to the picket lines, to the breadline and to the Oscar podium, she proved that in some cases, Hollywood stardom can be more than skin-deep. This episode was written and performed by Farran Smith Nehme. Listen
  

• PASSING FOR WHITE: MERLE OBERON (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 4):

  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. Listen
  

• ESTHER WILLIAMS AND THE BIRTH OF WATERPROOF MAKEUP (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 5):

  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. This episode was written and performed by Rachel Syme Listen
  

• CASS ELLIOT, CARNIE WILSON AND FAT-SHAMING IN ROCK AND POP (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 6):

  Cass Elliot didn’t die eating a ham sandwich. But the lasting power of that urban legend speaks to a far darker story. Elliot possessed one of the most influential voices of the 1960s. However, while her big break with The Mamas and The Papas and meteoric career changed the LA music scene forever, it also entrapped Elliot in a cycle of fat-shaming, sending her spiraling into catastrophic weight-loss regimens. In this episode, we’ll talk about the music industry’s complicated relationship with weight, how crash dieting likely led to the untimely death of this music legend, and the true legacy of Elliot in pop culture. This episode was written and performed by Lexi Pandell. Listen
  

• THE HEMINGWAY CURSE?: MARIEL AND MARGAUX (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 7):

  A close look at the parallel lives of Margaux and Mariel Hemingway, sisters born with a world-famous last name that stood for both genius and self-destruction. Both rose to fame in the 1970s, Margaux as a supermodel and Mariel as an actress, and then struggled with various demons. But while Margaux followed her grandfather's fate, Mariel confronted the family's dark legacy and reinvented herself as a mental health and wellness advocate. This episode was written and performed by Michael Schulman. Listen
  

• VANESSA WILLIAMS, WHITNEY HOUSTON AND HOLLYWOOD’S MISOGYNOIR PROBLEM (MAKE ME OVER, EPISODE 8):

  In 1983, Vanessa Williams became the first black woman to win Miss America. In 1984, a few weeks from the end of her reign, she was forced to step down when she found out Penthouse was to publish unauthorized nude images of her in their magazine. Williams went on to have a successful singing career and star in movies, too, but her career trajectory tells more than the story of a black beauty icon who overcame obstacles to make it in Hollywood. It's a story that echoes the legacies of racism, colorism, tokenism, and misogynoir (the misogyny experienced specifically by black women) in 20th century Hollywood and how, as a result, black women — from Williams to Whitney Houston — have had to display exceptional talent to make the case that their images are worth circulating and celebrating as beautiful. This episode was written and performed by Cassie da Costa. Listen