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Welcome to From Beneath the Hollywood Sign.

If you love old movies, Hollywood history, or the golden age of filmmaking, you've come to the right place.

This is the podcast that talks about amazing stories of Tinseltown from another era and fascinating conversations with writer-producer Steve Kubine and actress writer Nan McNamara.

So Steve, did Ava Gardner and Howard Hughes have a good relationship?

Well, they did until he dislocated her jaw.

What?

Well, don't worry. She hit him back with an ashtray.

From beneath the Hollywood sign is the gin joint for you.

This newly mastered version of a universe of horrors is one of 12 series of the secret history

of Hollywood. New episodes are being written and created all the time. If you'd like full access to

every drama, every thrill, every story, then sign up now at patreon.com slash ataboy secret or follow the link in the show notes

of this episode. And thank you. MGM jumped on the horror bandwagon with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,

a prestigious adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson classic that netted its star,

Frederick March, the Oscar for Best Actor the following year.

Warner Brothers threw its hat into the ring with Dr. X, a grisly tale starring Lionel Atwill

that included murder, rape, cannibalism and prostitution.

Todd Browning returned to MGM and hoping to emulate the financial success of Dracula,

the studio gave him carte blanche to create his choice of shocker.

The project he developed was entitled Freaks,

the grim tale of a traveling circus,

and the sideshow characters that exact a sickening revenge when one of their number is almost murdered by a fortune-seeking villainous acrobatte named Cleopatra.

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