154: Marie Dressler, the First Female Star to...

In 1935, Merle Oberon became the first biracial actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, an incredible achievement in then-segregated Hollywood -- except that nobody in Hollywood knew Oberon was biracial. Born in Bombay into abject poverty in 1911, Oberon's fate seemed s ...  Show more

Esther Williams single-handedly helped popularize the pastime of swimming — first as the star swimmer of the San Francisco production of Billy Rose's Aquacade, and then as the star of Hollywood films like Bathing Beauties and Million Dollar Mermaid. Williams’s stardom — and the n ...  Show more

One of the all-time great child stars reflects on anchoring six films for Walt Disney (including 'Pollyanna' and 'The Parent Trap'), breaking into grown-up roles and writing her new memoir 'Forever Young.' Credits: Hosted by Scott Feinberg and produced by Matthew Whitehurst. Lear ...  Show more

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. 

We often think of Julie Andrews as the prim nanny from Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, but her personal path may have the greatest resemblance to one of her Broadway roles: Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. Andrews grew up in a family strapped fo ...

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