The Masculinization of Little Lord Fauntleroy
The 1936 movie Little Lord Fauntleroy broke box office records, only to be toned down and masculinized amid cultural fears of the “sissified” male.
How Film Noir Tried to Scare Women out of Working
In the period immediately following World War II, the femme fatale embodied a host of male anxieties about gender roles.
Doris Day Changed Us Forever
What did women coming of age in the 1950s think of Doris Day in Calamity Jane? Does her filmography have the same meaning now?
The Sinatra Movie Some Blamed for JFK’s Death
In the 1950s, Frank Sinatra starred in Suddenly, a movie that happens to depict a plot against the President.
Tuskegee University’s Hidden Audio Collections
The archives of the historically black Tuskegee University recently released recordings from 1957 to 1971, with a number by powerful civil rights leaders.
AITA for Being Obsessed with Ethics in Pop Culture?
Reddit's popular AITA forum lets readers post and weigh in on everyday ethical questions. But it isn't the first public venue for those discussions.
Madame Sul-Te-Wan’s Forgotten Brilliant Career
The mysteriously named Madame Sul-Te-Wan was the first black actress to land a Hollywood studio contract.
Photographer Francesca Woodman’s Haunting Dissolutions
Woodman's imagery engaged with architectural and natural landscapes that were themselves in a state of change and decay.
White Hollywood’s Romance with the N-Word
It would have been easy for censors to just ban the racist epithet during the classical era of film. Here's why it didn't happen.
McCarthyism at the Oscars
As José Ferrer was being handed his Oscar—making him the first Latino actor to win—he was being investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee.