After twenty years as a journeyman actor/laborer, Boris Karloff became an instant superstar as the Monster in Frankenstein (1931). Today we’ll explore how Karloff, unlike Lugosi, managed to maintain a steady stardom throughout the decades, returning to the monster that made him without feeling trapped by the character. Featuring Patton Oswalt as Boris Karlof ... Show More
Nov 2017
118: Bela vs. Boris (Bela & Boris Part 4)
Lugosi and Karloff, the two stars made by Universal’s monster movies, made eight films together. Today we’ll dive deep into some of these movies (including The Black Cat, The Raven, Son of Frankenstein and Val Lewton’s The Body Snatcher), and continue to explore how even when the ... Show More
54m 37s
Nov 2017
119: Bela and Ed Wood (Bela & Boris Part 5)
Forgotten by Hollywood, struggling with morphine addiction and a dependency on alcohol, at the end of his life Bela Lugosi was welcomed into a rag tag bunch of micro-budget movie-making freaks led by Edward D. Wood Jr,, who would later become known as the worst filmmaker of all t ... Show More
41m 54s
Nov 2017
120: Boris and Roger Corman (Bela & Boris Part 6)
Where Bela Lugosi lived his last decade in sad obscurity, Boris Karloff worked until the very end of his life, even as his body began to fall apart. Some of that work was for Roger Corman, the extremely prolific independent genre film producer whose movies helped to define the ge ... Show More
47m 29s
Aug 2018
Episode 167: Riverdon't
In this episode Ru and Michelle discuss losing friends on the journey, riding the train, lessons from motown stars, the pressures facing children of famous folk, Whitney Houston, and Walton Goggins.This episode is sponsored by Squarespace, Greats, and Warby Parker.
1h 10m
Jul 2019
Summer of ‘69: Judy Garland, Death of a Starlet
This episode is brought to you by The Dark Side Of, a Parcast Original. For more episodes like this one, subscribe to The Dark Side Of on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
In 1939, 16-year-old Judy Garland began filming the Wizard of Oz. While the film would become a b ... Show More
47m 30s
Sep 2022
Barbie Block and Sally Stiner Meet World
<p>Barbie Block and Sally Stiner were the storied casting directors for Boy Meets World and now they’re revealing how the Matthews family, and so many more of their classic TV shows, came together! </p> <p>They’ll talk auditions, missed opportunities and even their side of the in ... Show More
1h 10m
Dec 2023
The Story of Elvis Presley's Christmas Recordings By a Man Who Was There
On this episode of Our American Stories, Greg McDonald got his start in show business as a teenager after meeting Elvis Presley and his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, shortly after Parker began managing Elvis in the ‘50s. Here’s Greg with a Colonel and Elvis Christmas story. Suppor ... Show More
7m 59s