Shocking! Lurid! Tawdry! A History of American Scandals

When Mary McCarthy said of Lillian Hellman, "Every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the,'" Lillian Hellman laughed. Then she sued McCarthy for $2.2 million.   

But that wasn't the end of it. This tossed off zinger on The Dick Cavett Show has resulted in a Broadway play with music, another stage play, and enough articles and think pieces to constitute a content farm. What is it about this lawsuit and these two writers that fascinates people more than 40 years later? Why are we still talking about Hellman v. McCarthy?  

Well, because it's a damn good line for one. But as Mark points out this week, there's a lot that one can bring to this feud. And everyone has. 

Logo: Jessica Balaschak  

Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music

As "Let's go Brandon" has shown, Americans love a good eff you slogan when it comes to our politicians. But that didn't start at NASCAR. Let's go all the way back to the 1884 presidential election, when Grover Cleveland's disgusting past (involving sexual assault, committing the woman to an insane asylum, and a son) came back to bite him in the ass on the election trail as people started chanting, "Ma Ma Where's My Pa."

Logo: Jessica Balaschak 

Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music

"I got through Brenda Frazier, and I'm here." —Follies

Brenda Frazier was born in 1921 and became one of the era’s infamous Poor Little Rich Girls. But the thing that set her apart from Doris Duke, Barbara Hutton, and Gloria Vanderbilt is that she didn’t have a successful second act. Even Gloria Vanderbilt had jeans!

In fact, the only reason we still know Brenda Frazier is that she went to night clubs a lot and threw a party. Her debutante party was so extreme, so over the top, that she’s still a Name people recognize. Walter Winchell coined "celebutante" to describe her. She was on the cover of Life Magazine. And her coming out party was so extreme and over-the-top and publicized that she spent the rest of her life under its shadow. As this Diane Arbus photo can attest.

https://www.artsy.net/artwork/diane-arbus-brenda-diana-duff-frazier-1938-debutante-of-the-year-at-home-3

Today we investigate what led up to that party, the insane custody battle over Brenda, and the decades-long repercussions of being America's Queen of Cafe Society.

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

We sure went on a wild ride with American Crime Story: Impeachment, but the final leg of this trip was well with it. We got nuance; we got Acting; we got vulnerability. And we got a dramatization of Linda Tripp and Monica Lewinsky testifying—to VERY different results—before a grand jury.

Join Kasey Howe & Mark Peikert as they wrap up the 10-episode season with their take on the final two installments, which find Monica and Linda handling their newfound fame very differently, and Paula Jones left to fend for herself by the people who used and then discarded her.

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

Music: Caveman of Los Angeles by Party Store Music

If you know Boss Tweed today, it's probably from political cartoons from the 19th century about greed and graft in NYC politics. And you're right! But what you probably didn't learn is that Boss Tweed eventually went to jail—for a while.   

Here, Kasey Howe recounts his checkered career, the high cost of chairs in in the 1800s, and why an escape by sea for a man who suffered from seasickness was never going to be an easy choice.

Check out Thomas Nast's political cartoons here: https://www.thoughtco.com/thomas-nasts-campaign-against-boss-tweed-4039578

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

... And Hillary Clinton pissed off Tammy Wynette.

We're not gonna lie: Episodes 7 & 8 of Impeachment: American Crime Story (titled "The Assassination of Monica Lewinsky" and "Stand By Your Man") were tough to watch. But they're also the first time the show proved its need to exist.

Giving Monica Lewinsky, Linda Tripp, and Hillary Clinton layers and nuances and showing how wide the chasm between their realities and the public's perception of them proved to be, these are powerhouse episodes of TV that all end in the same lesson: Men get to play semantics and smirk, while women get left out to dry.

Plus Edie Falco is finally out of bed as Hillary and acting up a storm with her glass of red while Monica takes up handicrafts and Linda watches Saturday Night Live (don't do it, Linda!).

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

Truman Capote promised a masterpiece as his follow-up to In Cold Blood. Instead, Esquire readers got "La Côte Basque," a scandalous short story that dished the details of his best friend's most intimate secrets. Almost 50 years later, we're still gossiping about the fallout from that story—but only how it destroyed Truman Capote's life.  

This week, Mark shares the collateral damage from that story, which was a lot bigger than Babe Paley never speaking to Capote again. Meet Ann Woodward, or, as Truman dubbed her in the story, "Annie Get Your Gun."   

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

In this week's episode we learn that no good deed goes unpunished.   

Gary Webb was just trying to do his job when the CIA started hassling him for no reason! (Well, maybe his series of articles on the CIA and crack cocaine had something to do with it?) Meanwhile the country could not be bothered because we only cared about a blowjob.   

Logo: Jessica Balaschak

Monica knows her malls, but she didn't see the trap Linda Tripp set for her in Pentagon City. She does spot a nice wine decanter though!  

That's right, we're at the interrogation portion of Monica's story, with special appearances from her mom, Ann Coulter, and 6 bottles of Champagne. What do you think Linda bought at Bath and Bodyworks? What show did Monica's grandmother see that night? And what will Monica do now?  None of those questions are answered, but we're going to keep asking anyway!  

Logo: Jessica Balaschak