Forgotten Hollywood

In this episode I discuss the life of Marjorie Main "Ma Kettle".

In this episode I discuss the life of Evelyn Ankers. Many will remember her for playing opposite Lon Chaney, Jr. in five films. The Wolf Man (1941), The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942), Son of Dracula (1943), Weird Woman (1944) and The Frozen Ghost (1945).

In this episode, I discuss the life of character actor Clifford Porter Hall. Doug Hess is the host!

In this episode I spoke with author Robert Dance and his book "Ferocious Ambition: Joan Crawford's March to Stardom". Robert Dance’s new evaluation of Joan Crawford looks at her entire career and―while not ignoring her early years and tempestuous personal life―focuses squarely on her achievements as an actress, and as a woman who mastered the studio system with a rare combination of grit, determination, beauty, and talent.

In this episode, I spoke with author Mark A Vieira on his book "George Hurrall's Hollywood: Glamour Portraits 1925-1992". George Hurrell was called the “Rembrandt of Hollywood.” Before his arrival, movie star portraits were “soft focus” and undistinguished, derivative of the Main Street USA portrait salon. Hurrell instituted a sharp, dramatic look. The vibrant, temperamental artist was an original, loved by the subjects he glamorized. For these performers, a Hurrell portrait was the passport to immortality.

In this episode, I spoke with author Laurence Leamer "Hitchcock's Blondes: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession". Alfred Hitchcock was fixated—not just on the dark, twisty stories that became his hallmark, but also by the blond actresses who starred in many of his iconic movies. The director of North by Northwest, Rear Window, and other classic films didn’t much care if they wore wigs, got their hair coloring out of a bottle, or were the rarest human specimen—a natural blonde—as long as they shone with a golden veneer on camera.

In this episode, I spoke with author Scott Ryan on his book "Moonlighting: An Oral History". Once upon a time ABC-TV’s Moonlighting was among the most buzzed-about shows in the country, thanks largely to the bravado of creator Glenn Gordon Caron, who never met a television convention he didn’t want to break, and the sizzling on-screen chemistry between glamorous erstwhile film star Cybill Shepherd and a New Jersey bartender nobody had ever heard of before named Bruce Willis, who bickered and flirted ceaselessly on screen and engaged in epic off-screen battles that all these years later remain the stuff of Hollywood legend.

In this episode, I spoke with author Scott Eyman on his book "Charlie Chaplin vs. America: When Art, Sex, and Politics Collided". The remarkable, must-read story of Charlie Chaplin’s years of exile from the United States during the postwar Red Scare, and how it ruined his film career

In this episode, I spoke with George Schlatter about his boo " Still Laughing A Life in Comedy From The Creator Of Laugh-In". In 1967, producer George Schlatter pitched an idea for a quirky new television show: one inspired by the hippie counterculture, which would take the idea of sit-ins, love-ins, and be-ins, and manifest that politicized, sexualized, consciousness-raising energy into pure comedy. Much to the surprise of NBC executives, Laugh-In soon became the #1 show on American TV, and the careers of beloved stars like Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn were born.

In this episode I spoke with Episode 186 author Nat Segaloff and his book "Say Hello To My Little Friend: A Century Of Scarface". Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Scarface starring Al Pacino—Brian DePalma’s 1983 gangster film that shook the world, shocked the critics, and shot bullet holes through the American Dream—this explosive Hollywood tell-all charts not only the phenomenon of this controversial classic but also the equally controversial legacy of the original 1932 Scarface that inspired it . . .