Before our episode on Frank Sinatra’s attempt to end the blacklist, we’re going to flashback to an episode from April 2015, on Sinatra’s rise to fame and his experiences during World War II. In the early 1940s, shortly after skyrocketing to fame as a heartthrob crooner, Sinatra was perceived, and from some corners pilloried, as a draft dodger. Today we’ll ta ... Show More
Jun 2016
86: The Blacklist Part 16: Kirk Douglas, Dalton Trumbo, and Otto Preminger (Breaking the Blacklist, Part 2)
How did the Blacklist come to an end? If you ask Kirk Douglas, the end began with his hiring of Dalton Trumbo to write Spartacus -- or, rather Douglas flaunting of that hiring. Otto Preminger, who hired Trumbo to write Exodus, might see it differently. In truth, the end of the bl ... Show More
51m 52s
Aug 2016
87: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Douglas Fairbanks / Lucille LeSueur Goes to Hollywood
In order to understand Joan Crawford’s rise to fame, we have to talk about what Joan - born Lucille LeSueur, and called “Billie Cassin” for much of her childhood - was like before she got to Hollywood, and what Hollywood was like before she got there. To accomplish the latter, we ... Show More
40m 2s
May 2024
Lunch with Frankie Avalon (Part One)
With Skip out of town on business, Paul has lunch chat with another dear friend: Frankie Avalon! Their pair reflect on 60 years of rock 'n' roll history, swapping stories from the road with Chuck Berry, Bobby Darin and James Brown, and what it was like coming up as teen idols in ... Show More
46m 12s
Dec 2023
Leftovers #33
Records left off of previous podcasts, along with a tribute to musics whom we lost this year. Performers include: Sarah Vaughn, Frank Sinatra, Artie Shaw, Les Paul, Moriz Rosenthal, Dick "Two Ton" Baker, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Fred Astaire.
42m 8s