Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast SUDDENLY: a Frank Sinatra podcast
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 66: The End | 09 Nov 2025 | 02:44:49 | |
Thank you all for an amazing four years. | |||
| SUDDENLY is coming to an end | 26 Jul 2025 | 00:01:51 | |
Send us your thoughts & memories - suddenlypod@gmail.com | |||
| 65: Pal Joey, Part 3 - Fight for What You Love | 08 Jul 2025 | 03:02:50 | |
Alfred Hitchcock! bell hooks! The Ballad of Reading Gaol! The dramatic conclusion of our Pal Joey series finds Rabia, Felix and Henry bewitched, bothered and bewildered as they learn the end of Lorenz Hart's story and grapple with the very nature of love. In putting forth our dueling philosophies of love, can we get to the bottom of the thing that all of Sinatra's songs are about, the thing that has baffled philosophers since time began? What is this thing called love, anyway?! | |||
| 64: Pal Joey, Part 2 - Art is Not Moral | 25 Jun 2025 | 02:51:48 | |
For the second part of our Pal Joey deep dive, Henry leads Rabia and Felix through what made the original musical so groundbreaking and what makes the 1957 Sinatra film adaptation so bad. We also finally learn what "The Lady is a Tramp" is all about. Who's the mouse with the built? | |||
| BONUS: Brian Wilson's Dreams (with April Reid) | 12 Jun 2025 | 01:56:27 | |
ENDLESS HARMONY 🎶🌊✨ | |||
| 63: Pal Joey, Part 1 - The Beauty of Lorenz Hart | 02 Jun 2025 | 03:00:00 | |
For part one of our Pal Joey deep dive, we look at the life of gay lyricist Lorenz Hart. We explore Hart's writings, philosophy, and history as a closeted artist living a painfully contradictory double life. We also discuss the benefits of irredeemable characters in art, setting the stage for a closer look at how the 1940 musical Pal Joey—and the 1957 Sinatra-starring film adaptation—came to be.
website: suddenlypod.gay | |||
| BONUS: Beautiful or Tragic - The Untold Saga of 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' | 29 May 2025 | 01:24:06 | |
An emotional deep dive into the untold history of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, a terrible, racist and transphobic film. Rabia looks at the lives of the three drag queens and one trans woman that it was based on (Cindy Pastel, Strykermeyer, Lady Bump and Carlotta) and the erratic behavour/Shakespearean motivations of troubled writer/director Stephan Elliott. Deep research uncovers a complex story with no clear heroes or villains - a tale as beautiful as it is tragic. WATCH "LADIES PLEASE" ON YOUTUBE HERE
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| 62: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 3 - Reality | 20 May 2025 | 02:29:30 | |
The third and final part of our series about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis, in which we watch the Red Hot + Blue TV special from 1990 featuring the Neneh Cherry version of the song. We look at AIDS messaging of the time, learning from its bravery and mistakes, and also confront its inadequacy to deal with the current Long COVID crisis and the need to move on in the present. email: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 61: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 2 - Angel | 15 May 2025 | 00:58:26 | |
The second part of our series about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis, in which we watch the first two hours of a VHS tape recorded by Michael Aldrich from his Dope Tapes archive. | |||
| 60: I've Got You Under My Skin, Part 1 - Mentality | 08 May 2025 | 00:23:14 | |
The first in a trilogy of episodes about "I've Got You Under My Skin" and the AIDS crisis. | |||
| 59: Meet Me in Las Vegas (with Garrett Cash) | 05 May 2025 | 02:17:30 | |
This week, special guest Garrett Cash attempts to set a world record for the most preparation ever undertaken to appear as a guest on a single episode of a podcast. Meet Me in Las Vegas is a boring MGM film from 1956 set at the Sands casino in which Sinatra appears in a cameo as "Man at Slot Machine" for only a few seconds. You won't believe how far Garrett went to put this in its full context, spending over a year on the deepest dive yet undertaken for this show. Be prepared to learn a LOT about Las Vegas. We're thrilled to present not just a special episode of the show but also potentially a landmark in podcasting history. Full list of media consumed by Garrett Cash to prepare for this episode | |||
| 58: Too Many Husbands! | 19 Apr 2025 | 02:07:50 | |
It's a simple idea with a long history: Woman is told her husband has perished at sea, so she remarries, then the original husband turns up alive and hijinks ensue! An old-timey excuse to show a throuple and a natural premise for comedy, this concept stayed resonant for many years and was remade a number of times – including as a classic screwball 1940 film, that was later itself in 1947 adapted into a hilarious and chaotic radio production starring Lucille Ball as the wife with Bob Hope and Frank Sinatra as the husbands. This week, we hear that radio production in full, and go on a deep dive beginning with a simple title which does not officially have an exclamation mark in it but absolutely should – Too Many Husbands! Referenced media:
"TOO MANY HUSBANDS" TIMELINE (incomplete... could be someone's PhD to work all this out, likely many strands missing)
contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| Ramadan Radio: Rocky Fortune's Rocket Racket | 10 Mar 2025 | 00:25:20 | |
We're off for Ramadan and will be back soon. In the meantime, here's a classic episode of Rocky Fortune with a quick intro about some upcoming episodes. website: suddenlypod.gay | |||
| BONUS: "The Elvis Conspiracy" 1992 Channel 7 Adelaide Commercials (with David M. Green) | 14 Feb 2025 | 01:43:54 | |
Not just the 1992 "Is Elvis Alive?" conspiracy theory special The Elvis Conspiracy (a sequel to 1991's The Elvis Files). Not just the specific airing of that special from Channel 7 in Adelaide, South Australia on 26 May 1992. The commercials from that airing. It's as granular as we've ever been, and we're joined by Adelaide's own David M. Green, host of VHS Revue, a show which specialises in commercials from Australian TV found on old VHS tapes. our website: suddenlypod.gay | |||
| 57: Finian's Rainbow | 22 Jan 2025 | 01:37:58 | |
In 1947, a musical premiered in which a conservative US senator is transformed into a woman by a farming commune of "rainbow people" in order to teach him a lesson. Brimming with queer and trans subtext, Finian's Rainbow is a difficult and exhausting watch today but it remains fascinating as an artefact of proto-feminism and postwar LGBTIQA+ history. Sinatra was originally slated to appear in an animated version in the 1950s and even worked on a soundtrack with Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, but the project never eventuated - though he did go on to record "Old Devil Moon" on Songs for Swingin' Lovers! Frustrated by the infamous 1968 Coppola film adaptation, Rabia went in search of any random stage version off YouTube to watch instead - and found a gem in the form of the 2017 Usdan summer camp adaptation with a brilliant young cast, which we spend this episode dissecting. Modern feminists call Finian's Rainbow a whitewashed version of 1940s gender politics, but how does it really hold up today and do its "good intentions" matter? website: suddenlypod.gay | |||
| 56: I Love My Wife | 15 Jan 2025 | 02:31:40 | |
I love my wife.
Other sources:
contact suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| Henry Has Evacuated LA | 13 Jan 2025 | 00:37:52 | |
As Los Angeles burns, Henry checks in with the show from a Motel 6 in Palm Springs. | |||
| 55: Songs for Swingin' Lovers! | 09 Jan 2025 | 01:45:51 | |
We're back, ahead of schedule, with an emotional first episode of 2025 after a long and personally very traumatic few months. This week we turn to Sinatra's classic 1956 album Songs for Swingin' Lovers! and explore how the album title inadvertently became a double entendre in the 1960s. Placing this album in the inadvertent context of the "swinging" sexual revolution throws new light on it and snaps the album's "concept" into focus. Mostly, this is just spectacular music and we're back to our roots of appreciating it. In particular, we spotlight the trumpet work of Harry "Sweets" Edison, a major part of the timeless sound of this era. Selected sources:
contact suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| Season 4 Starts Soon | 24 Dec 2024 | 00:24:35 | |
Merry Christmas. I'm back. See you soon. - Rabia suddenlypod.gay suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| SUDDENLY will return in 2025 | 12 Sep 2024 | 00:24:31 | |
Hi, Rabia here. I have Long COVID and am struggling. I need time to process things and figure out how to best use my energy. Podcasting is good for me but very energy consuming, and I need to work out how I'm going to manage this condition. So Season 3 will end here for now and we will pick back up at some stage in 2025. In the meantime, enjoy this episode of Rocky Fortune. Wear an N95, run an air purifier, avoid crowds, do whatever you can to avoid both contracting and spreading this virus. I dig you the most xx | |||
| 54: The Man with the Golden Arm (with Spike Vincent) | 22 Aug 2024 | 02:12:33 | |
Melbourne's Medically Supervised Injecting Room (MSIR) in North Richmond opened in 2018. This was the result of a years-long grassroots campaign led by the local community, fed up with constant overdoses in the streets. The MSIR operates on principles of harm reduction which simply work and urgently need to be applied throughout the world. The stigma around drug use, and the criminalising of drug users, must end - and that begins with us. In 1955, Frank Sinatra made a historically significant contribution to the destigmatisation of drug use on film in Otto Preminger's The Man with the Golden Arm. In a depiction that is in many ways still radical today, Sinatra's character of Frankie Machine is a regular person who is trying his best to shake off a heroin addiction but is simply failed by a society that does not have the means to support him. A compelling and empathetic performance by Sinatra, and subject matter which openly defied the Production Code of its era, made this a memorable classic for many and contributed to a better world. This week on SUDDENLY, friend of the show Spike Vincent joins us to watch The Man With the Golden Arm, sharing his thoughts and personal experiences. Meanwhile, Rabia has been reading up on the MSIR and reports back on the experience of touring the facility to see what goes on first-hand. As a thematic wild card, we also watched an Australian DVD of the film called A Night at the Cinema with extra footage intended to replicate the experience of seeing this film in 1955 in a cinema in specifically Castlemaine, Victoria - including "God Save the Queen", a newsreel, cartoon, local ads etc - which leads us to compelling footage of the 1955 Maitland floods. Plus, an update on Bobby Long. Sources for this episode: contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 53: Wake Up and Live, Part 5 - Giardina on Winchell | 17 Aug 2024 | 01:40:17 | |
In the final (?) part of our Wake Up and Live saga, Henry returns to the show to share his thoughts on Walter Winchell's legacy through the lens of the gossip landscape of 2024. * John Mosedale - The Men Who Invented Broadway (1981) contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com
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| BONUS: The "Is Elvis Alive?" Conspiracy Theory + "The Elvis Files" (1991) (with Justin Gausman) | 31 Jul 2024 | 03:24:10 | |
For the last few months, Justin and Rabia have been co-hosting TCBCast After Dark, a deep dive into the seamy underbelly of the Elvis conspiracy world available only on the TCBCast Patreon feed. As they approached Part 6 of an exhaustive investigation into the truth behind the grifters who perpetuated the false "Is Elvis Alive?" conspiracy throughout the 1980s, and reached the infamous 1991 Bill Bixby TV special The Elvis Files, they decided to bring in Felix for a fresh perspective on the whole thing. Here, exclusive to SUDDENLY, is a 45-minute introduction in which Felix is caught up with everything that has come before it - a speedrun through the entire story of "Is Elvis Alive?" from 1977 to 1991. Also captured here is the moment Rabia learns of Trump's attempted assassination, which bears an unbelievable coincidental parallel to an infamous moment on an oft-circulated tape in which a man attempting to sound like Elvis appears to learn of Reagan's assassination in 1981. THEN, this is followed by the full Elvis Files episode, in which we attempt to make sense of the infamous TV special in its full context - and Justin uncovers that one of its most extraordinary claims, about declassified FBI documents, "Operation Fountain Pen" and a criminal organisation called The Fraternity, is actually true. You just have to hear this one to believe it, folks. This episode will work fine to listen to as a standalone, and will serve as a 101 primer on the absurd world of "Is Elvis Alive?" For the rest of the story, before and after, subscribe to the TCBCast Patreon. SUDDENLY will return to regular programming shortly. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 52: Wake Up and Live, Part 4 - The Secret | 06 Jul 2024 | 01:54:32 | |
This week, we continue to act as if it were impossible to fail in part four of our exhaustive deep dive into Wake Up and Live. Picking up the story from the end of World War II, we look at the legacy of Dorothea Brande's book and the essentially identical self-help scam that generations of grifters have perpetuated on the world ever since. Wasn't this podcast meant to be about Frank Sinatra?
contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 51: Wake Up and Live, Part 3 - Dancing in the Dark | 05 Jun 2024 | 02:24:34 | |
The history books forgot about the 1944 radio adaptation of Wake Up and Live, a bizarre and disastrous production in which a fascist self-help book adapted into a comedy movie about duelling radio shows is adapted back into a radio show in which several other radio shows exist within the world of this radio show, and characters with real people playing themselves are altered back into fictional characters again. And THIS was Sinatra's second ever acting role of any kind, fresh off the back of the similary convoluted film Higher and Higher. On top of that, this was also the first time he recorded both "Embraceable You" and "Dancing in the Dark" and he delivers show-stopping performances of both, truly making this a historic moment in time. Yet all of this has essentially gone undocumented. This week on SUDDENLY, you'll hear the original radio broadcast in full as we try to make sense of what this all is - and we're not even done with Wake Up and Live yet. | |||
| 50: Wake Up and Live, Part 2 - Machine Men | 16 May 2024 | 02:48:31 | |
Please note that the accompanying graphic for this episode has not been chosen lightly and is intended in the spirit of historical education, criticism and artistic commentary.
contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 49: Wake Up and Live, Part 1 - Mic Fright | 09 May 2024 | 00:44:15 | |
This week we begin a three-part investigation into Wake Up and Live. What is it? Good question. It's a 1930s self-help book, a musical in which a real-life journalist/radio host plays himself, and later, a radio drama adapted from the film. All these things interrelate in a way that's confusing to make sense of in 2024. Just beneath the surface of Wake Up and Live lies an elaborate and shocking story we'll fully detail over the next three weeks. Sinatra won't enter the story until Part 3. What the hell is all of this? You're about to find out. | |||
| 48: Post Time | 01 May 2024 | 02:15:22 | |
***SPOILERS AHEAD - LISTEN TO EPISODE 47 FIRST*** It is now post time. Selected resources and links mentioned this week: * Follow @covidconsciousqueersnaarm on Instagram * Godmother of Elvis Sightings video essay by Johnny Law & Order * TCBCast After Dark, Rabia's new side project with Justin Gausman, which you can hear by subscribing to the TCBCast patreon. * Art Cohn - The Joker is Wild (1955) * Chris Heath - Feel: Robbie Williams (2004) * Joe E. Lewis - "The Groom Couldn't Get In" (1948) * Joe E. Lewis - It Is Now Post Time (1961) * Son of the Mask (2005) * Heckler (Jamie Kennedy, 2006) * Footage of The Joker is Wild premiere * Episode of What's My Line with Joe E. Lewis, 8 October 1961 website: suddenlypod.gay contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com donate: ko-fi.com/suddenlypod | |||
| 47: The Joker is Wild | 25 Apr 2024 | 01:15:35 | |
What if someone slashed Sinatra's vocal cords at the height of his powers? Would he still be able to cut it in showbiz off his charm alone? Could he get into comedy instead of music? More importantly, what would be left of the man without his act? Of all the fictional characters Sinatra portrayed in his early years of dramatic film roles, "Joe E. Lewis" was among the most iconic. This week, we're watching 1957's The Joker is Wild, in which the Lewis persona was presented over a timeline spanning more than 30 years from the early days of vaudeville to the post-war period - with all of this as a backdrop on which to project Sinatra's deepest anxieties and sorrows. | |||
| Authorized x SUDDENLY - Robin and the 7 Hoods | 26 Mar 2024 | 02:40:43 | |
We went on Authorized Novelizations Podcast to talk about Jack Pearl's 1964 novelisation of Sinatra's Robin and the Seven Hoods. This episode was recorded around six months ago and just released by Authorized this week. They've graciously given us permission to repost it on our feed. | |||
| 46: Why "Our Town" Matters | 03 Mar 2024 | 00:31:06 | |
In Episode 43 ("Love and Marriage"), Rabia and Felix watched the infamous televised 1955 musical version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town, starring Frank Sinatra as the Stage Manager. The songs were so terrible, and the acting so bad, that Wilder personally called the station and ensured that it would never air ever again. Neither Rabia nor Felix had ever seen the play before, nor even heard of it. While a beloved cultural mainstay in the US, Our Town somehow never made it to Australia. Now, in his first solo episode, Henry explains to Australians what we're missing out on and why Our Town matters. | |||
| 45: Suspense | 26 Feb 2024 | 01:55:10 | |
We think of Sinatra as emerging as a serious dramatic actor from the early 1950s onwards, shedding his clean-cut MGM image for the first time when he takes intense roles as mentally disturbed soldiers in From Here to Eternity and Suddenly. But there's a part of the story we've all forgotten. In January 1945, at the height of the bobby-soxer era and months before tapdancing in a sailor suit for Anchors Aweigh, Sinatra made his actual dramatic acting debut on the radio horror anthology series Suspense. This week, we listen to "To Find Help", shockingly ahead of its time, where Sinatra briefly shed his squeaky-clean status to play a violent and mentally ill man terrorising an old woman in her home. | |||
| 44: In the Wee Small Hours | 17 Feb 2024 | 01:37:32 | |
In the Wee Small Hours is often considered Sinatra's best work and arguably the first concept album. The "concept" is something along the lines of "I am awake at 3am and I am feeling deeply sad about a lost love." And that's really it. Just when you think there couldn't possibly be any more songs about the nuances of that kind of misery, there are seven more. It's relentless, it's brutal, it borders on self-harm and it changed the way we all listen to albums forever. So many emotions, such beautiful music, so much history, such an enormous legacy. And yet, what is there to say? Sometimes it's best just to listen - not just to Sinatra, but to the people out there in the world, all with their own problems, who heard this and felt something. | |||
| 43: Love and Marriage | 08 Feb 2024 | 01:32:05 | |
"Love and Marriage" was one of the worst songs Sinatra ever recorded, and the toxic ideas about marriage that it perpetuated left a negative impact on the world. This week, we look into the song's unlikely origins in a televised musical version of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and its shameful legacy as the theme song for the vile 1980s-90s sitcom Married... with Children. Watching this show for the first time in 2024 is a jaw-dropping experience, not least because of the jeering, catcalling studio audience. And of course, we've sought out the transphobic episode. Join us, won't you, as we travel down the "Tender Trap" to Al Bundy pipeline. This one made us feel bad. contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 42: The Tender Trap | 27 Jan 2024 | 03:12:49 | |
The phrase "tender trap" essentially didn't exist before the mid-1950s, entering common usage from the film and song which were both popularised by Frank Sinatra. The image of being lured into your downfall by a thing pretending to be soft speaks to a basic element of what it is to be human, and people all over the world have projected their emotions, hangups and life experiences onto this simple concept. This week, we examine Sinatra's classic film and song, plus the original play, then take a look at the many manifestations of the "tender trap" ever since, exploring 70 years of human sexuality and emotion.
contact: suddenlypod at gmail dot com | |||
| 41: Sinatra Was Wrong About Israel | 30 Nov 2023 | 02:32:08 | |
In a special emergency episode, we examine Frank Sinatra's long history with Israel, Palestine and Zionism. Many don't realise just how connected these topics are. This week, we weave a story all the way from Sinatra personally helping run guns to the Nakba in 1948 and his starring role as a fighter pilot for the IDF in 1966's Cast a Giant Shadow, all the way to the bombing of the Frank Sinatra International Student Centre by Hamas in 2002. Henry joins to share his experiences and thoughts from a Jewish perspective, and Rabia has a personal announcement. website: suddenlypod.gay | |||
| 40: Church on Fire (with David Nichols) | 16 Oct 2023 | 02:44:34 | |
Who burnt down West Melbourne Stadium in the middle of Sinatra's 1955 Australian tour, and why did this happen? This week, on our final episode of the year, SUDDENLY investigates. And we're joined by David Nichols - Australian history expert, senior lecturer in Urban Planning at the University of Melbourne, and author of Dig: Australian Rock and Pop Music 1960-85 - to help us put together the pieces. We also learn about West Melbourne Stadium's second life as Festival Hall, and weave a story spanning seven decades that that takes us all the way up to 2023. | |||
| 39: The Big Show | 08 Sep 2023 | 01:50:53 | |
Frank Sinatra's first Australian visit in 1955 followed shortly after the repeal of decades-old laws preventing "coloured" musicians, or any foreign musicians, from performing in the country. The tour was part of the initial run of the now-legendary "Big Shows" put on by mysterious American promoter Lee Gordon, who took advantage of the newly-liberated times to bring acts like Ella Fitzgerald, Johnnie Ray, Nat King Cole and Louis Armstrong to Australia for the first time. But how did we end up with such racist, bizarre laws in the first place? To understand that, we need to go back to the 1928 Australian tour of an African-American jazz band called Sonny Clay's Coloured Idea, and unravel the elaborate conspiracy that faced them when they arrived. This week, we're examining Sinatra's 1955 Australian tour by putting it in its proper historical context - with a cliffhanger ending you won't see coming.
No longer on social media! | |||
| 38: Dream Empire (with Karina Longworth) | 01 Sep 2023 | 01:00:07 | |
Surprise! We're joined from Los Angeles by the legendary Karina Longworth, renowned film historian, author, critic and host of the iconic podcast You Must Remember This. This week, we're jumping ahead to discuss HIGH SOCIETY (1956). Louis Armstrong definitely deserved better, and we tackle the explicitly racist treatment of his character in the context in which 1950s Australian audiences would have received it. Also, what's with the old-timey trope of old men singing to little girls about how they'll be hot when they grow up? This week, opinions, perspectives and historical insights vary significantly between the four of us, but all come together to form a cohesive picture. As Karina says, "Your mileage may vary." | |||
| 37: BONUS - More Guys, More Dolls | 20 Aug 2023 | 01:05:08 | |
Because six hours wasn't enough, it's a special, informal bonus episode where Henry and Rabia discuss some leftover elements of our GUYS AND DOLLS series we didn't find time to discuss. Here we finish off the story of Damon Runyon's life and his legacy today, discuss the critical reception of the 1955 film, and spend some time thinking about the unsung victims of all of this: horses. | |||
| 36: Dolls | 13 Aug 2023 | 02:13:46 | |
Fall in love with people, not with gamblers. It's all too strange and strong. Sit down, you're rocking the boat. This week, Henry leads us through the third and final part of our epic GUYS AND DOLLS series. We've got a spectacular supercut of Sinatra recordings of "Luck Be a Lady" through the ages, and a climactic 10-minute mashup that brings together all the themes we've explored throughout this six-hour odyssey. Watch Sinatra's version of "Luck Be a Lady" from A Man and his Music on YouTube. | |||
| 35: and | 07 Aug 2023 | 01:45:27 | |
Why can't Nathan Detroit remember the colour of his own tie? In the second part of our GUYS AND DOLLS series, Henry begins taking us through the musical (and the 1955 Sinatra film) proper, beginning with "Fugue for Tinhorns", "Oldest Established" and "I'll Know." We discuss the intertwined relationship between gambling and religion, and finally come across some real life catgirls to justify the podcast logo in "Pet Me, Poppa." There's gender politics, weaponised incompetence and the beauty of the pre-dawn hours. Then, finally, we talk about the thing you've been thinking this whole time. Next week, DOLLS. Artwork for this series of episodes by Felix (art instagram @saint_mcfly) | |||
| 34: Guys | 01 Aug 2023 | 01:29:51 | |
Henry Giardina takes the lead as host for the first time as we begin our month-long GUYS AND DOLLS odyssey. In this first installment, the stage is set as we're introduced to the world of legendary short story writer, journalist and master of the "historical present", Damon Runyon. Best known today as the author whose stories inspired the musical Guys and Dolls (later adapted into the 1955 film starring Sinatra), Runyon was a lifelong and loving observer of human nature whose work sprang from the journalistic climate of the early 20th century in America. This week, the world of William Randolph Hearst and his "Gee Whiz!" headlines, Runyon biographer Jimmy Breslin, the struggles of addiction and the budding mythology of a street called Broadway... as we find out what Guys and Dolls really is, where it came from, and why it matters. | |||
| 33: Love Like Surgery | 14 Jul 2023 | 02:46:51 | |
It's 1955 and we're deep into the masculinity crisis. It's an era of lofty 800-page novels adapted into 2-hour-plus movies. We've got navel-gazing middle-aged white men, coming out of a period of deep repression and trauma, wondering who and what they really are. Sinatra is one of their icons, as here is Robert Mitchum. This week's film could have been a later-season episode of Rocky Fortune, and it also could have called From Here to Eternity 2: Dr. Maggio's Revenge. Once again, Sinatra throws us a curveball in the form of a serious medical drama about the mental health of surgeons: NOT AS A STRANGER (1955). On this episode we deal with a lot of personal trauma, talk about the history of transgender surgeries, learn about Swedish immigration and drop an obscure racial slur that we're 90% sure we're allowed to say. Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish hero who saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust. He is commemorated in Melbourne, Australia in the form of a park in Kew and a tree in St. Kilda. Watch Raoul Wallenberg: Behind the Lines here. Longread article on "Butcher Brown" - Why Did He Cut Off That Man's Leg? The Peculiar Practice of John Ronald Brown by Paul Ciotti. Read here. No longer on social media! | |||
| 32: Three Coins Reloaded (with Justin Gausman) | 01 Jul 2023 | 04:19:02 | |
That's amore. Non paghiamo il fossile. And just like that... Boom, kiss, come on, God bless America. | |||
| 31: Transcribed | 22 Jun 2023 | 03:33:15 | |
The word "homosexual" was first uttered on American television on the night of October 21st, 1963. The show was Breaking Point, a drama series set in a psychiatric hospital. The episode was a confronting take on sexual harassment and toxic masculinity that directly posed the question to its audience: "What is a man?" Despite network objection, this milestone in queer history happened solely because of the determination of the show's producer: George Lefferts. Selected works of George Lefferts: Donate to the show @ ko-fi.com/suddenlypod | |||
| 30: Lost and Found - Bobby Long and the World of Soundies (with Mark Cantor) | 10 Jun 2023 | 01:47:10 | |
We found out what happened to Bobby Long. Mostly. And on this episode we're joined by Mark Cantor, America's leading jazz film archivist. Mark is an expert in "Soundies", the early music videos/short films that played on Panoram video jukeboxes in bars, cafes and other public places across America throughout the 1940s. Yes, they had video jukeboxes, and music videos, as far back as the 1940s. We've crossed paths with Mark because he's uncovered an obscure Soundie titled Club Lollypop that stars Bobby Long, the legendary child star and tap dancer who dropped out of public life after his appearance with Sinatra in 1947's It Happened in Brooklyn. (See Episode 13 for more on this.) This week, we have a fascinating chat with Mark about his friendships with Mel Torme and Bill Miller, his incredible collection of rare jazz footage and his lifelong appreciation for Sinatra. We learn all about Soundies - and then, finally, you all get to find out what happened to Bobby Long. Mostly. Bobby Long (March 27th, 1932 - October 31st, 2005) (born Bobby Earl Logsdon, also known as Bob Logsdon) was born in St. Louis, Missouri to Hubert Earl and Lola Mae Logsdon. He began tapdancing at the age of six, and by age ten was performing professionally on the vaudeville circuit. He toured the country throughout his teenage years, including gigs at the Majestic Theatre in Paterson, NJ and Steel Pier in Atlantic City, NJ, working alongside some of the biggest names in the country. | |||
| 29: Not By Ranting, Nor By Chanting | 22 May 2023 | 01:51:21 | |
Millions know the song: "Forget your troubles and just get happy." But where does it come from, and what does it really mean? Why are we getting ready for judgement day, and how did Judy Garland end up associated with something that sounds so gospel? This week, we dive into the long and complicated multicultural (and especially Black) history of "Get Happy", the most memorably awkward track on Sinatra's first full-length collaboration album with Nelson Riddle, SWING EASY (1954). Our adventure through history takes us all the way from Art Tatum and the Tallahassee Bus Boycotts of 1956 to a 2008 episode of South Park and the "Diabeetus" internet meme. CONTACT: SUDDENLYPOD AT GMAIL DOT COM | |||
| 28: Glamour | 07 May 2023 | 03:35:35 | |
In 2007, Italian artist Graziano Cecchini poured red dye into the Trevi Fountain to protest the Rome Film Festival. "You wanted just a red carpet", he said. "We want a city entirely in vermilion. We who are vulnerable, old, ill, students, workers, we come with vermilion to colour your grayness." Escapism, tourism, power, vanity, royalty, memory, sex, romance - and water running blood-red. This week, a deep dive into the extended universe of Rome's iconic Trevi Fountain, spinning off from THREE COINS IN THE FOUNTAIN (1954) and Sinatra's hit title song. A three-and-a-half-hour odyssey recorded while simultanously live-commentating the coronation of King Charles III and monitoring a live webcam of the Trevi Fountain, spanning 10 films released over 56 years and centuries of history... it could only be an episode of SUDDENLY. CONTACT: SUDDENLYPOD AT GMAIL DOT COM | |||
| 27: The Long | 25 Apr 2023 | 02:10:38 | |
For almost the entire back half of the 20th century, Sinatra sang "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" over and over again. At every show, he would proudly call himself a "saloon singer" and paint a picture for the audience: a drunk, broken-hearted loser, in a bar at 2:45am, pouring his fool heart out to the unlucky bartender. Sinatra revelled in this imagery, and the seductively suicidal "saloon singer" schtick became a beloved cornerstone of his act. History records that this persona began with the film YOUNG AT HEART (1954). But where did it come from? This week on SUDDENLY, we sit down at the bar with the saloon singer - and meet Oscar Levant - before wrapping up with a hypnotic 11-minute "One for My Baby" supercut, sampling 47 years worth of performances from all over the world. CONTACT: SUDDENLYPOD AT GMAIL DOT COM | |||