When They Were Making It

What it is about

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.
© 2026 Patrick Rankin

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Latest episodes

1. 
   Ava Gardner: The World's Most Beautiful Contradiction — MGM, Frank Sinatra, and Leaving Hollywood Behind

   2026-11-10 · 1 hr 55 min · Episode 25

   She was one of MGM's biggest stars, a celebrated actress widely regarded as one of the most beautiful women in the world. But Ava Gardner was never entirely comfortable with the image that made her famous.From a tobacco…

2. 
   Clara Bow: Hollywood's Original 'It Girl' — The Roaring Twenties, Paramount Superstardom, and the Scandals That Changed Everything

   2026-11-03 · 1 hr 58 min · Episode 24

   She was the face of the Roaring Twenties, Hollywood's original It Girl, and one of the biggest box-office stars of the silent era. Then the headlines stopped being about her movies.From a Brooklyn tenement to Paramount…

3. 
   Alfred Hitchcock, Part 3: The End of an Era — Psycho, The Birds, and a Changing Hollywood

   2026-10-27 · 1 hr 49 min · Episode 23

   With Psycho, Alfred Hitchcock bet his own money on a low-budget shocker — and changed Hollywood forever. What followed would bring some of his biggest hits, his most troubling partnership, and a final chapter like no…

4. 
   Alfred Hitchcock, Part 2: Building a Golden Age — Grace Kelly, Vertigo, and the Road to Psycho

   2026-10-20 · 1 hr 29 min · Episode 22

   When Alfred Hitchcock's first bid for independence failed, he pivoted — and began a career-defining decade that would bring some of his most celebrated films, transform him into a household name, and lead him toward a…

5. 
   Alfred Hitchcock, Part 1: Becoming the Master of Suspense — Fear, Power, and the Fight for Control

   2026-10-13 · 1 hr 26 min · Episode 21

   Before he became the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock had to start somewhere. He started in a British film industry struggling to survive — and in a fight for control that would carry him all the way to…

6. 
   Fay Wray & King Kong (1933): The Making of the Original Scream Queen — RKO, Damsels in Distress, and Hollywood's Impossible Spectacle

   2026-10-06 · 1 hr 36 min · Episode 20

   The first in our October Halloween series: four weeks of classic Hollywood's darker, stranger, and more monstrous stories.Fay Wray was already one of Hollywood's busiest young leading ladies when RKO cast her in King…

7. 
   Edward G. Robinson: Hollywood's Literal OG — Little Caesar, the Blacklist Era, and the Man Behind the Movie Gangster

   2026-09-29 · 1 hr 26 min · Episode 19

   Edward G. Robinson helped invent the modern movie gangster. As Rico Bandello in Little Caesar, he made the short, sharp-eyed criminal not only the centre of a Hollywood picture, but a defining figure in American pop…

8. 
   Judy Garland's A Star Is Born (1954): Hollywood's Most Complicated Comeback — A Fragile Icon, Studio Butchering, and an Infamous Oscar Upset

   2026-09-22 · 1 hr 33 min · Episode 18

   By 1950, MGM was done with Judy Garland — and so, it seemed, was Hollywood. A Star Is Born was the film that was supposed to change all of that.After a devastating breakdown, the end of her studio contract, and an…

9. 
   Veronica Lake: The Making and Unmaking of a Movie Star — Film Noir Stardom, a Fallen-Star Story, and the Woman Behind It All

   2026-09-15 · 1 hr 16 min · Episode 17

   Veronica Lake was one of the most unforgettable faces of 1940s Hollywood: blonde, beautiful, elusive, with a curtain of hair falling across one eye. Paramount turned that image into a sensation. But behind the…

10. 
    Charlie Chaplin, Part 2: The War Against Hollywood's Most Famous Man — Private Scandals, Political Persecution, and American Exile

    2026-09-08 · 1 hr 39 min · Episode 16

    This is Part 2 of our two-part series on Charlie Chaplin.At the height of his silent-film power, Charlie Chaplin was one of the most famous and successful people in the world. He owned his studio, controlled his work,…

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