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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production

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Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy B. Wilson. Today we

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Speaker 1: are continuing this story of Todd Browning's life as part

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Speaker 1: of our autumn season and lead into Halloween because his

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Speaker 1: contributions to the horror film genre are significant, and the

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Speaker 1: films that are most responsible for that reputation are what

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Speaker 1: we are covering today, among other projects, and the latter

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Speaker 1: portion of Browning's life. If you didn't listen to part one,

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Speaker 1: go back and do it otherwise you're going to be

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Speaker 1: a little bit lost, because we are jumping in right

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Speaker 1: where we left off. So in the late nineteen twenties,

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Speaker 1: Browning had proven that he could turn out films that

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Speaker 1: made money, so he was something of a darling in Hollywood,

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Speaker 1: but that did not last. So we are picking up

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Speaker 1: at the end of the nineteen twenties. In specifically, Browning's mother, Lydia,

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Speaker 1: died in a of nineteen twenty eight, and we mentioned

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Speaker 1: in Part one that he did not attend his father's funeral.

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Speaker 1: In nineteen twenty two, he once again opted not to

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Speaker 1: participate in any of the memorials or the funeral for

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Speaker 1: his mother. Although he was the wealthiest member of the

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Speaker 1: family by far, he also didn't contribute to the expenses

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Speaker 1: for her burial. He and Alice had visited Louisville in

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Speaker 1: the wake of the success of The Unholy Three, but

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Speaker 1: they really just had minimal contact with the Browning family

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Speaker 1: after that point. Two more Browning and Lawn Cheney collaborations

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Speaker 1: came out in ninety West of Zanzibar, which featured a

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Speaker 1: paralyzed magician on a quest for vengeance, and a film

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Speaker 1: called Big City, Big City. It was quite different in

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Speaker 1: tone from the other projects that Browning worked on with Cheney.

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Speaker 1: It did not feature anything supernatural or unusual, or grizzly

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Speaker 1: or unsettling. It was a pretty basic gangster film, at

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Speaker 1: least as far as we know. No copies of it

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Speaker 1: have survived for modern analysis. The two also paired for

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Speaker 1: a film called Where East Is East, in in which

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Speaker 1: Cheney played a professional animal trapper who is suspicious of

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Speaker 1: but ultimately accepts the young man who wants to marry

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Speaker 1: his daughter. That's just the beginning of the film. The

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Speaker 1: twist is that an older woman shows up who wants

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Speaker 1: to seduce the younger man, and her ties to the

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Speaker 1: animal trapper and his daughter make up this very convoluted

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Speaker 1: and complex situation. There is also some fairly grisly implied

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Speaker 1: violence in the movie, when a wild animal is set

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Speaker 1: loose on purpose with the intent that it will harm people.

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Speaker 1: Critics alternately braved about the film, some calling it Browning's

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Speaker 1: best and panned the film, finding the entire thing utterly ridiculous.

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Speaker 1: Unbeknownst to Browning and Cheney at the time, this was

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Speaker 1: their last movie together. All of the films we've talked

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Speaker 1: about up to this point were made without recorded dialogue,

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Speaker 1: and they were silent films set two scores, but Browning

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Speaker 1: moved into talkies in with the Moviete Chair. This film

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Speaker 1: was an adaptation of a stage play and revolves around

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Speaker 1: a murder that takes place at a seance that was

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Speaker 1: builled in promotional material as a new adventure in the

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Speaker 1: realm of mysticism. Browning and the studio wanted Lon Cheney

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Speaker 1: to play the role of the detective that's called in

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Speaker 1: to investigate the murder, but Cheney was not comfortable with

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Speaker 1: the idea of dialogue films at this point, so the

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Speaker 1: role went instead to Baila Legosi. There was actually a

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Speaker 1: silent version of the film made simultaneously. This was to

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Speaker 1: appease movie theaters that ran films because they were not

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Speaker 1: all equipped to handle sound projection at this point in time.

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Speaker 1: But the silent version of Browning's thirteen Chair has been lost.

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Speaker 1: The following year, Browning made another dialogue picture, it was

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Speaker 1: Outside the Law. He was once again hoping to get

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Speaker 1: Cheney in the main role. Cheney had appeared in a

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Speaker 1: talkie version of The Unholy Three that had filmed in

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Speaker 1: nine was released in nineteen thirty and was a remake

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Speaker 1: of the silent version that Cheney and Browning had made

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Speaker 1: back in this time. It was directed by Jack Conway,

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Speaker 1: so it seemed that the actor was now ready to

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Speaker 1: move into speaking roles. But unfortunately, Lon Cheney died of

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Speaker 1: throat cancer not long after the release of The Unholy Three,

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Speaker 1: so Todd Browning had to find another actor for Outside

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Speaker 1: the Law. That role went to Edward G. Robinson. And

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Speaker 1: then we get to nineteen thirty one, which it was,

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Speaker 1: of course, the year that Browning made his most famous film, Dracula.

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Speaker 1: If you were a fan of the various horror films

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Speaker 1: that get grouped under the umbrella of universal monsters. I

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Speaker 1: feel like it's it's worthwhile to thank Todd Browning and

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Speaker 1: Baila Lego. See Dracula was the first of those films

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Speaker 1: that was a hit, and it was a huge hit,

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Speaker 1: but critically it didn't really qualify as a success. The

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Speaker 1: New York Times review of Dracula that appeared on February

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Speaker 1: nineteen thirty one reads, in part quote, count Dracula, brown

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Speaker 1: Stoker's human vampire who has chilled the spines of book

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Speaker 1: readers and playgoers, is now to be seen at the

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Speaker 1: Roxy in a talking film directed by Todd Browning, who

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Speaker 1: delights in such blood curdling stories. It is a production

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Speaker 1: that evidently had the desired effect upon many in the

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Speaker 1: audience yesterday afternoon. For there was a general outburst of

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Speaker 1: applause when Dr Van Helsing produced a little cross that

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Speaker 1: caused the dreaded Dracula to fling his cloak over his

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Speaker 1: head and make himself scarce. What was Mr Browning's imaginative

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Speaker 1: direction and Mr Legosi's makeup and weird gestures. This picture

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Speaker 1: succeeds to some extent and its grand gunule intentions. That

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Speaker 1: review incidentally, was written by the New York Times first

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Speaker 1: regular film critic More daunt Hall, and that was about

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Speaker 1: as good as any commentary the film got by critics.

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Speaker 1: That was really one of the nicest wins. But box

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Speaker 1: office numbers were a very different story from those reviews.

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Speaker 1: As is hinted at in that reviewer's note, audiences went

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Speaker 1: absolutely wild for this movie, and they went to see

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Speaker 1: it in large numbers and often went to see it

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Speaker 1: multiple times. Dracula didn't only launch an entire genre success

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Speaker 1: for Universal, it also gave Todd Browning even more freedom

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Speaker 1: to do as he wished as a director. His next film,

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Speaker 1: perhaps surprisingly, was the drama Iron Man, which came out

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Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty one. That's about a failed prize fighter

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Speaker 1: and his wife who leaves him, only to come back

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Speaker 1: when he starts winning again. Browning ended up back at

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Speaker 1: MGM in the early nineteen thirties, although the studio probably

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Speaker 1: wished that had not been the case. Once he finished

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Speaker 1: his first picture back with them. That movie was to

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Speaker 1: use Freaks, based on the Todd Robins story Spurs. Freaks

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Speaker 1: was completely unlike any film that had been made at

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Speaker 1: the time that it was released. The plot is set

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Speaker 1: in motion when a trapeze artist named Cleopatra joins the

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Speaker 1: circus and plans to marry one of the side shows performers,

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Speaker 1: that's a little person named Hans played by Harry Earles.

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Speaker 1: Cleopatra plans to ultimately kill him and take his fortune.

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Speaker 1: When the rest of the sideshow cast learns what Cleopatra

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Speaker 1: and her accomplice who's the circus strongman, have planned, they

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Speaker 1: enact this violent and gruesome revenge that leaves the two

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Speaker 1: of them who started out in quotation marks normal totally

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Speaker 1: mangled and uh physically altered and relegated to the side

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Speaker 1: show themselves. Browning hired actual side show performers for the film,

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Speaker 1: working with casting director Ben Piazza to scour all of

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Speaker 1: the potential talent from side shows along the East Coast,

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Speaker 1: and Among the cast were conjoined twins Daisy and Violet Hilton,

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Speaker 1: Johnny Eck who was born with a truncated torso from

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Speaker 1: sacred legenesis, Prince Randian who was born with tetra amelia syndrome,

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Speaker 1: Peter Robinson, an extremely thin man build as the human

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Speaker 1: skeleton or Skeleton Man, Bearded Lady Olga Roderick, Little People

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Speaker 1: Daisy and Harry Earls, who were siblings in real life,

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Speaker 1: and Schlitzy, who was born with microcephaly. Production of the

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Speaker 1: film was reportedly pretty smooth, although the sideshow performers were

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Speaker 1: asked to take their lunch breaks in a separate mess

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Speaker 1: hall that was set up outside the regular cafeteria because

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Speaker 1: regular MGM staff and performers were apparently unsettled at seeing them.

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Speaker 1: There were also reportedly some tensions and professional jealousies among

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Speaker 1: the sideshow performers, although this didn't really seem to impact

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Speaker 1: the actual production at all. There was as some unpredictability

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Speaker 1: to the entire endeavor because of using performers who were

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Speaker 1: from circuses and side chosen not accustomed to filmmaking, and

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Speaker 1: Browning using some very outdated language, so I'm not even

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Speaker 1: going to quote it. Uh talked in interviews about his

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Speaker 1: anxiety working on this picture because of it. He seems,

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Speaker 1: based on most reports, to have worked very very hard

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Speaker 1: to create a positive atmosphere for the side show performers,

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Speaker 1: although crew members reported that he was not the least

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Speaker 1: bit nurturing with them and was often quite the opposite.

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Speaker 1: Some of this might be attributed to Browning still learning

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Speaker 1: the ropes of sound on pictures after a full career

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Speaker 1: of shooting silent scenes, but several crew members called working

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Speaker 1: on Freaks the toughest film of their careers due to

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Speaker 1: everything from grueling schedules to dangerously wired electrical systems. We're

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Speaker 1: going to talk about how Freaks was received both internally

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Speaker 1: at MGM and among the public, but before we do,

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Speaker 1: let's pause for a sponsor break. If you have ever

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Speaker 1: seen this film, Freaks, it is fairly apparent that it

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Speaker 1: turned societal norms upside down. The villains of the piece

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Speaker 1: are the people who are not freaks in the side

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Speaker 1: show terminology sense, but are revealed to be absolute monsters

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Speaker 1: in their intentions. Audiences, however, did not respond well to

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Speaker 1: Browning's cast of actual sideshow performers and to the violent

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Speaker 1: retribution that they visit on Cleopatra and Strongman Hercules in

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Speaker 1: response to their treachery. Louis B. Mayor, the mayor of

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Speaker 1: Metro Goldwyn. Mayor, hated the movie and he was worried

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Speaker 1: about what it would do to MGM's reputation, so he

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Speaker 1: did what he could to limit the anticipated damage by

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Speaker 1: trying to minimize the number of people who would actually

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Speaker 1: see it, so it was released to as few screens

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Speaker 1: as possible. Irving Thalberg also edited it into a much

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Speaker 1: shorter version, cutting almost a third of the film for

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Speaker 1: the early screenings, although the full length film did appear

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Speaker 1: for some showings and critics did not know quite what

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Speaker 1: to make of it. The New York Times review said

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Speaker 1: this quote, Metro Goldwyn Mayer definitely has on its hands

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Speaker 1: a picture that is out of the ordinary. The difficulty

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Speaker 1: isn't telling whether it should be shown at the rialto

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Speaker 1: where it opened yesterday or in say, the medical Center.

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Speaker 1: Freaks is no normal program film, but whether it deserves

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Speaker 1: the title of abnormal is a matter of personal opinion.

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Speaker 1: Its first audience apparently could not decide, although there was

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Speaker 1: a good bit of applause based on the life of

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Speaker 1: quote these strange people of the circus side show. The

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Speaker 1: picture is excellent at times and horrible in the strict

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Speaker 1: meaning of the word at others. There are a few

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Speaker 1: moments of comedy, but these are more than balanced by tragedy.

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Speaker 1: Through long periods, the story drags itself along, and there

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Speaker 1: is one of the most profound anticlimaxes of them all

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Speaker 1: to form the ending. Yet despite this Freaks is not

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Speaker 1: a picture to be easily forgotten. The only thing that

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Speaker 1: can be said definitely for Freaks is that it is

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Speaker 1: not for children. Bad dreams lie that way. But although

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Speaker 1: some reviewers grappled with how to define or even perceive

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Speaker 1: the movie, others dismissed it entirely as garbage. The head

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Speaker 1: of the Motion Picture Committee for the National Association of Women,

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Speaker 1: Mrs Ambrose Nevin Deal, wrote to William Harris and Hayes Sr.

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Speaker 1: So that's the same Haze for whom the Haze Code

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Speaker 1: of Moral Guidelines and Cinema was named, share her disdain

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Speaker 1: of Browning's offensive film. She and a lot of other

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Speaker 1: people thought it was exploitive of the sideshow performers who

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Speaker 1: had appeared in it. Must debate whether Browning was heartless

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Speaker 1: or a champion for inclusion started really as soon as

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Speaker 1: the screening started to happen. Yeah. I want to point

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Speaker 1: out too that while we talk about Mrs Deal kind

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Speaker 1: of framing this in a way of like, you shouldn't

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Speaker 1: exploit these people, she definitely does have like the white

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Speaker 1: savior those poor things approach to it. It's not like

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Speaker 1: she even considers them at a level of equality. She's

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Speaker 1: really framing this in a very problematic way as well.

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Speaker 1: But that discussion around the film and Browning as a

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Speaker 1: champion or as heartless continues, of course. A review of

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Speaker 1: a DVD release of the film by Heiony Karamanos for

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Speaker 1: Disability Studies Quarterly in two thousand five kind of artfully

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Speaker 1: summed up part of the reason that this movie continues

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Speaker 1: to be so frequently studied, both as a piece of

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Speaker 1: cinema and as an instance of early disability representation in

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Speaker 1: medium writing. Quote tensions between exposing the myth of normal

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Speaker 1: slash abnormal dichotomies and presenting freak performers in ways that

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Speaker 1: indulge the audience's appetite for gawking creates a narrative riddled

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Speaker 1: with fascinating contradiction. At the time of the movie's release,

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Speaker 1: MGM even took out ads trying I mean often in

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Speaker 1: awkward and really cringe worthy copy to insist that the

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Speaker 1: quote freaks of the film have quote the same passions, joys, sorrows,

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Speaker 1: and laughter as anyone else, and that their stories should

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Speaker 1: not be untouchable. This did not really help, No. Various

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Speaker 1: groups of people around the United States protested the film

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Speaker 1: and in some markets they were successful in blocking it

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Speaker 1: from being shown entirely. In Great Britain, Freaks was banned

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Speaker 1: by sensors for thirty years, and the bad reviews continued

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Speaker 1: after its early New York run. Freaks was pulled completely

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Speaker 1: by the studio, although the level of trust from the

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Speaker 1: studio that Browning had previously enjoyed thanks to his box

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Speaker 1: office success is totally vanished. His contract with MGM said

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Speaker 1: that he owed them two more pictures. He was assigned

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Speaker 1: an adaptation of the play Rivets, which is about two

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Speaker 1: New York construction workers who were vying for the attentions

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Speaker 1: of the same woman. The movie, which was titled Fast Workers,

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Speaker 1: came out in nineteen thirty three, but that had its

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Speaker 1: own controversy when the studio refused to edit out a

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Speaker 1: line that the Hayes office objected to. The line was quote,

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Speaker 1: They're making it tougher for us every day. This was

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Speaker 1: noted as quote a direct inference to sex perversion because

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Speaker 1: it was said in reference to two women who appeared

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Speaker 1: to be romantically involved with one another. Fast Workers was

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Speaker 1: the most expensive film of Browning's career, and it flopped abysmally.

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Speaker 1: The studio actually lost more money on it that it

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Speaker 1: had on Freaks. Browning was next slated to work on

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Speaker 1: a Cajun country melodrama called Louisiana Lou, for which William

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Speaker 1: Faulkner was brought on to collaborate, and according to Faulkner,

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Speaker 1: he got the runaround from the projects of other writers

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Speaker 1: about what the picture was even about and was soon fired.

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Speaker 1: Todd Browning was furious and openly so, and soon he

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Speaker 1: was fired as well. But really this was a period

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Speaker 1: when Faulkner's drinking had made him unreliable as a writer,

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Speaker 1: and Louisiana Lou was put on a very long hiatus

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Speaker 1: while the studio just tried to figure out what to

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Speaker 1: do with it and try to salvage it. Browning made

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Speaker 1: Mark of the Vampire in ninety six. This is a

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Speaker 1: pastiche of themes and ideas from London After Midnight and Dracula.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it's even referred to as a sound dialogue remake

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Speaker 1: of London After Midnight because many aspects of the plot

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Speaker 1: are so closely repeated. It was once again a murder

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Speaker 1: mystery involving vampires and hypnotism. The main borrow from Dracula

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Speaker 1: was the styling of the vampire characters, who were all

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Speaker 1: very much in the vein of Lugosi's Dracula character, including

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Speaker 1: Lugosi himself as a character called Count Mora. Some of

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Speaker 1: the shots are direct recreations of the most popular moments

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Speaker 1: from the ninety one film Dracula, which was done in

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Speaker 1: the hopes that it would draw audiences to see their

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Speaker 1: favorite vampire do the things that they loved. Again. Remember,

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Speaker 1: at this point there were no home theaters. There was

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Speaker 1: no HBO. They're like, you couldn't just watch a movie

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Speaker 1: at home. Yeah, none of the ways that we can

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Speaker 1: see movies at home today. Uh So, while kind of hokey,

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Speaker 1: this was an understandable strategy to try to get people

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Speaker 1: back into the theaters. Despite how all that sounds, reviews

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Speaker 1: were fairly good. The film made money, and that made

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Speaker 1: it a redemption project for Browning, at least to some degree.

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Speaker 1: Mark of the Empire also made a contribution to real

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Speaker 1: world style that persists today. The movie featured Carol Borland

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Speaker 1: as Count Mora's daughter. She was very young at the time,

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Speaker 1: and her styling was a departure from the way female vampires,

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Speaker 1: even in Browning's own films, had been portrayed. While previously

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Speaker 1: the look of such a character usually involved hair that

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Speaker 1: was slicked back into a tight bun and clothes that

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Speaker 1: were kind of unstructured or maybe look like a shroud,

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Speaker 1: this character, who was called Luna, had a long center

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Speaker 1: parted straight, dark hairstyle and a diaphanous gown with long

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Speaker 1: flowing sleeves. She looks a lot like Lily Munster, who

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Speaker 1: very clearly was modeled after her, and Luna could really

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Speaker 1: be kind of pointed to as a prototype of goth

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Speaker 1: style that you still see today, which I love. We'll

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Speaker 1: talk about Todd Browning's last films after we hear from

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Speaker 1: the sponsors that keep Stuffy Miss in history class going.

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Speaker 1: Browning's next project was a movie called The Devil Doll,

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Speaker 1: which came out in ninety six, and this feature ran

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Speaker 1: into problems right out of the gate due to its content.

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Speaker 1: It is an adaptation of a novel titled Burn Which Burn,

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Speaker 1: which was written by Abraham Merritt in two and that

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Speaker 1: was first released as a series in Argossy magazine, and

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Speaker 1: the premise of that original story is that a neurologist

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Speaker 1: investigating a series of unique deaths among a group of

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Speaker 1: patients who seemed completely unrelated. Uh discovers that they had

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Speaker 1: all visited a toy shop known for its unique and

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Speaker 1: realistic dolls, and that shop was run by a woman

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Speaker 1: named Madam Mandelip Browning collaborated with two other writers on

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Speaker 1: this adaptation. They were Garrett Fort and Guy Indoor, and

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Speaker 1: they opted to go with an African theme. They featured

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Speaker 1: humans who had been shrunk down into of dolls through voodoo.

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Speaker 1: It probably goes without saying they did not have any

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Speaker 1: understanding at all of the various religions that are often

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Speaker 1: grouped together under the term voodoo. It was entirely going

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Speaker 1: for sensationalism in this choice and the original script. A

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Speaker 1: man who had escaped from the penal colony on Devil's

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Speaker 1: Island gets to Paris and uses voodoo to enact revenge,

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Speaker 1: and at the end of the story he dies by suicide.

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Speaker 1: All of this really disturbed the Production Code administration, and

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Speaker 1: the British Board of Film Censors stated that it could

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Speaker 1: not be shown at all in Britain if it depicted voodoo,

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Speaker 1: but a representative of the British Board did say that

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Speaker 1: shrinking people for quote legitimate drama was allowable the story

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Speaker 1: was reworked, stripped of all the magical elements, and instead

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Speaker 1: when in a sci fi direction with the shrinking of

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Speaker 1: the people. So in this reworked version of the script,

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Speaker 1: which is what was made as the film, a banker

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Speaker 1: from Paris is framed by some very shady colleagues and

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Speaker 1: ends up imprisoned on Devil's Island and escapes. But he

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Speaker 1: escapes along with a mad scientist and that scientist's wife,

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Speaker 1: who have figured out how to miniaturize people and destroy

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Speaker 1: their free will in the process, making them obedient devil

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Speaker 1: dolls subject to telepathic communication and commands the Parisian banker

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Speaker 1: named lavand disguises himself as a woman and finds ways

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Speaker 1: to put these dolls into the homes of the people

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Speaker 1: who wronged him so that these dolls can enact his revenge.

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Speaker 1: The trailer touted this film as quote born of a

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Speaker 1: revenge crazed mind, the strangest story the screen has ever told.

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Speaker 1: It also played up the fact that the star Lionel

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Speaker 1: Barrymore dressed as a woman, advertising quote a great star

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Speaker 1: in the greatest surprise role since Lon Cheney played in

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Speaker 1: The Unholy Three. But the real story when it comes

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Speaker 1: to The Devil Doll was actually the practical effects that

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Speaker 1: were employed to create the illusion of humans shrunk down

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Speaker 1: to the size of dolls. The review in The New

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Speaker 1: York Times seemed to find the film both a little

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Speaker 1: absurd and pretty deserving of praise, and that praise was

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Speaker 1: largely due to technical achievement. That review reads, in part quote,

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Speaker 1: in The Devil Doll, you will find a Saint Bernard,

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Speaker 1: a Great Dane, and a circus horse reduced to mouse

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Speaker 1: like dimensions by the same magic. Arthur Hole grace Ford

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Speaker 1: and one or two other hapless players are shrunken to

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Speaker 1: fountain pen length and have a brisk time climbing Christmas trees,

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Speaker 1: staggering under the weight of a jeweled bracelet, and sticking

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Speaker 1: tiny daggers into the next and ankles of Lionel Barrymore's

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Speaker 1: full sized victims. Not since The Lost World, King Kong

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Speaker 1: and The Invisible Man have the camera Wizards enjoyed such

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Speaker 1: a field day. By use of the split screen, glass shots,

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Speaker 1: oversize sets, and other trick devices cherished of their kind,

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Speaker 1: they have pieced together a photoplay which is grotesque, slightly horrible,

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Speaker 1: and consistently interesting. A freak film, of course, and one

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Speaker 1: which may overburden Junior's imagination, but an entertaining exhibition of

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Speaker 1: photographic hocus focus. For all that, The Devil Doll made

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Speaker 1: a profit, but not a huge one to the studio,

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Speaker 1: it was apparent that there just wouldn't be another money

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Speaker 1: maker that was anywhere near the Unholy Three coming from

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Speaker 1: Todd Browning. Just a couple of months later, Irving Thalberg died,

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Speaker 1: and Thalberg had been one of the few executives at

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Speaker 1: MGM who had continued to support Browning's work. Without him

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Speaker 1: there anymore, Browning lost his last true ally after sputtering

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Speaker 1: around with pitches getting shot down. Browning did eventually get

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Speaker 1: the go ahead to make a picture based on a

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Speaker 1: novel titled Death from a Top Half. The novel was

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Speaker 1: written by Clayton Rawson. In the premise involves a retired magician,

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Speaker 1: the Great MERLINI, who solves crimes that generally appear to

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Speaker 1: be supernatural or occult, but then reveals them to be

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Speaker 1: the work of normal humans. The Browning version was titled

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Speaker 1: Miracles for Sale and it starred Robert Young. The Great

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Speaker 1: MERLINI was changed to the Great Morgan. The plot was

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Speaker 1: paired down from the novel to be simpler to shoot,

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Speaker 1: and while it was clearly right in Todd Browning's wheelhouse,

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Speaker 1: the studio paid him a fraction of what he had

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Speaker 1: made just a few years before for a picture. While

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Speaker 1: there was some violent imagery in the movie, it was

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Speaker 1: mostly comedic and light. But then there was a whole

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Speaker 1: new kind of controversy for the studio when it came out.

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Speaker 1: Magicians were really angry about it because the plot involved

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Speaker 1: many instances of the Great Morgan explaining that stage trickery

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Speaker 1: had been used to make crimes look supernatural. It ended

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Speaker 1: up giving away a number of trade secrets that magicians

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Speaker 1: had kept within the profes Shan The Pacific Coast Association

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Speaker 1: of Magicians wrote a complaint letter to Lowe's Cinemas about it,

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Speaker 1: and their spokesperson Hubert Brill explained that airings of the

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Speaker 1: picture quote would soon render many of the magicians of

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Speaker 1: this country without means of making their livings, for with

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Speaker 1: the disclosure of their secrets, public interest would be destroyed,

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Speaker 1: and their investments in time and costly equipment rendered a

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Speaker 1: total loss. Lowe's cut parts of the film out in

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Speaker 1: accordance with the magician's Association's wishes. Miracles for Sale was

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Speaker 1: Browning's last picture. His reputation had really suffered after the

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Speaker 1: release of Freaks, and the poor reception of the picture

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Speaker 1: undoubtedly impacted his relationship with his career. Additionally, Miracles for

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Speaker 1: Sale had been banned in Sweden because of its violence.

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Speaker 1: He was not a commodity of note in Hollywood any longer.

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Speaker 1: He couldn't get a movie greenlit, and he was viewed

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Speaker 1: by a lot of people as just being more trouble

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Speaker 1: than he was worth. Browning retired in the early nineteen

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Speaker 1: forties when he was just in his mid fifties. He

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Speaker 1: had been let go by MGM, and he did not

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Speaker 1: move on to another studio. He had handled his finances

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Speaker 1: well enough that money was not a concern for him.

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Speaker 1: He also sold his house in Hollywood and he moved

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Speaker 1: completely into his home in Malibu. In May of ninety four,

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Speaker 1: Browning's wife, Alice Wilson died. After that point, he became

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Speaker 1: even more reclusive. He rarely left his Malibu home. In

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Speaker 1: nineteen fifty three, an article about his work appeared in

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Speaker 1: Films in Review, and Browning wrote a letter to thank

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Speaker 1: the writer, Mrs Henry Geltzer. In this brief note, he

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Speaker 1: mentions that he had quote been enjoying life on the

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Speaker 1: cream saved off the milk I received for Flickers. I

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Speaker 1: enjoyed making that is, until I started making Freaks, and

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Speaker 1: from then on, well that's another story. Browning grew increasingly

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Speaker 1: suspicious of other people after Alice died. He started to

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Speaker 1: believe that most of the people who tried to befriend

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Speaker 1: him were trying to find a way into the film industry,

428
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,600
Speaker 1: and this sometimes manifested in treating people really cruelly, even

429
00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 1: when they were just trying to help him out. Um.

430
00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:13,360
Speaker 1: There's a really sad story about a woman who kept

431
00:27:13,359 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 1: trying to bring him food and he called her terrible names.

432
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,720
Speaker 1: He lavished attention and love on his dogs, and when

433
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,720
Speaker 1: his bulldog Toby died, his veterinarian who he had become

434
00:27:22,760 --> 00:27:26,200
Speaker 1: friends with, Harold Snow, was so dismayed at Browning's level

435
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,240
Speaker 1: of grief that he gave the aging director another puppy.

436
00:27:29,680 --> 00:27:32,480
Speaker 1: Browning refused it, but Snow really felt like he was

437
00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:34,040
Speaker 1: not going to be okay if he didn't have an

438
00:27:34,080 --> 00:27:35,760
Speaker 1: animal in his life, so he left it with a

439
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:38,600
Speaker 1: neighbor who eventually got Browning to warm up to it.

440
00:27:39,080 --> 00:27:41,560
Speaker 1: As a side note, please don't give people pets as gifts.

441
00:27:41,560 --> 00:27:44,439
Speaker 1: That's a very bad idea. Yeah. I said that on

442
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,280
Speaker 1: social media one time, and people tried to pick a

443
00:27:47,320 --> 00:27:49,240
Speaker 1: fight with me, and it's like, yeah, if you've had

444
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:55,879
Speaker 1: a thoughtful conversation with somebody about that's fine. Don't just

445
00:27:56,080 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: surprise people with animals. Correct. All. Though Browning had been

446
00:28:01,400 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: somewhat estranged from his family in Louisville as he had

447
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,800
Speaker 1: gotten older, he had reconnected with his brother, Avery, and

448
00:28:07,840 --> 00:28:09,840
Speaker 1: the two men got in the habit of talking on

449
00:28:09,880 --> 00:28:15,120
Speaker 1: the phone every day. But then, on December four, Avery

450
00:28:15,359 --> 00:28:20,200
Speaker 1: died accidentally from asphyxiation due to an unvented gas heater,

451
00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 1: and unlike when the Browning parents had died, Todd decided

452
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,320
Speaker 1: to go to Louisville to attend his brother's funeral. But

453
00:28:27,400 --> 00:28:32,399
Speaker 1: even this was a pretty odd scenario. Todd attended the wake,

454
00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 1: but he would only consent to sitting behind a curtain.

455
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,360
Speaker 1: He refused to even greet guests. Even Todd and Avery's

456
00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:44,840
Speaker 1: foster sister, Jenny, was denied an audience with Todd. Even

457
00:28:44,840 --> 00:28:47,680
Speaker 1: a relatives tried to reach out to him at his hotel.

458
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:50,280
Speaker 1: They were just met with all kinds of excuses as

459
00:28:50,320 --> 00:28:53,640
Speaker 1: to why he could not speak with them, for reasons

460
00:28:53,680 --> 00:28:57,720
Speaker 1: that were never disclosed. Browning just wanted no actual engagement

461
00:28:57,760 --> 00:29:00,640
Speaker 1: with the people from his hometown at all. Yeah, we

462
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,640
Speaker 1: have no idea what went down that made him behave

463
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:06,080
Speaker 1: this way, or if nothing went down and he just

464
00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 1: got something. We just don't know what was going on there.

465
00:29:09,400 --> 00:29:12,160
Speaker 1: But in his final years, Browning really never wanted to

466
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:14,520
Speaker 1: discuss his film career, and he would actually get kind

467
00:29:14,560 --> 00:29:17,320
Speaker 1: of angry if anyone asked him about it. He wanted

468
00:29:17,360 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: to live with his animals, which at that point where

469
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:23,840
Speaker 1: dogs and ducks in peace. But he did seem to

470
00:29:23,880 --> 00:29:26,480
Speaker 1: grow a little less bristly in the last period of

471
00:29:26,520 --> 00:29:30,120
Speaker 1: his life. He started giving people gifts, like his neighbors

472
00:29:30,160 --> 00:29:32,520
Speaker 1: who had tried for years to check on him, only

473
00:29:32,560 --> 00:29:35,959
Speaker 1: to be met with suspicion, for example, and over time,

474
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:39,200
Speaker 1: that veterinarian we mentioned Dr Snow and his wife, who

475
00:29:39,240 --> 00:29:42,280
Speaker 1: had started driving Browning around town after he had had

476
00:29:42,320 --> 00:29:45,560
Speaker 1: a series of strokes, convinced Todd to just move in

477
00:29:45,640 --> 00:29:48,400
Speaker 1: with them so that they could keep an eye on him,

478
00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: and for a while he really kind of became part

479
00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:52,600
Speaker 1: of their family, and he would cook for them and

480
00:29:52,640 --> 00:29:57,720
Speaker 1: he socialized with the Snows. Browning was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer,

481
00:29:57,920 --> 00:30:00,120
Speaker 1: and it was really too late by the tie. It

482
00:30:00,240 --> 00:30:03,320
Speaker 1: was discovered his larynx had to be removed in June

483
00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,640
Speaker 1: of two that left him mute. He had to have

484
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: a breathing tube after the surgery, and he became prone

485
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 1: to anxiety attacks. He really became afraid that he was

486
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,280
Speaker 1: going to lose his ability to breathe. Another stroke that

487
00:30:18,440 --> 00:30:21,640
Speaker 1: summer degraded his health further, as well as his ability

488
00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:25,200
Speaker 1: to communicate. He signed a power of attorney over to

489
00:30:25,320 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 1: the Snows in August. Browning died in the very early

490
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:32,680
Speaker 1: morning hours of October six, nine sixty two, in Malibu,

491
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,600
Speaker 1: at the age of eighty two. In his will, he

492
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:38,280
Speaker 1: had left the Snows half of his estate. He kind

493
00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,280
Speaker 1: of split it up between them in an interesting way,

494
00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:44,040
Speaker 1: where Mr. Snow got and Mrs Snow got thirty five.

495
00:30:44,680 --> 00:30:47,120
Speaker 1: He also left them the contents of his liquor cabinet,

496
00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: and the rest of his estate was doled out to

497
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:54,880
Speaker 1: various neighbors, caregivers, and the Corsair Crippled Children's Hospital in Louisville.

498
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:59,480
Speaker 1: And the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. Nothing went to

499
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:03,880
Speaker 1: his family, and he noted this in his will by writing, quote,

500
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:08,000
Speaker 1: I have intentionally and with full knowledge, admitted to provide

501
00:31:08,040 --> 00:31:12,160
Speaker 1: for my heirs. In a final pretty odd coda to

502
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 1: his life, there was a strange incident with a house

503
00:31:15,440 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 1: painter while he was laid out at the Gates, Kingsley

504
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,880
Speaker 1: and Gates funeral home. This house painter had become friends

505
00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,400
Speaker 1: and drinking buddies with Browning towards the end of his life.

506
00:31:26,280 --> 00:31:29,959
Speaker 1: The painter is only ever recalled by the name Lucky.

507
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:33,320
Speaker 1: That's the only name that shows up any accounts of this,

508
00:31:33,800 --> 00:31:36,600
Speaker 1: and he was allowed to spend the night in the

509
00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:41,400
Speaker 1: funeral home with Browning's body simply to drink a case

510
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:45,680
Speaker 1: of course beer, which was allegedly Browning's favorite. So he's

511
00:31:45,760 --> 00:31:48,440
Speaker 1: doing this sort of as a send off to Browning.

512
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: Todd Browning had stipulated that there would be no funeral

513
00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: held for him. He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, which

514
00:31:55,880 --> 00:31:59,600
Speaker 1: was where Alice's ashes had been interred. Yeah, that was

515
00:32:00,040 --> 00:32:03,480
Speaker 1: actually part of Alice's family plot. He wanted to be

516
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: with her family and not his own. Uh. Today, many

517
00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:10,360
Speaker 1: of Browning's films, including Freaks, which essentially ended his career,

518
00:32:11,200 --> 00:32:14,920
Speaker 1: are much beloved as cult favorites. Then even before his death,

519
00:32:15,040 --> 00:32:18,240
Speaker 1: Freaks was actually screened at the Venice Film Festival and

520
00:32:18,280 --> 00:32:21,640
Speaker 1: it was very well received, although that happened just weeks

521
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:23,880
Speaker 1: before he died, and it's believed he didn't even know

522
00:32:23,960 --> 00:32:27,320
Speaker 1: about it. Uh So he kind of went went to

523
00:32:27,400 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 1: his grave thinking that everyone hated him over that movie

524
00:32:29,960 --> 00:32:32,560
Speaker 1: and never never got to see people really look at

525
00:32:32,560 --> 00:32:34,360
Speaker 1: it in a more thoughtful way and try to really

526
00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:39,440
Speaker 1: analyze what it meant in terms of representation and uh,

527
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:42,000
Speaker 1: you know kind of morality has told through a very

528
00:32:42,280 --> 00:32:48,240
Speaker 1: unique lens. M hm. Oh, Todd Browning. Yeah, of course

529
00:32:48,320 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: his films now show up in you know, film school

530
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: courses all the time for a variety of reasons, including

531
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:56,200
Speaker 1: they're often just beautifully staged. He did a lot of

532
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: stuff that um was staged kind of you know, a

533
00:33:00,200 --> 00:33:05,440
Speaker 1: play that was being filmed, which now sometimes infuriated some

534
00:33:05,520 --> 00:33:08,200
Speaker 1: of the the cameraman who worked with him, who wanted

535
00:33:08,240 --> 00:33:11,480
Speaker 1: to do much more involved stuff. But uh, in other

536
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:17,240
Speaker 1: times it's it's uniquely effective. Todd Browning, m hm. Talk

537
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:19,960
Speaker 1: about my feelings on his work in our behind the

538
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:26,320
Speaker 1: scenes on Friday, but in the meantime I have an

539
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:29,960
Speaker 1: email from our listener, Katie. I love this so much.

540
00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:34,160
Speaker 1: It involves both animals and stethoscopes, Katie writes, High Holly

541
00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: and Tracy. I was driving home from work listening to

542
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:39,480
Speaker 1: the episode about the history of stethoscopes and knew today

543
00:33:39,520 --> 00:33:41,800
Speaker 1: was the day I could write in I am a veterinarian.

544
00:33:42,080 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 1: We have stethoscopes with tiny bells for little songbirds, and

545
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: very long stethoscopes for we don't want to get too

546
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:52,120
Speaker 1: close to our more dangerous patients. Lanek would have appreciated them,

547
00:33:52,160 --> 00:33:54,400
Speaker 1: I think, But I'm writing to tell you a story

548
00:33:54,440 --> 00:33:57,480
Speaker 1: of inclusion. Pre covid. I had a mother and her

549
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 1: two elementary age daughters bring their cat in a routine exam.

550
00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:04,000
Speaker 1: The girls were helping me do my exam until we

551
00:34:04,040 --> 00:34:05,680
Speaker 1: got to the part where we listened to the heart

552
00:34:05,680 --> 00:34:09,200
Speaker 1: and lungs, which is usually a crowd pleaser. The older

553
00:34:09,280 --> 00:34:12,560
Speaker 1: daughter shrunk away back to her mom. The mother explained

554
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:14,640
Speaker 1: that her daughter had hearing aids and that was why

555
00:34:14,640 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 1: she couldn't use the stethoscope. I assured her that one

556
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:20,239
Speaker 1: of my previous colleagues also used hearing aids, and that

557
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:23,400
Speaker 1: she had a special stethoscope that talked to her hearing aids.

558
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:25,640
Speaker 1: The rest of the visit went along as normal, and

559
00:34:25,680 --> 00:34:28,560
Speaker 1: they went their way. The following day, the mother sent

560
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:30,919
Speaker 1: me an email saying that her daughter had always wanted

561
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:33,160
Speaker 1: to be a veterinarian, but thought she could not because

562
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:36,239
Speaker 1: of her disability. Now she has nothing standing in the

563
00:34:36,280 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: way of making her dreams come true. I love it. Uh.

564
00:34:39,640 --> 00:34:41,759
Speaker 1: You never know what small statement will make a big

565
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: difference in someone's life. Thank you for feeding my curiosity

566
00:34:45,040 --> 00:34:47,920
Speaker 1: of the world. I especially love learning about how medicine

567
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:52,000
Speaker 1: is different in the human world, but people are gross.

568
00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,040
Speaker 1: I much prefer kiddies. That makes me very, very delighted

569
00:34:55,080 --> 00:34:57,240
Speaker 1: to hear. You'll find a picture of my two cats,

570
00:34:57,280 --> 00:35:00,479
Speaker 1: Felix and Susan attached for your viewing pleasure. Thanks again

571
00:35:00,520 --> 00:35:02,920
Speaker 1: for all that you do, Katie. I love this. What

572
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,680
Speaker 1: a cool idea. I didn't know there were stethoscopes that

573
00:35:05,719 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 1: could communicate directly with hearing aids. It makes sense. We

574
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:13,799
Speaker 1: talked about how there's all kinds of astonishing stethoscope technology

575
00:35:13,800 --> 00:35:18,120
Speaker 1: and radias that are very, very uh different and much

576
00:35:18,120 --> 00:35:23,399
Speaker 1: evolved from that original cylinder that lay and accused. Um,

577
00:35:23,440 --> 00:35:26,680
Speaker 1: but so cool and I'm so glad that you know

578
00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:31,600
Speaker 1: she was able to let a future veterinarian. Now, no problem,

579
00:35:31,680 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: We got you. If you would like to write to us,

580
00:35:34,719 --> 00:35:37,600
Speaker 1: you can do so at History Podcast at iHeart radio

581
00:35:37,640 --> 00:35:40,120
Speaker 1: dot com. You can also find us on social media

582
00:35:40,200 --> 00:35:42,920
Speaker 1: as Missed in History, and you can subscribe to the

583
00:35:42,920 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: show if you haven't yet. That is easy as pie

584
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:46,520
Speaker 1: to do. You can do it on the iHeart Radio

585
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:48,960
Speaker 1: app or anywhere else you listen to your favorite shows.

586
00:35:54,200 --> 00:35:56,360
Speaker 1: Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of

587
00:35:56,400 --> 00:35:59,600
Speaker 1: I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio

588
00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:02,840
Speaker 1: at the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

589
00:36:02,920 --> 00:36:05,320
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows. H