Cass Elliot didn’t die eating a ham sandwich. But the lasting power of that urban legend speaks to a far darker story. Elliot possessed one of the most influential voices of the 1960s. However, while her big break with The Mamas and The Papas and meteoric career changed the LA music scene forever, it also entrapped Elliot in a cycle of fat-shaming, sending her spiraling into catastrophic weight-loss regimens. In this episode, we’ll talk about the music industry’s complicated relationship with weight, how crash dieting likely led to the untimely death of this music legend, and the true legacy of Elliot in pop culture.
This episode was written and performed by Lexi Pandell, a writer from Oakland, California. Her work has been published by The Atlantic, the New York Times, WIRED, The New Republic, Condé Nast Traveler, GQ, Playboy and many others.
91: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Bette Davis, "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?," and Crawford’s last years
90: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: The Middle Years (Mildred Pierce to Johnny Guitar)
89: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Clark Gable, Franchot Tone and Barbara Payton
88: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. / Our Dancing Daughters to Grand Hotel
87: Six Degrees of Joan Crawford: Douglas Fairbanks / Lucille LeSueur Goes to Hollywood
86: The Blacklist Part 16: Kirk Douglas, Dalton Trumbo, and Otto Preminger (Breaking the Blacklist, Part 2)
85: The Blacklist Part 15: Frank Sinatra and Albert Maltz (Breaking The Blacklist, Part 1)
Blacklist Flashback: Frank Sinatra through 1945
84: The Blacklist Part 14: After the Fall: Arthur Miller
83: The Blacklist Part 13: On the Waterfront: Elia Kazan
82: The Blacklist Part 12: Stormy Weather: Lena Horne + Paul Robeson
Blacklist Flashback: Lena Horne During WWII
81: The Blacklist Part 11: Born Yesterday: Judy Holliday
80: The Blacklist Part 10: Salt of the Earth: Howard Hughes + Paul Jarrico
Blacklist Flashback: Howard Hughes + Jane Russell
79: The Blacklist Part 9: She: Richard Nixon + Helen Gahagan Douglas
78: The Blacklist Part 8: Storm Warning: Ronald Reagan, the FBI and HUAC
77: The Blacklist Part 7: Monsieur Verdoux: Charlie Chaplin's Road to Hollywood Exile
Blacklist Flashback: Charlie Chaplin During World War II
76: The Blacklist Part 6: He Ran All The Way: John Garfield
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Multiverse Fancast
Cinema: A to B
I Finally Watched...
Pod Meets World
Blank Check with Griffin & David