Welcome everyone to another episode of the most notorious podcast.

I'm Eric Rivenes. Great to have you here with me. I am very excited to introduce this

week's guest, William J. Mann. He is a New York Times best-selling author whose books focus

on Hollywood in the American film industry. He is also a professor of film and culture

at Central Connecticut State University. Some of his recent books include The Contender,

The Story of Marlon Brando, Kate, the woman who was Hepburn, and Hello Gorgeous, becoming

Barbara Streisand. And he is here today to talk about the book that won him an Edgar

Ellen Poe Award, Tinseltown, Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the dawn of Hollywood. So

great to have you. Thank you for coming on.

I have, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. So what is it about Old Hollywood

that interests you so much? Well, I've loved movies and I've always loved movies since

I was, you know, too young to see it late to watch them at the late show and I'd have

to get up and get around my parents so I could watch some weight movie at 11.30 at night

back then in those days before even before B.C.Rs. So I've always loved the movies. I've

loved the storytelling. I've loved the magic of Hollywood. But as I got older and I became

a historian and began really researching different areas of American history, I became

most interested in how the Hollywood illusions were sold. How did the dream factory operate?

How did the impressions and images and wishful filaments of Hollywood project themselves

on to the country and how did the country embrace them, absorb them. And so it's been that

process really, the business of movie making that's most interested me, whether that be

from an actor's point of view or from a director's point of view or studios point of view. And

so I've really had a, my career has really been about looking behind the myths and behind

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