When They Were Making It
When They Were Making It explores the untold human stories behind classic Hollywood's biggest icons and beloved films from the silent era to the early 1960s. Each week, host Patrick Rankin delves into the real lives and struggles of figures like Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn, and Charlie Chaplin, as well as the making of iconic movies such as Casablanca and The Wizard of Oz. The podcast aims to present the whole human story, moving beyond myths and takedowns to reveal the impossible work of becoming a legend. New episodes are released every Tuesday.
Episodes
Lana Turner: The Sweater Girl Who Became MGM's Most Glamorous Star — Scandal, Survival, and a Very Hollywood Murder
On Good Friday, 1958, a man lay dead on a pink bedroom floor in Beverly Hills — a severed aorta, almost no blood, a knife with no fingerprints in the bathroom sink, and the most famous actress in America asking the police chief if she could take the blame. By the time he arrived, the story of what happened that night had already been written.Before she became Hollywood's "Sweater Girl" —
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961): How Hollywood Rewrote Holly Golightly — Audrey Hepburn, Truman Capote, and the Making of a Style Icon
By 1958, Truman Capote had written something he knew would cause trouble. A heroine who danced along the edge of prostitution. An ending that refused resolution. A character built from abandonment, reinvention, and survival — and designed, deliberately, to resist being saved. Harper's Bazaar bought the novella and then refused to publish it. Esquire ran it without changes. And when Hollyw
Rudolph Valentino: Hollywood's First Sex Symbol — Desire, Masculinity, and the Myth That Outlived the Man
In August 1926, a man in black lay inside a New York funeral home while a hundred thousand people rioted in the streets to get closer. Windows shattered. Police charged the crowd on horseback. There were reports of suicides. None of them had ever met him. They had only ever known the image — and the image, it turned out, was immortal in a way the man never got to be.Before he became the m
Marilyn Monroe, Part 3: JFK, a Hollywood Comeback, and the Last Summer — The Fight, the Mystery, and the Death of an Icon
This is Part 3 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe — marking her centennial on June 1, 2026, what would have been her 100th birthday.By January 1961, Marilyn Monroe had lost almost everything. Her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller was over. Her latest film The Misfits had flopped. Clark Gable was dead. And somewhere in New York, behind drawn curtains, the most famous woman in th
Trailer — This Season on WTWMI
This season on When They Were Making It — Marilyn is just the beginning.The stars. The classics. The faces history almost forgot. Elizabeth Taylor. Casablanca. Rudolph Valentino. The Wizard of Oz. Marlon Brando. Anna May Wong. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Alfred Hitchcock. Audrey Hepburn. Gone with the Wind. Dorothy Dandridge. Charlie Chaplin. Singin' in the Rain. Grace Kelly. Bette Davis. Cit
Marilyn Monroe, Part 2: The Playwright, the Prince, and the Misfits — Fame, Control, and the Long Collapse
This is Part 2 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe — marking her centennial on June 1, 2026, what would have been her 100th birthday.By 1956, Marilyn Monroe had everything she'd fought for. Her own production company. The most unprecedented studio contract any actress had ever signed. The most respected playwright in America at her side. And the chance, for the first time, to be ha
Marilyn Monroe, Part 1: From Norma Jeane to Marilyn — Ambition, the Studio System, and the Birth of a Blonde Icon
This is Part 1 of our three-part series on Marilyn Monroe — marking her centennial on June 1, 2026, what would have been her 100th birthday.On September 15, 1954, on the corner of New York's Lexington and 52nd, a wind machine lifted a white pleated dress — and Marilyn Monroe, already the most famous woman in America, became something more. An icon.Before she became Marilyn Monroe, she was
Launch Trailer — When They Were Making It (WTWMI): A Classic Film Podcast
Marilyn Monroe. Breakfast at Tiffany's. Rudolph Valentino. Casablanca. Anna May Wong. Gone with the Wind. Sidney Poitier. The Wizard of Oz. Audrey Hepburn. Singin' in the Rain. Alfred Hitchcock.The stars you think you know. The films that became legends. The people the world almost forgot.When They Were Making It — a narrative documentary podcast about classic Hollywood's greatest icons,
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