Shocking! Lurid! Tawdry! A History of American Scandals

Ol' Monkey Businessman and presidential hopeful Gary Hart teaches us what a sheltered childhood will do to you. It will all come out one day. Another rising star in politics burns out before our very eyes when this philandering presidential candidate gets caught with photo evidence of his monkey business. Join us as we discuss the dos' and mostly don’ts of 1980s politics, the upkeep of yachts, the casual arrogance of straight white men, and what Donna Rice is like.

The Hype was never meant to be a biography of a movie star. But when Christina Crawford's memoir of a childhood spent battling her controlling mother, Joan Crawford, was published as Mommie Dearest in 1978, the reaction was decidedly not that. From having to defend her account of her childhood to friends of her adopted mother (not to mention interviewers and fans) to the stroke that people whispered was actually a nervous breakdown precipitated by the disastrous film adaptation, this is the story how the legend of Joan Crawford almost ruined Christina's life... a second time.

How unoriginal. Joseph McCarthy might have been the laziest person who ruined over 600 lives. Playing off of already established fears of Cold War America, he quickly brought himself into the Senate spotlight of the Senate and rode McCarthyism until hubris and some horny underlings got the best of him.

Valerie Harper struck a blow for performers everywhere with her much-publicized court battle over her abrupt firing from the NBC sitcom Valerie. She’s remembered as a hero now, but at the time she was in a terrifying position just a few years after Farrah Fawcett and Suzanne Somers saw their careers implode. This is what happened, and how we ended up watching Sandy Duncan in The Hogan Family reruns.

California congressman Gary Condit was never a suspect, but 11 weeks of saying nothing to the police after your mistress goes missing is not cool any way you slice it. This is the non-true crime look at the disappearance of Chandra Levy and how, in a post Bill and Monica world, the personal lives of politicians could be their undoing. Or not!

Dr. Doolittle apparently had some magic d, too—because Rex Harrison cut a memorably wide swathe through the leading ladies of stage and film. Today we look at three of them who met tragic ends involving Professor Higgins himself: Carole Landis, Kay Kendall, and Rachel Roberts. And Mark gushes over the fabulous Lili Palmer, who held it together remarkably well. Until she didn’t.

Woodrow Wilson was attempting to create the League of Nations in 1919 when he suffered a massive stroke. His wife, Edith, saw no need to slow down the business of the presidency. So she locked the doors and just kept on keeping on.

The greatest tennis player who ever lived has no monument to his achievements—because in addition to transforming the game during the 1920s and ‘30s, Bill Tilden also spent a lot of time being caught with underage boys. And with the one-two punch of homosexuality and penchant for minors, his reputation circled down the drain, even as people still clamor for his reinstatement. But finally—a sexual predator even Jerry Giesler wouldn’t defend!

Our 18th president may have been a great general in the Civil War, but running a whole country wasn’t really his jam. With the wool pulled over the eyes of Ulysses S. Grant, two men were able to corrupt the Treasury department and corner the gold market, bringing an already struggling America to its knees in the fall of 1869.

Joan Bennett saw her career fizzle in the early ‘50s. Maybe it’s because she was getting older in a town that has never prized experience over beauty in its female stars. Or maybe it’s because she watched her husband shoot her agent in the groin outside the Beverly Hills police station a few weeks before Christmas. The two men recovered—nay thrived!—but Joan had the great final word on the whole debacle. Featuring guest appearances by an adulterous Ingrid Bergman and a vicious Hedda Hopper!