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.
75: The Blacklist Part 5: The Strange Love of Barbara Stanwyck: Robert Taylor
74: The Blacklist Part 4: The African Queen: Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn and John Huston
Blacklist Flashback: Bogey Before Bacall
73: The Blacklist Part 3: Dorothy Parker
72: The Blacklist Part 2: Crossfire – The Trials of the Hollywood Ten
71: The Blacklist Part 1: The Prehistory of the Blacklist
70: MGM Stories Part 15: Mayer’s Downfall
69: MGM Stories Part 14: Elizabeth Taylor, The MGM Years
68: MGM Stories Part 13: Gloria Grahame
67: MGM Stories Part 12: Lana Turner
66: MGM Stories Part 11: David O. Selznick Part Two: Jennifer Jones and Robert Walker
65: MGM Stories Part 10: David O. Selznick Part One: The Mayers and Gone With the Wind
64: MGM Stories Part 9: Spencer Tracy
63: MGM Stories Part 8: Eddie Mannix
62: MGM Stories Part 7: MGM's children: Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland
61: MGM Stories Part 6: Jean Harlow
60: MGM Stories Part 5: William Haines and Hollywood’s First Openly Gay Marriage
59: MGM Stories Part 4: John Gilbert and Greta Garbo
58: MGM Stories Part 3: Buster Keaton’s Biggest Mistake
57: MGM Stories Part 2: Marion Davies, William Randolph Hearst, and Citizen Kane
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