153: Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Guru: Madame Sylvia (Make Me Over, Episode 2)
Glamorous and shrewd, Sylvia of Hollywood became the movie industry’s first weight-loss guru during the end of the silent era. An immigrant of mysterious origin, she would cannily market herself to cl...
28 Jan 202038min
152: Hollywood’s First Weight Loss Surgery: Molly O’Day (Make Me Over, Episode 1)
At the age of 18, actress Molly O’Day’s career showed great promise — the only thing holding her back was a bit of pubescent pudge. When diets failed, she became the guinea pig of Hollywood's first hi...
21 Jan 202034min
Sneak Peek: Make Me Over
In this companion series to You Must Remember This, Karina Longworth will introduce eight stories about Hollywood’s intersection with the beauty industry. Told by writers and reporters known for their...
14 Jan 20201min
151: Splash Mountain (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 6)
After two more successful theatrical releases, in 1980 and 1986, Disney decided to put Song of the South in the “Disney Vault” and never released it on home video or theatrically in the US ever again....
26 Nov 201948min
150: Blaxploitation and the White Backlash (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 5)
Song of the South’s most successful re-release came in 1972 at a time when Hollywood was dealing with race by making two very different kinds of movies: Blaxploitation films, which gave black audience...
19 Nov 201947min
149: White Allies and the Blacklist: Maurice Rapf (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 4)
Concerned that his movie about a former slave devoting his life to a white child’s emotional needs might be perceived as racist, Walt Disney hired known Communist Maurice Rapf to rewrite Song of the S...
12 Nov 201947min
148: “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” Minstrels in Hollywood and The Oscars (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 3)
Song of the South’s most famous element is “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah,” a song written for the movie but reminiscent of a racist standard popularized in blackface minstrel shows of the 1830s. Today we’ll expl...
5 Nov 201950min
147: Hattie McDaniel (Six Degrees of Song of the South, Episode 2)
Song of the South co-stars Hattie McDaniel, the first black performer to win an Oscar (for her supporting role as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind). By the time Song of the South was released, McDaniel w...
29 Okt 201956min
